330 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



caught in such numbers, however, the size is not great, perhaps not 

 averaging three-quarters of a pound. The large specimens are generally 

 scattering in their appearance, being seldom taken in numbers. These 

 fish moves about in shoals of greater or less extent, usually swimming 

 pretty near the surface, and requiring for their capture a line leaded 

 very lightty or not at all. They take the bait at a snap, seldom con- 

 descending to nibble, thus requiring the line to be kept taut and ready 

 to haul in at a moinent's warning. It is, however, only for a short 

 time that they bite voraciously, the run seldom lasting more than one 

 hour. 



These fish keep much in the channel ways of the bay and river, 

 when moving, but during ebb-tide, they settle in the deep holes in 

 great numbers, remaining until flood, when they again sally forth. The 

 old stagers arc always on the alert to move up to the places of this 

 kind well known to them, and, anchoring their boat, wait patiently for 

 the fish. Alter passing some time without a nibble, the sport suddenly 

 begins, and, for half an hour to an hour, the excitement of hooking a 

 fish almost the instant the line is dropped, is kept up, when it again as 

 suddenly ceases b}^ the disappearance of the game. The most noted place 

 of this kind about Great Egg harbor is Molasses point, already referred 

 to, where the current is very strong during height of tide, and the great 

 deptl] of water scared}^ extends for one hundred 3^ards. 



During the night the weak fish runs much up into the larger creeks 

 of the salt meadows, and, by putting a net across the mouths of these, 

 the weak fish, king fish, and some other species may be penned up 

 and caught in great numbers. In any attempt to retain specimens of 

 moderate size, or. of the small species generally, great annoyance is 

 experienced from the crabs, (Lupa dicantha,) which are exceedingly 

 abundant, and, arrested by the same operation, leisurely set themselves 

 to work in catching the fish gilled in the net. In so doing, they cut 

 the meshes very badly, in fact some of my best seines were almost 

 totall}'- ruined by them. 



The weak fish appears to require, during the summer, a slight 

 dilution of fresh water in the marine element it inhabits, as it concen- 

 trates in large numbers about the mouths of rivers in dry weather. 



During the excessive drought of the past summer, it was observed 

 that the weak fish was taken much higher up rivers than ever known 

 before. They disappeared almost entirely from Beesle3'-'s point about 

 the middle of August, and could only be heard of towards Tuckahoe 

 and higher up. The fishermen prayed devoutly for rain to weaken 

 the waters of the bay, and bring back the weak fish. 



At Sing-Sing, New York, and even much higher up the North river, 

 they were taken in numbers in August and September. 



The young weak fish were very abundant along the edges of the 

 bay and in the small creeks, of sizes not exceeding four or five inches. 

 It is quite probably that they spawn early in the season, and that these 

 are the fry of the year. At this time they are broadly banded verti- 

 cally, and, with their much compressed bod^s would never be referred 

 to the weak fish but for the two prominent canines of the upper jaw. 

 A few only had the spots of the adult. 



As a table fish, this species is very much inferior to almost any other 



