lviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



so that they were sold as low as one dollar per hogshead at 

 the weirs. A new trade that in frozen herring in Passa- 

 maquoddy Bay, and in the vicinity of Eastport, was prose- 

 cuted during the winter with much vigor, fish to the value 

 of over $100,000 being taken and marketed. These fish are 

 taken in winter in gill-nets, and soon become frozen by ex- 

 posure to the air, and are carried in that condition to the 

 principal ports to the westward and sold as fresh fish. 



The Menhaden fishery continued to produce abundantly, 

 millions having been captured, and converted into oil and 

 guano. 



The Cod fisheries, both on the Atlantic and Pacific, have 

 been productive, and have given occupation to a large num- 

 ber of persons. 



The Salmon fisheries of Maine, the only state on our At- 

 lantic coast where they are caught in abundance, were quite 

 satisfactory during the past season, and it is hoped that the 

 measures now being taken for the increase of the supply will 

 soon result in a great addition to the number. The fisheries 

 of the Columbia River and on the Sacramento have also been 

 prosecuted with diligence, and immense numbers have been 

 preserved for domestic use and for exportation. 



The Shad fisheries were less productive than usual in most 

 of the states. In those only where artificial means of increas- 

 ing the young had been taken were they captured in abun- 

 dance. Their numbers were so great in Connecticut River, 

 where this work has been carried on most vigorously, as to 

 render the fish a drug in the market, ready sale not being 

 found at eight or ten dollars per hundred. 



The Hair-seal fisher ies on the coast of Newfoundland were 

 quite profitable, and those of the Fur-seals on the islands 

 of St. Paul, St. George, and Alaska were fully up to the limit 

 of the capture allowed by law. Owing to the judicious 

 measures adopted by the "United States government, second- 

 ed by the Alaska Commercial Company, who have leased the 

 islands from the United States, these animals are increasing 

 so rapidly that it is probable that an extension of the limit 

 of capture and destruction will have to be made to keep 

 them within reasonable bounds. 



The Whale fishery in America continued to decrease, as it 

 has done for many years past, the number of vessels employ- 



