XVIII PREFACE. 



packing in hermetically-sealed cans, and of more attractive methods of 

 preparing for market the several kinds of dried and smoked fish ; (4) 

 to the introduction of improved vessels and apparatus by means of 

 which the expense of capture has been greatly diminished ; and (5) to 

 the efforts of a considerable number of enthusiasts, anglers, statesmen, 

 and philanthropists, who, by the organization of fishery societies, State 

 fish commissions, and the United States Fish Commission, and by their 

 publications, have awakened public interest, secured extensive appro- 

 priations of public money for the propagation and acclimatization of 

 useful fishes, and have demonstrated the value to the country of many 

 previously neglected fishery resources. 



The fisheries of the New England States are the most important. 

 They engage 37,043 men, 2,066 vessels, 14,787 boats, and yield products 

 to the value of $14,270,393. In this district the principal fishing ports 

 in order of importance are: Gloucester, Portland, Boston, Province- 

 town, and New Bedford, the latter being the center of the whale fishery. 

 New England was settled in 1620 by colonists, chiefly from the western 

 counties of England, who selected that portion of the coast on account 

 of its peculiar fitness for the prosecution of the fisheries, and by the 

 middle of the seventeenth century there was a considerable fleet of 

 ketches and snows engaged in the cod fishery on the off-shore banks, 

 where, especially on the banks of Newfoundland, France, Spain, Por- 

 tugal, and England already had a fleet of several hundred large ves- 

 sels. Just before the war of the revolution New England had 665 

 vessels and 4,405 men employed in its fisheries. 



Next to New England in importance are the South Atlantic States, 

 employing 52,418 men, 3,014 vessels (the majority of which are small 

 and engaged in the shore and bay fisheries), 13,331 boats, and return- 

 ing products to the value of $9,602,737. 



Next are the Middle States, employing in the coast fisheries 14,981 

 men, 1,210 vessels, 8,293 boats, with products to the amount of $8,676,- 

 579. 



Next are the Pacific States and Territories, with 16,803 men, 56 ves- 

 sels, 5,547 boats, and products to the amount of $7,484,750. The fish- 

 eries of the Great Lakes employ 5,050 men, 62 vessels, and 1,594 boats, 

 with products to the amount of $1,784,050. The Gulf States employ 

 5,131 men, 197 vessels, and 1,252 boats, yielding products to the value 

 of $545,584. 



Forty-three distinct fisheries are recognized by American writers, 

 each being carried on in a special locality, and with methods peculiar 



