56 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AHD FISHERIES. 



34. The horse-mackerel* and the porpoise ; nothing else troubles 

 them. 



35. Voraciously on most kinds of small fish, squid, herring, menha- 

 den, smelt, &c. 



36. Very slightly. 

 68. No. 



70. No. 



71. In nets, pounds, and with hooks ; the best bait being menhaden, 

 herring, or squid. 



72. Pounds and gill-nets. 



73. Taken in nets from the 1st of June till the middle of October, and 

 during the same time with the hook. 



74. Not a regular business here. 



76. No. 



77. Most on the flood-tide. 



78. Sent to New Haven, New York, and Boston, and used here more 

 or less. 



79. Good when fresh 5 and when salted equal to No. 1 mackerel. 



80. Only a short time. 



82. Salted to a considerable extent. 



83. No. 



TATTTOG. 



2. From first of May to the middle of November. Most abundant in 

 May and October. In the summer season they are in the grass, and 

 do not bite well. 



4. Bather more abundant than other fish. 



5. Decreased some; not so much as other fish. They are not exposed 

 so much to nets, as they do not make any long journeys. 



7. Nearly one-fourth. 



8. One remarkably large, twenty-two pounds ; generally the largest, 

 twelve pounds; and the average, not over two pounds. 



9. I once tried an experiment with one that weighed half a pound, 

 putting him into a lobster-car, where he had plenty of room and plenty 

 of food, there being three hundred pounds of living lobsters with him. 

 He was kept in the car from the 1st of May to the end of October, six 

 months, when he had destroyed all the lobsters, and weighed three- 

 quarters of a pound ! Thirty-two years ago I put some thousands of 

 small tautog in the pond, some of which staid 'there five years, but 

 none were caught weighing over two and a half pounds, and they had 

 one year's growth, at leasty when put in the pond. 



10. They do ; the female is shorter and thicker than the male, and 

 generally the largest. 



11. They come directly in from the sea. 



13. They go out to the mouth of the sound, far enough to prevent 

 being chilled and frozen to death, in water from fourteen to twenty 

 fathoms in depth. 



14. They do not come or go in schools, and are first seen among the 

 rocks. The first fish are the largest. 



16. They appear regularly, never failing unless killed by the frost. 



18. They spawn in June. 



19. They will not bite when they first come in. 



20. Within ten days they will take the hook. 



21. They swim low, on the bottom nearly. 



* This is the Tunny, (Orcynus sccundidorsalis.) 



