Catiine For LEGIsLAtion, 827 
nearly two hundred manufactories were put in operation, and 
the sails of menhaden boats enlivened Long Island Sound 
throughout its length and breadth, their flocks of white wings 
extending along the Atlantic shore for five hundred miles, as 
if striving with the numerous shoals of porpoises to see which 
could do the most harm to the fishing interest by robbing the 
fishermen of the greatest amount of bait. But every year 
since the shoals of menhaden have decreased in number, so 
that while the fishermen begin to find the price of bait op- 
pressive, some oil factories have been compelled to suspend 
operations. It may be a question worthy of attention by po- 
litical economists and statesmen whether menhaden oil mann- 
factories should not be taxed out of existence for the injury 
they are causing to the public; for the oil companies offer in- 
ducements which attract fishermen from their legitimate call- 
ing, enhance the prices of most kinds of food-fishes, and thus 
injure the public. 
Laws which should adequately encourage by premiums the 
capture of the black porpoise and the puffer would greatly 
improve the coast fisheries. This course was deferred until 
the porpoises robbed some of the rivers of Ireland of their 
salmon, by watching in large shoals at the mouths of rivers 
when the salmon were returning to spawn. Already the 
black porpoise—the most injurious to food-fishes of all the 
mammal tribes—are becoming so numerous along the coast, 
and in the bays and estuaries, that the fishermen rightly con- 
sider them one of the principal causes of the annual decrease 
of striped bass and many other excellent fishes. The valua- 
ble oil of the porpoise would be a sufficient reward for its cap- 
ture if the fishermen could be so encouraged as to induce 
them to decline catching menhaden for oil mills, and bring 
their forces to bear against the porpoise, the oil of which is 
the finest in the world for jewelers’ use, and the lubrication 
of all machinery requiring a fine and pure article. 
By some such means as [have hinted at the shoals of food- 
fishes may be checked in their eastern migrations, and in- 
