THE HERRING AXD ITS AILIES. 39 1 



quantity, rush ravenously through the closely-crowded schools, cutting and 

 tearing the living fish as they go, and leaving in their wake the mangled 

 fragments. Traces of their carnage remain for weeks in the great " slicks " 

 of oil so commonly seen on smooth water in summer. Prof. Baird, in his 

 well-known and often-quoted estimates of food annually consumed by the 

 blue-fish, states that probably ten thousand million fish, or twenty-five 

 million pounds, dail\-, or twelve hundred million million fish and three 

 hundred thousand million i)ounds are much below the real figures. This 

 estimate is for the period of four months in the middle of summer and fall, 

 and for the coast of New England only. 



Such estimates are professedly only approximations, but are legitimate 

 in their way, since they enable us to appreciate more clearly the luxuriance 

 of marine life. Applying similar methods of calculation to the Menhaden, 

 I estimate the total number destroyed annually on our coast by predaceous 

 animals at a million million of millions ; in comparison with which the 

 quantities destroyed by man, yearly, sink into insignificance. 



It is not hard to define the place of Menhaden in nature. Swarming in 

 our waters m countless myriads, swimming in closely packed, unwieldy 

 masses, helpless as flocks of sheep, near to the surface and at the mercy of 

 every enemy, destitute of means of defense and offense, their mission is 

 unmistakably to be eaten. 



In the economy of nature certain orders of terrestrial animals, feeding 

 entirely upon vegetable substances, seem intended for one purpose — to 

 elaborate simple materials into the nitrogenous tissues necessary for the 

 food of other animals, which are wholly or in part carnivorous in their 

 diet ; so the Menhaden feeding upon otherwise unutilized organic matter 

 is pre-eminently a meat-producing agent. Man takes from the water every 

 year eight or nine hundred millions of these fish, weighing from two hun- 

 dred to three hundred thousand tons, but his indebtedness does not end 

 here ; when he brings upon his table bluefish, bonitoes, weak-fish, sword- 

 fish, or bass, he has before him usually Menhaden flesh in another form. 



The commercial importance of the Menhaden has only lately been 

 rightly appreciated. Thirty years ago and before, it was thought to be of 

 very small value. A few millions were taken every year in Massachusetts 

 Bay, Long Island Sound, and the inlets of New Jersey. A small portion 

 of these were used for bait ; a few barrels occasionally salted in Massa- 

 chusetts to be exported to the West Indies. Large (quantities were plowed 



