PRESENT CONDITIOX OF THE FISHEEIES. 29 



I catch once in a while a Spanish mackerel. They came along some, 

 a fortnight ago, so that there would be four, three, or two in the net at 

 a time ; then, for several days I did not catch any. Hot. calm weather 

 is the time to catch them. I have never seen them schooling around 

 like blue-fish. 



[One person present said one hundred and sixty Spanish mackerel 

 were caught at one haul up at Ooddington's Cove.] 



The gill-net does not catch one-fourth as many as a heart-seine. In 

 the gill-net it is very seldom that we catch a blue-fish weighing less 

 than three pounds. A small Spanish mackerel goes through our net. 

 The greater part of the fish are caught about a fathom below the sur- 

 face, in a gill-net. We catch most when we have southerly winds j not 

 man}' with northeast and north winds. 



The first run of scup was more plenty this year than last; but noth- 

 ing compared with nine or ten years ago. Governor Stevens and Mr. 

 Whalley took up their net, and they turned out seven hundred barrels 

 of scup, because they could not sell them. Afterward they sold them 

 at Point Judith, for eighteen cents a barrel. They sold some for twelve 

 cents a barrel, aud I have no doubt they got more that year in that 

 oue trap than have been caught in all the traps in Rhode Island this 

 year. 



They made some good hauls in 1863, but they have been grow- 

 ing more and more scarce ever since. Governor Stevens took all of 

 10,000 barrels of scup that season. A thousand barrels were lost. They 

 were saving them to get $1 25 a barrel, aud they had to sell them for 

 60 ceuts a barrel. When they were taken ouf, 250 barrels were put on 

 board a Fall Elver schooner. I used to see large schools of scui3 oft' 

 outside, when I was fishing, but I have not seen any latel}'. They are 

 growing scarce, from some cause ; we are either working them up, or 

 else we are growing so wicked that they will not come to see us. 



Twenty years ago it was no trouble to go down and catch from half a 

 dozen to twenty small-sized bass in an afternoon ; but now, when 

 anybody catches three or four bass, it is told of as something strange. 



Fish are plenty in Xew York, because where there was one seine years 

 ago, there are twenty now. 



In the spring of the vear, the average size of scup is a pound and a 

 half. 



[One person said he was i)resent one morning this year when Mr. 

 Holt's heart-seine was drawn, and there were as many as twenty barrels 

 of little scup turned out.J 



Tne small scup follow after the big ones, and there is a class that is 

 called mixed scup, coming along about a week after the first run of large 

 scup. Small scup are caught all summer, with heart-seines — last year's 

 scup. 



They used to set the seines about the middle of April, but now they 

 do not until the last of April or the first of May ; this year they came 

 along rather earlier than usual. The nets are generally kept down 

 about a month. All the nets were put down this year about the same 

 time, and they all began to catch scup as soon as they were down. They 

 got five dollars a barrel for the first scup ; then down to three. They 

 are not used for manure now. They have been going down in number 

 steadily since 1862 ; they were put on the land in 1862. 



Menhaden come along after the first run of scup ; they do not purse 

 menhaden till after they get through with the scup. They used to put 

 down the traps about the 20th of April, and took them up about the 



