410 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



The closing item of this correspondence was by Professor Baird, who, 

 in thanking Mr. Hanna on September 29, said: "lam puzzled more 

 than ever in regard to the fish. I would gladly have given a larger 

 sum than you mention if I could have had it. Is it possible that any 

 portion — the head, or even any of the bones — could yet be procured, 

 as they would help to identify it? If any portion should be found, I 

 would be glad to have it sent to me." Nothing further was heard from 

 Mr. Hanna oil the subject. 



74.— DO STRIPED BASS (ROCCUS LIMEATUS) FEED ON MENHADEN. 



By GIDEON JMOSHER. 



[From replies to questions in a pamphlet furnished by Joseph Church, and entitled 



"The menhaden question."] 



Striped bass do not feed upon live menhaden, but upon crabs and 

 lobsters. I have been engaged in the bass fishery for 45 years, 30 or 

 40 years of which I have been in the habit of preparing bass for market. 

 I have prepared tens of thousands of them, but never found any men- 

 haden in them, unless it had been fed to them for bait. My experience 

 extends over the entire range of coast from Monouomy to Beavertail 

 and from Baltimore to Cape Cod. I have found bass most numerous 

 in the Chesapeake Bay, which I attribute to the great quantity of crabs 

 found there. I have always observed that bass fishing was best where, 

 lobsters and crabs were most plentiful. My particular locality for 

 taking bass has been at West Island, E. I., and for more than thirty 

 years I never observed or heard of bass feeding on or troubling men- 

 haden, and my business has brought me in contact with many of the 

 most successful menhaden fishermen. I have never heard of but two 

 bass being taken in a purse seine. The bass is a shore and bottom fish. 



The absence or the presence of menhaden on the coast does not affect 

 the bass fishery, except in the difference it makes in having or not hav- 

 ing fresh bait. You cannot catch bass with stale bait. If the menha- 

 den this year are as far from the coast as they were last year, those 

 taken at Sandy Hook carried to a factory and from there transshipped 

 will be unfit for bait. The only way to do would be to put an experi- 

 enced man on board the menhaden fishing steamer and ice them alive 

 in the way the bank fishermen treat them. In that way one could 

 make them fit for bait for a month.* 



Tiverton, R. I., December 26, 1882. 



 The sworn statement of Mr. Mosher is also indorsed by Charles W. Anthony. Edward 

 C. Smith, Ebenezer Owen, Edward Smith, George M. Crabb, William M. Record, and 

 Thomas Record, all bass fishermen of Newport, R. I. 



