an adjustment thereof so that employees who do similar work will receive the same compensation. This, together with the law that was passed at the last session of Congress authorizing one ration per day to each light-house keeper, or commutation thereof at the rate of 30 cents per day, will place the service on a much more satisfactory basis than it has been heretofore.

There are at present on the rolls of the Light-House Establishment 1,631 keepers, assistant keepers, and laborers in charge of lights. The number authorized by statute is 1,650. One hundred and twentyfive lights are to be established during the present fiscal year, requiring the services of 87 keepers. In view of these facts, it is recommended that the authorized number of keepers, assistant keepers, and laborers be increased at once to 1,725, and after July 1, 1909, to 1,750.

Legislation is recommended authorizing the Board to pay the surgical and hospital expenses of seamen employed on board vessels of the Light-House Establishment and injured in the performance of duty. They are now entitled to treatment at the nearest marine hospital, but such a hospital may be many miles from the scene of the accident, while private medical assistance might be obtained in the immediate vicinity. In such cases the United States, and not the seaman, should bear the expense of treatment, but there is at present no law authorizing it.

The necessity for legislation creating 3 additional light-house districts still exists. Under the present law the Light-House Establishment of the United States is arranged into districts not to exceed 16 in number, and that number has now been attained. The Territory of Alaska, the island of Porto Rico, and the Hawaiian Islands, together with the other Pacific islands, are in process of being provided with proper lights and other aids to navigation for the assistance of the commerce which is rapidly increasing in these localities. As the 16 districts allowed are already in existence, it has been necessary to place the three sections referred to under the control of other districts by calling them subdistricts, and placing inspectors and engineer officers in charge of them. These officers are not vested with the necessary authority for properly handling the work which must be done, and as a result frequent delays ensue which should be avoided. The recommendation to increase the number of districts to not exceeding 19 is therefore made.

The law at present requires that the Light-House Board shall be composed of " two officers of the Navy of high rank, two officers of the Corps of Engineers of the Army, and two civilians of high scientific attainments, whose services may be at the disposal of the President, together with an officer of the Navy and an officer of engineers of the Army, as secretaries," and that the Secretary of Commerce and

Labor shall be ex officio president of the Board. This Board, according to law, discharges all administrative duties relating to the Light-House Establishment. Of the nine members of the Board only four devote their whole time to its duties, the remaining members having other duties or pursuits to follow. Regular meetings are held once a month, and during the rest of the month the affairs of the Establishment are carried on by three executive officers-the Chairman, the Naval Secretary, and the Engineer Secretary-who carry out the instructions of the Board issued at the monthly meeting and decide upon questions which may come up during the month but which are not of sufficient importance for the convening of the Board in extra session. Upon all such questions the action of these three officers is controlled by the majority.

The Light-House Board was created nearly sixty years ago, when the Establishment was still in its infancy and when designing and experimenting were the great consideration and little executive administration was necessary. With the large personnel which this service now has, and the thousands of aids which have since been created, such a board is not a proper administrative head, nor can the office duties be properly executed by a committee of three officers where a majority vote governs. I therefore recommend that legislation be enacted so that

First. The Light-House Board may become an advisory instead of an administrative body.

Second. The Chairman of the Board may be named by the President instead of being elected by the Board.

Third. The Chairman of the Board may be the executive head of the Light-House Establishment, with the same powers as a chief of bureau.

On several occasions I have taken the opportunity to visit light stations in company with the Chairman, or the inspector of the district, for the purpose of acquainting myself with the methods of this service, and have frequently accompanied these officers on their visits of inspection. These tours have proved to be very instructive, and have served to bring to the attention of the head of the Department facts of which he should be cognizant. Such visits by the Secretary, who is also President ex officio of the Board, or by any other member of the Board, have a good effect on the employees in the service.

BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

FISH-CULTURE.

The operations of the Government in the interests of the fisheries and the fish supply have a widely diversified character, being the outcome of many years' growth and experience and a reliable reflex of the popular interest shown in this important work. Beginning a third of a century ago as a mere inquiry into the condition of certain fisheries, this work has broadened until to-day it is addressed to practically every important phase of the question of conserving, increasing, and utilizing the aquatic resources of the interior, coastal, and offshore waters of the country. The growth in this service has been most noteworthy in the cultivation and distribution of food and game fishes, which has come to affect not only every State and Territory but almost every community.

The fish-cultural efforts of the Bureau of Fisheries in 1908 were directed chiefly to increasing the take of eggs and the output of young fish. While the possibilities of expansion and development in nearly every line are almost unlimited-depending largely on the funds available for opening up new fields the public need and popular demand seemed best subserved at this time by the concentration of efforts for immediate results in quantity in the fields already occupied. Thus, with the same funds as during the year before, the hatchery work in 1908 yielded 376,000,000 young fish more than in any previous year, and produced about 458,000,000 eggs, which were delivered to state and foreign hatcheries. The total output was nearly 3,000,000,000, of which over 2,500,000,000 were young fish.

