496 Cavallas and Pampanos 
“This estimate applies to three or four year old fish of at 
least three to five pounds in weight. We must, however, allow 
for those of smaller size, and a hundred-fold or more in number, 
all engaged simultaneously in the butchery referred to. 
“We can scarcely conceive of a number so vast; and how- 
ever much we may diminish, within reason, the estimate of the 
number of bluefish and the average of their capture, there 
still remains an appalling aggregate of destruction. While the 
smallest bluefish feed upon the diminutive fry, those of which 
we have taken account capture fish of large size, many of them, 
if not capable of reproduction, being within at least one or 
two years of that period. 
“Tt is estimated by very good authority that of the spawn 
deposited by any fish at a given time not more than 30 per 
cent. are hatched, and that less than 10 per cent. attain an age 
when they are able to take care of themselves. As their age 
increases the chances of reaching maturity become greater and 
greater. It is among the small residuum of this class that the 
agency of the bluefish is exercised and whatever reasonable 
reduction may be made in our estimate, we cannot doubt that 
they exert a material influence. 
“The rate of growth of the bluefish is also an evidence of 
the immense amount of food they must consume. The young 
fish which first appear along the shores of Vineyard Sound, 
about the middle of August, are about five inches in length. 
By the beginning of September, however, they have reached 
six or seven inches, and on their reappearance in the second 
year they measure about twelve or fifteen inches. After this 
they increase in a still more rapid ratio. A fish which passes 
eastward from Vineyard Sound in the spring weighing five 
pounds is represented, according to the general impression, 
by the ten- to fifteen-pound fish of the autumn. If this be the 
fact, the fish of three or four pounds which pass along the 
coast of North Carolina in March return to it in October weigh- 
ing ten to fifteen pounds. 
“As already explained, the relationship of these fish to the 
other inhabitants of the sea is that of an unmitigated butcher; 
and it is able to contend successfully with any other species 
not superior to itself in size. It is not known whether an 
