184 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



circulation of air. They were inclosed in crates and were sprinkled 

 once an hour by hand with salt water. In order to keep down the 

 temperature of the salt water the Commissioner advised that direct 

 connection be made to permit circulation of the water to the aquaria 

 and back from the reservoir without pumping it up into the tank on the 

 top of the Fisheries building. 



Food for aquarium animals. — Tbe principal articles of food used in 

 the aquarium were beef liver and beefsteak. It was sometimes diffi- 

 cult to obtain these, and parties were sent to tbe lagoons to seine for 

 small minnows, which were fed to the fish as a substitute for other 

 meats. Clams and mussels were forwarded from various parts of the 

 east coast, and small fresh- water crustaceans were obtained by tow 

 nets and other apparatus in the fresh waters in the vicinity of Chicago 

 to feed the paddle-fish. 



world's fisheries congress. 



One of the natural outgrowths of the Fish Commission exhibit in 

 Chicago was the relation in which the Commission stood to the World's 

 Congress Auxiliary, organized under the direction of a committee of the 

 Columbian Exposition, of which C. C.Bonney was general chairman. 



The Commissioner of Fisheries called a preliminary meeting in 

 Chicago April 25, 1893, associating with himself Dr. G. Brown Goode, 

 Prof. S. A. Forbes, and Dr. T. H. Bean, for the purpose of organizing 

 a Fisheries Congress. With these gentlemen were united Mr. E. G. 

 Blackford, of New York; K K. Fairbank and A. Booth, of Chicago; 

 and B. E. Earll, of Washington. After the preliminary meeting 

 Chairman Bonney officially appointed the committee just named, and 

 the Avork of organization was immediately entered upon. Men of 

 prominence in the fisheries, fish-culture, and scientific investigation in 

 various parts of tbe world were designated to form an advisory 

 council, and invitations were sent out requesting attendance at the 

 sessions of the congress and asking for contributions. The responses 

 to this call were numerous, and the communications brought together 

 were of a very important character, embracing papers upon fishery 

 laws and regulations, science in relation to the fisheries and fish- 

 culture, methods employed in the capture and utilization of fishery 

 products in all parts of the world, together with statistics of fisberies 

 and essays upon fish-cultural topics. 



Associated with the general committee was a committee of State 

 commissioners of fisheries, through whom it was arranged to hold meet- 

 ings of those commissioners during the time occupied by the meetings 

 of the Fisheries Congress. Mr. E. A. Brackett, of Winchester, Mass., 

 was the chairman of the committee of organization. 



Tbe formal sessions of the Fisheries Congress opened in a ball in the 

 Memorial Art Palace, Chicago, on October 10, at which time Hon. 

 Marshall McDonald delivered the opening address as chairman of the 



