172 BULLETIN 01 THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



warded to Gloucester, to be smoked, as an experiment. Although th© 

 samples were caught during spawning time, and the fish in poor condi- 

 tion, they proved an excellent smoked fish, being tested by many ex- 

 perts, who pronounced them equal, and by some to be superior, to 

 smoked halibut or salmon. As these fish are said to be very abundant, 

 a new and valuable addition of food-fish may arise from the experiment 

 in smoked kingfish. 



The prospect continues favorable for a large catch of all kinds of fish 

 during the season, as indicated in the report for April. The following 

 extract from the Boston Globe of June 2 touches on the abundance of 

 fish throughout the United States: 



" Plenty of fish. — The efforts of the Fish Commissioners are at last 

 begiuuiug to bear fruit, and Professor Baird and his associates are to 

 be congratulated on their success, which has been attended with many 

 difficulties and much unfavorable criticism during the ten or dozen 

 years of untiring labor. Ten years ago salmon were not at all numerous 

 in our Eastern rivers, and shad were so scarce that the man who found 

 twenty of them iu'a single weir during the season was considered for- 

 tunate. In the early part of the last decade shad were almost unknown 

 in the markets. Old fishermen who used to 'drift' for them nights 

 shook their heads gravely as they told of the boatloads they had caught, 

 and said our fishes were all leaving, never to come back. 



"All this time the Fish Commissioners were at work. They went 

 around 'to the weirs, buying the live fish from the owners, and took 

 them to the breeding establishments, where the eggs were hatched and 

 the young were cared for. After a few years of this work the business 

 was enlarged and eggs and young fish were 'planted' in the head- 

 watersof streams that had none. A few more years passed and the young 

 fish, now grown to maturity, returned to their birthplaces to deposit 

 their eggs, and found good fishways where there had been impassable 

 dams. Laws were passed and enforced that protected the infant enter- 

 prise, and the finny tribes came by millions, filling the streams and 

 ponds and adding wealth to the nation. 



"This year shad are so abundant and cheap as to be almost a drug in 

 the market, and many a poor family has partaken of that grand old 

 luxury, ' baked shad,' that never tasted it before. With salmon the 

 success has not been so marked, but enough has been accomplished to 

 promise success in the near future, and the gentlemen do not relax in 

 their labors. In addition to these, mauy ponds, public and private, 

 have been stocked with black bass and German carp, both of which are 

 thriving gloriously. If the work continues ten j*ears longer, there will 

 be more edible fish in the inland waters of the United States than in 

 any other country on earth. 



"This means cheap and wholesome food for the people. It also means 

 lots and lots of healthful sport with the rod and reel, just such as we 

 all like, during the warm mouths that are coming."' 



