526 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
was called to report upon the laws of all nations relating to the extra- 
limital fisheries for whales, hair seals, fisheries, precious corals, pearls, 
beche de mer, etc., and also upon the distribution and habits of these 
forms. Reports of progress v/ere made daily to Secretary Foster, 
and the more essential parts of the completed report were incor- 
porated in the extended brief of the American agent. 
During the entire period of the fur-seal inquiries Mr. Rathbun 
was in charge of the investigations, except those of the first inter- 
national commission. The steamer Albatross made yearly trips to 
Bering Sea with one or more experts, who were directed to study 
the habits of these animals and to make an annual comparative 
record of their distribution and numbers by written notes and 
identical series of photographs. The work was also extended to the 
Russian islands. 
The niost important international commission to the fur-seal 
islands was the one dispatched in 1896. This expedition, with the 
cooperation of the Secretary of State, was conducted by the Treas- 
ury Department. Charles S. Hamlin, then Assistant Secretary of 
the Treasury, was in immediate charge of the case, and Mr. Rath- 
bun was called to be his chief adviser. The latter was asked to 
become the head of the American commission, but, declining, was 
requested to nominate its members, which he did. Mr. Rathbun 
also prepared the instructions for the commission, which entered 
into every detail and every accusation on the part of Canada. 
In December, 1892, Mr. Rathbun was appointed by President 
Harrison as the American representative on the joint commission 
with Great Britain to study the condition of the fisheries in the 
boundary waters between the United States and Canada and the 
seacoast waters adjacent to the two countries, and to report such 
measures as might be deemed necessary to insure the protection of 
these fisheries. No similar investigation of such magnitude and 
importance was ever before attempted, and four years were required 
for its accomplishment. A large party of experts was put in the 
field on the part of the United States, and Canada assisted to the 
extent of its facilities. Mr. Rathbun personally visited every point 
of interest, starting with the Gulf of St. Lawrence, continuing 
through the fresh-water systems, including the Great Lakes, and 
ending at Cape Flattery at the west. The report submitted to the 
Department of State on December 31, 1896, was transmitted by the 
President to Congress and printed. 
It had been Secretary Baird's intention to have Mr. Rathbun 
transferred to the National Museum, so that he might give his entire 
time to the development of the department of marine invertebrates 
and the working up of the important collections that were con- 
