REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 65 



hereby authorized to make such trips as may be necessary in connection with this 

 detail, but will at the same time maintain a close supervision over the office of your 

 division, returning to Washington from time to time, as occasion may require. 



Pursuant to these instructions, on June 1 tbe writer accompanied 

 Mr. Rathbun to ISTew York, where Dr. William Wakehara, the Canadian 

 commissioner, and Mr. 11. N. Venning, his assistant, were met. The 

 party then proceeded to Boston, Woods Hole, Proviucetown, North 

 Truro, Welllieet, and Gloucester, interviewing the fishermen and mak- 

 ing observations on the fisheries, especially the mackerel fishery. On 

 June 23 the writer returned to Washington and remained there until 

 the close of the fiscal year. 



Eeference is elsewhere made to the inquiries of the field force of this 

 division addressed to some of the subjects covered by the investiga- 

 tions of the International Fisheries Commission. 



REPORTS ON THE FISHERIES. 



During the year the reports on the statistics and methods of the 

 fisheries issued by this Commission and emanating from this division 

 covered three coast sections having important fishery interests. One of 

 the Great Lakes, whose fisheries had recently received much attention, 

 was made the subject of a special paper, and a report dealing chiefly 

 w ith ichthyological matters, but containing many references to the 

 commercial fisheries of an imi^ortant region in one of the South Atlantic 

 States, was presented. Following are the full titles of the i)apers and 

 brief synopses of their contents: 



Report on the Fisheries of the New England States. (Bulletin, 1890.) 



This is one of a series of papers emanating from this division, largely 

 statistical in their nature, in which the commercial fish3ries of the 

 different geographical divisions of the coast and lake States are consid- 

 ered. The paper is based entirely on original field work of the division 

 alluded to in a previous report. In the scope and detail of the statistical 

 matter this article is more comprehensive than any paper hitherto issued 

 on the fisheries of the region. 



This opportunity will be improved to call attention to an error of 

 some importance which appears in the printed report, but which was 

 discovered too late to secure its correction. In the tables for Massa- 

 chusetts the following figures are given for the number of fishermen 

 of different nationalities on the fishing vessels of the State: United 

 States, 7,911; British Provinces, 1,157; other countries, 1,692; total, 

 10,760. In Essex County, which includes the important city of Glou- 

 cester, the vessel fishermen shown in the tables number 5,729, of whom 

 5,133 are given as citizens of the United States, 298 of the British 

 Provinces, and 298 of other countries. Through a clerical error a 

 relatively small number of foreign fishermen was thus accredited to 

 Essex County, the correct figures for which were 3,679 Americans, 

 1,368 British Provincials, and 682 other foreigners. The amended figures 

 F. R. 93 5 



