I9O AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



nearly 4, 000, 000 pounds annually. The yearly consumption of 

 Blue-fish probably does not fall much below 8,000,000 pounds, 

 valued at $500,000. The markets are supplied, for the 

 most part, from three sources. Large quantities are taken in 

 the weirs, forty or more in number, planted on the northern 

 and southern shores of Cape Cod, in Buzzard's Bay, Martha's 

 Vineyard, Narragansett Bay, Peconic Bay, and at Block 

 Island. The yield of these is estimated at 1,300,000 pounds. 

 Gill-nets on the southern New England coast are supposed 

 to take about 3,000,000. Enormous quantities are also 

 obtained by line fishermen about Hyannis, Edgartown, Nan- 

 tucket, and Eastham, and on the shores of Long Island and 

 New Jersey. 



On the 19th of August, 1874, I saw 12,000 taken from 

 the long pound on the west shore of Block Island. 



The line-fishery is probably not less productive than the gill- 

 netting. In 1875, we were cruising about Martha's Vineyard 

 in the Fish Commission yacht "Mollie." Off Cape Pogue we 

 noticed at least thirty cat-boats drailing for Blue-fish. These 

 boats were about twenty feet in length, square-sterned and 

 well housed over. Each carried three lines, one at the stern 

 and two at the end of long rods projecting over each quarter. 

 When we anchored at dusk in Edgartown harbor, these 

 boats were coming in, dropping alongside 'of a New York 

 market boat, which lay at the wharf. The bright lantern 

 under the deck awning, the black forms of the fishermen, 

 the busy changing of the little sails, the eager voices of bar- 

 gaining, gave an impression of brisk trade. The same scene 

 is repeated day after day, from July to October, in scores of 

 New England seaport towns. 





