THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 187 
cents, and 40 cents per pound. Others from 20 cents to 25 cents, very few bringing 
less than 8 and 10 cents a pound as fresh fish. 
Q. What kinds of fish are they which bring the high price of a-dollar a pound ?— 
A. The pompano, which is the highest-pricec fish. 
By Sir ALEXANDER GALT: 
Q. To what size does it grow ?—A. Three pounds is the maximum. It is more gen- 
erally one pound. The pompano brings one dollar per pound when it is freshly 
caught. Sometimes when it is brought to New York and kept for a long time the 
price may come down. I know one occasion when it was sold at 10 cents a pound ; 
but the fish was not marketable and should not have been sold. The next best fishis 
Spanish mackerel, a fish of remarkable excellence. 
By Mr. DANA: 
Q. In New York market at the proper season what does it bring ?—A. I don’t sup- 
pose it is ever sold under 25 cents per pound, and from that to 40 cents. 
Q. Is that a mackerel ?—A. It belongs to the mackerel family, and weighs about 
3 pounds. There is the cero, a kind of Spanish mackerel, which goes up to 15 pounds. 
Those are all found from Cape Cod to Florida along the entire coast. There is the 
scup, which occurs from Florida to Cape Cod in great abundance. 
Q. The scup is found in great abundance off the south coast of Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island?—A. Yes. There isalso sea bass, which is one of the finest of the Amer- 
ican fish, and is worth from 18 cents to 25 cents per pound. 
Q. How many pounds do they average in weight?—A. From 1 to 4 pounds; 3 
pounds is a large fish. 
Q. They are found in abundance on the south coast of New England ?—A. Yes; 
very abundant. There is also the kingfish and the bonito, which is a very important 
fish. 
Q. There is a fish of that character extending from Block Island away down to Cape 
Hatteras ?—A. It is one of the same family. It weighs up to 5 pounds. Ihave seen 
five thousand of those fish taken at a single time in a fishing pound at Menemsha 
Bight. There is the bluefish, which is the piéce de resistance. There is the squeteague; 
of that fish I have seen 25,000 pounds taken at a haul. 
Q. The bluefish is a great fish in the market ?—A. It is the principal fresh fish dur- 
ing the summer season on the coast of the United States from Cape Cod to North Car- 
olina. 
Q. Caught all along the shores ?—A. All along the coast, being most abundant in 
the summer season toward Cape Cod, and in winter in North Carolina. 
Q. There is a great drift through Vineyard Sound ?—A. There is a numerous catch. 
@. Are not the people on the southern coast of Massachusetts, and on the coast of 
Rhode Island, now very much engaged in catching fresh fish ?—A. Very largely, tak- 
ing them in pounds and gill-nets, and other modes of capture. 
Q. Is this a part of the development of the fresh fish market ?—A. Yes. Since blue- 
fish has come back to the coast it has constituted an enormous element in the supply 
of fresh fish ; it is not the controlling element, but it is the largest single element, 
although combining the striped bass, squeteague, mullet, and scup, they considerably 
outnumber the bluefish. [Photographs of the fish referred to were exhibited. ] 
Q. What about tautog?—A. It is an important fish, but is not in such immense 
abundance. While you talk of tautog being caught in thousands of pounds, you talk 
of others by hundreds of thousands or by millions. 
Q. Pounds are very common on the American coast ?—A. It constitutes the princi- 
pal mode of summer fishing from round Cape Cod as far west as Long Island. Nearly 
all the fish taken on that coast are caught in the pounds.: The small tunny is a fish 
which of late years has come into notice, and it is believed to have disturbed the 
mackerel and menhaden this year. It was never recorded till I found it in 1871 in 
Martha’s Vineyard, where it was in enormous numbers. It is a fish “weighing about 
25 pounds, and it is something like the horse mackerel, but they never grow more than 
