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State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

pumice ks) Publ Oy i

COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES,

Peer a tA SD BW MB lbeie

JANUARY SESSION, 1897.

Pi Oy LD EN Cr:
EEMAN & SONS, STATE PRINTERS.

Loo

REPORT.

To the Honorable the Geneval Assembly of the State of Lhode
Island and Providence Plantations, at its January Session,
IS97

The Commissioners of Inland Fisheries herewith present their
report for the year 1896.

TROUT.

Thirty-three thousand (33,000) trout fry and about nineteen
thousand (19,000) yearling trout has been purchased and dis-
tributed in the various waters of the State.

Trout fishing during the past season has been reported to us as

better than last year.

LAND LOCKED SALMON.

The Commissioners have received notice from United States
Fish Commmission of an allotment of three thousand (3,000) eggs
of this species ; these will be hatched and reared until a year and
a half old, and distributed in waters adapted to them.

BAY FISHING.

The fishing in the upper waters of the bay has been even better
than last year.
LARGE MOUTHED BLACK BASS.
(Micropterus-Salmotdes. )
The Commission has the past season given some attention
toward the propagation of this species of Black Bass believing that

4 INLAND FISHERIES.

it will prove a valuable addition to the inland fisheries of the
State.

A body of water located within the town of Westerly, has been
set apart for this purpose with the consent of the Town Council,
and will be used exclusively for the cultivation of this variety of
game and table fish. Two consignments of fish have already been
received and planted in this preserve; one, August 4th, of six
hundred (600) and one, November 4th, of fifteen hundred (1,500)
both from United States Fish Commission.

In from two to three years these fish will have increased
sufficiently to enable the Commission to commence the work of
stocking many of the ponds and rivers of the State.

The large mouthed bass is native to the Great Lakes, the rivers
of the Mississippi basin, and nearly all the waters of the Southern
States.

In New England itis comparatively unknown, the small mouthed
being perhaps better adapted to the clear cold waters of most of
our lakes and ponds and has consequently received more atten-
tion.

There are however in this State many waters that are better
adapted to the large mouth species, for instance, in large shallow
ponds or lakes of comparatively high temperature and in rivers
with sluggish current and muddy bottom, also in rivers that are
somewhat polluted by refuse from mills, etc. It is this class of
waters particularly that the Commission hopes to largely benefit by
the introduction of this species.

As a food fish the large mouth bass rank among the first of the
fresh water fishes; its flesh being firm and white, and when
properly cooked, tender and juicy.

As a game fish it is fully equal to its relative the small mouth,
when taken in the same waters and under same conditions. And
upon good authority it can be claimed that it is a much more
ready biter, rising freely to the surface of the water for natural
bait or artificial fly. The small mouth, on the contrary, as many

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 5

anglers can testify, is extremely epicurean in his tastes and on the
whole a very uncertain biter.

In point of size, the large mouth is certainly the superior of
all varieties of the fresh water basses of this country, attaining in
some waters the enormous weight of eighteen to twenty pounds,
whereas the largest specimen of small mouth of which there is any

authentic record weighed but eight and three quarters pounds.

SMALL MOUTHED BLACK BASS.
(Micropterus-dolomieu. )

The fishing for this variety the past season has not been equal
to that of the previous season. ‘This fact is not taken as evidence
that the fish are decreasing, but is probably owing to low water in
many of the ponds during the best part of the fishing season.

Realizing that there are many ponds and streams in the State
well adapted to this species and which are as yet unstocked, the
Commission has leased a small preserve near Niantic and has
stocked the same with adult fish. These fish spawned in May and
it is estimated that there are now several thousand young bass in
the pond, which are doing well. These fish will at the proper
time be transferred to waters hitherto barren of this variety of
food fish.

SEA FISHES.

The last season has been remarkable for the number, easy and
large capture of most all varieties. Any and all methods of
capture have been successful. Even by hook and line have
large numbers been taken. The low prices that have generally
prevailed throughout the season, have alone prevented a very
large harvest to the fishermen.

We believe we cannot better present the season’s fisheries than
by quoting from our local and other papers as follows :—

CODFISH SWARM IN SCHOOLS OFF THESE SHORES.

