AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2831 



ing establishments, perhaps you will state whether steam machinery is 

 not now used ? A. That is a device we have adopted this year for the 

 first time in hatching shad, in which, instead of depending on the nat- 

 ural current of the river usually employed, we make the trays filled with 

 spawn move up and down in the water in a continuous alternation, and 

 in that way hatching millions of eggs where formerly we could only hatch 

 thousands. 



Q. You can state a case showing the result of one year's experiment ? 

 A. We had eleven millions of shad in Susquebanna River in about three 

 weeks in May and June. 



Q. Can you state to the Commission the result of some fish operations 

 at Potomac River? A. The instance to which you refer is that of black 

 bass. The black bass is not indigenous to the Potomac River, and none 

 were in it. About two years ago half a dozen adult fish were placed in 

 the river, and it might now be said that the Potomac, with the excep- 

 tion of St. John's River, Florida, is the most prolific in black bass of any 

 stream in the United States. Over an extent of one hundred miles, the 

 fishing for black bass both for market and sport is unrivaled anywhere. 



Q. Without claiming too much for our people, are not the ingenuity 

 and industry of the American people in taking fish for consumption and 

 other uses on the one hand, and in propagating them on the other, very 

 great and very remarkable? How is that? A. The methods of fish 

 culture as practiced in the United States, and in Canada so far as they 

 cover the same ground, are, we think, better than those anywhere in .the 

 Old World, and both countries hatch fish by millions where thousands 

 are considered a large performance in Europe. The United States have 

 a single establishment in California at which more eggs are obtained 

 than are gathered by all European hatcheries put together. This year 

 we have taken about six million eggs, and we have taken as many as 

 eight millions in a year. We have an establish a? ent now on Columbia 

 River where we expect to hatch twenty millions of eggs. Three millions 

 of eggs, I may say, in illustration of magnitude, wojuld fill a hay-field cart 

 to its utmost capacity. 



Q. You have an estimate of the combined fishing of the United States 

 for the year 1876, including the Bank fishing? A. Yes. This is a table 

 of the product of the marine fisheries of the United States east of Cape 

 May within the treaty limits. The total product of the inshore fisheries 

 of that range^ the fish taken by boats from the shore, that taken by 

 seines, by traps, pounds, &c., amounts to 319,579,950 pounds, of a mean 

 value of $4,064,484. The total fisheries of the United States, inshore and 

 offshore within the limits, amount to 1,045,855,750 pounds, of the value 

 of 13,030,821. This is exclusive of any of the Southern fisheries, exclu- 

 sive of the lake fishery, of the whale, porpoise, and seal fishery, and of 

 the salmon, shad, and herring fishery. 



By Sir Alexander Gait : 



Q. Does it include the Grand Bank fishery and that at Georges? A. 

 Yes. 



By Mr. Dana : 



Q. It is exclusive entirely of the fresh-water fish of the lakes and 

 rivers, shad, herring, and salmon, of the whale and fur seal, of the oys- 

 ters, lobsters, and crabs. The total coast line on which the fisheries are 

 pursued is 1,112 miles, from Cape May to Eastport, including the islands. 

 The ratio to the mile is 940,510 pounds, the ratio of value is $11,718. 



Q. Will you state how the returns are obtained ? A. The figures in 

 regard to the herring, cod, and mackerel are obtained from the reports 



