to run off or to be sucked up as by a sponge. The mass being porous prevents the fish from becoming musty. But the coming methods of preserving bait are what is called the dry-air process and the hard-freez ing process. In the dry-air process you have your ice in large solid cakes in the upper part of the refrigerator and your substance to be preserved in the bottom. By a particular mode of adjusting the connection between the upper chamber and the lower there is a constant circulation of air, by means of which all the moisture of the air is continually being condensed on the ice, leaving that which envelopes the bait or fish perfectly dry. Fish or any other animal substance will keep almost indefinitely in perfectly dry air about 400 or 45°, which can be attained very readily by means of this dry-air apparatus. I had an instance of that in the case of a refrigerator filled with peaches, grapes, salmon, a leg of mutton, and some beefsteaks, with a great variety of other substances. At the end of four months in midsummer, in the Agricultural Building, these were in a perfectly sound and prepossess ing condition. No one would have hesitated one moment to eat the beefsteaks, and one might be very glad of the chance at times to have it cooked. This refrigerator has been used between San Francisco and New York, and between Chicago and New York, where the trip has occupied a week or ten days, and they are now used on a very large scale, tons upon tons of grapes and pears being sent from San Francisco by this means. I had a cargo of fish eggs brought from California to Chicago in a perfect condition. Another method is the hard-frozen process. You use a freezing mixture of salt and ice powdered fine, this mixture producing a temperature of twenty degrees above zero, which can be kept up just as long as occasion requires by keeping up the sup ply of ice and salt.

"Q. How big is the refrigerator?-A. There is no limit to the size that may be used. They are made of enormous size for the purpose of preserving salmon, and in New York they keep all kinds of fish. I have been in and seen a cord of codfish, a cord of salmon, a cord of Spanish mackerel, and other fish piled up just like cord-wood, dry, hard, and firm, and retaining its qualities for an indefinite time.

"Q. Well, can fish or animals be kept for an unlimited period if fro zen in that way ?-A. You may keep fish or animals hard dried frozen for a thousand years or ten thousand years perfectly well, and be assured there will be no change.

"Q. Have geologists or paleontologists satisfied themselves of that by actual cases of the preservation of animal substances for a long period? -A. Yes; we have perfectly satisfactory evidence of that. About fifty years ago the carcass of a mammoth, frozen, was washed out from the gravel of the river Lena, I think, one of the rivers of Siberia, and was in such perfect preservation that the flesh was served as food for the dogs of the natives for over six months. Mr. Adams, a St. Petersburg merchant, came along on a trading expedition, and found it nearly con

sumed, and bought what was left of it for the St. Petersburg Academy of Science-the skeleton and some portion of the flesh-which were preserved first in salt and afterwards in alcohol. Well, we know the period of time that must have elapsed since the mammoth lived in the arctic circle must be very long. We know we can talk with perfect safety of ten thousand years. The geological estimate of it is anywhere from fifty to a hundred thousand years; we cannot tell. There is no unit of measure; we know it must have been some hundreds of thousands, and probably it would have remained in the same condition as much longer.

"Q. Now, to come to a practical question, is this a mere matter of theory or of possible use? For instance, could this method be adapted to the preservation of bait for three or four months if necessary?-A. The only question of course is as to the extent. There is no question at all that bait of any kind can be kept indefinitely by that process. I do not think there would be the slightest difficulty in building a refrig erator on any ordinary fishing-vessel, cod or halibut, or other fishingvessel, that should keep with perfect ease all the bait necessary for a long voyage. I have made some inquiries as to the amount of ice, and I am informed by Mr. Blackford, of New York, who is one of the largest operators of this mode, that to keep a room ten feet each way, or a thoussand cubic feet, at a temperature of 200 above zero would require about 2,000 pounds of ice and two bushels of salt per week. With that he thinks it could be done without any difficulty. Well, an ordinary vessel would require about seventy-five barrels of bait, an ordinary trawling vessel. That would occupy a bulk something less than 600 feet, so that probably four and a half tons of ice a month would keep that fish. And it must be remembered that his estimate was for keeping fish in midsummer in New York. The fishing-vessels would require a smaller expenditure of ice, as these vessels would be surrounded by a colder temperature. A stock of ten to twenty tons would, in all probability, be amply sufficient both to replace the waste by melting and to preserve the bait."*

39.-CONFLICTS BETWEEN BAIT FISHERMEN AND OTHERS.

