238 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
ttSlSJtCH 25, 1905- 
Federal Protection of Fish. 
In a speech in the House of Representatives, on the 
River and Harbor Appropriation Bill, Hon. George 
Shiras 3d, of Pennsjdvania, discussed the right of the 
National Government to control public waters with 
respect to their pollution, and to the fish in them. Mr. 
Shiras said; 
In connection with a brief review of the manner in 
which the National Government expends such large sums 
of money upon our national waterways, it seems an ap- 
propriate time to call the attention of the House and the 
country to the peculiar and, to my mind, unfortunate lim- 
itations placed upon such disbursements. Our seaboard 
snd inland waters were from the begining one of the 
great elements of our commercial prosperity, and their 
gradual development, through the liberality of the Gov- 
ernment, has made our water transportation! unsurpassed 
by any other country. The original theory on which 
the constitutional right to expend public money for the 
improvement of navigation was based on rather narrow 
grounds, viz., in the aid of interstate and international 
commerce on such public waters as were not only 
'"navigable" in the ordinary sense of the word, but were 
of such magnitude as warranted governmental expendi- 
tures. The seeming legality of these early appropriations, 
therefore, depended^ upon a pre-existing navigability of 
the rivers, lakes and harbors. Gradually this has been 
changed, until now the test frequently is. Can the water- 
way be made navigable; and if so, will it be of sufficient 
commercial value to warrant the Government making the 
improvement? Streams that were navigable but one 
month in the year, and then only during _freshets, when 
transportation was most hazardous, are now, by our sys- 
tem of slack-water dams and locks, made great highways 
of trade; other watercourses that were wide and so shal- 
low as to be practically unnavigable, had deep channels 
excavated therein and thus adapted to the movement of 
our largest steamships ; and, finally, not to be confined to 
the watercourses provided by nature, in. our efforts to aid 
navigation we have from time to time (as in the present 
bill) expended considerable sums in building canals and 
artificial channels through solid ground for miles, so as 
to connect streams with lakes and lakes with tidal 
waters. We have even gone so far in some of our river 
and harbor bills as to grant franchises to private corpora- 
tions to construct locks and dams on certain rivers and 
collect toll thereon — a practice that should be abandoned. 
Thus it must be apparent at the present day that we 
exercise the most complete and exclusive dominion over 
our public waters in so far as navigation is concerned, 
and, further, that this right is wholly based upon the 
principle that the public waters belong to the nation and 
should be so protected and improved as to be a source 
of common benefit to all. 
It must therefore be plain that our Government has 
assumed the right to so control o-nr public waters as will 
best conserve the needs of commerce, quite irrespective 
of the original navigability of the waterway or route to 
be improved. At this point it seems proper to ask. Why 
is it, with such complete and exclusive control of our 
Government over the public waters, in so far as naviga- 
tion is concerned, that no practical steps have been taken 
to extend national supervision over the same waters for 
the benefit of the country in two essential particulars, 
viz., the protection of public health and the valuable food 
fishes that are indigenous tO' such waters? 
While the improvement of navigation is essentially and 
fundamentally right, the protection of public health is 
equally essential, whether it be gauged by morals or in a 
purely commercial sense. Though this bill carries the 
sum of $32,000,000, not one cent is to be expended in the 
investigation or control of the many sources of contam- 
ination and pollution which are gradually converting our 
great rivers and harbors into open sewers, killing thous- 
ands of citizens each year, and imperiling the health of 
millions. If the time has now come when the mere driv- 
ing of a stake in some petty creek renders the offender 
subject to fine and imprisonment, as an alleged inter- 
ference with navigation, it would seem as though our 
Government should be given authority in the present bill 
or by other statutes to prevent all such injurious pollu- 
tion of public waters as must inevitably render unfit for 
domestic use many streams and lakes owned by the pub- 
lic at large and needed for other vital purposes than the 
transportation of freight or passengers. Were the sick- 
ness and death arising from the corruption of our water- 
courses valued according to the "tables of expectancy" 
employed in such cases, and were we to add to this the 
untold millions expended by municipalities in the con- 
struction and maintenance of filtration plants, reservoirs, 
and distant conduit connections with uncontaminated 
waters, the sum total would be appalling. If, in the 
future, some of the money carried by the river and 
harbor bills, can be appropriated for the preservation of 
public health, it would do very much in furthering the 
popularity of such measures. 
