LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 1, 1884. 
Siz: I have the honor to submit herewith a report on the HistoRY AND METHODS OF THE 
PRINCIPAL FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
This report constitutes Section V of the Special Report on the Food Fishes and Fishery In- 
dustries of the.United States, prepared through the co-operation of the Commission of Fish and 
Fisheries and the Superintendent of the Tenth Census. Section I, the Natural History of Useful 
Aquatic Animals; Section II, Geographical Review of the Fisheries and Fishing Communities; 
Section III, Fishing Grounds; and Section IV, Fishermen, have already been completed. 
This section is intended to be printed in two volumes, with an atlas of two hundred and fifty- 
five plates of illustrations. In the first volume are discussed the fisheries for food-fishes and in 
the second volume the fisheries for marine mammals and reptiles, mollusks and other inverte- 
brates. 
The following-named census agents and assistants of the United States Fish Commission 
have taken part in the preparation of the present section: Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, Mr. James Tem- 
pleman Brown, Mr. A. Howard Clark, Capt. Joseph W. Collins, Mr. R. Edward Earll, Mr. Henry 
W. Elliott, Mr. Charles H. Gilbert, Prof. G. Brown Goode, Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, Prof. David S. 
Jordan, Mr. Ludwig Kumlien, Col. Marshall McDonald, Mr. Newton P. Scudder, Mr. Silas Stearns, 
Mr. James G. Swan, Mr. Frederick W. True, and Mr. W. A. Wilcox. I regret to state that Mr. 
James Templeman Brown died before the completion of his report upon the apparatus and 
methods of the whale fishery; but the manuscript was in such condition that it could be made 
ready for the press by one of my assistants. 
Yours, very respectfully, a 
» BROWN GOODE. 
Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD, 
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, . 
