PRESEXT CONDITION OF THE FISHEEIES. 15 



preciation of the fish since the traps have been set. The bays are so 

 blocked up with nets that the fish cannot come in. It will not admit of 

 an argument. I can think of nothing else than the traps as the cause of 

 the diminution. 



Mr. SouTHWiOK. If traps are the sole cause of the diminution of the 

 scup, what could have been the cause of the diminution of the bulFs- 

 eye, sea-bass, blue-fish, and squeteague, all of which have disappeared 

 almost wholly in this century, and again returned, with the exception of 

 the bulPs eye ? 1 am told the sea-bass disappeared about thirty years 

 ago, and then came on again. 



Mr. Swan. I never knew them to disappear. About fifteen years ago, 

 one 4th of July, I trolled for blue-fish while going out to my lobster- 

 pots, and I got a striped bass that weighed thirty pounds. After I had 

 hauled my pots, I caught two more, one weighing nineteen and the other 

 twenty-one pounds. On the 8th of July I went again, and, after hauling 

 my pots, I cut up a little lobster and fixed my bait, and when I threw 

 my line it got snarled, and in trying to twitch out the snarl, I caught a 

 fish 5 and that day I got eight that weighed in the aggregate two hun- 

 dred and seventy-six pounds after they were cleaned. I do not think 

 the steamboats have any influence in diminishing the fish. A steamer 

 coming within fifty yards of a fishing-place would not drive away the 

 fish. In former times, a common impression among the fishermen was 

 that if the heads and gills of the fish used for bait were thrown into the 

 water, it would scare away the fish, but I always throw them overboard. 



I have no idea how old scup are when they si)awn. I think scuj) as 

 large as a man's hand will have spawn in them. We generallj' save 

 the spawn of the large scu^) to eat. Scup move with the tide j other 

 fish we do not see so much, as they keep near the bottom ; the scu]3 are 

 seen when they go over shallow places. 



I don't think I ever saw scup in blue-fish j I have found little mack- 

 erel and shiners something like a herring, and menhaden. Blue-fish 

 throw out all that is in their stomach when caught. 



Before traps were put in we could see the tautog in the water about 

 the rock, and under the edges of the stones in a warm day. Some say 

 you cannot catch tautog in a thunder-storm. That is '' all in your eye.'' 

 I caught more fish in one thunder-squall than I had caught all day in 

 another place. When tautog are plenty, the best bait for them is the 

 crab; but I always fish with lobsters. They eat the muscles oft' the 

 rocks. I have seen some of the rocks covered with muscles at one time, 

 and then the star-fish would come and eat them all off. 



I think there are more hand-line fishermen than there were fifty years 

 ago. The business has rather increased during the last twenty years. 



Bonito were never plenty about here. I never caught more than one 

 in a day and not a great many in all. 



I have never seen any fish that ai)peared sickly except the cod-fish ; 

 that is sometimes what we call loagy. I think those have the consump- 

 tion. Menhaden are very bad bait for lobsters. If there is any in their 

 paunch when boiled, the oil comes right through the meat. Any strong 

 fish affect lobsters in the same way. The bull's-eye fish was poisonous if 

 kept long. It was a kind of chub-mackerel. 



Twenty-five years ago, I think, I caught 165 blue-fish in one day and 

 three bass, trolling. That is the most I ever caught in one day. 



