BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 255 



from George's Bank, lauding 3,470,000 pounds of salt cod and 89,130 

 pounds of fresh balibut ; twenty-three arrivals from Western Bank, 

 landing 1,888,000 pounds of salt cod and 31,000 pounds of fresh hali- 

 but. There were 185,000 pounds of salt cod landed from Cape North; 

 100,000 i30unds of salt cod and 18,000 i^ounds of salt halibut from Flem- 

 ish Cap; 1,000,000 pounds of shore fish, being mixed half cod and half 

 hake and cusk ; 575,800 pounds of fresh halibut, caught on the Banks ; 

 and 203,000 pounds of pollock, caught with seines off Chatham. 



Mackerel. — The mackerel landed during June is as follows : Caught 

 on the New England coast, 12,058 barrels ; caught on the Nova Scotia 

 coast with seines, 2,000 barrels. Four arrivals from the Nova Scotia 

 coast brought 130,000 pounds of salt cod and 00,000 pounds of haddock. 

 From the Nova Scotia coast there have been imported to Boston 23,000 

 barrels of salt mackerel, most of this amount having been caught in 

 weirs. 



Gloucester, ]\Iass., July 2, 1884. 



136 CATCmrVO AIiElVIV£8 AVflXR HOOKS BA1TE» tVITH ££1^8. 



By A. K. CRITTEI^fDEN. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.*] 



While crossing the bridge over the Medomak Eiver at Waldoboro', Me., 

 this forenoon, I noticed on the bank of the river belov,' some twenty 

 or more boys fishing with rod and line, and evidently having good luck, 

 as about every second some one drew out a fish. The fish looked like 

 alewives, but as I had never known them to be taken with baited hooks 

 I came to the conclusion that they were large smelts. On going down 

 to the bank and investigating I found them to be indeed alewives, and 

 I found the bait the boys were using to be live eels, from two and a half 

 to three inches long, which they hooked in the center of the body, leav- 

 ing them to wriggle at will. In some cases the hook would hardly strike 

 the water before an alewife would be fast to it. One boy had taken over 

 a hundred, and the others had various stocks. I asked the boys how 

 they learned that they could catch them with eels, and all the answer 

 I gained was that, "the boys told them they could.'' I found that the 

 river was alive with alewives. Men were taking them with dip nets at 

 the fish-way, in the dam just abovcthe bridge. 



I observed that hundreds of young eels were making their way up 

 the fish-way, and when an alewife broke water among them they scat- 

 tered as though frightened. Possibly this fact led the boys to think they 

 were eating the eels, and were thus induced to try them for bait. The 

 alewives were decidedly frisky-, some of them at times jumping several 



*This letter having been referred to Hon. Theodore Lymau, he states "that on 

 Cape Cod alewives are often taken with shrimp bait or with artificial fly." — Editor. 



