204 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH ANl5 FISHERIES. 



Sichuest Beach, and some formerly came up to Mount Hope Bay; all 

 coming to the place of their birth. They come in schools, remain so for 

 a time, and then break up and disperse themselves over the feeding- 

 grounds. That while in these schools and frequenting the shore of 

 Church's Cove, we say that the first run of scup are spawning, and when 

 this is finished they break up. We come to this conclusion, because the 

 first run of scup are caught within a week ; during this time they are 

 sluggish in their movements, seem almost unconscious of danger, eat 

 nothing, and the anal passage appears to be sealed up ; they are fall of. 

 spawn and are spawning — so Captain Benjamin Tallmau himself states 



The Report of the Commissioners of River Fisheries of Massachusetts, 

 of 1869, page 17, says : " All fishes that go to fresh water to breed, seek 

 their proper birth-place, and they are there concentrated and crowded 

 together, and are, moreover, very tame, so that it then becomes possible 

 to capture them in vast quantities and in a limited space; and unless 

 they be at that time protected, they are liable to extinction in the par- 

 ticular waters where such wholesale destruction goes on." 



Mr. Atwood stated, with regard to mackerel, some facts that throw 

 strong light upon this point. He says that these fish begin to appear 

 the middle of May, a few at a time, then in abundance, which, I sup- 

 pose, means in schools. They will not touch the bait on the hook at 

 this time, and are taken by nets out in the bay. From about the 28th 

 of May to the 4th of June they were depositing spawn, and by the last 

 date had finished and left for feeding-grounds. 



The habits of mackerel, thus stated, as to assembling, refusing bait, 

 and breaking up, and the time they are together, agree so well with 

 those of scup while at Church's Cove, that if unsupported by any other 

 evidence, most inquirers would be satisfied that scup were spawning 

 while there, and that their disappearance was owing to their having com- 

 pleted their mission and dispersed to feed in the vicinity. 



On the other hand, the trappers at Seaconnet Point require us to be- 

 lieve that these fish come into Church's Cove by accident on their way 

 from Watch Hill, where they first took the coast on their way eastward to 

 Buzzard's Bay and Nantucket Shoals. To the committee of 1857 they 

 stated that they were bound there for the purpose of spawning, but they 

 have since modified this, and now allege simply that they are bound 

 there. 



The reason why this has been so pertinaciously persisted in is, that 

 as these fish were thus leaving the waters of the State it was contended 

 the people of the State could not be injured by the taking of them, and 

 therefore traps at this locality ought not to be interfered with. There- 

 fore, if this theory could be successfully controverted and overthrown, 

 no real ground would remain why these traps should be treated differ- 

 ently from the others, or should be allowed to continue in operation. 



I have always argued that this theory was untrue, principally upon the 

 belief that the instincts of fish were unerring and certain guides ; that 

 if it was ever intended they should summer in Buzzard's Bay, these in- 

 stincts would have carried them there in a direct course from their win- 

 ter-quarters. And this belief has been confirmed by facts that came out 

 at the former committee investigations. One of these was the state^ 

 ment made by Captain Joseph Church, that upwards of twelve years 

 ago he bought a barrel of scup caught at Waquoit Pond, five or eight 

 days before scup were caught at Seaconnet Point, where the traps were 

 set. This was self-evident proof that the scup caught at Waquoit Pond 

 did not reach there by the way of Seaconnet Point. Another was, that 

 scup were caught in Long Island Sound, at Gardner's Island, and other 



