SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



219 



the coast, or that they are even so scarce as is at present claimed, for the men have fished with 

 little regularity, and have gone a short distance from the shore, while the bulk of the blue-fish 

 may have been farther out. 



Lawson'snote on the blue-fish in North Carolina waters in the first decade of 

 the eighteenth century has some historic interest: 



The blue-fish is one of our best fishes and always very fat. They are as long as a sal- 

 mon, and indeed, I think, full as good meat. These fish come (in the fall of the year) gen- 

 erally after there has been one black frost, when there appear great shoals of them. The 

 Hatteras Indians, and others, run into the sands of the sea and strUce them, though some 

 of these fish have caused sickness and violent burnings after eating 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 comes by theu- eager pursuit 

 of the small fish, in which they run themselves ashore, and the tide leaving them, they can- 

 not recover the water again. They are called blue-fish, because they are of that colour, 

 and have a forked tail, and are shaped like a dolphin. 



Among the salt-water fishes of North Carolina, the blue-fish is exceeded in 

 value by only the mullets and the squeteagues. The general trend of the fishery 

 is upward, but the catch shows seasonal fluctuations here as elsewhere. Follow- 

 ing are the official statistics for 5 years: 



Gill nets take the largest quantities, followed by seines, pound nets, and 

 lines, the last being used principally in Dare County. The fishermen of Carteret 

 County conduct the most extensive fishery, closely followed by those of Dare 

 County; noteworthy fishing is also done in Beaufort, Craven, Hyde, New 

 Hanover, Onslow, and Pamlico counties. In recent years about 8 or 10 per cent 

 of the product has been salted. 



Family RACHYCENTRIDiE. The Crab-eaters. 



This family includes a single genus related to the scombroid fishes. The 

 body is elongate, cyhndrical, and covered with small, smooth scales; head broad, 

 somewhat depressed; mouth horizontal, wide, maxillary reaching front of eye; 

 short, sharp teeth in villiform bands on jaws, tongue, vomer, and palatines; pre- 

 maxillaries not protractile; preopercular margin entire; gill-rakers short and 

 stout; air-bladder absent; dorsal fin consisting of 8 short, stout spines, not con- 

 nected by membrane and each depressible in a groove, and a long, low soft por- 

 tion; anal fin similar to soft dorsal, with 2 spines; caudal strongly forked. 



