MIGRATIONS OF TIIK BU'KFISII. 435 



they arc not taken with the hook about I'.canl'ort until about the 1st of .July. They do not bite, 

 however, in Vineyard Sound until from the 10th to the 15th of June, when they appear on the 

 surface, and are caught in large niiinbers in the usual manner." 



In the tirst week of May, isys, about a thousand Bluciish, weighing four ])onnils each, were 

 caught oil' Long IsUuid at Canarsie and West Hampton. This is about two months eailier than is 

 usual for them to be taken in any considerable numbers. 



"PERIODICITY. Great interest, attaches to this tish in consequence of the changes in its 

 abundance, and even its actual occurrence on our coast, within the historic period. The pieeisu 

 nature and extent of the variation has not been established, nor whether it extended along the 

 entire coast or not. Its earliest mention for our waters is in the work of .losselyn ('New England 

 Rarities Displayed,' 1072), where, on page 96, lie mentions the 'blew-lish, or horse,' as being 

 common in New England (his residence was on the New Hampshire coast, or near by in Maine.) 

 and 'esteemed the best of sort of fish next to rock-cod.' He says: 'It is usually as big as the 

 Salmon, and a better meat by far.' He also, ou page 24, catalogues two kinds of 'Blcw-fish' or 

 'lloundtish'; the Speekeled rioundfislf and the 'Blew HoumUish, called Ilorsefish.' There 

 appears to be no species to which this reference could apply excepting the subject of our present 

 article, this being the opinion of Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull, who has devoted much research to 

 determining the modern equivalents of ancient Indian names of animals, and to whom I am 

 indebted for the bint. Mr. Trumbnll also remarks that in a manuscript vocabulary obtained by 

 President Stiles, in 1702, from a Pequod Indian at Groton, Connecticut, there is mentioned the 

 ' Aquatmdnnt or Bine-fish,' clearly the same as what now bears that name, which shows that this 

 tish was found in Fisher's Island Sound in 1702. 



"Again, according to Zacchens Macy, 1 the Blueflsh were very abundant about Nantucket 

 from the first settlement of the English on the island, in 1639, to 1703, and were taken in immense 

 numbers from the 1st of June to the middle of September. They all disappeared, however, in 

 17(11, a period of great mortality among tLe Indians of that island. It has been suggested that 

 the disease which attacked the Indians may have been in consequence of an epidemic in the fish 

 npou which they fed, or else that it invaded both fish and Indians simultaneously, resulting in 

 almost their entire extermination. 2 



"According to Dr. Mitchill, this fish was entirely unknown about New York prior to 1SIO; 

 but they began to be taken in small numbers about the wharves in 1817, and were abundant in 

 ix-j,-). Immense numbers were caught at the Highlands in 1841. The doctor remarks, as has been 

 done repeatedly by others, that as the Bluelish increased, the squeteaguc or weak fish diminished 

 in about the same ratio. 



"According tu Mr. Smith, of Newport (Rhode Island), his father used to catch Mhieliish some, 

 time about the year 1800, when they were very abundant and of large size, weighing from sixteen 

 to eighteen pounds. 



"Oapt. Francis Pease, of Kdgartown, also testified that his father spoke of large llluelish at 

 the end of the preceding century, some of them weighing forty pounds. This leaves an interval 

 belwt'i-n 17(11 and toward the end of the century in which no mention is made of the I'-liietish, and 

 which may probably indicate its absence, as during that time there were man\ works published 



' ('ollei-tions Mas.~arhu.si-lts I li-toi i.-al Suciirty for 17LM, iii, l-li>. 



- From tin' lir.st mining of tlir ICn^lish In Xantnt-ket (KJ'.'.t) a large fal-tisli, ealle.l the Mii.--li.sli. thirty of whii h 

 wnnhl fill a barrel, '.vu~ . an^lit in jjivat plenty all romi'l tin- Ul.-inil from tin- 1st of the sixth month ( Inne) till the 

 mi.Mle of the niuth month , >V|,i, ,,.!,.-i }. Hut il is remarkable that in tin- y.-ar 17C.1 . . . th.-y all .U.-upp.-ai e.l, 

 and that noue have ever be-on taken since. This lias been a great loss to us." Ibid., 1/lhJ, p. l.VJ. /;.. -c h.-ns ' 



A. '.-on nt of Nantncket." 



