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REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 181 
ington. He was assisted by Mr. Charles E. Ingersoll, of this division. 
The fishermen of the river evinced a deep interest in the work, and 
extended to the agents all possible assistance. The investigation was 
also further facilitated by Mr. 8. G. Worth, in charge of the shad- 
hatching station of the Commission at Fort Washington, Md., who 
greatly aided Mr. Wilcox in that part of the river. 
The Potomac is one of the most important rivers of the country 
viewed from the standpoint of the commercial fisheries, aud in the 
extent and value of its shad fisheries it is surpassed only by the St. 
Johns, Hudson, and Delaware rivers. The shad fisheries of the river 
have a special interest to this office because of their early importance, 
their serious decline and threatened extermination in recent years, 
and their restoration as a result of the artificial propagation carried 
on by the U.S. Fish Commission. Through the courtesy of the health 
department of the District of Columbia, this Commission has, for many 
years, obtained a statement of the number of shad landed at Washine- 
ton andother places from the Potomae fisheries, which, with other infor- 
mation on the subject received from the same and other sources, has 
furnished from year to year a fairly satisfactory knowledge of the abun- 
dance of shad; but no systematic canvass of the fisheries had been 
made since 1880 and there was but little authentic information available 
regarding the lower course of theriver. The actual extent of the other 
fisheries was unknown for a later year than 1880. 
The canvass showed that in 1890 3,576 persons were directly engaged 
in the fisheries of this region, of whom 295 were employed in the vessel 
fisheries and 3,281 in the shore and boat fisheries. 
Thirty-two vessels engaged in dredging oysters during the season of 
1889-90, and 33 other vessels found employment in running to mar- 
Ket the oysters and fish caught in the shore fisheries; the aggregate 
tonnage of the vessels was 1,118.78, and the value of these and their 
outfit was $58,652. Besides those carried by the vessels, 1,472 boats 
were used in the river, having a value of $75,526. The apparatus of 
capture consisted of 261 gill nets, 376 pound nets, 32 seines, 903 fyke 
and other minor nets, 122 dredges, 1,289 tongs and rakes, the whole 
having a value of $112,053. The total investment in the fisheries of 
the river, including shore property worth $48,560, was $294,091. 
The most important single product of the fisheries of this river is 
the oyster, which represents about half the proceeds from the fisheries. 
During the season terminating in the spring of 1890, 594,629 bushels 
of oysters were taken by fishermen living on the river, and large 
additional quantities of which no separate record could be obtained 
were secured by vessels belonging in various ports on Chesapeake Bay. 
In the following season 498,641 bushels were marketed. The value of 
the oyster yield was $256,782 the first season and $273,039 the next. 
Notwithstanding the diminished output in the latter year, amounting 
to 95,988 bushels, the market value of the catch was $16,257 more, 