Fishermen in this vicinity who have followed their vocation for
years, report that this year’s run of codfish is the largest that they

6 INLAND FISHERIES.

ever saw. Captain Covo, with three others, took 1,000 pounds of
fish in four hours while anchored at a point a half mile south of
the lightship recently.

The fish are of smaller size than usual, but are more abundant
than ever they were before. They average about five pounds in
weight, which is just about half their usual size. A fish weighing
fifteen pounds, this season, is almost a curiosity, while one weigh-
ing fifty pounds, such as has been caught in former years, 1s now
of very rare occurrence. The fish are so plentiful, an exchange
says, “that wagons have been loaded from the rocks on the shore
at Beaver Tail by the farmers of Jamestown.”

The favorite bait is a small herring about five inches long, and
large clams and quahogs. The former, however, is preferable by
reason of it being less susceptible to the attacks of other fish.

The fish are now working westward, the season in the vicinity
of Beaver Tail lasting usually from November 10th to the 1st of
December. After December 1st they will be found in the deeper
waters off Point Judith, and later, in the still deeper waters off

Block Island.
THE FISHING SEASON.

The fishing fleet still lingers in these waters and those of Block
Island, but the number of craft is very small compared with the
big mackerel fleet. The superabundance of fish of all kinds this
season has stopped all the talk that the local fishermen once had
about the dumping of the local house offal off the lightship. To
this was ascribed the scarcity of fish at one time. The swill is
still dumped off the lightship, but the fish were probably never
before so plentiful off Newport and Block Island, and hauls have
been made with hand lines and seines that put the glowing stories
of old time fishermen far in the shade. The menhaden fishermen.
have also had a good season, one firm reporting the catch of
37,000 barrels. The price, however, of both fish oil and guano is
so low that very little profit is made on the season’s work, which
is now over.

CODFISH IN PLENTY.

Codfish have succeeded mackerel in the waters about Newport
and Block Island, and their number is legion. Last night fishing
schooner Dauntless brought in fifty-seven barrels of school cod
from the trap near Narragansett Pier, and to-day brought over

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 7

forty barrels more. Last night a school was seined off the bath-
ing beach at Block Island, and a large haul was towed ashore on
the beach, from which twenty-five barrels were to-day shipped on
the Danielson. This is the first time in the memory of the oldest
fishermen that a seine full of codfish was hauled ashore on the
beach. This fish is usually found further from the shore, but this
season can be caught like black fish, right up to the rocks along
the coast. The mackerel are thinning out, after a season of unpre-
cedented supply.

FISH BY THE TON.
Wonderful Catches off the Jersey Coast Reported.

ATLANTIC HicgHLANps, N. J., November 25.—All fishing records
from Sandy Hook southward below Highland Beach are being
broken. Fish are being caught by the ton. Such swarms of all
kinds of the denizens of the sea have never before been known,
even to the oldest fisherman hereabout. Whether it be the warm
weather or the break at Sandy Hook allowing a free flow of sea
through the new channel, or what, it is certain that the fishermen
never before revelled in such quantities and variety of fish.

So great has been the supply that fish of all kinds bring at
wholesale only 1 to 14 cents per pound. This town and adjoining
villages are glutted with fish. People are becoming nauseated
from eating fish so often. Wagon load after wagon load has been
disposed of inland, and though selling cheaply the fishermen have
made considerable money. The fish have been shipped by rail or
boat to nearby cities, and yet the supply is greater than ever.
They are given away here to those who will take them.

Captain N. B. Church from New York under date of December
Ist, 1896, writes :

“T am always willing to give you any information I may
have regarding the fisheries. Let me say with all possible empha-
sis that food fish of all the native species have been abundant
on the Atlantic Coast. That none of the common varieties ¢an be
selected that the market has not been full of, at almost any time
during its season. Any one that wants a fresh codfish in this
vicinity to-day can get it by going down on the coast with a rake,
or hook and line, something I have never known before.”

8 INLAND FISHERIES.

“The menhaden business as a whole has been much more
profitable than last year. There was a fair run of this fish in our
section early in the season, also in Buzzard’s Bay, but none on
Maine Coast.

