Jlly 10, 1881] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



471 



that, of building a flahway which would carry salmon, shad 

 and alewives over a vertical dam nearly thirty feet high. Ill 

 this Gauntry w* had nothing to go by save the salmon passes 

 of Great Britain, or the little water-steps Over the low conti- 

 nental dams. Through successive improvements we have now 

 attained a flshway that will certainly carry salmon, alewives 

 and the common river fishes over- the most difficult dams. 

 But the shad, with his love, of the broad, gentle stream, and 

 his suspicion of artificial contrivances, still remains rebellious, 

 There is, however, a strong belief that the ingenious Colonel 

 McDonald will irrisistibly inveigle the shad into his mysteri- 

 ous pass. It is indeed a truly Irish pass, in which more water 

 runs m than runs out; and the steeper is the incline, the more 

 rapidly the water runs up hill; so that a shad would think he 

 was swimming toward Fortress Monroe when he was in 

 reality going- over the falls of the Potomac. From the outset, 

 the Massachusetts Commissioners had foreseen that the build- 

 ing of fish ways on the Merriinac River was but a half remedy. 

 It was further necessary to breed salmon and place them in 

 the upper waters, that they might thence, descend to the 

 ocean, and return as marketable fish to their native river. To 

 Obtain impregnated eggs of saunon was at the time a work of 



rbt difficulty and expense. In the autumn of I860, Dr. W. 

 Fletcher, of New Hampshire, placed 15,000 New Bruns- 

 wick salmon eggs in the. Pemigewasset ; but it was not until 

 1872 that 16,00© young fry were let loose in its waters: and in 

 L8T8, 1S."i, 000. Occasional captures of salmon in nets at various 

 points on Massachusetts Bay were soon after reported; and 

 on the 81st of May, 1807," town full-grown salmon Were dis- 

 covered mounting the Lawrence fishway. Since, that year, 

 salmon have been artifically bred at the headwaters of the 

 Merrnnac, and the full-grown fish have annually ascended a 

 river in which for twenty-five years they had been extinct. 



The other cluef river of New England, the Connecticut, 

 was the scene of the first artificial hatching of the shad. 

 With the encouragemeunt of the Massachusetts Commission- 

 ers, Seth Green, of New York, began, in the summer of 18(57, 

 his experiments in shad hatching at Holyoke. His simple and 

 ingenious invention of a hatching box, which kept up a con- 

 stant current by Moating, not horizontally but at an angle, has 

 become a matter of familiar history. Great was the ridicule 

 directed against Green, as he painfully waded about in the 

 river under the hot June sun. But when, a few seasons later, 

 the shad appeared in unusual numbers at the mouth of the 

 river, ridicule was changed to admiration, and the great crop 

 of that year was called "Green's shad," 



In the following year. 1868, shad hatching was established on 

 the Merrimac and daily record was kept of the temperature 

 of the air and water, of the number and sex of the fish taken 

 and the quantity of eggs hatched. These tables were the first 

 of the kind published in this country. 



The progress of this slight sketch has brought us to the ques- 

 tion which underlies the subject of fishculture in its broadest 

 sense, it is the question of the possible exhaustion of great fish- 

 eries, and especially those of the sea. 



We have seen that soon after the first settlement of the 

 country, complaints of the decrease of fish began to arise. It 

 is very likely that those complaints came rather from the ac- 

 cidental differences of seasons than from any real decrease. 

 Nevertheless, they indicate that the relation between over- 

 fishing and decrease of the crop was one that was early sug- 

 gested to our people. The entire subject was brought into 

 prominence in our own day by the report of the English Com- 

 missioners to inquire into the sea fisheries of the United King- 

 dom in 1864, Of these Commissioners it has been said: "Then- 

 industry was extraordinary, and the piles of evidence were 

 such as to leave the impression that every fishwife in the 

 three kingdoms had had her say. The trawlers were vehem- 

 ent against the set-hook men, and the set-hook men were 

 furious against the trawlers. The Commission decided that 

 they all were light, and might fish when, how and where they 

 pleased. But just then Mr. Bertram comes out with his "Har- 

 vest of the Sea," in which by fact and figure he aims to show 

 just the opposite, namely, that the open sea fish had decreasd 

 bv overfishing. 



