AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



decay as have the salmon and alewife fisheries." ***** 

 The act "to protect smelts in the waters of the Kennebec and 

 Androscoggin rivers, approved March 4th, 1869, aims to lessen 

 the catch by prohibiting the use of any implement but hook 

 and line every alternate year, and at the same time allow the 

 fish to ascend those rivers to the points where they were wont ro 

 be taken by hook and line. Undoubtedly, the first mentioned 

 object would be attained, but whether the latter would is un- 

 certain. It is desirable to substitute for this some act of wider 

 application, and consequently bearing more equally on all who 

 are engaged in this fishery. I suggest whether a prohibition to 

 take smelts except during December, January and February, 

 by any other mode than hook and line, and perhaps dip-net, 

 would not apply well to the whole State." 



Under the laws of Maine for 1874, chap. 248, sec. 58, it was 

 forbidden to fish for smelts in any other way than by hook and 

 line or dip-net, between April ist and October ist. The State 

 of Massachusetts passed a law, approved April 9th, 1874, for- 

 bidding the offering for sale or having in possession any smelts 

 between March 15th and June ist, and forbade their capture by 

 any other means than hook and line at any time except in the 

 counties of Bristol, Barnstable and Dukes. I am not aware 

 that any smelts are taken with a hook and line within the 

 waters of New York, nor do I know that there is any law pro- 

 tecting them at any season. The numbers caught are quite 

 small, the market supply coming mainly from the Eastern 

 States, yet in view of the fact that the fish were formerly plenty 

 on Long Island and have been gradually decreasing by reason 

 of continued capture at the spawning season, I believe that it 

 would be to the interest of the people and of the fishermen to 

 protect them from February 20th to March 20th. 



In this connection I will read an article written for Forest 

 and Stream, headed " Torching for Smelts," by a gentleman from 

 North Bridgeton, Me., in which he describes how smelts are 

 murdered there; he says: 



"On the 2ist of April the word went round that the "big 

 smelts" had put in an appearance in the streams the evening 

 before. This was enough to bring over a dozen men and boys 



