128 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
of Washington, Oregon, and California even less information was at hand, Dr. Jordan 
stating that — 
Except the salmon fisheries of the Sacramento and the Columbia and the ocean fisheries in the im- 
mediate vicinity of San Francisco, the fisheries of the Pacific coast exist only as possibilities. For the 
most part only shore fishing on the smallest scale is done, and no attempt is made to discover offshore 
hanks, or to develop them when discovered. 
Being specially equipped for hydrographic as well as fishery inquiries, the Alba- 
tross was well adapted to undertake the investigation of this practically new region, 
in which, at the outset, the delineation of the bottom was fully as important as the 
determination of its food resources. She is an iron, twin-screw propeller of 1,000 tons 
displacement, measures 234 feet in total length, and is rigged as a brigantine. The 
hull is modeled with reference to the peculiar character of her movements, and she is 
provided throughout with the most approved appliances for the different branches of 
research in which she is expected to engage, many of them being a direct outgrowth 
of the Fish Commission work. Sounding is carried on by means of fine piano wire, 
operated by a Sigsbee steam and a Tanner hand machine, both working on the princi- 
ple first demonstrated by Sir William Thomson. Iron rope is employed for dredging, 
the machinery used in connection with it consisting of a heavy hoisting engine on 
the spar deck forward, and a reeling engine on the berth deck underneath, together 
with all the necessary auxiliary apparatus to insure its smooth running. The outfit 
supplied for physical and fishery observations comprises the means of studying the 
temperature, density, etc., and of collecting animals in all depths of water, the latter 
including a large assortment of dredges, beam trawls, and tangles, as well as all the 
ordinary forms of fishing gear. 
The program arranged for the steamer Albatross contemplated, in the beginning, a 
somewhat rapid survey or reconnoissance along the entire western coast line, with the 
object of ascertaining the contour and condition of the bottom wherever the depths 
were suitable for fishing, the positions and outlines of all distinctive fishing-groundsr 
and the character and abundance of the food resources. Such an investigation could 
not fail to yield immediate results, by supplying early information to the fishermen to 
guide them in seeking favorable localities for the prosecution of their work, and it 
would also serve as the basis for the more complete development of important regions 
or of special branches of fishing. The Albatross reached San Francisco in May, 1888, 
and within three years from that time she had completed these preliminary surveys 
from San Diego to the Strait of Juan de Fuca; along the southern side of the Alaska 
Peninsula, from Middleton Island to Unalaska; and in the southeastern partof Bering 
Sea, from Unalaska to the head of Bristol Bay and Cape Newenham. Since June, 
1891, she has been detailed to study certain problems respecting the habits of the 
fur seals in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, and to make the survey for a 
cable route between California and the Hawaiian Islands, neither of which subjects, 
however, is discussed in this paper. 
The width of the area covered by the fishery explorations of the Albatross has 
been regulated mainly by the depth of water, having extended from the shallow 
soundings close along the shore to the abrupt outer margin of the continental plat- 
form. The object has been to carry the examinations over the entire surface of this 
platform, into depths of 100 and 200 fathoms, but in order to locate these curves 
with accuracy it has been necessary to extend the lines of soundings into somewhat 
deeper water, with the result of contributing very important data of general hydro- 