"The question of the progressive exhaustion of sea fisheries 

 came up six years later in America in the form of a monster 

 petition presented to the Massachusetts Legislature, which 

 was asked to pass a law restricting fishing with weirs, seines 

 and gill nets. The petitioners alleged that valuable fishes, 

 Buehas the scup, the tautog and the striped bass, were taken 

 by the above mentioned contrivances in so wholesale a way 

 as to threaten their speedy extinction. The complaints ap- 

 plied chiefly to the southern waters, including those of Narra- 

 gansett Bay, where the inhabitants of Rhode Island were 

 equally interested, and both States proceeded to investigate 

 the subject. Their methods, however, were no better than 

 had been those of the English Commissioners, and consisted 

 chiefly in the examination of numerous witnesses. It was the 

 same story over again. The weir men swore against the 

 hook-and-line fishermen and the hook-and-line fishermen swore 

 against the weir men. The moment had evidently arrived to 

 abandon the methods of the court room and to take up those 

 of scientific investigation. 



To this end the Massachusetts Commissioners, in the spring 

 of 1SS1, hired a weir at Waynoit, on the south side of Cape 

 Cod, and put it in charge of an observer, who kept a daily 

 record of the fishes taken, of the wind and weather, and of 

 the temperature of air and water. At the end of the season 

 the results were embodied in a report, entitled Third Notice 

 upon the. Possible Exhaustion of Sea Fisheries. It was shown 

 by this investigation that the moment at which fishes leave 

 the ocean to enter rivers is determined by the temperature of 

 the water. It further appeared that these so-called anadro- 

 mous fishes are usually caught in weirs and in similar traps 

 when hurrying along the coast in their northward migrations, 

 whereas those that arrive near or at the mouth of their native 

 river slacken their pace and cautiously feel their "way, like a 

 ship standing into a harbor. These last are more apt to avoid 

 the nets ingeniously set for their capture. 



Up to this time the movement in favor of fishculture had 

 been confined to New York and New England, and chiefly to 

 the State of Massachusetts. Dams hitherto impassable had 

 been opened to the passage of the anadromous fishes ; fish- 

 ways of an improved form had been built ; a decision of the 

 Supreme Court had given to fish the right of way in rivers ; 

 acts for the encouragement of the cultivation of useful fishes 

 had been passed ; the artificial hatching of shad and salmon 

 had begun, and an investigation into the exhaustion of sea 

 fisheries had been set on foot. All these measures, were, how- 

 ever, partial and on a small scale. The moment had arrived 

 for the interposition of a power stronger and more general in 

 its character. 



That democratic and gregarious fish, the scup, was the 

 founder of the United States Commission cf Fish and Fisheiias. 

 It is a fish coeval with the first white settlements. In 1621, 

 on the shores of Buzzard's Bay, the hungry Englishmen were 

 entertained by Massasoit with "two hsh.es like bream, but 

 twice as big and better meat," and Roger Williams says in 

 1642, "Nishcup the bream. Of this fish there is abundance, 

 which the natives dry in the sun and smoke, and some En- 

 glishmen begin to salt." With the first warm days of spring, 

 the scup were wont to push into the bays and fiords and salt 

 ponds in multitudes, standing in from the off-shore depths 

 which had sheltered them and furnished them abundant food 

 dining the. winter. Then followed a jubilee for poor and rich. 

 Anybody who had a hook and line could catch a "mess of 

 fish" before breakfast; scup he was sure to get, and he was 

 likely to add a fat tautog or a striped bass. But -when did a 

 Yankee ever allow any peace to himself or his neighbor, or 

 when did his mind, sleeping or waking, ever cease to dwell on 

 the invention of some labor-saving machine? Hook and line 

 was too primitive a method to be permitted in this age of im- 

 provement. About the yea* 1S50, one Benjamin Talhnan 



being doubtless moved and abetted by the Evil One, conceived 



the idea of driving posts in a straight line miming out to sea. 

 and stretching thereon netting, SO as to make a fence; and 

 constructing at the end thereof a sort of inclosed yard. The 

 schools of scup, as they coasted along the shore, ran against 

 the fence, and turning their heads seaward were captured in 

 the said yard. The inventor, in the pride of his heart, named 

 the engine a "trap." He little knew that he had only made a 

 small copv of a contrivance that was know to uhe Phoenicians, 

 wlw used' it along the shores of the Mediterranean and even 

 on the coast of Spain. There, in later days, the Moors called 

 it the atmadraha, whence is derived the modern French word 

 mudrai/ar. If the Moors created as much popular indignation 

 with their abnadrabas as Benjamin did with his "traps," the 

 fact may account for then- expulsion from Spain by the 

 Gothic tribes. For twenty years war and recrimination pre- 

 vailed between the trappers and the hook-and-line men, until, 

 at length, both parties, like the Jewish factions, determined 

 to a. peal unto Csesar, or as he is now called, Uncle Sam. 



