506 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



APPENDIX Q. 



^ SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 



NOTE. — Since sending the manuscript of this report to press, several 

 valuable contributions to the knowledge of the menhaden and the 

 menhaden industry have been received. In order to bring the discus- 

 sion of the subject up to date these have been included in an appendix, 

 with references prefixed, which show their proper connection in the body 

 of the report. 



Gloucester, Mass., September 22, 1878 



1. An early allusion to the fat bach on tJie Southern coast. 



(Paragraph 28, p. 14.) 



Catesby, in his Natural History of the Carolinas, Florida, and the 

 Bahamas, 1731-1742, Vol. II, p. xxxiii, makes the following allusions to 

 the "fat-back" or menhaden: 



" Herrings in March leave the salt Waters and run up the Rivers aud 

 shallow Streams of fresh Water in such prodigious Sholes that people 

 cast them on Shore with Shovels. A Horse passing these waters una- 

 voidably tramples them under his Feet ; their Plenty is of great Benefit 

 to the inhabitants of many Parts of Virginia and Carolina. But the 

 most extraordinary Inundation of Fish happens annually a little within 

 the northern Cape of ChesapicJc Bay in Virginia, where there are cast 

 on Shore usually in March, such incredible Numbers of Fish, that the 

 Shore is covered with them a considerable Depth, and three Miles in 

 length along the Shore. At these Times the Inhabitants from far within 

 Land come down with their Carts and carry away what they want of the 

 Fish ; there remaining to rot on the Shore many Times more than sufficed 

 them : From the Putrefaction that this causes the place has attained the 

 Name of Maggoty Bay. 



" These Fish are of various Kinds and Sizes, and are drove on Shore 

 by the Pursuit of Porperses and other voracious Fish, at the general 

 Time of Spawning ; amongst the Fish that are thus drove on Shore is a 

 small fish called a Fat-bacic; it is thick and round, resembling a Mul- 

 let but Smaller. It is an excellent Sweet Fish, and so excessive fat that 

 Butter is never used in frying, or any other Preparation of them. At 

 certain Seasons and Places there are infinite Numbers of these Fish 

 caught, and are much esteemed by the Inhabitants for their Delicacy '^ 



2. Departure of the schools in the fall. 



(Section 12, p. 38.) 



Mr. Charles G. Atkins, in a letter fo Professor Baird, March 9, 1878 

 (Bucksport, Me.), states that young menhaden were more abundant than 



