438 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



in pursuit of fish not much inferior to themselves in size, they move along like a pack of hungry 

 wolves, destroying evei'yth'iug before them. Their trail is marked by fragments offish and by the 

 stain of blood in the sea, as, where the fish is too large to be swallowed entire, the hinder portion 

 •will be bitten off and the anterior part allowed to float away or sink. It is even maintained, with 

 great earnestness that such is the gluttony of the fish, that when the stomach becomes fnll the 

 contents are disgorged and then again filled. It is certain that it kills many more fish than it 

 requires for its own support. 



" The youngest fish, equally with the older, perform this function of destruction, and although 

 ■they occasionally devour crabs, worms, etc., the bulk of their sustenance throughout the greater 

 part of the year is derived from other fish. Nothing is more common than to find a small Bluefish 

 ■of six or eight inches in length under a school of minnows making continual dashes and captures 

 among them. The stomachs of the Bluefish of all sizes, with rare exceptions, are found loaded with 

 the other fish, sometimes to the number of thirty or forty, either entire or in fragments. 



"As already referred to, it must also be borne in mind that it is not merely the small fry that 

 :are thus devoured, and which it is expected will fall a prey to other animals, but that the food of 

 'the Bluefish consists very largely of individuals which have already passed a large percentage of 

 the chances against their attaining maturity, many of them, indeed, having arrived at the period 

 of spawnin'j. To make the case more clear, let us realize for a moment the number of Bluefish 

 that exist on our coast in the summer season. As far as I can ascertain by the statistics obtained 

 at the fishing stations on the New England coast, as also from the records of the New York 

 markets, kindly furnished by Middleton & Carman, of the Fulton Market, the capture of Bluefish, 

 from New Jersey to Monomoy, during the season, amounts to not less than one million individuals, 

 averaging five or six ijounds each. Those, however, who have seen the Bluefish in his native 

 waters, and realized the immense number there existing, will be quite willing to admit that prob- 

 ably not one fish in a thousand is ever taken by man. If, therefore, we have an actual capture of 

 one million, we maj' allow one thousand millions as occurring in the extent of our coasts referred 

 to, even neglecting the smaller ones, which, perhaps, should also be taken into the account. 



"An allowance of ten fish per day to each Bluefish is not excessive, according to the testimony 

 -elicited from the fishermen and substantiated by the stomachs of those examined ; this gives ten 

 thousand millions of fish destroyed per day. And as the period of the stay of the Bluefish on the 

 New England coast is at least one hundred and twenty days, we have in round numbers twelve 

 hundred million millions of fish devoured in the course of a season. Again, if each Bluefish, 

 averaging five pounds, devours or destroys even half its own weight of other fish per day (and I 

 am not sure that the estimate of some witnesses of twice this weight is not more nearly correct), 

 we will have, during the same period, a daily loss of twenty-five hundred million pounds, equal to 

 three hundred thousand millions for the season. 



"This estimate applies to three or four year old fish, of at least three to five pounds in weight. 

 We must, however, allow for those of smaller size, and a hundred-fold or more in number, all 

 ■engaged simultaneously in the butcherj'' referred to. 



"We can scarcely conceive of a number so vast ; and however much we may diminish, within 

 reason, the estimate of the number of Bluefish and the average of their captures, there still remains 

 an appalling aggregate of destruction. While the smallest Bluefish feed upon the diminutive fry, 

 those of which we have taken account capture fish of large size, many of them, if not capable of 

 reproduction, being within at least one or two years of that period. 



"It is estimated by very good authority that of the spawn deposited by any fish at a given 

 time not more than thirty per cent, are hatched, and tho.t less than ten per cent, attain an 



