REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XV 



A more detailed statement of the ends which the Commission is at 

 present endeavoring to accomplish will be found in the Commissioner's 

 report for 1883 at page xx. 



The amount of work connected with the administration of the busi- 

 ness of the Commission for the year has been fully equal to that of 1883. 

 The number of sets of vouchers prepared in duplicate, audited, and 

 properly settled footed up to 2,769; the number of letters written dur- 

 ing the twelve months ending June 30, 1884, amounted to 8,836 ; of let- 

 ters received, 13,744. Of applications for fish 10,300 were received, or 

 an aggregate of 35,649 documents require entry, analysis, and index- 

 ing. 



No casualties have occurred during the year in the immediate person- 

 nel of the Commission, and no serious interruption of work in conse- 

 quence of the death of any of its members. I may, however, mention 

 the death of Mr. Eeuben Wood, of Syracuse, N. Y., on February 16, 

 1884; a gentleman well known in Kew York as an angler, and who 

 represented angling interests in the display of the TJ. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion at the London Fisheries Exhibition of 1883. 



2. — PRINCIPAL STATIONS OF THE COMMISSION. 

 A. — Investigation and Research. 



1. Gloucester, Mass. — In the summer of 1877 Gloucester was made a 

 station for the fisheries investigations, and an office established, through 

 which it became possible- to secure a great amount of help from the 

 fishermen in the way of contributions of information and of specimens 

 brought in from the Banks. The office was placed in charge of Capt. 

 S. J. Martin. A reorganization of this office was made in February, 

 1885, by putting Mr. W. A. Wilcox, formerly secretary of the Boston 

 Fish Bureau, in charge ; and to him, with Captain Martin as assistant, 

 has been given authority to collect the statistics referred to, which he 

 has accomplished in a more thorough and exhaustive manner than has 

 heretofore been done. The information thus obtained has been of the 

 utmost importance and of a character greatly needed for determining 

 the value to us of the fishery operations, and especially of the partici- 

 pation in the British inshore fisheries. The expiration of the treaty of 

 Washington on June 30, 1885, makes this information of very great 

 usefulness. 



2. Wood's Roll, Mass. — This station, which is in charge of Capt. H. C. 

 Chester, is increasing rapidly in prominence in the operations of the 

 Commission in connection with the approaching completion of the build- 

 ings authorized by Congress for the prosecution of special researches, 

 and the practical propagation, in an artificial way, of cod, mackerel, 

 lobsters, and other sea fish. A fuller account of the plant and opera- 



. tions at Wood's Holl, will be given hereafter. 



