218 NOTES AND MEMOEANDA. 



section on the History and Methods of the Fisheries extends over two 

 volumes of text and a volume containing two hundred and fifty-five 

 plates illustrating the methods of catching and curing fish and other 

 marine products. It is no disparagement of the excellent works 

 published by private individuals in England to say that no such 

 complete treatise upon the fisheries of a single country has ever yet 

 been attempted or so successfully carried out. Mr. Holdsworth's 

 excellent book upon deep-sea fishing is the most complete work of 

 its kind published on the English Fisheries, but it could not be ex- 

 pected that an individual could include within the compass of a single 

 octavo volume such a varied mass of information as is presented by 

 the United States Commission. The editing of these volumes has 

 been in the hands of Mr. Brown Goode, who has had the help of 

 nineteen associates, many of them well known from their scientific 

 and practical researches. 



Members of the Marine Biological Association who would learn how 

 much practical benefit can be conferred on a national fishing industry 

 by such a body as the United States Fish Commission should obtain 

 and read these volumes ; they are not only instructive but interesting. 

 It would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of the informa- 

 tion given in Section III. Not only are all the areas frequented by 

 United States fishermen described in the text, with an account of the 

 fishes caught in each and the seasons at which they are to be found, 

 but their exact localities are mapped out in a number of excellent 

 charts which embrace the whole of the eastern coast of the North 

 American Continent. No less valuable are the charts showing the 

 annual variations of sea temperatures at various points on the same 

 coast. The fact that the migrations of fish are largely dependent on 

 the temperature of the sea has long been known in a general way, 

 but hitherto no observations have been made of extent and accuracy 

 sufficient to allow a judgment to be formed on the subject. The 

 following paragraph, taken from Mr. Richard Rathbun's report, is 

 instructive : — " During the winter months the water temperatures on 

 the ocean plateau outside of the capes is higher than that of Chesa- 

 peake Bay or the Potomac River. The latter part of February or 

 early in March the temperature of the bay waters rises above that 

 of the ocean waters outside. Coincident with this the shad make 

 their appearance in the Chesapeake and are taken in the pounds 

 which are set in salt water along the shores of the bay. About the 

 1st of April the temperature of the water in the Potomac river rises 

 above the temperature of the water in the bay. Coincident with 

 this is the beginning of the shad fishing in the river." 



The section on the fishermen is interesting reading. Some of the 

 American fishermen appear to live as exclusive a life as the fisher- 



