REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. VII 



PUBLICATIONS. 



LIBRARY. 



On January 1, 1887, the total number of volumes registered in the 

 library of the U. S. Fish Commission had reached 3,000. Up to June 

 30, 1888, this number was increased to 3,857. At first the books com- 

 prising this collection were kept with those belonging to the Commis- 

 sioner, Prof. S. F. Baird, in his private office; but in March, 1888, they 

 were transferred to the office of the Commission, at 1443 Massachusetts 

 avenue, and made accessible to all the employes of the Commission. 



REPORTS AND/ BULLETINS. • 



The Report of the Commissioner for 1885, constituting part xiii of 

 this publication of the Commission, relating to an inquiry into the de- 

 crease of food fishes and their propagation in waters of the United 

 States, was published in 1887. Extra copies were issued of the follow- 

 ing five papers included in this report: (1) Report on the work of the 

 U. S. Fish Commission steamer A Ibatross for the year ending December 

 31, 1885, by Lieut. Commander Z. L. Tanner, U. S. Navy, commanding ; 

 (2) Report on the thermometers of the U. S. Commission of Fish and 

 Fisheries, by J. H. Kidder, M. D. ; (3) Report on the discovery and in- 

 vestigation of fishing grounds, made by the Fish Commission steamer 

 Albatross during a cruise along the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, with notes on the Gulf fisheries, by Capt. J. W. Collins; (4) 

 On the development of the cetacea, together with a consideration of 

 the probable homologies of the flukes of Cetaceans and Sirenians, by 

 John A. Ryder; (5) The Annelida Chretopoda, from Eastport, Me., by 

 Prof. H. E. Webster and James E. Benedict. 



The Bulletin of the Commission for the year 1886, a publication de- 

 voted to matters pertaining to fish-culture and to the apparatus, meth- 

 ods, and relations of the fisheries, was issued in 1887. 



ARTICLES IN THE APPENDIX. 



In 1885 Professor Baird began to collect information concerning the 

 fisheries of the Great Lakes. He was led to make this investigation 

 principally because of the supposed expansion in the products, value, 

 etc., of the lake fisheries, the intimate relations existing between Cana- 

 dian fishery enterprises and American markets, and the influence upon 

 these fisheries of artificial propagation by the National and State fish 

 commissions. It was believed that a consideration of the fishery rela- 

 tions between the United States and Canada might be somewhat influ- 

 enced by a full knowledge of existing conditions in the Lake region. 

 The work was carried on from August to November, 1885, and was 

 under the direction of Mr. R. E. Earll, who was assisted by 6 employes 

 of the Commission. The elaboration of the field notes and the compila- 

 tion of the review have been delayed for various imperative reasons 



