( 189 ) 



AMERICA, UNITED STATES OF.* 



(See Plan p. 192.) 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



IN 1880, according to the returns of the Census Bureau, the number of persons employed 

 in the fishery industries of the United States was 131,426, of whom 101,684 were fishermen, 

 and the remainder shoresmen. The fishing fleet consisted of 6,605 vessels (with a tonnage 

 of 208,297-82) and 44,804 boats, and the total amount of capital invested was $37,955,349, 

 distributed as follows : vessels, $9,357,282 ; boats, $2,465,393 ; minor apparatus and outfits, 

 $8,145,261; other capital, including shore property, $17,987,413. 



The value of the fisheries of the sea, the great rivers and the great lakes, was placed at 

 $43,046,053, and that of those in minor inland waters, at $1,500,000 in all $44,546,053. 

 These values were estimated upon the basis of the prices of the products received by the 

 producers, and if average wholesale prices had been considered the value would have been 

 much greater. In 1882 the yield of the fisheries was much greater than in 1880, and prices 

 both "at first hand" and at wholesale were higher, so that a fair estimate at wholesale market 

 rates would place their value at the present time rather above than below the sum of 

 $100,000,000. 



Since 1865 the fisheries have increased in extent and value to a degree without parallel in 

 their previous history. Before the war of the rebellion (1861-1865) many of the fisheries 

 which are now most important had no existence, and for four or five decades preceding only 

 the oyster fishery, whale fishery, cod fisheries, mackerel fishery, and shad and alewife fisheries 

 were of any considerable importance. The recent increase is chiefly due (1) to the intro- 

 duction of the improved methods of refrigeration, by means of which sea-fish are distributed 

 widely throughout the interior of the country ; (2) to greatly extended facilities for steam 

 transportation ; (3) to the extended introduction of methods of packing in hermetically-sealed 

 cans, and of more attractive methods of preparing for market the several kinds of dried 

 and smoked fish ; (4) to the introduction of improved vessels and apparatus by means of 

 which the expense of capture has been greatly diminished ; and (5) to the efforts of a con- 

 siderable number of enthusiasts, anglers, statesmen, and philanthropists, who, by the organi- 

 sation of Fishery Societies, State Fish Commissions, and the United States Fish Commission, 

 and by their publications, have awakened public interest, secured extensive appropriations of 

 public money for the propagation and acclimatisation of useful fishes, and have demonstrated 

 the value to the country of many previously neglected fishery resources. 



The fisheries of the New England States are the most important. They engage 37,043 

 men, 2,066 vessels, 14,787 boats, and yield products to the value of $14,270,393. In this 

 district the principal fishing ports in order of importance are : Gloucester, Portland, Boston 

 Province town, and New Bedford, the latter being the centre of the whale fishery. New 

 England was settled in 1620 by colonists, chiefly from the western counties of England, 

 who selected that portion of the coast on account of its peculiar fitness for the prosecution of 

 the fisheries, and by the middle of the seventeenth century there was a considerable fleet of 

 ketches and snows engaged in the cod fishery on the oflf-shore banks, where, especially on the 

 banks of Newfoundland, France, Spain, Portugal, and England, already had a fleet of several 

 hundred large vessels. Just before the war of the revolution New England had 665 vessels 

 and 4,405 men employed in its fisheries. 



Next to New England in importance are the South Atlantic States, employing 52,418 men, 

 3,014 vessels (the majority of which are small, and engaged in the shore and bay fisheries), 

 13,331 boats, and returning products to the value of $9,602,737. 



" A number of special catalogues are being printed to accompany this collection. These may be obtained at 

 the office of the American Commissioner. 



