2 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
INQUIRY RESPECTING FOOD-FISHES AND THE FISHING- 
GROUNDS. 
A full account of the operations of the division conducting these in- 
vestigations will be found in the accompanying report of Mr. Richard 
Rathbun, assistant in charge (pages 97 to 171). 
My last report contains an outline of the preliminary investigations 
respecting the fishing-grounds of the North Pacific region, begun by 
the steamer Albatross in the summer of 1888, and which it was pro- 
posed to extend to all the waters adjacent to the territory of the United 
States on the western coast. During the past two years these surveys 
have been completed between the Straits of Juan de Fuca and the 
Mexican boundary line, or off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and 
California, and a partial examination has been made of the shallow- 
water area composing the eastern part of Bering Sea. 
Lieut. Commander Z. L. Tanner, U. 8. Navy, who has commanded 
the Albatross ever since she was placed in commission at the beginning 
of 1884, has been in direct charge of the conduct of these inquiries, and 
it is a pleasing duty to make official record of the uniformly capable 
and efficient services rendered by him in this connection. As com- 
manding officer he has displayed rare seamanship, and at the same 
time such tact and discretion under difficult and often perplexing con- 
ditions of administration as to merit the strongest commendation. 
During July, 1889, the Albatross was placed at the disposal of the U.S. 
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and was used in visiting the prin- 
cipal Indian settlements in the southeastern part of Alaska. Subse- 
quently the fishery investigations were resumed to the south of Cape 
Flattery and were carried southward as far as Cape Mendocino. Dur- 
ing the following winter the region between Point Arena and Point 
Conception was examined, and in the autumn of 1890 the remaining 
section of the coast from Cape Mendocine to Poimt Arena. 
The summer of 1890, beginning in May, was spent entirely in Bering 
Sea, where it was found that the principal banks frequented by the 
cod are located off the northern side of the Alaska Peninsula, com- 
mencing at Unimak Pass and extending, with only a single break, 
parallel with the coast to near the head of Bristol Bay. Kulukak Bay 
also furnishes several smaller grounds. Only two banks are recog- 
nized in the southern part of Bristol Bay, both of which afford excel- 
lent fishing in moderate depths of water. The most western one, called 
Slime Bank, is peculiarly infested during the summer season with 
immense numbers of a large jelly-fish, which are said to remain near 
the bottom and to greatly interfere with fishing operations during that 
period. Baird Bank, which hes to the eastward of, and nearly adjoins, 
Slime Bank, is the largest fishing-ground which has yet been discov- 
ered in Alaskan waters, its size being slightly greater than that of 
