CONTENTS 



Pago. 



I. Report of the Commissioner.* vii 



Table of contents xliii 



II. General plan of inquiries prosecuted 1 



Memoranda of inquiry relative to the food- fishes of the United States 1 



Questions relative to the food-fishes of the United States 3 



III. Testimony in regard to the present condition of the fisheries, taken 

 IN 1871 - 



Newport, Rhode Island 7 



Naushon Island, Massachusetts 32 



Pasque Island, Massachusetts 34 



Menemsha Bight, Martha's Vineyard 35 



Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard 37 



Nantucket, Massachusetts 41 



Hyannis, Massachusetts - - - . 47 



Wood's Hole, Massachusetts 53 



Head of Buzzard's Bay • 70 



Cohasset Narrows 72 



IV. Special arguments in regard to regulating the sea-fisheries by law. 73 

 Samuel Powel, of Newport. Delivered in the Rhode Island legislature. (Urg- 

 ing the necessity of a scientific inquiry into the subject) 73 



J. M. K. South wick, of Newport. (Against protective legislation) 76 



Geo. H. Palmer, of New Bedford. (In favor of protective legislation) 88 



V. Reports or State commissions in regard to regulating the sea-fish- 

 eries B\^ LAW 104 



Report of committee of Rhode Island legislature, made at Newport, June 15, 



1870 104 



Legislative enactment recommended 110 



Extract from report for 1871 of Theodore Lyman, Massachusetts commissioner 



of inland fisheries, on the possible exhaustion of sea-fisheries 112 



Remarks of Mr. Atwood, of the Cape district, before the Massachusetts senate, 



in relation to the petition to prohibit net and seine fisheries 117 



VI. Report of conference of the United States Commissioner with com- 

 missioners OF Rhode Island and Massachusetts, held October 5, 1871 125 



VII. Draught of law proposed for the consideration of, and enactment 



BY, THE legislatures OF MASSACHUSETTS, RlIODE ISLAND, AND CONNECTICUT. 132 



A bill to regulate the use of stationary apparatus in the capture of fish 132 



VIII. Miscellaneous correspondence and communications on the subject 



OP the sea-fisheries 135 



Letters 135 



Copy of memorial of citizens of Hyauuis, addressed to Congress, praying tliat 

 laws may be passed prohibiting the use of fixed apparatus for capturing 



fish 137 



* For detailed table of contents of the report of the commissioner see p. v. 



