THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 21 



According to Scbultz (Eep. U. S. F. 0.), the annual catch of fish in 

 the Caspian Sea and its tributaries amounts to 68,000,000 pounds, worth 

 about $10,500,000. 



The subject of the yield of the fisheries of the United States and the 

 Dominion of Canada is of more special interest in the present report. 

 So far as Cauada is concerned an excellent system of supervision by the 

 Government enables us to gather, with more or less accuracy, the re- 

 turns as to the number of vessels, of men, and the general yield for 

 the different classes of objects in the various portions of the Dominion ; 

 and which, although these returns are probably considerably below the 

 actual figures, still answer a useful purpose as a basis for comparison 

 and for obtaining a general average. 



^Newfoundland, which is not a part of the Dominion, has unfort- 

 unately no corresponding record to which reference may be made. The 

 case is equally unsatisfactory in the United States. Here the General 

 Government does not pretend to exercise any supervision in the collection 

 of statistics of the sea fisheries, with the exception of such as are con- 

 ducted by a certain class of vessels, occupied in foreign waters.. Of 

 the great local business of fishing, either by means of small boats that 

 go out to a short distance from the land or the larger coasting vessels, 

 we have no reliable data. It is true that certain States, especially 

 Maine, Kew Hampshire, and Massachusetts, provide for the inspection 

 of pickled fish, which is branded according to the several degrees of 

 excellence ; and this furnishes us, as far as that class of products is 

 concerned, with tolerably reliable information. Other products, how- 

 ever, are unrecorded, and only an approximation to the amount can be 

 made. The State of Massachusetts has, however, lately undertaken to 

 secure reliable facts under this head, and the commissioners of inland 

 fisheries have been empowered to require, under suitable penalties, an 

 annual return of the yield of every weir, pound, and gill-net on the 

 coast. 



While it is probable that the supply of fish on the outer banks and 

 in the deep sea, away from the immediate coast, is as great as that of 

 former years, a lamentable falling off is to be appreciated in the capture 

 of anadromous fish, such as the shad, salmon, and the alewife, as well as 

 of many species belonging immediately to the coast, such as the striped 

 bass, the scup, and other fish. 



Fortunately, it is believed they are capable of remedy by proper leg- 

 islation and protection, artificial propagation, etc., and that we may look 

 forward in the distant future to a very considerable return to the for- 

 mer very desirable state and condition of the fisheries. 



In proof of the abundance formerly existing I will only refer to the 

 chapter under that head in the first report of the United States Fish 

 Commission, in which the quotations are supplied from early historical 

 records, extending back to the first peopling of the country by the whites. 

 The capture of thousands of striped bass by means of nets stretched 



