American Fisheries Soctety. 187 
of one to two pounds at ten cents a bunch. Some 30,000 pounds 
were disposed of during the year of 1897, when we made a can- 
rass of the fisheries, and in 1902 the catch and sales had in- 
creased to 90,000 pounds, valued at $1,800. 
In the San Francisco market, where skates are eaten and vari- 
ous other things in the fish line that are not eaten in any other 
part of the United States, when sturgeon is scarce, skate is some- 
times used as a substitute. The second alternative is shark. This 
is sold in restaurants under the name of tenderloin of sole and I 
ask you to beware of the tenderloin that you in San Francisco, if 
you expect to get a tenderloin of a fish that does not occur in the 
United States. (Laughter. ) 
Many years ago there was established a special fishery for the 
common gar in the Neuse river in North Carolina, and although 
that special fishery no longer exists, I believe, still in that part 
of the state, as Mr. Worth knows, I dare say, gars are very com- 
monly eaten, usually by the negro population, but sometimes by 
white people, and one of the characteristic sights along the water 
front of the town of Newbern on the Neuse river, is a negro man 
with his foot on a gar ripping the skin off with a jack knife, and 
I am told gars never go begging in that region. They are easily 
marketed at five and fifteen cents apiece. I saw several sold by 
fishermen (who had brought them in with their herring) at fif- 
teen cents apiece. 
Mr. Lydell: I should judge from this paper and from the 
talk, that the United States Fish Commission would like to get 
rid of these dogfish; that they are a pest; therefore I move that 
they be classed with carp of Pennsylvania. 
Mr. Atkins: If think that was a good suggestion and would 
add that they both be brought into the market and used regularly 
for food and perhaps we shall conclude that instead of a curse 
they are a blessing. 
Mr. Seymour Bower: Speaking of the different kinds of fish 
that have become very valuable, but which were once of no value, 
there is no more striking illustration than the sturgeon of the 
Great Lakes. You can find commercial fishermen in Sandusky 
and Lake Erie alive today who remember when sturgeon were 
