THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN, NORTH AMERICA. P59 
All the European herring fisheries, especially the most important, as 
those of Norway and Great Britain, are without restriction as to time 
of catch, and indeed it is when the herring are fullest of ripe roe that 
they are the niost esteemed. At the Magdalen Islands the herring are 
taken principally during their spawning season without any restriction 
or suggestion of diminution. The question, therefore, as to the actual 
importance of the measure referred to may be considered as unsettled, 
although I can hardly believe that the provision in regard to the her- 
ring fisheries at Grand Manan has not had a beneficial influence. It 
will not, however, do to prohibit the catch of herring when they are 
filled with roe, since it is when they are in this condition that they are 
most highly prized and most marketable, the roe of the sea herring being 
universally considered a very great delicacy. 
There are, however, some fish on the coast of the United States for 
whose protection during the spawning season I have already urged in a 
previous report that some provision of legislation is desirable. I refer 
more particularly to certain fish on the south side of New England, 
especially the scup, sea bass, and the tautog. These fish appear to 
come to the coast in well defined bands of immense numbers, at a par- 
ticular season, following generally a definite line of migration and pro- 
ceeding to their spawning-grounds, where the operation of reproduction 
is conducted on an enormous scale, in this respect closely resembling 
the anadromous fish, such as the salmon, shad, and alewite, and appar- 
ently almost equally susceptible to any interference by human agencies. 
Legislation is expedient here, too, both for the protection of the fish and 
of the fishermen themselves, since after a few weeks’ fishing the glut is 
so enormous as to bring down the price to a mere nothing, involving 
the necessity of wasting immense numbers of the catch, the best use to 
which they can be put being their conversion into manure. 
In this case, however, I simply suggested an intermission of capture 
from Friday night until Monday morning, or if this be too long a period, 
from Saturday night until Monday morning, so as to secure the escape 
ot a sufficient number of the school and an opportunity to deposit their 
eggs, this weekly intermission to be continued only for the limited 
period during which these particular fish are on the move. They move 
in so close and solid bodies and in so limited an extent that it is by no 
means impossible to imagine the capture of the greater part of the 
school and the eutting off of the rest of it from reaching a suitable 
spawning-ground, or disturbing the individuals so that their eggs are 
not deposited at the proper time cr under proper conditions. 
The other fish taken during the same period, especially the mackerel 
and menhaden, are not affected, as it is only a portion of the migrating 
bands, and that which happens to be nearest the shore, which is taken 
under such circumstances, enough possibly passing outside to maintain 
the supply of eggs and young fish. 
As to the conclusions at which I arrived in 1871 in regard to the pro- 
