272 NATURAL HISTORY OP AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



quantity annually taken. About 200,000 pounds were brought to the New York market last year. 

 Local consumption is considei-able, and the total amount annually taken may be estimated at from 

 400,000 to 450,000 pounds. At least two hundred fishermen are entirely or partly engaged in this 

 business between Cape Cod and New York. The catch of such fishermen in Narragansett Bay is 

 estimated at 6,000 pounds each annually. This gives in round numbers 100,000 pounds taken by 

 hook and line along this stretch of coast. To ihis should be added 20,000 pounds estimated to be 

 taken on the coast of New Jersey and southward, and 20,000 more north of Cape Cod. Tautog are 

 also frequently taken in the weirs and pounds, and the catch of these for the year 1876 was esti. 

 mated as is shown in the following table : 



PoundB. 



Weirs on north side of Cape Cod 2, 274 



Weirs on south side of Cape Cod 561 



Weirs in Vineyard Sound 29, 220 



Weirs in Buzzard's Bay 39, 423 



Weirs in Narragansett Bay 156, 750 



Weirs on Block Island . . - • 33, 153 



Weirs in Fisher's Island Sound 14, 000 



Weirs on eastern end of Long Island 36, 000 



311, 381 

 At Noank, Connecticut, there is in the fall a season of "black-flshiri^g" which continues from the 

 middle of October until the snow begins to fall, about the first of December. About twenty -five men 

 are engaged in this fishery during the season specified, some of whom begin a month or two earlier. 

 They fish in Fisher's Island Sound at a depth of six to eight fathoms, using crabs and lobsters for 

 bait. The average catch of each man for the season is estimated by Captain Ashby at one thou- 

 sand pounds. The most northerly point where there is a regular fishery for them is, as has already 

 been mentioned, in Wellfleet harbor. According to DeKay, three smacks were constantly em- 

 ployed from April to November. These smacks doubtless, then as now, hailed from Connecticut. 

 In 1879 these vessels were still upon the old ground, one of them hailing from Westport and one 

 or two from New London. One of the skippers was said to have fished upon this ground every 

 season for thirty years. I was told in Wellfleet that they ordinarily remained about three weeks 

 to fill their wells, obtaining in that time from two to four thousand pounds. 



Angling for Tautog from rocks is a favorite pursuit of amateur fishermen all along the coast, 

 particularly about New York, where there are precipitous shores, the anglers standing upon the 

 rocks. July 12, 1879, Capt. S. J. Martin caught in this way, at Eastern Point, Gloucester, seven, 

 two of which weighed twenty-one and a half pounds. In Long Island Sound and other protected 

 waters they are usually fished for from a boat anchored among the reefs or near wrecked vessels. 

 Mitchill, writing in 1814, describes the methods of this fishery better than any other subsequent 

 authority : "Rocky shores and bottoms are the haunts of Blackfish. Long experience is required 

 to find all these places of resort. Nice observations on the landmarks in different directions are 

 requisite to enable a fishing party to anchor on the proper spot. For example, when a certain rock 

 and tree range one way, with a barn window appearing over a headland the other way, the boat 

 lying at the point where two such lines intersect each other, is exactly over some famous rendez- 

 vous. ... At some places Black-fish bite best upon the flood. In others they are voracious 

 during the ebb. Thunder accompanying a shower is an indication that no more of them can be 

 caught. The appearance of a porpoise infallibly puts an end to the sport. Dull weather with an 

 easterly wind is generally the omen of ill luck. . . . Some persons who live contiguous to 



