VIII.— MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE AND COM- 

 MUNICATIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE SEA- 

 FISHERIES. 



Nantucket Isle, Grand Man an, 



November 21, 1870. 



Sir : I received your letter, and I notice what you say about the 

 fish, &c. In regard to the herring-, so long as the mother herring 

 is left to lay her eggs, there will be a good supply of youug her- 

 ring. Thus, sir, it is good for Government to stop netting. Last 

 fall, and this fall also, was the best fishing ever known at Grand 

 Manan. I think the wiers, if tended properly, will not destroy 

 the herring ; but if the female herring are taken, then all are 

 gone. Codfish are led by herring, as they are choice food for cod. Last 

 summer cod were scarce in the bay, plenty on the banks. In the sum- 

 mer, in drought, and when the water is warm, the herring stay in the 

 deep waters; when fall rains come, and the water and weather cool, the 

 herring come into shoal water, and the codfish follow them. Last win- 

 ter was the best cod and herring fishing ever known at Grand Manan, 

 and was good this fall when the weather was suitable for fishing ; but 

 there have been more gales this fall than I ever knew, so that there was 

 great difficulty in fishing. Government has done nothing about the 

 weir fishing, but forbids netting for three months (July 15 to October 

 15) at the south head of Grand Manan. The abundance of cod is 

 affected in this way. If the herring are destroyed in one place the cod 

 go to another in search for them. For this reason the seed-herring 

 should be left. There was a report during the last summer that cod 

 were plenty, and every vessel that went on the bank from Grand Manan 

 and Eastport was loaded with fish. The cod prefer living or fresh-killed 

 herring for food. Last Thursday I caught a cod five and one-half feet 

 long that chose to bite at a herriug-bait when full of sea-crabs, thirteen 

 in number, and other small things. Cod live on crabs, scallops, and the 

 jellies on the bottom, and a small fish in the form of a shrimp, but four 

 or five times as large. Large cod eat small flounders, small pollock and 

 hake, small salmon, sea-perch, dinners, and a great many things found 

 at the bottom of the water, but always prefer the herring. Some come 

 in schools and eat the herring-spawn. Cod lay their eggs in November 

 and December, as near as we can tell, and we catch them sometimes 

 when their spawn is so ripe as to run from the fish when dying. Some 

 cod caught in the winter have small spawns in them. Some think they 

 spawn in March or April. The small cod, which never grows to a large 

 size, spawn in the fall months, the same as the large cod. The herring 

 at south head of Grand Manan spawn in August, September, and 

 October. Over at Campbell's they catch large herring in winter with 

 spawn in them, which would be hatched in spring. Down at the East 

 Bay they are found in the same condition. I never heard of a blue-fish 

 being caught at Grand Manan. I think the set-lines an injury to 