Early feuds.

216. Some jealousy has naturally arisen at times between the baitfishermen and the manufacturers, as is shown by the following extract from Professor Johnston's "History of the Towns of Bristol and Bremen, in the State of Maine."

A special branch of the fishing business has of late been undertaken quite largely here (in Bristol), as at other places on the New England coast, called the "porgey fishery." The fish are taken in seines, usually several miles from the coast, and are used for the oil they produce, and for manure.

Proceedings Halifax Commission, Appendix L, p. 457.

These fish, the common menhaden of the coast, have been caught for use as bait in the cod-fishery from the earliest times; and at first the new branch of industry, in which such immense quantities are consumed, was viewed by the old fishermen with no little suspicion, as likely to interfere with the important and older branch of the fishing business by depriving them of bait. Some riots were at least threatened, and one oil factory was actually destroyed, as was believed, by the old fishermen, or at their instigation; but the opposition has ceased, and the general opinion seems to be that it is best to foster such an extensive branch of business, giving profitable employment for a part of the season, as this does, to so many men, even though it may be attended by some disadvantages, which in the end may prove more imaginary than real.*

The present aspects of the conflict in Maine.

217. In 1877 and 1878 a determined effort was made by the Maine linefishermen to secure the passage of a legislative act forbidding the use of seines near the shores. Their claim was that the present methods employed in the fishery interfered with their legitimate privilege of catching menhaden for bait, and that their tendency was to drive away all other fishes as well, and to destroy the fisheries.

To this movement the manufacturers made strenuous opposition, claiming that the menhaden fishery is practically inexhaustible; that the habits of the species have not been changed by the fishery, and that so far from making it difficult to obtain bait the large fishery made it easier, capturing it in great masses and selling it to the fishermen in any desired quantity cheaper than they could obtain it for themselves. Mr. Maddock's report, which has frequently been mentioned, was prepared at the wish of the Maine manufacturers as an argument to be presented to the legislature on their behalf. All the questions involved have been elsewhere discussed. It seems very unlikely that any legislature will at present interfere with so extensive an interest as that of the menhaden oil manufacturers. †

40.-MENHADEN BAIT AS AN ARTICLE OF COMMERCE, AND THE CONSIDERATION OF ITS VALUE BY THE HALIFAX COMMISSION OF

1877.

The export of bait to the Dominion.

218. In the section relating to the value of the menhaden as a baitfish (paragraphs 186–190), allusion was made to its extensive exportation for use in the fisheries of the Dominion of Canada.

The evidence of several witnesses was quoted to prove that meuba* A History of the Towns of Bristol and Bremen in the State of Maine, including the Pemaquid Settlement. By John Johnston, LL. D., a native of Bristol, and Professor Emeritus of Natural Science in the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and Cor. Mem. of the Maine Historical Society. Albany, N. Y. Joel Munsell. 1873. 8vo. pp. 524. p. 460.

↑ See paragraph 156.

den bait was preferred to any other kind by the provincial fishermen. I am told that a considerable number of the vessels of the New England fleet fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are accustomed to carry partial cargoes of salted menhaden to sell in the Straits of Canso. I have been unable to obtain any satisfactory statistics of this exporting trade. This is doubtless due to the fact that every mackerel vessel carries twenty barrels or more of salt slivered fish, and there being no law requiring their entry in the custom-house or for reporting sales after the return of the vessel, no one has the data upon which to found an estimate. More than 5,000 barrels of slivered menhaden, worth more than $30,000, were probably carried to Dominion waters during the past season. Many vessels doubtless expended all the bait which they carried; many others sold their surplusage to the provincial mackerelmen. I should hardly venture to estimate the amount of these sales at more than $8,000 or $10,000, and very possibly they are even less extensive.

