8 INLAND FISHERIES COMMISSIONERS REPORT. 



Section 9. — To save expense to the State in event of prosecution. 



Section 10. — Because gill netting and fyke netting do less harm 

 to our bay fisheries than any other ways of fishing where nets are eni- 

 j^loyed. The gill nets only take fish of a certain size, and the fykes 

 are used almost entirely in the spring for the catching of flounders or 

 flat fish. 



The abundance of fish in our bay the past season has been a cause 

 of remark and congratulation on all sides. Scup of large size have 

 been plentiful; tautog or black fish, also, and the quantity of young blue 

 fish and sqnitague taken at the head of the bay, and even at the head 

 of navigation on the Seekonk River, at Pawtucket, has been entirely 

 without precedent, affording enjoyment and profit to a very large 

 number of the good people of this State. This may be attributed to 

 two causes or a combination of two causes. First, the weekly close- 

 time as provided by chapter 751, section 1 ; and, second, an exception- 

 ally abundant season for these sorts of fish, due to favorable circum- 

 stances at the spawning season, etc. 



The advocates of the close-time law have every reason to congratu- 

 late themselves on its success the past season, but at the same time 

 they should be prepared not to be discouraged in the event of a scarcity 

 of fish in years yet to come. 



During the past summer Prof. Spencer F. Baird, U)iited States 

 Commissioner spent the whole of his very valuable time in Newport, 

 himself and his force of trained assistants studying the fisheries of Nar- 

 ragansett Bay and vicinity. The people of the State of Rhode Island 

 are to be congratulated that this, the foremost man in the world in 

 knowledge of fish and fisheries both practically and scientifically, has 

 been among us to tell us what is best to do. When he speaks, it will 

 be well for us to listen. He proposes to return again next season and 

 continue his observations. 



When a law is enacted to provide for the general public good, and 

 encroaches, as in all cases it must, on the interests and privileges of a 

 small class, it is always the case that such law, beneficial as it may be 

 for the general public, is defied by some individuals of the class who 

 imagine themselves injured by it. Mr. King, of Jamestown, having 



