REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. CXIX 

 THE LABORATORY AT WASHINGTON. 



A large amount of miscellaneous investigation and experimentation 

 is carried on at the Washington laboratory. In its relation to tbe fisli- 

 cultural branch of the service the work consists in the examination of 

 specimens of diseased fishes or fishes infested with parasites forwarded 

 from the various stations and in microscopic studies of the food of 

 artificially-hatched fishes. Many specimens of fishes from all parts of 

 the country are sent to the Commission for identification by private 

 individuals, associations, aud institutions. The duty of studying and 

 labeling natural-history collections and of preparing sets of same for 

 distribution also falls to the laboratory assistants. 



Collections of fishes and other animals made by the vessels and field 

 parties of the Commission are sent to the laboratory of this division to 

 be studied, labeled, and distributed. The collections in a given year 

 are usually larger than can be critically studied and reported on in 

 detail duriug the same time. During tlie present year reports on the 

 following collections have been either completed or well advanced: (1) 

 A large series of fishes and crustaceans from the basin of the Columbia 

 Eiver and elsewhere on the Pacific Coast; (2) fishes obtained in the 

 Klamath Lakes basin in 1894; (3) fishes of Vermont collected in 1894; 

 (4) large series of salt-water fishes from Indian Eiver, Biscayne Bay, 

 Key West, Tarpon Springs, aud other points in Florida; (5) fishes of 

 the Missouri Eiver basin; (6) very extensive assortment of fishes of 

 the Great Lakes obtained in 1893, 1894, and 1895; (7) fishes from tlie 

 interior of Florida collected in the winter of 189G-97; (8) miscella- 

 neous fishes secured at i^oiuts in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 

 Texas in 1897; (9) fishes from the interior of Kew York. 



In accordance with the custom long prevailing, collections of fishes 

 and other natural-history specimens were sent to the United States 

 i^ational Museum. The material consisted of (1) a collection of marine 

 invertebrates obtained in the course of oyster investigations in Long 

 Island Sound in 1890 and 1892; (2) a quantity of stomach contents 

 and ovaries of fur-seals secured by the Albatross in Bering Sea during 

 several recent years; (3) collections of mollusks from the Pacific Ocean 

 taken })y the Albatross during the years 1887 to 1896; (4) miscellane- 

 ous collections of fresh-water and salt-water mollusks obtained by 

 various field parties during the years 1888 to 189G; (5) collections of 

 mollusks obtained by the Fish Hawk in Long Island Sound and on the 

 coast of South Carolina; (0) collections of reptiles and batrachians, 

 containing about ."iOO specimens, obtained in various parts of the United 

 States by field expeditions; (7) types of 41 new species of fishes col- 

 lected by the Albatross in Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean in 

 1889, 1890, and 1891, and by field parties in Upper Klamath Lake, 

 Oregon, in 1894 and 189G. 



The collections of cephalopods, that had been accumulating in the 

 Commission for a long time and included several thousand specimens 



