686 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Milner arrived late in August, and remained until the preliminaries 

 were arranged and the first eggs had been taken, when the sickness that 

 has so recently resulted in his death compelled him to leave for the 

 South, in order to avoid the cold and stormy weather of the New Eng- 

 land sea-coast. The loss of so enthusiastic and experienced a worker, 

 whose efficient labors have aided greatly in bringing the United States 

 to the front in all subjects relating to fish-culture, was a severe blow to 

 the Gloucester work ; had he been permitted to remain, the results would 

 doubtless have been more thoroughly satisfactory. 



Owing to the absence of Mr. Milner, the writer has been requested to 

 prepare a report from hurried notes made during the winter. Much of 

 the data has been obtained from personal observations and experiments, 

 either in the hatchery, or at the various fish- wharves, or during visits to 

 the difi'erent fishing-grounds in the fishing-schooners of the harbor. 

 Much valuable information has also been obtained from the older and 

 more experienced fishermen and from the files of the local papers. In 

 all cases, however, care has been taken to avoid the accei^tance of any 

 statements and opinions without being fully convinced of their correct- 

 ness, and due allowance has been made for the lack of careful and accu- 

 rate observations on the x)art of those interviewed. Many questions 

 requiring much more careful inquiry than we were able to make still 

 remain unsolved, and many points have been wholly omitted in the 

 report for want of sufficient evidence either to disprove or confirm them. 



The report, then, especially in the portions relating to the natural 

 history and artificial propagation, must be considered as merely paving 

 the way for a more careful and extended study of the subject. 



B.— THE SHORE FISHERIES. 



1. — OEIGIN OF THE COD FISHERIES OF CAFE ANN. 



Of the many diiferent fisheries in the IJnited States yielding remuner- 

 ative emi)loyment to large numbers of men, the cod-fisheries of 'New 

 England'are the most important and extensive. Dating back as they 

 do even beyond the earliest permanent settlement of the country, and 

 being to the struggling colonists often the only unfailing source of sup- 

 ply, they were at this time of vital importance to the people. In fact, 

 the presence of these fish in the waters of :N"ew England had much to do 

 with hastening the settlement of the country, and it was doubtless the 

 knowledge of their abundance that led the merchants of the Old World 

 to send their first vessels to our shores. 



The following facts, gathered largely from Babson's History of Glou- 

 cester and the files of the Cape Ann Advertiser, give briefly the 

 origin of the Cape Ann fisheries and a glance at their condition at inter- 

 vals to the present time. Apparently the first that was known of the 

 presence of the codfish in this locality was in 1602, when Bartholomew 

 Gosnold, in the ship Concord, while on a voyage of discovery to Amer- 



