1 86 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



south. It is not impossible that, at a suitable period after 

 spawning, the young, in obedience to their migratory instinct, 

 may move northward along the coast, growing rapidly as 

 they proceed. This explains the almost sudden appearance 

 of fish of five inches about Wood's Holl. 



We have the statement of Dr. Yarrow that vast schools of 

 small Blue-fish were met within Beaufort harbor during the 

 last week in December, 1871. These were in company with 

 small schools of young Menhaden and Yellow Tailed Shad, 

 and were apparently working their way toward the sea by the 

 route of the inlet. When observed, they were coming from 

 the southward through the sound, moving very slowly, at 

 times nearly leaving it, and then returning. The largest were 

 about four inches in length, and others were much smaller; 

 and as many as twenty schools were observed from the wharf 

 at Fort Macon, each of them occupying an area of from sixty 

 to eighty feet square, and apparently from four to six feet 

 in depth. I would not be much surprised if these fish should 

 prove to have been spawned late in the year, off the southern 

 coast. 



The size of the Blue-fish varies with the season and the 

 locality, those spending the summer on the southern coast, 

 according to good authority, rarely exceeding two or three 

 pounds in weight, and being generally considerably less. 

 The largest summer specimens are those found farther to the 

 eastward, where they are not infrequently met with weighing 

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

 unusual. Mr. Snow, of Nantucket, 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 



