198 EEPORT 0^%OMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



use of all traps and lieart-seines, and other contrivances for catching 

 fish, not iuchiding pike-nets, shore or purse-seines, be prohibited in all 

 the waters of Ehode Island northerly of a line drawn from the south- 

 erly point of tlie rocks at Brenton's ^eef to the southerly point of Point 

 Jullith, and north of Stone Bridge at Howland's Ferry." 



Although satisfied with the conclusions thus unanimously arrived at 

 by the committee, the act recommended by it did not meet the approval 

 of many of the friends of the measure, for the reasons, that as Seacou- 

 net Point and vicinity, excluded from the action of the proposed law, 

 caught nine-tenths of all the scup trapped, it seemed to them that this 

 locality was the very seat of the evil complained of, and it would be 

 more fair to reverse the exclusion; that this exclusion made the law 

 l)artial in its effects, and would be so distasteful to the common sense of 

 the people of the State, on account of its injustice, that it could never 

 stand ; and that it was the opinion that the question, whether trapping 

 was one of the chief causes of the scarcity, could only be tried by exper- 

 iment, and to do this properly and fairly, all trapping should be prohib- 

 ited during the time necessary to try it. Under the act as proposed, this 

 question could never be decided; and upon its failure, as was sure to be 

 the case, the trappers would then turn round and ask to have the act 

 repealed, on the ground that, under our law, it was evident that some 

 other cause than trapping was the chief cause of the scarcity. With 

 this feeling, the act was amended in various ways in the house ; it was 

 passed and sent to the senate, and there defeated. 



The present inquiry, for want of the act introduced at the 7ast May 

 session and referred to your committee, is raised under a petition to the 

 same effect as those presented in January, 1870. 



In investigating a business about which the committee had little or no 

 personal knowledge, you would naturally rely upon that class of men 

 whose occupation it is, for information upon all matters connected with 

 it, and if reliable, your views and opinions would be much governed by 

 their statements. 



It would be i)resumed that, from their opportunities of observation 

 and personal experience, the trappers would possess a large amount of 

 correct knowledge as to the habits, food, modes of spawning, habita- 

 tions in winter and summer, &c., of these fish, and be able to satisfy you 

 ni)on the various questions that must necessarily arise in an inquiry 

 whether scup and other fish have been diminished by the use of traps, 

 or by other causes beyond or under the control of the legislature. 



That these fishermen should know so little as to these fish, beyond tvhat 

 is connected immediately ivith their pecuniary interests, would have been a 

 matter of surprise to me, had not this been already affirmed to be the 

 case by Captain Atwood, who made the statement nearly two years ago, 

 and reaffirmed it before you the other day. And not only is it his opin- 

 ion, but it is that of the British commission, whose report will subse- 

 quently be referred to ; and I shall endeavor to show that this is also con- 

 firmed by their own representations made to your honors. 



For this reason any statement or theory emanating from the trappers 

 is presumptivehj made in favor of their "pecuniary interests^ and, as such, 

 should be thoroughly examined, subjected to all the tests by which it 

 may be affected, and its soundness proved beyond a reasonable doubt, 

 before it is accepted. 



These are to be tested chiefly by the information received through the 

 writings of those acquainted with these or similar fish, or obtained from 

 the personal observation and experience of fishermen, but particularly 

 by the examination of facts which, apparently isolated, may have been 



