CHAPTER II. 



The Bluefish. — I'vniatdmun ^ollalri.r. — Gill. 



Tbe bluefish, at once tbc nio.';; dr.'^trncnve ,vid ono oftlicmost im- 

 -poitant, from an economic point oL' ^le\v, of till coatt fisbts, is no.\t 

 on the list of gamy denizens i.if ilie sea. 



The bluefish has not always boon taken on the Xoi'th Atlantic 

 seaboard of the United States, but made bis ajijioarance there for the 

 first time during the first decade of the century. But since that mi- 

 gration from more Southern waters, vast schools of bluefish have 

 svyept along the coast of the Atlantic States year after year,. without 

 a sitigle season being omitted. It is thought by many that this rapa- 

 cious foreigner came from the warm seas surrounding the West 

 .Indies. Be that as it may, ho certainly has the bloodthirsty habits 

 and murderous ways of the Spanish buccaneers, who once infest"d 

 those islands. 



The bluefish in bis annual visits, as some one has recently esti- 

 mated, slaughters billions of the smaller fishes, killing in mere wan- 

 tonness. Tie drives before him immense schools of the mossbunkers, 

 . and anon dashes into their midst, cutting right and left with his 

 sharp teeth. They do not eat one-tenth of what they slay, but for 

 the most part take one round, clean bite out of each victim, leaving 

 their bodies to float on the waves, " a prey to the birds that sail in 

 the air." It is this fact that betrays the whereabouts of the bluefish; 

 ■ for the long-winged gulls hover above every school of them, picking 

 t ip the floating crumbs in the shape of dead fish from the bluefishes' 

 ..sable. The fishermen on shore watch till they see the gulls sailing 



