cxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



were occupied, some of them getting two full cargoes. The 

 largest catch of any vessel, it is believed, was about 42,000; 

 these having been taken in the course of a few weeks, and, 

 from the skins and the oil, yielding an immense profit. 



The rapid decrease of lobsters on the coast of the United 

 States, and the extent of the interest connected with canninsf 

 them as an article of food, has induced a special effort to 

 bring back the sujiply. The amount of this interest may be 

 appreciated when we are told that during 1873 more than 

 twenty thousand tons of canned lobsters were brought into 

 the United States, or shipped elsewhere, from the shores of 

 'New Brunswick and Nova Scotia alone. An ordinance has 

 been issued by the Canadian authorities prohibiting, under 

 severe penalties, the capture of any lobsters weighing less than 

 a pound and a half; and Massachusetts will probably en- 

 act a law prescribing a limit of size namely, a minimum of 

 eleven inches in length. In Maine, the legislation anticipated 

 is that of a close time of two or three months in the summer, 

 when none shall be taken, but imposing no restriction at 

 other seasons as to size or weight. 



The oyster fisheries, as far as the canning interest is con- 

 cerned, suffered a severe shock during the financial i^anic, 

 from which it has not yet recovered, although the consump- 

 tion of the oyster while fresh is perhaps as great as usual. 

 Vessels now carry entire cargoes from Maryland and Virginia 

 to England, where they are becoming an established article 

 of trade. 



It will be of interest to announce that the United States 

 Fish Commission is experimenting on a method of effectually 

 freeing beds of planted oysters from the ravages of the star- 

 fish, so destructive to them. 



Much valuable information has been obtained in reference 

 to the fishery statistics, and the conditions affecting the fish- 

 eries generally, by the labors of the United States Fish 

 Commission, which continued its investigations under the di- 

 rection of the Commissioner, Professor S. F. Baird, assisted 

 by Professor Verrill, on the coast of Maine during the sum- 

 mer of 1873. Detailed information Avas obtained in refer- 

 ence to the habits of the herring, cod, and other useful food 

 fishes, which will have an important bearing on these inter- 

 ests. Numerous questions in reference to the preservation 



