[li] F1SIIEKIES OF THE UKITED STATES. 11G5 



the Chief Signal-Officer of the Army at light-houses, light-ships, life- 

 saving and signal stations, carefully chosen, along the whole coast. A 

 number of fishing schooners and steamers have kept similar records. 

 One practical result of the study of these observations has been the dem- 

 onstration of the cause of the failure of the menhaden fisheries on the 

 coast of Maine in 1879 ; a failure on account of which nearly 2,000 per- 

 sons were thrown out of employment. 



U A most remarkable series of contributions have been received from 

 the fishermen of Gape Ann. When the Fish Commission had its head- 

 quarters at Gloucester, in 1878, a general interest in the zoological work 

 sprang up among the crews of the fishing vessels, and since that time 

 they have been vying with each other in efforts to find new animals. 

 Their activity has been stimulated by the publication of lists of their 

 donations in the local papers; and the number of separate lots of speci- 

 mens received to the present time exceeds eight hundred. Many of 

 these lots are large, consisting of collecting- tanks full of alcoholic 

 specimens. At least thirty tishing- vessels were carrying collecting- 

 tanks on every trip, until it became necessary to recall them because no 

 more specimens were required, and many of the fishermen, with char- 

 acteristic superstition, had the idea that it insured good luck to have a 

 tank on board, and would not go to sea without one. The number of 

 specimens acquired in this manner is at least fifty or sixty thousand, 

 most of them belonging to species otherwise unattainable. Each halibut 

 vessel sets once or twice daily, lines from 10 to 14 miles in length, with 

 hooks upon them 15 feet apart, in water 1,200 to 1 ,800 feet in depth, and 

 the quantity of living forms brought up in this manner* and which had 

 never hitherto been saved, is very astonishing. Over thirty species of 

 iishes have thus been added to the fauna of North America, and Profes- 

 sor Verrill informs me that the number of new and extra limitai forms 

 thus placed upon the list of invertebrates cannot be less thau fifty. 



"The investigation of the statistics and history of the fisheries has 

 perhaps assumed greater proportions than was at first contemplated. 

 One of the immediate causes of the establishment of the Commission 

 was the dissension between the line and net fishermen of Southern New 

 England with reference to laws for the protection of the deteriorating 

 fisheries of that region. The first work of Professor Baird as Commis- 

 sioner was to investigate the causes of this deterioration. 



" Each year increasing attention has been paid to this subject. The 

 Commissioner has never advised any legislation on the part of the Gen- 

 eral Government, each State Government having control over the fish- 

 eries in its own waters. 



" The statutes of the various States contain numerous laws for the 

 protection of fish and fishermen generally worse than useless, though 

 there are many definitions of close time which appear to be beneficial. 



