38 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, the permanent collector at this station, whose 

 work has been referred to in previous reports, was actively employed 

 during- the entire year in making collections of fishes and in recoiding 

 the daily catcli of the fishermen at all points in this vicinity. In the 

 spring- of 1893 special attention was paid to the S])uwning habits of the 

 menhaden and mackerel, both of which species breed to some extent 

 in this nei'ghborhood. During several weeks of the summer of 1892 

 the writer was at Woods Hole, carrying on, in conjunction with Mr. 

 Edwards, a thorough investigation of the shores .md inlets of Buz- 

 zards Bay and Vineyard Sound with respect to the habits and life-history 

 of the younger stages of the common food-fishes which resort to that 

 region. Extensive collections and observations were made, the more 

 interesting relating to the menhaden, the young of which occur in 

 myriads in most of the brackish waters thereabouts, especially in the 

 Acushnet Kiver at New Bedford and in the Wareham River at the 

 head of Buzzards Bay. At different times during the year visits were 

 made by Mr. Edwards to more distant localities, such as Narragansett 

 Bay and Cape Cod Bay, in search of further information respecting the 

 breeding and other habits of the menhaden. 



INVESTIGATION OF INTERIOR WATERS. 

 COLUMBIA RIVER. 



During the early part of the fall of 1892 inquiries were conducted 

 along a part of the Columbia River and several of its tributaries, with 

 the object of determining: (1) The character and extent of the obstruc- 

 tions to the ascent of salmon in tlie Clarke Fork; (2) the advisability 

 of establishing a hatching station for salmon in the eastern part of the 

 State of Washington. The first of these inquiries originated in a joint 

 resolution introduced in the United States Senate on February 19, 1891, 

 and again on February 9, 1892, calling for an appropriation "to be 

 expended under the direction of the Secretary of War in the removal 

 of such obstructions in the Clarke Fork of the Columbia River as pre- 

 vent the ascent of salmon and other fish up said river and its tribu- 

 taries to the Flathead Lake and other waters in that vicinity." More 

 definite information respecting these obstructions and the utility of 

 their removal being desired before final action was taken in the matter, 

 the United States Fish Commissioner was directed, by an item in the 

 sundry civil appropriation bill, approved August o, 1892, to make the 

 necessary examinations; and the same l)ill also authorized the investi- 

 gations relative to the hatchery site in Washington. 



These inquiries were placed in charge of Dr. C. E. Gorh am, engineer 

 of the Fish Commission, who was assisted in tlie natural-history work by 

 Mr. Barton A. Bean, of the United States National .Museum, and Mr. A. 

 J. Woolman, an ichthyologist of South Bend, Ind. This party reached 

 the upi)er waters of Clarke Fork, in Montana, the middle of September, 

 and continued in the field about a month. It was found impossible, 



