6 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
peat beds, and exumed the skeleton of a moose, which he sup- 
posed belonged to an extinct species. Having written to the 
Smithsonian Institution in regard to it—describing the remains 
of this creature—the singular terseness and scientific instinct dis- 
played in his letters attracted the attention of the Smithsonian 
Institution. This led to Mr. Milner’s services being engaged by 
the Smithsonian. He was first employed by Professor Baird, in 
1872, to gather together the statistics of the fish of the Great 
Lakes. Shortly afterward he joined the United States Fish Com- 
mission in Washington, and was in their employ up to the day 
of his death. Successive publications of the Fish Commission 
fully attest Mr. Milner’s work and services. In addition to this, 
he was in close communication all the time with the present dis- 
tinguished Secretary of the Smithsonian in collecting general 
statistics, and arranged the literary material for fish propagation 
in the reports, of which he was most especially editor. Milner’s 
work was wide and extended. At different times he planned 
various fish-hatching campaigns in North Carolina, Virginia, on 
the Potomac, on the Susquehanna, at Havre de Grace, and at 
Holyoke. He had under his charge the cod-hatching at Glouces- 
ter, in 1878. The Secretary of the Smithsonian writes in his 
honor: ‘He was very methodical in everything, and as keeper of 
that portion of the archives under his charge, was.a notable ex- 
ample of industry, care and precision.” 
There is some information more than touching which I have 
received, descriptive of Milner’s last days. He was so enthu- 
siastic in his work, that he went beyond his strength. He believed 
‘that with such a mission as was his, that he was invulnerable to 
the attacks of malaria or overwork, under which so many of his 
friends had succumbed. 
When advised by Professor Baird, in the summer of 1878, to 
seek his home and take a needful rest, he still lingered at Wash- 
ington, perfecting his plans for the steamer /7s4 Hawk, which he 
never was to see afloat—which vessel was the great triumph of 
American fish culture, and was only called into commission last 
month. Coming at last home to his wife, he refused to be thought 
even ill. Ina month he was again at his post at Gloucester, en- 
tirely forgetful of himself, absorbed as he was in his work. When 
