92 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



sharp-nose porpoises ainoug them they could not be driven ashore, for 

 they would turn off just as soon as they struck shoal water. We had 

 the fish almost ashore a number of times during the night, and we could 

 have driven from 1,000 to 2,000 ashore if it had been daylight. On 

 Sunday morning, November 1G, the boats went to look for the fish and 

 found them at night on Dennis shore, when they drove 64 of them 

 ashore. On Monday morning boats came from Wellfleet and joined our 

 boats and commeuced to drive them toward Wellfleet. They succeeded 

 in driving them into shoal water known as Blackfish Creek, South 

 Wellfleet. Here the fish were completely hemmed in by laud and shoal 

 water. Then the fish commenced to go ashore, the boats going among 

 them and lancing them. The men were engaged in killing them all 

 Monday night and Tuesday. It was the largest amount of blackfish 

 ever driven ashore here at any one time, the number beiog about 1,400, 

 which was not half the number that was in the bay on Saturday. The 

 fish were sold at public auction Wednesday, the 19th, to Provincetowu 

 parties, at an average of $10.21 apiece, the gross proceeds being between 

 $14,000 and $15,000. This amount will be divided into 468 parts (the 

 number of men and boats engaged in the catch), or about $30 each. 

 The average yield of oil from each fish will be one barrel. The parties 

 who purchased the fish have just finished boiling them for oil. They 

 will be well paid for their time and trouble, as the oil which is extracted 

 from the body of the fish is selling at from 55 to 60 cents per gallon, 

 while that from the head of the fish is worth a good deal more. This is 

 the first school of blackfish that has been seen here for a number of 

 years." 



Notes on the red snapper. — Writing from Pensacoia, Fla., No- 

 vember 26, 1884, Mr. Silas Stearns says: 



" In any part of the northern Gulf of Mexico where there is a rock 

 coral or gravel there is a certainty of there being red snappers. Some- 

 times there are kinds of food on shelly bottoms which attract the snap- 

 pers. In the southern gulf groupers occur under the same circum- 

 stances. Forty fathoms is the deepest that we have searched, and there 

 may be fishing grounds beyond that der>th. The Caulolatilus microps 

 is always present in 40 fathoms in about one locality, and sometimes a 

 dozen or more are caught in one day. 



"A few codfish nets were brought here from Boston and sent out on 

 one of the smacks, but the fishermen did not understand hauling them 

 and were indifferent as to their success, so that they were not fairly 

 tested. This fall we have Capt. D. E. Collins, of Gloucester, and a full 

 crew of experienced trawl fishermen to man the vessel, and we have 

 material for nets on a fishing schooner now bouud for this place. 



" Capt. J. W. Collius, of the United States Fish Commission, has sug- 

 gested trying the cod gill-nets on the red snapper grounds, and under 

 date of December 2, says : ' Owing to the peculiar shape of red snap- 



