67 [Atwood. 



flocked. The fishing lasted about a week, and many thousand barrels 

 were taken just at the ledge ; and though occumng in such abundance 

 at this point, not one could be taken half a mile off. After this thej 

 were caught near ]\Iinot's Ledge. 



About the middle of November, the fishermen of Provincetown Bay 

 begin to put out nets for the large mackerel (Scomber vernalis), on its 

 return. On one occasion Capt. Atwood had twelve nets out, five miles 

 from land ; on the last night of November he had taken nothing, but on 

 visiting the nets the next day he found they had sunk to the bottom 

 filled with mackerel. He however succeeded in getting up eight, and 

 the nets as they came to the surface looked like a sheet of silver: 3,360 

 mackerel were taken from these eight nets by nightfall ; the next day 

 the remaining nets were dragged in and 1,700 more taken, making over 

 5,000 fish netted at a single "catch." On another occasion a "catch" 

 lasted three nights, when he alone caught mackerel of the best quality, 

 enough to make sixteen barrels when packed. 



The fishermen divide the mackerel into four classes, according to 

 their size, which are termed respectively, "large," "second size," 

 "tinkers,** and "blinks." There is a clear line of demarcation between 

 them, so that every fisherman can separate the same size of fish in the 

 same way; from this fact Capt. Atwood believes that it takes the 

 mackerel four years to attain its growth. 



The next fish Capt. Atwood alluded to, was the Menhaden (Alosa 

 MenhadenL). They arrive at Provincetown a little sooner than the 

 mackerel, making their earliest appearance in immense numbers • 

 unlike the mackerel, which become plentiful by degi-ees. The fisher- 

 men never find any spawn in them ; in September small fry, four or 

 five inches long, are seen. Most of the menhaden pass off late in 

 autumn, but some, which are probably still to be found up the creeks, 

 do not disappear till towards January. Some of these, taken late in 

 December, he sent to the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cam- 

 bridge, and Mr. Putnam found mature spawn in them. From these cir- 

 cumstances, and from the fact that the half grown fish are known to the 

 negroes of the Virginia coast by the name of "bug-fish," because they 

 beheve them to have been produced ti-om insects, since they never find 

 spawn in them there, Capt. Atwood believed that they spawned in the 

 winter on the shoals off shore between Nantucket and Cape Hatteras. 

 From the circumstance that only two sizes, the large and tlie small 

 menhaden are ever seen, he ftu'ther deduced the fact that this spe- 

 cies attains its growth in a single year. 



In reply to a question of Mr. Putnam's relative to the spawning of 

 eels, Capt. Atwood said he had never been engaged in the eel fishery, 

 and that very few were found in Provincetown, but that the young ones 

 were to be seen in the spring. 