The body of menhaden have been located between Sandy Hook
and Delaware Bay and the body has been a very large one and
the fish fat.”

Mackerel have been exceedingly plenty this season, and the
largest catch ever known here has been made. Since early
summer they have been constantly in our waters until November.
The average has been small in size, but we know of one that was
184 inches.

The following from WV. Y. Herald gives a correct idea of the
abundance of these fish :

A BIG RUN OF MACKEREL.

For some reason not altogether accounted for there has been a
greatly increased mackerel catch during the season just elosing,
and unprecedentedly large schools have made their appearance in
some places. This has brought the supply of fish up and prices
down.

There have been large schools of mackerel off the Long Island
shore. Sunday the waters about Far Rockaway were filled with
these fish, and the sport of catching them was entered into by all
the summer sojourners. A single boat, with one net, in a few
minutes caught enough to nearly swamp the craft. But most of
the catch were small fish. In places in Jamaica Bay the waters
were fairly blocked by the fish, and fishermen landed more than
have been caught in years before along the entire coast.

From all along the coast between Hatteras and Nova Scotia,
comes the story of big schools and large catches. The fishermen
of Nova Scotia say they are taking twice as many as during any
season in the last six years. From Newport comes the informa-
tion that three mackerel are now being caught for every one taken
during the past seven years. One of the largest catches ever
made at Newport was in 1890, and the present year has eclipsed
that record.

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 9

Fish dealers doubt that the closed five years during which
mackerel could not be caught with a net, has had the effect of
bringing the present increase. For five years previous to June 1,
1894, the United States statute forbade the taking of mackerel by
net, and when the season of 1895 opened it was thought the catch
would be large, but it was not. Now, however, the mackerel are
very plentiful, and in waters where the United States statute did
not operate.

“There is no accounting for the great increase in mackerel,”
said a well known Fulton Market fish dealer. “I don’t think the
law had anything to do with it. The supply is practically in-
exhaustible. It is only a question of the fishermen looking in
the right places and having favorable weather. For some years
the catch has been small, because the larger schools have not been
reached and the supply was so low that many dealers went out of
the mackerel business and thousands of consumers went without
the fish. Now the supply has come up to the demand, but not
beyond yet, for the demand for mackerel is an enormously large
one.

Inquiry about the market develops the fact that ten years ago
the supply of mackerel was so large that after the market was
supplied at the lowest possible price, each day loads of the fish
were emptied into the garbage scows. Then the supply began to
fall off, and the past seven years it has not been nearly equal to
the demand, and prices have been high. <A strange thing is that
during these years of scarcity, the fish that were caught were
large in size, running from one to three pounds each, while now
five or six combined weigh a single pound.—(Wew York Herald.)

We copy the following description of a new way to take
mackerel :
NEW WAYS OF TAKING MACKEREL.

The fall run of mackerel at Block Island is unusually heavy.
The fish are large, too but so shy that the old ways of taking them
with hook and line, drift nets, and seines, each of which proved
successful in its turn, have failed. About four years ago the
eastern mackerel fishing fell off largely for this reason. This
year the fish are more plentiful than ever, but they are just as
eunning, and while the catch exceeds by far the catch for the
same period of last year, the number of fish taken is as nothing

compared with the number of fish seen.
2

10 INLAND FISHERIES.

Many of the mackerel that are now being taken by the Block
Island fleet of mackerel schooners are caught by an entirely new
device. The tools are two long poles affixed to the schooner’s
side, a deep, loose square bag net of fine mesh, and plenty of
“stosh,” or fish bait. One of the poles is swung out from the star-
board fore rigging like a boom, at right angles to the vessel and
on a level with the deck. ‘This boom is twenty-five feet long. At
the same time the second pole, which is a trifle shorter, is swung
out near the main rigging in a similar manner. The bag net is
stretched on these booms, which are placed about thirty-five feet
apart. This distance is the length of the net on its inner edge.
The outer edge is made fuller and is weighted with lead sinkers.
When all is ready for use the after boom is lowered down until
its outer end and most of the net are concealed under water.
Freshly ground stosh is thrown into the capacious maw of the
hidden bag, the mackerel rush for the bait, and when they swim
thickly enough the after boom is hoisted until the outer edge of
the net is above water and the fish are imprisoned. The fish are
then bailed aboard the vessel. The old fishermen assert, however,
that the true mackerel are not taken by this device, as they get
away promptly at the first upward move of the net, but the vora-
cious bull’s-eye mackerel fall an easy prey. The schooner Sto-
well Sherman took 165 barrels of mackerel in this way the other
day, and all the mackerel craft hereabout have been or are being
equipped with the new apparatus.