That we possess the constitutional power to protect 
public health under the regulatory rights the Government 
has over public waters must be unquestioned when the 
matter is given due consideration, for it is manifestly im- 
possible for the States bordering upon the same waters to 
enact either efficient or uniform legislation or make the 
same enforcible against an offending State which may 
with impunity so contaminate the public waters passing 
beyond its borders as to utterly destroy the purity and 
usefulness of the same. 
While not of equal importance with the question of 
public health, the failure of our Government to properly 
protect our valuable food fishes, which at one time fairly 
swarmed in the bays, rivers and lakes of our country, is 
of ^sufficient magnitude to justify some reference to the 
same in connection with the discussion bearing upon the 
intrinsic value of our public waters to the nation over 
and above the question of navigation. It is the opinion 
of well-qualified persons that Federal supervision over 
the fish within our public waters would advance the 
marketable product $15,000,000 or more a year. As show- 
ing the interest of Government experts in the question of 
protecting our food fishes by national legislation, I sub- 
mit a letter addressed to the United States Commissioner 
of Fisheries and his reply thereto : 
House of Representatives, 
Washington, D. C, Feb. 24, 1905. 
Hon. George M. Bowers, 
Comtnissioner, Bureau of Fisheries, City, 
Dear Sir: The Federal Government in exercising control over 
the^ public waters of the United States has heretofore practically 
limited its action to the protection and promotion of navigation 
thereon. After considerable investigation of the subject I have 
reached the conclusion that the National Government should so 
extend its supervision over the public waters as to prevent the 
unnecessary pollution of the same, not only for the purpose of 
•^conserving the public health, but with the view of preserving 
from injury or destruction the valuable food fishes that are in- 
digenous to our navigable streams. It likewise sefenis important 
that the Government in spending millions of dollal^s ailriually 
on such streams and public Watefs— whether for navigation or 
irrigation purposes — should so construct its dams and canals as 
to provide not only proper fishways for the free movement of the 
fish in their annual migrations to and from the spawning beds, 
but should so construct said improvements as to avoid the un- 
necessary accumulation of sewage and other deleterious sub- 
stances in the slack-water pools (so menacing to the public 
health) by providing means for flushing the same. 
While some of these subjects are not within your province to 
pass upon, I am anxious to obtain your views on the possible 
advantages that would acrue to your Bureau were additional 
Federal legislation enacted giving the Government authority to 
regulate fishing in those public waters where the fish are either 
of migratory character or belong to waters wliich are not 
wholly within the control of any one State. 
Under the acts of Congress providing therefor the President 
of the United States appoints a Commissioner of Fish and 
Fisheries, whose duty it is to investigate the subject with a 
view to ascertain what diminution, if any, in the number of food 
fishes of the coast and lakes of the United States has taken place 
and_ from what cause the same is due, and whether any pro- 
tective, prohibitory, or precautionary measures should be adopted 
in the premises, and report upon the same to Congress. 
It is also provided that the heads of the several Executive 
Departments shall cause to be rendered all necessary and prac- 
tical aid to the Commissioner in the prosecution of his in- 
vestigations and inquiries, and Section 4398 of the Revised 
Statutes provides that "the Commissioner may take or cause to 
be taken at all times in the waters of the seacoast of the United 
States, where the tide ebbs and flows, and also in the waters 
of the lakes, such fish or specimens thereof as may, in his 
judgment, from time to time be needful or proper for the con- 
duct of his duties, any law, custom, or usage of any State not- 
withstanding." 
From the above last recited act it is clear that Congress has 
asserted its authority over fish in certain public waters and has, 
besides, invited such additional legislation as might be hereafter 
suggested for the proper protection of the food fishes of the 
United States. 
