LX VI REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
equipped, need not, however, entirely limit its operations to a single 
subject, as has been shown by the experience of the past year, during 
which the fishermen obtained many important data respecting the char- 
acter and conditions of the streams they visited. Fortunately the 
United States is well provided with competent ichthyologists, and many 
students are now in course of training in this popular branch of natu- 
ral history. Physicists, however, have paid but little attention to the 
requirements of the fisheries, and few specialists have yet displayed an 
active interest in the lower organisms which inhabit our fresh waters. 
The ichthyologists are therefore best prepared to render prompt assist- 
ance, and many of them are so situated as to be able to give their services 
gratuitously during two or three months of each year. Without their 
liberal support very little could have been accomplished in this division 
of the inquiry, owing to the slender means available for the purpose. 
Having determined upon the advisability of expanding the work in 
this direction, the Commissioner held a conference at Detroit, Mich., 
during May, 1888, with the commissioners of several States, who not 
only gave the project their approval, but urged that it be taken up 
without delay. Dr. David S. Jordan, president of the University of 
Indiana, but best known for his extensive studies on American fishes, 
was also present at the meeting and offered his hearty cooperation ; 
under his able management a school of ichthyology has been founded 
at Bloomington, Ind., its graduates taking high rank for accurate and 
painstaking observations. A proposition made by him to organize tem- 
porary parties of volunteers from among his former pupils and those 
now studying under his direction was accepted by the Commissioner, 
and the work was started early in the fiscal year. Depending upon 
the services of students and professors occupied with college duties for 
eight or nine months of every year, the field excursions must be limited 
chiefly to the summer, but it is expected that some satisfactory arrange- 
ment will soon be possible whereby the inland investigations may be 
organized upon a permanent basis, and, in fact, one of the river explo- 
rations now in progress is being executed by regular employes of the 
Commission. 
The plan of work adopted in regard to the volunteer service contem- 
plates, first of all, the somewhat rapid investigation of those regions 
with which we are the least acquainted, in order to obtain, as soon as 
possible, a general, though not superficial, knowledge of all our fresh- 
water fishes, their varieties, distribution, abundance, and habits. Upon 
the completion of this survey, which may occupy three or four years, 
the more careful study of each lake and river system can be taken up. 
Of the inquiries conducted during the past year, as described below, 
all excepting those which relate to the Hudson River, the Upper Ohio 
River, and the Alaskan salmon rivers were planned and carried on 
under the direct supervision of Dr. Jordan, who also participated in 
the field work during most of the summer of 1888. The cost of these 
