HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 75 



have been received, is that the use of nets and seines tends to scare the 

 fish farther out to sea. The purse-nets are set generally at a distance 

 of from five to twenty- five miles from land. 



Off Penobscot Bay menhaden are frequently caught by Brooklin 

 fishermen outside of Isle au Ilaut and Great Duck Island. 



According to Mr. W. H. Sargent the fish are much less numerous in 

 the creeks, coves, inlets, and rivers, though outsido no decrease is per- 

 ceptible. 



Capt. William S. Sartell, keeper of Pemaquid Point Light, writes : 

 " The menhaden come regularly every summer into the bays, but the 

 seining draws them off out of sight of laud so that the fishermen here 

 can't get bait to put on their hooks. They get some fish in their nets 

 on Sundays when the seines are laid by." 



Mr. Babson writes : " Since they have been taken in large quantities 

 for their oil, they have gradually avoided the bays, creeks, harbors, and 

 rivers to which they once resorted in immense numbers, and are now 

 principally taken from one to ten miles from the shore. (Some of the 

 fishermen maintain tbat since the advent of the bluefish, some twenty 

 years ago, the pogies have sought deeper water for their own safety, 

 while others maintain that the bluefish drive the pogies into shoal 

 water; both statements are doubtless at times true.)" 



Mr. Kenniston states that the fish are now farther off' shore than in 

 former years, and in this he is confirmed by Mr. Phillips, who states that 

 they are taken better off shore where the seines cannot touch bottom. 

 On the other hand, Mr. Washburne and Mr. Brightman are of the 

 opinion that the use of the seine does not influence the movements of 

 the fish. 



Mr. Church, who has had much experience in the fisheries of Rhode 

 Island, is very positive in his opinion. He writes: "The nets and seines 

 do not scare the fish from the shore, for Narragausett Bay has been the 

 theater of their greatest capture for forty years or more, and they h ive 

 been more plenty than ever before known for the last ten years. I have 

 seen a school of fish set at ten times in succession in deep water, and 

 they would dive under the seine each time, but when they came to the 

 surface they would not be ten feet from the seine, and they would lie 

 still until we got ready to set, and when the seine was around them they 

 would dive again. Fish will drive menhaden but man never does, ex- 

 cept by use of i^owder; the menhaden are sensitive to a jar, such 

 as is caused by striking the deck of a vessel with an ax. Even so 

 slight a jar as the dropping of an oar^or the careless slat of a rung on 

 the gunwale has sent a school of fish off" at top speed." Mr, Dudley con- 

 firms this. Steamers must carry low-pressure engines and run as noise- 

 lessly as possible. 



Fishermen on Long Island Sound and about its eastern entrance seem 

 to be divided in opinion. Messrs. Sisson, Havens, B. Lillingston, Wash- 

 ington, Crandall, and Dodge incline to think that fishing with nets 



