76 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AKD FISHERIES. 



drives the fish away, while Messrs. Whaley, Potter, Wilcox, Beebe, Ing- 

 ham, Miles, F. Lillingstou, and Hawkins Brothers share the opposite 

 belief. It should be noted in this connection that in Long Island Sound 

 and vicinity purse seines worked off shore have almost superseded the 

 haul-seines used twenty or thirty years ago, which were worked from 

 row-boats and drawn up on the beaches. Does not this i)oint to a 

 change in the habits of the fish ? In this district, where the fisheries 

 are mostly prosecuted in waters more or less land-locked, the fish are 

 not so apt to be driven out to sea as in Maine, where the fishing is prose- 

 cuted on an open coast. The timid fish may easily be crowded out into 

 deep water by the vessels, which, working from the shore, usually ap- 

 proach them from that direction. If the fisheries of Maine were to be 

 suspended for a short time the fish would doubtless return in full force 

 to their former haunts. It appears from the statement of Mr. Sartell, 

 already quoted, that they appear inshore in considerable numbers if 

 the large seines are laid up for a single day. Mr. Simpson thinks that 

 a school which is frightened away by nets returns to the same place in 

 the course of two or three hours. South of Long Island, menhaden 

 fisheries have not been carried on to such an extent as to exert any 

 modifying influence upon the habits of the fish. 



The opinion of Mr. AtMns. 



100. There is room for difference of opinion on this subject. Boardman 

 and Atkins do not accept this view, and after the thorough study they 

 have made, their views are entitled to much respect. They remark: 



"In general, it is safe to say that the surface movements of the men- 

 haden are characterized by nothing so much as by capriciousness. They 

 appear suddenly in the most unexpected spots, and, after a stay whose 

 length nobody can foretell, all at once they disappear. One day they 

 may be found at the mouth of the Kennebec, the next at Pemaquid, and 

 the third all along the shore. Occasionally they reappear daily in the 

 same spot for weeks at a time. Such was the case in the latter part of 

 the season of 1874, over the sandy bottom off the Phipsburg beaches. 

 Then it will sometimes happen that a whole season will pass without 

 their appearance in bays where they have previously swarmed. Again, 

 in some seasons they crowd the harbors and coves; in others they seem 

 to a% oid them altogether. For some years past they have so generally 

 absented themselves from these places as to excite a good deal of spec- 

 ulation as to the cause."* I 



And again: 



"Of the desertion of the harbors and coves there seems to be abun- 

 dant testimony. An observer in Boothbay says : ' Menhaden can be 

 driven out of small bays so that they will not come in.' ' Certain it is 

 that they do not come into the bays as they used to.' In Bluehill we are 



*0>i). cU.,])Al. 



