REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXHI 



common ciaras of the Atlantic coast are also fair subjects of experi- 

 ment. 



The continued increase in the correspondence of the Commission, re- 

 ferred to in the Report for 1881, has been very strikingly manifested 

 during the year 1882, in which the number of official letters written (ex- 

 clusive of filled blanks and circulars) amounted to over seven thousand 

 as compared with fifty-six hundred in 1881. Letters received were over 

 eleven thousand, nearly all requiring some attention. A large part of 

 this correspondence is attended to by circulars, but as explained these 

 are not included in the account of letters written during the year. 



The new office of the Fish Commission (1443 Massachusetts avenue) 

 has proved to be a very great convenience, allowing a much better class- 

 ification of work and more ample accommodations for archives, records, 

 drafting tables, etc. The building is fully occui)ied by the Commission, 

 and in another year an additional story will be needed to meet expected 

 requirements. 



It is with great regret that I have to record the death, on the 22d of 

 January, at an advanced age, of Mr. H. E. Rockwell, the secretary of 

 the Commission, who had been connected with the Commission from its 

 beginning, in 1871. At that time he was an employe of the Bureau of 

 Education, but was enabled to give part of his time to the Fish Com- 

 mission. In the course of the next year, however, his services were en- 

 tirely engrossed by the Commission, and up to within a day of his death 

 he was, with few exceptions, at his post, and actively engaged in his 

 duties. 



During the summer of 1881 he was seized with a slight paralytic at- 

 tack, from which, however, he fully recovered suf3Sciently to resume his 

 labor, after a few months interval. 



Although not actually in the service of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission, yet, as having been closely related to it by many years of cor- 

 respondence and of hearty co-operation, I cannot omit referring to the 

 loss which fish culture has experienced in the death of Mr. B. B. 'Red- 

 ding, for many years one of the fish commissioners of California. 



Mr. Redding was the pioneer of all the work done in the State in con- 

 nection with the subject of fish culture; not confining himself to the 

 ordinary routine, but busying himself in gathering in from all quarters 

 whatever he thought might benefit the fishery interests of his State. 



To him was due nearly all the important measures in connection with 

 the State service, and notably the transfer of shad to the Sacramento 

 River in 187G ; of black bass and other eastern fresh-water fishes, and 

 of striped bass, lobsters, tautog, etc.; the arrangement for keeping up 

 the supply of salmon in the Sacramento River, with the aid of the United 

 States Fish Commission ; the preparation of ponds for the cultivation 

 of the gourami, etc. 



He personally superintended the transfer to California of the first 

 stock of carp given to his State by the United States Fish Commission 

 in 1879. 



