The semi-weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1890-1891, 1891-02-04

An ominuus report comes to us from
east in regard to the deep sea fisheries.
The supplies are beginning to give out,
The cause for this are twofold. Rail
road extensions have made a western
market for cod, halibut and mackeral,
and the substitution of seine for hook
and-line fishing has led to a lamentable
waste. Little fishes, as we'll as fair sized
ones, are swept up in the nets and are too
often thrown Oh the shore to die, instead
of beng returned to their native element
to thrive, increase and multiply. Lob
sters also are growing scarce. Forty years
ago in New England a lobster large
enough for a family dinner could be
bought for twelve or fifteen cents, or less.
Now ten or twelve cents a pound is
being charged in the Boston markets,
and the Holsters are generally small ones
Canning and the western demand have
brought about this condition of things,
and rendered necessary the passage OF
laws forbidding lobster-catching during
certain months. The sale of these below
IA certain size has likewise been made
punishable, but the statutes are con-
stantly being violated. The statistics re-
garding mGckeral are really %saddening to
all lovers of a very choice variety of fish
In 1880, IN the one port of Gloucester,
! Mass, half a million barrels were landed
and packed. In 1885 the catch of all
New England amounted to a little less
than 100000 barrels. In 1886 there was
a drop to 10000. In 1887 there was
a slight revival, SS,3S2 barrel.
being reported; but in 1881
only 4s,205 were reported, and II
1889 there was a drop to 2l,91s
barrels. The returns for 1890 have moi
yet been footed up, but the years catct
will fall below 1900 barrels. OF cours,
prices have advanced in an inverse ratio
to the declining supply, and as every yes
there is an increase of customers, sea-fisl
bid fair to become eve long a luxury
| which the rich can alone afford to buy
We say fish, for the constantly increasing
| price of hallbut and cod show that theil
numbers are diminishing in the same way
If not in the same degree, as the macker
ell. In the colonial period of New Eng
land, before manufactures had diverted
so much Of its capital and energy, tn,
fisheries and the lumber cutting were thu
main resort of its rich and enterprisinl
men. Besides feeding themselves ant
their n%elghbors, the fish lords exported
their catches to all parts of the world
largely to Spain and other Roman Cathc
lie countries, and to the West Indies
They brought home in exchange the pro
ducts and manufactures of the nation
with which they traded. Not a few .
the historic men of the pre-revolutlonar,
era owed their financial success to tn,
fleets VI little vessels which they equip
ped for fishing purposes. The oldes
sections of land have been settled les
than 300 years, but the period has beef
long enough to consumate the waste of
glorious heritage. The splendid forest
of the northwest have been recklessl,
swept away; the salmon, shad and bias
with which the tidal rivers once abound
ed are nearly, and in most localities quite
gone, and now the Atlantic seems I
threaten n suspension of tribute. Alssk
appears to have been annexed and Ore
gon and Washington to have been popu
lated just in time to make up for the de
%ticlencies of the eastern waters. TIL
time may come when the interior sha.
look chiefly to the Pacific states for it
cod, as well as for its canned salmon.