20 Inland FisHERiES. 



of the blue-fish drove away the plaice or large flounder from those 

 waters, not so 'much by their direct attacks upon them as by destroy- 

 ing the squid upon which the latter formerly subsisted. He is also of 

 the opinion that the mackerel once, for a time, were affected by them. 

 The mackerel have since returned to those waters in their wonted num- 

 bers, but the blue-fish are not sufficiently plenty north of Cape Cod to 

 interfere with them. The flight of the mackerel was not an unmiti- 

 gated evil, however, since as Captain Atwood pointed out, the number 

 of lobsters for a time was very considerably increased. The mackerel 

 fed upon their eggs, and when they were driven away by the blue-fish 

 the lobsters had a better chance to multiply. 



' • The blue-fish sometimes make their way up the rivers to a con- 

 siderable distance, the adults, however, apparently never entering the 

 perfectly fresh water. They are found in the Potomac as far north as 

 Aquia Creek, and also far up the Hudson ; indeed, the young of the 

 year are taken as high as Sing Sing on the Hudson, and other tidal 

 rivers, where the water is entirely fresh." 



Reproduction. — " Little is known of their reproduction. Dr. Yarrow 

 does not give any facts in regard to this subject, at Fort Macon, except 

 that spawn was seen to run out of a small female caught July 14. Dr. 

 Holbrook is also silent on this head. 



Mr. Genio C. Scott, says the spawning beds are visited by the 

 parent in June, and consist of quiet nooks or bays. Mr. R. B. Roose- 

 velt states that very diminutive young occur in immense numbers along 

 the coast at the end of September or beginning of October ('Game Fish 

 of America,' 18G2, 159). I found the young fish at Carson's Inlet, 

 Deasley's Point, New Jersey, 1854, two or three inches in length, and 

 more compressed than the adult; but farther east, on Vineyard Sound, 

 although diligent search was conducted between the middle of June and 

 the first of October, with most efficient apparatus in the way of fine- 

 meslied nets, I met with nothing excepting fish that made their appear- 

 ance all at once along the edge of the bay and harbor. 



'' According to Captain Edwards, of Wood's HoU, a very accurate 

 observer, they have no spawn in them when in Vineyard Sound. This 



