280 Cavallas and Pampanos 



fish of all sizes, with rare exceptions, are found loaded with 

 the other fish, sometimes to the number of thirty or forty, 

 either entire or in fragments. 



"As already referred to, it must also be borne in mind that 

 it is not merely the small fry that are thus devoured, and which 

 it is expected will fall a prey to other animals, but that the food 

 of the bluefish consists very largely of individuals which have 

 already passed a large percentage of the chances against their 

 reaching maturity, many of them, indeed, having arrived at 

 the period of spawning. To make the case more clear, let us 

 realize for a moment the number of bluefish that exist on our 

 coast in the summer season. As far as I can ascertain by the 

 statistics obtained at the fishing-stations on the New England 

 coast, as also from the records of the New York markets, kindly 

 furnished by Middleton & Carman, of the Fulton Market, the 

 capture of bluefish from New Jersey to Monomoy during the 

 season amounts to no less than one million individuals, aver- 

 aging five or six pounds each. Those, however, who have 

 seen the bluefish in his native waters and realized the immense 

 numbers there existing will be quite willing to admit that 

 probably not one fish in a thousand is ever taken by man. If, 

 therefore, we have an actual capture of one million, we may 

 allow one thousand millions as occurring in the extent of our 

 coasts referred to, even neglecting the smaller ones, which, 

 perhaps, should also be taken into account. 



"An allowance of ten fish per day to each bluefish is not 

 excessive, according to the testimony elicited from the fisher- 

 men and substantiated by the stomachs of those examined; 

 this gives ten thousand millions of fish destroyed per day. And 

 as the period of the stay of the bluefish on the New England 

 coast is at least one hundred and twenty days, we have in 

 round numbers twelve hundred million millions of fish devoured 

 in the course of a season. Again, if each bluefish, averaging 

 five pounds, devours or destroys even half its own weight of 

 other fish per day (and I am not sure that the estimate of some 

 witnesses of twice this weight is not more nearly correct), \ve 

 will have, during the same period, a daily loss of twenty-five 

 hundred million pounds, equal to three hundred thousand 

 millions for the season. 



