200 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



west passage and not by Stone Bridge, and to regain their course will 

 not go down to the sea through Stone Bridge, but return b3^ the west 

 passage round Brenton's Eeef, and then eastward. 



All these are presented to subserve the purpose, and the only purpose, 

 of preserving the great trapping-ground at Seaconnet Point from being 

 interfered with. So long as the trapping at this locality is not restrained, 

 the main opposers to a law to this end are indifferent, and do not care 

 what the law is. 



Not a. word has been said in defense of trapping at other iDlaces, ex- 

 cept so far as these interests could not be separated. 



As this locality is the great head and front of the trapping interest, 

 my attention will be chiefly confined to the discussion of matters con- 

 nected with it. • 



The actual facts, shown by the testimony of the trapping interest, are 

 substantially these : 



That scup begin to appear at Seaconnet Point and along the coast in 

 schools, and in three runs, of which the first remains about a week, the 

 second follows immediately after and remains about ten days, when it is 

 followed by the third. 



That the two first runs are full of spawn, some of them spawaiing 

 when taken -, are sluggish, not moving faster than two or three miles an 

 hour; will not bite at the hook; apparentl^^ do not eat; and when 

 opened, nothing is found within them. 



That at this period they are a surface fish. After they have spawned, 

 the schools break up and scup become a bottom fish. 



That the first run is to the second run as about 1 to 50. 



That the traps are set so as to take the fish coming, as they allege, 

 but do not prove, from the eastward. 



• That they were first set at Seaconnet Point in 1845, and none were set 

 west of Brenton's Eeef until after 1860. 



That from 1823 to 1845 scup were very plenty above Stone Bridge, 

 and from 1845 they have gradually been growing scarcer. 



That in 1870 and 1871 from 15,000 to 20,000 barrels were caught each 

 year. 



FISHINa. 



Upon the evidence it is shown, that about the year 1823 purse-seines 

 were used both at Seaconnet Point and also above Stone Bridge, about 

 Common Fence Point, and at the latter place scup w^ere caught in great 

 quantities. That in 1845 or 1840 traps were first set at Seaconnet Point. 

 That from the year 1845 scup began to diminish in numbers, especially 

 above Stone Bridge, and a few years back purse-seining had been aban- 

 doned at this neighborhood on account of the scarcity. 



In the opinion of Messrs. Eice, Barney, Steere and Thurber, the only 

 witnesses who appeared on the part of the hook andline interest, this 

 scarcity is attributable to the traps of all kinds. On the part of the trap- 

 l)ers it is denied that the traps at Seaconnet Point (the only interest 

 represented) have any effect on the number, but that it is owing to the 

 impurities of the water, w^ant of food, destruction by horse-mackerel and 

 other fish, and that the scup are changing their grounds and seeking 

 new homes; aiul in the opinion of some, that the passage of steamboats 

 up and down the river frightens them off'. These are not alluded to in 

 the respondent's argument, nevertheless I believe it important for me to 

 do so. 



