BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 173 



yet caught no fish. The difficulty in catching- them is charged to the 

 unusual transparency of the water. Captain Cohart says that he low- 

 ered a towel to the depth of 20 fathoms, aud then could see it plainly. 

 Captain Coas says he could see the purse-weight on the seine when it 

 was 20 fathoms down. They all say it was impossible to seine fish in 

 such water. The large mackerel have gone east, and many are being 

 taken in the weirs at Barrington, N. S. There are small mackerel from 

 Cape Cod to Mount Desert. They are large enough for No. 2's, but are 

 of a different school from the mackerel caught last year. 



Pogies are abundant in Boston Bay. Five barrels have been taken in 

 the traps at Kettle Island, and a vessel caught 40 barrels with seine 

 this morning. They are of small size. Last year there was one pogy 

 caught. Yesterday they were schooling close in to the shore of Nor- 

 man's Woe. Capt. Robert Douglass was in this business twenty years, 

 and he says that he saw as large schools yesterday as he did twenty 

 years ago. It has been so long since pogies were here that people are 

 not prepared to catch them; but some of the small vessels are getting 

 their seines ready. A telegram was received here this morning stating 

 that the weirs at Hyannis, on Cape Cod, were full of pogies. 



A large fleet has been at Cape North after cod. They are coming 

 home with full fares. One vessel, which had been gone seven weeks, 

 arrived this morning with 140,000 pounds of cod. 



Gloucester, Mass., June 6, 1883. 



Mackerel are scarce. Vessels have been from Cape Cod to Cape Sable 

 and the Bay of Fundy, and yet found no mackerel. All the large mack- 

 erel have passed down the Nova Scotian coast. They have been caught 

 in traps at Cape Sable for the past three weeks. The schooner Polar 

 Wave arrived this morning from the Grand Banks, and reports sailing 

 through mackerel in large schools to the eastward of Sable Island, and 

 that they seemed to be going northward. Those ou the New England 

 coast are small. Six barrels of them were sold to-day for $8 a barrel. 

 Last year at this time they would have sold at $4. 



Pogies are plentiful. Salem Harbor is full of them, and 150 barrels 

 were seined off the mouth of the harbor. Three large salmon have been 

 taken in the traps at Kettle Island, weighing 22£, 20, and 18£ pounds, 

 respectively. 



Six vessels have left here for Greenland after halibut. On George's 

 Bank fish are scarce at present. The Cape North fleet has returned 

 with good fares, and vessels are doing well on the shore fishing-grounds, 

 catching cod, hake, and cusk. Thirty sail have gone to the Grand 

 Banks after cod, and 3 have started for the Bay of Saint Lawrence 

 after mackerel. A large fleet will go there after July 4 if there are then 

 no mackerel on this coast. Half a barrel of squid was caught in a trap 

 in the harbor here last night. 



I inclose the following newspaper item on the steam menhaden fish- 

 eries : 



