American Fisheries Society. 179 
appear to be gaining ground. In this category may be men- 
tioned the horse mackerel or tunny | Thunnus thynnus| and the 
whiting or silver hake | Merlucius bilinearis|, and there is even 
a beginning of the use of sharks, skates and sea-catfish or wolf- 
fests 
It however remains true that several marine species, which 
are abundant enough on the coast of North America north of the 
latitude of 40 degrees to be at times dreadful pests to fishermen, 
are practically unutilized. Foremost among these are two species 
of skate, | Raja| and the common dogfish | Squalus acanthias. | 
The skates are large fishes of flattened form and rhombeid 
outline, the smaller species not generally exceeding twenty 
pounds weight in Penobscot bay, the larger attaining a weight 
of seventy pounds. Among other disagreeable traits they have 
the habit of eating small crustacea and are accused of preying 
on young lobsters. They are of good quality for food, but I have 
never heard of their being eaten except in an experimental way. 
The prince of ravagers is, however, the dogfish, [Squalus 
acanthias|. This is a small shark with slender body, two or 
three feet long and weighing from five to fifteen pounds. It is 
found on both sides of the Atlantic, is very abundant generally 
on the shores of Canada and New England, and somewhat 
further south, being sometimes found on the coast of Cuba. In- 
stead of laying eggs, the dogfish brings forth its young alive, only 
ten to twenty in a season, but of such extraordinary vitality and 
hardiness that enough survive to keep up the number of the 
species, with, however, great legal fluctuations. 
On the coast of Maine the dogfish is chiefly a summer visitor, 
coming in June and leaving in August or September. As illus- 
trating his habits and his influence on the shore fisheries, I will 
quote some memoranda from my note-book on observations made 
in 1902, on the fishing grounds near Mt. Desert Rock. It is 
estimated that thirty to fifty craft, manned by two hundred men 
or more, habitually fish on these grounds for haddock, cod, hake 
and cusk. In 1902 they were all driven off from these grounds 
early in July, by such great numbers of dogfish that few other 
fish could be caught, and had hardly begun their work again by 
Sept. 9. The fishing here is largely done with trawls. When 
the dogfish come, they not only take the baits that have not vet 
**Report Mass. Comr. Fisheries and Game, 1903, and letter o} Capt. J. W. Collins Commissioner 