A novel device that may lead to the entire revolutionizing of
the mackerel fishing is to be tried here in a few days upon the
arrival of the steamer Bradley from Provincetown. Her com-
mander, Jonathan Chase, has contrived an electrical apparatus
which, he thinks, will lure the mackerel. He has a dynamo in
his boat to which is attached a long wire supporting from one to
six incandescent light bulbs. These bulbs will be lowered into
the depths and the lights turned on. This, it is believed, will draw
the mackerel by night in such numbers as to make the selling of
them easy and profitable.—( Block /sland letter in New York Sun.)

SQUETEAGUE.

These fish have of late years been very abundant, and very
regular in their visits to our waters. They seem to have in a
measure taken the place formerly held by their colleagues the blue-

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 11

fish, whom they resemble in their habits, both being very de-
structive of other fish.

Why the blue-fish remain in the waters about Block Island, and
very plenty farther west, and cease to come here in numbers, is a
problem we at present cannot solve.

We are indebted to the representatives of the transportation
companies for the following valuable statistical data, which is the
only essentially correct data that can be got, and if continued it
will give a very correct idea of the relative catch of fish from year
to year. While this does not give a sure guide to the gross
product, it is certainly correct and reliable as far as it goes; and
we prefer to give it, rather than depend on the usually question-
able way of making up statistics from rough estimates or guesses.

Of course there is a large amount shipped by sailing crafts of
every description, besides the home consumption of which we
have no means of getting accurate account.

We are enabled this year to present the following table made up
from data kindly furnished by the various transportation com-
panies, and shows the entire shipment by all regular lines from
Newport, during the year:

Fisu. LOBSTERS. Sworp-FIsH.
Barrels. Barrels. Number of Fish.

MAMMME eee Bec ek s als ees : Steer tts Was Sere
SW GUT 27 cl ie a AMOR RES 9 28 aa oe es ra aN EO? eee
WORST ee Fo say urdu ye ia 6 6 o 1 Peneas a BL ees
ERTL ALG bee ESA I NOS DAE sia waa is Caen ee
CLE TEER Ba a Pa Oe Se 1 Fy Es ne PO Actes
“FLEES SRE AY i RY Opi ee ee ay Peer ed iC baa Rt REN ge 42
(ICS ACA ee ee TA a dl ea a eEGieee eee 2 95
EPO artes batter ca. aga ees cies i Do .7: iene IAG) owas eae
memiomipery Ay oF) 5g rey eins Gee bate fy peege 6
BIER ad cio citing has. see Bea Peres ee. His Rigas 503 aa
PM VGEI DOE us. 2 de sack shy Whe Ag ane BOS c./c4 oA RY Od
Wlereniber sth. S ys icky lame dale Onc soe ta! SHA A eh ak
PROS ECOS: fio clini ia hale 05 se Sebi 5 ta Oh oN RF een oe

CTELEDTUR E Th cae bere «eC oe Re 39,064 2,115 143

* From June 1 to December 14.

12 INLAND FISHERIES.

To show the comparative shipments over the Old Colony Steam-
boat line we continue our table.

