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hundred scientific memoirs, no one could realise more thoroughly 

 the importance of a scientific foundation for the proposed work. 



" Pure and applied science have laboured together always in 

 the service of the Fish Commission, their representatives working 

 side by side in the same laboratories ; indeed much of the best work, 

 both in the investigation of the fisheries and in the artificial culture 

 of fishes, has been performed by men eminent as zoologists. 



" The work of the Commission is naturally divided into three 

 sections : — 



" I. The systematic investigation of the waters of the United 

 States and the biological and physical problems which they 

 present. The scientific studies of the Commission are based upon 

 a liberal and philosophical interpretation of the law. In making 

 his original plans the Commissioner insisted that to study only the 

 food-fishes would be of little importance, and that useful conclu- 

 sions must needs rest upon a broad foundation of investigations 

 purely scientific in character. The life history of species of 

 economic value should be understood from beginning to end, but 

 no less requisite is it to know the histories of the animals and 

 plants upon which they feed or upon which their food is nourished ; 

 the histories of their enemies and friends, and the friends and foes 

 of their enemies and friends, as well as the currents, tempera- 

 tures, and other physical phenomena of the waters in relation to 

 migration, reproduction and growth. A necessary accompaniment 

 to this division is the amassing of material for research to be stored 

 in the National and other museums for future use. 



" 2, The investigation of the methods of fisheries, past and 

 present, and the statistics of production and commerce of fishery 

 products. Man being one of the chief destroyers of fish, his in- 

 fluence upon their abundance must be studied. Fishery methods 

 and apparatus must be examined and compared with other lands, 

 that the use of those which threaten the destruction of useful fishes 

 may be discouraged, and that those which are inefficient may be 

 replaced by others more serviceable. Statistics of industry and 

 trade must be secured for the use of Congress in making treaties 

 or imposing tariffs, to show to producers the best markets, and to 

 consumers where and with what their needs may be supplied. 



