XIV INTRODUCTION. 



Preparations were immediately begun to utilize the few weeks remain- 

 ing before the opening of the exhibition. A general invitation was ex- 

 tended to all parties interested, to contribute articles having any rela- 

 tionship to the fisheries and to fish-culture, and the special assistance of 

 a number of persons was invoked.* The work was carried on night 

 and day, and a first shipment made on the 4th of March, followed by 

 others on the 20th, on which day Mr. George Brown Goode,t the deputy 

 commissioner, with his staff, | left for Berlin. 



With the help of the gentlemen enumerated below it has been i^ossi- 

 ble, in the short time at command, to make what will i)robably be con- 

 sidered a creditable display of api^aratus, subjects, and products of the 

 American fisheries and fish-culture ; this, however, would have been 

 more complete in many respects had a longer time been allowed than 

 the four weeks actually avadable. 



The principal deficiency in the collection will be found in the series of 

 American prehistoric and aboriginal implements for fishing. Of these 

 there is a large collection in the National Museum, which could not con- 

 veniently be withdrawn. There are wanting, also, many forms of boats 

 and vessels and numerous i^reparations of fish and marine products 

 which could not be obtained within the time, and a still larger number 

 which, from their somewhat perishable nature, could not be trusted to 

 a sea voyage. 



I take great pleasure in acknowledging the extreme liberality of the 

 ^orth German Lloyds in giving free freights between Baltimore and Xew 

 York and Bremen of the entire fishery exhibits, at the suggestion of the 

 New York agents, Messrs. Oelrichs & Co., who, with the Baltimore 

 agents, Messrs. A. Schumacher & Co., have done all in their power to 

 carry out the authority given them by the comjjany. The Baltimore and 

 Ohio, the Philadelphia Wilmington and Baltimore, and the Pennsylvania 

 Eailroad Companies, not to be outdone by a foreign corporation, also 

 granted free transportation to Baltimore and New York ; so that the 



by, instructed to present to Congress, througli the Department of State, a rejiort upon 

 the Berlin exhibition, showing the recent progress and present condition of the fish- 

 eries and of fish-culture in foreign countries. 



^Acknowledgments for assistance in making uj) the exhibition are especially due to 

 E. G. Blackford, New York ; A. Howard Clark, Gloucester, Mass. ; H. C. Chester and 

 S. C. Brown, Washington, D. C. ; W. A. Wilcox, Boston, Mass. ; Messrs. Bradford «Sr. 

 Anthony, Boston,. Mass. ; Conroy, Bissett & Malleson, W. Holberton, and Abbey & 

 Imbrie, New York. • 



t Appointed deputy commissioner to the Berlin exhibition by the President. 



t Messrs. F. W. True, J. E. Eockwell, Fred. Mather, J. AV. Collins, and Jos. Talmer. 