YEAR. FIsH. LOBSTERS. TOTAL.
Lee LO SOP a SAE OLN © CCC RCAAE MEP ROAE EO En Chea Sane eS GD OLS ds vay Dole ea rs
Soe ik ne ee ey ee TOOT g wseus dy tet: OFA onal sd sya 17,491
Der eine tse Ra sea ety wis (LOR! Sk ae ey Seen de bGh vet ee 16,194
Meer oe ts fe ace os re ch et, Sane Serle BAT 85 dln Bae cists 21,853
Me fi). oh lees pee wee CULE Sip Seen CRON Sales ne stg 11,583
Ber a eet Vole ils ote Oe A ok DS Bes ial tee po Be AEs! hae (xe BOO
ioc eaae Bois Se SE Ae Sarg a ro a 2,123 eas) 28,900
Breet Sects OS'S Lhene sah BL AGB a. Gay hi Oar EAPO Pa eS 25,851
MDA Sah es Fish oh. Sake Gap, Poe. 2 BOD) UNG eateehmens 24,161
Ae PP acctens shee be: PAOD be chew 25 A LOO tN Bi eh ols 26,741
Mee eer ey Anka 8 Ped ks 02S BOIACOY. bia oe, Lee el eo ave 22,158
LOBSTERS.

The last has not been a very productive season for lobsters.

We have retained a number of egg lobsters until they hatched,
but have not made any attempt to hatch by artificial incubation,
being satisfied by past experience that the waste by that method
is too large to justify its continuance. The claims made for the
incubators of hatching 90 per cent., we feel sure could only be
made by rough estimate and no allowance can be made for large
numbers that die (before they are removed from the incubator) or
before they are liberated.

That the method in use at Wood’s Hole is much more success-
ful we cannot doubt, but that any method can be made to ap-
proach that of nature we cannot believe. And as it is possible to
retain the egg lobsters until the eggs are hatched, we are very
much in favor of that method as the most practical one of aiding
nature to preserve the product of the eggs.

The following article taken from the Spectator has so pertinent
an application to our fisheries, that we give it here with our hearty
endorsement, and commend its teachings to all having to do with
the fisheries, in efforts for their promotion :

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 13

THE PRACTICAL STUDY OF FISH.

The Lancashire Sea Fisheries Joint Committee are about to
establish a Marine Laboratory on Rod Island, near Barrow-in-
Furness, for the scientific and practical study of the life and habits
of sea fishes. The new Laboratory will be under the direction of
Professor Herdman, and will take the place of that at University
College, Liverpool. In evidence of the success of similar institu-
tions we may quote from the history of that established at Ply-
mouth in 1888. Various Commissions on Trawling and Fisheries,
mainly with a view to inquiring into the damage or decrease of
fisheries, had found that they were working absolutely in the dark.
Every one knew all that needed to be known about nets, gear,
boats, stores, fishing, and marketing. But no one knew anything
worth knowing about the fish. When questioned, the practical
fishermen could give no practical information. They did not
know where the migratory fish came from. ‘They were equally in
the dark as to where they went to. They did not know why they
came, or why they went. They wanted to stop trawling on
“spawning-beds.” But trawlers denied that the fish in question
laid eggs on spawning-beds at all. It was scarcely fair to prohibit
trawling over ground at the bottom of the sea for fear of injuring
eges which might be, and as it now appears are, floating on the
surface. Nothing was settled as to the food of the herrings, pil-
chards, and non-carnivorous fish, and when a cry was raised to
protect “immature fish” it was discovered that no one knew
when a sole or a turbot was “mature.” In America trial had been
made of the habits of a limited number of fish, and immense
hatcheries established, with one striking result. The cod at cer-
tain times leave the shores of New England to visit the colder
waters of Newfoundland. The millions of young fish turned out
in the hatcheries had established a race of non-migratory cod, re-
maining on the coast, and these formed a regular object of a fishery,
fishery, and named by the trade “Commission cod.” But some-
thing more than a machine for producing young fish was needed,
—an institution which might stand in the same relation to the
national marine wealth and the history of fishes as Kew holds in
regard to the vegetable produce of the Empire and the natural
history of plants. In any case, the scientific and practical side
must be associated, if only, as Professor Ray Lankester urged,
because no such distinction could possibly be drawn, and to ignore

