116 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



they remain tiil the first frosts warn thein to depart from the coast. 

 Should such a view of their movements prove the correct one, the 

 invasion o± " dollar-scup " -would simply be a normal movement of 

 yearlings, which, owing to unusual warmth of water, or for some 

 other reason, struck the first points of land on entering Narra- 

 gansett Bay, instead of holding to the main central channels. The 

 question would he narrowed down to accounting for their vast num- 

 bers, so sudden and so unwonted. The anti-trap men jumped to the con- 

 clusion that these little fishes were the progeny of this year's (1871) hatch ; 

 and accounted for the abundance by the very early appearance of the 

 breeding-fish, which stood in by the last of April, whereas they usually 

 do not appear till the 10th or the 12th of May. Consequently the trappers 

 had not generally their lint on, and the first run, in good measure, 

 escaped capture. But the " dollar-scup " were last year's (1870) hatch 

 and not this year's, which, on the 1st of June, would not be larger than 

 a squash-seed. The theory would properly account for an abundance of 

 this year's hatch ; and, as a fact, the little scup, two or three months old, 

 might be seen in great numbers during August, feeding close to the 

 shore. If, next year, (1872,) there should be a great run of two-year- 

 olds, (hatch of 1870,) and if this run should spread over all the bays, and 

 should be taken by hook and line during the entire season, as of yore, 

 then it might fairly be laid down that the traps were not the cause, or 

 not the chief cause, in the diminution of scup. In like manner it might 

 then be said, though with less force, that the blue-fish were not a chief 

 cause of the scarcity of scup ; because, although blue-fish have notably 

 diminished these last three or five years, and therefore scup might prop- 

 erly increase, yet the decrease in blue-fish has neither been so great nor 

 so sudden as to warrant a sudden increase in scup, such as this would 

 be. And, if neither traps nor blue-fish can be convicted, it will only re- 

 main to say that the diminution has been one of those changes in the 

 numbers or the location of fishes, for which science can at present give 

 no reason. 



That there has been a change of location as well as a diminution is 

 quite apparent ; for whereas thousands of barrels are taken at Saug- 

 konnet Point, along the south part of Aquidneck and at Beaver Tail, in 

 the upper part of the bay they are nearly extinct. A change, too, there 

 has been in their stay, lor whereas the tautog grounds all over the bay 

 were once so infested during the summer by scup that a hook could 

 scarcely be got to the bottom, now they are on the shores during a part 

 of May, and thereafter are seen no more. All this the anti-trap men 

 explain very simply, by asserting that the big scup are practically anni- 

 hilated each season by the traps, and that the supply is kept up only 

 by the spawn which is shot in deep water before they strike the coast. 



The same line of observation and reasoning that has been applied to 

 scup, will, with little change, apply to tautog, rock-bass, striped bass, 

 and other " white fishes " and " bottom fishes " whose decrease has been 

 complained of. Observations, conducted through several seasons, by 

 men of learning and impartiality, are the only means to real knowledge 

 in this perplexed question. If the governments of the States of Ehode 

 Island and Massachusetts have any forecast, they will see to it that such 

 observations be made. 



In this slight sketch, based, as it needs must be, on scanty aud im- 

 perfect information, I have avoided dogmatic statements and rounded 

 conclusions. I have tried to show the problem in all its crudeness, and 

 to point out, both directly and by implication, the great gaps which 

 must be filled before it can take on a scientific form. 



