46 



BULLETIN OF THE BUKEAU OF FISHERIES 



in July and August, is sufficient proof that while some of the fish that visit the middle 

 Atlantic coast in spring may go north to the Gulf of Maine, others merely drop 

 down into deeper water to summer, coming inshore again for a time in autumn. 



Most of the dogfish take their departure from the inner parts of the Gulf during 

 October, few being caught on the coast north of Massachusetts Bay after November 

 1. Rarely, however, they stay later, as in 1903 (a big dogfish year), when they 

 were abundant along the outer shore of Cape Cod as late as the third of the month. 

 Ordinarily none are caught within the Gulf of Maine north of Georges Bank in 

 winter, but this, like most rules, has its exceptions. In 1882, for example, schools 



Fig. 17.— Numbers of spiny dogfish caught on certain otter-trawling trips to Georges Bank during the different months of 1913 



were reported off Portsmouth in February, while in 1913 a few were caught 20 miles 

 off Cape Ann on November 19 to 24, many near Boon Island from December 5 

 to 13, and on Jeffrey's Ledge on December 11 and 12. 



Dogfish appear earlier in spring and linger later into the winter on Georges 

 Bank (fig. 17) than in the inner parts of the Gulf. It is safe to say that there are 

 few there in March, the earliest definite record (obtained during the investigations 

 of 1913) being of 25 fish caught on the "winter cod ground" east of the shoals 

 (longitude about 67°, latitude about 41° 40') between the 20th and the 22d, and 

 of 46 from the same general region from the 27th to the 30th. Their numbers 



