FISHERY PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. 241 
the season’s catch. It will be seen that the increase since 1880, 
though important, is not enormous, though presumably the Commis- 
sion claims that the maintenance of the fishery in a prosperous con- 
dition is due to artificial propagation. The total value of the shad 
caught on the South Atlantic coast is given as $482,403 in 1890, 
but no means of comparing this with any other time are afforded. 
However, we are informed in the volume that the work of this 
department was directed by Captain J. W. Collins, while the pre- 
paration of the report devolved upon Dr. Hugh M. Smith, in con- 
sequence of the fact that Captain Collins was called upon to do 
special work at the Chicago Exhibition. In the preceding volume 
of the series, the Commissioner’s Report for 1888, there is a much 
more complete and detailed statistical review, prepared under the 
direction of Captain Collins, and covering the years 1887 and 1888. 
This paper contains a large number of very instructive and ably 
arranged tables, giving the kind of information we have been seeking. 
One of these tables give a comparative statement of the catch of 
shad in all the United States in the years 1880 and 1888. The total 
catch in pounds in 1880 was 18,074,534, valued at $995,790 ; while in 
1888 it was 35,736,385 pounds, valued at $1,672,192. Thus the 
amount of the catch had nearly doubled, while the value had not 
increased in proportion,—that is to say, the price had fallen. The total 
value in English money is £334,488, which is a little more than the 
total value of the mackerel landed on'the English and Welsh coasts in 
1893 (£302,516), but not half the total value of the plaice landed 
on the same coasts in the same year. ‘The comparison, however, is 
scarcely just, because the shad is not a true sea fish, but 
anadromous. It is a curious thing that in another table, showing 
the comparison by sections, it is shown that the shad fishery in the 
New England States has decreased from 2,117,392 Ibs. in 1880 to 
1,412,945 lbs. in 1888. I can find no discussion of this decrease, 
but it is pointed out in the text of the paper that the total catch of 
alewives (Clupea vernalis) has not increased nearly so much as that 
of the shad, and that the alewife is not artificially propagated. 
It has frequently been supposed that complete statistics of the 
fisheries of the United States have not been prepared or published. 
It is true, as we have already seen, that complete annual returns are 
not supplied; but statistics were compiled for the year 1880, and 
we have a complete estimate in this paper for 1888. The total value 
of the coast fisheries is computed to be $35,222,929, or in English 
money £7,338,110. This is somewhat more than the total value of 
the products of the fisheries of the United Kingdom in the year 
1888 as computed at the Board of Trade, the sum given being 
£6,418,000. But it must be noted that the American total includes 
