256 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [20] 



Hawk in 1880, and that you sent a sailing vessel after in 1881, the ves- 

 sel securing a few and ran home from a threatening storm *? 



"Any information you can give me will be thankfully received, and 

 if I can find out any more of interest I will let you know at once. 



" Boston, 21arch 28, 1882." 



Four days before the crew of the Sidon had seen the dead fish the 

 brig Eachel Coney, Capt. Lawrence Coney, of Bangor, Me., had passed 

 over nearly the same track. 



1 am indebted to Mr. A. E. Crittenden, of Middletown, Conn., for 

 valuable information relating to this event, which he obtained during 

 a personal interview with Captain Coney. 



The Eachel Coney sailed through the dead fish on the 10th of March, 

 a distance of about 40 miles on a north-northeast course. " They were 

 first noticed," says Captain Coney, " about 75 miles south-southwest 

 from the light-ship on the South Shoal of Nantucket, and we continued 

 to see them for seven hours, the brig running along about 6 knots." 



Captain Coney makes special mention that the largest of the fishes 

 seen, which were from 2 to 3 feet long, were remarkable for having 

 many large bright spots on the back and dorsal fin, and also for " a 

 curious fin on the back of the head or nape," which he calls the " pilot 

 fin." This description, supplemented by a rough drawing made by Cap- 

 tain Coney and forwarded to me by Mr. Crittenden, proves unquestion- 

 ably that the largest of these floating fish were Lopholatilus and not cod, 

 as reported by the Sidon. Another species of fish seen by Captain 

 Coney, and which he has also roughly figured, was undoubtedly the 

 Peristedium miniatumy of which fuller mention will be made in a succeed- 

 ing paragraph. 



About the same time that the bark Sidon arrived in Boston (possibly 

 sooner) the bark Plymouth reached New York, and the captain of the 

 latter vessel reported having sailed through dead fish for a distance of 

 sixty-nine miles. The following j)aragraph from the New York Tribune 

 gives the result of an interview with the captain of the Plymouth : 



" At the office of State Fish Commissioner E. G. Blackford, it was 

 reported yesterday by Captain Lawrence of the bark Plymouth, of 

 Windsor, Nova Scotia, that he had seen a great quantity of dead cod- 

 fish in the waters off the George's Bank. A Tribune reporter called on 

 Captain Lawrence to learn the facts. The storj'^ as told by him was as 

 follows : ' A week ago last Saturday we were sailing off the George's 

 Bank. About daylight on Sunday morning the mate came down into; 

 the cabin and said that the bark was passing through a lot of dead cod- 

 fish, and wanted to know if he should get some of them. I went out 

 on deck and saw that the water all around us and for miles back 

 of us was filled with these fish. Their gills were red, and upon scooping 

 np some of them I found that they were hard, showing that they had 

 not been dead very long. From C o'clock in the morning until 5 o'clock 



