272 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The statistics presented maybe regarded as covering all commercial fishing, both 
professional and semi-professional, prosecuted in the South Atlantic States. In addi- 
tion to an examination of the general coast fisheries, which were canvassed in their 
entirety, the investigations were usually carried as far up the rivers as commercial 
fisheries existed. In nearly all the important rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean 
fisheries of greater or less extent are prosecuted ; these are naturally most extensive 
in the lower courses of the rivers, but even in the headwaters of some of the longest 
streams, hundreds of miles from their mouths, semi-professional and desultory fishing 
is carried on. The time and force available for the work precluded a complete per- 
sonal canvass of every river basin, but in each case the inquiry was carried to the 
farthest limit that circumstances seemed to require, with the result that the fishing 
in most of the streams was thoroughly covered, while in a few instances in which the 
fishing in the upper courses of the river was too scattered, remote, or unimportant 
to warrant a visit from the agents, careful estimates were obtained. 
Illustrations are given of all the important marine, fresh- water, and anadromous 
food fishes of this region. The number of species figured is eighty- one. There is 
much confusion among fishermen and others regarding the identity and relations of 
many of the fishes as indicated by the common names in use, some of which are 
exceedingly inappropriate and misleading, and it is largely with a view to aid in the 
proper identification of the fi sh that the plates are presented. Under each figure the 
most appropriate common name or names and the scientific name are given, together 
with the local designations in the different States so far as they are known. In cases 
in which a name is assigned to no particular State, it has a more or less general distri- 
bution in the South Atlantic region. It is, of course, probable that many vernacular 
names are not recorded. 
FISHERY RESOURCES OF THE SECTION. 
The South Atlantic States occupy an intermediate position zoologically as well 
as geographically as regards the Middle Atlantic and Gulf States, and in their coastal 
waters and rivers have fish, crustaceans, reptiles, and mollusks that are common to 
one or both of the adjoining regions. The resources of these States are great, but are 
less developed than those of any other section on the Atlantic seaboard. 
There is a large variety and abundance of fishes inhabiting the pelagic, littoral, 
and fluvial waters of this region. Among the marine forms are certain subtropical 
fishes which occur in greater or less numbers, some of which reach the northern 
limit of their normal range or of greatest abundance south of Cape Hatteras ; among 
these are the pompanos, mullets, and the grunts, snappers, and other sparoid fishes. 
Such generally distributed species as the bluefish, Spanish mackerel, menhaden, and 
squeteague are well represented. Some fish that are most plentiful off the New Eng- 
land and Middle Atlantic States are also found as far south as Florida in sufficient 
quantities to be objects of fisheries, such as the northern scup, sea bass, tautog, and 
butter-fish. The fishes that are resident in the brackish and fresh waters of the low- 
lands represent, in many respects, a fauna that is more or less characteristic of such 
regions; the predominance of the sunfishes ( Centrarchidce ) both in species and individ- 
uals; the existence in abundance of such ganoid fishes as the dogfish (Amia) and gar 
pikes (Lepisosteus ) ; and the occurrence in large numbers and varieties of catfishes 
( Siluridce ) and suckers ( Gatostomidce ), are prominent features of the fish life. The 
