76 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION, 
dence of God hath made Cape Cod commodious for us, for fish- 
ing with seines”’; implying that it might not be commodious for 
less religious persons. The act goes on to say that “careless 
persons” must not interfere with the said providence, ‘“ by leav- 
ing the garbage of fish to lie there.” 
The country had not been settled a half century before there 
was complaint of the diminution of fish. The act just quoted 
goes on to speak of the great inconvenience of taking mackerel 
at unseasonable times, whereby their increase is greatly dimin- 
ished, and a law was passed prohibiting the catching of fish be- 
fore they have ‘‘spaumed.” This shows that our ancestors were 
not more logical than most of their descendants, who still hold, 
that to take a fish when ripe for spawning is in some peculiar 
way destructive to the species. It is almost needless to say 
that fishes taken at any time of the year are killed before they 
have “spaumed.”’ The only reason that it is more destructive 
to take fish during the spawning season is because they are then 
tamer and are crowded together, so that greater numbers are 
likely to be captured. 
The river fisheries, too, call aloud for protection. In 1709, it 
was enacted “ That no weirs, hedges, fish garths, stakes, kiddles 
or other disturbance or encumbrance shall be set, erected or 
made on or across any river, to the stopping, obstructing or 
straightening of the natural or usual course and passage of fish 
in their seasons * * * without allowance first had, and ob- 
tained from the General Sessions of the Peace in the same coun- 
ty.” This law especially applied to such fishes as run up the 
rivers to spawn, salmon, shad and alewives. The Indians, in 
their day, were wont to construct weirs and the like obstructions 
to capture these fishes. But the Indians were few and were idle 
and wandering. They took only what was necessary for their 
present use. Now, however, had come the white men, who put 
up permanent abodes and increased in numbers, year by year. 
They were money-makers, who worked every day and all the day, 
They would catch fish, not for themselves only, but to sell to 
strangers; and so they have gone on ever since. Pawtucket 
Falls, on the Merrimac, where the Apostle Eliot spread his net 
of the gospel, now furnishes the water power for the great man- 
