February 5, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



113 



At a meeting of the Cosmos club of Washing- 

 ton on Monday. Feb. 1, it was decided to pur- 

 chase the 1 Wilkes ' property, on the corner of 

 Madison Place and H Street,, a few doors north of 

 the present quarters of the club. The club pro- 

 poses to build an assembly-room, to be used for 

 receptions and for meetings of scientific societies. 

 The resolution to purchase the property was 

 passed unanimously, and is a move in the right 

 direction. The present quarters are very limited, 

 and, as the club is growing so rapidly, pressing- 

 need was felt for more room. The newly ac- 

 quired property is situated in one of the most 

 desirable localities in the city, and will afford the 

 club many conveniences and comforts hitherto 

 denied them. 



AMERICAN FISHERY INTERESTS. 



The fisheries-treaty question, which is now the 

 subject of so much discussion, is a very com- 

 plicated one ; and it is not at all surprising that 

 the secretary of state, following traditionary 

 policy of more than a hundred years" standing, 

 and acting upon the long-established theory that 

 participation in the fishery privileges of Canadian 

 waters is of great value, should have failed to 

 satisfy the expectations of the New England fisher- 

 men, who know so well that these privileges have 

 long been valueless. A general impression seems 

 to exist that our fishing-fleet no longer visits the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, only because there has 

 been a temporary desertion of those waters by the 

 species of fish winch they seek. Such, also, is the 

 idea of the Canadians. In his recent article in the 

 North American review, Lord Lorne patronizingly 

 suggests to his ' good friends ' across the line that 

 they should not be too hasty in throwing aside 

 the right to fish in English waters, because the 

 fish may before long return in their former abun- 

 dance. 



As a matter of fact, the abundance of fish in the 

 Gulf has very little to do with the question as it 

 now presents itself. Since 1871, when the Wash- 

 ington treaty was negotiated, a complete revolu- 

 tion has taken place, both in the fisheries and the 

 fish trade of the United States ; and, strangely 

 enough, this revolution was effected chiefly in the 

 six years which intervened between the completion 

 of this treaty and the meeting in 1877 of the Hali- 

 fax convention, by which $5,500,000 were awarded 

 to Great Britain as a compensation for a concession 

 to our fishermen, which had ceased to be of value 



to them, in addition to the remission of duties on 

 Canadian fish, which during the period of fourteen 

 years have amounted to several millions of dol- 

 lars. Our government has thus, unintentionally 

 of course, been paying each year a large subsidy to 

 the fisheries of British North America, and devel- 

 oping the Canadian fisheries at the expense of 

 our own ; and Canadian competition has become 

 so great that our fishermen feel that they have a 

 strong claim upon the government for some kind 

 of protection. The fishermen therefore demand 

 that the duty upon Canadian fish be restored, and 

 that their own privileges shall be based upon the 

 provisions of the treaty of 1818, which will again 

 go into effect, if no new treaty arrangements are 

 made. Our dealers in cured fish, on the other 

 hand, mindful of the profits of handling the 

 product of the Canadian fisheries, are clamorous 

 for a continuance of the present free-trade policy. 



The revolution in the American fisheries is so 

 extensive that it can scarcely be discussed in a 

 notice so brief as this. One of the principal 

 changes is the adoption of the purse-seine in the 

 mackerel fishery, by which the fish are caught 

 far out at sea and in immense quantities by en- 

 closing them in an immense bag of netting. 

 Formerly they were taken solely with hooks by 

 the 1 chumming ' process. This was in the best days 

 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence mackerel fishery, 

 when hundreds of American vessels would fre- 

 quently lie side by side, throwing overboard vast 

 quantities of oily, mushy bait, by which the 

 schools of fish were enticed within reach. There 

 is no reason to doubt that mackerel were as 

 abundant then as now off our own coast, but the 

 old method of fishing was not so well adapted to 

 our waters. The purse-seine, on the other hand, 

 cannot be used advantageously in the Gulf, nor is 

 there any necessity for our fishermen to go so far 

 from home for their fish. There does not appear 

 to be any probability that our fishermen will ever 

 return to the old methods. ' Chumming mackerel ' 

 is essentially a lost art. 



Another feature in the revolution is the in- 

 troduction of improved methods of marketing 

 fresh fish. With the extensive refrigerating 

 establishments now in operation, and the facilities 

 for rapid transmission of sea-fish inland, the de- 

 mand for salted fish is relatively very much less 

 than it was fifteen years ago. Then, too, the 

 immense competition produced by the free entry 

 of Canadian fish has lowered the price of cured 

 fish, until a very decided depreciation in its 



