46 KEIORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



In its purely Smithsonian operations, it may be designated as exercis- 

 ing all the functions of a great society, such as the Royal Society of 

 London, the academies of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Vienna, &c., with- 

 out any members, the work being done by a purely official bureau. In 

 one relationship or another it publishes results ; it superintends a great 

 museum and library and gallery of art ; it maintains a laboratory ; it 

 conducts a system of international exchanges, in which its associates 

 are directly in communication with bureaus of foreign governments. 

 For the United States Government it supervises the iSTational Museum 

 and the international system of exchanges. It also acts in a measure 

 as a scientific adviser of the government in receiving questions for so- 

 lution, making chemical and other investigations of material, nominat- 

 ing experts or agents, in connection with scientific work, &c., its fa- 

 cilities being always at the command of either Congress or the depart- 

 ments. 



UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



ITS GENERAL OBJECTS AND RESULTS. 



My api)ointmenT, at the commencement of its operations in 1871, to 

 the charge of the United States Fish Commission, has rendered it ex- 

 pedient to give some account of its operations year by year in the an- 

 nual report of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Although commencing in the year mentioned on a very small scale, 

 the demands of the public and the will of Congress have caused a no- 

 table extension each year, until at the present time the commission con- 

 stitutes a very important factor in the operations of the government, 

 fairly comparable, so far as the food problem is concerned, with the 

 Department of Agriculture. 



The two branches into which the work of the Commission is divided, 

 namely, that of the investigation of the condition of the fishing and 

 the fisheries, and the propagation of food fishes, have been explained 

 heretofore, and with especial fullness, in the report of the Institution 

 for 1880, so as to render it unnecessary to go into the same detail at 

 the present time. 



For the pur^iose of continuing the investigations into the condition 

 of the fisheries. Wood's Holl — the locality where the first work of the 

 Commission was begun in 1871, and continued in 1875 — was selected. 

 This i)oint of the coast offers exceptional advantages as a center of in- 

 vestigation, mainly owing to the conveniences placed at the service of 

 the Commission by the Light-House Board, in the form of a suitable 

 building for a laboratory and store-room, and wharfage for the small 

 boats. The waters in the vicinity are also exceptional in their purity 

 and in the abundance of animal life; and the point itself is central^ 

 permitting ready departure to any desired localiity. 



As in 1880, the " Fish Hawk," the hatching steamer of the Coramis- 



