136 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
Although it was so recently as 1899 that the first lot of frogs was 
introduced on the island of Hawaii, they have increased so rapidly 
around Hilo that many are now shipped to San Francisco, and the 
Honolulu market is also supplied from this section. This industry 
has not been so suecessful on the other islands, however. 
One of the most peculiar features of the Hawaiian fisheries has been 
the well-developed principle of private ownership of fishes found in 
the open sea and bays to within a certain prescribed distance from 
shore. This being contrary to American practice, the enabling act 
which admitted the islands as a territory in 1900 provided for the 
extinguishment of these rights on June 14, 1903, and fixed the manner 
of adjudication in the courts. In the lower courts the claims of the 
fishery owners were denied, it being decided that their fisheries did 
not constitute a vested right. One case, however, in which the fishery 
right was specifically mentioned in the amictnel an was appealed to 
the United States Supreme Court, which in April of this year (1904) 
rendered a decision sustaining the claim. This decision will doubtless 
settle the status of all similar claims pending. y. There are a number of 
claims, however, in which the fishery is not specifically mentioned in 
the original ¢ erants, and these will doubtless have to be passed upon 
by the Supreme Court eventually. 
FISHERIES OF THE INTERIOR LAKES AND STREAMS OF NEW YORK AND 
VERMONT. 
A canvass of the commercial fisheries of this region was made in the 
fall of 1908, and the industry was found to be c neice’ on in the fol- 
lowing waters: Lakes Bear, Cassadaga, Canandaigua, Cayuga, Cham- 
plain, Chautauqua, Cone: George, Keuka, Mill Site, Oneida, Onon- 
daga, Otsego, Owasco, ee, and Skaneateles, and the Oneida and 
Seneca rivers in New York and Lake Champlain in Vermont. A few 
other lakes and streams were visited in both States, but as they have 
no commercial fisheries they are not enumerated. 
The only other canvass of this region made by the Bureau was in 
1896, when data were collected for the calendar year 1895. A compar- 
ison of the figures for the two years shows a most gratifying increase in 
every particular, In New York in 1895 the number of fishermen was 
543, while in 1902 there were 804, a gain of 261. The total invest- 
ment in 1895 was $19,745. In 1902 it had increased to $25,291, a eain 
of $5,546. In 1895 the total catch was 754,730 pounds, valued at 
$60,086, while in 1902 it was 1,530,918 Stonnids. valued at $87,897, a 
gain of 776,168 pounds and $27,811. The interior waters of this State 
produce more muskellunge and smelt than the fresh waters of any 
other state in the Union, while they lead all other waters, except the 
Great Lakes, in the c cn of bullheads, pickerel, wall-eyed pike, yellow 
perch, and suckers. 
