xviii AMERICAN FISHES. 
line to John Goode, of Varina Parish, in Virginia, who was a soldier under 
Bacon in 1676, in the first armed uprising of Americans against the op- 
pressions of royal authority. On his mother’s side he was descended from 
the Crane family of New Jersey, of which Stephen Crane was one of the most 
conspicuous representatives of that colony in the events that led to the War 
of the Revolution. 
As a boy he moved with his parents from Indiana and settled in New 
York. He early showed a fondness for natural history, and it was his pride 
to recall how this boyish fancy was confirmed by his reading the reports of 
the Smithsonian Institution, a set of which formed part of the family library. 
As he grew older he was prepared for college and in time entered Wesleyan 
University, in Middletown, Conn., where he was graduated in 1870, being 
one of the youngest members of his class. During his college career his 
predilection for natural history studies was marked, and he was recognized 
as “a man exceptionally promising for work” in that direction. During the 
first part of the college year of 1870-71, he was entered as a graduate 
student in Harvard University, and there came under the influence of the 
elder Agassiz. Meanwhile, Orange Judd Hall, a building devoted to natural 
sciences, was erected in Middletown through the munificence of the gentle- 
man whose name it bears, and young Goode was promptly called by the 
faculty of his alma mater to arrange and display the natural history collections 
of the university in such a shape as to make them worthy the name of a 
museum. As the work proceeded it became manifest that he had found 
his vocation, and in the task of arranging the museum of Wesleyan 
University he began to display that remarkable ability for museum adminis- 
tration that has since found so worthy a field in the National Museum in 
Washington. P 
His scientific studies, however, were not neglected, and he sought to 
increase his knowledge by becoming acquainted with the workings of the 
United States Fish Commission. He met Professor Baird, in the summer of 
1873, in Portland, Me., during the meeting there of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. It proved a fortunate meeting for 
both men. The elder naturalist was at once impressed by the enthusiasm 
of the younger man, and invited him to become an assistant in the service of 
the commission. Regularly thereafter from 1873 until 1880 Goode was a 
member of one of the summer parties, and later served in other capacities 
until, on the death of Professor Baird, he was at once called to the place of 
Fish Commissioner, which high office, notwithstanding the many other duties 
