There was He took one of the slender hands in his. of dried cod-fish to the southern countries of Europe. something clutched tightly in the rigid fingers. He dis- The progress in the American fisheries, however, during engaged it with difficulty. It was for him. "Did you think, my poor Larry, that because I had spoiled my own life I would consent to spoil yours? No, no! I care too much for you for that. The glamour of love is over you now, but there would come a time when you would remember; and I-I could never forget. You made me hesitate for a moment; you touched my heart-this poor battered heart that another had spurned and cast away. Do you think the old pain would cease to throb, even in your arms? No, Larry; there would be the old wound that would never heal. You deserve something better, stronger, purer, than I. Your great heart could not long rest on such as I am. I dare not try it, though a hunger comes over me at times for the comfort of your love. No. It is better that I should die. Dying, you will forget my faults-you will only remember that you loved me. My poor boy, there are myriads of sweet and fresh flowers in the world. Why should you stoop to pick up out of the mire a crushed and broken sunflower ?" That was all. The poor child had taken her fate in her own hands, but who shall limit the mercy of God? Who can tell what prayers, what anguish, what tears, had washed away her sin, and made her meet for the inheritance of the saints in light? THE PROGRESS OF OUR FISHERIES. THE fisheries on the American coast are almost coeval with its discovery. The immense food-supply on the northern banks was a mine of wealth to the poorer classes in Europe, and every nation on the western shore of that continent had its hardy mariners, who, for booty, fish, or adventure, breasted the stormy waves of the Atlantic, in vessels as frail as coracles of wicker covered with oxhide. As early as the commencement of the fifteenth century fishing-vessels from England and other lands sought the coast of Iceland, to gather in a harvest of cod-fish. Of course the fisheries of that early day were not conducted with the methodical system and discipline that characterizes the prosecution of the fisheries at the present day. As we regard it, there must have been a dire necessity for daily food which compelled these ancient mariners to leave their homes and sail nearly 3,000 miles in order to take back a comparatively small boatload of fish. And when we consider the inconvenience in the arrangement of the ships which were then in use for the fisheries, it is difficult to see how the fish could be preserved until reaching home, to warrant the sailors in ever making a second expedition. Before Cartier named the Gulf of St. Lawrence, however, the English, Breton and Basque fishermen had discovered the great cod-field off the Banks of Newfound land, and visited them regularly. The earliest attempts of the French on Nova Scotia had in view sedentary fisheries, that involved less danger and promised greater profit. When the first English colony was planted at Jamestown, Va., in the year 1607, the settlers averse to pillage would have perished had they not drawn a foodsupply from the fish and oysters of American waters. Through what marvelous progressive changes must the fisheries have passed in order to have brought those of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries alone, in 1880, up to a value of about eight and a half million dollars! A few years after the Jamestown colony had been settled, emigrants from England made their homes on the coast of New England, and we learn that before the middle of the seventeenth century the Massachusetts colony alone shipped nearly half a million dollars worth the next two centuries was by no means coequal with that long interval of time, and although in 1860 certain fisheries-for instance, those for the capture of cod, whale, mackerel, shad, alewife and oyster-were vigorously prosecuted, yet it was not until after the civil war that the amazing strides, the results of which are to-day so apparent, were commenced. Undoubtedly the successful operations of the United States Fish Commission, under the scientific and practical direction of Professor Spencer F. Baird, which has for thirteen years been laboring for the public good, have, in a very large measure, brought the fisheries of the United States to their present highly developed state of production. When we read of its having stocked bays, lakes and rivers with millions upon millions of young fish-a large percentage of which, according to all indications, live and reach maturity, forming sufficient food of the kind for thousands of human beings; when we read of its distributing free to any person capable of caring for them enough fish (carp and other species) to produce a permanent source of food, and carrying these gifts all over the United States in cars supplied with special appliances for the preservation of the young fish, and tended on the journey by carefully-trained men ; when we read of its achievements in fish-culture, whereby waters exhausted by indiscriminate fishing, and in some instances once barren waters, now teem with dainty food; and when we read of the improvements, made in great part by the exertions of this Board, in the construction of fishing-vessels, in the apparatus used for capture, and in the methods of preparing the fish for market, we can readily understand why it is that during the last decade especially the fisheries of the United States have gone so