PREFACE 



days to the present time. Little attention is paid to the 

 whale fishery, as that industry, now almost passed away, 

 has received proper attention in the literature of the fish- 

 eries. 1 A brief discussion of the early fisheries in New- 

 foundland waters has been introduced in order to place 

 the New England fisheries in their proper setting relative to 

 the fisheries of Europe. The fisherman as an individual 

 has not received the attention that he deserves; but this 

 is a study in industrial rather than social history. The 

 Story of the Fisherman has yet to be written, and it can 

 be made a volume of keen interest, a narrative of heroic 

 daring. 



The information presented in the work has been de- 

 rived from a wide range of sources, from personal in- 

 quiry in the principal fishing towns from New York to 

 Newfoundland, and from experience in the fishing industry 

 itself. The author is indebted to the Carnegie Institution 

 of Washington, D. C., for assistance received in preparing 

 this volume. Acknowledgments also are made of the 

 courtesy and kindly assistance received from the officers 

 of the Worcester Public Library, and the library of the 

 American Antiquarian Society, and to Professor Emory 

 R. Johnson, of the University of Pennsylvania, who has 

 kindly read the manuscript and offered valuable sugges- 

 tions and criticisms during the progress of the work. 



RAYMOND MCFARLAND. 

 Middlebury College, Vt. 



i Cf. W. S. Tower, History of American Whale Fishery. Pub- 

 lications of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1907. 



