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REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 201 
5. Notes on an improved form of oyster tongs. (Bulletin U. 8. Fish Commis- 
sion, IX, pp. 161-163, 1 plate.) 
The tongs described are adapted to deep-water fishing and may be 
successfully operated in 200 feet of water. The apparatus consists of 
two ‘curved iron bars riveted together, terminating in a series of 
teeth, and is manipulated by means of a rope. By its use large areas 
of natural oyster beds have been brought within reach of the boat fish- 
ermen, whose earnings have been considerably augmented. In places 
onthe Chesapeake Bay individual fishermen have, during some seasons, 
taken five times as many oysters with the new tongs as they could with 
the old form. The principle involved in this apparatus is of wide appli- 
cation in the fisheries, and will in time no doubt be extensively utilized 
in the clam, scallop, sponge, and other fisheries. 
REMARKS ON THE FISRERIES. 
Certain special matters having an important bearing on the commer- 
cial fisheries which have been brought to the notice of the office by its 
generai and local agents and correspondents may be properly men- 
tioned in this report. It is not the intention, however, to enter into an 
extended review of the condition of the fishing industry, a subject 
which will be fully treated of in the separate papers published by the 
office. 
The modus vivendi.—An important provision of the proposed fishery 
treaty between Great Britain and the United States was the so-called 
modus vivendi, which accorded to United States fishing vessels certain 
privileges in Canadian ports pending the ratification of the treaty. 
Although the latter was rejected by the United States Senate in 
August, 1888, the Canadian Government extended the operation of 
this part of the treaty, and numbers of American vessels have taken 
advantage of it. In 1888, 36 vessels from New England ports paid 
$3,831 for licenses obtained in Canada; the following year 78 vessels 
paid $9,589.50; and in 1890, 119 American fishing schooners took out 
licenses for which $14,461.50 was expended. The license fee is $1.50 
per net ton, and the privileges thereby secured are the right (1) to 
enter Canadian ports to buy bait, apparatus, and supplies, (2) to trans- 
ship the catch, and (3) to ship crews. The vessels engaging in the bank 
cod and halibut fisheries are those which have the greatest occasion to 
avail themselves of this regulation. 
KH ffects of abrogation of Washington treaty on the herring fisheries and 
the bait supply —A report on the fisheries of the New England States 
now being prepared will contain the following reference to the influence 
which the expiration in 1885 of the fishery treaty with Great Britain 