I ^ understand that by the placing of nets, weirs, and similar 
devices in or at the entrance of streams many valuable migratory 
fishes, such as the salmon and shad, are in many localities en- 
tirely prevented from reaching the fresh-water spawning beds, 
and in other localities such limited numbers succeed in passing 
such barriers that were it not for artificial propagation carried 
on by the Government the supply of these valuable fish would 
soon be exhausted. 
It would seem, also, that some provision should be made for 
regulating the season and the manner in which such migfatoty 
fish should be taken, in view of the fact that our Government 
spends annually large amounts of the public money for the pro- 
tection and propagation of the fish; 
I would be pleased, therefore, if you would indicate in a 
general way "what protective, prohibitory, or precautionary meas- 
ures should be adopted" for fostering our fishing interests in the 
public waters of the United States, and, further, that you detail 
such special instances of the insufficiency of existing legislation 
as will best illustrate the urgency and propriety of Congressional 
action. . . 
In Alaska I understand that your Bureau possesses ample 
authority to insure the permanency of the salmon industry in 
such waters, both tidal and inland. If this is correct, may I 
ask if the passage of similar laws, so far as applicable to the 
United .States, would be sufficient; and if so, to what extent 
m your judgment would the commercial fisheries of the country 
be benefited? Yours, very truly, 
Geo. Shiras, 3d. 
Department of Commerce and Labor, 
Bureau of Fisheries, 
^ ^ . Washington, March 1, 1905. 
Hon. George Shiras, Sd, 
House of Representatives, Washington. D. C, 
Sir: In response to your request for an expression of opinion 
as to the advantages that would acrue to this Bureau were the 
Government m position to regulate tlie fishing for migratory 
fishes in public waters or the fishing waters not wholly within the 
control of any one State, I have the honor to make the following 
statements : 
The operations of this Bureau so far as they relate to legal 
matters afl'ecting the States, are in general quite satisfactory; 
and, in its own interests, the Bureau would not care to see 
existing conditions changed or disturbed. . The State oflicials ap- 
preciate the beneficent and unselfish efi^orts of the lUireau to 
preserve and increase the supply of food fishes, and ate willing 
to co-operate to the fullest possible extent. But from the stancf- 
point of the fisheries I can see that in many, perhaps all, cases 
affecting tnigratory fishes arid interstate waters great advantage 
would accrue from the ability of the General Government to pre^ 
.scribe uniform regulations and to impose necessary restrictions 
in the interest of the entire country. 
The States would doubtless be greatly adverse to relinquishing 
their control over such matters, and this Bureau would be 
equally adverse to assuming jurisdiction; but if the welfare of 
certain industries and the preservation of certain fishes are the 
vital considerations, there is no doubt that these would be best 
secured through governmental control. 
Attention may be drawn to the case of the fislieries of the 
Great Lakes. For fifteen years the States bordering thereon 
have been striving to secure uniform legislation, and many joint 
conterences have been held; but the desired end is not yet 
attained, and the fisheries have suffered in consequence. Other 
international waters in which the condition of affairs is most 
unsatisfactory are Puget Sound and Lake of the Woods 
With regard to the Columbia River, the States of Washington 
Oregon and Idaho have never been able to agree on uniform 
legislation and regulations for the best interests of the salmon 
fisheries, and during the past season two of those States went 
so far as to ignore the law providing for a close season with 
the result that the run of fish on which the Government hatch- 
eries chiefly depended for their supply of eggs was practicallv 
annihilated and the season at tlie hatcheries was a failure 
Various other instances might be cited in which the States f-dl- 
to give to the migratory fishes that protection which is clearlv 
indicated, or m which protection is one-sided or inadequate be- 
cause of the lack of uniformity in the regulations. Iif all such 
cases governmental jurisdiction would easily accomplish %lie 
desired end. 
