130 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



that, after all the little prowlers had got their share, then the blue-fish 

 cut them " down by the run." 



Mr. Pqwex.. And the very epidemic which has sometimes influenced 

 the larger classes of families may also affect their pabulum too, and the 

 consequence would be that the soup would have to tighten their sword- 

 belts. I waut you to bear in mind the magnificent run of scup that has 

 burst upon us, on account of the opportunity to run into the waters 

 freely for two weeks. 



Mr. Lyman. I think that it is non-proven that blue-fish feed on scup 

 generally. Although scup have been taken out of blue-fish captured in 

 pounds, still the universal testimony of the fishermen before the legisla- 

 tive committee was, that scup were never — some said rarely — fouud in 

 blue fish. Therefore, I do not believe that the blue-fish follows the scup 

 as its normal food. I do not think it is proven at all, and I don't think 

 any mathematical theories, multiplying so many blue-fish, eating so 

 many scup in a season, have anything in them. 



But I do really think that there is evidence 'o show — to make us sus- 

 pect very strongly — that the blue-fish and pounds have had something 

 to do with it ; and with the really insufficient evidence we have, my 

 private opinion is, that two-thirds of the diminution should be charged 

 to the pounds, and one-third to the blue-fish. 



Professor Baird. It is very easy for the fishermen to say that they 

 did not find scup in the blue-fish ; because there were no scup at all to 

 be caught. 



Then, how do you know there were any blue-fish at Nantucket while 

 the scup were absent there ? 



Mr. Lyman. Macy tells you the month and the year, and says they 

 were taken from June to September in great abundance $ and he says 

 that thirty would have filled a barrel. 



Professor Baird. They may have been some other fish. 



Mr. Lyman. Neither are we certain that what Boger Williams calls 

 bream was a scup, though I presume it was so. It may have been some- 

 thing else than the blue-fish. 



Professor Baird. We all agree, I think, that fish are scarce, and that 

 something should be done as an experiment for their restoration. I have 

 made a draught, with a memorandum, in regard to this question of regula- 

 tion, which I will read. It seemed to me that, as a preliminary to all 

 legislation, the whole question of pounding and trapping should be under 

 State control ; that the State commissioners should be required to give 

 licenses, and that it should be illegal to carry on the fishing in pounds 

 without such a license. 



[The draught of the law was then read, and afterward discussed.] 



Mr. Lyman agreed that the putting of the subject in the hands of the 

 commissioners was a good thing. It will work well, if we can say to 

 the trapping people, we protect as well as check you. 



Mr. Reed. I believe that we shall not repeat what we did last year. 

 Failing in that undertaking the people have more liberal views. The 

 trappers are very willing to concede, and the others also. I think that 

 if the question were taken of traps or no traps, the traps would be killed ; 

 that is simply my opinion. 



Mr. Lyman. I think some such act, thrown into a strictly legal form, 

 will be a good thing. The main features, I think, we may consider as 

 agreed upon, and that the differences, if any, shall only be in putting it 

 into form. 



Professor Baird. Would Captain Atwood consent to the "close time 1 ?" 



Mr. Lyman. Yes, sir; he thinks you cannot lessen the sea-fish, but he 



