206 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



cod, as this spawn floats ? — A. I thiuk that the water there might be too warm for the 

 development of codfish eggs in the abstract ; but the effect would be to make them 

 hatch out more rapidly than would be the case in cold water. Of course it is a very 

 serious question to decide whether, with the present constitution of the cod, its eggs 

 would develop in warm water, though whether it might not evolute and develop into 

 a warm-water cod I do not know. 

 By Mr. Thomson : 

 Q. On page lx of your Report fbr 1872 aud 1873, you use the following language : 

 "It is in another still more important connection that we should consider the ale- 

 wife. It is well known that within the last thirty or forty years the fisheries of cod, 

 haddock, and hake along our coasts have measurably diminished, and in some places 

 ceased entirely. Enough may be taken for local consumption, but localities which 

 formerly furnished the material for au extensive commerce in dried fish have been en- 

 tirely abandoned. Various causes have been assigned for this condition of things, 

 and, among others, the alleged diminution of the sea-herring. After a careful con- 

 sideration of the subject, however, I am strongly inclined to believe that it is due to 

 the diminution, and, in many instances, to the extermination of the alewives. As 

 already remarked, before the construction of dams in the tidal rivers the alewife was 

 found in incredible numbers along our coast, probably remaining uot far from shore, 

 excepting when moving up into the fresh water, and, at any rate, spending a consid- 

 able interval off the mouths of the rivers either at the time of their j ourney upward 

 or on their return. The young, too, after returning from the ocean, usually swarmed 

 in the same localities, aud thus furnished for the larger species a bait such as is not 

 supplied at present by any other fish, the sea-herring not excepted. We know that 

 the alewife is particularly attractive as a bait to other fishes, especially for cod and 

 mackerel." 

 A. Do I say mackerel? 



q_ Yes. — A. That is an inadvertence. I do not think that the alewife is a bait for 

 mackerel. 

 Q . You say : 



" We know that the alewife is particularly attractive as a bait to other fishes, es- 

 pecially for cod and mackerel." 

 A. Well, I should not have said that. 



Q. The alewives are the same as the fish we call gaspereaux in New Brunswick ?— 

 A. Yes. 



Q. You further say : 



"Alewives enter the streams on the south coast of New England before the arrival 

 of the bluefish ; but the latter devote themselves with great assiduity to the capture 

 of the young as they come out from their breeding-ponds. The outlet of an alewife 

 pond is always a capital place for the bluefish, and as they come very near the shore 

 in such localities, they can be caught there with the line by what is called ' heaving 

 and hauling,' or throwing a squid from tho shore, aud hauling it in with the utmost 

 rapidity. 



"The coincidence, at least, in the erection of the dams, and the enormous diminu- 

 tion in the number of the alewives, and the decadence of the inshore cod-fishery, is 

 certainly very remarkable. It is probable, also, {hat the mackerel fisheries have suf- 

 fered in the same way, as these fish find in the young menhaden and alewives an at- 

 tractive bait." * 

 You see you say that twice.— A. That is an inadvertence. 

 Q. You say : 



"It is probable also that the mackerel fisheries have suffered in the same way, as 

 these fish find in the young menhaden aud alewives an attractive bait." ' 

 A. This is the case on the northern coast probably. 



Q. It is hardly an inadvertence?— A. It is an inadvertence. It is a conclusion that 

 is not justified by the fact. 



