THE SCUPPAUG AND THE FAIR MAID. 97 
move out into deeper water. Mr. Vinal Edwards has, however, taken 
younger fish at Wood’s Holl as late as the roth of December, and Capt. 
John Rogers, of Noank, states that, in fishing for cod on Nantucket 
Shoals late in November, their stomachs are occasionally filled with small 
Scup, which drops out of their mouths when hauled on deck, found to be 
to the extent of five or six ata time. It is quite possible that they, as well 
as other fish, seek in winter that portion of the Gulf Stream that corre- 
sponds in temperature to that of their summer abode; and as the mean 
summer temperature of the waters of Southern Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island amounts to about 63° F., they must go nearly to the lati- 
tude of Norfolk, Va., before they can find that same temperature in the 
winter season.”’ 
This species has a certain interest derived from its connection with an 
early and important incident in the history of the market fisheries, for we 
are told that the smack ‘‘ Amherst,’’ launched July 23, 1763, was the first 
fishing boat provided with a well for the transportation of living fish ; and 
that she was intended for the ‘‘porgy’’ fishery. In the New York Gazette 
of January 30, 1764, were printed some lines beginning thus: 
‘* Since on our banks the porgys found 
A smack they’ve built to try the ground,”’ etc., etc., 
The ‘‘porgy’’ soon became too common for profit or pleasure, andthe 
fishing was abandoned.* , 
Immense numbers of Scup are caught in the pounds and traps in Rhode 
Island and Massachusetts, and for several weeks in each year the market 
is usually glutted, a barrelful being frequently sold for twenty-five to fifty 
cents, or a small fraction of a cent a pound. It is extremely doubtful 
whether any part of the more northern coast of North America can fur- 
nish, within three miles of the shore, as large a weight of fish in mackerel, 
herring and cod as has been furnished by the Scup, sea-bass and tautog 
alone in the waters of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Mr. William 
Davol, of Rhode Island, with his ‘‘ gang,’’ caught 2,400 barrels of Scup, 
valued at $1,200, at Seconnet, in May, 1860. Fish were purchased by 
Messrs. Reynolds, Young & Co., of Fall River, and shipped to Philadelphia. 
In the summer of 1880 over 2,500,000 pounds were sold in New York 
city alone, and the product of the New England fishery amounted to at 
least double the quantity. As many as 10,000 barrels have been taken at 
once in a single pound in Narragansett Bay. The Scup is not especially 
* De Voe, Market Assistant, p. 182. 
7 
