4 -SUMMARY OF THE FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS CONDUCTED IN THE 
NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN AND BERING SEA FROM JULY 1, 1888, TO JULY 
1, 1892, BY THE U. S. FISH COMMISSION STEAMER ALBATROSS. 
BY RICHARD RATHBUN. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The building, in 1882, of a staunch sea-going steamer, thoroughly equipped for 
the purposes of the U. S. Fish Commission, alforded, for the first time, the proper 
means for studying the extensive ocean fishing- grounds adjacent to the Atlantic sea- 
coast of the United States. During the five years following her completion the 
steamer A Ibatross was actively employed, and with marked success, in this special 
field of work, the region covered by her operations extending from off Newfoundland 
to the northern shores of South America. The interest aroused by these investiga- 
tions, the utility of which had been fully demonstrated, led to a demand for the trans- 
fer of the Albatross to the North Pacific Ocean, a proposition which met the approval 
of the late Commissioner of Fisheries, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, and was later sanc- 
tioned by Congress. Extensive arrangements were necessary in preparation for so 
long a cruise, but they were satisfactorily completed in the fall of 1887, and on 
November 21 of that year the ship left Norfolk, Va., for San Francisco. 
The first systematic researches bearing upon the economic marine fishes of the 
western coast of North America were conducted in 1879 and 1880, by Dr. David S. 
Jordan and Prof. Charles H. Gilbert, for Washington, Oregon, and California, and by 
Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, for Alaska. Not having suitable facilities for investigating the 
fishing-grounds, the work of these naturalists was chiefly limited to collecting and 
studying the fishes obtainable along the shores and from the fishermen, but, neverthe- 
less, exceedingly important results were accomplished by them. These have been 
published in the reports of the Fish Commission and in the Proceedings of the U. S. 
National Museum, the series of volumes entitled the Fisheries and Fishery Industries 
of the United States containing full accounts of their observations relative to fishery 
matters, as well as a complete review of this entire subject down to 1882. The same 
information has also been summarized in the Bulletin of the Fish Commission for 1888, 
in connection with the first report upon the explorations of the Albatross in the North 
Pacific Ocean. A reference to these papers shows that, while a few cod- fishing vessels 
were accustomed to resort to certain places in Bering Sea and off the south side of 
the Alaska Peninsula, very little was then known regarding the extent and charac- 
teristics of the Alaskan fishing grounds, only a comparatively few soundings had been 
made to ascertain the depths of water at any distance from the land, and the limits 
of the continental platform were almost wholly undetermined. Respecting the coasts 
