XXVIII -REPORT OF OPERATIONS AT CENTRAL STATION, 

 UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION, DURING 1883. 



By Marshall McDonald. 



1. General considerations. 



The central station of the U. S. Fish Commission is more complex in 

 its organization and characterized by greater diversity in its operations 

 than any other station of the commission. 



a. It is a depot of the property of the Commission and of the property 

 and collections of the U. S. IsTational Museum. The care and preserva- 

 tion of these, and of the buildings and grounds, requires a storekee])er, 

 a watchman, and one or more laborers. 



h. It is the center of distribution for carp, tench, and other species 

 of fish bred at the ponds of the U. S. Fish Commission in Washington; 

 and the larger proportion of shad which are sent out each season are 

 hatched at and distributed from Central Station. 



c. It is the principal station of the Commission for the propagation , 

 of shad; from twelve to twenty millions of this species being hatched 

 each season from eggs collected from the fishing shores and gill-net 

 fishermen on the Potomac Eiver. 



Considerable numbers of whitefish, lake trout, and various other 

 species of Salmonidae are hatched out at the station each winter, and 

 distributed to suitable waters conveniently reached from the station. 



This division of the work involves the employment of a superintend- 

 ent of propagation permanently, and from time to time such assistants 

 as the emergencies of the work may render necessary. 



d. It is a station for the conduct of biological and experimental in- 

 vestigations relating to fish-culture. The materials for such researches 

 are gathered and held here, and the station being in immediate proximity 

 to the National Museum, it affords to students of natural history an 

 admirable field for the study of the life history of those species which 

 are interesting either on account of their economic importance, or are 

 in esseutisil relations to them. The series of aquariums containing living 

 specimens of many of our freshwater species of fish, and the illustra- 

 tions of the methods and apparatus of modern fish-culture to be found 

 at the station, are objects of absorbing interest to visitors, and the pro- 



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