REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 19 



rial at hand, as having a plentiful supply of water obtainable by 

 gravity and an abundance of spawning salmon in the season, and as 

 an exceptionally advantageous center from which to distribute the fry. 

 This recommendation was therefore approved and a site was selected 

 on the right bank of the stream flowing into the head of McDonald 

 Lake, about a quarter of a mile above its mouth. Yes Bay and its 

 catchment basin had been temporarily exempted from settlement 

 November 5, L903, by an order of the Secretary of the Interior, until 

 such time as a site for a salmon hatchery could be determined upon 

 and a permanent reservation made. 



Plans were prepared for a hatchery with a capacity for 25,000,000 

 eggs, and the construction work was placed in charge of an experi- 

 enced superintendent in the service of the Bureau, who, having com- 

 pleted preliminary arrangements for materials and supplies, left Seat- 

 tle for Alaska on .June 22. The steamer Albatross was also dispatched 

 to Yes Ba} r , to carry on scientific investigations and at the same time to 

 afford assistance in the establishment of the station. 



BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS. 



Most of the scientific work during the year was in continuation of 

 inquiries and investigations previously begun, pertaining to the biology 

 and culture of useful and commercially important aquatic animals and 

 plants. Among the most important subjects that have been engaging 

 attention are the oyster, the commercial sponges, the diamond-back 

 terrapin, the Alaska salmon, the habits of the fresh-water and anadro- 

 mous fishes of New England, the diseases of fishes, the ecology of 

 small glacial lakes, and the extensive studies at the marine biological 

 laboratories of the Bureau. Among the special inquiries taken up 

 during the } 7 ear may be mentioned a survey of the o} r ster beds of 

 Matagorda Bay, Texas; a study of the golden trout and other trouts 

 of the southern High Sierras in California; and the life history of the 

 spoonbill cattish. Studies in the hydrography, oceanography, and 

 biolog} T of the eastern Pacific Ocean were conducted during an extended 

 cruise of the steamer Albatross in that region. 



OYSTER LEGISLATION AND EXPERIMENTS. 



Legislation. — The Bureau finds reason for satisfaction in the wide- 

 spread attention that is now being paid to the subject of oyster culture 

 and the marked advance in the character of oyster legislation enacted 

 by the various states. It is yearly becoming more apparent that 

 dependence upon the natural beds alone to supply the rapidly growing 

 demands of (he markets results in the depletion of the beds and a 

 shrinkage of the industry in the locality concerned. Those states that 

 adhere to the old policy of suspicion and restriction toward private 