14 INLAND FISHERIES.

scientific methods was to court practical failure. The marine
“Kew” took shape at Plymouth, in the building erected by the
Marine Biological Association, and maintained partly by a Goy-
ernment grant of £500 per annum, but mainly by the subscriptions
of the members. This thoroughly English proceeding of under-
taking a national work by private persons convinced of its nec-
essity deserves credit and practical support. Its tables and tanks
afford to the biologist opportunities for studying at first hand ex—
amples of evolution more finely graded, more numerous, and more
coherent among the swarming creatures of the sea than among
the less numerous and less varied creatures of the land. For those
to whom habits rather than structure are an object of curiosity,
the services of the local fishermen are engaged to note the move-
ments of the fish, the depths at which they are found, the nature
of their food, the use of artificial in place of natural bait, the
times at which the fish are spawning, and the nature of the ground
on which they lie. The scope of its inquiries must range from the
deep Atlantic, to see whether or not it is there that the pilchard
shoals disappear, to the inlets of Plymouth Sound, and the effects
of sewage upon local fishes. And lastly, it must possess an in-
telligent director, with ample means at his disposal for capturing,
keeping, and observing all sea creatures and products, from a full-
grown conger to the egg of the sole. The Journal of the Asso-
ciation is rich in interesting experiments and discoveries from
its first to its latest number, and yet the work of discovery in this
ereat half-explored region of our populous shallow seas is only in
its beginning. Nor can this be matter for surprise when our
ignorance of the habits of migratory river fishes is such that it
was not until 1896, and then as a novel and striking discovery,
that the President of the Royal Society announced that Professor
Grassi had at last discovered that the river eels, whose method of
reproduction had been a mystery since the days of Aristotle,
never breed till they go to the sea,—a discovery made partly owing
the aid of the classic Charybdis, whose currents threw up the
breeding eels from the deeps in which they are hidden. This
would doubtless have been discovered long ago had the eels not
reversed the process used by the salmon, and gone to the sea, in-
stead of ascending rivers, to breed. On the other hand, it is evi-
dence in itself of the difficulties in the way of marine zodlogy.
Almost the first discovery made at the Laboratory bore directly
on the great question of the appearance and whereabouts of the

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. Lb

eges of many food fishes of the sea. This was the work of Mr.
J.T. Cunningham, the naturalist of the Association. Everybody
knows that the salmon and trout and most river fish have regular
spawning-beds, sometimes dropping the eggs on rough gravel
and sand, which some fishes, such as lampreys, pile up in order to
break the force of the current, sometimes, as in the case of many
coarse fish, sticking them on to weeds and piles by the locks and
weirs. If the sea fishes caught for food did the same, as was com-
monly believed, protective legislation and much interference with
trawling might have been necessary. In a very short time Mr.
Cunningham, unequipped with a steam-launch, and only able to
make excursions with the local fishermen, was able to write as
follows :—“ The eggs of nearly all our food fishes, except the
herring are bwoyant and transparent when they are ripe. The im-
mature eggs when in the ovary are opaque white grains; but by
the time they are shed they become as transparent as glass.
These ova, as soon as they are shed, are fertilised by milt in the
water, supplied by male fish in the neighbourhood, and then rise
to the surface of the sea; in calm weather only do they actually
reach the surface, because, being but slightly lighter than the
water, agitation causes them to be uniformly distributed through-
out the depth affected by wave motion.” ‘Thus in a few lines the
writer was able to correct a natural mistake as to fact which
might have caused mischief and wrong legislation, and to describe
a most beautiful device of Nature by which these millions of ege's
are rendered invisible, locomotive, separate, and safe from local
destruction. In addition, he identified the eggs of the common
sole, and found that, were it desired, millions of young lemon-
soles and mackerel might be hatched from eggs contained in the
fish caught for market. Equally important data were obtained at
Plymouth on the rate of growth of sea fishes, and on the size and
age at which they spawn. This had only been attempted success-
fully in the case of one species, the cod. The results give safe
ground for the discussion of the limits of size below which these
fish should be protected. Reports from the fishing boats and
fleets give the catches at different seasons, the nature of the
ground, state of the wind and weather, and in the lobster-fisheries
the proportion of the different sexes. Interesting experiments on
the use of artificial baits are recorded, and careful notes made on
the larval stage of soles and other marine fish.

