PRESENT CONDITION" OF THE FISHERIES. 53 



I have not seen a large scup in two years. I shipped some of the 

 handsomest blue-fish I ever saw to New York. I gave a man $20 for a 

 thousand pounds, and I sent them in boxes, for which I got $6 33 a box, 

 containing three hundred pounds ! 



The blue-fish are not so plenty as they were last year. 



I have had a single man catch 618 pounds in a day, for which I paid 

 $12 36. 



I have been told by men that saw it that this year there were twenty 

 carts loaded with fish at Saughkonet to be carried off for manure. The 

 fish had gone there to spawn, and after spawning, if not caught, they 

 would go eastward. All the fish caught there are those that go there 

 to spawn. They cannot be caught there after they have spawned. 



I paid to Eleazer Baker for six days' fishing last year $59. He caught 

 scup, tautog, and a few bass. I don't think he has made half the money 

 this year that he did last. 



Seines scare blue-fish all away. 



Henry Lumbert, (Centreville, near Hyannis :) 



I was once interested in a trap, but use a net altogether now. We 

 used to catch menhaden mostly. I have shipped this year about 110 

 boxes and 120 barrels from four boats. They were pretty much all blue- 

 fish. 



I have not sent ten barrels of scup. We got about fifty Spanish mack- 

 erel in all. We caught one the 23d of July this year, and last year the 

 15th of July. We took the last we caught about the last of August. 

 Most of the Spanish mackerel were sent to the Parker House, Boston. 

 We got from twenty cents to a dollar a pound. 



No fish are as plenty as they were a few years ago. I suppose the 

 traps and pounds, and their being caught up, makes them scarce. Eleven 

 years, ago we could catch any quantity; but we were not much better 

 off than now, for we could not sell them. We got from $15 to $20 a box 

 of 300 pounds ; this year they will not average over $6 a box. Blue-fish 

 are so destructive I have told the fishermen that Government ought to 

 pay a bounty of a cent a head for every blue-fish. We drive blue-fish 

 pretty hard here. 



Spanish mackerel were first caught here five years ago. I caught the 

 first, and sold what I caught in two nets for fifty cents a pound. 



I think the schools of fish are broken up at Saughkouet. We have 

 caught less fish this year than ever. 



We used to sell to smacks eleven years ago, and got a cent a pound ; 

 we never shipped any then. But we salted fish then. I salted fish for 

 several years. Blue-fish are not salted much now here. 



The prices were better this year than they were two years ago, but 

 not so good as last year ; that was because ice was scarce last year. 

 There are too many fish caught and sent to New York. 



Wood's Hole, Massachusetts, July 6, 1871. 

 Captain Edwards : 



SCUP.* 



I have lived in this place thirty- five years, and have followed fishing 

 more or less since I was a boy. 



* The numbers are ^Uose corresponding to the queries on page 3 of the present 

 report. 



