Feb. 10, 1894.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



119 



have formerly made the Andover route to the Rangeleys 

 by way of the Grand Trunk to Bryant's Pond, will be able 

 to go by the Maine Central to Lewiston and thence to 

 Rumford. At that point they will be four miles nearer to 

 Andover than at Bryant's Pond, and the route over a 

 much better road. The Government has already ordered 

 the Andover and Rumford mails to go by the Rumford 

 Falls route. Special. 



A Supervisor's Law that will not Hold. 



Attorney-General Hancock of New York has given the 

 following opinion as to the legality of the action of the 

 board of supervisors of Livingston county, imposing a 

 license fee on non-residents who desire to fish in the 

 waters of the county: "Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your 

 communication of recent date stating that the board of 

 supervisors of Livingston county have passed an act in 

 relation to game and fish, which appears to discriminate 

 against non-residents of that county, and asking for my 

 opinion as to the legality of the act. The act in question 

 provides in substance that: 'It shall not be lawful for any 

 non-resident of the county of Livingston to shoot game 

 or to fish in any town in said county without first having 

 obtained from a justice of the peace of that county a 

 license therefor.' In reply I beg leave to call your atten- 

 tion to section one of chapter 668 of laws of 1892, known 

 as the general municipal law, which declares a county to 

 be a municipal corporation. Section 37 of the same act 

 declares against restrictions and regulations which do not 

 apply to all citizens alike, and is as follows: 'Any restric- 

 tion or regulation imposed by the governing board of a 

 municipal corporation within this state, carrying on or 

 desiring to carry on any lawful business or calling, within 

 the limits thereof, which shall not be necessary for the 

 proper regulation of such trade, business or calling, and 

 shall not apply to citizens of all parts of the state alike, 

 except ordinances or regulations in reference to traveling 

 circuses, shows and exhibitions, shall be void.' The courts 

 might fairly hold the provisions of this section are broad 

 enough to prohibit the discrimination contained in the 

 resolution referred to in your communication. Boards of 

 supervisors are authorized under the general game laws 

 to pass such laws and ordinances as shall afford additional 

 protection to birds, fish and wild animals, but the object 

 of the statute is undoubtedly to permit supervisors to pass 

 rules of a general nature, and not in favor of or against 

 citizens of any particular locality. It is my opinion that 

 the courts will hold the resolution referred to iu valid for 

 the reasons above stated." 



THE COAST FISHERY CONFERENCE. 



Proceedings of Conference Held to Consider 

 the Subject of the Exhaustion of 

 Coast Line Food Fishes. 



OFFICIAL REPORT BT SECRETARY E. P. DOYLE. 



(Continued from Page 99.) 



J. M. K Southwick, of Rhode Island, said: I will say- 

 before I have read my paper that I have prepared a more 

 elaborate paper that was sent to the Chicago convention to 

 be read there, but I regret to say it may be too lengthy to 

 read here, although the subject discussed there seems to 

 have been transferred to this locality. 



Ocean Fisheries and Legislation. 



By J. M. K. Southwick, Commissioner of Fisheries, Newport, R. I. 



In discussing this question of the fisheries it becomes of 

 the greatest importance to all that we learn all that is known 

 or can be learned about it; and then I fear there will be much 

 more that is unknown than all that we do know; and that 

 with the unknown will still remain the vital points neces- 

 sary in determining the important question that has called 

 together this meeting. For ourselves, we claim no superior 

 knowledge or experience and feel that our very limited 

 knowledge should make us keep silent, could we do so con- 

 sistently with our duty as Pish Commissioners. 



We have carefully read the circular calling together this 

 meeting and were sorry to see that it took for granted, as 

 fact, that there was a "growing scarcity of edible fishes 

 along our coast line from Maine to Virginia." Then it sug- 

 gests a remedy— "The enactment of simple and uniform 

 legislation," which we understand to mean restriction of the 

 industrial fishing. Then it says, "With this object in view, 

 and with a desire for a full, impartial and thorough exam- 

 ination of the whole subject"— would it not have been well 

 to have the investigation come first? Then if it is found that 

 a diminution has taken place as alleged, it would be very 

 proper to look for the cause, and when this is found it strikes 

 us it would be time to apply the remedy. 



