REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 121 



In August, 1894, a report of the Conimissiouer of Fish aud Fisheries 

 on the sahuon industry of the Cohimbia Eiver basin was made to Con- 

 gress, and issued as a Senate miscellaneous document. The report is 

 based largely on data gathered by Mr. W. A. Wilcox, field agent of 

 this division. 



Statistics of the Fisheries of the United States. (Bulletin 1893, pp. 389-417.) 



This is a brief but comprehensive summary of the fisheries in 1890, 

 1891, and 1892, but principally in 1892, based on the inquiries of the 

 statistical agents of the division. The statistics cover the fishing indus- 

 tries of all States bordering on the coasts and Great Lakes, and show 

 the condition of the fisheries of each State, the quantity and value of 

 the yield of each principal product, the catch with each major form of 

 apparatus, the actual and relative importance of United States fisheries 

 as compared with those of other countries, and the changes in the 

 principal jjhases of the industry as compared with 1880. 



The report shows the number of persons employed in the fishery 

 industries of the coastal and Great Lakes States to have been 182,376; 

 the amount of capital invested, $58,245,406; the value of products to 

 the fishermen, $45,312,818. The most valuable products were oysters, 

 worth $16,152,257; Pacific salmon, $3,710,250; Atlantic cod, $2,856,225; 

 whalebone, oil, etc., $2,141,738; shad, $1,879,688; clams, $1,690,536; 

 mackerel, $1,102,651; lobster, $1,050,677, and haddock, $1,045,814. 



This paper was primarily prepared for presentation to the World's 

 Fishery Congress at Chicago in 1893, and is referred to in the last report 

 of the division. 



Beport on the Fisheries of the Great Lakes. (Report 1892, pp. 361-462.) 



This report represents the results of an investigation of the economic 

 fisheries of the Great Lakes conducted by this division during the fiscal 

 year 1892, and illustrates the condition and extent of the industry 

 during the year ending December 31, 1890. It is a detailed statistical 

 presentation of the vai'ious phases of the lake fisheries. The statis- 

 tical matter and the accompanying text are arranged with a view to 

 show, (1) the general extent of the lake fisheries and their condition as 

 compared with 1880 and 1885; (2) the fisheries considered by lakes; 

 (3) the fisheries considered by States, and (4) the extent and results of 

 artificial propagation. A feature of this paper which has not appeared 

 in any previous report on the Great Lakes fisheries is the presentation 

 of statistics showing the (quantity of each principal fish taken with each 

 kind of apparatus. A basis is thus furnished for determining the exist- 

 ence of augmentation or diminution in the supply of the various fishes, 

 the extent of the increase or decrease, and the form of fishery in which 

 it has occurred. 



The extent of the fisheries of the Great Lakes in 1890, as indicated by 

 this report, was as follows: Persons employed, 9,738; capital invested, 

 $5,362,744; x^ounds offish taken, 113,898,531; value of the catch to the 

 fishermen, $2,471,768, 



