PREFATORY NOTE. 



This permission was granted in a joint resolution, worded as follows, which passed tbe Senate 

 July 16, 1882: 



Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the Public Printer be, and 

 is hereby, instructed to print, in quarto form, a report by the U. S. Commissioner of Fish 1 and Fish- 

 eries, upon the food fishes and fisheries of the United States, the engravings to be in relief, and to be 

 contracted for by the Public Printer, under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, and to 

 receive the approval of the Commissioner before being accepted ; the work to be stereotyped, and 

 10,000 extra copies printed, of which 2,500 shall be for the use of the Senate, 5,000 for the use of 

 the House, and 1,500 for the use of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. There shall also be 

 printed 1,000 extra copies for sale by the Public Printer, under such regulations as the Joint 

 Committee on Printing may prescribe, at a price equal to the additional cost of publication and 10 

 per cent, thereon added. 



The manuscript for the entire report is for the most part ready for the printer, and several 

 hundred drawings for the illustrations arc finished. Part I was placed in the hands of the printer 

 in August 1882, and would have been published more than a year ago but for the absence of Mr. 

 Goodo in England. The contents of these reports, it is proposed, shall be approximately as fol- 

 lows, though it is probable that other topics may be added to the discussion before the work is 

 completed : 

 THE FOOD FISHES AND FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



PART I. The Natural History of Useful Aquatic Animals. 



PART II. The Fishing-Grounds. 



PART III. The Fishing-Towns, containing a geographical review of the Coast, River, and Lake Fisheries. 



PART IV. The Fishermen. 



PART V. The Apparatus of the Fisheries and the Fishing-Vessels aud Boats. 



PART VI. The Fishery Industries, a discussion of methods aud history. 



PART VII. The Preparation of Fishery Products. 



PART VIII. Fish Culture and Fishery Legislation. 



PART IX. Statistics of Production, Exportation, and Importation. Summary Tables. 



PART X. The Whale Fishery ; a special monograph. 



PART XI. A Catalogue of the Useful and Injurious Aquatic Animals and Plants of North America. 



PART XII. A list of Books and Papers relating to the Fisheries of the United States. 



PART XIII. A general Review of the Fisheries with a statistical summary. 



The report prepared for the Superintendent of the Census, the manuscript of which is now 

 for the most part in his possession, is divided into the following sections: 



A. liKPOKT UPON TIIK STATISTICS OK TIM: FlsIIKIHKS AND FlSH TRADE OK THE UNITED STATES. 



INTRODUCTION (giving a comprehensive abstract of the matter contained in the quarto report referred to above). 

 PART I. A Review of the Fisheries of the Atlantic Seaboard, with statistics of production and maimi'm-line. 

 PART II. A Review of the Fisheries of the Pacific Coast, with statistics of production and manufactures. 

 PART III. A Review of the Fisheries of the Great Lakes, with stat.stic's of production and manufactures. 

 PART IV. A Review of the River Fisheries of the United States. (Prepared by C. W. Smiley.) 

 PART V. A Review of the Consumption of Fish by Counties, with an estimate of the extent and value of 



the inland fisheries. (Prepared l>y C. W. Smiley.) 

 PAKT VI. A Review of the Fish Trade of cities of the United States having a population of more than ln,(MXi 



in 1880. (Prepared by C. W. Smiley.) 



PART VII. Statistics of Importation and Exportation of Fishery Products from 1730 to 1880. 

 PART VIII. List of the Fishing- Vessels of the United States iu 1880, giving tonnage, value, number of crew, 



name of owner, branches of fisheries engaged in, together with other important details. 



PART IX. Monograph of the Seal Islands ot Alaska. Hy Henry \V. Elliott. (Already in type; 171 pages. 4to.) 

 PAIIT X. Monograph of the Oyster Fisheries, lly Ernest Ingersidl. (Already in type : -Til pages.) 



The Census volume thus is arranged to include all compilations from circulars, and the results 

 of the work performed by clerks detailed from the Census Office, together with much derived from 



