Xll REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Of late the attention of the legislatures of the New England States 

 has been called to this fact, and to the importance of restoring their 

 fisheries, and a great deal has been already accomplished toward that 

 end. Unfortunately, however, the lumbering interest in Maine, and the 

 manufacturing in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, are so powerful 

 as to render it extremely difficult to carry out any measures which in any 

 way interfere with their convenience or profits ; and notwithstanding 

 the passage of laws requiring the construction of fish-ways through 

 the dams, these have either been neglected altogether, or are of such a 

 character as not to answer their purpose. The reform, therefore, how- 

 ever imperatively required, has been very slow in its progress, and 

 many years will probably elapse before efficient measures will be taken 

 to remedy the evils referred to. 



It would, therefore, appear that while the river-fisheries have been 

 depreciated or destroyed by means of dams or by exhaustive fishing, the 

 cod-fish have disappeared in equal ratio. This is not, however, for the 

 same reason, as they are taken only with the line, at a, rate more 

 than compensated by the natural fecundity of the fish. I am well sat- 

 isfied, however, that there is a relation of cause and efltect between the 

 present and past condition of the two series of fish 5 and in this I am 

 supported by the opinion 01 Capt. U. S. Treat, of Eastport, by 

 whom, indeed, the idea was first suggested to me. Captain Treat is a 

 successful fisherman, and dealer in fish on a very large scale, and at the 

 same time a gentleman of very great intelligence and knowledge of the 

 many details connected with the natural history of our coast-fishes, in this 

 respect worthily representing Captain Atwood, of Provincetown. It is 

 to Captain Treat that we owe many experiments on the reproduction of 

 alewives in ponds, and the possibility of keeping salmon in fi-esh waters 

 for a period of years. The general conclusions which have been 

 reached as the result of repeated conversations with Captain Treat and 

 other fishermen on the coast incline me to believe that the reduction in 

 the cod and other fisheries, so as to become practically a failure, is due, 

 to the decrease off our coast in the quantity, primarily, of alewives; 

 and, secondarily, of shad and salmon, more than to any other cause. 



It is well known to the old residents of Eastport that from thirty 

 to fifty years ago cod could be taken in abundance in Passamaquoddy 

 Bay and off Eastport, where only stragglers are now to be caught. The 

 same is the case at the mouth of the Penobscot Eiver and at other points 

 along the coast, where once the fish came close in to the shore, and were 

 readily captured with the hook throughout the greater part of the 

 year. That ijeriod was before the multiplication of mill-dams, cutting 

 off the ascent of the alewives, shad, and salmon, especially the former. 

 The Saint Croix River was choked in the spring with the numbers of 

 these fish, endeavoring to ascend ; and the same may be said of the 

 Little River, the outlet of Boynton's Lake, about seven miles above East- 

 port. The lake in question is one of considerable size, and was visited by 



