HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 99 



distance of three hundred miles, nor even fifty miles, and from this it is 

 argued that some of the species must spawn not far from the Vineyard 

 Sound. It is not impossible that this conclusion may be true, still the 

 premises aro hardly sullicient. The young menhaden at the time of 

 their first appearance on the southern coast of Massachusetts are strong 

 and active, and apparently fully developed in bone and muscle. There 

 is no apparent reason why they might not make long journeys. 



22. — Inferences as to time and place of spawning. 



The testimony of young and parent fish. 



133. Certain inferences may perhaps be drawn from the facts men- 

 tioned above. The menhaden taken in summer and early autumn on 

 the coast of New England show ovaries and spermaries in an unde- 

 veloped state, but evidently slowly approaching maturity, while others 

 accidently delayed in Cape Cod Bay and Delaware Bay show in Novem- 

 ber spawn nearly ripe and in December ova quite mature. In October 

 the southward migration begins, and by the 1st of December they have 

 deserted the coasts of the Northern and Middle States. These schools 

 winter, in part, on the coast of North Carolina, where they arrive in large 

 numbers from the last of November to the middle of December, and are 

 also found throughout the winter on the coast of Florida. The young 

 fish, from one to three inches in length and upward, are common 

 throughout the summer on the southern coasts, and those of a larger 

 growth, from five to eight inches, occur in late summer and autumn on 

 the coast of Southern New England south of Cape Cod. There is no 

 satisfactory evidence that spawning takes place in the rivers of the 

 Southern States. Will not these considerations warrant the hypothesis 

 that the breeding-grounds of the menhaden are on shoals along the 

 coast, from North Carolina, and perhaps Florida, northward as far per- 

 haps as Virginia or New Jersey ? This idea was first advanced by 

 Captain Atwood and has received the sanction of Messrs. Goodale and 

 Atkins. 



The opinions of fishermen. 



134. The majority of intelligent fishermen in the North seem to believe 

 that the menhaden is a winter spawner, breeding in Southern waters, 

 though some, arguing from the presence of small fish in autumn, advance 

 the idea that they spawn in Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay, 

 while others still think it probable that there are two spawning seasons, 

 one at the north in the summer and another in the winter at the south. 

 I have been assured by several fishermen that when seining menhaden 

 they have found a mass of their spawn, two or three feet in diameter, 

 carried in the center of the school, and the idea was advanced that the 

 fish transported and in this way cared for their eggs until they should 

 be hatched. 



I have had the opportunity of examining one of these supposed 



