416 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



I have spent a week with Colonel McDonald at New Point, on Mob- 

 jack Bay, where we have been engaged in collecting specimens and sta- 

 tistics of the extensive i)ouud fisheries of that locality. We found 

 several species rii^e or nearly so; among them were a number of impor- 

 tant food-fishes, including the Spanish mackerel {Cyhium maculaUim) and 

 porgy [Ephipims faber). These have free sinking eggs about ^ of an 

 iuch in diameter. The Spanish mackerel are next to tlie shad the most 

 important species in the locality; they are just beginning to spawn, and 

 the height of the season will probably not occur before the 1st of July. 

 We secured several thousand eggs of the porgy and kept them until 

 well advanced, but could not remain long enough to hatch them out. 



I^OKFOLK, Va., June 6, 1880. 



Spanish mackerel have been taken in fair numbers in this vicinity 

 for two weeks. I cannot yet report anything definite, but will write in 

 detail soon. May be obliged to go further down the sound before I 

 can gather satisfactory information. 



Crisfield, Md., June 24, 1880. 



The work in hatching of mackerel at Crisfield has been a great suc- 

 cess and I have hatched out fully half a million young mackerel. The 

 course will probably not answer for the work, but I have an impression 

 that a very simple and inexpensive apparatus can be constructed and 

 made to answer admirably. The spawning season has hardly arrived, 

 but most of the fish are well matured. 



I am now on my way down the bay to examine the lower pounds with 

 a view to eidistiug the sympathies of the fishermen in the work in case 

 you should decide to begin hatching mackerel, and also to gather addi- 

 tional data about this and other species. 



On board steamer Helen, July 1, 1880. 



The outlook for extensive work in the artificial i)ropagation of the 

 Spanish mackerel is excellent, and Cherrystone, an excellent harbor on 

 the eastern shore of Virginia, is the most desirable location. The pound 

 owners in that locality are thoroughly interested in the matter, and 

 offer not only to furnish all the eggs needed free of charge, but also to 

 assist in the work as much as possible. I am fully convinced that a 

 station located at Cherrystone, with the necessary apparatus, could 

 easily hatch out a hundred million young mackerel by the 1st of Sep- 

 tember. The eggs are unusually hardy and hatch in from 18 to 20 

 hours. The Ferguson bucket could be made to answer in the work, 

 but by far the best apparatus would, I think, be the Clark hatching 

 trough as modified for the cod work. 



I send you by to-night's express a bottle of young mackerel hatched 

 at Crisfield, Md., Juno 30, and have quite a quantity of them here. 



Washington, D. C, July 8, 1880. 



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