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tions was little to be hoped for. Not without reason, it was judged that 
the investigations of a scientific commission, acting under the authority 
of the General Government, and unembarrassed by local considerations, 
would carry weight, and its enlightened recommendations dispose those 
immediately concerned in the prosperity of the food-fisheries to co-oper- 
ate readily in the plans proposed for their preservation and improve- 
ment. 
Professor Baird began his investigations in the summer of 1871, at 
Wood’s Hole, Massachusetts, where the large number of “pounds” 
afforded material for inquiry. Simultaneously, investigations were being 
made off the coast of North Carolina, under the direction of Dr, C. H. 
Yarwood, United States Army, and by a deputy commissioner whose 
operations were to be confined to the great lakes. The latter, during 
the season of 1871, visited every pound and gill-net station on Lake 
Michigan, collecting a body of valuable information which will appear 
in another report. Investigations, taking in a greater extension of sea- 
coast, were continued in 1872, and the present report has reference in 
its data and conclusions to the south side of New England, especially 
that portion of it extending from Point Judith on the west, to Monamoy 
Point on the east, including Narragansett Bay, Vineyard Sound, Buz- 
zard’s Bay, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. In view of inquiries 
made upon these grounds, covering two seasons, Professor Baird has no: 
hesitation in stating that the fact of an alarming decrease of the shore- 
fisheries has been clearly established by his own investigations, as well 
as by evidence of those whose testimony was taken upon the subject. 
He reviews in order and at length the reasons ascribed to account for 
the decrease which, as commonly given, are: 
1. The decrease or disappearance of the food upon which the fish sab- 
sist, necessitating their departure to other localities. 
2. A change of location, either entirely capricious or induced by the: 
necessity of looking for food elsewhere, as just referred to. 
3. Epidemic diseases, or peculiar atmospheric agencies, such as heat, 
cold, &e. 
4. Destruction by other fishes. 
5. The agencies of man; this being manifested either in the poilution 
of the water by the discharge into it of the refuse of manufactories, &c., 
or by excessive over-fishing, or the use of improper apparatus. 
The validity of the assumption of a diminution of food is denied in 
the most positive terms. That change of abode on the part of the fishes 
as a cause of decrease has not been substantiated by facts. Where no 
positive cause for sudden disappearance of fish in quantity can be given 
it is often ascribed to diseases or to atmospheric agencies. The ravages 
of predaceous fishes, of the blue-fish particularly, are a leading cause of 
the diminution of the fish-catch. Of the blue-fish, Professor Baird ascer- 
tained by careful inquiry that about one million and a quarter could be 
estimated as the number captured inWineyard Sound, and on the coast 
from Monamoy Point, through Long Island Sound, and sent to the 
market in 1871. Judging, from the character of the fish, that not one 
in a hundred is taken, he admits the presence in those waters of 
100,000,000 blue-fish. Their habits show that they each destroy at least 
twenty young fish per day, thus showing an enormous aggregate 
destruction. He says: 
We all know that fish-spawn and fish in different stages of growth constitute the 
principal source of food to other fishes in the sea, and that the great proportion of 
fishes devoured are of tender age. The blue-fish, however, will often attack species but 
little less than itself, and the 100,000,000 referred to probably destroy fishes of two or 
three onnces and upwards ; that is to say, those that have passed the ordinary perils of 
