REPORT OF THE DIVISION OF STATISTICS AND METHODS 



OF THE FISHERIES. 



By C. H. Townsend, Assistant in Charge. 



At the commencement of the present fiscal year, most of the statis- 

 tical field agents of the division were engaged in canvassing the fish- 

 eries of the New England States. Maine was canvassed by Mr. John 

 N. Cobb; New Hampshire by Messrs. W. A. Wilcox and T, M. Cogs- 

 well; Massachusetts by Messrs. Wilcox, Cogswell, and Ansley Hall; 

 Rhode Island by Mr. E. S. King, and New York and Connecticut by 

 Mr. C. H. Stevenson. At the same time Mr. W. A. Roberts was engaged 

 in statistical work in New Jersey, and Mr. John B. Wilson was tem- 

 porarily engaged in canvassing the wholesale fisher}^ trade of Boston. 

 Upon the completion of the work in the fall, all of these persons were 

 employed in the arrangement of the data collected and in other neces- 

 sary office work. 



Mr. C. H. Townsend, assistant in charge, after a brief visit early 

 in July to certain fishery centers of the New England States in com- 

 pany with the statistical agents, returned to the office. In August he 

 was, on account of previous experience in deep-sea investigations, 

 detailed as a member of the scientific staff to assist Prof. Alexander 

 Agassiz on board the steamer Albatross , then starting upon a voyage 

 of deep-sea exploration through the South Pacific Ocean. Mr. Town- 

 send accompanied the expedition as far as the Fiji Islands, from which 

 point he returned to Washington. Arriving there in January, he 

 remained m charge of the office until near the close of the fiscal year. 



In October Mr. Stevenson began work in North Carolina in connec- 

 tion with the steamer Fish Hawk, then engaged in investigations 

 respecting the oyster-grounds of that State, ^is inquiries were in 

 large part prosecuted on shore, and were continued, with some inter- 

 ruptions, until March. 



In December Mr. Cobb commenced a canvass of the fisheries of 

 Lake Erie, the work being completed in February. 



Mr. Wilcox left in May for the Columbia River to commence a can- 

 vass of the fisheries of the Pacific coast. The fisheries of Oregon and 

 Washington were taken up first, in order that the extensive salmon 

 fisheries of the Northwest coast might be studied while the canneries 



were in operation. The work is still in progress. 



163 



