AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2829 



eastern end of Cape Cod, on the south coast of Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island only. 



Q. Nx>t the western part of Rhode Island ? A. It includes the whole 

 of Narraganset Bay. It does not include Long Island, where there are 

 a great many pounds, or the most westerly part of Rhode Island. 



Q. Are all these pounds of fish capable of being used, and are used 

 for food? A. There is a large catch of menhaden in that 15 millions. 



Q. How many miles of coast-line does that catch represent? A. 

 About 250 miles of coast-line. 



Q. Have you made up a calculation of the ratio of the catch per mile T 

 A. Lhave the ratio of 137,097 pounds of fish to the line or mile. 



Q. And to the men ? A. The ratio of the catch is 78,610 to each man. 

 The total value of the weir catch at the lowest wholesale rate is $847,900 ; 

 at the lowest retail rate, $1,472,438; at a mean rate between the two, 

 which perhaps more exactly represents the value, $1,160,168. That, 

 however, is the catch of that region only with traps and pounds ; there 

 is also a very large catch with hand-lines, gill-nets and seines. This is 

 but for 94 weirs and traps. The aggregate catch of the entire fishery 

 on the south coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts is 45.917,750 

 pounds, of the mean value of $1,875,840, which gives a ratio of 133,671 

 pounds per linear mile, and equivalent to $7,504 to the linear mile. The 

 yield in the trap and pound fishery is over 78,610 pounds to the man, of 

 a money value of $2,661, being the product of each man's labor for an 

 average not exceeding four months. That sum, to bring it to the annual 

 amount, will have to be multiplied by three; each man thus would pro- 

 duce $8,000 worth a year by this mode of fishing. 



Q. You do not mean to say that each man makes that amount? A. 

 No ; but that is the ratio of fish to the man. Those pounds are gener- 

 ally owned by at least one of the men who run them, who sometimes 

 hire what additional assistance they require ; perhaps, however, in half 

 of the cases the owners manage the pounds and have no division of 

 profits. 



Q. Those statistics were prepared to show the amount of the fish, in- 

 cluding the fresh fish as well as those salted ? A. None of these are 

 salted except such of the salted menhaden as is for food. They do not 

 enter into the returns of pickled fish. These fresh fish go almost exclu- 

 sively to New York, very few to Boston. 



Q. It seems strange that you should be able to know the amount of 

 fresh fish that passes into the great city and what is caught every day. 

 What method have you adopted to ascertain those facts ? A. The entire 

 fresh-fish trade of New York is confined to nineteen firms which form 

 the Wholesale Dealers' Association, to whose books and figures I have 

 had access through and by the assistance of the large and retail dealer 

 in New York, Mr. Blackford, who has taken great interest in my inves- 

 tigations and is a very hearty coadjutor. He has succeeded in interest- 

 ing those dealers, and 1 have just prepared a series of blanks in which 

 I hope to have the dealers record all the catches of fish every day and 

 give me the returns. 



Q. You have no doubt from your relations with the dealers who con- 

 trol the market that you know substantially the catch ? A. I cannot 

 say ; I know the maximum catch on the coast, but I know I have reason 

 to rely upon the figures of the fish that is actually marketed and comes 

 into the hands of the wholesale men. 



Q. A large amount escapes notice? A. Yes; all the* local catch, the 

 catch of fishermen which goes for their own benefit and is consumed on 



