APPENDIX. 35 



of outfit ; number and value of each kind of fishing apparatus used ; the 

 number of crew, specified by nativity and nationality ; the kinds, quantities, 

 and value of bait caught by the vessel or purchased in America or British 

 provincial ports ; the number of entries of foreign ports, and the expenditures 

 therein for each purpose ; the lay of the crew ; the quantity and value of each 

 grade of mackerel taken in each region with each kind of apparatus; the 

 fishing season in each region; the number of trips from each region and to 

 each port; and the kinds, quantities, and value of other fish taken with 

 mackerel. 



"In the case of the shore and boat fisheries the information secured for 

 each proprietor-fisherman included the number and value of each form of 

 apparatus employed, the number and value of boats, the fishing season ; 

 the number, nativity, and nationality of the fishermen ; the wages received ; 

 the kind, quantity, and value of bait utilised ; and the quantity and value 

 of each grade of mackerel taken with each appliance, 



"A special feature of the inquiry was the provision to obtain complete 

 figures showing, for fresh mackerel, the quantity and value of each standard 

 size of fish taken, and for salt fish the quality and grade of the mackerel 

 packed. While satisfactory figures relating to the different grades of salt 

 mackerel inspected in Massachusetts are available, no attempts to obtain 

 complete data for the grades of salt mackerel packed in other States, or 

 for the various sizes of fish sold in a fresh condition, were ever before made. 



" Owing to the importance of having statistical data for the mackerel 

 fishery covering each year of the 'close-time' law, which took eff'ect in 

 1888, and terminated in 1892, the inquiry was addressed to the years 

 1890, 1891, and 1892, information for the two earlier years having been 

 previously obtained. 



" Some supplementary inquiries regarding mackerel were also instituted by 

 the division, by securing the co-operation of fishermen on various parts of the 

 coast, in recording observations concerning the mackerel during the fishing 

 season of 1893. For this purpose blank books of convenient size were 

 prepared and distributed. They provided for a daily record of the number 

 of extra large, large, medium, small, and tinker mackerel taken each day; 

 a statement as to the nature of the weather, direction of the wind, etc. 



"In the first week in April, 1893, the writer visited New Jersey for 

 the purpose of engaging for this inquiry the services of the pound-net 

 fishermen on the northern part of the coast of that State. This section 

 is the most southern part of the United States coast on which mackerel 

 are regularly taken in considerable numbers with fixed apparatus. The 

 fishermen, who during the previous season had operated pound-nets, were 

 personally visited, and the objects of the inquiry explained to them. They 

 entered very heartily into the matter, and agreed to record the daily catch 

 as requested. 



" Record books of a similar character were placed among the pound-net 

 and trap-net fishermen of the Massachusetts coast. The distribution was 

 accomplished through ]\Ir. F. F. Dimick, local agent at Boston, Mass. 



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