A.— INTRODUCTION. 
I. PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE RESPECTING THE FISHING GROUNDS OF THE NORTH 
PACIFIC OCEAN. 
Although it had been known for many years that the Pacific coasts of North 
America were abundantly provided with choice varieties of edible fishes, it was not 
until 1880 that even the economic species inhabiting that region were thoroughly 
studied and classified, and the Alaskan cod determined to be the same as the cod of 
the North Atlantic. The first cod bronght to San Francisco from the North Pacific 
region were taken in 1863 off the island of Saghalien, in the Ochotsk Sea, by a vessel 
which discovered them by accident. Two years later seven vessels were engaged in 
this fishery, and in 1866 they began to fish in the neighborhood of the Shumagin 
Islands, on the Alaskan coast. The largest number of vessels that took part in this 
industry prior to 1880 was twenty-one, in 1870; while the largest catch was made in 
1879 by thirteen vessels. 
The absence of large and convenient markets has hindered the development of the 
ocean fisheries on the Pacific coast, notwithstanding that their practically unlimited 
resources have been widely known and frequently discussed. But with the completion 
of several railroads, affording the means of transporting fresh produce into the interior 
of the country, with the prospect of establishing a large and lucrative trade in salt cod 
and other species with the markets of South America and Asia, and, not least impor- 
tant, with the advent of New England fishermen, a renewed and stronger interest has 
sprung up in relation to these same fisheries, which seems destinea to exert a marked 
influence npon the future welfare of the Pacific States and Territories. 
Until the summer of 1888, however, no systematic investigations had been made 
to determine the extent and character of any of the fishing grounds located in the 
North Pacific Ocean. Prof. George Davidson, in the Alaska Coast Pilot for 1869, 
mentions several shallow off-shore soundings, indicating the existence of banks, on 
some of which he found cod to be abundant. In the report of the United States 
Department of Agricnlture for 1870, Mr. William H. Dali has brought together all of 
the information that was obtainable at that time respecting the fishing grounds and 
food-fishes of Alaska. The same subject was further elaborated and brought down to 
1880 by Dr. T. H. Bean, in two important papers which have been published by the 
U. S. Fish Commission.! The fishing grounds between the Straits of Fuca and Lower 
' Tarletou H. Bean. The Fishery Resources and Fishing Grounds of Alaska. <^The Fisheries and 
Fishery Industries of the United States, hy George Brown Goode and a staft' of associates. Section 
HI, pp. 81-115. Washington, 1887. 
The Cod Fishery of Alaska. <^Idem. Section V, pp. 198-226. Washington, 1887. 
5 
