234 



NATURE 



Sjfune 27, 1878 



their own, if it be not placed under provident restraint. 

 Not only the fishermen of the United States, but those 

 of France also, are supplied with cod-bait from the New- 

 foundland herring-grounds; and from recent arrange- 

 ments for storing the bait-fish in ice, the capture of 

 herrings for this purpose is being carried on with in- 

 creased vigour. " So urgent is the demand for bait, and 

 so entirely dependent are the cod and halibut fisheries 

 upon a sufficient supply, that the fisheries may be said to 

 be altogether dependent upon its being available, either 

 naturally or stored near at hand, in a fresh and suitable 

 condition." "The importance of these facilities for pro- 

 curing bait only stands out in its true relief, when com- 

 pared with what would be the condition of affairs if the 

 fishermen of the United States did not enjoy a sufficient 

 supply." 



The Capelin and Launce, also, though of comparatively 

 little value as human food, are of great importance as 

 bait-fishes ; the former supplying the cod fisheries of 

 Labrador (where they sometimes abound to such a degree 

 that at the spawning season their shoals are often 

 stranded along the shore), and coming south as far as 

 the Grand Banks ; whilst the latter often visit the Banks 

 in such enormous numbers as to give to the sea quite a 

 glittering aspect. The resort of capelin to the New- 

 foundland fishing-grounds is less regular than that of 

 herring, and it has been found necessary, in order to 

 prevent the destruction of this most important attraction 

 to the cod, to prohibit the use of capelin as manure. 



The Mackerel is another very important food-fish, 

 which, though an inhabitant of the United States coast 

 much further south than the herring, is especially 

 abundant in northern waters, and has always formed an 

 important component of the produce of the Dominion 

 fisheries, the value of the catch in some seasons exceed- 

 ing that even of the cod. The supposed migrations of 

 the mackerel from warm southern waters to cooler seas 

 during the summer months, like the mythical wanderings 

 of the herring to polar seas during the winter season, or 

 the equally fanciful migrations of the cod to spawning- 

 grounds on the Norwegian coast, have disappeared before 

 the test of rigid inquiry; the fact being that different 

 schools of mackerel inhabit different parts of the western 

 shore of the Atlantic, from Greenland to Cape Hatteras ; 

 wintering in deeper water, and approaching the shore in 

 the spawning season. The time of this approach varies 

 with the temperature of the locality, the fish making their 

 appearance earliest in southern latitudes, and progres- 

 sively later in the spring and summer in proportion as 

 the latitude is higher and the temperature of the sea 

 lower. The spawn is not deposited on the bottom like 

 that of the herring, but floats on the surface like that of 

 the cod ; and the young, when hatched, seems to pass 

 the earlier part of its life in coastal waters. Though the 

 schools of mackerel wander a good deal in the summer 

 months, their wanderings do not appear usually to extend 

 far from their birthplace, and seem mainly to have refer- 

 ence to food-supply, which consists of small fish-fry, 

 entomostraca, and other inhabitants of surface-waters, 

 the relative abundance of which is greatly determined by 

 prevalent winds, while the stratum in which they swim is 

 mainly determined by temperature. 



For this and other reasons not yet fully known, the 

 fluctuations in the productiveness of the Mackerel fishery 

 are much greater than those of the Cod and Herring 

 fisheries, especially on the New England coast ; and 

 thus the unrestricted admission of United States fisher- 

 men to the Dominion waters is a privilege of great value, 

 of which they have largely availed themselves. Mackerel- 

 catching is a special industry, and requires sea-going 

 vessels. The boat-equipment common throughout British- 

 American waters is wholly unsuited to the pursuit of the 

 mackerel, immense schools of which are frequently left 

 unmolested in the Gulf and on the coasts of Newfound- 



land, in consequence of the fishermen being unprovided 

 with suitable vessels and fishing-gear.^ Hence the 

 greater part of the mackerel fishery in these waters has 

 hitherto been carried on by United States fishermen ; 

 but there is, of course, no reason, save a want of enter- 

 prise, why those of the Dominion should not prosecute it 

 with equal success. 



From all this it is clear that if the United States fisher- 

 men were limited to their own waters, they would speedily 

 exhaust the supplies of the " commercial fish " required 

 not merely for the supply of food to a vast population, 

 but for the supply of bait, fish-oil, and fish-guano — toge- 

 ther constituting a drain which far exceeds the natural 

 resources of the limited area along the United States 

 coast inhabited by the cod and other deep-sea fish, as is 

 fully admitted by Prof. Spencer Baird, the United States 

 Commissioner. And thus the free admission of United 

 States fishermen to the fisheries of the Dominion, which 

 are not only unexhausted but apparently inexhaustible (if 

 only placed under reasonable restrictions), is a privilege 

 of enormous value, which should be met on the other 

 side in a spirit of fair reciprocity. 



How far this spirit has been exhibited on the part of 

 the Legislature of the United States — which, after agreeing 

 to an arbitration for the settlement of the amount to be 

 paid in compensation, is now raising technical objections 

 to the award, and protesting strongly against its justice, — 

 is not a matter for our consideration ; but we cannot 

 conclude without adverting to one point which seems to 

 have received insufficient attention. 



While the coastal waters of the United States are in 

 great measure unfitted by temperature for the mainten- 

 ance of the "commercial" fishes, they are peculiarly 

 adapted for the natural growth and artificial production 

 of different species of shell-fish ; some of which are 

 chiefly useful as bait, whilst the Oyster not only supplies 

 the wants of American consumers, but has become a large 

 article of export. The Oyster-industry in the United 

 States now far exceeds in value the aggregate of the 

 deep-sea fisheries ; its head-quarters being Chesapeake 

 Bay, " a magnificent basin in which Providence seems 

 to hare accumulated every necessary condition for forming 

 an admirable locality for the fishery," so that the oysters 

 inhabiting it do not need culture, but are at once fit for the 

 market. The transport of these oysters to the Northern 

 and Eastern States employs quite a fleet of schooners ; and 

 the amount of oyster-shells calcined for Ume is almost 

 incredible, the profit derived from the shells at Baltimore 

 alone amounting in 1857 to more than 120,000 dollars. 



Now the Treaty of Washington having limited the 

 taking of shell-fish to the citizens of the nationality in 

 which they are found, British American fishermen are 

 completely excluded from the Oyster-industry of the United 

 States, without possessing any corresponding advantage ; 

 for the temperature and other conditions of the Dominion 

 coast are just as ««favourable to the growth of oysters 

 and other esculent shell-fish, as those of the United States 

 coast are favourable ; so that, as its produce has no com- 

 mercial value, "the reciprocity is all on one side." 



The different fisheries of the United States coast have 

 been long pursued with the ability and energy which 

 distinguish the American people ; but it has been clearly 

 pointed out by the officers employed both by the United 

 States Government and by the several States' Govern- 

 ments, that a decline in the productiveness of the fisheries 

 has of late been going on along the greater part of the 

 coast, and that this decline is due to excessive capture, 

 especially of spawning fish. Through the obstruction and 



' It is worth notice that the abundance of mackerel on the north-east 

 coast of Newfoundland was for many years so great, tha' t"^ "*•» 

 were nat only used for manure, but gave such trouble to the tishermen 

 engaged in the cod and herring fishery, that their subsequent dimmution 

 was lattributed by the fishermen to their having been ' cursed ofl the 

 coast. 



