26 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



fill. I have found eels in them, but never, witliin three years, have I 

 found a scup in a blue-fish. I have 'examined every on«\ I cauj^ht three 

 blue-fish yesterday, and they threw out a great many squid. I think 

 the feed for the young fish is as plenty as ever — as it was twenty years 

 ago, with the exception of the menhaden and herring. Crabs never 

 were more plenty, and the lobsters are im)re plenty than I ever knew 

 thein. I think squid are as plenty as 1 ever knew them. People com- 

 plain that menhaden have left the bay. Alortg about the first of Sep- 

 tember they will come back, perhaps ; I know that is about the way 

 they generally do. 



The huice is fouud all along the coast ; I never found it buried in the 

 sand. 



I oidy know one kind of sword-fish and one' kind of bill-fish. I have 

 seen the sawfish when I was a boy — about thirty-six years ago. They 

 followed some sulphur-bottom whale in. 



EDWAFtD E. Taylor : 



I have caught but a few fish; I want something done to try to save 

 the fish for my children. 



Question. How are we to help your cliildren to get fish ? 



Answer. You will have to alK)lisli tra])s. I used a trap-seine this 

 spring, but I am now running gill-nets. We have only three, one hun- 

 dred and sixty or one hundred and seventy fathoms in all. We have 

 caught about a dozen S[)anish jnackerel this year. We sell our blue-fish 

 at five cents a i)ound to the dealers here ; to families we sell some at 

 eight cents a pound. I do not find scup in blue-fish. 



I have seen scup, and blue-fish, and sea-bass all come to my bait in 

 the deep, clear water, at the same time, down back-side of Gaj- Head. 

 I would drop my line down, and I could see them when they came to 

 the bait in about twenty feet of water. I used menhaden, cut up, for 

 bait. 



We got a great many small scu^) in the traps in the latter part of 

 May, about two to two and a half inches long, right at the south side 

 of the island. I caught an albicore last year that weighed 550 pounds. 

 It was sent to Pro^■i(lence for steaks. It was sold for ten dollars. Last 

 year we caught a fish called cero that weighed 7^ pounds j it was sold 

 for five cents a pound, not knowing the worth of it. 



I owned a trap before the war, and sold out very cheap, to go to the 

 war ; and when I came back, after three years, I found the fish had de- 

 creased very much. I was the first witness on the stand before the 

 committee of the legislature against the tra{)s. As long as the law 

 allovrs au}^ one to fish with seines, I shall do it ; and as soon as they 

 make a law to stop it, I shall stop. 



I do not know what protection is best ; I think there should be a law 

 to prevent fishing at certain seasons, or with nets of a certain size of 

 mesh. A great many small scup are caught in the traps and destro3'ed, 

 because the people are too lazy to let them go. 



I can recollect when you could catch bass all day long ; now I have 

 to turn out every day, at from one to two o'clock in the morning, and to 

 get my lines in as quick as it is light, for after the sun is two or three 

 hours high they will not bite, unless it is thick water and a heav^' sea. 

 I have fished with another gentleman three years, and I do not think 

 we have caught a bass in the afternoon. He is an amateur sportsman, 

 and he likes to go now better than when the fish were plenty, because 

 it is more of a science to catch one when there are but a few. I have 



