HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. IGl 



allusions to the value of mcnhatlen bait. In the series of statistical 

 tables filed* is given a statement, prepared by tbe writer, of the annual 

 l)roduct of the menhaden fisheries. In the speeches of counsel during 

 the session of the Commission very little attention was paid to the 

 menhaden. 



Mr, Dana's remarTcs in his argument. 



223. Mr. Dana remarked in his closing argument : t 



" We need not catch our mackerel bait any more than our cod bait, 

 within the three-mile limit. On the contrary the best mackerel bait in 

 tlie world is the menhaden, which we bring from l^ew England. All 

 admit that. The British witnesses say they would use it, were it not 

 that it is too costly. They have to buy it from American vessels, and 

 they betake themselves to an inferior kind of bait when they cannot 

 afford to buy the best from us." 



224. Few comments are needed upon these statements. 



(1) While other fish than the menhaden onay be used as bait, the lat- 

 ter is preferred by mackerel fishermen generally. (See quotations from 

 affidavits of jSTova Scotian fishermen quoted above, 18G-100, and the 

 depositions of numerous iVmerican fishermen before the Commission 

 referred to in the Bibliography of the Species, Appendix C.) 



(2) For the period of six years past, referred to in the comparison of 

 the sales of menhaden bait and herring bait, the mackerel fisheries iu 

 Canadian waters have been far below their usual importance, and there 

 has been no large demand for menhaden bait. The bank cod-fishery 

 has been as successful as usual and the demand for herring bait undi- 

 minished. Moreover a large proportion of the frozen herring exported 

 to the United States are consumed as food, not as bait. 



(3) The claim that the menhaden are being rapidly exterminated is 

 discussed above in paragraphs 151-156. 



(4) The criticism by the British counsel of the statement that men- 

 haden are not taken at a distance from the shore is well sustained. 



(5) The very extraordinary statement that menhaden can be bred and 

 restored to their former haunts in the waters of Nova Scotia may be 

 met by the statement that there is no evidence that the species was 

 ever other than an accidental visitor to those waters, that none have 

 been seen there for the past twenty-five years, that the present eastern 

 limit of the geographical range of the species is forty or fifty miles 

 west of— 



M.— THE MANUFACTURE OF OIL AND GUANO. 



41. — A HISTORY OF THE OIL MANUFACTURE. 



The claims of Maine to the discovery of menhaden oil. 

 225. The manufacture of menhaden oil has been prosecuted for a few 

 years only. Several individuals claim the honor of having been first to 



* Ibid., Appeuclix O. t Appendix J, p. 78. 



11 P 