But here the crime is assumed, the guilt fixed, the party 

 hung. What is left for "a full, impartial and thorough ex- 

 amination " we are at a loss to know* 



Since writing the above our attention has been called to an 

 article in the New York Evening Post, published with the 

 call for this meeting. This article freely presents the case 

 as we premised from reading the call, but it favors us with 

 the specific statement that " striped bass and weakfish, 

 which formerly sold for 5c. and 6c. a pound, now command 

 10c. and 12c." This is given to indicate, the growing scarcity 

 of these fish. 



It also says that 1 1 Barnegat Bay furnishes a conspicuous 

 example of the condition all along the coast. " " This season 

 the bay was barren of food fish." If Barnegat Bay was bar- 

 ren of food fish, and was an 41 example of the condition all 

 along the coast," where were the market supplies drawn 

 from ? 



Rhode Island is somewhere along the coast, and the weak 

 fish were never so abundant there as the past season. "For 

 several years, while noticing this decrease, the fishermen and 

 pisciculturists have attributed it to some unusual cause." 

 Their experience was that of very many others. But "ac- 

 tive measures were taken to learn the real cause, which 

 resulted in the experts arriving at the conclusion," etc. Now 

 if these experts learned the real cause, why need we look 

 further? Why did they not favor the world "with their dis- 

 covery? Vast sums of money and much time has been ex- 

 pended by the most profound thinkers of the world, and «yet 

 none of them has given us this information. 



It remains for these experts of Barnegat to give us the real 

 cause of diminution of fish in a locality. If any present can 

 speak for them we will stop here. If not, we will pass on to 

 note one other discovery the article reveals to us. "It has 

 been discovered this year for the first time that menhaden 

 and mackerel, like the striped bass, spawn in shallow water." 

 It is of the greatest interest to learn such facts, and after so 

 much investigation as has been had, it is of especial interest 

 to the world to learn the fact here given. 



Being a Fish Commissioner we feel much mortified not to 

 have known this before. It is to be hoped that the discoverer 

 will be duly honored and his name given to the world as a 

 benefactor of the race. 



If the declarations made can be sustained, then have we 

 made some advance in investigation of a subject that has 

 hitherto baffled the minds of all students of fishes, and it is 

 to be hoped that the data will be given that forced these con- 

 clusions. It is felt that the fish question has not been fairly 

 treated, bold assertions have been received as though they 

 were demonstrated facts; and laws based upon them have 

 been advocated as experiments which were no less than 

 trifling with the fishing industry. In relation to the decrease 

 of fishes in the waters of our coast, we can answer for our 

 own State, that it is not true of scup, weakfish, butterfish, 

 tautog or the bullseye mackerel. The latter, after being 

 entirely absent from the coast for many years, are again with 

 us in large numbers. As to the general issue, the aggregate 

 number of edible fish, our statistics show a large increase, 

 notwithstauding the declaration made in the call. 



Now if it is true that edible fish come in reduced numbers 

 to some localities, it does not follow that they do to all. Just 

 why they favor Rhode Island we cannot tell; the State is 

 not so small that a few fill the waters, and we think that our 

 neighboring States, Massachusetts and Connecticut, will 

 agree with us as to the great number of weakfish the last 

 year. On the other hand, the bluefish were scarce in our 

 waters, except at Block Island, and we are told that the New 

 York market had its nsual abundant supply. 



The question before you is of too i mportant a character to 

 be lightly dealt with. From any standpoint that may be 

 taken much is involved. It deserves and should have a very 

 thorough investigation before any action is taken. It may 

 be said that it has had a good deal of attention for the last 

 twenty-five years, and so it has. 



But if we have not learned in that time that the increase 

 and diminution of ocean fishes are from natural causes and 

 independent of man's acts, then has all observation and 

 investigation in this and other countries been in vain, and 

 the time and money expended in that way wasted; and we 

 are still in ignorance, but we welcome any light that the 

 experts of Barnegat may give us. It is to be hoped that 

 their final decision or conclusion will not place them in the 

 school of conclusionists, so common along our coast. Fish 

 will no more bite when they are around than when a school 

 of porpoises are pi'esent. They have the same complaint that 

 porpoises have. 



