XVIIl REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



cause of popular education, and supply a want whicli has long been felt 

 in this country. 



As the direct operations of the conunission i-eipiired the use of exten- 

 sive and complicated apparatus, the additional cost of securing speci- 

 mens enough for the principal cabinets was found to be trifling, and the 

 opportunity for enriching them with material usually so difficult of 

 acquisition it was thought should by no means be lost. 



Nearly all enlightened nations have devoted much time to the investi- 

 gation of precisely such subjects, the (xerman government, in particular, 

 having now in progress, under the direction of the National Fishery 

 Association, an exhaustive examination of all its shores and the adjacent 

 waters, believing that, by a thorough investigation, a priori in thi& 

 direction, the various problems in reference to the culture and protection 

 of fish, oysters, lobsters, crabs, and the like, could be more readily 

 • settled. 



I. Decrease of the fish. — Bearing in mind that the present report 

 has more particular reference to the south side of New England, and 

 especially to that portion of it extending from Point Judith on the west 

 to Monomoy Point on the east, including Narragansett Bay, Vineyard 

 Sound, Buzzard's Bay, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket, I have no 

 hesitation in stating that the fact of an alarming decrease of the shore- 

 fisheries has been thoroughly established by my own investigations, as 

 well as by evidence of those whose testimony was taken upon the sub- 

 ject. 



Comparatively a few years ago this region was perhaps the scene 

 of the most important summer fishery on our coast, the number of 

 southern or deep-sea species resorting to its shoal bays and inlets to de- 

 posit their eggs being almost incredible. The testimony of the earliest 

 writers, as well as that given by witnesses examined, and set forth 

 in the appendix to the present report, as to the abundance of the 

 fish, is believed to be by no means exaggerated; and even within the 

 memory of j)ersons now living, the mass of animal life was exceedingly 

 great. The most important of the fish referred to were the scup, the 

 tautog or black-fish, the vstriped-bass, and the sea-bass, in addition to 

 which there were species of less importance, although equally edible, 

 such as the sheep's-head, the king-fish, the weak:fish, &c. 



The appearance of these fish was very regular, and their arrival upon 

 the shore could be calculated upon with almost the same precision as 

 the return of migratory birds; varying only, year by year, with special 

 conditions of temperature and oceanic currents. Other species, 

 more capricious in their appearance, and belonging essentially to the 

 division of outside fishes, were the mackerel, the blue-fish, the Spanish 

 mackerel, the bonito, &c. The alewife, or gaspereaux, and the shad were 

 also included ; as likewise the salmon, at an earlier period, although this 

 fish was exterminated at a comparatively early period. (See page 149 

 et seq.) 



