REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXXVII 



and as the Bulletin is published signature by signature, and distributed 

 in tbis form, a discovery can be announced within a few weeks after it 

 is made. 



About two hundred copies of the Bulletin of 1882 were distributed 

 by signatures to specialists, to State fish commissioners, and to the 

 more important scientific societies, thus giving them the advantage of 

 early knowledge of their contents. The remainder of the edition is 

 distributed by volumes, mostly to the parties receiving the Annual Re- 

 port. 



This work is a public document, and from the large edition printed, 

 Congressmen have copies at their disposal for their correspondents. 



A small pamphlet containing the rules and regulations of the Fish 

 Commission for the government of its employes, together with a sum- 

 mary of the Treasury and other Government regulations in regard to 

 the keeping of accounts, was published and distributed to all parties 

 interested in 1882. 



Large numbers of circulars required for the current business of the 

 Commission have also been printed and distributed. 



Five fishery bulletins prepared by the Commission have been printed 

 by the authorities of the Census Bureau of 1880, and will be found 

 enumerated in another jiart of this report. These were in continuation 

 of the joint arrangements between the United States Fish Commission 

 and General F. A. Walker, Superintendent of the Census, to which refer- 

 ence is made in another place. 



In view of the great delay in getting out the Census publications, 

 authority was asked of Congress to print a special series of reports in 

 quarto that had been contemplated or prepared for the Census, and, 

 accordingly, a joint resolution was j)assed, as follows: 



Besolved hy the Senate {the House of Representatires concurring), That 

 the Public Printer be, and is hereby, instructed to print in quarto form 

 a report by the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries 

 upon the food-fishes and the fisheries of the United States, the engrav- 

 ing to be in relief, and to be contracted for by the Public Printer, under 

 the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, and to receive the ap- 

 proval of the Commissioner before being accepted ; the work to be ste- 

 reotyped, and 10,000 extra copies printed, ofwliich 2,500 shall be for the 

 use of the Senate, 5,000 for the use of the House, and 1,500 for the use 

 of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. There shall also be printed 

 1,000 extra copies for sale by the Public Printer, under such reguUitions 

 as the Joint Committee on Printing may prescribe, at a price equal to 

 the additional cost of publication, and 10 per cent, thereon added. 



Work was immediately begun on this series, and before the end of 

 tlie year a large part of the first volume, on the natural history and 

 food-fishes of the United States, w%as in the hands of the printer, and 

 to a considerable extent was stereotyped. 



A large number of drawings was also made for the plates, and some 

 of them reproduced by the photo-engraving process. 



The volume will probably appear in the course of the year 1884. 



Mr. Charles W. Smiley, Chief of the Division of Eecords, has had en- 



