EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XLIX 



a chief inducement to the movement of the predacious fish to the coast 

 in such numbers during the spring and summer. In autumn and win- 

 ter the sea-herring and the fish of the cod family visit the shores for 

 quite another puii^ose, namely, to deposit their eggs. But from what- 

 ever motive, the foct remains that years ago throughout the twelve 

 months an ample supply of the finest fishes was within the reach of 

 everyone, so that a fisherman with a small hand-line and an open boat 

 was able to sujiport his family without any difficulty. 



Now, with the continued reduction in abundance of the salmon, shad, 

 and fresh-water herring, the summer fisheries have dwindled and nearly 

 disappeared, leaving only those of winter with its inclement weather to 

 furnish occupation to the fishermen, and compelling him in the most 

 dangerous season of the year to betake himself to the Georges, La Have, 

 Quereau, and other banks, especially to the Grand Banks of Newfound- 

 land, to i)rosecute his work in exj)ensive vessels, and exijosed to perils 

 and privations of a terrible character. 



Assuming, then, that the chief agency in the decrease of the ocean- 

 shore fisheries has been the reduction in the number of the anadromous 

 fish, i. e., those passing up from the ocean into the fresh waters to 

 spawn, let us inquire into the causes of the diminution of the latter. 

 They certainly were very plentiful in the early days of European coloni- 

 zation in America, but at that period all the rivers were open to the sea, 

 without dams or other artificial obstructions. Few or no saw-mills cast 

 into them sawdust and other refuse ; no gas-works polluted them with 

 coal-tar, creosote, &c., and paper-mills, factories, &c., running off poison- 

 ous compounds, were unknown. The fishing apparatus was confined to 

 lines and nets of no great extent, not sufficient to barricade the streams 

 and impede the upward movement of the fish. 



After the settlement of the country began, these possible dangers 

 came to have an actual existence. It is probably to the erection of dams, 

 however, that the first great diminution was due. The salmon, the shad, 

 and the herring proceeding from the ocean to the headwaters of their 

 native stream, were met by an imi^assable barrier, which they were 

 unable to surmount, cutting them off from their favorite spawning- 

 ground, and, indeed, in many cases, from the only localities where- the 

 operations of reproduction could be properly performed. They wore 

 themselves out in fruitless attempts to overcome these obstructions, and 

 were compelled finally to return to the ocean without depositing, or at 

 least utilizing, their spawn. A second year, a third, and even a fourth 

 would i^robably make but little difference in the number making the 

 attempt to ascend, this being due to the fact that four years is the 

 average period from birth at which most fish are mature and able to exer- 

 cise the reproductive act. By the end of the fourth year, the last crop of 

 young fish hatched in the upper waters of the river will have made its 

 appearance as mature males and females. After this the diminution 

 takes place with increasing rapidity until, five or six years afterwards, 

 IV F 



