86 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



1873 11,000,000 



1874 _ 10, 000, 000 



1875 *V2, 000, 000 



1876 18, 000, 000 



1877 14, 000, 000 



lu 1809, Miles Brothers, of Milford, Coun., are said to have taken 

 8,000,000 or 10,000,000 of fish ; a season's catch which has not yet been 

 exceeded, although their facilities for fishing have been greatly increased. 



A correspondent of the American Agriculturist wrote to that paper 

 in 1873,t that during the season of 1872 the factories between Kew Lon- 

 don and Stonington caught 40,800,000 fish, which yielded about 142,000 

 gallons of oil and 4,080 tons of scrap. 



The season of 1877 has been an eminently successful one for the fish- 

 ermen of Long Island Sound. From Pine Island Mr. Dudley counted 

 at one itime 30 schools of fish. This year, however, the fishing has been 

 most successful around and outside of Montauk Point. 



Gurdon S. Allyn & Co., with three seines worked from sloops took 

 in 1877, 13,000,000 of fish, yielding 42,000 gallons of oil. 



Luce Brothers, of East Lyme, Conn., with one steamer and nine sloops, 

 with 48 men, took in 1877, 3,800,000, fish producing 103,200 gallons of oil. 



There are eighteen weirs in the harbor of Westbrook, Conn., which 

 take, according to Capt. J. L. Stokes, about 8,000 shad and 500,000 

 menhaden each, giving an annual yield of 141,000 shad and 9,000,000 

 menhaden. This is probably rather an overestimate. The Westbrook 

 weirs have leaders of 250 to 500 fathoms, and are managed by four men 

 each. The menhaden taken in them are sold to farmers. 



The following are the returns of George Stannard & Co.'s pound afc 

 the mouth of the Connecticut: 



Captain Stokes, with a shores-seine of about 400 fathoms, took during 

 the season of 1877 about 1,000,000 menhaden, which were chiefly sold 

 to farmers at $1.25 the thousand. 



Mr. Miles, of Milford, Coun., states that there are no fish in the waters 

 of the western jjart of Long Island Sound to be compared in numbers 



* In 1875 the steamer was first used by the Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company, 

 t American Agriculturist, 1873, vol. sssii, p. 139. 