The disease is chronic and has been from the earliest time; 

 it is also contagious, but generally confined to the upper 

 classes. Even commissioners are subject to it. I am not 

 sure that they do not have it in its worst form. 



The lamented Prof. Baird appears to have been cured by 

 the scup appearing in Rhode Island in immense numbers 

 when it was concluded that they were being exterminated. 



There is but one cure for this complaint and but few are 

 willing to take the remedy. We have a prescription that 

 never fails, where capacity to fill conditions is found: 



REMEDY FOR SNAP CONCLUSIONS. 



9 3 parts history of past observations. 



2 parts personal observation. 



1 part logical reasoning. 

 Take one hour each day for twenty years. Jdst Right, M.D. 



There are cases where it gets into the blood and controls 

 the will power. Such cases are fatal, and although the sub- 

 ject be quite himself, he never attains to reason. This com- 

 plaint is all along the coast; in fact, most men have it who 

 have not the time nor disposition to look int o it in its earliest 

 symptoms. To such it is catching, and like leprosy, lasting. 

 We knew a man who had it bad. He concluded that dump- 

 ish looking fish without legs or fins could not move; so he 

 dumped his day's catch of scallops in a heap in the water and 

 found his conclusions scattered when he would have gathered 

 them to take home. 



The confusion that seems so manifest as to our sea and 

 anadromous fishes is surprising, and it is with deep interest 

 that we await the details of the new discovery, that men- 

 haden and mackerel are to be classed with the anadromous 

 fishes. 



The salmon, the shad, the bass and the alewife have long 

 been classed as fresh-water spawners; but never the men- 

 haden or the weakfish. We confess to much surprise at this 

 discovery, and since this is declared we shall not be surprised 

 at any assertion. But we believe it is the desire of those 

 whose names are appended to the call for this meeting, to 

 have a full, impartial and thorough examination of the 

 whole subject. And in this we are in hearty accord with 

 them. 



How to accomplish this then should be the first great and 

 impartial step for this meeting to determine. Upon the 

 receipt of this call worded as it is, we hesitated as to what 

 our duty demanded of us; knowing the general consensus of 

 opinion with Fish Commissioners, we felt sure of being over- 

 whelmed by eloquence and numbers if we stood up for the 

 right, as we saw it. 



But then it occurred to us that after all we may be wrong, 

 since these very able gentlemen may have much to impart 

 concerning fish that we never knew. And as they propose a 

 full, impartial and thorough examination, perhaps they will 

 consent to it before executing our constituents of the in- 

 dustrial fisheries. 



If, upon such examination as proposed, it is found that 

 they are right, we should certainly join hands with them 

 cheerfully and "save the fishes." 



Mr. J. A. Githens, of New Jersey— On behalf of the 

 pound fishermen of New Jersey, I wish to state that it is not 

 the purpose to destroy fish. They are perfectly willing to 

 act with any gentlemen or any organization to keep up a good 

 and substanial supply of fish. They are perfectly willing to 

 do that. There have been no statements made here that have 

 been other than the truth. 



Judge Henry P. McGown, of New York, a member of the 

 Cuttyhunk Club, made the following remarks: 



Mr. Chairman" and Gentlemen of the Convention: I 

 have no interest in the commercial fisheries; in the men- 

 haden fisheries or any other interest, except that which every 

 citizen has, or should have, in having a good supply of food 

 fish. I am a rod fisherman and am interested in this 

 matter, for the purpose of having the supply of our game 

 fish kept up. I cannot agree with all the remarks that have 

 been^made by the Messrs. Church to-day, in many material 

 points. I will give you my experience, and then let you 

 draw your own conclusions. I have spent a great deal of time 

 during the past fifty years fishing for striped bass, bluefish 

 and weakfish. I have always been a sportsman, fond of fish- 

 ing with the rod, and I have spent probably as much time as 

 any one at it, if not more, except perhaps the gentleman who 

 told us that he was seventy-six years old. I am not quite as 

 old as that yet. Fish are in many respects like human 

 beings. If we go to a place to dine and do not find what we 

 want to eat, we are pretty sure to go somewhere else. So it 

 is with fish; if they cannot get the food they want at one 

 place they, will go elsewhere. I can recollect the time, fifty 

 years ago, that the locality where I reside, Harlem, when 

 -the Harlem River, East River, Big Hell Gate, Little Hell 

 Gate and the Harlem Kills were the finest fishing grounds 

 for striped bass, in all this part of the United States. Before 

 the old McComb's Dam and bridge in the Harlem River 

 were torn down, it was not an unusual sight to see daily 

 twenty-five to thirty rod-fishermen fishing from the bridge 

 for bass. Now why was it that there was good fishing there 

 then? Simply because there was plenty of food such as bass 

 feed upon, viz. : squid, shrimp and crab, in all those waters. 

