LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



TJ. S. Commission op Fish and Fisheries, 



Washington, D. C, June 6, 1890. 

 Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of an investigation of the 

 habits, abundance, and distribution of the salmon of Alaska, as well as the present 

 conditions of the fisheries and the methods employed in the prosecution of the same, 

 such investigation having been made under the authority of Congress, as conveyed in 

 section 2 of act approved March 2, 1889, and entitled "An act to provide for the pro- 

 tection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska," as follows: 



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Sec. 2. That the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries is hereby empowered and directed to institute 

 an investigation into the habits, abundance, and distribution of the salmon of Alaska, as well as the 

 present conditions and methods of the fisheries, with a view of recommending to Congress such addi- 

 tional legislation as may be necessary to prevent the impairment or exhaustion of these valuable 



fisheries, and placing them under regular and permanent conditions of production. 



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No appropriation was made to cover the expenses of such investigation, but con- 

 sidering the act mandatory, and realizing the importance of placing before Congress 

 at the earliest date practicable the information necessary to indicate the additional 

 legislation required for the protection and maintenance of the river fisheries of 

 Alaska, I arranged to provide for the expenses of the investigation out of the general 

 appropriation for the propagation of food-fishes, and with the opening of the season 

 placed a party of investigators in the field, with instructions to proceed directly to the 

 island of Kadiak and, after a thorough study of the conditions and methods of the 

 salmon fisheries there, to extend their investigations to Cook's Inlet and its affluents, 

 if the brief season available for field investigation would permit. 



Kadiak Island was selected as the initial point because the salmon fisheries there 

 have at present the greatest development and importance and because there the im- 

 pending destruction of the salmon fisheries is most evident and the flagrant abuses 

 requiring the restraint of law most obvious. 



Dr. T. H. Bean, the ichthyologist of the Commission, was placed in charge of the 

 party, his previous knowledge of this region and his training as a naturalist and 

 scientific observer having specially qualified him for this service. Associated with 

 him were Mr. Livingston Stone, the superintendent of our California and Oregon 

 salmon-hatching stations, and Mr. Franklin Booth, of San Francisco. Mr. Stone was 

 charged with the duty of reporting upon suitable sites for hatching stations and Mr. 

 Booth with the study of the topographical features of the region and the physical 

 features of the different river basins. This party continued in the field to as late a 



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