74 
BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
5. An exhibit of the fisheries by fishing- grounds : These apply more particularly 
to the food-fish fisheries. The value to the New England fishermen of all the leading 
fishing-grounds is thoroughly demonstrated by showing the amount of products 
landed. No feature of this report is of greater importance than that embraced under 
this heading, since its consideration will show graphically and at a glance the rela- 
tive importance of these fishing-grounds and will serve as a basis for the considera- 
tion of international questions bearing upon the fisheries. It will be seen that the 
fishing-grounds which are of greatest consequence to our fishermen are those in the 
open ocean or near our own coast. The grounds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence or in 
other waters immediately adjacent to Canadian territory are of comparatively minor 
importance. 
6. Special phases of the fisheries, such as the average earnings per ton, per fish- 
erman, per hundred dollars invested capital, etc. : This feature, inasmuch as it exhibits 
at a glance many of the salient points connected with the fisheries and furnishes a 
basis for comparing the importance of the various branches of the industry in each 
county, will doubtless prove of interest. 
7. The importance of the bait fishery and the relative effectiveness of certain 
forms of apparatus in procuring bait. 
8. The extent of the important shore industries : These include the branches de- 
pendent on the fisheries proper, as sardine and lobster canning, herring smoking, etc. 
A brief explanation of certain features of the tables will contribute to a clearer 
conception of their scope. In the first place, in order to show clearly in one total 
the yield of different branches of the fisheries, it has been found necessary to reduce 
to the common unit of a pound certain products that are not usually handled on such 
a basis in the trade. In reading the tables, therefore, the following key, which covers 
all cases, should be borne in mind : 
Oysters : The weight given is for the edible part (meats and liquor) ; 7 pounds to 
a bushel. 
Round clams or quahogs (Venus mercenaria ): Same as oysters; 8 pounds to a 
bushel. 
Long clams or soft clams (My a arenaria) : Same as oysters ; 10 pounds to a bushel. 
Scallops (Pecten irradians and P. magellanicus) : Weight of u eye” or muscle (the 
edible portion) is given ; 31 pounds to a bushel. 
Oil (whale, seal, and fish) : 71 pounds to a gallon. 
Idle vessels, boats, apparatus, and shore property are omitted from the statistics. 
The boats carried on vessels are not shown separately; their value is included 
with the outfit of the vessels. 
The classification of the fish is into fresh, salted, and smoked. Fish specified as 
salted are those which leave the vessels or the hands of the fishermen in the various 
states of preservation by means of salt. The smoked fish shown in the regular tables 
are only those which are so prepared by the fishermen ; the smoking done at canneries 
and in smokehouses not used by fishermen has been considered to be a manufacturing- 
enterprise and has been included under the head of shore industries. Canned fish 
are shown only as the products of manufacture and not of fishery. The quantities 
represent in all cases the weights as sold by the fishermen and, consequently, are 
considerably less than the weights which the products have when taken from the water. 
Thus, the fish classified in the tables as salted would, when round, weigh approxi- 
