REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. '^7 



place having been formerly the center of operations in tbe whaling busi- 

 ness, although now without a single whaling-vessel in service. 



Finding that Mr. Alexander Starbuck, of Waltham, Mass., had been 

 engaged in a somewhat similar inquiry, arrangements were made with 

 him to prepare a special account of the subject, which might at the 

 same time serve as a Centennial report. The result of his inquiries is 

 submitted in the present volume, of which it constitutes 7Go pages. 

 In addition to a general history of the whale-fishery from almost 

 its very commencement, the report includes a list of nearly every Ameri- 

 can vessel which was ever engaged in the business, the name of its cap- 

 tain, its agent, its field of operations, and its catch ; also the vary- 

 ing quantities of oil, sperm, and bone obtained, and their average prices 

 for each year, the whole involving a great amount of research, with a 

 result extremely creditable to the author. 



3. — INVESTIGATIONS AND OPERATIONS OF 1870. 



The necessity of attendance upon the International Exhibition at 

 Philadelphia, in the capacity of superintendent of the exhibits of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, of the National Museum, and of the United 

 States Fish Commission, prevented any active work being done under 

 the immediate direction of the Commissioner during the season of 1870, 

 and no application was made to the Navy Department for the use of a 

 steamer as in the three previous years. The laboratory, however, at 

 Woods' Holl, was opened for the service of a number of scientific inves- 

 tigators, to whom every facility and assistance was furnished by Mr. 

 Vinal N. Edwards, in charge of the station. Tbe results of these inves- 

 tigations will be available to the Commission at the proper time and 

 place. Mr. Edwards, also, who is stationed at Woods' Holl throughout 

 tbe year, continued, as heretofore, to take careful note of all the varying 

 l)henomena of the water and of its inhabitants, making coUcctionsof speci- 

 mens, both of surface and deep-sea species, thus gathering many new 

 facts for consideration. His observations during the period of the year 

 not covered by the active work of the Commission, have given to this 

 station a very great prominence ; and there are few points, even on the 

 coast of Europe, the natural history of which is now better known. Of 

 over 130 species of fishes which have been obtained by tbe Commission 

 Irom Woods' Holl, a large per cent, have been gathered by Mr. Edwards. 



Government exhibit of Jlsh and jihlieries at Fhiladelphia in 1870. — 

 With the International Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1870, the United 

 States Fish Commission has had a special relation, from the fact that 

 in tbe appropriations for a government disi)lay on that occasion the 

 Commission was especially included, an appropriation being made for 

 the expense of showing everything illustrating the methods and pro- 

 cesses of fish culture and the apparatus and results of the American 

 fisheries. The Commissioner was appointed by the President as one of 

 the board of government officers, to take charge of tbe general display. 



