38 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, the permanent collector at this station, whose 
work has been referred to in previous reports, was actively employed 
during the entire year in making collections of fishes and in recording 
the daily catch of the fishermen at all points in this vicinity. In the 
spring of 1893 special attention was paid to the spawning habits of the 
menhaden and mackerel, both of which species breed to some extent 
in this neighborhood. During several weeks of the summer of 1892 
the writer was at Woods Hole, carrying on, in conjunction with Mr. 
Edwards, a thorough investigation of the shores and inlets of Buz- 
zards Bay and Vineyard Sound with respect to the habits and life-history 
of the younger stages of the common food-fishes which resort to that 
region. Extensive collections and observations were made, the more 
interesting relating to the merhaden, the young of which occur in 
myriads in most of the brackish waters thereabouts, especially in the 
Acushnet River at New Bedford and in the Wareham River at the 
head of Buzzards Bay. At different times during the year visits were 
made by Mr. Edwards to more distant localities, such as Narragansett 
Bay and Cape Cod Bay, in search of further information respecting the 
breeding and other habits of the menhaden. 
INVESTIGATION OF INTERIOR WATERS. 
COLUMBIA RIVER. 
During the early part of the fall of 1892 inquiries were conducted 
along a part of the Columbia River and several of its tributaries, with 
the object of determining: (1) The character and extent of the obstrue- 
tions to the ascent of salmon in the Clarke Fork; (2) the advisability 
of establishing a hatching station for salmon in the eastern part of the 
State of Washington. The first of these inquiries originated in a joint 
resolution introduced in the United States Senate on February 19, 1891, 
and again on February 9, 1892, calling for an appropriation “to be 
expended under the direction of the Secretary of War in the removal 
of such obstructions in the Clarke Fork of the Columbia River as pre- 
vent the ascent of salmon and other fish up said river and its tribu- 
taries to the Flathead Lake and other waters in that vicinity.” More 
definite information respecting these obstructions and the utility of 
their removal being desired before final action was taken in the matter, 
the United States Fish Commissioner was directed, by an item in the 
sundry civil appropriation bill, approved August 5, 1592, to make the 
necessary examinations; and the same bill also authorized the investi- 
gations relative to the hatchery site in Washington. 
These inquiries were placed in charge of Dr. C. E. Gorham, engineer 
of the Fish Commission, who was assisted in the natural-history work by 
Mr. Barton A. Bean, of the United States National Museum, and Mr. A. 
J. Woolman, an ichthyologist of South Bend, Ind. This party reached 
the upper waters of Clarke Fork, in Montana, the middle of September, 
and continued in the field about a month. It was found impossible, 
