MILNER REPORT OF THE TRIANA TRIP. 361 



enforcement. How this may be done I will discuss further on. A care- 

 ful consideration of the subject of the Potomac fisheries as we may 

 anticipate it through years to come induces me to recommend that 

 pound-nets be encouraged in preference to all others. There are a few 

 important reasons why, under proper control, they will work more 

 advantageously for the welfare of the fisheries than seines or gill-nets. 



A purpose that must not be lost sight of in the ardor for the con- 

 servation of the stocks of fishes in the waters is the productiveness of 

 the fisheries. They are one of the resources of income in the industries 

 and productions of a State favored with a water area or coast, and should 

 be made to produce to whatever extent they can without endangering 

 future supplies. 



In manufacturing industries and agriculture a great deal of attention 

 is paid to the reduction of cost of production and improvement in ma- 

 chinery, and the same thing should be applied to the fisheries. 



The pound-net, where it has been employed on the lakes in white-fish 

 and lake-herring fisheries ; on the coast in the scup ; blue-fish, sea-bass, 

 squeteague, and tautog fisheries ; on the Atlantic rivers and bays in 

 the salmon and theshad fisheries, more especially of the Connecticut River 

 and Bay, has been found to cost very much less, in its current expenses, 

 than the seine. The items in which it saves expenditure are its great 

 reduction of the labor-force, its saving of the time lost between hauls 

 by the seine, and the great saving of wear and tear that a stationary net 

 has when compared with hauling seines. 



The Stony Point seine investment * would establish at least 30 first- 

 class pound-nets fully equipped for work, and instead of two steam- 

 engines and crew of 75 men, 30 men would be an ample force to 

 attend them and work fewer hours than the seine-crews have to. The 

 twine of these large seines. would not have to be thrown away, but 

 would nearly all come into use in making up the pounds. 



That many pound-nets properly placed and efficiently attended should 

 certainly yield much more than the seine.t 



The pound-net has also the advantage that the fish remain alive until 

 it is desirable to take them out and move them to the market, and come 

 upon the stalls in the freshest, best condition. In either seine or gill-net 

 this is not the case. 



Some advantage might also be claimed that the eggs of a spawning- 

 fish would be preserved, and with the light specific gravity of theshad- 



* I have estimated the investment for the steam-engines, the lines and twine of this 

 seine at $25,000, which is well within the original cost ; estimating a good ordinary 

 pound-net at $800, 30 of them could he erected for this amount. 



t The fishermen of the Potomac at present have but little confidence in the pound-net 

 as a means of capture for the shad. In the bay and lower end of the Connecticut 

 River they are constructed so as to capture shad very successfully ; in fact, quite too 

 much so in the estimation of the people of the upper portion of the river. There is no 

 reason to believe the Potomac shad should differ from the Connecticut ones in the par- 

 ticular of entering a pound-net. 



