22 INLAND FISHERIES. 



as almost certain that blue-fish do not spawn in our inshore waters. 

 The only important contribution to our knowledge on this subject is 

 found in the notes of Mr. Silas Stearns, who believes that he has 

 abundant evidence of their spawning in the Gulf of Mexico. His re- 

 marks are quoted in full below. The Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt 

 records that he observed the blue-fish fry less than an inch in Ifength in 

 the inlet of Far Rockaway, New York, on the 10th of July. 



Size. — "The size varies considerably with season and locality, those 

 spending the summer on the southern coast, according to good author- 

 ity, rarely exceeding two or three pounds in weight, and being gener- 

 ally considerably less. The largest summer specimens are those found 

 farther to the eastward, where they are not unfrequently met with 

 weighing from ten to fifteen pounds, although this latter weight is 

 quite unusual. Mr. Snow, however, (page 44) mentions having seen 

 one of twenty-two pounds, and others give as their maximum from 

 fourteen to twenty. The average size of the schools in Vineyard 

 Sound, during the early season, is from five to seven pounds. The 

 schools, however, that make their appearance in October embrace many 

 individuals of from ten to fifteen pounds. 



It is, therefore, not improbable that the difference between the first 

 mentioned average and the last represents the increase by their sum- 

 mer feeding. As already remarked, blue-fish in the last century some- 

 times attained a weight of forty or fifty pounds in Vineyard Sound ; 

 according to Zaccheus Macy, thirty of them would fill a barrel." 



" Forest and Stream," June 25, 1874, states that L. Hathaway, 

 Esq., a veteran fisherman, while fishing from the bridge at Cohasset 

 Narrows, Massachusetts, with rod and reel, captured a blue-fish weigh- 

 ing twenty-five pounds. The largest previously caught weighed seven- 

 teen pounds. 



"On getting back to the Carolina coast in the early part of Novem- 

 ber, according to Dr. Yarrow's statement, they are from three to five 

 feet in length and weigh from ten to twenty pounds. What becomes 

 of these large fish, that so few of them are seen in the early spring, it 

 is impossible to say. If it be really true that they are much scarcer 



