Cavallas and Pampanos 281 



"This estimate applies to three or four year old fish of at 

 least three to five pounds in weight. We must, however, allow 

 for those of smaller size, and a hundred-fold or more in number, 

 all engaged simultaneously in the butchery referred to. 



"We can scarcely conceive of a number so vast; and how- 

 ever much we may diminish, within reason, the estimate of the 

 number of bluefish and the average of their capture, there 

 still remains an appalling aggregate of destruction. While the 

 smallest bluefish feed upon the diminutive fry, those of which 

 we have taken account capture fish of large size, many of them, 

 if not capable of reproduction, being within at least one or 

 two years of that period. 



"It is estimated by very good authority that of the spawn 

 deposited by any fish at a given time not more than 30 per 

 cent, are hatched, and that less than 10 per cent, attain an age 

 when they are able to take care of themselves. As their age 

 increases the chances of reaching maturity become greater and 

 greater. It is among the small residuum of this class that the 

 agency of the bluefish is exercised and whatever reasonable 

 reduction may be made in our estimate, we cannot doubt that 

 they exert a material influence. 



"The rate of growth of the bluefish is also an evidence of 

 the immense amount of food they must consume. The young 

 fish which first appear along the shores of Vineyard Sound, 

 about the middle of August, are about five inches in length. 

 By the beginning of September, however, they have reached 

 six or seven inches, and on their reappearance in the second 

 year they measure about twelve or fifteen inches. After this 

 they increase in a still more rapid ratio. A fish which passes 

 eastward from Vineyard Sound in the spring weighing five 

 pounds is represented, according to the general impression, 

 by the ten- to fifteen-pound fish of the autumn. If this be the 

 fact, the fish of three or four pounds which pass along the 

 coast of North Carolina in March return to it in October weigh- 

 ing ten to fifteen pounds. 



"As already explained, the relationship of these fish to the 

 other inhabitants of the sea is that of an unmitigated butcher; 

 and it is able to contend successfully with any other species 

 not superior to itself in size. It is not known whether an 