Other directions in which governmental supervision of public 
waters wou d be beneficial to the fisheries and helpful to the 
operation of this Bureau are in the prevention of the nollution 
of public or interstate waters by mill, factory and city refuse 
and in the prohibition of the construction or maintenance 'of 
dams, dikes, or other obstructions to the movements of fish 
unless such obstructions are provided with duly approved fish 
ladders. Very respectfully, 
Geo. W. Bowers, 
» Commissioner. 
I herewith submit an extract from a communication of 
mme addressed to a publication devoted to the interest of 
sportsmen ; 
In Albemarle Sound the national shad fisheries, owing to' the 
almost entire catch of the shad before they reach the fresh-water 
spawning beds by the intervening ueis further down the soun<l, 
h-ad obtained spawn amounting only to 10,000 tiijo wliil^ thf- 
hatcheries had the capacity for 100,000,000. If a 'fair pronortion 
of the shad could reach the spawning beds, perhaps one'' thous- 
and m.illion additional spawn would be depoiited and the shad 
industry oerwhelmingly benefited. As it is, I have been in- 
forrned that the shad industry of the Atlantic coast is almost 
wholly dependent upon the artificial propagation conducted by 
the Government; and yet while our nation spends the people's 
money for this worthy purpose, it has no power to protect this 
migratory fish from practical annihilation by certain States ex- 
cept through its persistent eftorts in obtaining annually enough 
spawn to provide for a limited catch each season. Can it b- 
doubted that the shad and salmon, living far out at sea and 
migrating annually to our waters for the purpose of reproduction, 
do iiot belong to any State, and yet a State, by reason of the ^ 
public waters passing through its domain, may so net the 
streams and inlets as to exterminate a fish which surely belongs 
to the people at large, and for which so much of the public! 
money is expended? 
All ornithologists and fish culturists recognize a wonderful ; 
similarity in the migratory habits of certain fish and birds, eachj 
coming annually to the same locality, over the same general-' 
course, for the purpose of reproduction, and then returning to: 
some distant locality oil water or land, respectiely. Destroy 1 
certain shore birds of the Atlantic coast and they are gonel 
forever, so completely ate some varieties Confined to this narrow 
avenue of migration; destroy all tlie salmon which are acctistomcd 
to spawn in a particular stream or estuary and these waters are; 
forever barren, so wonderful is the predilection of this fish fort 
the same spawning bed. The State of Maine improvidently 
wiped out the vast salmon schools which once visited its streams; ' 
the State of Connecticut has largely lost its shad, and at present ; 
the great Pacific Coast States of ^'\^ashington and Oregon are) 
temporarily filling the pockets of their commercial fishermen, 
who are unrestrained by a Federal law so regulating the catch : 
as to correspond with the maintenance of a permanent supply,, 
and soon the Columbia River will be like those of Maine. 
Therefore, in conclusion, let me ask if the time has not ■ 
arrived when this nation, in the protection of general 
health and in the preservation of its great commercial 
fisheries, should assume its rightful control over those 
pid^iic waters not Avholly within the dominion of one 
State now but partially exercised in the promotion or ' 
navigation? Let us have Federal statutes expressly recog- 
nizing public ownership in public waters, and the out- 
come will be the saving of countless lives and the protec- , 
tion of our material interests without a single substantial 
objection to negative such beneficial results. 
Galveston^s Fish Lottery* 
Galveston, March 17. — Lest your readers forget 
what manner of fishing we have, I want to again remind 
them that they who have never fished from our jetties 
have missed an experience. Ten miles from our docks, 
five iniles out in the Gulf of Mexico, you can stand on 
granite rocks of the jetties and cast in water thirty feet 
deep with the charming uncertainty of "most any old 
fish" taking your hook. The range of possibilities is 
from a pigfish (hogfish, grunt, sailor's choice, as variously 
called), the salt-water perch, to a shark or a ray or devil- : 
fish, that skin your knuckles with handle of your reels 
and carry off your line as a joke on the fisherman, 
Tarpon are abundant with us, as many as anywhere 011 
the Gulf coast, but we land but few tarpon on the rocks, ; 
and it is so difficult tO' do and there are so many other ■ 
fish that will give you all fhe exercise you want, and 
test twenty-five strand Cuttyhunk, hand- forged hooks 
and 300-foot reels, that we rarely fish for tarpon— hi fact, 
generally reel in. when we see one loafing around. Tc 
land a tarpon in shallow water and from a boat, where • 
all the fisherman has tO' do is tO' keep twenty pounds 
strain on line with his brake and let the tarpon do the 
rest in pulling the boat until he is worn out playing tug- 
boat, is one thing; to stand on a rock where Bro' Tarpon 
can go down thirty feet and come up with slack of your 
line in three shakes of a lamb's tail, wink the other eye 
at you and throw the hook twenty feet out of the hole 
he made in his jaw in going down with the strain of the ; 
brake on tlie hook, is -another thing. Well, yes, that is ! 
