BLUE FISH. These fish furnish one of the most re- 

 markable instances of the appearance and disappearance 

 of species on our coast. As in our day with the Spanish 

 mackerel, that favorite of the gourmand, so in former times 

 the blue fish appeared suddenly. He was first seen on 

 the coast of Massachusetts in 1764, and then not again 

 till 1792, and it is only since the year 1830 that he has 

 been abundant. He seems to have superseded another 

 and largef- fish of the same name, and as his numbers 

 augment, those of the weak fish diminish. The blue 

 fish has singular vagaries, sometimes crowding every in- 

 let in swarms, and then deserting us altogether, visiting 

 in one season one locality, and in the next another, but 

 ordinarily frequenting our entire coast north to Massa- 

 chusetts. They afford excellent sport on a rod and line, 

 being among the strongest and boldest of their kind, 

 taking the fly readily under certain circumstances, and 

 they fight well when hooked, but from the character of the 

 localities they usually frequent, they are mostly taken 

 with a hand line from a sail boat. An artificial squid of 

 bone ivory or lead is trailed along at the end of forty 

 yards of stout line from a boat dancing merrily over the 

 waves under the influences of a moderate breeze. The 

 boatman's business is to watch for a shoal which can be 

 seen by their breaking in their pursuit of the mossbunk- 

 ers or by the action of the gulls, and when he has found 

 it, by repeated tacks to keep the boat in or near it, the 

 fisherman's duty is to haul in steadily and regularly im- 

 mediately on feeling a bite, and to get out his line again 

 as soon as possible. The fish dart forward when hooked 

 and throwing thernseves out of water turn almost a com- 

 plete somersault, when, if the line is not taut, they will 

 throw the hook out of their mouths. The dashing of 

 the waves and flying of the spray, the rapid exhilarating 



