THE SEA FISHERIES OP EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 45 



B. — Biographical notices of the most important species. 



As already explained, our knowledge of the habits of the sea-fishes of 

 America is very imperfect for various reasons, chief among which is, of 

 course, their concealment from notice during the greater portion of their 

 existence. We are even far from the knowledge of what species actu- 

 ally occur on our shores ; many kinds coming to notice only at rare in- 

 tervals, or under circumstances when the intelligent observer and natu- 

 ralist fail to encounter them. Comparatively few species are readily, 

 if ever, taken with the hook, or even the seine, and it is only since the 

 more recent introduction of traps, pounds, and weirs, with their whole- 

 sale captures, that a fair idea of the geographical distribution of the 

 sea-fishes along the coast has been attained. Even this apparatus 

 fails to reach the outlying deep-sea species ; and the beam-trawl and 

 long-line, while constantly adding to the list, will never in all probabil- 

 ity entirely complete it. During the summer of 1877 the parties of the 

 IT. S. Fish Commission trawled up at various distances off the coast of 

 Massachusetts several species, some new to science, never before known 

 in American waters, and it is probable that additions will be made con- 

 tinually, without exhausting the list. 



It is not a little remarkable that fishermen who are continually in 

 contact with fish throughout the year know actually so little about 

 them. To questions as to the food of the various species, the peculi- 

 arities of spawning, the size and character of the eggs, the period of 

 development, the history of the young, &c, a negative answer is usually 

 returned, and it is only occasionally that one more intelligent, or at 

 least more observant, than the rest can be found from whom any satis- 

 factory information can be obtained. It is, however, to be hoped, and 

 indeed to be expected, that the publication of a resume of our actual 

 knowledge of the habits and peculiarities of our fishes will call their 

 attention to the subject, and secure their assistance in solving the many 

 remaining problems. 



As already explained, the facts, or probably it will be safer to call 

 them statements until confirmed, here given are to a considerable de- 

 gree the result of personal observation of members of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission, supplemented and extended by the answers to questions 

 distributed by the Commission. P.ersonal inquiry of witnesses sum- 

 moned before the Joint Fisheries Commission held at Halifax from 

 June 15 to December 15, 1877, in addition to the testimttny elicited on 

 their examination by the counsel and printed with the other evidence 

 have also added not a little to the mass of facts. Great care, however 

 requires to be exercised in admitting the statements made on this oc- 

 casion, as one witness, apparently honest and claiming' to have been 

 a practical fisherman for many years, stated under oath, that the eggs 

 of the mackerel were as large as pease or BB shot, and that they could 

 be hauled up on a hook in large masses. 



