ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. Iot 
POEL Se le a nT a eae non ne a 
The first swordfish of the season of 1875 was taken June 2oth, 
southwest of Montauk Point ; its weight was one hundred and 
eighty-five pounds. 
One taken off Noman’s Land, July 2oth, 1875, weighed when 
dressed one hundred and twenty pounds, and measured seven 
feet. A cast was taken (No. 360), which was exhibited in the 
Government Building at Philadelphia. 
Capt. Benjamin Ashby, of Noank, Conn., tells me that the 
New London and Noank vessels leave home on their swordfish- 
ing cruise about the 6th of July. Through July they fish be- 
tween Noman’s Land and the South Shoals Lightship. The fish 
“strike in’to Block Island and Montauk Point every year 
about the rst of July. They are first seen twenty to twenty-five 
miles southeast of Montauk. At the end of August they are 
most abundant in the South Channel. Captain Ashby never saw 
them at any time so abundant as August 15th, 1859. He was 
cruising between George’s Banks and the South Shoals. It was 
a calm day, after a fog. He could at any time see twenty-five or 
thirty from the masthead They turn South when snow comes. 
Capt. George H. Martin, of East Gloucester, tells me that the 
Gloucester vessels employed in the fishery expect to be on the 
fishing grounds south of George’s Banks by the roth of June. 
They almost always find the fish there on their arrival, following 
the schools of mackerel. They “tend on soundings,” like the 
mackerel. The first swordfish of 1877 was taken June roth; the 
first of 1878, June 14th. 
The statements already quoted, and numerous conversations 
with fishermen not here recorded, lead me to believe that sword- 
fish are most abundant on the shoals near the shore and on the 
banks during the months of July and August; that they make 
their appearance on the frequented cruising grounds between 
Montauk Point and the eastern part of George’s Banks some 
time between the 25th of May and the zoth of June, and that they 
remain until the approach of cold weather in October or early in 
November. The dates of the capture of the first fish on the 
cruising ground referred to are recorded for three years, and are 
reasonably reliable: 1875, June 20th; 1877, June 1oth; 1878, 
June 14th. 
