74 Proceedings of the Newport Natural History Society. 
along the western shore of the Cape which bears their name, 
and last year a similar surprise was shared by the fisher¬ 
men of Newport and of Block Island. It is fortunate for us 
that we are no farther from the great government fish- 
hatchery at Wood’s Holl. We are so near to Buzzard’s 
Bay that the overflow from its waters quickly reaches us, 
and we differ in this respect from the dwellers along the 
upper coast of Massachusetts, for the extending arm of 
Cape Cod, running out like the leader of an enormous fish- 
trap, prevents egress of the newly-hatched schools towards 
Massachusetts Bay and directs them into Vineyard Sound 
and the entrance of Narragansett Bay. 
The real wealth of a nation, it has been said, lies in 
the thoughtful utilization of its wastes. What is daily thrown 
away in a great city could comfortably support a much 
larger population therein, and what is rejected or turned 
to no use from the sea’s products could easily be made the 
means of a living to a great number of persons now idle. 
It is unnecessary to more than refer to the constant 
demand for sea-sand for building purposes. Here in New¬ 
port the beaches were formerly considered as free banks 
to draw from for this purpose; now they make large re¬ 
turns to their owners. The greater proportion of the sea- 
gravel used here is brought from outside the city, and so 
with paving-stones, rounded through the action of the 
waves. 
In former days, dating from the times of war, there 
were, all along our shores, vats for the evaporation of sea¬ 
water to produce salt. The discovery of the great saline 
springs at Syracuse, N. Y. and at other places, and cheaper 
rates of freight from Turk’s Island, etc. have put a stop 
to this local industry. Yet it is a fact that, aside from 
the thousand purposes for which salt is ordinarily employed, 
there is a wide and profitable field, as yet but very par¬ 
tially occupied, in the vending of sea-water and sea-salt 
for use in innumerable forms of invalidism. The ocean is 
in fact but an enormous mineral spring, and, as existing 
