LXXXII REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
supplies. Many assistants skilled chiefly in the line of systematic 
zoology were required to care for the material brought in and to deter- 
mine its character and bearing, but specialists in other branches were 
also present. 
In the autumn of 1887 the Albatross started on its voyage to the Pa- 
cific coast, and subsequently the Fish Rawh was assigned to the inves- 
tigation of the oyster- grounds. The withdrawal of these vessels from 
their customary summer grounds necessitated for a time the abandon- 
ment at the Wood’s Holl Station of that class of inquiries for which 
their researches had so liberally provided. During the summer of 1888 
the scientific laboratory was, therefore, chiefly utilized for the study of 
problems relating to the local fauna, the most practical being those 
which bore upon the embryology and life histories of useful fishes. The 
importance of such inquiries at the present time is especially great, in 
view of the efforts now being made to increase the fish supply along 
that portion of the coast. Of the daily habits of marine fishes very 
little is yet known, and the details of their embryology and later de- 
velopment have still to be explained with the majority of useful species. 
As our knowledge of the life history of each species becomes more per- 
fect, its artificial culture becomes easier, and larger results are secured 
with less trouble and expense. Knowing the requirements of an egg 
for successful incubation, the appliances for hatching can be accommo- 
dated thereto and the mortality greatly lessened, while the young may 
be released in a more healthful and vigorous condition. Knowing the 
natural habits of the embryos, they may be planted more judiciously 
where the food and physical conditions are most suitable, and arrange- 
ments may be made in many cases for their feeding and rearing in con- 
finement until they reach a size where their instincts and activity enable 
them much better to search for food and to escape their enemies. Sim- 
ilar studies are equally important for the lawmakers, affording them the 
information necessary as a basis for legislation regulating the fishing 
season and the methods of fishing to be permitted. 
Researches of this character have always been encouraged at the 
Wood’s Holl Station, but they have never been carried on there so ex- 
tensively as during the summer of 1888. The small amount of money 
available for these inquiries permitted of the employment of only a few 
temporary assistants, and it was therefore, necessary to resort to the 
same measures which had prevailed in former years. The services of a 
number of volunteers were readily obtained in consideration of the facili- 
ties for work afforded by the laboratory, and properly qualified applicants 
for the remaining tables were allowed to be in attendance. While it is 
neither possible nor expedient in all cases to limit the investigations of 
such volunteers to subjects of immediate practical utility, their studies 
are nevertheless essential to the work and afford results which con- 
tribute in very great measure to its success. It is often impracticable to 
obtain the eggs of economic species at the time when the student is able 
