Fishing in. North Carolina. 123 



The stomachs of individuals taken were literally 

 crammed with these fishes. The very large 

 specimens of blue-fish occasionally met with in 

 the markets in January never enter Beaufort 

 Inlet; they are taken on the beach from Cape 

 Lookout northward, the run lasting sometimes 

 two months, occasionally only a week or tru 

 days." 



Lawson's note on the blue-fish in North Caro- 

 lina waters in the first decade of the eighteenth 

 century has some historic interest : 



"The blue-fish is one of our best fishes and al- 

 ways fat. They are as long as a salmon, and 

 indeed, I think, full as good meat. These fish 

 come (in the fall of the year ) generally after 

 there has been one black frost, when there ap- 

 pear gTeat shoals of them. The Hatteras In- 

 dians, and others, run into the sands of the sea 

 and strike them, though some of these fish have 

 caused sickness and violent burnings after eat- 

 ing them, which is found to proceed from the 

 gall that is broken in some of them, and is 

 hurtful. Sometimes many cartloads of these 

 are thrown and left dry on the seaside, which 