On the V.)th of February, 1871, was passed a joint resolution 

 of Congress, the preamble of which says: "Whereas, it is as- 

 serted that the most valuable, food fishes of the coast and the 

 lakes of the United States are rapidly diminishing in number, 

 to the public injury, and so as materially to affect the inter- 

 ests of trade and commerce," therefore, resolved, that the 

 President be authorized to appoint a Commissioner of Fish 

 and Fisheries. 



It has been truly said that when the critical moment arrives, 

 the man appears also ; and this critical moment made no ex- 

 ception to the rule. A man— nay, the man, was at once found 

 in the person of Professor Spencer F. Baird. The Caesar to 

 whom the warring factions had appealed could not have sent 

 forth a more judicious praetOC Mercifully he was not one of 

 those self-taught men (of whom, for some occult reason, we 

 are so proud), but a man of careful scientific training, and one 

 as industrious in collecting facts as in arranging them. Also 

 was he a man of a pleasant countenance and conversation, and 

 well calculated to assuage the irritated feelings of the hook- 

 and-liner, or to soothe the exasperated nerves of the trapper. 

 Indeed, he seems to be the only individual in history who 

 ever intervened between two combatants without receiving 

 the blows of both. 



Henceforth the history of American fishculture is contained 

 in that of the United States Fish Commission. Its work, wide- 

 spread and pushed with extraordinary energy, attracted the 

 attention of the whole country. A greater part of the States 

 appointed Fishery Commissions, which cooperated with, and 

 were assisted by, that of the general Government. Its rapidly 

 increasing value and power ctdminated in the great Fishery 

 Exhibitions of Berlin and London, where the United States ex- 

 hibits gained the chief prizes. 



The history of the movement for the restoration of our 

 fishes, may seem like a triumphal march ; but in summing up 

 its results, we cannot hi honesty avoid the cold question out 

 bono? of what good is all this? 



Up to the year 188«, the Fishery Commissions of the States 

 and of the general Government had had appropriated $1,306,- 

 378. Has the country got a return of a million dollars' worth 

 of additional fish? 



In 1880, the total value of fishery products of the United 

 States was .$43,000,000, a less sum than that of the manufac- 

 tures in a single Congressional District in the little State of 

 Massachusetts. The two products show that real, value is not 

 always to be measured by money. The people of this coun- 

 try could have been deprived of the manufacture of that dis- 

 trict, without recognizing their loss, but what an outcry wotdd 

 rise, were they cut off, even for a month, from cod and white- 

 fish, lobsters and oysters. 



Did the expenditure of §1,300,000 since 1866 add anything to 

 the $43,000,000 which our fisheries produced in 1880? or did it 

 pave the way for an increase? 



To define these questions we must define what we mean by 

 a decrease in fisheries. 



When so many fish are annually taken from the waters, that 

 the remainder are not numerous enough to produce anew crop 

 equal in numbers to the old one, there must be a progressive 

 decrease in the yield. It is a very simple matter to demon- 

 strate such a decrease in ordinary rivers or in lakes of moder- 

 ate size, where it is easy to show that spearing: and netting of 

 the trout on their spawning beds has diminished their numbers, 

 or that the establishment of weirs has made whitetish scarce. 

 In the bays and coves of the- -sea, also, where the waters are 

 shallow, it is not difficult to show that the use of numerous fykes 

 and trawl lines destroy the local fish, like tautog, rock bass and 

 flounders. But, when we come to the schooling fishes of the open 

 sea, it is very difficult to tell how much effect the hand of man 

 has in lessening them. If, for example, we argue that traps 

 and purse seines diminish the crop of menhaden by capturing 

 them in enormous numbers, we leave out of mind the fact that 

 these same traps and purse seines also capture bluefish and 

 small sharks, which are thus taken from their occupation of 

 killing menhaden. Again, when menhaden entirely disappear 

 from a long stretch of coast, they are, in reality, no scarcer 

 than before. They refuse to come to their wonted water s 

 either because the temperature is too low, or because their 

 favorite food is not to be found. They are not destroyed, only 

 absent. There are familiar instances of such disappearance. 

 The scup was plentiful when the whites first landed in New 

 England; they afterward disappeared, and reappeared about 

 the beginning of the present century. The bluefish was caught 

 on the southern coast of New England from 1650 for more than 

 a hundred years. In 1764 they disappeared, and after an 

 absence of sixty -six years, they reappeared about 1830. 



Another element that must be borne in mind in estimating 

 the total catch of fish is the number of men and the kind of 

 engines employed. If, for example, the population of a coast 

 is scanty and only a dozen men go a-fishing, each of them is 

 likely to have a good catch : but when the coast becomes thickly 

 settled a hundred men will fish, and though each one may take 

 but few, the catch of the hundred will be greater than that of 

 the twelve. 



