KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXIX 



by the fact that the number of this fish taken in 1879 was 11,336,716 

 pounds, a decrease of 2,336,716 pounds, or 20 per cent, in a single year. 



An important consideration in connection with this problem of the 

 expected fishing-grounds is the great increase in the demand for fish, 

 consequent upon the success of the American display at the Interna- 

 tional Fishery Exi)osition at? Berlin in 1880, as will be seen in another 

 liortion of this report. The American success was everything that 

 could be desired, the display of this country being placed unhesitatingly 

 at the very head of all others, although but a short time was allowed 

 for its preparation. The quality and character of the American pre- 

 pared fish attracted also deserved attention, and already engagements 

 and contracts have been entered into between parties in Europe and 

 the United States involving interests likely before long to amount to 

 millions of dollars. 



It may not be amiss, in this connection, to refer to the fact that the 

 introduction by the United States Fish Commission to the American 

 fishermen of the Norwegian system of taking codfish by means of gill- 

 nets, with glass floats, has already become of the utmost value. Here- 

 tofore in the capture of codfish the question of bait has been the most 

 important, amjile opportunities frequently occurring for taking cod 

 which cannot be utilized for the want of suitable bait. This ren- 

 dered it necessary to resort to the British provinces for the purjjose of 

 obtaining it, and has caused almost entirely the recent difiiculties be- 

 tween the fishermen of the two countries, which have been the subject 

 of repeated diplomatic correspondence between the United States and 

 Great Britain. When gill-nets can be used bait is unnecessary, and it 

 is iirobabJe that within a few years three-fourths of the fish taken will 

 be by gill-nets, and bait used only in localities where the net is not ap- 

 plicable. 



The preliminary research by which the locality and relationships of 

 the tile-fish were ascertained was prosecuted by the Fish Hawk, the 

 fish-hatching steamer connected with the service of the United States 

 Fish Commission. This vessel, in an interval of enforced inaction in her 

 special work, made three trips to the edge of the Gulf Stream during 

 the months of September and October, each time being but twelve 

 hours on the ground. Not intended as a sea-going steamer, of course, 

 it was not proper to run any risks, and it was simply on the occasion of 

 a spell of settled weather that the vessel could run out one night to the 

 grounds, spend a single day there, and return the next night, on each 

 occasion being absent only thirty-six hours. To do the work properly 

 requires a steamer that can remain oft' the coast in any weather, winter 

 or summer. Such a vessel has been planned by Mr. C. W. Copeland, 

 the naval constructor of the Light-House Board, in which are embodied 

 all the requirements for a staunch sea-going vessel, as small as the serv- 

 ice will permit, and able to do any work of this kind, and at the same 

 time perfectly fitted for the hydrographic service of either the Coast 



