ADDITIONAL NOTES TAKEN BY COMMISSIONER. 193 



ADDITIONAL NOTES TAKEN BY THE COMMISSIONER. 



Wood's Hole, Ocfoher 8, 1873. 



Captain J. B. Edwauds says there has been a falling off of all kinds 

 of fish this year as compared witli last year, except herriug, or alewives. 

 They were more abundant in the spring than they had been for twenty 

 years. 



Blue-fish have not been caught anywhere in the sound as much as last 

 year ; and at Hyannis it has been the same. They liave not caught as 

 many this year as last. 



Tautog fell oft half in tbe early part of the season, and there have 

 not been anything like as many caught this year as last. 



English herring do not come here much in the spring, but in the fall 

 they are taken for bait in gill-nets. November appears to be their run- 

 ning month. 



The small scup, of the size that were plenty last year, have been quite 

 scarce this year. A man can catch forty or possibly one hundred in a 

 day on -the best grounds here ; but before we had pounds I could catch 

 boat-loads in a day. 



The pounds at Waquoit did not do much this year, but at the pounds 

 below Falmonth they caught a great many herring. The alewives have 

 been much more plenty than usual this season, I think Captain Spin- 

 del got five hundred and sixty Spanish mackerel at one time, and they 

 got three hundred at Menemsha at the same time. Cod were much more 

 plenty in the bay formerly than now. 



Captain Isaiah Spindel took u]) his pound last week, Tuesday, Oc- 

 tober 1. It did not pay as much this year as last, as there was no mar- 

 ket for the menhaden. He had seen menhaden with spawn in them, not 

 ripe, late in the spring. There is no spawn in them now, and they must 

 have spawned some time since last spring. Menhaden are as large and 

 fat in October as at any time. 



We take a few English herring in the spring, possibly a thousand; 

 they are what we call "blue-backs;" they come about the 10th or 12th 

 of May, I have seen schools of the same fish in the ba,y, and have 

 canght them in a x^urse-net in the spring. They come a little before the 

 menhaden, among the early fish. We never catch any in the fall in 

 pounds, though they are frequently taken in gill-nets. 



The fishing was later this year than last. We got 35 barrels of scup 

 about the 30th of May, very large, some weighing 4 pounds. 



We did not get as many fish generally as last year; about as many 

 tautog, not so many sea-bass nor scup ; blue-fish, about one-fourth as many ; 

 squeteague, not one-fourth as many. We got eight hundred more Spanish 

 mackerel than last year. The price of these averaged 20 cents a pound. 

 We got five porpoises and many pilot-fish. We got twice as many ceros 

 as last year, some of which weighed 23 pounds. We got 12J cents a 

 pound for them. The price for fish generally was about the same this 

 year as last, though not quite so good for mackerel. They are always 

 poor in the spring. 



The blue-fish we got this year were small, averaging 2f to 3 pounds, 

 though we got a few that weighed 10 to 12 pounds. 



I was on the coast of North Carolina last winter, and they said they 

 got mackerel about the 20th of March. The run of mackerel tliat come 

 inside of Massachusetts Bay are much larger than those outside. They 

 do not bite, but are taken in seines and gill-nets. They weigh 3 pounds, 

 many of them ; are very fat, and a splendid fish. They are sold fresh. 



S. Mis. 61 13 



