100 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



it must be granted tliat tlie prices were very low. And without low 

 prices on these inland fish-products it would not be practicable for the 

 Americans to furnish so considerable a quantity for export to Europe 

 and to almost the whole world. In reality the state . of things is this, 

 that Americans furnish, in the European markets, fresh salmon, for ex- 

 ample, cheaper than many countries in Europe themselves can get them 

 from their own fishermen, and that, notwithstanding the fact that the 

 Americans have considerable expenses on their goods besides a long 

 transportation. * 



The explanation of this peculiar circumstance must be exclusively 

 sought neither in the abuse or overdoing by the countries concerned of 

 the fisheries in their waters by which the abundance of the fishes dimin- 

 ished and the prices enormously advanced, nor should the explana- 

 tion be sought in the natural wealth of fishes in American rivers. None 

 of these explanations will strike the right point in the matter. The only 

 satisfactory reason, in my opinion, is this : the Americans latterly pros- 

 ecute their inland fisheries with a deliberation on the basis of practical 

 scientific measures, which in the course of time must bring and already 

 has brought it to pass, that these fisheries will increase and year by year 

 make their competition with all other countries quite overpowering. 

 Americans can overdo the fishing in a water-course just as well as others, 

 and in reality the complaints about such abuse are not few. But at the 

 same time that they seek to prevent this abuse they do not restrict them- 

 selves to protective laws and prohibitory enactments against fishing at 

 certain times or with certain destructive implements. They do not con- 

 fine themselves to passive measures ; they do not depend exclusively on 

 nature's own assistance to counterbalance the fishermen's want of judg- 

 ment and selfish efforts. The American fishery commissioners have a hold 

 on much more effective measures, active measures : they transfer young 

 fishes to the best water-courses ; they see that the barren rivers and 

 waters again get a supply of edible fishes ; they erect great hatcheries 

 for the "cultivation" of new material for the fisheries, hatching out both 

 the fish themselves and the subordinate fish on which they feed. And 

 all these active endeavors take place on a grand scale and with a gen- 

 erosity on the part of the people, which at first thought might seem 

 exaggerated, but which upon closer consideration will be found to con- 

 tain a wise economy combined with practical truth and correct appre- 

 hension of what is for the best. As I next have to treat of the fishery 

 itself I shall defer until the next chapter mentioning the hatching opera- 

 tions and give here only some few presumably very instructive partic- 

 ulars on the " cultivation of fish-material " for the fisheries. 



In the year 1872 the United States Congress voted $15,000 to defray 

 the expenses of transporting shad (stamsild) to the Pacific States and 

 the States bordering on the Gidf of Mexico and the Mississippi Elver, 

 and to transport salmon, whitefish, and other edible fish to the waters 

 in the Union which were best adapted for them. The same year was 



