PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 37 



any given locality was granted, that there should be no change of loca- 

 tion without a new license? 



Answer. There should be no change to any great extent. It is not 

 a common thing to change a pound from one point to another. 



I think we should fare better to have the United States control the 

 business than to have the State do it. We want all to be served alike 

 in the fishing business, as well as other things. If we cannot fish, we 

 don't want our neighbors to fish. If we could have our rights secured 

 to us by a license, it would be better for us. 



[All agreed that if it was a uniform thing to have the time of fishing 

 restricted, it might be quite' as well.] 



Boston is the market for mackerel. We catch a great deal of bait to 

 supply the cod and mackerel fishermen. We don't catch the kind of 

 fish that the people are contending for after the 1st of June. 



We never hauled our trap on Sunday, and are not disposed to do it; 

 if the fish come in then, well and good. We have caught but few 

 striped bass ; perhaps sixty or seventy. 



One of our leaders is 216 fathoms and the other 225. 



About one hundred and fifty barrels of scup in a day is as many as 

 we have caught this year. 



Last year, on the 28th of September, mackerel were more plenty in 

 this bight than we ever saw them. Our traps were not down then ; we 

 have never fished so late as that. But we propose to keep our traps 

 down this year till the end of the season.* The fall mackerel are small. 

 In the spring they are larger, and we get all the way from two to eight- 

 een cents apiece for them. 



The bill-fish, as distinct from the sword-fish, is found near here. The 

 sword is smaller ; the fin does not hook over like that of the sword-fish, 

 but goes straight up ; but not so high as the fin of the sword-fish. The 

 sword is not so flat. There is a good deal of difference in the eating. 

 You can see any quantity of them sometimes; but they are shy. 



Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, 



September 27, 1871. 



This evening there were present at an examination of the subject of 

 fisheries the following-named persons, who are employed in fishing, but 

 who have formerly been commanders of ships, and several of them 

 captains of whale- ships: Captain Francis Pease, Captain Charles Mar- 

 chant, Captain Alexander P. Fisher, Captain Gustavus A. Baylies, 

 Captain Joshua H. Snow, Captain Theodore Wimpenny, Captain Bufus F. 

 Pease, Captain Thomas C. Worth, Captain Thomas Dexter, Captain 

 John P. Fisher, Captain George Coffin, Captain. Josiah C. Pease, Captain 

 Leonard Courtney, Captain George A. Smith, Captain Richard Holley, 

 Captain Grafton N. Collins, Charles F. Dunham, esq., Dennis Courtney, 

 Henry B. Huxford, William Simpson, Holmes W. Smith, John Vinson, 

 Thomas Dunham. 



The persons who principally spoke for the others were Captain Francis 

 Pease, Captain Rufus F. Pease, Captain Josiah C. Pease, and Captain 

 George Coffin. 



* They were kept down into October, but no mackerel were taken. — S. F. B. 



