CLIV IJKPOHT (W COMMISSIONEU OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Table shinvii)(j hy apparatus and sijccicsthc ijicld of the fmheries of Lake Ontario. 



CHESAPEAKE BASIN.* 



The investigations in the Middle Atlantic States were, during the 

 fiscal year 1891-02, confined to the Chesapeake Basin and the adjoin- 

 ing ocean shores of Maryland and Virginia. The canvass of this 

 important fishing region was extended to the limits of economic fishing 

 in all the rivers tributary to the bay. The very careful and comprehen- 

 sive inquiries here made were fully warranted by the vast extent and 

 importance of the fisheries. The Chesapeake, with its tributaries, 

 constitutes the most productive inland fishing-ground in the United 

 States, and probably the most important in the world. The value of 

 the fishery objects here taken is over $10,000,000 annually, a sum equal 

 to nearly one-fourth the value of the fisheries of the entire country. 



The investigation of the fisheries of this section was begun in the 

 first part of November, 1891, and occupied the attention of the field 

 force for about three months. The canvass in Maryland was conducted 

 by Messrs. Ansley Hall, E. E. Eace, and Charles H. Stevenson, and in 

 Virginia by Messrs. T. M. Cogswell, Charles H. vStevenson, and W. A. 

 Wilcox. ' That part of the Chesapeake Basin extending into Delaware 

 and Pennsylvania was visited by Mr. Bace. 



The canvass of tlie fisheries of this region disclosed the extent of the 

 various branches of the industry in the four States supplied by the 



• lucluflinjv .adjoining ocean slioresof Maryland and Virginia. 



