THE SMELTS 
247 
In this connection, I would say that many persons have, to my knowledge, made from ten to 
twenty dollars a day catching, legally, with hook and line, so plenty have smelt become; and I 
have no doubt that this winter, as the result of the law, hundreds of persons who perhaps could 
not get work, will be enabled to make excellent wages by catching through the ice. I have no 
hesitation in saying that the law has worked splendidly, and that another close time, next spring 
will produce excellent results; viz., still larger smelts and in greater numbers. 
Forest and Stream (1874, p. 188) attributed the marked increase of smelts to a 
law passed by the Massachusetts Legislature in the preceding winter, making it un- 
lawful to seine or net smelts at any season; and four years later the same journal con- 
tained an article by some one signing himself “Memoir,” dated at Medford, March 
23, 1878, which said: 
Smelts have returned to their spawning beds at an earlier date and in larger numbers than 
heretofore. The law provides for their safety (or rather the watchman’s pocket) from the 15th of 
March to the 1st of June, but during the unusually warm weather of the first of the month they 
made their appearance in large and goodly numbers, which necessitated the employment of a 
watchman to protect hasty eperlanus from the frying pan of the immediate neighborhood. 
No further reference was made to smelts in any of the reports of the Massachu- 
setts fish commissioners until 1880, when the following catch for 1879 was given in a 
statistical table of seines: Westport, 5,598 pounds; Tisbury, 44,250 pounds; and 
Edgartown, 3,000 pounds. The report for the year ending September 30, 1880, gave 
28,184 pounds for Westport and 53,850 pounds for Edgartown, while that for the 
year ending September 30, 1881, showed that 2,414 pounds were taken at Westport 
and 32,800 at Tisbury. 
The returns for the year ending December 31, 1882, were as follows: Tisbury, 
28,050 pounds, and Edgartown, 6,500 pounds. In the fall of 1885, according to John 
Cutter, of Charleston, smelts were selling for 20 cents per pound and the following 
numbers were taken: At Tisbury Great Pond, 126,000; at Job and Great Neck Pond, 
Edgartown, 25,955; and at Oyster Pond, Edgartown, 65,728. No further reference 
was made to smelts, except in citing amendments or revisions of laws, until 1916. 
In 1891 exceptions to prohibition of seines and nets were made in favor of Bristol, 
Barnestable, Nantucket, or Dukes Counties “during the time and in the manner in 
which fishing is allowed for perch, herring, or alewives.” 
In 1894 the following localities were restricted to hook and line: Boston Harbor, 
Hingham Harbor, Weir River, Weymouth Fore River, Weymouth Back River, Nepon- 
set River, Charles River, Mystic River, or any cove, bay, inlet, or tributary of same. 
Statistics later than the foregoing are found in the reports of the United States 
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1900 and 1905, and the report of the United 
States Bureau of the Census for 1908. According to these statistics the total catch 
in 1900 was 7,079 pounds, valued at $515, taken as follows: Dukes County, by seines, 
2,479 pounds; Bristol County, by seines, 4,200 pounds; and Barnstable County, 
by pounds and traps, 400 pounds. In 1905 the total catch was 7,375 pounds, valued 
at $866, taken as follows: Dukes County, by seines, 2,000 pounds; Bristol County, 
3,150 pounds, 3,100 of which were taken with seines; Barnstable County, 325 pounds 
in pound nets and traps; and Essex County, by hook and line, 1,900 pounds. 
