Popular Salt= Water Qame Fish 



the menhaden, has as much influence upon their 

 movements as water temperature. 



The blue-fish sometimes make their way up the 

 rivers to a considerable distance, the adults, how- 

 ever, apparently never entering the perfectly fresh 

 water. They are found in the Potomac as far 

 North as Acquia Creek. The young of the year 

 are taken as high as Sing Sing on the Hudson, and 

 in other tidal rivers where the water is entirely fresh. 

 The blue-fish is carnivorous, feeding solely upon 

 other fish; indeed, it may be rightly called 

 Habit" 8 a " ver itable animated chopping ma- 

 chine." There is no parallel in point of 

 destructiveness to the blue-fish among the marine 

 species on our coast the business of which is to 

 cut to pieces and otherwise destroy as many fish 

 as possible in a given space of time. Going in 

 large schools in pursuit of fish, not much inferior 

 in size to themselves, they move along like a pack 

 of hungry wolves, destroying everything before 

 them; their trail is marked by fragments of fish 

 and by the stain of blood in the sea, because where 

 the fish is too large to be swallowed entire, the hind- 

 er portions will be bitten off and the anterior part 

 allowed to float away or sink. It is even main- 

 tained that such is the gluttony of the fish that, 

 when the stomach becomes full, the contents are 

 disgorged and it is again filled. The youngest 

 fish, equally with the older, perform this function 

 of destruction, and, though they occasionally de- 

 vour crabs, worms, etc., the bulk of their food 

 is derived from other fish. The rate of growth 

 65 



