10 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHKRIES. 



of nature ; tliey are governed by natural laws, that baffle all efforts 

 at investigation. 



Still it is a subject of great interest to the student of nautral his- 

 tory, and to the political economist. 



The fluctuation in their number is phenomneal, often coming 

 in abundance when few are expected, and few when large numbers 

 are looked for, for instance the appearance of scup in our waters in 

 1872. Prof. Baird said in 1877 : " I was quite satisfied in my own 

 mind that unless something of this kind was done, very serious re- 

 sidts would happen. Very much to my disgust I must admit, 

 the next year, even with all the abundance of these engines, the 

 young scup came in quantities so great as to exceed anything the 

 oldest fisherman remembered. Since then scup has been very 

 much more abundant than it was -v^dien I wrote my book and re- 

 port." 



Another instance occurred in the menhaden fishery of 1889 (re- 

 ferred to in our report for that year) few being expected but over- 

 whelming numbers appeared, exceeding that of anything known 

 in former j^ears. So it must ever be until we know more of them. 

 Change is the immutable law of their existence. 



SOME OF THE DESTRUCTIVE AGENCIES THAT ARE ALWAYS AT WORK TO 

 DECIMATE THEIR NUMBERS. 



First of these is the enormous destruction of the spawn by other 

 fish and by storms. 



The terrible havoc mad^ by other fish upon the young, and the 

 merciless destruction that continues through all their fish life, by 

 other fish, birds, and animals, and to this may be added their own 

 cannibal propensity that does not stop to discriminate between 

 their own relatives and others ; and to these causes may be added 

 diseases, heat, or cold, parasites, convulsions of nature, and the 

 numberless vicissitudes of fish life, known or unknown, observed 

 or not observed by investigators. Sometimes whole colonies are 

 destroyed by unknown causes, as was the case with the tile fish 



