46 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY 



finally on that question. The regulation of the fisheries of each 

 State out to the State border is a matter of municipal regulation, 

 a matter of State legislation. That is so even in tide water. In 

 the State of Maryland they passed a law preventing the dredg- 

 ing for oysters, and the State officers have seized a boat that was 

 doing that, a vessel which was chartered and which was register- 

 ed in the United States Customs office at Baltimore. She was 

 replevined from the State constable who seized and condemned 

 her, and under which proceeding she had been sold. That case 

 went from the Supreme Court of Maryland to the Supreme' 

 Court of the United States. Benjamin Curtis being the justice 

 who gave the opinion, said that the condemnation was right, 

 that it was within the police power of the State to regulate fish- 

 eries of that State to the State border, and it was not a matter 

 for the United States Government to interfere with, yet it was 

 in tide water, and notwithstanding the vessel was one which 

 was registered in the United States Customs Office, and although 

 the United States Government had the right to regulate the 

 navigation of those waters, the control of the fisheries was with- 

 in the police power of the State. At a meeting of the Commis- 

 sioners held in October, 1883, at Detroit, this subject was very 

 fully examined and presented to the meeting by the Attorney 

 General of the State of Michigan very clearly and forcibly. 

 That I regard as entirely final. 



There is one other thing I want to speak of that Mr. Fairbank 

 referred to, and that is the work of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission. Now, if any gentleman will take the pains to examine 

 the law under which the United States Fish Commission is con- 

 stituted, he will see that the sole purpose of the creation of that 

 commission was to procure scientific researches with reference 

 to the fishes, the fisheries and the food supply, and see what the 

 causes of the decrease were. It was also deemed proper under 

 the definition of that law to undertake experiments in artificial 

 propagation, but it was not the purpose of the United States 

 Fish Commission to stock the waters of the United States. The 

 procuring of information by scientific research, which we could 

 get in no other way, has been admirably done by the United 

 States Fish Commission. The planting of whitefish in the Great 



