180 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Sound, aud outside of Fisher's Island. They are also taken in considerable numbers in the 

 pounds of this region, occasionally five or six hundred at a time. The quantity taken in the weirs 

 of Kew England in 1876 was estimated as follows: 



PoundB. 



Weirs on nortli side of Cape Cod 436 



Weirs on south side of Cape Cod 36,000 



Weirs in Vinej'ard Sound T 326,620 



Weirs in Buzzard's Bay 15,749 



Weirs on Block Island, estimated '. 94,500 



Weirs in Fisher's Island Sound, estimated 4,000 



Weirs on east end of Long Island 14,000 



Traps in Ehode Island 172,250 



663, 555 

 From other localities 50,000 



713,555 

 Estimated annual catch of Flat Fish 600,000 



1, 313, 555 

 Value of the above, at four cents a pound, $52,542. 



These statistics of the catch in pound-nets include Plaice and Flat Fish, and in the statement 

 of the total catch no distinction will be made between these two species. 



Immense numbers of them are sometimes taken in large seines hauled up on the beach. In 

 1876 E. Cleveland seined 128,000 pounds at Menemsha Bight, Massachusetts. By far the greater 

 quantity, however, is taken by small fishing smacks belonging to and hailing from Noank, 

 Mystic, and New London, which pursue tliis special business from May until October. These 

 vessels are usually absent from port four or five days, and spend two days in fishing. The fish 

 are shipped in ice from Noank and New London principally to New York, and also to inland 

 cities in the vicinity. A single smack, with a crew of a man and two boys, usually will obtain 

 and ship to New York, on an average, about 12 barrels a week, about 160 barrels a year, or 

 25,000 to 28,000 pounds. Captain Palmer, of Noank, in 187.S, caught on one trip of two days 

 about 1,000 fish, weighing, perhaps, 2,000 pounds. On this trip he used four lines. A good fisher- 

 man is able to manage two lines, eachv carrying two hooks. Menhaden bait is always used by 

 professional fishermen, though I have caught Plaice to good advantage with lobster bait. A 

 vessel usually consumes one barrel of menhaden on each trip. The fish strike the hook sharply 

 as soon as it approaches the bottom, giving little opportunity to the skates, which verj' seldom 

 get a chance at a Plaice's hook. In this respect they are very different from the cod. When the 

 fish have been hauled to the surface, they are quickly transferred, with as little injury as possible, 

 to the well of the smack, which is amply large enough to hold a product of two or three days' 

 fishing. They are thus brought alive to the place of shipment and reach the markets in excellent 

 condition, a fact which partially explains their popularity compared with that of other fish of the 

 same family. 



In 1877 there were seven smacks engaged in this fishery — one from Mystic, one from New 

 London, and five from Noank. It was estimated by the owner of one of these vessels that each 

 vessel made on an average fifteen trips during the summer, and that each trip averaged 800 fish, 

 weighing If pounds each, making a total of 1,400 pounds to a trip, or 21,000 pounds to the season, 

 thus giving an aggregate of 147,000 pounds as the result of this branch of the fishery. 



Captain Atwood states that in 1846 he began catching Plaice for the Boston market, in Prov- 

 incetown Harbor, anchoring where the keel of the smack would just clear the bottom, and anywhere 

 near Race Point he could catch them in great numbers, the largest weighing from ten to fifteen 

 pounds each. In one afternoon he caught two thousand pounds. These he carried to Boston in the 