In the light of the patient investigations of the past dozen 

 years, it is safe to assert, first, that our fresh-water fisheries 

 have in general greatly diminished since early times, and 

 have in many cases been destroyed ; secondly, that the local 

 coast fisheries have also to a greater or less degree dimin- 

 ished. 



What have our Fishery Commissions done to remedy or to 

 palliate these evils? It Is fair to say that they have done a 

 good deal, and are in a good way to do more. 



Their first, and perhaps most valuable, service has been to 

 excite universal interest in our fisheries, and to draw general 

 attention to their importance. The second great step in ad- 

 vance lias been the accumulation of a vast amount of accurate- 

 information concerning the number and variety of our fishes, 

 their food, manner of breeding, condition of life, migrations 

 and stages of growth. The third degree of progress has been 

 fishculture, which may be called negative and positive; nega- 

 tive when obstructions to the increase of fisn, such as im- 

 proper apparatus and impassable dams, are removed; positive 

 when fishes are artificially bred, or when new species are in- 

 troduced from distant countries. 



It may be fairly said that both forms of culture have 

 already given considerable results. Of the success of negative 

 culture, a familiar example is that of the smelt, which a few- 

 years ago had grown scanty in numbers and small in size on 

 the Massachuseets coast, because the breeding fish were cap- 

 tured in the brooks when crowded together on their spawning 

 beds. The prohibition of this kind of fishing was followed 

 within three years by the restoration of the smelts to their 

 former numbers and size. 



The best instance of positive culture is that of the Califor- 

 nia salmon ta the Sacramento Paver, where Livingston Stone, 

 bv' annually turning into the river 3.000,000 young fry, arti- 



ficially hatched, increased the yearly oatch from 5>O0Q,Q00 



pounds t<> ',1,500,000 pounds, 



Wide experience in the hatching of shad and whiteflsh 

 proves pretty clearly that a marked increase may be obtained, 

 if the work be clone on a, scale large enough and that an 

 amount of work insufficient to produce a positive increase 

 will, nevertheless, check the decrease of these species. 



In a word, artificial breeding, by greatly augmenting the 

 proportion of eggs impregnated and by protecting them until 

 hatched, presents a great advantage over the natural process, 

 and gives us an available method of preserving many impor- 

 tant fisheries. But to produce results of commercial value, 

 this watcrculture must be practiced as universally and method 

 ically as is agriculture. 



It is not the custom of Americans to stop half way in a 

 profitable enterprise. Therefore I do not doubt that in the 

 next generation some of our chief fisheries wEH be maintained 

 by an established system of artificial culture. 



Perhaps, in that day the honorable .guild of fishmongers 

 will erect a monument of their gratitude, and wdll inscribe on 

 its tablets the names of scientific men who have in our time 

 labored. 



The chairman then introduced Hon S. S. Cox, who spoke as 

 follows: 



SPEECH OF HON. S. S. COX. 



Ladies and Gentlemen ; It is my pleasure and privilege this 

 evening to move a vote of thanks to the Hon. Theodore 

 Lyman for his very felicitous and learned address upon this 

 annual occasion. I am told that by a custom which now ob- 

 tains in this museum, I am expected to speak to my own 

 motion. If I were in another body I think I should rule it 

 out of order, but I have a special gratification this evening in 

 having a Congressman appear here so thoroughly learned in 

 marine zoology. There is sitting before me, 1 notice, an ex- 

 member of Congress, the Hon. Mr. Roosevelt (and I beg to 

 say that in this particular- province an x is not an unknown 

 quantity), wdio has also devoted his services, his intellect, and 

 sometimes bis Sportive nature to the same object as my dis- 

 tinguished friend from Massachusetts. But a New York man 

 has not the same right to talk fish as a New England man. It 

 is the peculiar privilege of the latter, as any one can see who 

 will examine the last census, and you may have noticed all 

 through the remarkable address of our friend that he is 

 associated with the fish interest and with the dams of Mas- 

 sachusetts. I cannot say that I was shocked or astonished at 

 his description, and at hearing the names of the various little 

 streams of that State. We have always heard of them in the 

 River and Harbor Bill, [Laughter,] But I was struck by one 

 thing, namely, that he took very good care in his discussion 

 to connect science with religion. And even at the 

 falls of the Pawtucket, where he said the manufactur- 

 ing interests did not harmonize with those of fish- 

 eries, he associated the old Puritan doctrine with religion, 

 revelation, science and fishculture, which were almost 

 one and the same thing. And it is simply true. If you look 

 at the escutcheon of the State of Massachusetts you will 

 find it to be a codfish, and nearly all the quarrels of that Pur- 

 itan State have arisen from the same question that vexed the 

 old Hollanders in early days as to whether the codfish took the 

 hook or the hook took the codfish. [Laughter.] I do not 

 know whether that point is settled yet. The. State of Massa- 

 chusetts should be proud of her fisheries. I remember having 

 the honor of being arrested at 3 o'clock in the morning with 

 General Butler, in the House of Representatives, in my attempt 

 to break down the proposition to pay over to England the 

 85,500,000 growing out of the fishery 'award. I heard Mr. 

