Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/567

Rh works on birds, in one of which Thomas M. Brewer and Robert Ridgway were his collaborators; the scientific departments of the Harpers' periodicals; and numerous official reports.

The office of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries was instituted, without salary, in 1874, with the attendant duties of inquiring into the decline of valuable fisheries on the coast and lakes of the United States, investigating its causes, and seeking for measures to prevent it and to restore the supply of food-fishes. Prof. Baird was appointed to this office. Under his direction it grew yearly in importance, and made the results of its work more widely and directly felt in all parts of the United States. An impulse was communicated by its workings to the efforts of the several States in caring for their fish-supplies, which became more systematic and regular; and the effects of its labors are now palpable in all parts of the Union in the restocking of our rivers and ponds, which has been to a large extent practically effected through the co-operation of the Commissioner's industrious assistants and the State and local authorities. Its work, according to Prof. G. Brown Goode, is naturally divided into three sections: The systematic investigation of the waters of the United States, and the biological and physical problems which they present—in which Prof. Baird included not only the life-histories of species of economic value, but also the histories of the animals and plants on which they feed or on which their food is nourished, the histories of their enemies and friends, and of the friends and foes of their enemies and friends, as well as the currents, temperatures, and other physical phenomena of the waters in relation to migration, reproduction, and growth; the investigation of the methods of fishing, past and present, and the statistics of production and commerce of fishery products, with particular attention to the influence of man upon their abundance; and the introduction and multiplication of useful food-fishes throughout the country, especially in waters under the jurisdiction of the General Government, or those common to several States, none of which might feel willing to make expenditures for the benefit of the others. The published reports of this commission, which seem to grow in volume every year, form extensive treasuries of knowledge on every subject which can be referred to these three headings. By means of these reports, and his various articles bearing on ichthyology, he was instrumental, according to Mr. W. H. Dall, "in bringing together for the use and benefit of the English-speaking public the largest body of facts relating to fish and fisheries ever prepared and digested for such purposes by any individual or organization. Recognized by experts of foreign countries with one accord as the most eminent living authority on economic ichthyology, America owes to his fostering care and unwearied