another story. 
Spanish mackerel, the greyhounds of the sea, or father 
the blue-grej'hounds of the sea, give us the best of sport, 
Hang a mackerel, see your float gO' out sight as if shot 
from a rifle, and for a while you do not know whether it 
is a three-pound mackerel, a hundred-pound tarpon, or 
a five-foot shark or a jackfish (the first cousin of the 
tuna). Redfish, sea trout, kingfi-sh, .sheepshead, salt- 
water bass, Junefish that are Called sea bass on the Pacific 
Coast, ponipano, several kinds of fays and shark.9, are 
all Caught at times; so we fish with 20 to 25-strand, best 
linen, big reels and hand-forged hooks, ready for what 
the fish lottery may bring us. ' 
The. khigfish Js rare with us, but if you ever caught 
one of those big Cousilis to the Spanish mackerel, you 
will know ever aftet whett it IS a kmgfish that is making , 
your reel hum and smoke and taking the .^kin off the ball 
of your thumb if the brake breaks. The moment the 
kingfish feels the hook, he recollects that there is a fish 
doctor in the Havana harbor, and he strikes a bee-line 
for the doctor. Fortunately for the fisherman, twenty 
poiuids on the drag will so worry him that by the time he : 
has gone a hundred yards he concludes that he will try , 
the old anti-hook remedy of circling, and in fifteen or 1 
twenty minutes he just as lief be gaffed as not. 
There is no fish that swims that, for its heft, ten to 
thirty pounds, is a better rod, reel and line prize 
thail the jack. It is almost identical in appearance with 
the ttma of the Pacific, and for twenty minutes to half 
an hour is better sport than any tuna, as the size and 
weight of the tuna requires you to simply let him pull the 
boat about, when, with the jack you can stand up on the 
rocks and fight it out to a finish — skill and strength of - 
tackle against his strength, fair fight and no favOf-s ,'tsked, 
and equal chance as to outcome. ' , ; 
We have as great a range in varietj' as in any fishing 
grounds in the world. Fish here have their fast days, ■ 
when they will be excommunicated if the}' touch bait, 
and as a calendar of these days has not yet been pub- 
lished ni the mermen's journal, we sometimes have to 
fall back oh pigfish or gaff-topsail cat, as not considered 
game fish, for dinner aboard the boat on our way home 
in the evening. But the beauty of fishing is the uncer- 
tainty of the catching, and, as President Cleveland says, 
it is a .squaw fisherman whO' only wants to fish when, he 
is certain the fish will bite. There is a charm in the 
wealth of life in the waters of the Gulf five miles at sea. 
Then the sail or boat ride to and from the fishing 
grounds, the yarns and explanations as to what was 
caught and what was not, and why tlie reel was broken, ' 
or how the shark took the trout off the hook and forgot , 
to leave the line — an old, old story that never stales and. 
the age of tlie. filsherman never withers. There is a 
witchery that is as fresh to the man of seventy as to the 
barefoot boy of ten that calls us again and again to the 
rocks when judgment says wind and tide make chances ■ 
of catching fish slim indeed. The time to go fishing is , 
when you feel like going. _ 
We have excellent facilities for the stranger to fish, 
and at small expense; there is what is called the Better- 
son paviliopj about two miles and a ha.lf frorn the land 
