THE BLUE FISH. 



159 



the white sandy bottom to the eastward of Martha's Vineyard, toward 

 Muskeeget. While not discrediting the statement of Mr. Pease, it seems 

 a little remarkable that so few persons on the eastern coast have noticed 

 the spawning in summer of the Bluefish ; and, although there may be excep- 

 tions to the fact, it is not impossible that the spawning ground is in very 

 early spring, or even in winter, off New Jersey and Long Island, or farther 

 south. It is not impossible that, at a suitable period after spawning, the 

 young, in obedience to their migratory instinct, may move northward 

 along the coast, growing rapidly as they proceed. This explains the 

 almost sudden appearance of fish of five inches about Wood's Holl. 



We have the statement of Dr. Yarrow that vast schools of small Blue- 

 fish were met with in Beaufort harbor during the last week in December, 

 1S71. These were in company with small schools of young menhaden 

 and yellow-tailed shad, and were apparently working their way toward 

 the sea by the route of the inlet. When observed, they were coming from 

 the southward through the sound, moving very slowly, at times nearly 

 leaving it, and then returning. The largest were about four inches in 

 length, and others were much smaller ; and as many as twenty schools 

 were observed from the wharf at Fort Macon, each of them occupying an 

 area of from sixty to eighty feet square, and apparently from four to six 

 feet in depth. I would not be much surprised if these fish should prove 

 to have been spawned late in the year off the southern coast. 



The size of the Bluefish varies with the season and locality, those 

 spending the summer on the southern coast, according to good authority, 

 rarely exceeding two or three pounds in weight, and being generally con- 

 siderably less. The largest summer specimens are those found farther to 

 the eastward, where they are not unfrequently met with weighing from ten 

 to fifteen pounds, although this latter weight is quite unusual. Mr. Snow, 

 of Nantucket, mentions iiaving seen one of twenty-two pounds, and 

 others give as their maximum from fourteen to twenty. The average size 

 of the schools in Vineyard Sound, during the early season, is from five to 

 seven pounds. The schools, however, that make their appearance in 

 October embrace many individuals of from ten to fifteen pounds. It is, 

 therefore, not improbable that the difference between the first-mentioned 

 average and the last represents the increase by their summer feeding. As 

 already remarked, Bluefish in the last century sometimes attained a weight 

 of forty or fifty pounds in Vineyard Sound ; according to Zaccheus Macy, 

 thirty of them would fill a barrel. 



