54 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER’ OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [24 
ures should be adopted in the premises, and to report upon the same to 
Congress.” 
The resolution establishing the office of Commissioner of Fish and 
Fisheries required that the person to be appointed should be a civil 
officer of the government, of proved scientific and practical acquaintance 
with the fishes of the coast, to serve without additional salary. The 
choice was thus practically limited to a single man, for whom, in fact, 
the office had been created. Professor S. I’. Baird, at that time Assistant 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was appointed and entered at 
once upon his duties. 
The summer of 1880 marks the tenth season of active work since its 
inception in 1871. The Fish Commission now fills a place tenfold more 
extensive and useful than at first. The present essay aims to show, in 
a general way, what it has done, is doing, and expects to do—its pur- 
poses, its methods, its results. 
The work is naturally divided into three sections: 
1. The systematic investigation of the waters of the United States 
and the biological and physical problems which they present. The 
scientific studies of the Commission are based upon a liberal and philo- 
sophical interpretation of the law. In making his original plans the 
Commissioner insisted that to study only the food-fishes would be of 
little importance, and that useful conclusions must needs rest upon a 
broad foundation of investigations purely scientific in character. The 
life-history of species of economie value should be understood from be- 
ginning to end, but no less requisite is it to know the histories of the 
animals and plants upon which they feed or upon which their food is 
nourished ; the histories of their enemies and friends, and the friends 
and foes of their enemies and friends, as well as the currents, temper- 
atures, and other physical phenomena of the waters in relation to migra- 
tion, reproduction, and growth. The necessary accompaniment to this 
division isthe amassing of material for research to be stored in the National 
ang other museums for future use. ; 
. The investigation of the methods of fisheries, past and present, 
ae the statistics of production and commerce of fishery products. Man 
being one of the chief destroyers of fish, his influence upon their abun- 
dance must be studied. Fishery methods and apparatus must be ex- 
amined and compared with those of other lands, that the use of those 
which threaten the destruction of useful fisheries may be discouraged, 
and that those which are inefficient may be replaced by others more 
serviceable. Statistics of industry and trade must be secured for the 
use of Congress in making treaties or imposing tariffs, to show to pro- 
ducers the best markets, and to consumers where and with what their 
needs may be supplied. 
3. The introduction and multiplication of useful food-fishes through- 
out the country, especially in waters under the jurisdiction of the general 
government, or those common to several States, none of which might 
