THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 1 383 



While the manifold operations of the Bureau touch directly or indirectly 

 practically the entire population of the United States, they appeal with special 

 force to the commercial fisherman, the fish dealer, the amateur angler, the 

 student of aquatic biology and physics, the owner of small ponds, lakes, or 

 streams, and the professional cultivator of fishes and other water products. 



SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY. 



The first duties undertaken by the Bureau after its organization involved 

 biological investigations, and the operations up to the present time have con- 

 tinued to have a distinctly scientific basis. In making his original plans for 

 the systematic investigation of the waters of the United States and the bio- 

 logical and physical problems they present, Commissioner Baird insisted that 

 to study only the food fishes would be of little importance, and that useful con- 

 clusions must needs rest upon a broad foundation of investigations purely 

 scientific in character. The life history of species of economic value should be 

 understood from beginning to end, but no less requisite is it to know the his- 

 tories 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, temperatures, and 

 other physical phenomena of the waters in relation to migration, reproduction, 

 and growth. 



In pursuance of this policy the Bureau has secured the services of many 

 prominent men of science, and much of the progress in the artificial propagation 

 of fishes, in the investigation of fishery problems, and in the extension of knowl- 

 edge of our aquatic resources has been due to men eminent as zoologists who 

 have been associated with the work temporarily. Among such men recently 

 have been Alexander Agassiz, Hermon C. Bumpus, Gary N. Calkins, Bashford 

 Dean, Charles H. Gilbert, Theodore Gill, C. Judson Herrick, Francis H. Herrick, 

 David Starr Jordan, A. D. Mead, George H. Parker, Jacob Reighard, Henry B. 

 Ward, William M. Wheeler, and Henry V. Wilson. Their services have been 

 the services of specialists for particular problems, and through them the Bureau 

 has not only been able to give to the public the practical results of applied 

 science, but has contributed to pure science valuable knowledge of all forms of 

 aquatic life. 



The small permanent staff of the Bureau concerns itself more directly with 

 studies of fishes and their environment, with the conservation of diminishing 

 commercial species, and the development of new or improved methods of increas- 

 ing the supply. Such lines of work are undertaken as the need appears or as 

 assistance is asked for, and keep the scientific assistants in the field for extended 

 periods each year. The most important work in hand at present concerns 

 aquatic products other than fishes — namely, oysters, fresh-water mussels, 