Perhaps the most curious of the recent results of the ex-

16 INLAND FISHERIES.

periment made at the Laboratory has been the confirmation of
the common, but almost incredible, belief that soft and helpless
starfish can open oysters, and that they must therefore be carefully
weeded out from the beds. The starfish throws itself over the
oyster, folding over the shell on either side like a pair of clapsed
hands. It then sets up a steady strain by means of its suckers,
a strain which apparently causes it little effort, while the exertion
of “holding the door” at last wears out the oyster. By fixing a
weight fastened to strings connected with each shell the strength
developed by the starfish to open the oyster has been calculated,
and the pulling force by which this strange conquest is achieved
determined. The Laboratory is also in touch with that at St.
Andrews, and with the Liverpool Laboratory, now about to be
transferred to the coast. Norway, France, and above all, Italy,
at Naples, possess institutions of a similar kind in a high state of
- efficiency, and by comparison and division of labour the whole
history and wanderings of the migratory fishes will before long
be mapped out and available for the use of the fishing fleets of
Europe. We half wonder that some one does not pity the fish, but
pity stops at the water’s edge; and even John Bright was an
angler.

RANGES FOR FISHING GROUNDS.

The following were copied from a memoranda book written in
the early part of this century and may be of interest at this day,
although some of the land marks have disappeared:

Easton’s Point.

Hanging rocks and Gardner house, Joshua Peckham’s house
and barn, just clear Easton’s point land.

Memoranda, good fishing ground about six or eight rods south-
ward of the sheep pen.

Ranges on Coggeshali’s Ledge.

Walter Easton’s house, and the north end of Gull Rock, Church -
steeple and boat house.
Inner Ground.
Walter Easton’s house and Coggeshall’s bass rock, Church
steeple and Sheldon’s Point.

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 17

Seal Rock and Light house and Walter Easton’s and Gull
Rock.
Pool.
Church steeple and east side of the boat house at the ledge.
Colling’s house over a certain rock on the north part of Price’s

Neck.

RANGE OF FISHING GROUND AT THE FLAT ROCK.

The great rock at rongh point over the high part of the flat
rock, and certain high bunch of trees on Gooseberry Island,
towards the north part over the opening between the ledge and
Sheldon’s Point.

Second middle ledge the west side of the West Island in range
with Mount Hope, the church steeple over the high part of
Comorant Rock.

Other Part.

Church steeple as before Comorant Rock with Mount Hope.

Gulf Rock Ledge.

Turn Peas Rock with Easton’s boat house, the high gray part
of the Gull Rock with the end of the fence that leads down to
Sheep Point.

Other Part.

Southwick’s house in range with Moon’s Lane by Cozzen’s
house, a light colored rock just back of the Black Flat Rock near
the spring in range with Church’s chimney.

Other Part.

Southwick’s house and Moon’s lane, and the end of the wall
next the Fell Rocks and Church’s house.

FISHING LEDGE FOR TAUTOG.

South-west part of Cuddyhunk with Gay Head.
South-west part of Pennykies with Quixes hole, eight and one-
half fathoms.

3

18 INLAND FISHERIES.

Carge’s Ledge off against Gooseberry Island. The east side of
Island Rock at west end Coggeshall’s Beach, with Amy’s house,
and Rocky Farm house with Mr. Hopkin’s steeple.

Range for the Fountain.

The Black Rock with ten fathoms, Collins house the Black Rock.
The light house with the grove next northward of Tower Hill, and
with a high bunch of trees near the middle of it; or late in the
fall let Collin’s house range with the east side of the rock about
twelve fathoms. Good in September for blue-fish and succoting
and late in the fall for cod and tautog.

Shole Nub (knob),

The high rocks southward of Castle Hill, with a white clift to
the southward of dumplings and Rocky Farm house just over the
south-east part of Gooseberry Island and south-easterly from that
for one-half mile.

BROKEN GROUND FALL COD AND TAUTOG

Scup Ledge.

The high part of the outermost rock at Saconett Point just
within Cormorant Rock and Cozzen’s house.

Easton’s Point in range with a tree, the top only appears when
on the ledge, nine to ten fathoms. July and August large fish.

