PEEIODICAL MOVEMENTS OP THE SWOED-FISH. 343 



seems desirable'to bring together the facts which have been learned, by conversation with fisher- 

 men and otherwise, in one group. Each man's views are given in his own style, and as nearly as 

 possible in his own words. There is no attempt at a classification of the facts. This will be made 

 subsequently. 



An old sword-fish fisherman atKew York informed Mr. Blackford that the season opens in the 

 neighborhood of Sandy Hook about the first of June and continues along the coast as far east as 

 Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Shoals until about the middle of September. He has heard of 

 their being caught as far east as Cape Sable. At the first cold winds of September they disap- 

 pear. They are, like the mackerel, at first very poor and lean, but as the season advances they 

 grow fatter. 



Mr. John H. Thomson, of New Bedford, who kindly interviewed some of the local fishermen, 

 writes: "The Sword-fish appear on our coast, south of Block Island, about May 25 to June 1. 

 They appear to come from the southwest, or just inside the track of the Gulf Stream. They 

 graduallj' approach the Vineyard Sound and vicinity during June, and until July 10 or 15, then 

 appear to leave, working to the southeast, and are to be found to the southeast of Crab Ledge 

 about the middle of July. This school is composed of comparatively small fish, averaging about 

 one hundred and fifty pounds gross, or about one hundred pounds without head and tail, as they 

 are delivered in the market. The smallest are four feet long, including the sword, and weigh from 

 thirty to forty pounds; the largest eight and a half feet long, with sword, and weighing three 

 hundred pounds gross. These fish are of a light plumbeous hue, darker on the back and white on 

 the belly. 



" Of late years another school has appeared southeast of Cape Cod and George's Banks about 

 the 1st of August. These fish are altogether different, being much larger, weighing from three to 

 eight hundred pounds gross, and are entirely black. I have this week conversed with an old smack- 

 man, M. C. Tripp, who has all his life been a fisherman, and has this year (1874) captured about 

 ninety fish, and his opinion is that they are not the same school. They appear to be of about the 

 same abundance in average years, the catch depending on weather, fogs, etc. They come and leave 

 in a general school, not in close schools like other fish, but distributed over the surface of the water, 

 the whole being called by the fishermen the 'annual school,' though it cannot strictly be so 

 named." 



According to Mr. Willard Nye, Sword-fish appear on the coast of Massachusetts from the 8th 

 to the 20th of June, and are first seen southwest of Block Island. They begin to leave in August, 

 but stray ones are sometimes seen as late as the last of October. The usual explanation of their 

 movements is that they are following their food — mackerel and menhaden — which swarm our 

 waters in the season named, and which are of course driven off by the approach of winter and 

 rough weather. 



Capt. E. H. Hurlbert took a verj'^ large Sword-fish on George's Banks, in November, 1875, in 

 a snow-storm. 



The first Sword-fish of the season of 1875 was taken June 20, southwest of Montauk Point; 

 its weight was one hundred and eighty-five pounds. 



One taken off Noman's Land, July 20, 1875, weighed when dressed one hundred and twenty 

 pounds, and measured seven feet. A cast was taken (No. 360), which was exhibited in the Gov- 

 ernment Building at Philadelphia. 



Capt. Benjamin Ashby, of Noank, Connecticut, tells me that the New London and Noank 

 vessels leave home on their sword-fishing cruise about the 6th of July. Through July they fish 

 between Block Island and Noman's Land; in August between Noman's Land and the South 



