160 Big Game Fishes 



the water filled with silvery fragments which 

 sank like stars in the blue sky of the ocean, to 

 be picked up by hungry dogfishes attracted by 

 the slaughter. The bluefishes seemed, like 

 "jacks," to eat what they wished, then, crazed 

 by the excitement of the chase, amused them- 

 selves by biting the fleeing victims for the mere 

 wanton pleasure of killing. Such a killing can 

 often be recognized from a distance by the fly- 

 ing foam and the vociferous notes of gulls which 

 hasten in that direction. The enormous numbers 

 of bluefishes off the American coast in mid- 

 summer are beyond computation. Professor 

 Baird refers to a thousand millions, and to afford 

 some idea of their voracity he says that if each 

 one eats ten small fish per day, then ten thou- 

 sand millions of small fry are needed to supply 

 the daily commissariat of this fast-moving army. 

 The fisherman in " Pericles " who wondered how 

 the fishes of the sea lived, doubtless had never 

 been a bluefish fisherman. 



Considering the vast number of bluefish very 

 little is known regarding its spawning. On Cape 

 Cod and at Nantucket the fishermen believe that 

 it spawns in midsummer, depositing its spawn 

 on the clear sandy bottoms. G. Brown Goode 