The conspicuous increases were in Great-Lakes whitefish; silver, blueback, and humpback salmons; rainbow and brook trouts; largemouth and small-mouth black basses; yellow perch and white perch; cod, flatfish, and lobsters, all of which were produced in greater quantities than ever before. There was likewise an increase in shad, due entirely to improved conditions in the Albemarle region of North Carolina. The output of lake trout and pike perch fell behind the 1907 record, as did also that of chinook salmon and Atlantic salmon. These fluctuations in the production of most of the fishes handled are, however, inevitable, being due to weather conditions or other adversities which can not be controlled.

The fish-cultural work in 1908 was not without new features. The yellow bass, prized as a game and food fish in the Gulf States and the Middle West, was added to the list of species propagated; and in response to a growing and insistent demand there were distributed

in several instances a brood stock of carp, which species the Bureau has not been distributing for many years. Some waters not suited to any other fish are suited to carp, and the purpose of the Bureau to supply this fish for such waters-preferably by transfer from other waters should not provoke the criticism justly addressed to carp misplaced.

To increase the effectiveness of the distributions of fish and at the same time to facilitate the office work, there has been established a card-index system by which will be preserved all obtainable data pertaining to plants of fish in the many thousands of ponds, lakes, and streams that have been stocked by the Bureau. Owing to the yearly growing interest in the utilization of private and minor waters generally for raising fish and the consequent greater demand for suitable fishes to plant in such waters, this information will constitute a history which will be an invaluable guide in the assignment of species to the various applicants. Effort is also being made to collect and correlate observations relating to particular characters in the water supply at the hatching stations. Recent experience has developed hitherto unsuspected causes of difficulty and success and points the way to important reforms and improved procedure. The rôle of aquatic plants and algal growths in breeding and rearing ponds is becoming better understood, and certain chemical qualities of the water are being studied in relation to the abundance of fish food. Such problems are of obvious importance in fish-cultural work, and it is hoped by greater knowledge on the subject to increase the efficiency of the present hatcheries as well as insure a wise choice of sites for hatcheries to be erected in future.

The new salmon station at Afognak, Alaska, has been nearly completed, and will be ready for operation the present season. At various other stations new buildings have been erected and grounds, water supply, and other facilities improved.

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY.

Important work of the Bureau in scientific inquiry has been the continued investigation of the natural history of the pearly mussels of the Mississippi Valley, which support the pearl-button industry of the United States. This industry has an invested capital of $2,000,000 and produces an annual output valued at about $6,000,000, but the supply of fresh-water mussels which constitute its raw material is becoming rapidly exhausted. Effort is being made to locate all possible sources of supply, to determine the extent of the depletion, and to acquire knowledge of the habits of the mussels which will make it feasible to recommend protective legislation. Artificial propagation was undertaken at once, and the experiments

were so successful from the beginning that the work is even now being conducted on a scale promising practical results; and Congress, at the solicitation of the pearl-button interests, has provided for the establishment of a station especially for mussel culture, which will probably be ready for operation during the present fiscal year.

Cooperation with the State of Maryland in the survey of the oyster grounds of Chesapeake Bay has continued, in conjunction with the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and experiments and inquiries relating to the condition of the oyster industry in other States also have been conducted. As an instance of the way in which intelligent and well-directed scientific effort may redound to the benefit of a community or State, reference may be made to the remarkable results of several years' endeavor in behalf of the oyster industry of Louisiana. Here the aim has been to develop unproductive grounds, and the success of the experimental plants last year led at once to the leasing of large areas of bottom by prospective planters; while the Bureau's plants in Barataria Bay, where there had previously been no oysters at all, this year made good their promise by yielding at the extraordinary rate of 1,500 to 2,000 bushels of marketable oysters per acre at the end of two years from the time the cultch was deposited on barren bottom. The fitness for oyster culture of thousands of acres of barren bottom has been demonstrated, and these grounds will undoubtedly be taken up, with great profit to the State as well as to cultivators.

The experiments in sponge culture which have been in progress for a number of years have reached a stage where the methods may be recommended for commercial purposes, and a report upon the work will shortly be published. Sponges 6 inches and more in diameter have been produced in four years from cuttings planted by inexpensive means, and it is believed that the system can be commercially employed with profit. The experiments will be continued with a view to the development of improved methods and the acclimatization of nonindigenous varieties of sponges.

Physical and biological studies of lakes have been undertaken in various parts of the country. In cooperation with the Geological Survey of Wisconsin, attention has been directed to the determination. of the gaseous content of lake waters in that State, deficiency in this respect having been found to be responsible for the absence of fish and the failure of efforts to stock these lakes. Devils Lake, North Dakota, was also a field of investigation, by which were developed facts which enabled the Bureau to make practical suggestions for the reintroduction of food fish and to point out a source of ample supply. The results of this work have general application to all the numerous alkaline lakes of the West. Investigations were conducted also in Sebago Lake, Maine, and Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana, and Lake