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mackerel had come back in great numbers and the balance 

 was more nearly established. Another thing showing 

 the great importance to fishermen of the food of fish 

 was this, that the Menhaden herring, and certain other 

 fish fed on the larvae, and young shell-fish, crusta- 

 ceans, which had the peculiar property of heating, as the 

 fishermen said, in their stomachs after it had been caught, so 

 that it was exceedingly difficult to keep them long enough 

 to cure them. In Salem Harbour, where this heating food 

 was particularly abundant, it was the practice of fishermen 

 to pen up the fish for a short time in the nets in order 

 to allow the food to digest before they attempted to 

 cure them. He believed the same thing was practised by 

 Swedish fishermen in the case of the herring. He had 

 mentioned in the Paper he read a few days ago, the 

 circumstance of the change in the habits of the Menhaden 

 herring on the American coast. This was a fish of the 

 utmost importance, some three thousand or four thousand 

 fishing vessels being employed in this fishery, and perhaps 

 a capital of two and a half million dollars. In 1878, 

 for some inscrutable reason, the Menhaden herring disap- 

 peared ; he had no doubt it was due to a change of tem- 

 perature, though it was not quite clearly established, and 

 there was a corresponding decrease in the yield of the fishe- 

 ries. The fish on the coast of Maine were very fat, owing 

 to the fact that they had great sounds to feed in where 

 they could sink down to the bottom and fill their stomachs 

 with the rich bottom ooze; and the fish taken in that 

 region would yield six gallons of oil to one hundred fish. 

 When the temperature barrier excluded them from the 

 Gulf of Maine the fisheries were carried farther down the 

 coast, but it was found that the amount of oil decreased 

 considerably, and the value of the fisheries fell off proper- 



