AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2813 



taken at a single haul. The capital invested is only the boat, the seine, 

 perhaps 100 or 200 yards long, the salt necessary for preserving the fish, 

 and splitting boards and barrels. 



Q. Can pounds be used ? A.. They have not been used, and I doubt 

 whether they could be used. Pounds are not available in the sandy 

 regions of the South. 



Q. They are taken by seining ? A. Yes, seines can be used. This 

 work is entirely prosecuted by natives of the coast, and about two-thirds 

 of the coast population are employed in the capture of these fish. 



Q. Then the business has grown very much ? A. It has grown very 

 rapidly. 



Q. When was it first known to you as a fish for the market ? A. I 

 never knew anything about it until 1872. 



Q. Then it has been known during only five years ! A. I cannot say; 

 it has been known to me that length of time. 



Q. During that time the business has very much increased ? A. I am 

 so informed ; I cannot speak personally. All my information of it is 

 from reports made to me in replies to circulars issued in 1872 and 1873. 

 1 have not issued a mullet circular since that time, when I issued a 

 special circular asking information regarding the mullet. 



Q. Then it is your opinion that the mullet has become, to some extent, 

 and will become, an important source of food supply I A. It is destined, 

 I suppose, to be a very formidable rival and competitor of the mackerel. 

 1 know in 1872 a single county in North Carolina put up 70,000 barrels 

 of mullet, a single county of five States covering the mullet region. 



Q. Repeat that statement. A. I say 70,000 barrels of mullet were 

 packed in Carteret County, North Carolina, in 1872 one county in the 

 States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and 

 Florida, where mullet occurs in great abundance during two or three 

 months of the year. It is during the spawning season of the mullet 

 that it is taken in this quantity, and mullet roes form a special delicacy 

 over which every Southerner exults. It is a separate business, the roes 

 being smoked and salted and sold in large quantities. 



Q. Perhaps a reason to get into the region of political economy 

 why mullet-fishing was not prosecuted formerly, was that the Southern 

 people were not fishing-people under the slave system ? A. They 

 probably had not a proper method of taking them. They used more 

 casting nets than seines. 



Q. State to the Commission what mode of fishing and what kinds of 

 fish are caught on the south of the New England coast, south of Cape 

 Cod. Is it not a great region for fish ? A. The variety of fish taken on 

 the shores south of Cape Cod is very great, and constitutes a very im- 

 portant element in the food resources of the country. Many of them 

 are fish of very great value as food, some selling as high as one dollar 

 per pound, every pound of that fish that can be brought into market 

 bringing never less than 60 cents, and up to one dollar per pound. 

 Other fish range from 20 cents, 35 cents, and 40 cents per pound. Others 

 from 20 cents to 25 cents, very few bringing less than 8 cents and 10 

 cents a pound as fresh fish. 



Q. What kinds of fish are they which bring the high price of a dollar 

 a pound ? A. The pouipauo, which is the highest-priced fish. 



By Sir Alexander Gait : * 



Q. To what size does it grow ? A. Three pounds is the maximum. 

 It is more generally one pound. The pompauo brings one dollar per 

 pound when it is ireshly caught. Sometimes when it is brought to 



