10 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES. 
The investigations and experiments addressed to the fishes and 
other aquatic animals which are of immediate or indirect usefulness 
to man have, as usual, covered a wide range of subjects, as noticed 
in some detail in the appended report of the assistant in charge of 
this branch of the Commission’s work. 
In continuation of the policy of extending knowledge of the resources 
of the fresh waters and the geographical distribution of the food, game, 
and bait fishes, explorations have been carried on in Maine, West 
Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, and Cal- 
ifornia—some of a general character and some addressed to particular 
species. 
Investigations having reference to the animal life in the coastal 
waters were conducted in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,Texas, 
and California. Special experiments of economic importance related 
to the artificial fattening of oysters for market, the growing of sponges 
from cuttings, the rearing of lobsters, and the establishment of clam 
farms. The last two subjects were considered by the special com- 
mission formed for this purpose in the previous year, and material 
progress has been made in developing rational measures for main- 
taining the supply of lobsters and clams on the East coast. 
The investigation of the fisheries of the Hawaiian Islands required 
by the act of Congress which provided a government for Hawaii was 
begun in June, 1901. It was recognized at the outset that a satis- 
factory study of this subject, as contemplated by Congress, would 
involve a thorough inquiry into the variety, abundance, distribution, 
habits, ete., of the fishes and other aquatic products of this archipel- 
ago; and it was therefore decided that the preliminary investigations 
which were completed during the year should, without neglecting the 
purely commercial aspects of the subject, be directed primarily to the 
marine zoology of the Territorial waters. 
The intelligent consideration of the diseases of fishes, whether wild 
or under domestication, has demanded and received much attention. 
An assistant has been regularly assigned to this duty; special facilities 
and apparatus have been furnished for the prosecution of his studies, 
and it is hoped that before long the Commission will be in position 
to control some of the disastrous fish epidemies which now prevail at 
the hatching stations. 
The marine biological laboratories maintained by the Commission 
at Woods Hole, Mass., and Beaufort, N. C., have been resorted to 
by a very large corps of eminent biologists from all parts of the 
country. The Commission has had the benefit of the many important 
investigations relating to both pure and applied sciences there carried 
on. The provision made by Congress for a permanent laboratory at 
Beaufort is highly appreciated by the scientists who have been accus- 
