410 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISII^ AND FISHERIES. 



tliat scare tbem away from the sliore, and that tliey are fast dimiuish- 

 iijg- iu uumber. 



21. I have seen them while spawning iu the harbor at Proviucetown. 

 They get where there is i^leuty of eel-grass, in from one to three fath- 

 oms of water. 



22. They get together in bunches or small schools, a barrel or two, 

 more or less, iu a school, and swim in a circle pressing against each 

 other. 



23. It is not. 



50. When they first make their appearance on the coast in the spring 

 of the year they are very poor. I thiuk they will not average more 

 than two quarts of oil per barrel of fish as they are taken from the 

 seine. 



51. About four gallons oil to a barrel of fish iu November. 



58. If it is a fact that these fish are scared away from the shore by 

 the use of seiues, and also that these fish do deposit, and if it is natural 

 for them to deposit their spawn on seaweeds and rockweeds along the 

 shore, and from my own observation I think they do, it then follows 

 that they are driven away from their spawning as well as their old 

 feeding grounds, and, as in regard to salmon and other fish that have 

 been driven away from their natural spawning-grounds, they naturally 

 will diminish. 



25. Statement of Josiah Hardy, 2d, Chatham Mass., Fehruari) 17, 1874, 



and January 9, 1875. 



1. Menhaden or pogy. 



2. They are more numerous than any other fish. 



3. As to their diminishing within the last ten years there have been 

 various opinions ; but my opinion is, nor do any now deny it that 

 they are less than they were in years previous to this period. These 

 fish used to enter our bay and line the shores and fill up our inland 

 bays and ponds in immense quantities even to their own suflbcation. 

 About the year 1832 they were so numerous on and about this coast, 

 and filled our harbors and the mill and oyster ponds so full ih&y suffo- 

 cated, and thousands of barrels of them drifted on shore. So many 

 were they, that the inhabitants of this town were summoned to bury 

 them lest a pestilence might arise. The same thing occurred a few 

 years later ; then there was no use for them, but ih^y were used for 

 dressing- on the land. Since that time, as well as then, any quantity 

 could be had for this purpose. 



4. For the last five years about 3,000 barrels each year. 



5. Between 1835 and 1840 the mackerel fishermen began using fish 

 for bait, and large quantities were seined for this purpose. Since that 

 time they have diminished to such a degree that very few have entered 

 our harbors and ponds during the last few years. The most of those 



