24 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP PISH AND FISHERIES. 



I.— NATURAL HISTORY. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS IN REGARD TO THE SPECIES OP POOD- 

 PISHES OF THE EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES AND OF THE 

 DOMINION OF CANADA. 



The peculiar difficulties of investigatiug the natural history and gen- 

 eral character of the inhabitants of the sea, excepting so far as they can 

 be observed in aquaria, have tended very greatly to prevent the acquisi- 

 tion of satisfactory information in relation to their habits and charac- 

 teristics ; and it is therefore not surprising that our knowledge of this 

 portion of the animal kingdom is far inferior to that of species belong- 

 ing to the land. This proposition applies almost equally to the fish of 

 all countries, there being very few species, .even on the coast of Europe, 

 the biology of which has been worked out in a satisfactory manner. Of 

 a few species we know more than we do of others, especially of the sal- 

 mon, several kinds of herring, and the cod. All these, as constituting 

 an important source of wealth, have been investigated by scientific 

 commissions, organized by Governments, and embracing men trained to 

 research, and competent to do the work assigned them. 



With an enlightened appreciation of the importance of this subject, the 

 Norwegian Government has, for a number of years, employed some of 

 its best naturalists, such as Professor Sars, Prof. A. Bceck, Mr. Robert 

 Collett, and others, in these inquiries, providing them with all the neces- 

 sary facilities. The inherent difficulties in the way will be readily appre- 

 ciated, in view of the fact that even under such circumstances the inves- 

 tigators have not succeeded as yet in entirely working out the problems 

 submitted to them for solution, but year by year further discoveries 

 have been made, the sum of which constitutes the most if not the only 

 reliable data at the service of inquirers elsewhere. 



In view of these considerations, therefore, I trust that I shall be ex- 

 cused, if the accounts I give of the present state of our well-established 

 knowledge of the habits and distribution of the American sea fish be 

 more or less meager, especially as the limitation of the present report 

 will forbid going into very minute detail. By distributing questions, 

 as is now being done to a considerable extent, to the most intelligent 

 observers throughout the country, and submitting particular questions 

 and inquiries, and then by collating the results, it is hoped that a large 

 body of facts will shortly be available. 



The fishes of any region may be considered either in a purely zoolog- 

 ical point of view, or as they would be treated in a natural history mon- 

 ograph, or in their relations to particular industries or to some special 

 relation they may have to the land or water. For the purposes I have 

 in view the subject of the biology or natural history of our fishes may be 

 treated under the following heads : 



A. A systematic list of the species embraced in the subject, includ- 

 ing also the fishes and marine invertebrates serving as food and bait. 



