PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 39 



I do not know where the striped bass spawn. I have never seen anj- 

 very young; none two or three inches long. 



I never saw a young squeteague. 



I have seen plenty of young rock-bass not more than two inches long. 



The striped bass go up into the ponds and among the eel-grass, I 

 suppose. 



Question. Don't you think the blue-lish have something to do with 

 making other fish scarce ? 



Answer. Xo. There have always been blue-fish. For thirty years 

 they have been plenty. 



Captain Rufits F. Pease. Blue-fish came in here betbre 1830, I 

 recollect of hearing the old folks talk about blue fish. I caught them 

 before I went to sea, in 1824. 



Captain Geo. Coffin. I caught enough to load a boat in 1825. They 

 were so plenty, I canght them just as fiist as I could haul them in. 



Captain Francis Pease. I "have heard my father speak of the large 

 blue-fish, weighing forty pounds. I think that nuist have been before 

 the beginning of this century. They were all gone long before my day. 

 The first that I recollect were snialffish. The large blue-fish are not as 

 acti\e as the smaller ones. I think the blue-fish that are around in the 

 summer, weighing five or six pounds, are the same as we catch now, 

 which are large and fat. 



Captain Pufus F. Pease. Blue-fish are growing plenty now away 

 down toward Nova Scotia, and are growing less year by year here. 

 The mischief of the pounds is, they keep the price down, and they can- 

 not sell their own fish. 1 think they injure every man ; I can see hi the 

 last ten years a great change. 



Question. Why are fish so dear at retail ? 



Answer. That is all owing to the market-men, who have a compact 

 among tliemselves that they will not sell below a certain price. 



Captain Francis Pease. It makes no difference with us whether 

 fish are high or low ; they will not give us but about a cent a pound, 

 while at the same time they keep their agreement not to sell for less 

 than eight cents. 



There were as many as twenty-five boats from the bluffs around here 

 this year, driving off the fish from the shoals. They are not fishing- 

 boats; but they come with a crowd of sail on, and they frighten the 

 fish. 



If fish were not caught any faster than they are taken with a hook 

 and line, they would be plenty. 



Captain Josiah C. Pease. The pounds take all the breeding-fish 

 that come into the shores. I saw in New Bedford, the first of May, 

 large scup, full of si)awn, and rock-bass. They were taken in the 

 pounds, and could not have been caught with lines; it was too early. 



Captain 11. F. Pease. They had so many tautog taken at Wood's Hole 

 at one time that the net sunk and the fish died, and they had to turn 

 them on the shore. They were chuck full of spawn ; large breeders in 

 there, looking for a place to deposit their spawn. 



Captain Josiah C. Pease. Some of the farmers will have a pound, 

 and go to it in the morning, and take out the fish and ship them, and then 

 go to work or their farms. Tliey do not follow fishing for a living. 



Captain R. F. Pease. The law ought to be uniform. One reason 

 why the pounds were not stopped by the legislature of Massachusetts 

 was, that the Provincetown people made a statement that they could 

 not fit out their vessels with bait, unless they had pounds to catch it for 

 them. 



to 



