/» REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the change in the northern limits of the range of the menhaden within 

 the past thirty years. 



At Jonesport, Me., menhaden used to be very plenty. They were 

 commonly caught in gill-nets two and one-half fathoms deep, but it was 

 practicable, almost any time, to get enough to go fishing with by spear- 

 ing. They became scarce seven, eight, or ten years ago, and now very 

 few are caught, although some come as far as this every year.* 



At Lubec, thirty years ago or more, menhaden were so plenty during 

 their short season (July and August) as to be a nuisance. They have 

 not been plenty since 1840 or 1845, and now none are found east of 

 Jonesport. They left suddenly, and since the date mentioned have 

 been rarely seen. Mr. E. A. Davis, of Lubec, a man of long experience 

 in the herring fishery, has not seen a single specimen for ten years. Mr. 

 E. P. Gilles, also of large experience, in 18G0, or thereabouts, got three 

 hogsheads of them one afternoon tide, and since then has seen none. 



At Pembroke, says Mr. Moses L. Wilder, " twenty years ago, and 

 always before that, the menhaden used to come here every year in 

 great numbers, filling every cove and creek ; but for the past twenty 

 years none whatever have been seen. Little use was ever made of them 

 except for bait, and of that but little was needed here."t 



There is also evidence to show that the waters of Nova Scotia and 

 New Brunswick have of late years been entirely deserted by them.l 



E.— ABUNDANCE. 



IG, — Abundance in the tast. 

 The testimony of early icriters. 



103. Of the abundance of menhaden in times gone by we can know 

 very little, for they have never been considered an important species, 

 and might easily escape the observation of writers. We infer that they 

 were abundant the time of the Dutch colony on New York Island, two 

 hundred years ago, from the name given to it by the New Netherlanders ; 

 in fact we have the statement, already quoted, of Daukers and Sluyter, 

 who before 1G79 saw in the bay of New York " schools of innumerable 

 fish, and a sort like herring, called there marshanclcers.''^ L'Hommedieu 

 speaks of their abundance at the close of the last century.§ 



Professor Mitchill, writing in 1814, states: "They frequent the New 

 York waters in prodigious numbers. From the high banks of Montock, 

 I have seen acres of them purpling the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. 

 The waters of Long Island Sound and its bay are often alive with schools 

 of them."^] 



* Statement of Z. D. Norton. 



tBoardman & Atkins, op. cit., p. 21. 



t See below, paragraph 222. 



$ Agricultural Transactions of New York, I, p. 65. See Appendix O. 



U Transactious of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, 1815, 1, p. 453. 



