EEGULATING THE FISHERIES BY LAW. 145 



bas ordered that fixed engines shall be done away with on the southern 

 coast of the State after the 1st of January, 1871 ; while now we have a 

 report from Rhode Island, forwarded to us by Mr. Spencer F. Baird, in 

 which it seems the committee have arrived at a similar opinion. The 

 report will not bear much dissecting, as it consists chietiy of a series of 

 questions answered by a number of ditferent persons. From th(51r evi- 

 dence it seems to be clearly proved that the methods of fishing by 

 means of traps, pounds, gill-nets, «&c., are too severe for the hsh, and 

 that few of them can now reach their spawning places, while every year 

 the total falls off; that whereas formerly scup, tautog, and other tish 

 were very abundant, they are now (particularly scup) growing very 

 scarce ; and therefore the committee recommend the State to pass a very 

 stringent act, prohibiting the setting of such traps and contrivances^ 

 under penalty of a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $300 for the 

 first offense, and not less than $500 nor more than $1,000, with impris- 

 oninent for not less than a month nor more than a year, for every other. 

 These are something like penalties, and x>rove that when our cousins 

 mean to prohibit a thing they are in earnest. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS 

 APPOmTED TO INQUIRE INTO THE SEA-FISHERIES OF 

 THE UNITED KINGDOM; PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES 

 OF PARLIAMENT BY COMMAND OF HER MAJESTY. LON- 

 DON, 1861.* 



To the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty : 



We, the undersig"ned commissioners, appointed by Your IMajesty to 

 inquire into the condition of the sea-fisheries of the United Kingdom of 

 G-reat Britain and Ireland, and especiallj- instructed by the terms of 

 Your Majesty's commission to ascertain, firstly, whether the supply offish 

 is increasing, stationary, or diminishing; secondly, whether any modes 

 of fishing which are practiced are wasteful or otherwise injurious to the 



"* This cominission, composed of James Caird, Professor T. H. Huxley, and George 

 Sliaw Lefevre, was aiipoiuted in 1883 by the Queen, to inquire into the follovriug 

 points : 



1st. Whether the supply of fish from the sea-fisheries is increasing, stationary, or 

 diminishing. 



2d. Whether any of the methods of catching fish in use in such fisheries involve a 

 wasteful destruction offish or spawn; and, if so, whether it is probable that any legis- 

 iKtive restriction upon such method of fishing would result iu an increase of the supply 

 offish. 



3d. Whether any existing legislative restrictions operate injuriously u^jon any of 

 such fisheries. 



The conclusions to which, the commissioner?, arrived have been vigorously assailed 

 by many writers, both iu this country and in Europe ; chief among the latter is a 

 French author, Rimbaud, whose protest is referred to in the report of the Mas- 

 sachusetts commissioners of fisheries for 1869, p. 60, and by Mr. G. H. Palmer, (p. 94,) 

 of the present report. It is upon the conclusiou of Professor Huxley and his associates 

 that Captain Atwood mainly relies for his argument in favor of free fishing, witliout 

 anyrestrictions. As has been shown by the first-mentioned writers, aud in my own report, 

 a distinction ia to be drawn between the shore and the outside or deep-sea fisheries, 

 and while the arguments of the British commissiouers apply essentially to the latter, 

 tiie questions in connection with the fisherKiS of the south'^side of Nt^v England are 

 rt'latcfl almost exclusively to the former. 



S. F. B. 



S. Mis. G1 10 



