HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 109 



pounds, daily, or twelve hundred million millions of fish and three hun- 

 dred thousand millions of pounds annually, are much below the real 

 figures. This estimate is for the period of four months in the middle of 

 the summer and fall, and for the coast of New England only. The cal- 

 culation allows ten fish, or two and one-half pounds, daily, to each 

 bluefish, and estimates the number of these corsairs of the sea in IsTew 

 England waters at one thousand million. This calculation includes 

 only those fish which exceed three pounds in weight, taking no account 

 of those of a smaller size, which are at least a hundred-fold more numer- 

 ous, and fully as voracious, and which prey upon the young fish. 



Such estimates profess to be nothing more than vague approximations, 

 but are legitimate in their way, enabling us to appreciate more clearly 

 the luxuriance of marine life. The application of similar methods of 

 calculation to the menhaden would be much more difficult. At least 

 one-fourth of the fish devoured by bluefish on the shores of ISTew England 

 are iirobably menhaden, and as many more are no doubt destroyed by 

 squeteague, bonito, sharks, horse-mackerel, cod, aiul other predaceous 

 species. The waters of Kew England wash only one-fourth of the 

 extent of coast upon which the menhaden is abundant, and the estimate 

 of Professor Baird covers only one-fourth of the entire year. Bluefish 

 are abundant for at least half the year as far south as the Carolinas, and 

 commit terrible havoc among the menhaden in the winter months. 

 Farther south they are the favorite food of other species, chief among 

 which are. the sea-trout {Cynoscion carolinensis). Then there are the 

 schools of porpoises and the whales, which pursue the herded menhaden 

 with wholesale destruction. 



An estimate of the annual destruction of menhaden. 



149. Is it too much, then, to multiply the three hundred millions of 

 millions of menhaden probably consumed by the full-grown bluefish 

 alone on the coast of New England in the summer months by ten? 

 This would allow three thousand millions of millions of menhaden, old 

 and young, annually destroyed in the waters of the United States, in 

 coraparisoQ with which the number annually taken by man is perfectly 

 insignificant. This estimate will seem extravagant at first sight, but I 

 believe that it will be found a very moderate one by any who may take 

 the pains to investigate the question for themselves. 



The^lace of the menhaden in nature. 



150. It is not hard to surmise the menhaden's place in nature ; swarm- 

 ing our waters in countless myriads, swimming in closely-packed, 

 unwieldy masses, helpless as flocks of sheep, close to the surface and at 

 the mercy of any enemy, destitute of means of defense or offense, their 

 mission is unmistakably to be eaten. In the economy of nature certain 

 orders of terrestrial animals, feeding entirely upon vegetable sub- 



