HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



175 



3,999 51,263 



The above were taken north of Cape Cod. 



$734.18 



2,205 



4,007 



12,079 



$ 240.43 



The above were taken south of Cape Cod. On the 18th of April, Captain Atwood 

 himself caught one hundred and seventy-three codfish and two halibut in twenty-nine 

 fathoms of water. 



The following extract from a letter of Captain Blanchard will show the success of a 

 single half-day. " This day," November 25, 1846, " eleven fishing-smacks have been 

 out fishing, manned by seventy-five men ; they have taken 75,000 or 76,000 pounds of 

 fish, making an average of a little more than a thousand weight to each man. We 

 fished but half of the day, on account of the snow-storm." 



Generally speaking, this species " schools " but little, and is met with straggling all 

 along the coast. It is a very voracious fish, eating almost every kind of food it can 

 obtain. The fishermen consider the herring the best bait they can use in fishing for it, 

 although they frequently catch them with young flounders, cuttle-fish, &c. When fishing 

 on a muddy bottom, it is some time before the cod begins to take the hook ; when, how- 

 ever, they are fished for upon a rocky bottom, they seize the bait at once. The hook 

 should be suspended from three to five feet above the bottom of the sea, else the bait is 

 taken off by skates. 



* Two days' fishing. 



t The split fish were sold by contract for eight shillings per hundred ; none being split which could be 

 sold entire. 



