16 REPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



different parts of the country for the purpose, being partly the result of 

 answers to a series of questions issued in printed circulars prepared for 

 the purpose. 



The reports of the Massachusetts commissioners of inland hsheries 

 have furnished much valuable information, as well as the report of the 

 commissioner of Maine. 



Colonel Lyman, one of the Massachusetts commissioners, has also 

 supplied some manuscript records of the weirs and pounds of Massa- 

 chusetts, which have contributed greatly in making up these statistical 

 tables. Especially important, too, have been communications from 

 Capt. N. E. Atwood, of Provincetown ; Capt. Prince Crowell, of East 

 Dennis ; Vinal N. Edwards, of Wood's Holl ; Mr. Samuel Powel, of 

 Newport, R. I. ; Capt. Benj. Ashby, jr., of Noank, Conn.; Captain 

 Hurlbut, of Gloucester ; Captain Pabson, collector of the port of Glou- 

 cester, aud others hereafter enumerated. 



To Mr. G. Brown Goode, assistant of the U. S. Fish Commission, I 

 am indebted for very important service in collecting information and 

 preparation of statistical tables, nearly all of which have been made up 

 by him for the purpose. The primary divisions into which an article 

 like the present will naturally fall are as follows : 



I. The natural history or biology. — This considers the fishes and cer- 

 tain other marine animals as they occur in nature, and without partic- 

 ular reference to their relations to man, except incidentally, or as 

 they existed in North America before its occupation by the white man. 

 Under this head will be included, first, an account of the individual 

 habits and general history of each species included in my subject, and 

 next a general view of our marine fishes as a whole; e. g., their physi- 

 cal and mutual relationships; their migrations and movements ; their 

 abundance ; their food ; their diseases and fatalities ; and finally, their 

 reproduction and growth. 



II. Methods of capture. — After consideration of the inhabitants of the 

 sea, without any special relation to man, we naturally proceed to the 

 history of the various methods by which they are pursued and captured; 

 this involving the subject of fishing grounds, boats and vessels, men, 

 the apparatus of capture, bait, manner of fishing, packing on shipboard, 

 and disposition of offal. Results of the fisheries and their statistics 

 will naturally fall under this head. 



III. Utilization of the products of the fisheries. — As food, clothing, 

 medicine, fertilizers, industrial applications, etc., or whatever applica- 

 tions are made of the fish after they have been caught. The general 

 statistics of fishery products may come under this head. 



IV. Maintenance and improvement of the fisheries. — This subject nat- 

 urally follows those preceding, and does not usually come up for con- 

 sideration among communities until real or imaginary scarcity or diffi- 

 culties of capture, etc., begin to press upon their members. 



