1194 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH A^'D FISHEEIES. [10] 



five Guano Company exhibited a "working model of their so-called A 

 B C process for cleaning filthy water, by ■which astonishing residts are 

 obtained, and which deserves the fullest examination. 



Deep-sea eeseaech. — In all the speeches and treatises called forth 

 by the exhibition, constant stress is laid on the circumstance that for 

 promoting the fisheries, and especially as a basis for legislation, there 

 is needed an intimate knowledge of the waters, the nature of the bot- 

 tom, depth, vegetation, and fauna, and on the other hand an exhaustive 

 study of the biological conditions of fish, their distribution, places of 

 sojourn, migrations, food, and propagation. My deceased teacher and 

 friend, Prof. August Miiller, deserves special credit for having, as early 

 as 1S5S. in a paper read at a meeting of the Berlin Acclimatization So- 

 ciety, pointed out the absolute necessity for such investigations, and 

 urged their vigorous prosecution by the Government, through the ap- 

 pointment of special ofi&cers, and the establishment of experimental sta- 

 tions. The correctness of his views has since been generally recog- 

 nized. In Prussia the Scientific Commission for investigating the 

 German Seas has produced some excellent works : private individuals 

 and fishery associations have devoted all their efiorts to the solution of 

 similar problems; and in many other countries naturalists and practical 

 fishermen emulate with each other in their endeavors to solve many 

 problems of the highest importance to the fisberies. Even at the Berlin 

 Exposition we had occasion to admire the excellent Norwegian maps 

 showing the varying temperature and depth of the Polar Sea; and in 

 London numerous similar works had been placed on exhibition by dif- 

 ferent countries, among them one of special interest to us in Germany, 

 the magnificent atlas of the Xorth Sea, by Captain Olsen, which, in 

 about fifty sheets, shows the varying depths, character of the bottom, 

 direction and velocity of the tides, fishing-grounds, and. in a particularly 

 clear and instructive manner, the distribution of some forty of the more 

 important species of fish. 



Gebma>"y shoitld imitate the U>t:ted States. — If such investi- 

 gations, as to the necessity of which there is at the present time not 

 the slightest doubt, are to be carried on successfully and rapidly, they 

 must not be left to the occasional liberality of private individals or as- 

 sociations, or be given as a mere side occupation to men whose time is 

 otherwise employed, and who can devote thereto only a few leisure 

 hours : but such investigations require the full and undivided labor of 

 persons specially appointed for this purpose. If it has once been recog- 

 nized that the sea and inland fisheries are of vast economical import- 

 ance to Germany, and if. by careful experiments on a small scale carried 

 on for a number of years, people have became convinced of the success- 

 ftil results which accompany the rational cultivation of our water area, 

 the time has arrived to pursue the same object on a large scale. In this 

 respect the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries may well 

 serve as a model. Already at the Berlin Exposition this Commission 