rapidly forward. Especially as in many States similar local commissions have been created to protect and extend the harvest of the waters washing the borders of the State or traversing its interior. The wide extension of our railroad system made all these progressive moves possible now, and not till now; for else, how could the shipments of fish into the furthest inland cities and villages have been made? Would not the supply have exceeded the demand? The International Fisheries Exhibition at Berlin in 1880, and that held in London in 1883, have indeed been practical and most successful demonstrations of the development and present condition of our "fisheries," using that word in its most general sense. These international exhibitions, by enabling scientific men to compare the vessels and fishing equipments employed by different nations, have led to the study of the advantages and drawbacks in each, and by combining all the best points to attain a remarkable degree of excellence. Among the most important improvements introduced with the last few years are the development of the fishing-schooner to a remarkable degree in speed and adaptability. The security thus afforded has elicited a corresponding increase in skill and daring on the part of the sailor-fisherman; coupled with these has been the introduction of cables and anchors of such strength that the schooners can ride out by their aid the heaviest Winter gales of our stormy Eastern coast. In the next place, the introduction of steam-vessels into the menhaden, oyster, whale, herring and Great Lake fisheries, has facilitated the labor of fishing, and aided to bring the harvest rapidly to market, more than one hundred being now thus employed. The introduction of the giant purse-seire and the place of the old-fashioned fabric of hemp. The introduction of the Norwegian gill-net into the Winter cod-fisheries has met with general acceptance. The invention of many far-reaching and destructive new forms of harpoon-guns, bombs, and explosive lances, for the whalefishery, has really revolutionized that pursuit. We illustrate some of these improved appliances, and describe them for a better intelligence of their use. A. Breech-loading whaling-gun, patented by H. W. Chassman, Newark, N. J., May 15th 1877, and manufactured by Patrick Cunningham, New Bedford, Mass. This gun discharges the Cunningham and Cogan Explosive lance (see D), and is the form most commonly used. It is principally employed by crews of the steam-barks in Arctic regions. The stock is skeleton, made of cast iron, and painted black. The stock and breech are cast in one piece, and there is a small rigid eye at the rear of the guard-plate for a lanyard. The barrel is of steel, reinforced, and screwed to the stock. The breech-block containing the firing-pin is connected to the stock by a hinge, and when closed is held by a snap-spring; with this gun is used a central-fire cartridge. The length of the gun is 33 inches, and its weight, 27 pounds. B. One of the latest improved shoulder guns used in connection with the Pierce and Brand explosive lances. The stock (which is skeleton), barrel, breech-lock, and trigger, are of gun-metal, the barrel reinforced. The gun is loaded by inserting a cartridge (Winchester, No. 8, central fire,) in the breech, and the lance in the muzzle, and discharged as an ordinary shotgun, the cartridge being ignited by a firing-pin striking a percussion-cap. This gun was patented February 12th, 1878, by Eben Pierce and S. Eggers, Sr., and is manufactured by the latter. Its length is 36 inches, and its weight, 24 pounds. An c. This is a figure of Brand's bomb-lance No. 1, and was primarily intended to be used with Brand's No. 1 gun. It was patented in 1852 by C. C. Brand, and manufactured by Junius A. Brand. Length, 16 inches. D. A "Cunningham and Cogan" bomb-lance. improved bomb, with rubber feathers and cartridge combined. This is used in connection with Cunningham and Cogan's breech-loading gun (see A), and Cunningham's darting-gun. It was patented on December 28th, 1875, by Patrick Cunningham, who is also the manufacturer. Length of lance, 16 inches. E. The commonest form of harpoon used by American whalemen, and known as the "toggle-iron." This is nickel-plated. The head is malleable, of cast-iron, and mortised. The shank is wrought-iron. Length of whole is 34 inches. Manufactured by Luther Cole. continental plateau, and the establishment of a halibutfishery in Davis's Straits, as well as to the establishment of an extensive cod-fishery in the Choumagin Islands of Alaska and the Ochotsk Sea. The trawl-line, or long-line, was not very extensively employed before 1855, even by the fishermen of Massachusetts; but some of our schooners now set at one time fourteen or more miles of trawl-line, with 12,000 to 15,000 hooks, an immense extension having occurred within ten years. Another sign of the progress of our fisheries has been the introduction among the hardy sons of the sea of a system of insurance. For instance, Gloucester, our principal port, has adopted a sytem of co-operative insurance, by which the loss of a vessel is divided among all the capitalists of the port, and is scarcely felt. The same ancient fishery-town has inaugurated a system of prompt cash payments to the fishermen at the end of each voyage, and has the practice of rewarding merit by giving the command of vessels to those who seem particularly deserving. This feature has attracted to that port daring and ambitious men from all parts of America and Eu rope. Not to