In the summer of 1879 it was the writer's good fortune to be sent as a joint agent of the United States Fish Commission and of the United States Census Bureau, to make a canvass of the fishes and the fisheries of the Pacific Coast. At that time very little was on record in regard to the fish industries of the Coast, and beyond a general knowledge of the methods and results of the salmon fisheries the public could scarcely be said to have any exact information as to the marine industries of California, Washington, and Oregon. Our knowledge of the fishes themselves was at that time extremely defective. A great many species had been described from specimens brought in by different surveying parties, or by the chance interest of travelers. These species had never been compared with one another. Very many of them were merely nominal; that is, founded upon imperfect, defective, or abnormal specimens of the same species, or upon no specimens at all; while on the other hand very many, even of the common and characteristic food fishes, had not yet been known to science.

In this work I was assisted by Dr. Charles H. Gilbert, at that time just entering upon his career as a naturalist. Our instructions were to find out everything that could be found out in regard to the fishes themselves, to send not less than fifty specimens of every obtainable species in alcohol to Washington, and to enter with equal minuteness into the details of the fisheries. We were to give as close attention to those counties in which there were no fisheries at all, but where fisheries were possible, as to those in which the interest was already a large one. The purposes of the investigation were largely historical, as an exact account of the conditions prevailing in the

different towns along the coast would be useful in future time, as a basis of comparison with the results which might then be achieved.

After this year's work in 1880, as the basis of my knowledge of the fisheries of the State, it was with the greatest interest that I took up the recently published review of the fisheries of the Pacific Coast, issued by the Census Bureau as the record for the 11th Census, the Census of 1890. This report, of which I am glad to be able to speak in the highest terms, has been compiled by Capt. J. W. Collins, of the United States Fish Commission, from the reports sent in by Mr. W. A. Wilcox, statistical agent of the Fish Commission, and by his assistant, Mr. A. B. Alexander.

This paper of Wilcox and Collins is not strictly a part of the work of the Census Bureau. The attempts of that Bureau to make a complete record of the fisheries of the country for the year 1890 became a failure, for reasons which I need not discuss here. This is a compilation of the statistics furnished to the Fish Commission chiefly during the year 1888-89 by a member of its bureau of statistics, and this report the Census Bureau has wisely adopted for its own. I wish in this paper to make some comparisons between the conditions of the fisheries along the coast of California in 1880, and the conditions which Mr. Wilcox found nearly ten years later. As the fishes of this coast have remained the same during this period, and will remain the same for many centuries, I will preface this comparison by a short account of the number and distribution of the different species.

The total number of species of fishes known to exist in the waters of Califor

nia is 420. These may be classified as follows, according to their distribution: About 158 species may be referred to the cold water fauna. These are species that live near the shore, and whose proper home is found north of Point Concepcion, or in the cold current which sweeps along our coast, and which renders its waters less warm than in corresponding regions on the Atlantic side. About 117 species belong to the semi-tropical fauna. This occurs to the south of Point Concepcion, and beyond the reach of the cold currents of the north. Of course, these two categories are not sharply divided by Point Concepcion, many of the northern species are found south of this point in deeper water, or among the rocks, some even of the northern species going far down into Mexico. On the other hand, many southern species find their way northward as far as San Francisco. Others of them come northward in the summer, moving southward as winter approaches. Thus many even of properly southern species are found regularly in the Bay of Monterey.

Of the 158 species that belong to the north of Point Concepcion, we have two very distinct categories; the one comprises the Arctic and sub-Arctic fishes, like the halibut, the sturgeon, and the herring, and several varieties of the flounders. With these are a great body of peculiarly Californian types, which are scarcely or not at all represented in other regions, and which evidently had their origin upon our own coast. Among these, and most conspicuous. are the various species of surf fishes, all viviparous, which are commonly and wrongly known as perch. Scarcely less abundant are the various species of rock fishes, red, green, and black in color, which go by the general name of rock cod. The presence of these two types, both viviparous, together with the peculiar Pacific Coast type of salmon, may be held as the most remarkable features of the fish fauna of California.

The species which belong south of Point Concepcion are in most cases closely allied to tropical species, and have evidently had their origin in migrations from the south. These are, as a rule, not distinctly Californian, but belong to types which are widely diffused through the warm waters of the tropics. Their relations are with the West Indian forms, rather than with the other fishes of California.

About one hundred species of deep sea fishes have been obtained by the Albatross in the depths of the ocean off the continental slope of California. These creatures are as a rule very soft in body, almost black in color, and many of them covered with phosphorescent spots, by which they can see their way in the darkness. They live in the open sea, at a depth of two to five miles, and their soft bodies at this depth are rendered firm by the tremendous pressure of the surrounding waters. In their na tive haunts the light and heat of the sun scarcely penetrate; the darkness is almost absolute, and the temperature of the water is at the point of freezing. The creatures living at these great depths are not, generally speaking, descended from the shore species of the same region; they constitute groups by themselves; and forms very similar are found in all parts of the ocean from the poles to the equator.

About thirty-five species inhabit the fresh waters of California. These are about equally divided between the great basin of the Sacramento, and the San Joaquin, and the basin of the Colorado. Beside the species of trout, most of the fresh water fishes come under the head of suckers and chubs.

Of the whole number of fishes found, 133 of the marine species are properly to be called food fishes, occurring more or less frequently in the markets, and being more or less fit for table use. The others, either on account of small size, ill flavor, or tastelessness of flesh, are not

used as food; or else are used only when salted or dried by the Chinese, to whose soups and chowders nothing seems to come amiss. About twenty of the fresh water fishes are also food fishes, but only seven or eight of these have much value as such.

