BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 137 



A LARGE CATCH OF MACKEREL. — It was reported in the Boston 

 papers of October 17, 1885, that Capt. Melvin McLain, of the schooner 

 Henry Dennis, had arrived at that market with 82,500 fresh mackerel, 

 which were sold for S2,2G8.75, having been taken in less than half an 

 honr in Barnstable Bay, 8 miles from Plymouth, Mass. 



Movements of mackerel. — No mackerel have been caught in this 

 vicinity, to my knowledge, since ISTovember 2. I have never known 

 mackerel so large, fat, and plentiful as they were in this vicinity during 

 the month of July. [John F. Holmes, keeper of Gurnet's life-saving 

 station, Plymouth, Mass., November 20, 1885.] 



HATcniNG AND PLANTING R0CKFI3H. — An instalment of young rock- 

 fish, the first hatched at the Havre do Grace station, was transferred 

 by messenger P. L. Donnelly to Oswego, N. Y., and successfully planted 

 in Lake Ontario, near the mouth of Oswego Eiver, on the evening of 

 May 15, 188G. They were transported in cans, 20,000 being assigned 

 to each can, the water being kept at an average temperature of 50<^ P. 

 J. B. McMurrich, vice-president of the Leatherstocking Club, and IS". A. 

 Wright, president of the Ontario Pishing Society, met the consignment 

 at the depot in Oswego, and were much pleased at the fine condition 

 of the fish after their trip of twenty-seven hours. 



Appearance of whiting or frost-fish. — Whiting, or, as we call 

 them, frost-fish, struck on in great quantities about the 1st of Novem- 

 ber, and have been around ever since. Every night the shore is lined 

 with the lanterns of the boys and men who are spearing them. Squilla 

 have been more plentiful in the river than I ever knew them to be before. 

 [Willard Nye, jr.. New Bedford, Mass., November 23, 1885.] 



Cultivating catfish. — Some thirty years ago I owned a farm near 

 Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, on which I experimented with cat- 

 fish. Having drawn off the pond, I removed the turtles, gars, and 

 other animals, and put back nearly half a barrel of young catfish, a few 

 bass, and some sunfish. I then began to feed the fish on soft corn 

 dough made from shorts, and occasionally on beef cut in strips. After 

 a few weeks these fish became accustomed to coming to the edge of the 

 pond for this food, and, as a result of gentle treatment, the large ones 

 would often come so near that their fins would i^roject out of the water. 

 Within a year I had all the fine fish I could use, besides supplying six 

 or eight fiimilies of neighbors. I raised catfish weighing six or seven 

 pounds and measuring two feet in length. [Naman May, Arnold, La- 

 bette County, Kansas, Pebruary 3, ISSG.] 



Striped bass. — A large striped bass {lioccus lineatus) was caught 

 in a net through the ice, in the Hudson Iliver, at or near Croton Land- 

 ing, N. Y., on February 1, 18SG. This is the largest fish of the kind 

 reported this season. It weighed 55 pounds, and was displayed at IMr. 

 E. G. Blackford's, in Pulton jMarket, New York City. 



Early shad. — The first North Iliver shad was taken to day at Yonk- 

 ers. [E. G. Blackford, JMarch 23, 1S8G.] 



