REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XLVII 



as far west as the Connecticut and even to the Housatonic, though we 

 have no evidence that they ever occurred in the Hudson Eiver or far- 

 ther to the south. The shad was found in every stream of the coast 

 from Georgia to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and, although still ascend- 

 ing most of these waters during the spring, has been sadly reduced 

 in abundance. Within even fifty years no waters of the same extent 

 in the world could show such numbers of shad and herring as the Poto- 

 mac Eiver below the Great Falls. Martin's Gazeteer of Virginia, pub. 

 lished in 1834, at Alexandria, states that the preceding year twenty-five 

 and a half millions of shad were taken by the various Potomac fisheries, 

 as well as seven hundred and fifty millions of fresh-water herring. This, 

 by a moderate estimate, would amount to six hundred millions pounds of 

 fish secured in six weeks in this single system of waters. This Gazeteer 

 also states that during the same year nearly one million barrels of fish 

 were packed on the Potomac, requiring as many bushels of salt. These 

 were consumed in the United States or shipped to the West Indies and 

 elsewhere. What is the condition of things at the present time 1 In 1866 

 the catch of shad on the Potomac had dwindled to 1,326,000, in 1878 

 to 224,000, the latter not 1 per cent, of the yield of 1833. The catch of 

 herring in 1833, estimated, as stated, at 750,000,000, had been reduced in 

 1866 to 21,000,000, in 1876 to 12,000,000, and in 1878 to 5,000,000 ; again 

 less than 1 per cent, of the yield of the first-mentioned period. 



A similar reduction has taken place in the abundance of the striped 

 bass or rock-fish, a species inferior to none in its excellence and econom- 

 ical value for food. John Josselyn, gent., in 1660, says that three 

 thousand bass were taken at one haul of the net in New England. 

 Thomas Morton, in 1632, says, of the Merrimac, that he has seen stopped 

 in the river at one time as many fish as would load a sbij) of a hundred 

 tons, and that at the going out of the tide the river was sometimes so 

 full of them that it seemed if one might go over on their backs dry- 

 shod. 



Mr. Higginson, in 1630, says that the nets usually took more bass 

 than they were able to land. Even so recently as 1846, one hundred 

 and forty-eight tons are said to have been taken on Martha's Vineyard 

 at two hauls of the seine. Per contra, the catch in the Potomac in 1866 

 amounted to 316,000 pounds ; in 1876, to 100,000 ; in 1878, to 50,000. 



Many more instances of the enormous abundance of the anadromous 

 fishes (marine species running up from the ocean into fresh waters for 

 the purpose of spawning) in different parts of the country in former 

 times could easily be adduced. Similar illustrations of the former 

 abundance of fishes exclusively inhabitants of the salt water can be 

 brought forward to any extent. In the early days of the Eepublic the 

 entire Atlantic shore of the United States abounded in fish of all kinds. 

 Where cod, mackerel, and other species are now found in moderate 

 quantities, they occurred in incredible masses. 



The halibut, one of the best of our fishes, was so common along the New 



