PLEADINGS. 223 



and valuable, but, in my judgment, tliej are destructive and to the de- 

 triment of bay fishing just in proportion to their value. 



It has been suggested outsicle that the traps might be allowed to take 

 fish three days out of a week. 



In answer "to this, I would simply say that if one of my theories is true, 

 viz, that the same schools remain in the same locality, then these fish 

 could all be taken just as well in three days as in a week, and the privi- 

 lege would be as injurious as if they continued as formerly. 



If the committee is satisfied that the breaking up of the traps at 

 Seaconnet Point in 1862, and the comparative abundance of scup the 

 same season in the bay, have any relation or connection with each other, 

 I would respectfully say that this is sufficient ground to predicate a 

 just claim on the part of hook-and-line fishermen and others, that the 

 experiment shall be tried again. 



These trappers have enjoyed the privilege of catching fish freely and 

 uninterruptedly for nearly or quite twenty-six years. We now ask that, 

 upon the evidence and opinion as to their injurious effect on other fish- 

 ings, the opposing interest maybe allowed a reasonable time to prove, 

 by a full and unobstructed trial, whether the traps are the chief cause 

 of this scarcity. From the probable fact that scup live about three 

 years, that length of time ought to be taken. If at the end of that 

 l)eriod our waters do not satisfactorily show, an abundance of scup, I 

 for one will cheerfully abandon all further opposition to the employment 

 of any and all kinds of traps. 



That the experiment should be fairly made, it is essential that all the 

 waters should be protected, otherwise no one will be satisfied or con- 

 vinced by any trial that may be made. 



ABSTEAOT OF A:N ADDEESS BY CAPTAI]^ NATHA:NflEL E. 

 ATWOOD, I:N OPPOSITION TO LEGISLATION. 



Before the senate committee of Rhode Island legislature, January session. 



1872. 



We find uiion examination that changes take place in a series of years 

 in the great category of fishes, for which we can assign no reason. In 

 Massachusetts Bay and along the coast of our State the kinds of fish 

 are not the same to day that they were in the days of our boyhood. 

 Those that were most abundant then have suffered great diminution, 

 and sometimes have totally disappeared, perhaps never to return ; while 

 other varieties have perhaps, after gradually diminishing more and more 

 for a series of years, increased again and become as abundant as before. 

 Other species have come among us that were utterly unknown in our 

 youthful years. 



It is very important that in studying the science of fisheries, we should 

 make ourselves familiar with the habits of migration of fish, the pecu- 

 liarities of their food, and their times of depositing their spawn. This 

 last is very difficult to ascertain with regard to many species. The 

 statements of fishermen concerning it are not to be relied upon ; for, as a 

 class, they notice the fish which they take only in so far as their own 

 pecuniary interest is concerned. 



One of the most important among the fishes of our New England 

 coast is the common mackerel. It is well known tliat mackerel are a 

 migrato/y fish and are only with us a pare of the season. At tlie pres- 



