172 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
consider a fair percentage more or less reliable. But, as a general rule, as everybody 
knows, fishermen know less about fish than they do about anything else. That isto 
say, they know how to catch fish and the practical details of their business, but of 
their natural history they know very little. About such questions as the time of 
their migration, the rate of their growth, their spawning seasons, and other matters 
only here and there will you find aman who has observed and noted the facts closely 
enough to be able to answer your questions. 
Q. You employed some such persons ?7—A. I have one man especially, askilled fish- 
erman, resident on the south coast of New England, and iii os I employ to visit the 
different fishing stations and gather statistics. 
Q. Have you any of those circulars about you?—A. I have one. [Circular pro- 
duced. 
Q. [Reading circular.] There are something like nearly ninety different questions. 
Under ope head you require the man’s name, &c. Then as to the distribution of 
fishes: what kind of fish he has in his neighborhood, their abundance, migrations, 
movements , food, relationships, reproduction, artificial culture, diseases, pursuits, 
capture, their Basnumionl value, application, &c.—A. That circular was issued in 1871. 
I have issued a great many editions of it. Then I have another circular which refers 
more particularly to the coast and river fisheries. I have only issued this within the 
present year. 
By Hon. Mr. KeELLoae: 
Q. Was that about the time, Professor ?—A. Yes; the first thing I did was to dis- 
tribute these questions in order to get as much information as I could. I have some 
eight or ten special circulars, but these are the onesI have mostused. I have issued 
special circulars for the cod and mackerel and menhaden, but of these I have not copies 
with me. 
By Mr. DANA: . 
Q. Here [referring to circular spoken of as issued during the present year] you 
have the home fisheries, the river fisheries; they don’t come directly under our cog- 
nizance.—A. These are the coast and river fisheries particularly. 
Q. Not the deep sea ?—A. Only incidentally. They are sea-coast fish, but not out- 
side. There is a schedule of the principal fish marketed in the Boston market. My 
object was to get the number of pounds of these fish taken in the vicinity of the per- 
son to whom the circular was given. 
Q. You think these have been pretty fully answered?—A. I have a great many an- 
swers. 
Q. And from your information, which ee gather as you go about, from what is 
sent to you by the return of these circulars, and from the persons employed by you, 
it has been your business to make yourself fully acquainted with the subject ?—A. 
Yes; I have, of course, used what published material I have found. I found a great 
Gent of value in the reports of the Canadian fisheries. What little I know of the fish- 
eries in Canada I have learned from these documents. 
Q. Wherever there are documents published by the United States you have them ?— 
A. Yes; Ihave them; andI have European documents, English, Norwegian, &c. 1 
believe I have everything. 
Q. I will question you first about codfish. I want you to state what is your opin- 
ion about the cod as a fish for all sorts of commercial purposes, as compared with 
others.—A. I think the cod stands at the head of fish at the present day. There is 
no fish that furnishes food to so many people, the production of which is of so much 
importance, or which is applied to such a variety of purposes. The commercial yield 
is very great, and its capture is the main occupation of a large portion of the inhab- 
itants of the sea-coast region of the Northern Hemisphere. 
Q. Besides as an article of food, either fresh or salted, what other purposes does it 
serve ?—A. Well, it is applied to a great many purposes by different nations. It is 
