REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XLIII 



The subcommittee took up its work immediately after tlie adjourn- 

 meut of Congress, and visited a number of tlie towns on the coasts of 

 New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and llhode Island, taking a large 

 amount of testimony from both sides in the controversy. 



The Commission placed the Lookout at the command of the commit- 

 tee, and, at various times, Major Ferguson and Colonel McDonald, of 

 the Commission, were in attendance and rendered such help as they 

 could. 



Quite a number of witnesses were examined in Washington, being 

 summoned there for the purpose. 



The subcommittee did not consider it expedient to make a report of 

 its work for 1882, preferring to devote another session to the special 

 inquiry. 



13. — THE WORK OF THE FISHERY CENSUS OF 1880, AND ITS RESULTS. 



lu my report for 1879* it was announced that arrangements had been 

 made to co-operate with the Superintendent of the Tenth Census in col- 

 lecting the statistics of the fisheries of the United States. In subse- 

 quent reports the progress of the work has been frequently alluded to, 

 and the principal features of the plan described. 



The work is still in progress, the delay in printing the reports, al- 

 though vexatious, afibrding an opportunity for a more careful elabora- 

 tion of the material than would otherwise have been practicable. The 

 alliance between the Census and the Fish Commission, so far as finan- 

 cial interests are concerned, having come to an entire close during the 

 year, it seems appropriate to review at this time the history and present 

 condition of the undertaking. 



In July, 1879, an arrangement was made with General Francis A. 

 Walker, Superintendent of the Tenth Census, by which an investigation 

 of the fisheries of the United States was undertaken as the joint enter- 

 prise of the United States Fish Commission and of the Census Bureau. 

 It was decided that this investigation should be as exhaustive as possi- 

 ble, and that both the United States Fish Commission and the Census 

 should participate in its results. The preparation of a statistical and 

 historical description of the fisheries, to form one of the series to be 

 presented by the Superintendent of the Census in his report, was from 

 the first the main object of the work, but in connection with extensive 

 investigations into the methods of the fisheries, into the distribution of 

 the fishing-grounds, and the natural history of useful marine animals 

 were carried on. 



The direction of this investigation was placed in the hands of Mr. G. 

 Brown Goode, who was appointed a special agent of the Census Office, 



* Report of Commissioner. Part VII, 1879 (1882), pp. xxiii-vii. Ibid. Part VIII, 

 1880 (1883), pp. XXVII, 1-62. IMd., Part IX, 1881 (1884), pp. xxxi-ii. Report of Sec- 

 retary of Smithsouian Institution, 1880 (1882), pp. 78-9. Ibid., 1881 (1883), pp. 51-3. 

 Ibid., 1882(1883), p. 55. 



