REGULATION OF THE SEA-FISHERIES BY LAW. 79 



We are told that now, August 21, they are schooling up, and will very 

 soon be, if they are not already, going west, taking the same route by 

 which they came, but, perhaps, a little farther from shore. They are 

 very shy when alarmed, and are made wild by fishing, steamboats, and 

 small craft that swarm in our waters ; and from that cause, are kept 

 from the bay. They go very fast when migrating. A very great in- 

 crease in their numbers might cause an increase in these waters, on old 

 fishing-grounds, but from causes above named I cannot think that their 

 increase can again cause them to come into the bay as formerly. 



The most successful fishing for them that I know of is done at the 

 Vineyard Islands, by small craft, fitted with ice, shore-seines, and ex- 

 perienced men. These rarely fail to make a good catch. 



We know of the following catches this season by two boats, most of 

 them the result of one haul with the shore-seine ; 500 pounds; 3,500 

 pounds; 3,000 pounds; 9,000 pounds; 3,000 pounds; 2,000 pounds; 

 also with hook and line in our waters, 1,000 pounds in two hours' fish- 

 ing. 



I know of a locality near Tappahannock on the Eappahannock Eiver, 

 where there is very good fishing for them ; have caught them there 

 in January with troll-lines, but they are most abundant in February. 

 In February, 1867, I saw 6,000 pounds that had been caught there at 

 one haul. There was one fish among them that weighed 80 pounds, the 

 largest I ever saw. The smallest of this lot would probably weigh 

 10 pounds. 



THE TAUTOG. 



This fish winters near the mouth of the bay, comes into the bay in 

 the spring — in March or April — remains until November or December, 

 and then returns to deeper waters. 



They are caught in May in traps, still later in heart-seines, but more 

 generally by hook and line. They feed on rocky bottoms where seining 

 is impracticable ; are caught, sometimes as late as Christmas, in the 

 bay in some deep holes where some may winter, but most of them go 

 outside and feed on the ledges until very late, and remain there nearly 

 all the winter. 



In February, 1857, after a very cold spell, there were large numbers 

 of tautog driven ashore at Black Island and many other places, chilled, 

 doubtless, by the excessive cold, and from this event many fishermen 

 date a diminution. 



HORSE-MACKEREL (SNAPPERS, BLUE-FISH) AND SQUETEAGUE, OR 



WEAK-FISH. 



These fish have similar habits, come and go about the same time, 

 and are very destructive to smaller fish. They disappeared from our 

 waters about the first of this century, and returned again thirty-five or 

 forty years ago, and are now generally very plenty ; but the present 

 season they have been less so in the bay, though as plenty as usual 

 outside, and I hear they are abundant on the coast of New Jersey. 



Although scup came some twenty days earlier this season than for a 

 number of years, these fish were about as much later than usual. 

 They are not much caught now, but what are caught, are generally full 

 of the small scup that are so numerous in our waters this year. 



The horse-mackerel and squeteague are, perhaps, the bulk of the fish 

 that are caught in heart-seines and gill-nets. When numerous they 

 are very destructive to most kinds of smaller fish, driving them off 



