174 The Smithsonian Institution 



It was his intention to have continued this series of papers, 

 and had the scope of the Fish Commission not been subse- 

 quently expanded so as to include artificial culture, he would 

 probably have been able to do this for all the fishes of the 

 Atlantic coast. His material in regard to the herring and 

 menhaden was particularly abundant and important. 



After six years of waiting, however, he decided that it was 

 impossible for him to give his personal attention to work of 

 this kind, and in 1877 he proposed to me to take up the 

 work, at the same time handing over a great mass of classi- 

 fied material his own observations supplemented by letters 

 and extracts relating to all the economic fishes of the United 

 States. This was the foundation of the somewhat voluminous 

 publication entitled "The Fishery Industries of the United 

 States," which was published under his direction by the writer 

 and a staff of associates. 



Although he had abandoned this portion of the work, he 

 by no means lost interest in it, but had in preparation at the 

 time of his death a paper which, had he completed it, would 

 have been one of the most important contributions to the lit- 

 erature of the fishes ever issued, dealing as it did in the 

 broadest and most philosophical manner with the principles 

 underlying the whole subject of fishery economy. 



He attempted in later years no personal work upon the 

 fishes, but he saw every specimen obtained by the Commis- 

 sion and inspected every collection, as soon as it was re- 

 ceived, with eager enthusiasm. He was often the first to 

 detect undescribed or novel forms, and knew more about 

 them all than the men whom he designated to write accounts 

 of them. 



It was so also with the invertebrates, especially in the early 

 years, before the extension of the investigation into the deep 

 sea brought in such an overwhelming wealth of new material. 



