HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 101 



allusions to the value of meubadeu bait. In tbe series of statistical 

 tables filed* is given a statement, prepared by tbe writer, of tbe annual 

 product of tbe menbaden fisberies. In tbe speeches of counsel during 

 the session of the Commission very little attention was paid to the 

 menbaden. 



Mr. Band's remarlcs in his argument. 



223. Mr. Dana remarked in his closing argument : t 



."We need not catch our mackerel bait any more than our cod bait, 

 •within the three-mile limit. On tbe contrary tbe best mackerel bait in 

 tbe world is tbe menhaden, which wo bring from New England. All 

 admit that. Tbe British witnesses say they would use it, were it not 

 that it is too costly. They have to buy it from American vessels, and 

 they betake themselves to an inferior kind of bait when they cannot 

 afford to buy the best from us." 



224. Few comments are needed upon these statements. 



(1) While other fish than the menhaden may be used as bait, the lat- 

 ter is preferred by mackerel fishermen generally. (See quotations from 

 affidavits of Nova Scotian fishermen quoted above, 186-190, and the 

 depositions of numerous American fishermen before the Commission 

 referred to in the Bibliography of the Species, Appendix C.) 



(2) For tbe period of six years past, referred to in the comparison of 

 the sales of menhaden bait and herring bait, tbe mackerel fisberies in 

 Canadian waters have been far below tbeir usual importance, and there 

 has been no large demand for menbaden bait. The bank cod-fishery 

 has been as successful as usual and tbe demand for herring bait undi- 

 minished. Moreover a large proportion of the frozen herring exported 

 to tbe United States are consumed as food, not as bait. 



(3) The claim that tbe menbaden are being rapidly exterminated is 

 discussed above in paragraphs 151-15G. 



(4) Tbe criticism by the British counsel of the statement that men- 

 haden are not taken at a distance from the shore is well sustained. 



(5) The very extraordinary statement that menbaden can be bred and 

 restored to their former haunts in tbe waters of Nova Scotia may be 

 met by the statement that there is no evidence that the species was 

 ever other than an accidental visitor to those waters, that none have 

 been seen there for the past twenty-fiive years, that the present eastern 

 limit of the geograpbical range of the species is forty or fifty miles 

 west of — 



M.— THE MANUFACTURE OF OIL AND GUANO. 



41. — A HISTORY OF THE OIL MANUFACTURE. 



The clams of Maine to the discovery of menhaden oil. 

 225. Tbe manufacture of menhaden oil has been prosecuted for a few 

 years only. Several individuals claim the honor of having been first to 



* lUd., Appendix O. t Appendix J, p. 78. 



11 P 



