XLVI REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



abiding place under the changed conditions of ttie old, but the return 

 of the season brings him again within the dangerous influence, until 

 taught by several j^ears of experience that his only safety is in a new 

 home. The quadruped is less fortunate in this respect, environed as 

 he is by more or less impassable restrictions, such as lofty mountains, 

 deep rivers and lakes, and abrupt precipices, and sooner or later reaches 

 the point of comparative extinction, or reduction to such limited num- 

 bers as not to invoke any continuance of special attack. 



The fish, overwhelmingly numerous at first, began to feel the fatal in- 

 fluence in even less time than the classes already mentioned, especially 

 such species as belong to the fresh waters and have a comparatively 

 limited range. 



The cause of this rapid deterioration is not to be found in a natural 

 and reasonable destruction for purposes of food, of material for cloth- 

 ing, or other needs. The savage tribes, although more dependent for 

 support upon the animals of the field and forest than the white man, 

 will continue for centuries in their neighborhood without seriously dimin- 

 ishing their numbers. It is only as the result of wanton destruction for 

 jiurposes of sport or for the acquisition of some limited portion only of the 

 animal that a notable reduction is produced and the ultimate tendency 

 to extinction initiated. 



Of the abundance of animal life in Korth America, in the primitive 

 days of its occupation by the European immigrant, we have an ample 

 history in the accounts of the earlier travelers. Buifaloes in enormous 

 hordes reached .almost to the Atlantic coast, wherever extensive plains 

 existed. The antelopes rivaled in numbers those of Central and South 

 Africa. The deer of various species were distributed over the entire con- 

 tinent from the Arctic regions southward, and from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific. The moose existed far south of its present limit. The elk was 

 a familiar inhabitant of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Wild fowl, such as 

 ducks, geese, swans, &c., of many species, were found during the winter 

 in countless myriads in the Chesapeake and other Southern bays and 

 sounds. 



Now what remains of this multitude 1 The buffalo has long since 

 disappeared from the vicinity of the Mississippi River, the deer is nearly 

 exterminated iu many localities, though still holding its own under 

 favorable circumstances, and the antelope is restricted to limited areas. 

 The wild fowl, congregated at one time in bodies miles in extent, are now 

 scarcely to be seen, although still i^roportionably more abundant in the 

 winter season on the coast of California and towards the mouth of the 

 Eio Grande in Texas than anywhere else. 



Perhaps a still more striking illustration is seen in the fishes. It is 

 stiU within the recollection of many old people (showing how plentiful 

 the fish must have been) that the apprentice and pauper, iu the vicinity 

 of the Connecticut Eiver, protested against eating salmon more than 

 twice a week. This noble fish abounded in all the waters of New England 