prolong our enumeration of the recent improvements, we shall merely mention the utilization of secondary products of certain fisheries, and a great extension of the operations of the Government in the establishment of harbor and coast lighthouses, and life-saving stations, together with the army system of storm-warnings, from all of which the fishermen have received important benefits. * Of course, advances of the kinds above referred to could not be made without the aid of money, and it will be readily seen how liberal have been the efforts of the United States Government, and several of the State Governments, in the advancement of the fishery interests, by noting that no less a sum than $1,306,378, as shown in a table prepared by Mr. C. W. Smiley, has been devoted to this purpose from the public treasuries of the United States and twenty-eight States, between the limits of 1866 and 1880, by far the larger part having been appropriated between 1873 and 1880. It is proper to state that seventeen States and Territories have never spent any money for this purpose. New York State appropriated $165,000 between 1868 and 1879; Pennsylvania, $99,630 between 1873 and 1880 ; and Massachusetts, $80,500 between 1866 and 1879. Considering the extent and cheapness of the harvest of the sea, the great food-supply furnished by our oceans, rivers and lakes, the progress of our fishermen is a topic which we feel ought to be made popular. And though F. A one-flued harpoon, or harpoon with a single re- public confidence is already so generally shown in the rurved barb. Length of harpoon, 324 inches. G. Two-flued harpoon. This harpoon has a fixed head, and was employed on the American whalers during the early days of the industry. Made of wrought-iron. The harpoon is in all 42 inches long, of which the barb measures 6 inches. The general introduction of pound-nets, or stake-nets, along the sandy coasts of the Atlantic and its estuaries, for the capture of the migrating Summer shoals, has not only increased the yield, but cheapened the great foodsupply. Besides all these, the whole country has gained wonderfully by the deep-sea soundings, which have led to the extension of the fishery industry to new regions, and especially to greater depths, as in the case of the redsnapper-fishery of the Gulf of Mexico, and in that of the halibut-fishery to deep water on the outer edge of the Government schemes for promoting the fishery interests, the press cannot do too much in advocating a system that so directly affects millions of our people on whom the alarming decrease of the yield of fish in some waters had become a great and increasing cause of alarm. A feature by no means to be overlooked, and one which has had great influence in extending the welfare of the fisheries, is the immense amount of literature on fish and the fisheries which has grown up and is now accessible. Forty-three institutions and private individuals contributed to the exhibit of United States literature on this subject at the London Exhibition, last year, and this *These subjects will be found extensively treated in a Conference Paper, by Professor G. Brown Goode, on the Fishery Industries of the United States, (pp: 12 and 13), read at the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883. was independent of the reports, and other documents, | reach the proper conditions of water-temperature and published by various State commissions. locality necessary for the reproduction of their kind. our food fisheries in the order of their financial importance. The Oyster. To begin with the oyster, which heads the list from this standpoint, we find, from the results of the late census, that 52,805 persons are employed in this fishery, and that over 22,000,000 of bushels were produced, worth to the producers over nine million dollars. Nearly two-thirds of this amount were either replanted or packed in tins for market, which operation enhanced. their value by more than four and a quarter million dollars, thus making the total value of the entire products of this fishery nearly thirteen and a half million dollars. About eighty per cent. of the whole catch was yielded by the waters of Chesapeake Bay. No less than ten and a half million dollars are invested in this industry. The Cod.-The Greeks named this fish "bacchi," from bacchus, a rod: others ascribe the Spanish name bacallas to the word bacil lus, a rod or stick used in stretching the fish to dry; and this theory finds some support in the Dutch name of Stick-fish. The Latin generic name, "Gadus" is also derived, according to some, from the Sanscrit root "cad," or "gad" a rod. It was the abundance of this fish on the banks of Newfoundland which, as we led to the first have seen, fishing industry American coast. on the The distribution of this fish is very extensive. The cod occurs in the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and in the Polar Seas far beyond the Arctic Circle. On our coast it is found as far south as Cape Hatteras. tific fish-culturists is the fish-ladder, lately invented by | Early in the Fall the cod migrates from shallow water Colonel Marshall MacDonald, of Washington. By its means the anadromous species, including the shad, salmon, etc., are enabled to surmount many of the natural and artificial obstructions in our rivers, and thus to rocky depths, where they remain until they have deposited their eggs. It has been computed that from two to nine million eggs-the number varying with the size of the fish-may be found in one ripe female of this |