80 EEPORT OF THE SECEETARY. 



stimulate sales of Survey publications, yet as they become better kuowu 

 the desire for them becomes more general, and the sales during the pres- 

 ent fiscal year have amounted to double those of the i)revious year. 



U. S. FISH COMMISSION. 



As already explained, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 

 exercises the functions of chief officer of the U. S. Fish Commission, 

 for which, of course, he receives no salary. It has therefore been his 

 duty to report, year by year, what the Commission has been doing, and, 

 in its interest to the public service, to justify the action taken upon the 

 subject. 



The history of the Commission, since its organization in 1871, has 

 shown a gradual expansion of scope and increase in magnitude, in jiro- 

 portion to the increasing appropriations made by Congress. The ap- 

 propriation for the first year was $5,000, while for the year just closed 

 it amounts to nearly $250,000. The work, as heretofore, has been di- 

 vided mainly into two sections: one, the investigation of the statistics 

 and natural history of the fishes and other products of the water 

 and their relationships to each other, including the various methods of 

 capture and utilization, form of apparatus required, &c, ; the other, 

 the increase in the supply of food fishes, &c., either by artificial prop- 

 agation or by transportation. The addition, within recent years, of 

 several vessels to the means of investigation on the i)art of the Com- 

 mission has been of great service, especially through the work of the 

 steamer Albatross. More recently, Congress has authorized the con- 

 struction of a small schooner of special device, to be used particularly 

 in securing the ripe parent sea fish at distant points and bringing them 

 to stations on the coast, especially to Wood's Holl, Mass. This vessel, 

 although completed at the end of the fiscal year, is not yet in commis- 

 sion. An account of her work will therefore be deferred until the next 

 report. 



Referring to the detailed accoicut of operations in the Ileport of the 

 U. S. Fish Commission, it may be briefly stated that the usual researches 

 have been prosecuted during the year, resulting in the acquisition of a 

 large amount of imi)ortant information, which will be duly reported 

 upon at the appropriate time. Comi)lete statistics of the fisheries of 

 the coast have been gathered for the service of the Government in the 

 international question arising between the United States and Canada ; 

 and these have already been called for by the Congressional committees 

 of investigation. 



As on several previous occasions, the services of the steamer Alba- 

 tross were secured by the Navy Department for the purpose of con- 

 tinuing hydrographic research in the Caribbean and West Indian seas, 

 and during the past year the vessel was assigned to labor off the Ba- 



