REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FlSlt AND FISHERIES. XXXlX 



able, the reg-iou last meutioned was fixed upon. Although, so far as 

 codfish are coiicerued, the fish are nearer the eastern coast of New Eng- 

 land, still, by the use of a suitable fishing- smack, they can be brought 

 in alive from any reasonable distance and penned up until needed, and 

 in this way exposed to much less danger from destruction by cold than 

 was found to be the case when such work was prosecuted in Gloucester. 



After a careful consideration of the subject, the choice was found to 

 lie between two stations, Newport and Wood's Holl. Newport is much 

 the more convenient of access, and its citizens manifested a great de- 

 sire to secure the presence of the Commission. A committee, of which 

 Mr. J. M. K. Southwick was spokesman, offered to furnish the necessary 

 buildings and also the use of a suitable wharf, and otherwise to encour- 

 age the selection of that station. The Navy Department also gave the 

 Commission a provisional invitation to establish itself on the northern 

 end of Coasters' Harbor Island, a portion thought not to be required 

 for the purposes of the Naval Training School. The great objection was 

 found to be the comparative impurity of the water of Narragansett Bay, 

 receiving, as it does, the drainage of a number of large cities, as New- 

 port, Fall Eiver, Bristol, Providence, etc., and having a large area of 

 muddy bottom. 



The experience of the year 1880 showed that the sediment settling, 

 as it would, upon the eggs of the fishes to be hatched out, wouhl ma- 

 terially impair their development, as was the case at Gloucester. 



A totally different condition of things was found at Wood's Holl, where 

 the water is exceptionally pure and free from sediment, and where a 

 strong tide, rushing through the Wood's Holl passage, keeps the water in 

 a state of healthy oxygenation specially favorable ibr biological research 

 of every kind and description. The entire absence of sewerage, owing 

 to the remoteness of large towns, as well as the absence of large rivers 

 tending to reduce the salinity of the water, constituted a strong argu- 

 ment in its favor, and this station was finally fixed upon for the purpose 

 in question. 



The quarters occupied by the Commission at Wood's Holl, furnished 

 by the courtesy of the Light-House Board, were too scanty for the en- 

 larged work con temjjlated by the Commission, and measures were imme- 

 diately instituted to obtain a foothold on the Great Harbor. Here a 

 point of land, constituting the neck of the upper harbor, was fixed upon 

 as a suitable location, affording the advantage of very deep water, ac- 

 cessible to vessels of ordinary dimensions, and immediately adjacent to 

 the rapid tide of the passage. Negotiations were opened with the own- 

 ers of the ground, Messrs. Isaiah Spindel & Co., and a provisional 

 agreement made as to the price and the conditions of the i)urchase as 

 referred to in the report of 1881. 



The subscriptions of the various partie ■, to enable the Fish Commis- 

 sion to purchase the land at Wood's Holl required for the purpose of a 



