430 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 
forms. The letters dictated and reviewed by the Com- 
missioner before signing, amount to at least half that 
number. 
The death of Professor Henry in 1878, and the suc- 
cession of the present Commissioner to the office of 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, so greatly in- 
creased his work as to make it necessary to give up all 
the outside work which had enabled him to add to his 
private income. 
For a number of years all the office accommodations 
required by the Commission were furnished gratuitously 
by the Commissioner in his private residence. 
From 1871 to 1875 the best room of his home was 
given up to the uses of the Commission. The Commis- 
sioner on removing to another residence built by him 
with special reference to the needs of the Commission, 
supplied two basement rooms, with an iron safe, closet, 
and other necessities. With the increasing volume of the 
work of the Commission Congress authorized the renting 
of the house next door, which was then connected with 
the Commissioner’s residence so as to allow access from 
either building. A few years later the Commissioner 
extended his private residence to afford needed additional 
room for the Commission. 
No rent was ever asked or received by the Commis- 
sioner for any of the quarters furnished by him. All the 
expenses of lighting and heating the rooms occupied by 
the Commission have been borne by the Commissioner 
and the total expenses represented by the increased cost 
to him have been hardly less than $1500.00 per annum, 
for the fifteen years during which he has acted as the 
unpaid agent of the Government in connection with Fish 
Commission work. Excluding the cost of transportation 
