Dec. 26, 1889] 



NATURE 



T70 



with, and have a special interest as forming' the chief, if 

 not the only means of subsistence of the native popula- 

 tion. The methods of fishing adopted there are of the 

 most primitive character, and very few civilized fisher- 

 men are employed in the industry. Fish, however, is 

 exceedingly abundant, and its value is shown by the price 

 oi %^YCvon\Onchorhynchus) in the Yukon River. Dried 

 salmon is called tikali, and the best quality chowichee 

 tikali. One chowichee ukali is accounted a sufficient 

 day's food for six men or dogs, and can be purchased for 

 one leaf of tobacco, or five to eight musket-balls. 



The fourth section of the monograph relates to the 

 United States fishermen themselves. In 1880 there were 

 101,684 bo7id fide professional fishermen in the United 

 States, those men only being reckoned as fishermen who 

 make more than half their income by fishing. At the 

 same time there were in Great Britain and Ireland 

 between 90,000 and 100,000 fishermen who would come 

 under this definition. It appears that whalers and 

 sealers are reckoned among the American fishermen, 

 and as they are certainly not reckoned in the English 

 computation, the number of men engaged in fishing, pro- 

 perly so called, would be about equal in the two countries. 

 Of the United States fishermen, the majority, including 

 the negroes of the Southern States, and the Alaskans, are 

 native-born American citzens, while from 10 to 12 per 

 cent, are foreigners. The majority of the latter are 

 natives of British provinces ; the remainder are made 

 up of Portuguese from the Azores, Scandinavians, Irish, 

 and Englishmen, Italians, Indians, and, on the Pacific 

 coast, Chinese. The chapters devoted to the fishermen 

 of the different States are very interesting. The descrip- 

 tion of the Maine fishermen might be taken from any 

 English fishing port. They are hardy, self-reliant, and 

 honest, but are ill educated, inveterate grumblers, and 

 entirely in the hands of the middleman. They will work 

 hard when fishing, but are reluctant to undertake any 

 other work, even for good pay. They marry early, and 

 have large families, whilst their profits are low, the 

 average annual return to each fisherman being $175 

 (about ^^36). 



Oyster-dredging seems to have a peculiarly demoraliz- 

 ing effect in the United States, the white oystermen of 

 Maryland being reckoned as the lowest of their class. 

 The New England fishermen are the best educated, the 

 most enterprising, and the most successful in the United 

 States. Unlike the majority of European fishermen, 

 they do not form a class apart, and have no peculiar 

 traits or characteristics marking them off from their fel- 

 low-countrymen. They are good men of business, and 

 many of them have left the fishing trade altogether, and 

 been highly successful in other branches of business. 

 Their fishing-craft, nearly all schooner-rigged, are the 

 finest and largest in the world, and their life on board 

 is far more civilized and comfortable than anything met 

 with in Europe. Their earnings are far higher than 

 those of the Maine fishermen. A Gloucester man will 

 commonly make $1000 (more than ^200) in a year, whilst 

 skippers who are partly owners have on rare occasions 

 made as much as $10,000 to $15,000 in a single year 

 (from ;^2ooo to ^3000). Men living under such con- 

 ditions are naturally of a high standard of intelligence, 

 and the U.S. Fish Commission have profited largely from 

 the co-operation of the New England fishermen. They 

 have from the first recognized the value of a scientific 

 inquiry in fishing matters ; have in many instances de- 

 voted themselves heartily to assisting the labours of the 

 Commissioners ; have kept regular records of their 

 journeys, including observations on tides, temperatures, 

 weather, and sea-bottoms ; have collected the fauna of 

 the different fishing-grounds, and otherwise have been 

 instrumental in helping scientific observation. They 

 have one and all been ready to profit by the information 

 gained by the Commission, and have readily tried and 



adopted novel methods of fishing, such as gill-nets for 

 cod-fishery, and purse-seines for catching mackerel. 



It is obvious, from a perusal of this volume, that the 

 American fishermen are far more careful of their fish 

 than Englishmen ; they do not thump them down on the 

 deck and stamp about on them, as is too commonly done 

 on a British smack ; they carefully clean them on board, 

 and store them in proper receptacles, and, where fish is 

 cured, it is commonly done on board when the fish is 

 perfectly fresh. The reputation of the Gloucester, Mass., 

 fishermen is curiously illustrated by a petition sent to the 

 Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland this year. It was reported 

 that several American schooners were coming to fish for 

 mackerel off the coast of Ireland, and the fishermen, 

 who do not fear the competition of English and French 

 boats, were in great alarm lest the Americans with their 

 purse-seines and large boats should utterly sweep the 

 seas of fish. 



Section IV. closes with a description of the dangers to 

 which American fishermen are exposed, and an account 

 of the management of fishing-craft. The whole is most 

 interesting reading. 



Section V. comprises two thick volumes of text and one 

 of plates. The subjects it deals with range from whale- 

 fishing to sponge-gathering, from baiting hooks to pre- 

 paring sardines. Each branch of the fishing industry is 

 minutely described in the text ; the history of the fishery 

 is given ; old and new methods are compared ; the boats, 

 crews, fishing-gear, methods of packing and curing on 

 board are carefully explained, and the descriptions are 

 supplemented by a profuse number of illustrations. 



It will be unnecessary to follow the various branches 

 of fishing in detail, but a few remarks on special forms 

 of fishing will be of interest. As has been said above, 

 the Americans have no beam-trawl fishery : the flat-fish 

 which are so highly prized in Europe are either absent 

 from the American shores, or are held in low estimation, 

 and we find no special mention of flat-fish fisheries in 

 this section, with the exception of the extensive fishery 

 for halibut. There appears to be a prejudice against 

 flat-fish in many parts of America, and there is certainly 

 a prejudice against the use of the beam-trawl. If the 

 latter were introduced, and the several flat-fishes which are 

 abundant in some parts of the United States waters were 

 thrown freely into the market, an important branch of 

 fishery would no doubt be established. Halibut are 

 caught in deep water by means of long lines, known in 

 America as " trawls,'" just as they are by the Grimsby 

 boats working in the neighbourhood of the Faroe Islands. 

 The method of setting several long lines round the 

 schooner by means of smaller boats called " doiies," is 

 well worth noticing, but the great risk to life entailed by 

 the use of the " dories " is an objection to introducing 

 this mode of fishing into British waters. 



The cod-fishery of the United States is very large, and 

 is carried on to a large extent on the Great Bank of 

 Newfoundland, as well as on the Labrador and St. Law- 

 rence coasts. There appears to be a fine cod-fishery 

 off Alaska, but it has only been partially worked by a 

 small fleet hailing from San Francisco. The cod-fishery 

 was formerly, and still is to a large extent, carried on by 

 hand lines and long lines, or "trawls," but in 1880 the 

 U.S. Fish Commission succeeded in introducing gill-nets, 

 long since used by the Norwegians, among the fishermen 

 of Gloucester. The obvious advantages of the cod gill- 

 nets are that they save the fishermen the trouble and 

 expense of obtaining bait, which is often as difficult to 

 procure as it is in England, and thus increase their profit ; 

 they are easily set and worked, they catch more than the 

 long lines working on the same ground, and as the size 

 of the mesh is adapted only for cod of a certain size, the 

 small fish or " trash " pass through and escape. This is 

 a good example of the practical usefulness of the U.S. 

 Fish Commission. 



