112 Fisuing iv American WaArTERs. 
THE TAUTOG, 
This fish (Fig. 3) is termed tautog along the coast of New 
England, and is equally well known as Olachfish along the 
shores of Long Island and New Jersey, south of which it is 
not numerous, nor is it north of the Vineyard Sound, though 
it has greatly increased along Cape Cod within the past fif+ 
teen years. 
Wherever kelp and sea-weed cling 
To ramparts form’d of rugged rocks, 
The tautog finds a dwelling-place, 
Deep down in waters at their base ; 
Or where a passing boat hath met 
Its fate along the rocky shore, 
And, with its broken ribs and keel, 
Lies rotting on the ocean floor— 
There, where the clinging shell and weed 
Gather, and barnacles abound, 
The blackfish, seeking out their feed, 
In numbers by the hook are found. 
The tautog is one of the largest family of fishes which in- 
habit the waters along the coast from Vineyard Sound to Del- 
aware Bay. Urchins along shores begin fishing by taking 
cachogset, kumners, and bergalls—all of the diminutive car- 
nivora or bait-robbers—and if, in their efforts, they succeed in 
capturing a tautog, the lucky urchin who thus succeeds to 
the first step of fishing thereafter scrapes money together to 
purchase a regular hand-line and two tautog hooks, with a 
heavy sinker. He then rigs a hand-line en regle, and consid- 
ers himself a juvenile member of the “ hand-line-committee,” 
not to be entitled to full membership until he can earn by 
fishing a miniature scow large enough to float two young- 
sters of from seven to ten years of age. Then, with a stone 
for anchor, they scull from clump to reef of rocks near the 
shores of our tidal estuaries and small bays, and once in a 
while add to their catches of blackfish a weakfish, or even a 
striped bass! This achievement affords the barefooted regi- 
ment a week’s discussion, and forthwith the lucky urchin be- 
