26 INLAND FISHERIES. 



months, and have long been taken by the residents. The larger ones 

 seldom enter the inlets, but remain near the outer shore, where they 

 feed upon the menhaden, shad and alewives, during the season of their 

 migrations to and from the large sounds in fall and spring. 



" Apparently, the first that was known of large blue-fish in this 

 region was in 1842, when a quantity was taken in a haul-seine near 

 New Inlet. Gill-nets were first used for the capture of the species in 

 this locality in 1847, though they were not generally adopted till sev- 

 eral years later. The first vessel visited the region in 1866, and from 

 that date to 1879, six to twelve sails came regularly to that locality. 

 The fishery reached its height between 1870 and 1876, when in addi- 

 tion to the vessels fully one hundred crews of five men each fished 

 along the shores. The catch varies greatly from time to time, as the 

 fish are constantly on the move and often go beyond reach of the 

 seines and gill-nets. 



Some seasons each boat's crew has averaged four or five thousand 

 fish weighing ten to fifteen pounds each. And again they have taken 

 almost nothing. Frequently the bulk of the catch of an entire season 

 is taken in three or four days. 



Since the winter of 1877 and 1878 the fish are said to have been 

 much less abundant and of smaller size. In the winter of 1879 and 

 1880 about seventy-five crews were engaged in the fishery from the 

 first of November till Christmas. The total catch did not exceed fifty 

 thousand fish, averaging six pounds each. The small number taken is 

 partially accounted for by the fact that many of the fish were so small 

 as to readily pass through the meshes without being caught. 



During my visit in May, 1880, large schools of blue-fish were re- 

 ported along the shore, and a considerable number of shad and other 

 species were found upon the beach where they had been driven by their 

 pursuers. A good many blue-fish were also stranded while in pursuit 

 of their prey. It seemed that there is no reason to believe that the 

 fish have permanently left the coast, or that they are even so scarce as 

 is at present claimed, for the men have fished with little regularity, and 

 have gone only a short distance from the shore, while the bulk of the 

 blue-fish may have been farther out. 



