AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1741 



have gradually become more and more insignificant. The magnates of 

 cod and mackerel from Gloucester and other ports, who had draped 

 themselves in lofty statistics for the Centennial, have come here to ex- 

 plain once more that all is not' gold that glitters. They took off their 

 Centennial costume, as people do after a fancy ball ; they humbled them- 

 selves to the last degree of mortification, contending that the gulf fish- 

 cries had reduced them to beggary, they having lost, some $325, others 

 only $128 on every trip they had made there during scores of years in 

 succession. People who do not know those hardy and courageous fish- 

 ermen of Gloucester would hardly believe that some of them have gone 

 through 170 trips consecutively without ever flinching in their Spartan 

 stoicism, under an average loss of $225 each trip ! Who should wonder 

 if, in their disgust of such an ungrateful acknowledgment, mackerel 

 should have gone to distant zones where they could be better appreci- 

 ated ! 



Cool philosophers thought they were bound to reduce to nine the 

 wonders of the world. They were mistaken. Here is that wonderful 

 town of Gloucester, State of Massachusetts, in the United States of 

 America, which has been built, and has grown up rich and prosperous, 

 by accumulating losses and ruins upon former losses and ruins. The 

 painful history of its disasters should be inscribed as the tenth wonder. 



Fishing, no doubt, like all other industries, has its fluctuations of suc- 

 cess and partial failure; but as it rests upon an inexhaustible supply to 

 be found somewhere, it never can be said to be an absolute failure. It 

 was only within a few years that experimental science was applied to 

 fish. Science is diffident, as shown by Professor Baird ; in fact, science 

 teaches uncertainty and unbelief, because the more a man learns, the 

 more he finds himself ignorant ; the more he labors to know if what he 

 thought to be one thing is not another thing. The witnesses from 

 Gloucester are foremost in that school of philosophers who doubt of 

 'their own existence. Their town is already a myth ; their families 

 would have soon been the same; and, alas! themselves, if they had been 

 too long before this Commission, would have to kick each other to know 

 whether they were myths or living beings. 



I will have a more fitting occasion for reviewing the evidence brought 

 on behalf of the United States generally. For the moment the contrast 

 was rather tempting between what Americans of our days thought of 

 our fisheries, and what their ancestors thought almost a century ago. I 

 proceed now to show that the British claim has been proved. 



Mr. DANA. That was as to the cod fishery. 



Mr. DOUTRE. I think they have made very little difference. 



Mr. DANA. Cod-fishing is prosperous now. 



Mr. DOUTRE. It must not be forgotten, as one of our learned friends 

 expressed himself in reference to other matters, they have now a point 

 to carry. When Mr. Adams was collecting his information he had no 

 point to carry, but simply to give a plain statement of facts. Those rich 

 fisheries, which were spoken of in such glowing terms in 1815 have, it is 

 asserted, declined to nothing, because we ask for their value. I never 

 heard the matter more plainly and squarely laid down than it was yes- 

 terday, by my learned friend, Mr. Whiteway, when he said, " Now, tl 

 you possess these fisheries, how much would you ask for their surrender 

 If we were to turn the tables, in this manner, we would see the ( 

 cester gentlemen coming here and describing the fisheries in Centennial 

 colors. 



Mr. DANA. Our testimony was all to the effect that the cod I 

 still profitable in Gloucester. 



