64 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



communities of foreigners. Most numerous of these are the natives 

 of the British provinces, of whom there are at least 4,000 employed 

 in the fisheries of New England. There are, probably, not less 

 than 2,000 Portuguese, chiefly the natives of the Azores and of the 

 Cape Verd Islands. Very many of the Portuguese have brought 

 their families with them, and have built up extensive communities 

 in the towns whence they sail upon their fishing voyages. There 

 are also about 1,000 Scandinavians, 1,000 or more of Irish and 

 English birth, a considerable number of French, Italians, Austrians, 

 Minorcans, Slavs, Greeks, Spaniards, and Germans. In the whaling 

 fleet may be found Lascars, Malays, and a larger number of Kana- 

 kas, or natives of the various South Sea Islands. In the whale 

 fishery of Southern New England, a considerable number of men 

 of partial Indian descent may be found, and in the fisheries of the 

 Great Lakes — especially those of Lake Superior and the vicinity of 

 Mackinaw — Indians and Indian half-breeds are employed. 



The salmon and other fisheries of Puget Sound are prosecuted 

 chiefly by the aid of Indian fishermen. In Alaska, where the 

 population depends almost entirely upon the fisheries for support, 

 the head of every family is a professional fisherman, and, upon a 

 very low estimate, one-fourth of the inhabitants of Alaska should 

 be considered as fishermen. Few of them catch fish for the use of 

 others than their own immediate dependents. Only one Chinaman 

 has, as yet, enrolled himself among the fishermen of the Atlantic 

 coast, but in California and Oregon there are about 4,000 of these 

 men, all of whom, excepting about 300, are employed as factory 

 hands in the salmon canneries of the Sacramento and Columbia 

 basins. The 300 who have the right to be classed among the 

 actual fishermen, live for the most part in California, and the 

 product of their industry is, to a very great extent, exported to 

 China ; although they supply the local demands of their country- 

 men resident on the Pacific coast. 



The negro element in the fishing population is somewhat exten- 

 sive. We have no means of ascertaining how many of this race 