 The squid were then plenty, and at that time constituted the 



principal bait upon which the large bass fed. These baits, 

 however, have for many years almost entirely disappeared, 

 or been destroyed, by the* refuse thrown into' the river, by 

 the gas companies and by the sludge acids from the oil 

 works. 



Fish are like human beings, they get tired of one kind of 

 bait; they have different food in different localities, while 

 the squid were at one time the most killing bait for large 

 bass, in the localities above named; in Buzzards Bay, where 

 squid are abundant, the bass will not take them, either by 

 still-baiting or by trolling, and although I have tried often, 

 I have never succeeded in taking a bass with squid there, 

 and have never seen or heard of a squid being taken from 

 the stomach of the bass. 



I have fished in Buzzards Bay. and at West Island, near 

 Newport, and at Cuttyhunk, since I860. On one occasion I 

 took with the rod at West > Island, from 12 o'clock to 5 o'clock 

 in the afternoon, forty-nine bass, and the next morning, 

 from 5 to 12 o'clock, fifty-one bass, in all 100 bass taken with 

 the rod; every one of them taken with menhaden bait, the 

 bass weighing from 7 to 321 bs. They were taken because 

 they liked, and were feeding upon, the menhaden. We used 

 the refuse part of the menhaden, the entrails, etc., for chum- 

 ming, and every rod-fisherman of any experience knows that 

 bass, weakfish and bluefish will be attracted by the oily slick 

 on the water, caused by the oil of the menhaden, and that 

 the fish will follow the slick up to the place where the refuse 

 of the menhaden is thrown in. At Cuttyhunk we have a 

 record of every striped bass that has been taken with the rod 

 since 1865; the day it was caught, by whom caught and its 

 weight. Our record ran up as high as 7,0001bs. in one year, 

 some ten years ago; it ran as low as 2461bs. in a recent year. 

 We caught all our fish there, until within recent years 

 (when we commenced using lobster for bait with menhaden) 

 with menhaden bait, and you could go out on any of the 

 stands (about nineteen in number) when the water was 

 favorable, and every member would bring in fish; every one 

 of them taken with the menhaden bait. I have seen, not a 

 quarter of a mile from the shore of our island, in Buzzards 

 Bay, and in Vineyard Sound, schools of menhaden of the size 

 Mr. Church has mentioned, all around the shores. I have 

 seen bluefish. and the bass rise under these schools of men- 

 haden and feeding upon them, while thousands of gulls were 

 hovering over the schools and diving down to pick up the 

 pieces left. With the exception of this year, for the past 

 three years, I have not seen a large, school of menhaden in 

 Buzzards Bay or in the Vineyard Sound. This year I saw 

 several schools, and the menhaden were quite plentiful, so 

 that we had no trouble in getting the bait, but there was a 

 scarcity of menhaden bait for several years, and we have had 

 to send to New London and Newport for menhaden, which 

 were brought in from outside waters by the menhaden 

 steamers, because they could not be. obtained in our neigh- 

 borhood, where the bass and bluefish feed on menhaden, on 

 lobster, rock crabs and eels. 



I leave it to you to form your own conclusions from the 

 facts which I have mentioned. As long as there were plenty 

 of menhaden, there were plenty of bass. The bass left the 

 shores when the menhaden became scarce. As regards the 

 weakfish, I agree with Mr. Church in one respect, about the 

 weakfish being so plentiful some years ago; as a gentleman 

 told me, that at the Pasque Island Club, in Robinson's Hold, 

 the weakfish were at one time so numerous that men waded 

 out with pitchforks and gaff-hooks, and brought them 

 ashore. 



