Statistics on American Fishertes. 99 
were brought inshore in great quantities, and we have many 
specimens, some not so much as an inch in length, and those 
young eels were in precisely the same localities where the 
large eels were in greatest quantities. The young were suf- 
ficiently abundant to warrant the assertion that the supply 
was not diminishing but that there is a young family of 
eels coming up every year. 
AFTERNOON SESSION. 
Proressor Goope produced a paper on “Statistics of 
American Fisheries.” In introducing the subject, he said: 
Professor Baird, in his report yesterday, treated of the im- 
portance of exact statistics for many purposes, and especially 
for use in the diplomatic relations of the government of 
the United States in treaties between Canada and this coun- 
try. When the United States Commission was summoned to 
Halifax last summer to give evidence before the Arbitration 
Committee, which was composed of a commissioner from the 
United States, one from England, and one appointed by the 
Emperor of Austria, to decide the question of the claim of the 
Dominion of Canada for remuneration for the use of their fish- 
eries, it was found that the United States had almost nothing 
in the shape of exact statistics to offer. The Canadian gov- 
ernment, on the other hand, had very valuable reports, col- 
lected by government officials for many years, in which the 
statistics of fisheries were given in the fullest detail. | In 
order to offset these statistics of the Canadian government, 
it was necessary to compile some sort of a counter-state- 
ment, giving the value of the United States fisheries; and 
this was done from matters in the records of the United 
States, from statistics furnished by various gentlemen, among 
whom was Mr. Blackford, and from replies to letters sent to 
