'208 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



May 5. — Accession 23158; Cat. No. 41979: One dried skin of Chromis niloticus, from 

 Lake Chala, Kilima-Njaro, Zanzibar, Africa. Collected July 3, 1888. From Dr. 

 W. L. Abbott, care of E. D. Ropes, jr., Zanzibar, East Africa. 



May 8. — Accession 23169, Cat. No. 41978: One fresh specimen of white fish, Coregonus 

 labradoricus, 11 inches in length ; packed in salt ; condition very good. Received 

 from E. Phinney, Cooperstown, N. Y. 



June 5.— Accession 23272, Cat. Nos. 42116-42372 aud 42386-42388 : Avery large collec- 

 tion of marine and fresh- water fishes obtained by the U. S. Eclipse Expedition to 

 the western coast of Africa, per U. S. steamer Pensacola. By W. H. Brown, col- 

 lector. 



June 17. — Accession 23308, Cat. Nos. 41996-42039 : One box of fishes, chiefly Percoids; 

 30 species; 44 specimens. From the Australian Museum, Sydney. 



June 19. — Accession 23321, Cat. Nos. 42040-42058: From O. B. Johnson, University of 

 Washington, Seattle, Washington, the following specimens in alcohol : Oncor- 

 hynchus nerka, ovaries developed, numerous examples from 9 to 10£ inches long; 

 Salvelinus malma, Stromaieus, Blepsias, Oxylebins, Zaniolepis, Gobiesox, Xipliister, 

 Artedius (apparently three species), Murcenoides, Anoplarchus,Nauticlithys, Hemi- 

 lepidotus, and Hexagrammus. 



June 20. — Accession 23322: Herring in salt ; Clwpca vernalis. Found dead in a brook. 

 From E. P. Cook, Wellfleet, Massachusetts. 



SPECIAL EESEARCHES. 



During the year (1889) in August and September, the curator, accom- 

 panied by Messrs. L. Stone, Franklin Booth and Robert Lewis, made 

 an investigation of the salmon and salmon rivers of Alaska, especially 

 on Kadiak Island, where many photographs illustrating the methods 

 of taking and canning the salmon, the canneries, fishing fleets, and the 

 spawning-grounds of the salmon were obtained. This investigation 

 was ordered by Congress, and the report was published as House Doc- 

 ument No. 211 (51st Congress, 2nd session), and will be republished in 

 the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission. 



The principal results of the expedition were announced by me in a 

 lecture before the scientific societies of Washington, delivered in the 

 U. S. National Museum in March, 1890. I found that the red salmon 

 was the most abundant and most important commercially, and that as 

 many as seventeen thousand were taken at a single seine haul at Kar- 

 luk. The verification of the statements as to the excessive mortality 

 in the genus Oncorhynchus during the spawning season was one of the 

 important results of this exploration. In the case of the red salmon 

 the destruction was found to be almost total, and in the dog salmon it 

 was found that all of the fish died after spawning. Collections of the 

 river fishes associated with the salmon, and of the fish, mainly sculpius, 

 which devour the eggs and young of the Oncorhynchi, as well as of 

 the fish-destroying birds and of the plants of the Karluk River and 

 Valley, were brought down by the party. 



During September and October (1889), Dr. D. S. Jordan and party, 

 of the Indiana State University, under the direction of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission, explored, and collected natural history specimens in the 



