292 AMERICAN FISHES. 
tion continues, but young fish are found abundantly in the eel-grass along 
the shore in August and September, and have been observed at various 
points from Cape Lookout to Monomoy. There can be no question, 
however, that there are breeding grounds near Charleston, S. C., and 
north to Cape Cod, since the species is very local in its habits, and does 
not make long journeys to select spawning beds. Little is known of their 
rate of growth, though it is probably slow. Capt. Benjamin Edwards, of 
Woods Holl, Mass., kept thousands of small Tautog confined in a pond 
for five years, and at the end of that time, when six years old, none 
weighed more than two and one-half pounds. A half-pound fish which he 
confined in a lobster-car, with plenty of room and plenty of food, 
increased from one-half to three-quarters of a pound in six months. The 
average weight of those sent to market does not exceed two or three 
pounds, though individuals weighing ten, twelve, and fourteen pounds are 
by no means unusual. The largest on record was obtained near New 
York in July, 1876, and is preserved in the National Museum—its length 
thirty-six and one-half inches, its weight twenty-two and one-half pounds. 
The abundance of this species past and present has been actively dis- 
cussed and much interesting testimony on the subject may be found in the 
report of the United States Commissioner of fisheries. This was one of 
the fish regarding which the claim was made that it has been almost exter- 
minated in Rhode Island by overfishing ; upon this point, however, the 
opinions of fishermen and experts are much at variance. In 1870, when, 
according to general opinion, Tautog had been almost exterminated in the 
waters of Narragansett Bay, the records of Newport fish-markets show that 
in one day, November 2, eleven men caught about 3,000 pounds of Tau- 
tog with hook and line, besides cod and other fish, while on the following 
day the catch of fifteen meen was 28,000 pounds, besides codfish caught 
to the amount of 600 pounds, being an average of over 2,600 pounds to 
each man. These catches compare very favorably with that recorded at 
Fir Rock Ledge, Wareham, ten years ‘previous, when, on the gth of 
October, two men caught, in three hours, 271 pounds of Tautog, a catch 
which was pronounced by local authorities the greatest ever made in those 
waters.* Col. Lyman, Massachusetts commissioner, writing in 1872, 
remarked: ‘‘Great complaint is made of the scarcity of this valued 
species north and south of Cape Cod, but especially near the mouth of 
* Barnstable Patriot, October g, 1860 
