REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 47 
Bureau’s existence, and in more recent years has been extended and 
amplified, with a view to supplying practical aid to the fishing 
industry. 
The early investigations of the food-fish resources of the coastal 
and interior waters of the country, undertaken in response to acts of 
Congress, convinced the first Commissioner that, with the control 
and regulation of the fisheries vested in the various States, an im- 
portant role for the Federal Government to play in the mainte- 
nance of those resources was in the field of artificial propagation. 
This soon became the most extensive branch of the service, and has 
continued to employ the most people and receive the largest appro- 
priations, but in the organization and administration of the Bureau 
fish culture has never been more than a coordinate division of the 
work. In 1910 there was imposed on the Bureau for the first time 
responsibility for the administration of protective laws, when the 
fishes and fur seals of Alaska were transferred to its custody. 
The early operations of the Bureau attracted to its service an able 
corps of men who became pioneers in various branches of fish cul- 
ture, aquatic biology, and fishery technology, and who gave to the 
work a trend and character which have continued to serve as a 
ouide. 
~ As evidence of the scope and character of the Bureau’s activities 
during the 50 years of its existence, there has been issued an analyti- 
cal subject bibliography of its publications from 1871 to 1920; 
inclusive. This document lists many thousand separate titles cover- 
ing the fisheries, fish culture, aquatic biology and physics, oceanogra- 
phy. fishery legislation and protection, etc., constituting the most 
extensive series of reports in this field ever published. 
NEW BUILDINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 
A yery satisfactory new fireproof building has been constructed 
at the Woods Hole (Mass.) station, under a contract awarded Jan- 
uary 6, 1921, for $51,000. The new structure replaces a storehouse 
and machine shop destroyed by fire and an old boiler house and 
pump house which had become so permeated with dry rot that it 
had to be demolished. From the special appropriation provided 
for this purpose the equipment, machinery, and stores consumed by 
the fire have been replaced, a salt-water filter has been provided, and 
various other improvements have been brought about. 
The balance of the special appropriation for the Bozeman (Mont.) 
station after the repairing of the superintendent’s residence was used 
for the purchase and erection of a bungalow for the foreman con- 
taining five rooms, a cellar, and a spacious attic. 
The new laboratory building of the fisheries biological station at 
Fairport, Iowa, has been completed and equipped and has been 
actively used for the purposes for which the station was established. 
Formal acceptance of the building from the architect and its dedi- 
cation to the service of the fisheries occurred on October 7, 1920. 
The structure, which replaces a frame building destroyed by fire in 
1917, is of concrete, stone, and brick, is about 100 by 50 feet, with 
three stories and basement, and is superior to the old building in 
respect to capacity, convenience, and serviceability. The normal ac- 
