Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-05-25
THE FISH COMMISSION.
It's Building One of tho Interesting
 Sights of Washington.
Exhibit of Curious Finny sPecimons Caught in American Rivers, Lakes and the Ocean-Crustaceans of FPscu1lAr
 shape and Hue.
Especial Washington Letter I ,

Especial Washington ,Letter.1,
 One of the most interesting sights of Washington, and one which attracts marked attention from visitors to the capital city, is the Unitedi States fish commission.
 It is a peculiar fact that residents of this city do not seem to be fully alive to the beauties and advantages of their own surroundings. It,is very seldom 8 native Washingtonian visits the fish commission, nor for the,matter of that any. other public building. The strangers, who come here for a brief stay, can tell more about the different places of interest than'many a lifelong resident.
 The fish commission is located in a homely square building of red brick situated in about the center of what Is known as ''rhe Mall,". a forest which sextends from the capitol to the Wash tngnon monument. It is not one of the beauties of Washington architecture, but looks as if it had been dropped 'carelessly from tho clouds into the cen- ter of the beautiful park in which it stands. That is how it looks from the outside. Now let us examine, the in- tterior. We will enter the building care less and Hght-hearted, and come out nearly weighted down with the extent of our information and with a profound contempt for our former lack of infor- nation. Truly there arc many things of which the average man knows noth- ing and one of them is about fish. MT. Robert Timbers, who has been con- nected with the commission since 1881, is the man who knows 1t all, and he ale ways kindly exhibits to visitors the diff ferent curios of the Adepartment and tells what he knows ofIthem.
 All the exhibits area on the ground floor, the remainder of5the building bsS ing turned into ofacesgfor the use of the commissioner and his assistants. The front room is full of oblong tables each containing 32 jars of water in which are young shad in the different stages of propagation. The water comes in under pressure from the Potomac river, and a perfect system of rubber tubes keeps the water changing all the time. It requires from three to ten days to hatch out the eggs, depending entirely upon the temperature of the water used. Each of the jars holds from s0,- 900 to 12o,ooo eggs and when all are matched they are taken to the carp ponds, large tanks connected with the river, and: from there let out into the Potomac. The fish commission claims the credit for the excellent reputation of the Potomac river.shad, stating that 5 without their help. in stocking the riveri the shad wouldsnow be almost if not quite extinct.
 From the matching station we pass into what Is called thel marine grotto, a long passage or court, lined on either side with square glass tanks containing different varieties of the fnny tribe. The roof to this passage is of glass to let the sunlight intoythe aquaria. It is interesting to notess the action of the sun on the difrerent!grasses and forms of vegetable life Which cling to and grow upon the sides ofythe tanks. Where the sun strikes them they are deep green, but where theytare in continual shade, their color is a dark brown. The first tank contains sea an ernones, 8 lower form of animal life or, rather, between the animal and the vegetable. They attach them selves to the stones and gravel at the bottom of the sea. In xthe next tank we see a group of sand and rainbow darters, highly colored species ot small fish. They have no swimming power like other fish, but, get through the water by a peculiar jumping mo tion, very amusing to see.
 Very interesting indeed is school ot young shad matched last April. The
 commissioner has tried an experiment