202 



NA TURE 



\yuly 16, 1874 



tlicm ; and, as they are in situ all the year round with- 

 out intermission, it is no wonder that the fisheries are 

 decreasing in value. The total abolition of these engines 

 is suggested as the only real remedy. But the Commis- 

 sioner is afraid that such a regulation would entail great 

 loss on the owners of such instruments, and would also 

 suddenly interfere with the supply of fish to the public. 

 These traps can fish without human help, while the more 

 legitimate fishermen's nets and gear can only be employed 

 in suitable weather. He recommends that an interval of 

 sixty hours every week should be enforced, during which 

 the use of traps and pounds should be absolutely inter- 

 dicted ; that an annual close time of fifty-six days, viz. 

 from April 20 to June 15, should be established, during 

 which the use of such engines should be prohibited ; and 

 that the licensing system adopted in England should be 

 introduced. 



This is certainly a step in the right direction, but we 

 venture to think that a diminution in the number of fixed 

 engines would be advisable, and that such diminution 

 should be partially enforced at once, and be gradually 

 continued till the whole of these instruments are abolished. 

 This need entail very little hardship on individuals, and 

 would certainly not interfere with the regular supply of 

 fish to the markets, while the eventual increase would 

 more than justify the enactment. 



In regard to the more purely sea fisheries, the simi- 

 larity between the British and American fisheries is 

 equally striking, while at the same time the rapidity with 

 which the produce of American waters has fallen off is 

 still more marked. On the English coasts the fisheries 

 are continually fluctuating, but in no part does the dimi- 

 nution in the capture appear to have been so great and 

 so permanent as it is recorded to be in America. The 

 curious extracts from works of two hundred years ago 

 testify to the great natural abundance of fish in the seas 

 adjoining to the American shores ; and, to come to more 

 recent years, the printed evidence of living fishermen 

 clearly shows that, for some reason or another, the sea 

 fisheries, like the river fisheries, are much less valuable 

 than they were thirty years ago. 



The principal fishes of the coast to which the volume 

 more particularly refers are the " blue fish " {Pomatomus 

 saltatrix), also called " horse-mackerel ; " the " scup " 

 [Pagnis or Stenotomus nrgyrops)," sqyicttagne" {Cynoscion 

 rcgalis), a species of bream; "menhaden" {Brevoorlia 

 menhaden), a species of herring ; sea bass and striped 

 bass {Roccus or Labrax Uncatus) ; mackerel {Scomber 

 scoinbriis), similar to the common European mackerel ; 

 "tautog" or black fish {Tautoga americand), of the 

 LabridiV, or wrasse family ; herring [CI 11 pea harengiis), 

 and cod, both of the well-known species. Of these, the 

 principal diminution has been found to have occurred 

 among the blue fish, the bass, the scup, and the tautog. 

 The former of these is a very voracious fish, rivalling the 

 shark in its powers of destruction, so much so that to its 

 agency has been ascribed the diminution of other kinds 

 of fish in localities where it is generally caught. But 

 since it has itself greatly diminished, it is hardly possible 

 that the decrease of other fish is attributable in any 

 degree to the depredations of one predaceous kind. 



Besides the above there are many other kinds of fish, 

 more or less valuable as food, and sought after also on 



account of the oil they yield, and for the purposes of 

 utilising them as manure, a complete list of which is given 

 by Prof. Baird. This list is most valuable as condensing 

 and correcting the various imperfect catalogues that have 

 from time to time been made, and as exemplifying the 

 natural richness and fertility of the seas on the seaboard of 

 the Eastern States. As an instance of the extreme difficulty 

 of accounting accurately for the increase and diminution 

 in the capture of fish, we may quote the unexpected 

 appearance of a species of Tunny, a kind of small horse- 

 mackerel {Orcyinis'lhunnind), which, though never pre- 

 viously recorded as having been caught on the American 

 coast, was found in great abundance in Menemsha Bight 

 by the Commissioner. The movements of fish are far more 

 difficult to watch and to account for than those of land-ani- 

 mals, and great difficulty is experienced in following them. 

 On some occasions a certain kind of fish has been very 

 abundant in one locality, while a short distance away 

 it has been very scarce ; and one fishing-ground has 

 been deserted one year, to be visited by large num- 

 bers the next year. One fallacy concerning the 

 movements of the American migratory fish seems quite 

 exploded. To quote Prof. Baird : — 



" It was formerly supposed that certain fish, as the her- 

 ring, the shad, and the alewivcs, with others of like habits, 

 prosecuted an extensive migration along the shores of the 

 ocean, covering, sometimes, thousands of miles in the 

 sweep of their travels ; and much eloquent writing has 

 been expended by such authors as Pennant and others in 

 defining the starting-point and terminus, as well as the 

 intermediate stages of the voyage. The shad, too, which, 

 as is well known, occupies all the rivers of the Atlantic 

 coast from Florida to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, was 

 thought to begin its course in the West Indies, and in an 

 immense body, which, going northward, sent a detach- 

 ment to occupy each fresh-water stream as it was reached, 

 the last remnant of the band finally passing up the St. 

 Lawrence, and there closing the course. We now, how- 

 ever, have much reason to think that in the case of the 

 herring, the shad, the alewife, and the salmon, the journey 

 is simply fiom the mouths of the rivers by the nearest 

 deep gully or trough to the outer sea, and that the ap- 

 pearar.ce of the fish in the mouths of the rivers along the 

 coast at successive intervals, from early spring in the 

 south to near midsummer in the north, is simply due to 

 their taking up their line of march, at successive epochs, 

 from the open sea to the river they had left during a pre- 

 vious season, induced by the stimulus of a definite tem- 

 perature, which, of course, would be successively attained 

 at later and later dates as the distance northward 

 increased." 



It seems pretty well established that, with the American 

 migratory fish, which enter fresh water to spawn, as with 

 the English salmon, the same individuals pass as nearly 

 as possible to the same river, or at least to the same 

 locality, and the same rule applies to their progeny — the 

 young fry appearing to return to the river in which they 

 were hatched. 



Of these migratory fish the salmon has been well nigh 

 exterminated, and the shad alone appears to keep up its 

 numbers. Whether or not this is altogether owing to the 

 exertions of the fish culturists, who have hatched artifi- 

 cially many millions of these fish and turned them into 

 the various rivers, it would be rash to say positively ; but 

 no doubt this means, and the erection of suitable fish- 

 passes to enable the fish to surmount the weirs, have had 

 a large part in elfecling this result. 



