1178 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [40] 



the Secretary in connection with the use of revenue cutters and coast- 

 survey vessels, and in tlie occupation for many years by the Commis- 

 sion of a portion of the wharf of the buoy station at Wood's Holl; (2) 

 with the War Department, and in the military guard supplied to the 

 hatching station on the Sacramento Eiver, and in the supply of ther- 

 mometers for the use of coast observers of the Fish Commission ; (3) 

 with the Navy Department, in the facilities afforded for the use of naval 

 vessels in the coast work in i)ast years ; also in facilities afforded by the 

 Navy Department in fitting out Fish Commission steamers with offi- 

 cers and men. 



Important benefits have been derived also from the courtesy of trans- 

 portation companies, by whom eggs, young fish, and other property of 

 the Govenmient have been carried from place to place at greatly re- 

 duced rates, the charges being in many instances entirely remitted. 

 In the fiscal year of 1884 concessions of this kind amounted to more 

 than $12,000. 



Finally, tlie Commission co-operates in many enterprises in which 

 the benefit is entirely that of the other partner. Pre-eminent in this 

 class has been its relations to the various State commissions. By ref- 

 erence to the table above on page 18 it will be seen that the various 

 State governments had appropriated for fish propagation, up to 1882, 

 over $1,101,000, a sum considerably exceeding that appropriated by 

 the Federal Government for the same i)urpose, the total amount to the 

 middle of 1883 having been $1,190,955, of which about one-fourth must 

 be credited to the account of the ocean fisheries inquiry and the con- 

 struction of the steamer Albatross, leaving a balance of from $750,000 

 to $800,000 expended in fish propagation. 



The success of the propagation work of the several States lias for ten 

 years past depended in a large degree upon a long-established system 

 of co-operation between the Commissioner of Fisheries and the several 

 State fish commissions, sonie thirty in number, by whom the General 

 Commissioner is legarded as a general advisory and executive head. 

 The United States Commission cannot operate in waters belonging to an 

 individual State, but can supply that State with fish to be planted by 

 its local authorities, and has already accomplished very much in this 

 manner. Co-operation of this kind would not be easily practicable 

 under the direction of an Executive Department whose Secretary and 

 whose policy are frequently changing. 



Relations of this kind have also been kept up with the Department 

 of State, in connection with the conventions and other deliberations 

 for the construction of fishery- treaties, in which the staff' of the Com- 

 mission have served as experts, with the Treasury Department in pre- 

 paring opinions upon the character of supposed dutiable articles of 

 import, and with the War Department in connection with the erection 

 of fish ways by the Engineer Bureau, also with the Navy Department 



