PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 63 



hundred barrels at once. But they strike off' again for about a fortnight 

 before they come regularly. 



4. It is the most common fish on the coast, but is nowhere near so 

 plenty as formerly. 



5. They have diminished. 



6. To pounds and purse-netting ; and I think they run in deeper 

 water this year. 



7. There were not one-tenth as many caught this year as were caught 

 last year, although there were a good many more pounds. 



8. They run two different sizes ; the largest, I think, are scarcely a 

 foot long. 



9. It takes them three years to grow. 



10. You cannot tell the sexes apart, except by the spawn. They both 

 spawn. 



11. They come in like the scup, but hug the shore closer. 



12. They go more to the westward than scup, and very nearly the 

 same way they came. 



13. I do not think that any stop here in the winter ; they breed in 

 salt-water. 



16. They keep coining in thicker and faster till they get to the height, 

 and then they go off again. 



15. I think they go off in schools. 



18. Both sexes come in together ; they spawn about the 20th of May. 

 23. It does, when they are full. 



19. They never bite the hook. 



37. I think they live mostly on sand-fleas. 



46. They spawn in shoal- water, in the latter part of May. We find 

 young menhaden here in the fall. 



21. Nearer the surface than any kind of fish I know. 



34. All fish eat them. They make the best bait, because they are so. 

 oily. 



36. I do not think the blue-fish could affect their abundance when 

 they were so plenty as they were many years ago ; but where we catch 

 thousands and thousands of barrels it must make a difference. 



37. When, caught in the pounds they are traveling, and then we 

 seldom find much food in fish. The fish we catch in pounds are not 

 feeding, but are bound for their breeding-grounds. 



40. No difference. 



41. I think they spawn like alewives ; the eggs not so large as those 

 of herring. 



71. Never with the hook ; only with nets. They are taken with purse- 

 nets throughout the season. 



15. They disappear from the middle to the last of October. • 



75. The largest haul we ever made was 1,200 barrels ; but I have 

 known others to catch from 1,600 to 2,000 barrels. 



86. Most of ours was sold to the mackerel and George's fishermen. If 

 pounds were abolished, I do not know what the cod and mackerel fish- 

 ermen would do for bait. It would not pay for all the pounds to be 

 kept down for the purpose of catching cod and mackerel bait ; if a few 

 only were down it would pay. If the pounds were taken up by the 10th 

 of May, the scup would not be affected here. The scup are not any 

 appreciable profit of a pound every year, but on the whole they are. 

 The demand for fish for bait lasts till about the 10th of June ; after 

 that they are sold to the oil- works, and the scrap goes into the guano. 



84. We get about a cent apiece for them when they first come. Of 

 the George's men we get half a cent apiece, aud about seventy-five cents 



