402 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



18. They stick to tbe coast, sometimes followiDg tlie bend of Cape 

 Cod. Barnstable Bay was full of them last fall on their way south. 



19. At the south somewhere ; it is uot known where. 



20. They feed on a sort of slime. They come north very poor and 

 return from Maine very fat. The fish has no teeth. It has a gizzard, 

 and the contents only equal the size of a small shot. They do not eat 

 fish nor any vegetable. 



21. They spawn here in August and September. 



22. Cannot answer. We always see them in great bodies — not in 

 pairs, or in small numbers. I think their being in great bodies, is some 

 protection against whales, sharks, &c. 



23. Ko, not whitened or colored. 



24. Warm water in August and September. 



25. At any depth, I think. 



26. 1 suppose the spawn sinks, as all spawn tends to sink. 



28. No. 



29. Yes, often. 



30. Almost all fish eat spawn and young fish. The parents menhaden 

 do uot. They feed as above stated. Their spawning farther out at sea 

 than formerly, must save the spawn. It used to be cast on shore more 

 than it now is, when we had a high wind. 



31. No. 



32. Extensively from sharks, horse-mackerel, blue-fish, fin-back and 

 humi)-back whales, which always appear in our waters when the men- 

 haden come. The codfish eats them night and day. 



33. No. 



34. Seines. 



35. Two hundred fathoms long, and 10 deep 



36. Sail and steam vessels. 



37. Eight or 9 men in sailing-vessels — it needs that number to handle 

 a seine ; more in steamers. 



38. From morning to night. 



39. No. 



40. I do not know that wind affects the fish, but in a high wind it is 

 impossible to seine. You cannot purse up a seine in a heavy sea. 



41. None in this immediate vicinity. 



42. The fish are sent to the factories to be cooked by steam and 

 pressed. 



43. Joseph Church, Bristol, Me., made, in 1874, 400,000 gallons oil and 

 4,000 tons of guano ; Judson Tarr & Co., Pemaquid, 235,000 gallons oil 

 and 2,500 tons of guano ; B. F. Brightman, Bristol, 280,000 gallons oil and 

 2,800 tons of guano ; Eound Pond, Bristol, 60,000 gallons oil and 1,000 

 tons of guano; Muscongus Oil Works, Bristol, 60,000 gallons oil and 1,000 

 tons of guano ; Wells & Co., Bristol, 80,000 gallons oil and 1,200 tons of 

 guano; Union, Bristol, 60,000 gallons oil and 1,000 tons of guano; J. 

 G. Nickerson, Booth Bay, 100,000 gallons oil and 2,000 tons of guano; 