Cormorant Inner Shole.
North-east corner of Easton’s orchard in range with the wind-
mill, a large tree in Saconett to range just on the south-west of
Sachuest or the windmill over the hollow on Cormorant Rock.

Other Part.

James Easton’s buttonwood tree in range with the buttonwood
tree by the mill north-west of Church’s orchard just within the
high part of Cormorant Rock; a few trees over the low part of
the rock,

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 19

Cormorant Rock Ledge.

A house on Saconett a little above the bunch of large trees with
the high part of the Island Rock where it closes with Sachuest
Point, a large tree. by the mine about a rod to the mill on the hill
aboveit, and east and west from that good tautog ground.

The large tree on Saconett with the high part of Cormorant
Rock ; the church steeple two or three rods, or Taylor’s orchard,
or a large tree by the mine on the western part of the mill above it.

Same ledge. The church steeple two or three rods clear of
Taylor’s orchard, the bunch of large trees above the large tree on
Saconett with the low south-eastern part of Cormorant Rock.
Benjamin Church house, Flat Rock, the high part of the rock
with a high rock on the land, the north-western part of Gooseberry
Island between the ledge so as the trees just to appear, light-
house just in range Shole Nub on Price’s Neck.

Coggeshall’s Ledge.
No. 1 Range.

Walter Easton’s house between north-west part of Gull Rock
and Stanton Rock, and half way on Stanton Rock; the south
part of Collin’s house with the north-east part of a rock to
the eastward of Price’s Cove. Good for cod and tautog in the

fall.
Other Part, No. 2.

W. Easton’s house over the north-western part of the Gull

Rock, the church steeple just clear of Ledge Point, meeting house
steeple over the high part of Ledge Point on the shore.

Wa, 3. .
The light-house just to the southward of Seal Rock, the meet-

ing house steeple just clear of the high part of ledge. November,

cod and tautog.
No. 4, Out Shole.

Freebody’s boat house in range with the meeting house steeple.
Collin’s house on the high north-east part of the rocks on Price’s

20 INLAND FISHERIES.

/

Neck against a white clift, the barn part clear of the high part of
the rocks, the light house about six feet to the north-west west of
the highest part of a grove on Narragansett.

No. 5, Late and Early.

The church steeple with Freebody’s boat house, and just east-
ward of it, and Collin’s barn the whole of it on the north-west part
of high part of rocks on Price’s Neck. Seven to ten fathoms or
more, but for tautog late and early, or late as the middle of
December.

Ledge South of Seal Rock.

The high rock south of Castle Hill, with a white cliff to the
southward of the dumplings and Rock Farm house just over the
south-east part of Gooseberry Island and south-easterly from that,
for one half mile. Broken ground fall cod and tautog.

Good Fishing on Cormorant Ledge.

Ranges. Comorant Rock with Church’s house, (the lowest on
Saconett,) Seener’s Point to open a remarkably large tree on
Saconett with a small one by it. Hubbard’s mill with Easton’s
orchard two or three rod from ye New England part.

State of Rhode Island in account with Commissioners of Inland
fisheries :

1895. DR.

Dee. 31. To balance due Commissioners............. J ) $1356

1896.

et eh lo pad tor 33.000 trout. dry. es sic. Xue ste pease 82 50
cc ef Fo, 88000 yearlines Trout. 33. 3 ae oe 658 88
ee ¢ PLAoseine. pega los Ay te dade eile aes 11 98
« ‘s io! brown trout eves: oho.s a a its 7 04

Dec. 31... * “expenses Commissioners.......... 207 24
ee ‘s “printing, advertising and postage... 5 40

$1046 59

1896.
May 2.
Oct. 15.
Dee. 31.

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 21

OR.
By chen of State Treasurer. :.....2.... 062 0444 $227 00
ci Q “i cS MAST: Sree tee ep AL Says GP Satay 615 88
‘“* balance due Commissioners................ 203 71

$1046 59

J. M. K. SOUTHWICK,
HENRY T. ROOT,
WILLIAM P. MORTON,
CHARLES W. WILLARD,
ADELBERT D. ROBERTS,

Commissioners of Inland Fisheries.

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