88 
the Gulf States and South Atlantic coast since statistics 
were obtained for 1890, while the statistical enquiries 
covering other sections of the Atlantic coast I believe 
have not been complete so far as including all kinds of 
fish is concerned. The figures presented, however, 
showed an increase in the catch of mullet of 14,512,890 
pounds ; of sea-bass, 5,785,903 pounds, and of squeteague 
or weakfish, 6,876,893 pounds. 
There was shown to have been a decrease in the 
catch of cod of 26, 403,539 pounds. I wish to say 
something about this. I feel that I can speak with 
some authority in regard to the matter, since, in 1879 
and 1880, I was engaged in the statistical canvas of 
the coast fisheries of New England where the cod 
fishery is most extensively carried on, and in more 
recent years, I have had charge of the work of collect- 
-ing and compiling fishery statistics for the government. 
In recent years the market fishery of New England 
has grown enormously, The finest vessels of the fishing 
fleet engage in this industry from Boston, Gloucester, 
Portland and other ports. The fishery is at its height 
in winter anda large portion of the fish taken are 
haddock. At Provincetown, where there used to be a 
large fleet engaged in cod fishing on the Grand Bank 
of Newfoundland, that industry has to a large extent 
been superceded by this market fishery, which has been 
found more, profitable than catching cod on distant 
banks. -Asa result of thischange in fishery, the decline 
in the catch of cod has been more than counterbalanced 
by the increase in the take of haddock and allied 
species, by the market vessels Thus, the combined 
catch of cod, haddock, and other species of the cod 
family is probably greater to-day, or was greater in 1892 
than it was in 1880. 
In this connection, it is pertinent to remark, as bearing 
upon the question of the increase or decrease of sea fish, 
that, twenty-five or thirty years ago, the taking of 
