158 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



And again: "It is notorious tbaL the supply both of food and bait 

 fishes has become alarmingly scarce along the United States coast. At 

 Gloucester alone some thirty vessels are engaged during about six 

 months in each year catching menhaden for bait. They sell about 

 $100,000 worth annually, and, by catching them immoderately in nets 

 and wears for supplying bait and to furnish the oil mills, they are 

 rapidly exterminating them. The Massachusetts Fishery Commis- 

 sioners, in their report for 1872, state that 'it takes many hands working 

 in many wa5-s to catch bait enough for our fishing fleet, which may 

 easily ba understood when it is remembered that each George's man 

 takes fifteen or twent}- barrels for a trip, and that each mackereler lays 

 in from 75 to 120 barrels, or even more than that.' One of the principal 

 modes for the capture of bait and other fishes on the New England 

 coast is by fixed traps or pounds on the shore. By means of these, 

 herrings, alewives, and menhaden are caught as bait for the sea-fishery, 

 besides merchantable fish for the markets, and tbe coarser kinds for the 

 supply of the oil factories. There are upward of sixty of these factories 

 now in operation on the Xew England coast. The capital invested in 

 them approaches $3,000,000. They employ 1,197 men, 383 sailing ves- 

 sels, and 29 steamers, besides numerous other boats. The fish mate- 

 rial which they consume yearly is enormous, computed at about 1,191,100 

 barrels, requiring whole fishes to the number of about 300,000,000. 

 These modes of fishing for menhaden and other bait are, furthermore, 

 such as to preclude strangers from participating in them without exceed- 

 ing the terms of the treaty: and even without this difficulty it must bo 

 apparent that such extensive native enterprises would bar the competi- 

 tion and suffice to ensure the virtual exclusion of foreigners." 



The reply of the agent of the United States. 



220. In the ''Answer on behalf of the United States of America to 

 thecaseof Her Britannic Majesty's Government,"* Judge Foster, states: 

 "Off the American coast are found exclusively the menhaden or porgies, 

 by far the best bait for mackerel." 



This is well stated by Sir John MacDonald (in a debate in the Domin- 

 ion Parliament, May 3, 1872), who says : 



" It is also true that, in American waters, the favorite bait to catch 

 the mackerel is found, and it is so much the favorite bait that one fishing 

 vessel having this bait on board would draw a whole school of mackerel 

 in the very face of vessels having an inferior bait. Now, the value of 

 the privilege of entering American waters for catching that bait is very 

 great. If Canadian fishermen were excluded from American waters by 

 any combination among American fishermen or by any act of Congress, 

 they would be deprived of getting a single ounce of the bait. American 

 fishermen might combine for that object, or a law might be passed by 

 Congress forbidding the exportation of menhaden ; but, by the provision 



* Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, Appendix B, pp. lb, 19. 



