1 86 The Smithsonian Institution 



The work of the Commission was at first limited to the in- 

 vestigation of the causes of the decrease in the food-fishes of 

 the Atlantic coast, and it was in this connection that the sum- 

 mer stations were established in successive years at Eastport, 

 Noank, Portland, Newport, Gloucester, Providence, and finally 

 at Woods Hole, where a permanent station and biological 

 laboratory were erected. It soon came to pass that the Great 

 Lakes and also the rivers were included in the province of 

 the Commission, and that the Commissioner was required to 

 undertake extensive operations in practical fish-culture. This 

 last has now become the most prominent part of the work of 

 the Commission, but was in early years regarded by Profes- 

 sor Baird as incidental to his own interest, which was to dis- 

 cover the facts upon which fish-culture, fishery legislation, and 

 fishery economy in general, must of necessity forever rest. 



In making his original plans, he had insisted that to study 

 only the food-fishes would be of little importance, and that 

 useful conclusions must need rest upon the broad foundation 

 of purely scientific investigation. The life-histories of econo- 

 mic species were to be understood from beginning to end, but 

 no less requisite was it to know all about the animals and 

 plants upon which they feed or upon which their food is nour- 

 ished ; the habits of their enemies and friends, and the foes 

 and friends of their friends and enemies ; as well as the cur- 

 rents, temperatures, and other physical phenomena of the 

 waters which are so intimately related to migration, repro- 

 duction, and growth. 



In furtherance of these views, he carried on an exhaustive 

 biological survey of the waters of the United States and of 

 the adjoining regions of the Atlantic and Pacific. What was 

 done by the Fish Hawk and the Albatross, vessels designed 

 by him and constructed under his personal supervision, has 

 given to our nation a most honorable place among the Gov- 



