food of the Menhaden. 65 
The Secretary presented a telegram from Messrs. Wilmot 
and Whitcher, Fish Commissioners of Canada, expressing their 
regret at being unable to be present, as a freshet was just 
then endangering their hatching-houses. 
J. Carson Brevoort, in response to a call of the Presi- 
dent for remarks on Mr. Goode’s paper, said: 
In regard to the food of the menhaden, I have had occa- 
sion to see and feed them myself, both in the channels of 
Jamaica Bay and out in the sea, and they feed exclusively, as 
far as I know, on the small jelly-fish. They are from the size 
of a pea up to an egg. I have seen the menhaden in every di- 
rection in Jamaica Bay trying to secure these jelly-fish. I have 
seen them out in the ocean. Shad feed on the same thing 
in the ocean. I do not believe that the menhaden can 
plunge very deep; they do not seem to go below six or 
eight feet at the utmost. Many fish we know of cannot go 
beyond a certain depth. I do not believe that any fish live 
at the bottom of the sea during any time, though there are 
certain kinds that live at a great depth. I do not think 
mackerel go to any great depth. They live on the surface 
between twenty and thirty feet. The bluefish live on small 
fish. The reason why our fisheries have fallen off so much 
lately is, I believe, entirely owing to the bluefish on the 
coast. In 1840 I passed the summer at Newport, and we 
used to catch there bass, mackerel, and bluefish. From 1845 
bluefish began to increase in size, and if you cut them open 
you find them full of small fish. Now they reach eigh- 
teen pounds, I believe. There is a limit to every species of 
fish. It would be curious to know what the extreme weight 
of fishes is. These bluefish every year, for thirty or forty 
years, have been increasing in size. They grow more slowly 