The claim of the English Government.

219. The subject of the alleged trade in menhaden bait was referred to frequently in the course of the proceedings of the Halifax Commission of 1877. The subject was first introduced by the English counsel in the "Case of Her Majesty's Government," * as follows:

"The question of bait must now be considered, as some importance may, perhaps, be attached by the United States to the supposed advan tages derived in this respect by British subjects. It might appear at first sight that the privilege of resorting to the inshores of the Eastern States to procure bait for mackerel fishing was of practical use. Menhaden are said to be found only in the United States waters, and are used extensively in the mackerel-fishing, which is often successfully pursued with this description of bait, especially by its use for feeding and attracting the shoals. It is, however, by no means indispensable; other fishbaits, plentiful in British waters, are quite as successfully used in this particular kind of fishing business, and very generally in other branches, both of deep-sea and inshore fishing, as, for example, fresh herrings, alewives, capelin, sandlaunce, smelts, squids, clams, and other small fishes caught chiefly with seines close in shore. British fishermen can thus find sufficient bait at home, and can purchase from American dealers any quantities they require much cheaper than by making voyages to United States waters in order to catch it for themselves. It is a remarkable fact that for six years past American fishermen have bought from Canadians more herring bait alone than all the menhaden bait imported. into Canada during the same period. The menhaden bait itself can also be bred and restored to places in the Bay of Fundy, on the western coast of Nova Scotia, where it existed up to the time of its local extermination."

* Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, Appendix A, p. 28.

And again: "It is notorious that the supply both of food and bait fishes has become alarmingly scarce along the United States coast. At Gloucester alone some thirty vessels are engaged during about six months in each year catching menhaden for bait. They sell about $100,000 worth annually, and, by catching them immoderately in nets and wears for supplying bait and to furnish the oil mills, they are rapidly exterminating them. The Massachusetts Fishery Commissioners, in their report for 1872, state that it takes many hands working in many ways to catch bait enough for our fishing fleet, which may easily be understood when it is remembered that each George's man takes fifteen or twenty barrels for a trip, and that each mackereler lays in from 75 to 120 barrels, or even more than that.' One of the principal modes for the capture of bait and other fishes on the New England coast is by fixed traps or pounds on the shore. By means of these, herrings, alewives, and menhaden are caught as bait for the sea-fishery, besides merchantable fish for the markets, and the coarser kinds for the supply of the oil factories. There are upward of sixty of these factories now in operation on the New England coast. The capital invested in them approaches $3,000,000. They employ 1,197 men, 383 sailing ves sels, and 29 steamers, besides numerous other boats. The fish material which they consume yearly is enormous, computed at about 1,191,100 barrels, requiring whole fishes to the number of about 300,000,000. These modes of fishing for menhaden and other bait are, furthermore, such as to preclude strangers from participating in them without exceed ing the terms of the treaty; and even without this difficulty it must be apparent that such extensive native enterprises would bar the competi tion and suffice to ensure the virtual exclusion of foreigners."

The reply of the agent of the United States.

220. In the "Answer on behalf of the United States of America to the case of Her Britannic Majesty's Government," Judge Foster, states: "Off the American coast are found exclusively the menhaden or porgies, by far the best bait for mackerel."

This is well stated by Sir John MacDonald (in a debate in the Dominion Parliament, May 3, 1872), who says:

"It is also true that, in American waters, the favorite bait to catch the mackerel is found, and it is so much the favorite bait that one fishing vessel having this bait on board would draw a whole school of mackerel in the very face of vessels having an inferior bait. Now, the value of the privilege of entering American waters for catching that bait is very great. If Canadian fishermen were excluded from American waters by any combination among American fishermen or by any act of Congress, they would be deprived of getting a single ounce of the bait. American fishermen might combine for that object, or a law might be passed by Congress forbidding the exportation of menhaden; but, by the provision

* Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, Appendix B, pp. 18, 19.