PRESENT CONDITIOX OF THE FISHERIES. 4 



o 



they were last; they are very numerous this year. I think the large 

 tish are more plenty,' as well as the small. 



Mr. xVndrews. We don't catch any on the north side with hooks. 



Mr. Macy. I went out with a party and got forty, a week ago. I 

 know that the fishermen generally say they get fewer on the north side. 



IMr. Snow. I think more fish would have been caught with the hook 

 and line if the price had been such as to suit the people. 



Mr. WiNSLOW. I have been up six or seven times, and have aver- 

 aged, T think, two each time. I think we should have averaged more 

 than that two years ago; perhaps not last year. 



Mr. Phinney. I don't know where the blue-fish spawn ; we see their 

 young ones here. I have seen them alongside the wharf, about four 

 inches long, a little later than the middle of July. They would catch 

 the little launces and drive them about. The first school that comes is 

 generally the largest. 



Mr. Snow. I caught the first blue-fish about the 22d of May. 



Mr. Phinney said the 1st of June. 



Mr. William C. Marden and Mr. Chapin fish at Great Point. They 

 fish some with nets and some with hooks. Blue-fish are more plenty 

 than last year, at Great Point, by one-third. We were there last year, 

 from April till about the middle of October, and we never got so many 

 on the lines during the whole season as we have up to this time this 

 year, fishing with the same apparatus. 



Mr. Andrews. On the south side we have not caught so many, np to 

 the present time, as last year. 



Mr. Phinney. I think they came rather earlier this year than last. 



Mr. Marden. We got the'm at Great Point about the 11th of June, 

 first. 



Mr. Snow. We are southwest of Great Point. They always come 

 earlier to the west, on the front side of the island, than eastward. As 

 a rule there are larger fish outside. Sometimes they come in schools, 

 sorted by sizes, and sometimes all mixed up. 



[All the gentlemen agreed that they could not tell anything definite 

 about the spawning of blue-fish. Some would spawn when they first 

 came. Mr. Snow had caught them with spawn in them, the last of 

 July, ^fr, Andrews had seen them with spawn in them as late as the 

 last of August.] 



Mr. Snow thought scup more plenty this year than last, at Long Hill. 



Mr. Andrews said the whole place where they were caught was not 

 larger than the room in which they were then sitting; and that was the 

 only place where they can be caught, about a few rocks. 



Mr. Macy. They are very particular about their ranges. When one 

 gets the range of them exactly they can be caught in plenty there. We 

 caught 150 there, the other day, one of which would weigh probably 

 two pounds. But most of them would weigh not more than half or 

 three-quarters of a pound. Last year it was almost impossible to get 

 sen}). We i)aid five and six cents right along to get even small scup. 



Mr. Snow. Last year, in September, we had a heavy gale, and after 

 that, for three days, we liad scup. I don't know where they came from. 

 Generally they were on the inshore side of the net. I think they are 

 more plenty this j'ear than last. Crow-fish, (black-bass,) generally so 

 called about here, are more plenty, as well as tautog. 



Mr. Snow had seen no young scup three or four inches long. He had 

 seen, that day and the day before, some about an inch long. 



Captain Burgess, an old fisherman, in response to a question about 

 the use of nets, said : If it was expected that he should say gill-nets 