The distribution of fishes, that is, the question of the extent of the area inhabited by any particular kind, depends on a number of different conditions, the most important of these being the temperature of the water. Most fishes are extremely sensitive to any change of heat or cold. Where, as is sometimes the case, the temperature of the water changes abruptly at a given point, the character of the fishes will be found to change equally. A very little cold is often sufficient to benumb and paralyze a fish of the tropics. I have seen in the West Indies, when the water suffers a slight chill which brings it down perhaps to 80 degrees, the cutlass fish, ordinarily very active, lying stupid and inert on the surface of the water. On the other hand, the fishes of cold regions cannot endure any degree of heat to which they are not accustomed; and doubtless the fishes in the depths would be suffocated by the temperature of the surface water, even if their lives were not destroyed by the diminution of pressure.

Another element almost equal in importance is that of depth. The great majority of the marine fishes that we know well, or that we recognize as food fishes, are shore species, inhabiting depths of from one to fifteen fathoms. The great variety of oceanic life is found within this range, through which the light and heat of the sun readily penetrate. As we go lower we find that the shore fauna disappears. The greenish colored shore fishes give place at fifty to one hundred fathoms to other species, the prevailing color of which is red. The green or gray colors match the colors of the sand and kelp; the red ones harmonize with the red sea-mosses

among which the red fishes live. In still greater depths, where light and heat have disappeared, the prevailing hues are violet or black, the color of darkness.

Of less importance, but still a determining quality for very many fishes, is the character of the food to be obtained. Each species thrives best where those creatures on which it naturally feeds are most abundant. The herbivorous fishes live among the tide pools, where they can feed upon the small sea-weeds; the crab-eating fishes live among the rocks, and those which feed upon herrings and silver-sides flourish best in the open sea.

The character of the bottom is also of importance. Most of the flounders, for instance, live on a bottom of sand. The so-called rock-cod abound about sunken rocks and banks; while other species are found only where the bottom is soft and muddy. I received the other day a collection of fishes from the harbor of Swatow, in China. By a simple inspection of these fishes I was enabled to recognize the fact that the harbor of Swatow is not a rock basin, but has a bottom of mud, over which flow the waters of an estuary. The difference between the fishes commonly found at Monterey and at Santa Cruz indicates clearly the difference in the character of the bottom at these two different points on the same bay.

The character of the water is also an element of importance. About the rocks of La Jolla and Santa Catalina the waters are as clear as about a coral reef in the tropics. In these clear waters are found the same types of fishes that would be found about a coral bank. The species are not the same as occur very far to the south; but the general character of the fishes is that of a coral region. On the other hand, in the more or less muddy waters of the Bay of San Francisco, only those species are found to whom the cloudy or muddy condition of the water is not objectionable; and the brilliant coloration of

As regards their preference in the matter of surroundings, the fishes of the Coast may again be divided as follows: Of the pelagic species, about twenty visit the coast of California. These are fishes which swim freely in the open sea, living mostly near the surface, often moving for hundreds of miles, and belonging to no one country more than another. Of species living about the rocks and feeding upon the small animals which abound in the sea weeds there are fifty species, of which thirty belong to the group known as "rock cod," the genus Sebastichthys. All of these are food fishes, though not of the best quality. One feature concerning them which is not generally known is that all of them are viviparous. Their eggs are laid in immense numbers, but they are hatched in the body of the female, so that the young are born at the length of one fourth to one sixth of an inch, and commonly rolled up in a coil, only the closest observers being able to detect that the egg was hatched before being turned loose in the sea.

Of the kelp fishes there are twentyfive species. These are chiefly confined to the beds of kelp which are a special characteristic feature of the California coast, nothing like it existing on the Atlantic. Some of these feed upon sea weeds themselves, more upon the mollusks and crabs which find their home among the marine plants. Like the rock fishes, the kelp fishes are usually taken by the baited hook from the deck of a boat.

145 species frequent in preference the waters with a smooth or sandy bottom; some of these swim near the surface in the open water, often entering the bays in large shoals; others as the flounder, lie on the bottom, and in color are scarcely distinguishable from the sand. There are ten anadromous species, that is, species which ascend the rivers.

spawning in fresh water, but passing the greater part of their lives in the sea. Of the anadromous fishes the most important are the species of salmon; the largest in size are the sturgeons. But beside these large species several little ones, such as the lampreys, have similar habits.

Four species are confined chiefly to the brackish mouths of streams, — a very small proportion, because California has very little of estuary water. Finally, as above stated, about thirty-five species are confined exclusively to the rivers.

The fisheries of the Coast are as yet very little developed. Collins estimates that on the seven thousand miles of coast of California, Oregon, and Washington, the fisheries are about equal to those of the five hundred miles of the coast of New England. The value of the Pacific Coast product was placed at $10,000,000 that of New England at $15,000,000. In the ten years between 1880 and 1890, the number of pounds of fish caught in California has increased from 14,000,000 to 23,000,000. At the same time there has been a considerable falling off in the fishes of Oregon, and a smaller apparent gain in the fisheries of Washington. But this change is probably due to the fact that most of the salmon catch in the Columbia was attributed to Oregon in 1880, and in 1890 distributed between Oregon and Washington.

Comparing in detail our report on the fishes of California with the report of Wilcox and Collins, I find that between 1880 and 1890 the number of fishermen in California had increased from 3094 to 4731, an increase a little less than proportionate to the increase in the number of pounds of fish caught. The average fisherman in 1880 caught 4660 pounds of fish in the year; while the average fisherman in 1890 caught very nearly 5,000 pounds.

A brief comparison of the catch of the