372 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [84] 
fish, being much larger (weighing an average of 300 pounds), some as 
large as 800 pounds (gross), and entirely black.” 1 have this week con- 
versed with an old Soe (M. C. Tripp) who all his life has been a 
fisherman, and has this year captured about 90 fish, and his opinion is 
that they are not the same Gongen 
Nos. 5, 16. They appear to be of about the same abundance in average 
years; the catch depends on the weather, fogs, &c. 
No. 15. They come and leave in a general school. 
No. 32. Not in close schools, like other fish, but distributed over the 
surface of the water; the whole are called by the fishermen the annual 
school, OEE cannot strictly be so named. | 
No. 34. The Bill-fish (ranging from 6 to 12 feet in length) is their espe- 
cial enemy, appearing about the last of the season, and when they appear 
is a signal to the fishermen that the Sword-fish are about leaving. 
Nos. 35, 37, 38. They feed on blue-fish, mackerel, and menhaden. 
Their mode of catching these fish is generally to rise beneath the school 
ef small fish and strike right and left with their sword, so as to kill the 
fish, and I have seen them apparently throw the fish in the air and catch 
them on the fail. : 
No. 70. They are infested with a species of boring-worm, which bur- 
rows in their sides, say, 3 to 6 inches in depth. 
No. 7i. Captured with a species of harpoon named “ Sword-fish iron”, 
the peculiarity of which is the head is movable and connected with the 
shaft by a line, and being secured only by a peg, easily slips off and 
forms a “toggle” on the underside of the fish. Ordinary harpoons will 
draw out from the flesh, there being only one general bone, and that 
small in size, viz, the backbone. 
No. 78. At present the great bulk of the catch is sold fresh; the most 
of the catch is brought to this port; a few are carried to New London, 
but until a very few years since very nearly ‘all were disposed of in 
this vicinity. Some ten years since a few were sent to Boston on trial, 
and the consumption in that vicinity has rapidly increased; still, the 
market for fresh fish may be said to be from New Londor, Conn., to the 
east end of Massachusetts. Providence, R. I., is quite a large consumer 
of the fresh fish. 
No, 54. When the first fish arrives here (New Bedford) it is eagerly 
sought for at about 20 cents per pound, retail; but last year, within 48 
hours trom the arrival of the first fish, 52 were brought in, bringing the 
general retail price to 8 and 10 cents, clear of bone, at which price they 
continued to be retailed the season until its close, when fish were brought 
here from Boston, caught on George’s Bank, and then retailed from 15 
to 20 cents. The wholesale price is about 12 cents, first catch, falling 
rapidly to 2 and 3 cents per pound; this is clean fish, denuded of head, 
tail, viscera, &e. 
Nos. 82, 85. Previous to 1862 the market for fresh fish was limited to 
New Bedford, Fall River, Providence, and adjoining towns, and a large 
