420 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 
The investigations would have to be carried on at several points 
on the coast, as, for instance, the Vineyard Sound, the coast of Maine, 
the Bay of Fundy and perhaps the coast of New Jersey; and require 
several years for their completion. 
Yours truly, 
SPENCER F. Barrp. 
This letter was followed by interviews with Mr. 
Dawes and other members of the House Committee on 
Appropriations, and the same Committee of the Senate. 
In order that the subject might be more fully and clearly 
put before them the following letter was prepared and 
sent to the chairman of each committee: 
From Spencer F. Baird to Committee on Appropriations. 
SMITHSONIAN InstiTUTION, WasuincTon, D. C., January 3%, 1871. 
b ] b} yi 2 
Dear Sir, 
I take the liberty of embodying in the form of a letter, some of 
the ideas presented to you during our interview a few days ago, in 
reference to the subject of the food fishes of the New England Coast. 
During my visit of last Summer to the Vineyard Sound & other 
maritime portions of New England, I was much impressed by the great 
diminution in the numbers of the fish which furnish the Summer food 
supply to the Coast (as the Scup, Tautog, Herring, Sea Bass, Striped 
Bass, etc.) as compared with their abundance during a previous visit 
in 1863; & I found the same impression to be almost universal, on 
the part of those with whom I conversed on the subject. The belief 
is everywhere loudly expressed that unless some remedy be applied— 
whatever that may be—the time is not far distant when we shall lose, 
almost entirely, this source of subsistence & support—a calamity 
which would involve a vast number of evils in its train. 
The causes assigned by intelligent fishermen & residents along 
the coast, are very varied, most disinterested persons, however, 
ascribing the scarcity to the use of nets of one pattern or another, 
