tlEPORT OF COMMISSIONER. OF FISH AND FISHERIES. LXIX 

 GENERAL ADMINISTRATION, 



Mr. J. J. 0'(Jonnor, who had been chief clerk of the Commission from 

 June, 1888, died on May 4, 1892. He was succeeded by Mr. Herbert A. 

 Gill, who had been the disbursing agent of the Commission for many 

 years. 



On May 19 Mr. W. P. Titcomb was appointed disbursing agent. 



CIVIL SERVICE. 

 Owing to the increase of the personnel of the Commission and the 

 desirability that faithful employes should have such assurance of per- 

 manency of tenure of their positions as is conveyed by the civil-service 

 law, the President was requested to order the classification of the Com- 

 mission as a part of the classified departmental service. This request 

 was approved, and the executive order issued May 5, 1892. 



MENHADEN AND MACKEREL FISHERIES. 

 During the first session of the Fifty-second Congress much conflict^ 

 ing testimony was had before the House Committee on Merchant Marine 

 and Fisheries relative to the natural history and habits of mackerel 

 and menhaden, as also the influence upon their abundance of certain 

 methods of fishing. On the 21st of March, 1892, the Commissioner was 

 called upon by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Fisheries to 

 make replies to certain interrogatories. Response was made May 9, 

 1892, which was printed as Senate Miscellaneous Documeut No. 156, 

 Fifty-second Congress, first session. 



PUBLICATIONS AND LIBRARY. 



During the year the folio wiug papers, forming parts of the reports 

 and bulletins, were issued : 



A reconnoissauce of the streams and lakes of the Yellowstone National Park, 

 Wyoming, in the interest of the U. S. Fish Commission, by David Starr Jordan. 

 (Bulletin for 1889, pp. 1-40.) 



Report upon the pearl fishery of the Gulf of California, by Charles H. Townsend. 

 (Bulletin for 1889, pp. 91-94.) 



Report upon certain investigations relating to the planting of oysters in southern 

 California, by Charles H. Gilbert. (Bulletin for 1889, pp. 95-98.) 



The embryology of the sea bass {Serranus atrarUis), by Henry V. Wilson. (Bul- 

 letin for 1889, pp. 209-273.) 



Report upon the investigations of the fishing grounds off the west coast of Florida, 

 by A. C. Adams and W. C. Kendall. (Bulletin for 1889, pp. 289-312.) 



The giant scallop fishery of Maine, by Hugh M. Smith. (Bulletin for 1889, pp. 

 313-335.) 



Notes on the occurrence of protozoan parasites (Psoi-ospernis) on Cypriuoid fishes 

 in Ohio, by Edwin Linton. (Bulletin for 1889, pp. 359-361.) 



Notes on the king crab fishery of Delaware Bay, by Hugh M. Smith. (Bulletin 

 for 1889, pp. 363-370.) 



Report upon a collection of fishes made in southern Florida during 1889, by 

 James A. Henshall. (Bulletin for 1889, pp. 371-389.) 



Notes on the oyster fishery of Connecticut, by J. W. Collins. (Bulletin for 1889, 

 pp. 461-497.) 



Report on the work of the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross, from January 

 1, 1887, to June 30, 1888, by Z. L. Tanner. (Report for 1887, pp. 371-435.) 



