6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



been unable to obtain exact information, have ventured to guess at 

 what they did not really know from experience. I do not think that 

 there has been intentional misrepresentation or any effort to withhold 

 information. There being no ulterior object, such as future legislation, 

 in collecting this information, there has been no temptation to con- 

 cealment ; still the testimony has been partly that of interested persons. 

 The most fair and honorable men, however careful may be their obser- 

 vations, are involuntarily influenced by preconceived opinions or by 

 considerations of personal interest, and, even if it were possible to secure 

 unprejudiced opinions, these necessarily would express only part of the 

 truth. Then, too, the movements of fishes are so capricious, the oppor- 

 tunities of observation so few and so imperfect, that satisfactory results 

 can, in most cases, be reached only after years of constant study. 



Prejudices and superstitions. 



13. Some curious prejudices and fancies have been encountered among 

 the fishermen. These refer chiefly to the time and manner of spawning, 

 the character of the eggs, the nature of their food, and the relation of 

 the fish to its peculiar parasite. 



Inaccuracies of observation and statement. 



14. There has been some difficulty in eliminating unreliable data from 

 the great mass of facts contributed by correspondents. This, however, 

 has not been so great as was apprehended at the beginning of the work, 

 since a knowledge of the beliefs and traditions current among sea- 

 faring men renders it easy to detect many of the errors at once. The 

 concurrent testimony of a number of reliable correspondents has been 

 thought sufficient to establish points in question : when possible, these 

 have been investigated personally, to render their establishment doubly 

 certain. A large proportion of the communications received have evi- 

 dently been prepared with much care. It is believed that many facts 

 hitherto unrecorded have been brought to light by this investigation. 

 All communications are given in full in Appendix N. This has been 

 done both to show the character of the testimony upon which this his- 

 tory has been founded, and to i)ut upon record many facts which, while 

 not directly connected with the subject under consideration, are never- 

 theless of value to the student of the fisheries. 



B.— THE NAMES OF THE MENHADEN. 

 5. — Popular names. 

 Local names and usages. 



15. Brevoortia tyrannus has at least thirty distinct popular names, most 

 of them limited in application within narrow geographical boundaries. 

 To this circumstance may be attributed the prevailing ignorance regard- 



