this briiuch of State industry witli vigor, while her \vat;n-.sare 

 yet comparatively bountifully supplied. 



The record, of the results obtained in other countries, and 

 in those States which have bestowed a fostering care on their 

 fisheries, enables us to report that we can^ at no great ex- 

 pense, make our rivers and bays, even more productive than 

 they ever have been, and the best food fishes more abundant 

 tlian when the earliest settlers of this country commenced 

 tlieir destruction. 



The natural geographical advantages oi" tlie State of Alary- 

 iland, are so great that no effort should be wanting to make 

 our Maters, cuie-fifth the whole area, yield their utmost abund- 

 ance. The rivers of the more Southern States are year by 

 year becoming more and more depleted, and their unhap])y 

 condition both pecuniarily and politically renders it improb- 

 able that they will be able for many years to do anything 

 towards the restoration of their fisheries. The spring fishes 

 of tlie Chesapeake Bay, being tlie earliest in market, will 

 command the most remunerative pi ices, and the great railroad 

 facilities, and the improved means of traiis[jorting Iresh fish 

 to the interior, by the use of ice, and refrigerating ears, ren- 

 ders it impossible to so overstock the market, that tjic capture 

 of our best ibod fishes would be unremunerati\'e. ♦ 



Co-OPEKATION OF Va., OX TUE POTOMAC 



Your Excellency appreciating the necessity lor the co-opera- 

 tion of the State of Virginia, in any eftbrts to he made for the 

 restoration of the fisheries of this most important and produc- 

 tive river, insti'ucted one of your Commissioners to visit 

 Richmond, the (leneral Assembly of Virginia, being then in 

 session, making him the bearer of a letter to Plis Excellency 

 G-overuor Kemper, in Avhich his attention was called to the 

 action taken by the State of Maryland_, for the increase of 

 fishes, and urging concurrent action by the State of Virginia, 

 S'O iar as the Potomac was concerned. Your Commissioner 

 was cordially received by His Excellency, who expressed his 

 hearty desire for co-operation in the work, and placed him in 

 communication with the Committee ''on the Chesapeake Bay 

 and its Tributaries" to whom the subject was referred. Your 

 Commissioner v/as invited by the Chairman (General Talia- 



