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REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 65 
hereby authorized to make such trips as may be necessary in connection with this 
detail, but will at the same time maintain a close supervision over the office of your 
division, returning to Washington from time to time, as occasion may require. 
Pursuant to these instructions, on June 1 the writer accompanied 
Mr. Rathbun to New York, where Dr. William Wakeham, the Canadian 
commissioner, and Mr. R. N. Venning, his assistant, were met. The 
party then proceeded to Boston, Woods Hole, Provincetown, North 
Truro, Wellfleet, and Gloucester, interviewing the fishermen and anak- 
ing observations on the fisheries, especially the mackerel fishery. On 
June 23 the writer returned to Washington and remained there until 
the close of the fiscal year. 
Reference is elsewhere made to the inquiries of the field force of this 
division addressed to some of the subjects covered by the investiga- 
tions of the International Fisheries Commission. 
REPORTS ON THE FISHERIES. 
During the year the reports on the statistics and methods of the 
fisheries issued by this Commission and emanating from this division 
covered three coast sections having important fishery interests. One of 
the Great Lakes, whose fisheries had recently received much attention, 
was made the subject of a special paper, and a report dealing chiefly 
with ichthyological matters, but containing many references to the 
commercial fisheries of an important region in one of the South Atlantic 
States, was presented. Following are the full titles of the papers and 
brief synopses of their contents: 
Report on the Fisheries of the New England States. (Bulletin, 1890.) 
This is one of a series of papers emanating from this division, largely 
statistical in their nature, in which the commercial fisheries of the 
different seographical divisions of the coast and lake States are consid- 
ered. The paper is based entirely on original field work of the division 
alluded to ina previous report. In the scope and detail of the statistical 
matter this article is more comprehensive than any paper hitherto issued 
on the fisheries of the region. 
This opportunity will be improved to call attention to an error of 
some importance which appears in the printed report, but which was 
discovered too late to secure its correction. In the tables for Massa- 
chusetts the following figures are given for the number of fishermen 
of different nationalities on the fishing vessels of the State: United 
States, 7,911; British Provinces, 1,157; other countries, 1,692; total, 
10,760. In Essex County, which includes the important city of Glou- 
cester, the vessel fishermen shown in the tables number 5,729, of whom 
5,133 are given as citizens of the United States, 298 of the British 
Provinces, and 298 of other countries. Through a clerical error a 
relatively small number of foreign fishermen was thus accredited to 
Hssex County, the correct figures for which were 3,679 Americans, 
1,368 British Provincials, and 682 other foreigners. The amended figures 
F. R. 93 
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