REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXXVII 



Carp publications. — During the year several editions of " The carp 

 and its culture in rivers and lakes," by Eudolph Hessel, and of " Carp 

 and carp ponds " have been printed and distributed to the numerous 

 persons making inquiries about carp, 



Mr. Charles W. Smiley, chief of the division of records, during the 

 year has had entire charge of the preparation of all matter for the 

 printer, the correcting of the proofs of text and plates, and all else re- 

 lating to the proper presentation of the several volumes, pamphlets, 

 and circulars, as well as of their distribution to correspondents and ap- 

 plicants. 



12. — THE wood's HOLL STATION. 



The importance of a station on the seacoast, where the researches of 

 the Commission into the ocean fisheries, the distribution and migrations 

 of the fish, the character of their food, and all their associations, could 

 best be prosecuted, has frequently been presented in the pages of the 

 reports of the Commission, and reasons have been given at length from 

 time to time why Wood's Holl, on the south coast of New England, and 

 the extreme southwesternmost land of Cape Cod, had been selected. 

 The report for 1883 furnishes a full statement of the measures taken to 

 acquire a suitable locality, and the fact indicated that a suitable quan- 

 tity of land was purchased by friends of science and presented to the 

 United States, on condition of being used for the purpose in question; 

 and this was supplemented by the donation by Mr. Joseph S. Fay of a 

 large extension of the same water front. Also, that the title to the land 

 was found by the Attorney-General of the United States to be satis- 

 factory; and that the State of Massachusetts, under the administration 

 of Governor Long, had ceded the necessary jurisdiction to the United 

 States. The schedule of the buildings necessary for the work of the 

 Commission was indicated, and the fact stated that two of the most im- 

 portant ones had been finished. 



I now have to report that, Congress having made the necessary ap- 

 propriation for the purpose, the erection of the laboratory building, an 

 edifice 120 x 40 feet, has been begun and i^artly finished during the year; 

 leaving for 1885 the construction of the coal shed and of a storage build- 

 ing, which it is hoped will be accomplished in 1885. 



Owing to the fact that the foundations of the laboratory building had 

 to be erected on mud, mostly covered at high water, unusual expendi- 

 tures were required to secure a suitable foundation, making the cost 

 considerably more than would otherwise have been the case. The 

 natural difficulties, however, were overcome, and the superstructure 

 was under roof by the end of the year. 



Concurrently with the work on the Fish Commission building the con- 

 struction of the adjacent harbor of refuge under the direction of Col. 

 George H. Elliot, of the U. S. Engineers, and based upon an appropria- 



