TENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 49 
bO7Qc IL, 1874; [Me tees Ws BOZO 5 Ve r877 > NT hee Bice Ue gas 
[X., 1880. ] 
LIV. 1871—Estableshment of the Alabama Fish Commésston.—The Al- 
abama Commission was organized in 1871 by the appointment as Com- 
missioners of Charles S. G. Doster, Robert Tyler and D. R. Hundley. 
[Report of the Commissioners to encourage fish culture, I., 1872; IL., 
* * * 
yl 
LV. 1871—Dascovery of the American Method of Dry Impregnation.— 
The American method of dry impregnation was discovered and prac- 
ticed by Mr. C. G. Atkins in 1871. [MILNER: I. c., p. 541.] 
LVI. 1871—Transportation of Fish Across the American Continent. 
In 1871 young shad were successfully transported from the Hudson 
River to the Sacramento River, California. [MILNER: Rep. U.S. F. C., 
II,, p. 544.] 
LVII. 1871—Jnutroduction of Shad into Caltfornta—See LVII. 
above. 
LVIII. 1871—£stabléshment of the United States Fish Commisston.— 
On the 9th of February, 1871, Congress passed a joint resolution which 
authorized the appointment of a Commission of Fish and Fisheries. 
The duties of the Commissioner were thus defined: “To prosecute in- 
vestigations on the subject (of the diminution of valuable fishes) with 
the view of ascertaining whether any: and what diminution in the 
number of the food-fishes of the coast and the lakes of the United 
States has taken place; and if so, to what causes the same is due ; and 
also whether any and what protective, prohibitory or precautionary 
measures should be adopted in the premises, and to report upon the 
same to Congress.” 
The resolution establishing the office of Commissioner of Fisheries 
required that the person to be appointed should be a civil officer of 
the Government, of proved scientific and practical acquaintance with 
the fishes of the coast, to serve without additional salary. The choice 
was thus practically limited to a single man for whom, in fact, the of- 
fice had been created. Prof: Spencer F. Baird, at that time Assistant 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was appointed and entered 
at once upon his duties. | Up to 1880, $476,200 had been appropriated 
for the use of the Commission. [See G. BROWN GOODE... The first 
Decade of the U.S. Fish Commission; its plan of work and accom- 
plished results, scientific and technical. Proceedings of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, XXX, 1880, pp. 563-574. 
Forest and Stream, XV, pp. 85-7. Chicago Field, XIV, p. 58. Nature, 
(London), XXII, pp. 597-9. Czrcular Deutscher Fescherez Verein, 1880, 
pp. 190-7. Report Smithsonian Institution, 1880, pp. 140-9.]. 
