CALLING FOR LEGISLATION. 327 



nearly two hundred manufactories were put in operation, and 

 the sails of menhaden boats enlivened Long Island Sound 

 throughout its length and breadth, their flocks of white wings 

 extending along the Atlantic shore for five hundred miles, as 

 if striving with the numerous shoals of porpoises to see which 

 could do the most harm to the fishing interest by robbing the 

 fishermen of the greatest amount of bait. But every year 

 since the shoals of menhaden have decreased in number, so 

 that while the fishermen begin to find the price of bait op- 

 pressive, some oil factories have been compelled to suspend 

 operations. It may be a question worthy of attention by po- 

 litical economists and statesmen whether menhaden oil manu- 

 factories should not be taxed out of existence for the injury 

 they are causing to the public ; for the oil companies offer in- 

 ducements which attract fishermen from their legitimate call- 

 ing, enhance the prices of most kinds of food-fishes, and thus 

 injure the public. 



Laws which should adequately encourage by premiums the 

 capture of the black porpoise and the puffer would greatly 

 improve the coast fisheries. This course was deferred until 

 the porpoises robbed some of the rivers of Ireland of their 

 salmon, by watching in large shoals at the mouths of rivers 

 when the salmon were returning to spawn. Already the 

 black porpoise the most injurious to food-fishes of all the 

 mammal tribes are becoming so numerous along the coast, 

 and in the bays and estuaries, that the fishermen rightly con- 

 sider them one of the principal causes of the annual decrease 

 of striped bass and many other excellent fishes. The valua- 

 ble oil of the porpoise would be a sufficient reward for its cap- 

 ture if the fishermen could be so encouraged as to induce 

 them to decline catching menhaden for oil mills, and bring 

 their forces to bear against the porpoise, the oil of which is 

 the finest in the world for jewelers' use, and the lubrication 

 of all machinery requiring a fine and pure article. 



By some such means as I have hinted at the shoals of food- 

 fishes may be checked in their eastern migrations, and in- 