 Rice, another member from Massachusetts, contend for the 

 abrogation of the fishing treaty, which now allows fish to come 

 in free from the Dominion of Canada, I sustained him in that, 

 not because I was unwilling to have fish come in free to this 

 country, but because T did not want fish to come free from 

 Canada or Great Britain, who had cheated us out of 85,500,000. 

 Throughout this wmole subject Massachusetts has played a 

 most prominent part. Why not? In early days the Puritans 

 came here to worship God and catch fish." [Laughter.] New- 

 England is the home, if not the mother, of invention, The 

 feature which most interests us here to-night is the inventive 

 faculty. It has been shown in such a remarkable degree 

 in fishing, and chiefly in New England, in connection with 

 improvements for the catching of fish. These were displayed 

 on a magnificent scale at Berlin in 1880. and in London in 

 1883. 



You may remember that a certain weaver at Lyons invented 

 his famous net, which revolutionized fishing. They arrested 

 him, and the great War Minister Carnot, sent for him to come 

 before the great Napolean. The Minister said: "Are you the 

 man that can do what God cannot? — tie a knot on a stretched 

 string?" And they put him gently under arrest, for fear he 

 would go to England and there introduce his net. 



Since then we have made remarkable strides in the inven- 

 tion of fish apparatus. Our fishing schooner attracted uni- 

 versal admiration in London. We now use steam as an adjunct 

 and the great puree-seine. In the whale fisheries harpoons 

 are no longer of the old sort, but explosive. Not satisfied to 

 blow up dynasties with dynamite, wo blow up whales with it 

 (Laughter.) 



But the great element of advancement was not discovered 

 perhaps as early as some think — in Japan or China. Our 

 learned friend fixed it at about 150 years ago, but I have data 

 to show that this discovery of fishculture was made in Ohiol 

 (Laughter). I know the man! (Prolonged laughter). His 

 name was Dr. Garlick of Cleveland. His discovery like others 

 was not complete at first. It was necessary that New York 

 should perfect what Ohio had begun, and with the aid of 

 several New York men, prominent among whom was my 

 honorable friend in front (Hon. R. B. Roosevelt), this science 

 was brought to perfection. By aiding nature, and with the 

 skill of such men, these investigations have been prosecuted. 

 Congress has been enabled to see something of the inestimable 

 value of food fishes. Out of these investigations came the 

 United States Fish Commission in 1871, for the creation of 

 which I had the honor to vote. We should in a body pass a 

 vote of thanks to Congress. From it came the appropriations 

 that warmed up the hatching places. They helped on the 

 grand results. So that now we can send from one end of the 

 country to the other over car-wheels, tanks of fish. We all 

 have, I trust, or ought to have, a deep interest in the 

 fisheries. 



But I forgot that I am speaking on a mere motion of thanks. 

 Besides, I yesterday had occasion to speak at length in Con- 

 gress in favor of Professor Baird's bill for the preservation of 

 the shad and herring of the Potomac. We carried it hand- 

 somely. 



I have already spoken too long. I meant merely to refer to 

 what my friend has stated so eloquently, and to make the 

 motion which has already been made. I cannot, however, 

 cease, without referring to one matter, which is, that in our 

 legislative action in Congress in connection with fishing and 

 fishculture, we have not been behind other nations, or rather 

 legislative bodies. It is pleasing to know that we have fur- 

 nished all the appropriations necessary to enable us to meet 

 the nations of the world, both at Berlin and at London. I 

 believe such appropriations should continue to be made. 

 They will enable us to solve, as no other nation can, the prob- 

 lem' which you fisheulturists are trying to solve here, and 

 which France, Germany, and England are solving'. With 

 scientific applications to the multiplication of fishes, we shall 

 always, with the aid of liberal appropriations from Federal 

 and State governments, not only be able to increase our food 

 Supply, but also to meet the nations of the world in happy 

 rivalry and successful competition. I will say in conclusion: 

 All honor to men engaged in this work! All honor to the 

 Congressmen who can elucidate its value to the Satisfaction of 

 the people. All honor to the men, nay to this chief of men, 



