1 5 4 AMERICAN FISHES. 



"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 attaining 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 out 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 not less than one million individuals, 

 averaging five or six pounds each. Those, however, who have seen the 

 Bluefish in his native waters, and realized the immense number there exist- 

 ing, 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 the account. 



" An allowance of ten fish per day to each Bluefish is not excessive, 

 according to the testimony elicited from the fishermen 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), we will have, during the same period, a daily loss of 

 twenty-five hundred million pounds, equal to three hundred thousand mil- 

 lions for the season. 



" 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 however much we 

 may diminish, within reason, the estimate of the number of Bluefish and 



