124 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



left ill the net too long they are tilled by the confinement and close 

 pressure, and sink. In such a case the only alternative offered the fish- 

 ermen is to cut open their seine. Sometimes the dead fish carry the 

 net with them to tbe bottom. When there are more than enough fish 

 in the seine to fill the vessel to which it belongs, and there is danger 

 that they may be lost, other vessels which are near often take the sur- 

 plus fish. In such a case, writes Mr. Babson, one-half the value of the 

 fish is paid to the captors. 



In calm or moderate weather, fishing is carried on from dawn till 

 dark, though morning and evening seem most favorable. In rough 

 weather the nets are not easily set, while the fish usually swim farther 

 from the surface and cannot be seen. Cold northerly and easterly 

 winds seem to affect the fish, causing them to sink toward the bottom. 

 Southerly winds seem the most propitious. 



Mr. Dudley states that in tbe fall, during the southward migration, 

 the fish play at the surface with a northwest wind. 



The best time for seining. 



173. The early morning is apt to be the stillest part of the day, and a 

 large part of the fish are taken at that time. 



So far as I can learn, the motions of the fish are not particularly affected 

 by the tides, except that, like other Clupeidce, they prefer to swim against 

 strong tides and winds. An impression seems to hold among the fish- 

 ermen that rather better success attends fishing on the flood- tide. This 

 is no doubt the case where gill-nets are in use, for in localities where the 

 fish have not been fiightened off shore by constant fishing they like to 

 l)lay up into coves and bays with the rising tide, and are then easily 

 taken by the giU-nets and the pounds or weirs. 



Where the purse-seines are worked in deep water off the shore, as on 

 the coast of Maine, little attention need be paid to the tides; but where 

 they are used in bays or channels where the tide has much head, there 

 is a practical difBculty in using them except at or near the time of shick 

 water. In a swift current the seine is liable to accidents from being 

 caught on rocks or other obstructions, or may be capsized or pulled out 

 of position. In Narragansett Bay, the difficulties of this kind appear 

 to be particularly great. According to Mr. Church it is not uncommon 

 for a gang to work all day without success, their net being capsized 

 every time it is set. 



32. — Descriptions op fishing scenes. 



Menhaden fishing in Southern Neio England. 



174. The first time the writer ever saw menhaden-fishing was in 

 August, 1874, when cruising off' Watch Hill, Rhode Island, in the Fish 

 Commission yacht " Cygnet." Several trim-built sloops are beating off' 

 and on, within a mile of tbe rocks. That they are ^'bony-fish catchers" 



