CHAPTER XX 



A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 

 GENERAL SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE. 



The principal works that may be regarded as histories 

 of the American fisheries are two reports made at the 

 instance of departmental officers, which embody a history 

 of the fisheries of the United States down to the time of 

 their publication. These works are the "Report on the 

 Principal Fisheries of the American Seas," prepared for 

 the Treasury Department in 1853 by Lorenzo Sabine, and 

 the "Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United 

 States," prepared through the co-operation of the Com- 

 missioner of Fisheries and the Superintendent of the 

 Tenth Census, by George Brown Goode and a staff of as- 

 sociates in 1880. Mention may also be made of a "Re- 

 port on the Cod and Whale Fisheries," by Thomas 

 Jefferson in 1791 ; but this is a summary statement and by 

 no means a history of the fisheries. 



Sabine 's Report on the Principal Fisheries of the Ameri- 

 can Seas is the only attempt thus far made to place the 

 history of our fisheries within the compass of a single 

 volume. It was written at a time when the fisheries were 

 confined principally to the whale, the cod and the mack- 

 erel, and before industries arising from these fisheries had 

 sprung up. Previous to the negotiations that led to the 

 ratification of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, it was highly 

 important that our Government should have data on the 

 condition of our fisheries. The Secretary of the Treasury 

 requested of the Collector of Boston that a report of limited 



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