HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 401 



42. Bait for codfish, and tellings for mackerel. 



43, 44, 45, and 40. None. 



47. $1 per barrel for fresh ; $G for salted. 



58. It certainly seems to, although there may be other causes unknown 

 at present. There is one fact which cannot be denied, and that is that 

 these fish, once so plenty, have become almost extinct in these waters. 



19. Statement of Ehen B. Phillips, Stcampscott, Mass., January 21, 1874. 



1. Menhaden ; sometimes as pogies. 



2. It is the most abundant, except, perhaps, mackerel. 



3. It has neither diminished nor increased. 



4. There are no establishments in this vicinity. 



5. No. 



6. In April they appear on the coast of New Jersey ; in May they 

 reach Ehode Island and Connecticut ; by the middle of May or 1st of 

 June they come here, and early in June reach Maine, the body of them 

 arriving on the coast of Maine early in July. They leave by the middle 

 of September, or first of October, and go south, no one knows how far. 

 The first are not larger than the others. Many schools come in at same 

 time. They are coming for a month, and going for a month, in streams 

 300 or 400 miles long. 



7. They swim high when they come. In the fall they swim deeper, 6 

 to 50 feet down. They make a ripple. They do attract birds, viz, fish.- 

 hawks — not gulls, nor any other bird. 



8. They come along shore, as stated in No. 6. 



9. Their appearance on the coast is regular and certain ; they never 

 fail, except that they do not come close to the shore, and up the rivers, 

 as much as before ; they lie off. 



10. Yes. And they can be caught better off shore. We don't want 

 the seine to touch bottom. 



11. None. 



12. In summer from Portland to Mt. Desert they frequent the mouths 

 of rivers — not very shoal waters. They are also found in abundance on 

 George's Bank. 



13. Answered above. 



14. No, except when the weather is frosty, when they leave. Some- 

 times, when it is warm and sunny, thej' come to the surface. 



15. "We do not find immature fish with mature ones on the breeding- 

 ground. In this they differ widely from mackerel, of which all sizes are 

 found together. I think they get their growth in a year. 



16. We never see small fish. 



17. The fish leave as above stated, and leave by degrees, moving two 

 or three miles per hour, and at twice that rate when the wind is north- 

 east. 



26 F 



