REGULATION OF THE SEA-FISHERIES BY LAW. 121 



they depopulated my village and my home. It was a matter of surprise 

 to your committee that meu professing to be acquainted with fish should 

 come before them and say they did not know that blue-fish eat any 

 other fish but menhaden ; ■ and as they are not an edible species, no 

 matter how many they destroyed ; and also say they did not know that 

 they drove other species away. Call them, sir, by whatever name we 

 please; whether blue-fish, of Massachusetts Bay; snapper, of New Bed- 

 ford ; horse-mackerel, on the shores of Bhode Island ; or tailor, in Del- 

 aware and Chesapeake Bays, they are the same Temnoclon saltator still, 

 and deal out destruction and death to other species in all the localities 

 they visit. 



One other, a species of flat-fish, which is called dab or plaice at home, 

 but when we bring it to Boston and offer it for sale we call it turbojt. It 

 is the Platessa oblonga. This species was exceedingly abundant along 

 our shores before the blue-fish came. It is a bottom fish, and does not 

 come so directly in contact with the blue-fish as top-water swimmers ; 

 still, it has almost wholly disappeared, owing to the blue-fish having 

 destroyed its favorite bait, which is the common squid. It seems to be 

 nearly exterminated in the waters north of Cape Cod, only a few being 

 seen. 



The striped bass have diminished in the vicinity of Cape Cod, as the 

 blue-fish have destroyed the bait upou which they fed. 



The so-called Spanish mackerel, (Cybium maculatum ,) Cuvier says, is 

 an inhabitant of the Carribean Sea, extending southward to the coast 

 of Brazil. Dr. Holbrook mentions it, in his Fishes of South Carolina, as 

 being found in the waters along that coast. It has wandered south- 

 ward until it has reached the southern coast of Massachusetts, and even 

 specimens have been taken north of Cape Cod. It sells in our market 

 at a higher price than other species. It is, no doubt, an excellent fish, 

 but it is probably not so much better than our common mackerel as the 

 prices seem to indicate. It has been selling in Quincy market for a few 

 summers past at from fifty cents to one dollar per pound. It has been 

 increasing in our waters for a few years, and the prospect is it will con- 

 tinue to increase, until it will be a fishery of considerable importance. 

 There is no danger of destroying them by catching them by any way we 

 can, when it is only the few wanderers that come to us from the locali- 

 ties where they inhabit. I think they need no legislative protection to 

 increase their numbers. 



Such are a few of the many changes that have taken place since I 

 first engaged in the fisheries. Time will not allow me to go into detail 

 of the some one hundred and fifty species found along our New England 

 coast. They may be said to form one great chain, each species being a 

 separate link, having its own peculiar history and habitudes. 



I pass now briefly to notice their fecundity. We look with wonder 

 and astonishment at the provisions in the animal economy. How vast 

 is the number of eggs produced by a single fish ; hundreds of thousands, 

 which, if any considerable percentage should come to maturity, the 

 waters would be filled' to overflowing. 



Take a few thousand specimens, and allow ten per cent, to come to 

 maturity ; multiply them together for ten years, and how great would 

 be the number ! And what is that when compared with the countless 

 myriads that swarm our coast annually ? Their numbers, how vast ! 

 Human ingenuity has invented no means by which they can be enu- 

 merated ; their numbers are only known to Him who created them, who 

 feeds them with a bountiful hand, and watches over them with mor& 

 than parental care. 



