B ONI TOES AND TUNNIES. 209 



the}' were preferred to the bluefish and striped bass, would not now be true ; 

 his prediction that they wouhl in time become as abundant as the blue- 

 fish seems, however, during some years to have been almost verified. The 

 dealers, by the change of name in the market above referred to, are able 

 to obtain a high price for a fish which, under its own name, would be 

 looked upon with suspicion. An absurd report that the Bonito was poison- 

 ous was current in 1S74, probably owing to the fact that similar fish taken 

 in warm climates are sometimes deleterious. 



In 1875 the ordinary price in New York was one cent apiece, though 

 in the wholesale markets they commanded the same price as bluefish, and 

 many were sold, as has been stated, at the high rates of Spanish Mackerel. 

 The market was so glutted that many of the vessels could not dispose of 

 their cargoes. 



According to Stearns, our Bonito occurs also in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 vv'here it is everywhere abundant, and is found in the bays on the Florida 

 coast. It usually moves, according to the same authority, at the surface 

 of the water in small schools. At sea it is found throughout the year, and 

 along the shore only in the summer. Small schools are sometimes taken 

 in drag-seines in shallow water. Its market value at Pensacola is not 

 great, although it has become an article of food. 



A writer in the Providence Journal ^\Ay, 1871? remarked : " Last night 

 I had a fish on my table which they said was a kind of Spanish Mackerel; 

 the moment I tasted it I said it was a Bonito, having eaten it thirty years 

 since, on my first voyage to India, and the taste had never been forgotten. 

 It is the salmon of the sea. Mark its solidity of flesh, its great weight, 

 its purity of taste, entire absence of the slightly decayed taste all fish has 

 during warm weather. It is as nourishing as beef, and Bonito is the 

 worthy ri\al of the Spanish mackerel and the sheepshead." 



They seem first to have attracted the attention of New England authori- 

 ties about 1865. Genio C. Scott, writing in 1875, remarks: "His first 

 arrival along our beaches and in our bays Avas about eight years ago, and 

 his shoals have increased remarkably fast ever since his advent. As a 

 table luxury it ranks, with epicures, below the striped bass and bluefish, 

 but because of its comparative rarity it commands a price rather above 

 either. The numbers of this fish annually taken about the approaches to 

 our harbors with the troll and in nets has increased so much that it bids 

 fair to become nearly as numerous as the bluefish." 



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