178 



NATURE 



[Dec. 26, 1889 



tinct from and independent of the others, and its nature 

 and object clearly indicated by a conspicuous label. 



The exhibited specimens should be arranged in upright 

 wall-cases or in table-cases on the floor of the room. For 

 the latter a high slope is preferable, and in all the exhibi- 

 tion space should not extend too high or too low for 

 comfortable inspection. . Between three to six or seven 

 feet from the floor should be the limits for the exhibition 

 of small objects. The three feet nearest the floor may be 

 inclosed with wooden doors forming cupboards or fitted 

 with drawers. Glass in this situation is liable to be 

 broken by the feet or knees. 



The museum should have a permanent curator — a man 

 of general scientific attainments, and who is specially 

 acquainted with, and devoted to, museum work, and who 

 might also be one of the teachers, if too much of his time 

 is not so occupied. But, as he is not likely to have special 

 knowledge of more than one branch of natural history, 

 the teachers of the other branches represented in the 

 museum would probably each give advice and assistance 

 with regard to his own department. It is also probable 

 that some of the boys may be sufficiently interested in the 

 work to render valuable aid in collecting and preparing 

 specimens. 



If ethnographical, archaeological, historical, or art col- 

 lections be also part of the general museum scheme, they 

 should be kept quite distinct from the natural history 

 collections, preferably in another room. 



Above all things, let the following words of Agassiz be 

 remembered : " The value of a museum does not consist 

 so much in the number as in the order and arrangement 

 of the specimens contained in it." 



W. H. Flower. 



THE FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



'T'HE volumes which form the subject of the present 

 -•• article are the continuation of a complete mono- 

 graph of the fisheries and fishing industries of the United 

 States, of which the first and second sections have already 

 been published under the titles of "A Natural History of 

 Useful Aquatic Animals," and "A Geographical Review 

 of the Fisheries of the United States." 



The direction of the immense investigation necessary 

 for the preparation of this work has been in the hands of 

 Mr. G. Brown Goode, who, as early as 1877, had drawn 

 ■up a scheme for an exhaustive exploration of the coast of 

 the United States in connection with the fishing industry. 

 The enterprise was undertaken jointly by the United 

 States Fish Commission and the Census Bureau, and the 

 expenses of investigation, compilation, office and field 

 work, and publication, have been shared by these two 

 departments. 



A work of this magnitude was quite beyond the powers 

 of an individual, and we find accordingly that a number 

 of authors, whose names are given at the back of the 

 title-page, have been associated with Mr. Brown Goode 

 in his undertaking. Among them are many names well 

 known to science from their contributions to the natural 

 history of the United States. Chief among these are 

 Messrs. Marshall MacDonald, J. A. Ryder, and other 

 members of the United States Fish Commission. 



An English reader will invariably use his knowledge of 

 British fisheries as a standard for comparison with those 

 of a foreign country, and, in doing so, will find many 

 difficulties, owing, not only to the difference in the species 

 of fish which are found on the two sides of the Atlantic, 



' "The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States." By 

 George Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, and 

 a staff of Associates. Section III. The Fishing-Grounds of North America, 

 with 49 Charts, edited by Richard Rathbun. Section IV. The Fishermen of 

 the United States, by George Brown Goode and Joseph W. Collins. Sec- 

 tion V. History and Methods of the Fisheries ; in Two Volumes, with an 

 Atlas of 255 Plates. (Washington : Government Printing Office, 1887.) 



but to the fact that many of our common names, such as 

 pollack and hake, are applied to different fish in America, 

 and that the Americans often use an altogether peculiar 

 zoological nomenclature, which may throw even an experi- 

 enced zoologist into confusion. Many American fishes of 

 great commercial importance are unknown in Great Britain, 

 such as the tautog {Tautoga onitis), the squeteague 

 {Cynoscion regale), the blue-fish {Pomatomus sa//a/or), the 

 menhaden {Brevoortia tyrannus), and the shad {Clupea 

 sapidissimd). The most favourite edible crab of North 

 America {Callinectes haslatus), the blue crab, is a per- 

 fectly distinct species from our common Cancer pagurtis, 

 and the American lobster {Homarus americanus) and 

 oyster {Osircea virginica') are different from our own. 

 The European sole is unknown in American waters, as 

 are our turbot and brill ; the halibut, which has only 

 recently become important in British fisheries, is of great 

 importance in America, and their " plaice" {Paralidithys 

 dentatus) differs entirely from the fish known to us by 

 that name. These and many other differences in the 

 species of marketable fish are important, as they serve in 

 part to explain the different methods pursued by American 

 fishermen ; why, for instance, beam-trawling is unknown 

 in their waters. 



Of the third section of the monograph, which forms a 

 halfof the first of the four volumes under consideration, Mr. 

 Brown Goode himself says : — " It is the first report of the 

 kind ever written. It describes the locations, the charac- 

 teristics, and the productiveness of the numerous grounds 

 resorted to by the fishermen of the United States, ex- 

 tending from Greenland to Mexico, from Lower Cali- 

 fornia to Alaska, and including the fishing grounds of the 

 great lakes." For the Atlantic seaboard this work is 

 carried out on a scale of completeness never before 

 attempted. Not only does the text abound with informa- 

 tion relative to the different fishing grounds and banks, 

 their history, productiveness, the character of their 

 bottom, and the weather prevailing there at different 

 seasons, but the whole of this is graphically represented 

 in a series of admirable charts which form in themselves 

 a complete fisherman's guide to the whole coast from 

 Greenland to Mexico. In addition to this, the migrations 

 of different species of fish from locality to locality are 

 alluded to, and the characters of the invertebrate fauna 

 are, in some instances, adduced in explanation of these 

 migrations. It is impossible to criticize this part of the 

 work : to do so one must have a thorough knowledge of 

 all the principal fishing-grounds of America ; but, granted 

 that the information and observations on which the 

 charts and text are founded are correct, the method of 

 displaying this information is unimpeachable. 



Not the least valuable part of Section III. is the 

 appendix containing the temperature observations from 

 1 88 1 to 1885 inclusive. A word as to the manner of 

 making these observations will not be out of place. The 

 Census Bureau was, of course, unable to undertake this 

 kind of work, and the Fish Commissioners, whose 

 steamers were constantly engaged in expeditions to 

 various localities, found that they could not keep a 

 sufficiently continuous record of the temperatures ob- 

 served at different points along the coast. Application 

 was accordingly made to the United States Lighthouse 

 Board and Signal Service, and these departments in- 

 structed their employes to make the required observations 

 as part of their regular duties, and without extra com- 

 pensation. The editor acknowledges the thoroughness 

 with which these men performed the gratuitous services 

 demanded of them, and the result is a large number of 

 charts of temperature curves for each observing station, 

 and charts showing the isothermal lines connecting the 

 stations in different years. 



The Pacific fisheries are dealt with in a much less 

 complete manner, and are referred to as being unde- 

 veloped. The Alaskan fisheries are more fully dealt 



