REGULATION OF THE SEA-FISHERIES BY LAW. 81 



Scup, as an article of food, were little prized until, by the aid of ?raps, 

 ice, and steamboats, fish were utilized as such over a large area of 

 country ; and the immense demand thus created required a vast amount 

 to satisfy it, and has operated to build up this branch of industry to its 

 present magnitude. 



OVER-FISHING. 



That every fish caught makes one less in the water is true, but if that 

 one, if left, would destroy ten others, then the catching of that one saves 

 the other ten. This may not apply to scup as to more destructive kinds, 

 as horse-mackerel, squeteague, sharks, dog-fish, porpoises, &c. ; but in 

 some measure it may apply to scup, for aught we know. 



It is known that herring destroy their own spawn, and we believe that 

 all others would in a case of scarcity of food. 



The small horse-mackerel are often the little bait upon which many 

 fish feed, and we very much doubt whether their own fathers and 

 mothers would stop to discriminate between their own and the young 

 of another. 



That it is possible to so diminish their numbers by fishing that those 

 remaining cannot repair the loss, independent of the vicissitudes of 

 ordinary fish-life, we cannot believe. They are scattered over so much 

 ground that all the devices of man can never reduce their number, with- 

 out some great auxiliary aid from nature more destructive than anything 

 man can devise, although it may be, when natural conditions are such 

 that they must diminish, from year to year, as some species have, to the 

 point of extermination — then it may be that fishing may hasten ; but, 

 as has been said by others, " Under favorable conditions, no amount or 

 kind of fishing can ever make any material diminution of the fish of the 

 sea : 1, because of the small proportion of the whole number that can be 

 caught by any means possible, scattered as they are over so great an 

 area ; 2, because of their vast reproductive powers, requiring but a small 

 number to keep the stock good; 3, because the same means that are 

 used to catch food-fishes are equally destructive to other fish, their ene- 

 mies, the destruction of one of which saves numbers that would other- 

 wise be destroyed. 



IMPURITIES. 



That the great amount of impurities that are emptied into the waters 

 of this bay from the sewerage of cities, the debris of manufactories, and 

 the accumulation of filth from various sources; the ashes of steamers 

 and other substances thrown into the water, while it may not be un- 

 favorable to some kinds, it seems impossible that it should not affect 

 others that inhabit the pure waters of the ocean for a large part of the 

 year. 



We know it is said that the impurity either rises on the top or settles 

 to the bottom, and that between these two extremes the water is pure. 

 In some degree we think this true, and to the measure of its truth we 

 ascribe the presence of what we have of the sea-fish in the upper waters 

 of the bay. 



Fish, coming to our coasts in schools, swim near the surface. May 

 they not be diverted another way where they come in contact with im- 

 purities ; or would they find a clear streak of pure water, and follow it 

 to the source of impurity to investigate causes ? 



Instances are not wanting where the total disappearance of certain 

 fish has been traced to this cause, as the desertion of the river Thames 

 by the salmon ; yet the white-bait continue to thrive there in spite of 

 S. Mis. 01 6 



