1686 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



price, and they are considered by the Southern people a much superior article of 



*O Is it preferred to mackerel as a salted fish ? A. The persons familiar with mack- 

 erel and with mullet from whom I have made inquiries (I have never tasted salt mullet) 

 eive the preference to mullet. It is a fatter, sweeter, and better fish, and of rather larger 

 *ize They grade np to 90 to a barrel of 200 pounds, and go down to three-quarters of 

 a pound, aiid as a salt fish the preference is given by all from whom I have inquired, 



u Do vou think the failure of the mackerel market in the Southern and Southwest- 

 ern State's is largely attributable to the introduction of mullet ? A, I cannot say that, 

 but 1 imagine it must have a very decided influence. 



Q. Can the mullet be caught as easy as mackerel ? A. More easily. It is entirely a 

 shore tish, and is taken with seines hauled up on the banks by men who have no capital, 

 but who are able to command a row boat with which to lay out their seines, and they 

 sometimes catch 100 barrels a day per man, and sometimes as many as 500 barrels have 

 been taken at a single haul. The capital is only the boat, the seine 100 or 200 yards 

 long, the salt necessary for preserving the fish, and splitting boards and barrels. 



Q. Can pounds be used ? A. They have not beeu used, and I doubt whether they 

 could be used ; pounds are not available in the sandy regions of the South. 



Q. They are taken by seining ? A. Yes, seines can be used. This work is entirely 

 prosecuted by natives of the coast, and about two-thirds of the coast population are 

 employed in the capture of those fish. 



y. Then the business has grown very much ? A. It has grown very rapidly. 



Q. When was it first known to you as a fish for the market ? A. I never knew any- 

 thing about it until 1*72. 



Q. Tl;en it has been known during only five years? A. I cannot say; it has been 

 known to me that length of time. 



Q. During that time the business has very much increased ? A. I am so informed; 

 I cannot speak personally. All my information of it is from reports made to me in 

 replies to circulars issued in 1872 and 1873. I have not issued a mullet circular since 

 that time, when I issued a special circular asking information regarding the mullet. 



Q. Then it is your opinion that the mullet has become, to some extent, and will be- 

 come an important source of food-supply? A. It is destined, I suppose, to be a very 

 formidable rival and competitor of the mackerel. I know, in 1872, a single county in 

 North Carolina put up 70,000 barrels of mullet, a single county out of five States cov- 

 ering the mullet region. 



Your honors will recollect, as a striking illustration of the truth 01 

 the power of propagation, the statement of Professor Baird in regard to 

 the River Potomac, where a few black bass, some half dozen, were pat 

 into the river, and in the course of a few years they were abundant 

 enough to supply the market. Fish culture has become a very impor- 

 tant matter, and what we call in Xe<w England our " ponds," small 

 lakes, and rivers, are guarded and protected, and every dam built 

 across any river where anadromous, or upward-going fish, are to be 

 found, has always a way for their ascent and descent ; so that every- 

 thing is done to increase the quantity, kind, and value of all that sort 

 of lish, making the salted mackerel less important to the people and in 

 the market. 



Then the improved methodsof preserving fish are astonishing. I think 

 the evidence on that point was principally from Professor Baird, who has 

 described to us the various methods by which fish, as well as bait, may be 

 preserved. He told us that for months, during the hottest part of the 

 exhibition season at Philadelphia, during our Centennial year, fish were 

 kept by these improved chemical methodsof drying, and methods ot 

 freezing, so that after mouths the Commissioners ate the fish and found 

 them very good eating. There was no objection whatever to them, 

 although, of course, they were not quite as good as when they were 

 entirely fresh. So that all science seems to be working in favor V di*- 

 ribntion, instead of concentration, of what is valuable for human cou- 

 Humptioii ; and the longer we live and the more science advances the 



w can any one nation say to the fishermen of another, Thus far and 

 no farther. We turn upon such an attempt at once and say, " Very 

 well ; if you choose to establish your line of exclusion, do it'. If you 



