Report of the commissioner for 1875-1876.

  • United States Fish Commission.
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the commissioner for 1875-1876. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/1102 (page 2)
    The work of the Fish Commission, in the proper investigation of this subject, requires the application of many branches of science and the concurrence of numerous specialists. This requires a thorough knowl- edge of all the conditions—physical, mechanical, and biological—of the waters, the habits and characteristics of their inhabitants, and the col- lecting ot accurate statistics of the catch ; and all these data must be known for a period of years, although it is hoped that the Commission has nearly reached the point when deductions somewhat definite can be made. In the inquiry into the conditions of the ocean and its inhabit- ants, it is, of course, not necessary to go over the ground already covered by other branches of the government. Thus the hydrography of the coast, the general character of the sea-bottoiu, the nature of the tides, etc., are well pointed out in the charts of the Coast Survey and of the Hydrographic Office. There are required, however, in addition to what is available, long-continned and careful observations of the temperatures of the water at the surface, at the bottom, and at intermediate points— these studied in connection with the local conditions of the atmos- phere ; determinations of the chemical composition and of the density of the water; of the precise relation of the various portions of the sea- bottom or of the water to the entire animal life—to be shown only by tho use of the trawl, the dredge and the towing-net; a study of the succes- sive stages of animal life throughout the different seasons of the year; an examination of the vegetation, especially of the different species of algae, which also have an important relation to the problem—all these and other subjects have been considered by the Commission, with the assist- ance of eminent naturalists and physicists in the various branches of the inquiry. The only foreign governments by which a precisely similar inquiry has been carried on are those of Germany (already referred to), Norway, and Sweden, the two latter having been especially diligent in the research, bringing all the national resources to the aid of the fisheries, not only in determining their theory, but also in facilitating their practice. The Norwegian Government, especially, not only keeps a government vessel, with one of its most eminent zoologists, Prof. G. O. Sars, and several assistants, on the great cod and other sea fishery grounds dur- ing the season, to determine all the points in which assistance can be rendered to the fishermen, but it has actually constructed a line of telegraph, mostly submarine, along the entire coast and stationed pa- trols at short intervals, by means of which the casual occurrence of a school of herring at any point along the coast is immediately commu- nicated to all the fishermen, who can then unite and utilize what may be the only opportunity of the year to secure a full fare. The publication of the results of these inquiries on the part of Europe and America, has added a vast amount of information, both theoreti- cally and practically important. As already stated, the original object of the creation of the United