THE BLUE-FISH. I 8,7 



the increase by their summer feeding. As already remarked, 

 Blue-fish in the last century sometimes attained a weight of 

 forty or fifty pounds in Vineyard Sound; according to Zac- 

 cheus Macy, thirty of them will fill a barrel. 



Forest and Stream, June 25, 1874, stated that L. Hatha- 

 way, Esq., a veteran fisherman, while fishing from the bridge 

 at Cohasset Narrows, Mass., with rod and reel, captured a 

 Blue-fish weighing twenty-five pounds. The largest previ- 

 ously caught weighed seventeen pounds. On getting back 

 to the Carolina coast in the early part of November, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Yarrow's statement, they are from three to five 

 feet in length and weigh from ten to twenty pounds. What 

 becomes of these large fish, that so few of them are seen in 

 the early spring, it is impossible to say. If it be really true 

 that they are much scarcer than in the fall, we may infer 

 that their increased size makes them a more ready prey to 

 the larger fish and cetaceans, or that they have accomplished 

 their ordinary period of life; possibly that they have broken 

 up into smaller parties, less conspicuous to observation, or 

 that they have materially changed their locality. The average 

 length of the fish that appear in the spring off the coast of 

 Virginia and the southern part of New Jersey, according to 

 Dr. Coues, Dr. Yarrow and Prof. Baird, is about one foot, 

 being probably about one year old. As a general rule, those 

 of the smaller size keep close to the shore, and can always 

 be met with, while the larger ones go in schools and remain 

 farther outside. 



Prof. Baird obtained no very young fish at Wood's Holl in 

 1 871; the smallest found making their appearance quite sud- 

 denly along the coast, especially in the little bays, about the 

 middle of August, and then measuring about five inches by one 

 and one-fifth inches. By the end of September, however, these 

 had reached a length of seven or eight inches, and at the age 

 of about a year they probably constitute the twelve or four- 

 teen inch fish referred to as occurring along the southern 



