REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. LS 
consideration and investigation it was believed that the waters about 
Beaufort offered exceptional advantages for the proposed station, as 
there could be found material in abundance for the study of marine 
life, and the opportunities for consideration of economic problems 
were equally varied. The site finally decided on was Pivers Island, 
which is about 3 acres in extent, and lies in Beaufort Harbor, some 
150 yards west of the city of Beaufort. As soon as the land was 
acquired the preparation of plans and specifications was begun by the 
architect and engineer, bids were advertised for, and arrangements 
made to begin work. The sum necessary for the purchase of the 
site, $400, was subscribed by Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; 
University of Virginia, Charlottesville; University of North Carolina, 
Chapel Hill; South Carolina College, Columbia, and University of 
Georgia, Athens. 
EXPOSITIONS. 
The exhibit of the Commission at the Pan-American LExposition, 
which was opened May 1 at Buffalo, N. Y., and at the close of the 
year was in progress, was under the charge of Mr. W. deC. Ravenel, 
who was appointed representative on the Government board of man- 
agers April 28, 1899. 
The exhibit occupies about 10,000 square feet and is intended to 
show the functions of the Commission as provided for by law, and 
also to illustrate, as comprehensively as the space will allow, the 
methods employed in the various fisheries and to show their products. 
The exhibits are arranged under three general headings—scientifie 
inquiry, fish-culture, and products. 
An aquarium, which occupies about 6,500 square feet, and in which 
are 32 tanks, has been arranged around the sides of the building. In 
these are shown all of the fresh and salt water fishes propagated by 
the Commission, the important economic food-fishes of the North 
Atlantic coast and the inland waters east of the Rocky Mountains 
and a few of the Salmonide from the Pacific slope. Arrangements 
have also been made with the New York and Vermont State fish com- 
missions for collections of game fishes indigenous to those States. 
The tanks for the display of fresh-water fishes are supplied with 
water from the Niagara River, which is furnished free of expense by 
the exposition company. The salt water was brought from Woods 
Hole, Mass., transported in cars loaned by the Union Tank Line 
Company of New York. 
In the interior portion of the building, which has an area of 3,540 
square feet, the exhibits are placed. 
In the section of scientific inquiry are illustrated the methods and 
apparatus employed in conducting investigations and some of the 
results attained. Most of the instruments used in the laboratory— 
microscopes, microtomes, dissecting instruments—are well known to 
the public, and the purpose has been, therefore, to utilize the space 
to show apparatus used in making shore and deep-sea collections. 
