XXXVI RErORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



iisli-batchiii^ e.stablisliruents of the Commission, with detailed statistics 

 as to their history and management, were prepared. These, however, 

 will be presented more in full in the report for 1883. 



It may be stated, in passing, that the time of opening of the exhibi- 

 tion was fixed for the 1st of May, 1883. 



By way of experiment as to the possibilily of forwarding the well- 

 known painted casts of fish which adorn the National Museum, a box 

 containing a number of them was packed and forwarded to Mr. Wesley, 

 the London sigent of the Smithsonian Institution, with instructions to 

 return it unoi)cned. No particular injunctions were given as to the care 

 of the box and its contents; and on its return, some weeks after, the 

 casts were found to be in perfectly good condition, thus giving much 

 encouragement in regard to forwarding a complete series. 



Among other sjjccial preparations that were made for the occasion, 

 Mr. Lindenkohl, of the Coast Survey, was commissioned to prepare a 

 model of the sea-bottom of the Gulf of Maine, on a scale of 4ij7;V(5Tr- I'^'is 

 was intended to exhibit all the i)rincipal fishing banks of the region 

 between Eastern New England and Nova Scotia. When completed it 

 was, by permission, exhibited by the Coast Survey, at the Garfield Fair 

 held in Washington in November. 



The Commissioner of Patents undertook to bring together a com- 

 plete series of all the patents which had been issued in connection with 

 fishing and the fisheries during the century. This was done, and the 

 collection filled three stout volumes. 



The Superintendent of the Life-Saving Service also took great inter- 

 est in making a disjday of apparatus connected with his work. 



With the preparations made by the Commission for the London Ex- 

 position of 1883, it is hoped that the next report will chronicle as great 

 success on the part of the United States Fish Commission as occurred 

 at Berlin in 1880. 



8.— PUBLICATIONS IN 1882. 



The most important publication upon which the Fish Commission 

 was engaged in 1882 was the printing of a portion of the Annual Re- 

 port for 1880, which was, however, not actually completed until 1883. 



In the report for 1881 mention is made of the action of Congress in 

 authorizing the printing, annually, of a bulletin of the Commission, to 

 contain notes of discoveries and improvements in fish culture and fish 

 eries, whether made by the Fish Commission itself or by other parties. 



The first volume (for 1881) contained a great deal of interesting mat- 

 ter, and was completed in July, 1882, but the second volume for 1882 

 was more important, as serving as a medium for the immediate publi- 

 cation of interesting facts and suggestions connected with the work of 

 the Commission. It was commenced in August, 1882, and a large por- 

 tion was printed by the end of the year. 



For various reasons it has usually been impossible to get out the full 

 report of the Commission until the second year after date, or even later j 



