202 REPOKT O^OMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



It may be also assumed, that if food was plenty when scup were so 

 abundant, the growing scarcity of the latter would allow of the greater 

 increase of the former. And without some direct proof of such scarcity, 

 and as we know that clams and othgr shell-fish are still found in abun- 

 dance, in spite of the increased demand upon them, we believe there is 

 no want of food. 



HORSE-MACKEREL (BLITE-FISH). 



These fish are known as a surface fish. Their teeth are formed not 

 for grinding, but simply for cutting, and their food is taken in and swal- 

 lowed whole. Their prinjcipal food is the menhaden, also known as a sur- 

 face fish. 



Scup are a bottom fish, except at the time of spawning and before 

 the mackerel come in. Their armor of bristling fins renders them an 

 uncomfortable morsel to swallow ; their short, chubby form, in contra- 

 distinction to that of the long, slim blue-fish, enables them to turn more 

 quickly than the latter, and to elude the attacks, if made, while their 

 habitation in the eel-grass shelters them still more from the attacks of 

 their enemies. 



There is no doubt that blue-fish will capture a scup when the oppor- 

 tunity offers and it is hungry, for it will seize a bright piece of metal or 

 a bit of rag; but I think he is equally sorry he has made the mistake, 

 whether he finds he has taken a hook or the sharp fins of the scup. The 

 blue-fish, as well as other fish, may take scup when small, and, from 

 the evidence, I have no doubt do so ; but these keep generally in shal- 

 low water and among the eel-grass. 



ENEMIES OF SCUP. 



I do not pretend that scup have no enemies and are not destroj^ed in 

 vast numbers. It was for this reason the Creator provided them with 

 such immense powers of reproduction. 



The water-animals, like those on laud, prey upon each other, and, in 

 many cases, on their own species, the large destroying the small. 



Nor do I maintain that they are not liable to disease or other destroy- 

 ing causes, independent of other direct enemies. 



Otherwise, if thus undisturbed, they would increase in such numbers 

 as to overbalance and upset the order established by nature's laws. 



These fish are intended as an article of food for man, to be used at a 

 season of the year when other fish are seeking cooler waters, and when 

 the appetite has a distaste for the more solid food, and craves a lighter 

 and more digestible diet, to conform to the state of inactivity induced 

 by the hot weather. 



Now, while admitting that scui^ and all other similar fish have numer- 

 ous destroyers, and that their numbers are greatly decreased by them, 

 we say that enough are provided for the use of man, provided they are 

 taken at the time he needs them and in the ordinary mode. This time 

 is when the warm weather continues, and the ordinary mode of hook 

 and line has hitherto been able, until recently, to supply as large a quan- 

 tity as can readily be consumed. 



When, however, man resorts to these traps and catches them in large 

 quantities, and at a time they are spawning, (as we expect to show,) the 

 supplj' cannot meet the draught, and, it is contended, must gradually he 

 diminished, until exterminated or the trap-fishing is no longer worth fol- 

 lowing, like the purse-seining at Stone Bridge. 



The same assertion, now made by the trappers, was formerly used in 



