204 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Q. Do you dissent dow from that opinion? — A. No; I used that as au impressive 

 lesson to the State legislature to induce them to pass the measures necessary to re- 

 store these river fisheries, which they are now doing very rapidly. 



Q. Where is Capt. U. S. Treat, of Eastport, now ? — A. In Japan, teachiug the Jap- 

 anese how to catch and cure fish. 



Q. On page xiv of this report you say : 



" Whatever may be the importance of increasing the supply of salmon, it is trifling 

 compared with the restoration of our exhausted cod-fisheries ; aud should these be 

 brought back to their original condition, we shall find within a short time an in- 

 crease of wealth on our shores, the amount of which it would be difficult to calculate. 

 Not only would the general prosperity of the adjacent States be enhanced, but in the 

 increased number of vessels built, in the large number of men induced to devote 

 themselves to maritime pursuits, and in the general stimulus to everything connected 

 with the business of the sea-faring profession, we should be recovering, in a great 

 measure, from that loss which has been the source of so much lamentation to political 

 economists and well-wishers of the country." 



That you still adhere to ? — A. Certainly. I made that report as impressive as I 

 could in order to produce the effect desired, which was to cause the legislature to pass 

 a law in this regard, and it has had that effect. They have passed such laws, and I 

 hope that this evil will be remedied in a reasonable number of years. 



Q. It is not remedied yet? — A. No. 



Q. It takes a number of years to do that ? — A. I can give an instance where it has 

 had such effect, if you like to have it. Iu Massachusetts the most has been done for 

 the restoration of alewives and shad in the Merrimac River ; and the shore fisheries 

 there have now increased in a very marked degree. At the present time it is per- 

 fectly possible for a man to go out in a boat from the city of Newburyport and catch 

 1,000 pounds of codfish and bring them back the same night. This is the only river 

 in Massachusetts in which very great efforts have been made to restore these river 

 fisheries ; and it is now possible to capture these fish in much greater quantities 

 than was the case ten years ago ; and this I ascribe to the action of the State govern- 

 ment with regard to the restoration of river fish. 



Q. How many pounds did you mention ? — A. 4,000. 



Q. Caught by a single man ? — A. Two men will do it ; a man with a trawl and an 

 assistant will go out iu an open boat in the morning from the city of Newburyport 

 and come back at night, or go out at night aud return in the morning, and in the 

 mean time take 4,000 pounds of cod. That is the only point along there at which, at 

 that distance from the shore, I know that it is possible to catch cod iu such numbers. 



Q. Must not a great lapse of time, or at least a very considerable lapse of time, oc- 

 cur before the fisheries destroyed, as you have here described, can be restored by the 

 process you speak of? — A. I think that this depends on the amount of time necessary 

 for the restoration of the fish, which run out to sea from the rivers. I think that if 

 this year there are no such fish as alewives, &c, to run into these rivers, and that if 

 next year a great army was to so run in, concurrent with that army, au army of cod 

 and other fish would be there to prey upon them. 



Q. I see that in your Report for 1872 and 1873, referring to the lake fish, you say on 

 page Ixxxi : 



" The restoration of food-fishes to localities originally tenanted by them, or their 

 transfer to new waters, is, however, a question of time; and in the immense extent 

 of our river aud lake systems, many years must necessarily elapse before the work 

 can be accomplished." 



A. That is a great number of years, certainly ; but that does not so much refer to 

 any particular river as to the aggregate rivers aud lakes scattered over the whole body 

 of the United States. 



Q. You say here that " many years must necessarily elapse" f — A. Certainly. 



Q. When did you commence this work ?— A. The actual process of artificial propa- 

 gation began, under my direction, iu 1872. 