Many years ago we took a large number of large weakfish 

 while fishing for bass from the stands with menhaden bait. 

 I do not think we have taken one this year, as they appear 

 now to be feeding upon small live bait, menhaden, fry, etc. 

 Several years ago, we took a large red snappei*, a Southern 

 fish, with menhaden bait from one of our stands. 



This year the bass fishing has improved, and some fine fish 

 have been taken. The bluefish, however, were very scarce. 

 Late in the fall, after our club house was closed, a large catch 

 of bluefish, weighing from 7 to 141bs., was reported to have 

 been taken with the trolling line, in the tide rips. 



Every fisherman of experience knows that the menhaden 

 start from the South, in the spring, full of spawn, and fol- 

 low the coast to the eastward into the sounds and bays; they 

 are followed by the striped bass, weak and bluefish; they 

 come up and pass outside of Long Island; some schools 

 coming into the lower bay, and into Prince's Bay, and in 

 years gone by, large schools of menhaden came up through 

 the Narrows, passing through the East River, and into Long 

 Island Sound, on their way East; and I have many times 

 seen schools of menhaden and mackerel, in the Harlem River; 

 something that has not occurred however, for the past thirty 

 years. 



Years ago there were no menhaden steamers; the men- 

 haden fisheries were carried on by sailing vessels, and there 

 were very few of them then. There was not so much harm 

 done at that time, because these sailing vessels could not 

 follow up the menhaden schools so closely. The trouble is 

 this: these steam menhaden vessels, which follow up the 

 coast of New Jersey and Long Island have a lookout, as Mr. 

 Church has stated, and when they see a school of menhaden 

 they will steam directly for the school and inclose and take 

 them in their immense purse nets. If they don't catch the 

 entire school they will break it up, and there are a very few 

 left to enter the sounds, bays, etc. They don't allow these 

 schools to come in around Montauk Point, as the schools are 

 either entirely taken and broken up and scattered before they 

 can get into the sounds, bays, etc. , and within the last two 

 or three years they have followed the schools of menhaden 

 which happened to get around Montauk Point into the Block 

 Island Sound and Long Island Sound down the Sound as far 

 west as Throggs Point, the entrance to the East River. I do 

 not wish to destroy the menhaden interests, but I would 

 suggest this: Have some limit fixed, some distance from the 

 shore, inside of which these purse nets shall not be used, and 

 then a chance will be given to these fish to come into our bays 

 and estuaries to spawn. 



As to pounds and traps, I have no particular objection to 

 them, under certain restrictions and regulations. As now 

 used, they do not actually reduce or cheapen the price of the 

 food fish taken therein. 



You may think this a strange remark to make, but I will 

 explain more fully what I mean. I have seen the pounds so 

 full that the fish were actually packed and scarcely able to 

 move about. I have seen the lish in large numbers floating 

 on the waters and washed upon the shores, killed and smoth- 

 ered in those pounds, bailed out and thrown over. 



This summer a man who waits on me had a lot of fish to 

 ship to the markets in New York. I asked him how many he 

 was going to ship. He replied that he had received instruc- 

 tions from New York that he could only ship a limited num- 

 ber of barrels of fish, and that all the other fishermen on the 

 island had received word that we must not ship so many fish, 

 as it would put the price down, and that they wanted to keep 

 the price up. That is where the pound-fishermen interfere in 

 preventing cheap fish. I have no objection to traps as inter- 

 fering with bass fishing, except that the long leaders to the 

 pounds frighten the bass, a timid fish, from the shores. I 

 think every trap-fisherman will tell you that the striped bass 

 are too smart to be caught in the pounds; and in my experi- 

 ence of over thirty years at Cuttyhunk, I cannot recollect 

 over four instances where striped hiss were reported as 

 caught in the pounds. I asked a pound-fisherman what was 

 the reason of this, and he stated that the striped bass seldom 

 got into the pounds, being frightened at the leaders, and that 

 they were the only fish that were smart enough to get out 

 when they happened to get in. If the pound-fishermen would 

 so arrange that the surplus of fish would not be destroyed, 

 and not retain any more food fish than necessary to supply 

 the market, they would be, in my opinion, a great deal better 



