196* REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



mean value of $1,875,840, which gives a ratio of 133,671 pounds per linear mile, and 

 equivalent to $7,504 to the linear mile. Tbe yield in the trap and pound fishery is 

 over 78,610 pounds to the man, of a money value of $2,661, being tbe product of each 

 man's labor for an average not exceeding four montbs. That sum, to bring it to the 

 annual amount, will have to be multiplied by three ; each man thus would produce 

 $8,000 worth a year by this mode of fishing. 



Q. You do not mean to say that each man makes that amount?— A. No ; but that 

 is the ratio of fish to the man. Those pounds are generally owned by at least one of 

 the men who run them, who sometimes hire what additional assistance they require ; 

 perhaps, however, in half of the cases the owners manage the pounds and have no 

 division of profits. 



Q. Those statistics were j>repared to show the amount of the fish, including the 

 fresh fish as well as those salted ? — A. None of these are salted except such of the 

 salted menhaden as is for food. They do not enter into the returns of pickled fish. 

 These fresh fish go almost exclusively to New York, very few to Boston. 



Q. It seems strange that you should be able to know the amount of fresh fish that 

 passes into the great city and what is caught every day. What method have, you 

 adopted to ascertain those facts ? — A. The entire fresh-fish trade of New York is con- 

 fined to nineteen firms which form the Wholesale Dealers' Association, to whose books 

 and figures I have had access through and by the assistance of the large wholesale and 

 retail dealer in New York, Mr. Blackford, who has just taken great interest in my in- 

 vestigations and is a very hearty coadjutor. He has succeeded in interesting those 

 dealers, and I have just prepared a series of blanks in which I hope to have the 

 dealers record all the catches of fish every day and give me the returns. 



Q. You have no doubt from your relations with the dealers who control the market 

 that you know substantially the catch ?— A. I cannot say that I know the maximum 

 catch on the coast, but I know I have reason to rely upon *he figures of the fish that 

 is actually marketed and comes into the hands of the wholesale men. 



Q. A large amount escapes notice ? — A. Yes ; all the local catch, the catch of fisher- 

 men which goes for their own benefit and is consumed on the spot ; the catch con- 

 sumed in seaport towns and villages canuot be included in this enumeration. 



Q. Are these caught within the treaty limits ?— A. All those fish which I have men- 

 tioned are caught east of Cape May. 



Q. Northeast ?— A. Yea; and all caught close to the shone, by traps or pounds, 

 usually within 100 to 300 yards of the shore, or by gill-nets and handdines, used by 

 men also from the shore. 



Q. The whole fishery, with pounds and nets, that goes on from the shore, and with 

 hook and line for market fish, all comes within the treaty limits ?— A. Yes, of course, 

 the mullet and winter bluefish are south of the treaty limits ; but all the fish are 

 practically within the treaty limits. 



Q. And in those fisheries the Canadians have the same rights as Americans? — A. 

 The Canadians have the same rights there as we have. It does not include the fish- 

 ery, north of Cape Cod Bay and round to Eastport. 



Q. Can you make any comparison of the corresponding ratio per mile, or otherwise, 

 of the Canadian fisheries?— A. I do not think I could, because I believe the returns of 

 the Canadian fisheries are not so large as they should be. I do not believe the Cana- 

 dian returns are in proportion to the actual catch. I therefore think a comparative 

 statement would be fallacious, and I would rather not make it. 



Q. Some Canada tables have been published of the fisheries of 1876, including, per- 

 haps, cod and herring?— A. Those relate to all the fisheries. This estimate I submit 

 is for weir-fishing on a limited coast. 



Q. The Canadian returns show a total amount of $11,000,000 ?— A. I think the total 

 estimate of the Canadian fisheries for 1876 is between $11,000,000 and $12,000,000. 



Q. If yon put that of the United States at $50,000,000, would that be a low or high es- 

 timate ?— A. I think we could figure up over $40,000,000 without any difficulty ; that 

 is, for all the fisheries. 



