122 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Sir, if we study them with refereuce to their longevity, we see marks 

 on thein indicating age : the loss of fins ; scars, where they have at 

 some time received wounds that have permanently healed; marks of 

 physical debility, which appear to be the result of advanced age. I 

 regret to say that no Linnaeus nor Ouvier, nor all the researches of sci- 

 ence have ever been able to give us any indication by which we may 

 know the age that fishes live with any degree of certainty. They pass 

 off and on the coast as the seasons change during their natural lives, 

 however long that may be. 



In view of all the foregoing facts, where is the danger of exhausting 

 our fishes'? I fail to see the danger of exterminating them. 



The British commission that was appointed in 1863 to investigate the 

 fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland visited nearly all the principal 

 fishing-places in the United Kingdom, and made a thorough investiga- 

 tiotti; asked and received answers to nearly sixty-two thousand ques- 

 tions. They came to the unanimous conclusion that there was no dan- 

 ger of exhausting the fisheries, either in the open sea or in any of the 

 arms or estuaries along the coast, with all that man could do, and finall}" 

 made their report to the British Parliament in 1806. 



There were persons that did not wholly agree with the British com- 

 missioners. One of the most prominent is J. B. A. Eimbaud, who has 

 l)ublished a work on the fishes of the southern coast of France. Him- 

 self a fisherman, he says that the migratory species, that go off to sea in 

 schools and return each season, cannot be diminished by over-fishing, 

 but local fishes can be exterminated by constantly fishing for them, and 

 such has been the case in the localitv where he had been accustomed to 

 fish. 



Of the two I allow Rimbaud to be the best qualified to judge, as he 

 has acquired his knowledge by x)ractical experience in the fisheries, and 

 the British commissioners had gained their information from others. 

 Sir, I hope I may not be charged with undervaluing scientific research; 

 no man has a higher appreciation of the labors of scientific men than 

 myself. Their kindness to me in aiding me in my investigations of fishes 

 has laid me under the greatest obligations. I owe to them a debt that 

 I can never repay. 



Sir, I call attention of senators at this board to the locality where 

 Rimbaud has gained his information — the southern coast of France. 

 France on the Mediterranean is not like our own coast. There the land 

 is high, and deep water near the shores. The area of fishing-grounds 

 is comparatively limited. Our own coast is Ioav, and shoal-water extends 

 off a great distance from tlie shore. Besides that, the great chain of 

 banks, commencing with Nantucket Shoals and running eastward a 

 thousand miles, and terminating with the ^reat Bank of Newfoundland, 

 gives us an immense area of fishing-grounds. 



On the coast of France there is not so great change of temperature 

 in the water from summer to winter as on our own coast. The Gulf 

 Stream comes out through the straits of Florida, running up the coast 

 to Cape Hatteras, from whence it turns eastward. As it passes it leaves 

 our New England out in the cold ; its course is onward until it reaches 

 the shores of Western Europe, making the water comparatively uniform 

 through the season. I ask, are not the fish on the coast of France more 

 permanently local than those on our own coast, where there are groat 

 changes of temperature from summer to winter? Tell me, sir, how 

 many are there of our fishes that are not more or less migratory. Sen- 

 ators will see that our fishes and fisheries are not like those of Europe. 



Mr. Rresident, lest I may be misunderstood, I desire to define my 



