REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 51 



The work connected with the land-locked salmon was continued at 

 Grand Lake Stream, and many eggs secured. 



The multiplication of white fish constituted, for the first time, an im- 

 portant branch of the labors of the Commission. For this purpose a 

 sto.tion was established at Northville, Mich., under the charge of Mr. 

 Frank N. Clarlv, who obtained the eggs required in the Detroit JEliver, 

 L;i ke Erie, and Lake Huron. Some 18,000,000 of eggs were secured and 

 distributed, and nearly all were returned to the waters from which they 

 f were originally taken. Some were sent to various smaller lakes, and a 

 few to localities in Europe. 



The species of fish enumerated above represent the most important 

 objects of attention and action of the Commission, although some work 

 has been done in connection with the multiplication of the California 

 trout, the brook trout, the striped bass, the Si)anish mackerel, and the 

 oyster. Full details in regard to all these points will be found in the 

 report of the United States Fish Commission. 



Before closing this subject brief reference may be made to an impor- 

 tant improvement in the method of distributing the young fish on the 

 part of the Commission. Heretofore this has been done by messengers 

 in charge of a certain number of cans containing young fish, and travel- 

 ing in baggage cars or express trains. Although the railroads have 

 almost uniformly been extremely courteous and liberal in their co-opera- 

 tion with the Commission, allowing, without extra charge, the trans- 

 l)ortation of as many as from twelve to sixteen large cans of fish, yet 

 that mode of distribution was found inadequate to the requirements, 

 and the experiment was accordingly tried of fitting up a car as a re- 

 frigerator, in which a much larger supply offish could be carried and 

 kept at a uniform temperature sufficiently low to prevent injury to 

 the fish by the summer's heat. Accordingly, by authority of Mr. 

 Isaac Hinckley, president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Bal- 

 timore Railroad Company, one of the baggage cars of the company 

 was altered to a refrigerator car of the Ridgway patent under the di- 

 rection of the patentee. This has been tested and found to answer 

 an admirable purpose by the delivery of the young fish at the most 

 remote points practically without any loss. 



FISHERIES CENSUS. 



In my report for 1880 I present^ed in considerable detail ;in account 

 of the arrangement made with General Francis A. Walker, Superin- 

 tendent of the Census, by which the investigation of the fisheries of 

 the United States was undertaken as the joint enterjjriseof the United 

 States Fish Commission and Census Bureau. This investigation was 

 to be made as complete as possible, statistically, historically, and with 

 regard to the methods employed at the present time in the fishery indus- 

 tries. The preparation of a statistical and historical report upon the fiish- 



