430 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 

 39. Statement of John Washington, 3Iystic, Conn., Decemher 30, 1874t. 



1. Bony-fish. 



2. The most uumerous. 



3. Not cbauged. 

 5. Not late years. 



C. The stragglers arrive here about the fore part of April, the schools 

 the last of the month, and continue coming in the first half of the sum- 

 mer. 



7. When traveling they swim low 5 when feeding at the surface they 

 show a ripple. They do not attract birds. 



8. They come from the south along the coast; we hear of their passing 

 the Jersey coast eight or ten days sooner than they pass Montauk. 

 After passing in past the outer islands, the large schools separate into 

 smaller ones, and the farther they go from the sea the smaller they get 

 until they arrive at the rivers and coves. 



9. Their arrival each year varies but a few days. Never fail. Some 

 seasons not as plenty as others. 



10. The large schools do not come as near as formerly. 



11. They travel with tides. 



12. The entrance of rivers and bays when not disturbed. 



13. Any depth suits them, but they swim near the surface. 



14. They remain in the warm waters of the rivers and coves through 

 the heat of summer. We also find some stragglers here in the river 

 as late as freezing weather in the fall. 



15. We find all ages, from one year up, in the large schools. 



16. The young fish of f to 1 J inches long are found here jtassing out 

 of all the rivers and coves which have brackish water in them. In the 

 months of October and November. 



17. Old and young begin to go in October, and by the last of Novem- 

 ber are all gone. 



18. They go to southwest along the coast, and faster than they come 

 in the spring. 



19. They pass to the south of Cape Hatteras and remain through 

 the winter on the coast and in the sounds and bays of North and South 

 Carolina. This is the winter resort of most kinds of the summer fish of 

 this coast. 



20. When in the rivers they feed on fine moss that grows on the weeds, 

 and a scum that floats on the surface. At sea and in the open waters 

 their principal feed are minute jellies and biit, a minute crab that at 

 times is so numerous as to color the water. 



21. In the brackish water of all the rivers and coves into which brooks 

 empty their waters. In the months of May, June, and July. 



22. My impression is that when the fish start in the spring to migrate 

 north along the coast, those with the ripe spawn (which are earlier with 

 some than others, for we find full-grown spawn all the season) leave the 



