REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 7 



forty barrels more. Last iiiglit a school was seined off tlie bath- 

 ing- beach at Block Island, and a larg-e haul was towed ashore on 

 the beach, from which twenty -five barrels were to-day shipped on 

 the Danielson. This is the first time in the memory of the oldest 

 fishermen that a seine full of codfish was hauled ashore on the 

 beach. This fish is usually found further from the shore, but this 

 season can be caught like black fish, right up to the rocks along 

 the coast. The mackerel are thinning out, after a season of unpre- 

 cedented supply. 



FISH BY THE TON. 



Wonderful Catches off the Jersey Coast Reported. 



Atlantic Highlands, N. J., November 25. — All fishing records 

 from Sandy Hook southward below Highland Beach are being 

 broken. Fish are being caught by the ton. Such swarms of all 

 kinds of the denizens of the sea have never before been known, 

 even to the oldest fisherman hereabout. Whether it be the warm 

 weather or the break at Sandy Hook allowing a free flow of sea 

 through the new channel, or what, it is certain that the fishermen 

 never before revelled in such quantities and variety of fish. 



So great has been the supi^ly that fish of all kinds bring at 

 wholesale only 1 to 1^ cents per pound. This toAvn and adjoining 

 villages are glutted with fish. People are becoming nauseated 

 from eating fish so often. Wagon load after Avagon load has been 

 disposed of inland, and though selling cheaply the fishermen have 

 made considerable money. The fish have been shipped by rail or 

 boat to nearby cities, and yet the supply is greater than ever. 

 They are given away here to those wdio will take them. 



Captain N. B. Church from New York under date of December 

 1st, 1896, writes : 



" I am always willing to give you any information I may 

 have regarding the fisheries. Let me say with all possible empha- 

 sis that food fish of all the native species have been abundant 

 on the Atlantic Coast. That none of the common varieties can be 

 selected that the market has not been full of, at almost any time 

 during its season. Any one that wants a fresh codfish in this 

 vicinity to-day can get it by going down on the coast with a rake, 

 or hook and line, something I have never known before," 



