340 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



making the necessary preparation for an extended trip of reconnaissance 

 of the fisheries of the Pacific coast. Soon after, the Commissioner or- 

 dered me to report in Washington, which I did, and my appointment 

 in charge of the Division of Fisheries took place, as has been stated. 

 In the mean time, however, pending my arrival at Washington and sub- 

 sequent employment, Mr. Hugh M. Smith was assigned (immediately 

 after Mr. Earll's resignation) to the charge of the office of statistics, 

 as acting assistant. 



The courtesies which are usually extended in cases of resignation 

 rendered it nominally impracticable for me to take control of the statis- 

 tical work until near the close of the fiscal year, though, in compliance 

 with the Commissioner's request, I assumed that responsibility at a 

 slightly earlier date. 



C. — Plans for conducting the work. 



Having been placed in control of the division almost at the end of 

 the fiscal year, and being charged with important duties other than 

 those strictly pertaining to its operations (of which mention is made 

 elsewhere), it is but just to &&y that there has been scant time to for- 

 mulate definite plans of work and to effect a proper organization for its 

 conduct before the expiration of the time covered by this report. The 

 difficulty was augmented by the assignment of a considerable portion 

 of the clerical force of the division to other duties. 



In view of these facts, and because it has been settled that my duties 

 will compel me to be absent from Washington for several months, a 

 tentative plan of work has been decided upon which seems feasible and 

 adapted to the circumstances in which the division is now placed. This 

 provisional scheme contemplates an inquiry into the methods and rela- 

 tions of the fisheries, and the collection of fishery statistics, by sending 

 experts into the field to supplement the information obtained through 

 other methods that were in operation when the division was organized. 

 Besides this, it has been determined to make special effort to compile 

 reports from material gathered by previous inquiries, and which for 

 various reasons has remained unutilized. In subsequent paragraphs 

 more extended mention is made of these proposed compilations, as well 

 as of other matters directly concerned with the work of the division 

 and its relation to the past. 



In contemplating a permanent organization of the work of the divis- 

 ion, and the adoption of the best methods for collecting information, I 

 am now strongly in favor of the establishment of a corps of trained field 

 experts, who may be sent to different sections of the country to make a 

 personal canvass of the fisheries. p]xperience has demonstrated that 

 it is impracticable by other means to secure sufficient knowledge of the 

 many peculiar conditions affecting the fisheries, and the manner of their 

 prosecution, to render it possible to intelligently compile the data ob- 



