NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 219 



men of Europe, and in Maine, for example, they are dependent on 

 the middlemen, and get but small returns for their labour, 1 75 

 dollars, little more than £45 per annum. The fishermen of New 

 England, of which the chief port is Gloucester, Massachusetts, are a 

 very different class of men ; they are well educated, do not form a 

 class by themselves, and are withal admirable sailors and fishermen. 

 They earn as much as £200 per annum, and a skipper who is part 

 owner of a schooner has been known to make £3000 in a single year. 



The section on history and methods may prove rather puzzling to 

 English readers. There is no beam trawling in America, and the 

 flat-fish which are held in so much esteem and command so high a 

 price in this country, the sole, the turbot, and the brill, are unknown 

 on the other side of the Atlantic. On the other hand, many names un- 

 familiar to us are to be found, such as tautog, menhaden, squeteague, 

 skulpin. The different methods of catching fish are well explained 

 in this section. It is noticeable that the Americans use larger ships 

 than Englishmen, they set their lines in a different manner, they use 

 nets such as the purse seine which are scarcely known and rarely, 

 if ever, used in this country, and they do a great deal of their curing 

 on board ship. Undoubtedly they are ahead of Europeans in their 

 methods of fishing, as in many other things ; the fishermen are 

 certainly advanced in this, that they are not prejudiced in favour of 

 old methods, but are one and all ready to try novelties in gear and 

 boats, and to adopt them if successful, to listen to advice and to learn 

 all that they can about marine life and the habits and characteristics 

 of the fish they catch. They assist the Fisheries Commissioners in 

 their researches, and in return receive many benefits from the Com- 

 mission. 



In comparing the work on Fisheries done by the United States 

 Fish Commission with what has been attempted in other countries it 

 must not be forgotten that they possess an income out of all propor- 

 tion with that bestowed on other fishery departments or commissioners. 

 But when they can produce such a work as this in addition to their 

 scientific and practical researches, no one can assert that the income 

 is not well spent. — G. C. B. 



