HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 39 



hoped, too, that this course may sugj^est and elicit fuller observatious 

 from persons living iu our seaboard towns. 



A review of the general movement along the coast. 



G-l. At the approach of settled warm weather the schools make their 

 appearance iu the coast waters. They remain in the bays and near the 

 shores until thoy are warned away by the breath of coming winter. 

 The date of their appearance is easier in the more southern waters, and 

 the length of their sojourn longer. It is manifestly impracticable to 

 give anything but approximate dates to indicate the time of their move- 

 ments. In fact, the comparison of two localities, distant apart one or 

 two hundred miles, would indicate very little. When wider ranges 

 are compared there becomes perceptible a proportion in the relations 

 of the general averages. There is always a balance iu favor of earlier 

 arrivals at the more southern localities. Thus, it becomes apparent that 

 the first schools appear in Chesapeake Bay in March and April, on the 

 coast of New Jersey in April and early May, and on the south coast of 

 New England in late April and May, olf Cape Ann about the middle of 

 May, and in the Gulf of Maine about the latter part of May and the 

 first of June. Returning they leave Maine in late September and Octo- 

 ber, Massachusetts in October, November, and December, Long Island 

 Sound and vicinity in November and December, Chesapeake Bay iu 

 December, and Cape Hatteras in January. Farther to the south they 

 appear to remain more or less constantly throughout the year. 



Coast of Florida. 



65. In the Saint John's River, Florida, menhaden are abundant 

 throughout the winter. They appear in November clogging the shad- 

 iiets. It is not known how far they proceed up the river, but I was 

 unable to learn that they have been taken above Buckley's Bluff, twelve 

 miles above Jacksonville and thirty-six from the mouth of the river; 



"they are particularly numerous at the mouth and in the vicinity of May- 

 port and Yellow Bluff. That they remain as late as May is well estab- 

 lished, and it is the opinion of Mr. Kemps that they are found through- 

 out the summer, the young fish, at least. I have found the grown and 

 half-grown fish abundant at ArTington and Jacksonville in A[)rii, 1874 

 and 1875. After the first of May the opportunities are not favorable 

 for observation, the use of shad-nets being then discontinued. Young 

 fish are seen from May to October, according to Mr. Kemps, in schools 

 over two miles long and extending from shore to shore of the river. 

 Along the coast of Florida, from Cape^Canaveral north, the schools of 

 adult fish are said to be common through the winter months. 



Coast of Georgia. 



66. Mr. Joseph Shepard, of Saint Mary's, Ga., states, on the authority 

 of a Saint Andrew's Bar pilot, that small schools of menhaden are 

 seen in Saint Andrew's Sound during the summer months, coming over 



