46 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



can apply to him, as I have supplied him with all that he has got from 

 that river. He took some spawn from them this season. 



I omitted to state that the "dolly vardens" are very destructive to 

 other trout, or any kind of fish. They spawn in September and Novem- 

 ber. Their eggs are about one-half the size of those of the common trout. 

 The fish are very difScult to obtain. They will live in a small jilace where 

 the common trout would not. I have kept them in a pond, about 6 feet 

 square, for a month, where the common trout would kill themselves in a 

 short time. They appear to be more hardy. I have watched the salmon 

 and the trout during their spawning more than any other man in this part 

 of the country, as I have fished a great deal, and have been fishing longer 

 than any one who takes any interest in the matter. I came here in 1855 j 

 I have caught hundreds and probably thousands. 



J. B. CAMPBELL. 



[Note. — The species referred to in Mr. Campbell's descriptions are the 

 following: "Rifle Pike," Gila s^.', ^^ White&sh,^^ Ptychochilus oregonensis 

 (Eich.) Ag.; " Dolly Varden," Salvelimis malma (Walb.) Jor. & Gilb.; 

 " Sucker," Catostomus occidentalis Ay res; " Red-sided Trout," Salmo iri- 

 deus Gibbons; "Bull Head," Uranidea sp. — Editor.] 



TBE ORIOIIV OF THE ITIEIVHADKIV INDUSTBV. 



By CAPT. E. T. DEBLOIS. 



[Note. — In the foUowiug article, Captain DeBlois has thrown new light upon several 

 long mooted questions, especially the date of the discovery of the value of menhaden 

 oil, the origin of meuhaden oil manufacture; the application of pressure in the 

 manufacture of fish oil, and the invention of the purse seine, besides placing upon 

 record an important series of observations upon the growth of the menhaden fishery 

 within the past half century. — Gr. Brown Goode.] 



In 1811 two men, one by the name of Christopher Barker, and the 

 other John Tallman, commenced the business of making oil out of men- 

 haden fish, with the use of two iron pots, upon the shore, a few rods 

 south of what was then called the Black Point wharf, near Portsmouth, 

 R. I. They boiled the fish in the pots or kettles, and bailed the fish and 

 contents into hogsheads, putting on top the fish in the hogsheads pieces 

 of board with stones on top, to i)ress the fish down so that the oil would 

 come on top, and also in order that the oil could be skimmed oft. A 

 man by the name of John Hunt was the oil man who skimmed off the 

 oil, and put it u^) in barrels for market. It was sent to New York to 

 market by a house or x^eople that were doing business in Newport, R. L, 

 by the name of Muuroe, who were in the West India trade. 



Barker & Tallman, it seems, found the oil business to be profitable, 

 for in 1814 they added two more pots to their business, and the same 

 fall two other men commenced the same business, by the name of Muu- 

 roe, very near Barker & Tallman's works. The business was carried on 



