480 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES [4] 
1871 exhaustive investigations relative to the condition of the fishing 
industries, and the causes which influence the development thereof. 
In 1872, Congress added to the duties of the Commissioner of Fisheries 
that of restocking the waters, and his labor was henceforth divided into 
two distinct branches, viz: 
(1.) Investigations relative to the fisheries: Statistics, zoological re- 
searches, dredging, sounding, &e. 
(2.) Piscicultural operations. Artificial increase and propagation of 
the principal kinds of food fish’ throughout the whole extent of the 
Union. , 
Each of these two branches of work has its special appropriation, the to- 
talamount of which, in 1872, amounted to $20,000, and has been gradually 
increased, so that at present the annual appropriation exceeds $80,000." 
The strictest economy is constantly practised in the expenditures. 
The Commissioner receives no salary whatever. Only a few assistants, 
charged with special duties (voyages of exploration, superintendents of 
the hatcheries, stocking operations, &c.), receive salaries. Specialists, 
who are occasionally employed, receive some remuneration, but only tem- 
porarily. Three or four clerks constitute the entire force of the Commis- 
sion,which every day receives and dispatches a considerable amount of 
correspondence. 
The establishments founded by the Commission are liberally supplied 
with all the necessary material, but no concessions are made to luxury 
and elegance. 
Since 1872 eight zoological stations have been successively organized 
on the coast of the Atlantic for the purpose of carrying on researches 
in the interest of the fishing industries.2 These investigations have been 
carried on in different localities each year, and the arrangements are 
7A report on the work accomplished and the results obtained is every year made to 
Congress by the Commissioner. This annual reportis always accompanied by appen- 
dices (various treatises concerning the fisheries and pisciculture), which are generally 
documentsof exceedingly great value both from a scientific and practical point of view. 
Six large octavo volumes of these reports have, so far, been published. 
8 For a period 1871 to 1880 the total expenditure of the Fish Commission has been 
$476,200 
3 eine the same period sounding and dredging operations have been carried on in 
more than 2,000 different localities by government vessels placed at the disposal of 
the Commission. These investigations have been productive of many good results. 
Besides a large number of very interesting observations respecting the temperature 
of the water, the currents, the nature of the bottom, &c., very important collections 
have been made and numerous species of crustaceans, mollusks, annelides, &c., have 
been studied and described. Two new kinds of food fish have been discovered in 
depths to which the fishermen had not yet extended their researches, viz, the Lophola- 
tilus chama@leonticeps and the Glyptocephalus cynoglossus. The first mentioned is found in 
considerable quantity on a bank where its presence was not even suspected; the sec- 
ond, which belongs to the family of the Pleuronectes, had so far been entirely unknown, 
because the small size of its mouth did not permit of its being caught with lines, and 
because, owing to the great depth at which it lives, it can only be taken with very 
strong nets. 
