REGULATION OF THE SEA-FISHERIES BY LAW. 123 



position. I firmly believe there is no necessity for the passage -of any 

 general legislative act for the protection and regulation of our sea fish 

 and fisheries. If fish have diminished in any of the small arms of the 

 sea, I should have no objection to the passage of a local act, provided 

 it did not interfere with the rights of others; but I must confess that I 

 am slow to believe that when fish have left a locality that any act on 

 our statute-books will bring them back. If we wish to increase and 

 stock our inland waters, it cannot be accomplished without protection. 

 The building of dams across the streams, throwing of deleterious sub- 

 stances into the waters, have diminished the fish; but in the great sea 

 man cannot pollute its waters by anything he can do. If this legislature 

 should pass an act to prohibit those modes of fishing that have been 

 called by the petitioners novel and improper, what would be the practical 

 working % It would not only affect those directly engaged in them, but 

 it would have also an indirect bearing. The large fleet of vessels 

 belonging to Gloucester are a part of the season dependent on these 

 fisheries for bait to be used in their bank-fisheries. The question was 

 asked at the time of the hearing before the committee how the Cape 

 Ann bank fishermen procured their bait before these modes of fishing 

 came into use, but was not answered. When vessels from Gloucester 

 first engaged in the halibut fishery on George's Bank they met there 

 immense shoals of sea-herring, [Clwpea elongata.) They could be takeu 

 in nets on the top of the water. After a few years they became less 

 abundant, and were not seen schooling, but could be caught by sinking 

 the nets several fathoms below the surface. Long since they have left 

 that locality, and none have been caught there for several years. - 



Our mackerel fishermen require a large quantity of bait, to be used in 

 the prosecution of this fishery, which is principally menhaden, caught 

 in weirs or seines. Some 7,000 barrels of this fish was used by Province- 

 town vessels engaged in the mackerel fishery last season. Their whole 

 catch of mackerel was about 25,000 barrels. 



There is a large amount of capital invested in our fisheries, giving 

 employment to a great number of men, who follow a life of hardship 

 and exposure. They are a useful class of men, as they are producers. 

 By their labors they bring to our tables a large amount of wholesome 

 and nutritious food, Avhich is a blessing to our people. 



Sir, allow me one brief moment, while I allude to the life of a fisher- 

 man. He may enter the fishing-boat at nine years of age. Deprived 

 of the advantages of school education, he follows his business from day 

 to day. He may engage in some dangerous voyage. Follow him to 

 the banks of Newfoundland, where he is not only exposed to gales and 

 storms — he may in some seasons be surrounded by enormous icebergs, 

 whose gigantic height and missive bulk adds to the danger. He is filled 

 with fear lest his little bark may come in contact and sink beneath his 

 feet. Beside this, the merchant-ship, on its passage to or from Europe, 

 may, in some thick, dark, and stormy night, at one stroke put an end 

 to his earthly voyage. What hardier occupation — what bolder daring 

 ■can^nan display, than to lie down to rest shrouded in the gloomy sol- 

 itude of a Newfoundland fog. As he leaves the cold, wet, and lone- 

 some deck, at the end of his midnight watch, worn down by hardships 

 and exposures, he lies down upon his bed, and wdiile his cradle is rocked 

 by the mountain billows, he courts that sleep that may know no waking. 

 Day after day he looks forward with pleasing anticipation to the time 

 when his voyage will end ; when he will return ; when he can rest from 

 his toils, safe in the bosom of his home. Year after year, as his physical 

 energies begin to relax, he dreads it more and more. He is still com- 



