PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 23 



some protection, and, by-aud-by, we may have a place tliat the tisli cau 

 go to and lay their spawn, and where the youno- tish can "row. 



Black-tish (tautog) we cauiiot get. Yesterday we had five men fish- 

 ing, and 27 pounds, 22 pounds, and 19 pouuds each was the best they 

 could do. If it was uot for lobsters, our fishermen could not get enough 

 for their breakfasts. 



We take striped bass in nets, at the mouth of Saughkonet Ri^er, and 

 at the back beaches. The fish run eastward in the spring, the same as 

 the geese go north. But black-fish and bass can be caught here all the 

 3'ear. I fish inside of tlie point in winter, and outside in summer. We 

 get bass through the ice, in winter 5 sometimes a barrel of them. They 

 go into the mud in eighty feet of water. The bass and tautog are a 

 native fish ; the blue-fish is a traveler, here to-day and gone to morrow. 

 I don't care anything about them. 



Shad are a fish that will run up the rivers annually if not hindered. I 

 have caught shad at Gooseberry Island, seven hundred a day, with a 

 trap-seine. That is no rig for catching shad 5 but if you go to work and 

 prepare for it, you can catch shad plenty. 



In regard to tautog, bass, and scup, we cannot make a living fishino- 

 for them, as we used to do. Many a man has been driven out of the 

 business. I could show you a dozen good boats rotting down, all gone 

 to destruction ; and the fishermen have taken to something else, which 

 they had no love for. It drives i)eople away from the State. We had 

 about three hundred fishermen here twelve years ago, who got their liv- 

 ing directly from fishing. That was their legitimate business, with the 

 drag-seine and hook; not with the purse-seine or trap. They did not 

 know anything about a trap till I set it. Two have been set there since. 



The men have left here and gone down off the Banks ; gone to ]^ew 

 London to go on board fishing- smacks ; gone to the eastward and to the 

 southward. It is depopulating our shores of the men of that class. 

 There are now only about fifty men fishing where we had three hundred; 

 and some of the old men remain, but all the young men have gone, the 

 fishing has been so killed out within the last five years. Instead of 

 fishing, those who remain have, many of them, gone to taking boarders. 

 Unfortunately I got broke down, and did not earn my salt ; but I have 

 followed the fishing business and have kept boarders. People come 

 here from abroad in the summer, for what ? Because Rhode Island has 

 been noted for hook-fishing. Dr. Babcock comes with his rod and reel 

 for striped bass. This year he has caught one ; that is all. Last year 

 he caught two. Many others have tried it, with no better luck. They 

 come here for fish ; they don't care anything about our stale meats, for 

 which I i)ay thirty cents a pound, that are brought from Cattaraugus 

 County, ^ew York. That is the change we have made ; we send fish 

 out at a cent and a quarter a pound, and they send us beef at thirty 

 cents a pound. Five hundred thousand dollars have been paid out to 

 build up Xarragansett Pier, for the purpose of a fishing-place. It is a 

 good, quiet neck, where they can go fishing, having a beach equal to 

 any ; and you may see a man with his whole family, each of them hav- 

 ing a rod trying to catch some fish. They catch anything they can, 

 and carry it home to have it cooked; and because they cannot get what 

 they used to, they give us the name of having depreciated the fish. 



The tautog and striped bass have diminished most ; that is, we feel 

 their loss most. 



Question. Supposing you were in the legislature, and wished to draw 

 up such a bin as would be fair and just to all parties, what would you 

 do so as to control the traps as to number, size, place, and time ? 



