NATURAL HISTORY OF IMPORTANT FOOD-FISHES. 243 



Lyman may serve as a measure for both, and their resulting rate of 

 growth. He states that a friend of his, Dr. Sturtevant, introduced two 

 young pickerel, about 5 inches long, into a horse-trough, minnows of 

 about an inch in length being supplied to them daily. On the first day 

 they devoured one hundred and twenty-eight; the second, one hundred 

 and thirty-two; and the third, one hundred and fifty; and they them- 

 selves increased one inch in length in forty-eight hours, consuming an 

 average of about sixty-six fishes each per day, a weight much greater 

 than their own. 



In view of this fact, and bearing in mind that the blue-fish, by its 

 pertinacity and its strength and vigorous motions, can find no diffi- 

 culty in overtaking the prey that it attacks, the estimate of ten fish per 

 day is probably much below the mark. 



We now proceed to consider the respective action of the pounds and 

 the blue-fish upon the fish supply. No one will deny that most of the 

 shore fishes are taken, as already explained, while on their way to their 

 spawning-beds, the erection of traps and pounds, in the line of their 

 regular migration, being especially adapted to their capture. It will 

 also be admitted by every unprejudiced person that, in addition to the 

 large percentage actually captured by the pounds, a decided influence 

 is produced by their interference with the course of the remaining fish, 

 and causing them to spawn at improper times or in unsuitable localities. 

 Supposing, however, that the percentage already mentioned escape the 

 perils to which they are exposed, and perform their appropriate func- 

 tions in due season, their eggs will, of course, be greedily devoured by 

 the small fry attracted by them. Apart from fish attaining a consider- 

 able size, the water abounds in various diminutive species of cyprino- 

 donts, atherinas, &c, which are never taken in the pounds, and which, 

 of course, hold their own year by year, and, indeed, may multiply in 

 consequence of a diminution of the number of larger fish that would 

 otherwise devour them. These act both upon the spawn and the young 

 fish, as also do the other marine animals, the various crustaceans, some 

 of the radiates, &c. As all of these are on the spot, they doubtless de- 

 vour as many eggs and young one year as another, and what is left by 

 them while growing up has finally to run the gauntlet of capture by man 

 in various ways, and by the blue-fish and other species that devour them 

 after they reach a considerable size. 



Should it be a matter of astonishment, then, in view of this combina- 

 tion of agencies of destruction, if the supply of fish were to decrease 

 appreciably on those portions of the coast where all are acting in con- 

 cert, even though their number may not have diminished perceptibly, 

 where only one or the other occurs. 



In this connection, I have confined my examination to the blue-fish; 

 but it may be stated that the squeteague is almost equally destructive, 

 devouring as it does immense numbers of fish of considerable size. 

 There is this difference, however, that the squeteague, from the weak- 

 ness of its teeth, appears unable to mangle its prey, and confines itself 

 to satifying its appetite by swallowing the fishes whole. Nor is ttiere 

 any evidence that the squeteague empties its stomach when once filled, for 

 the purpose of loading it again. For this reason the effect produced 

 upon other fishes by an equal number of these two kinds of fish, of the 

 same weight, would be very dissimilar, although that of both is doubt- 

 less quite appreciable. 



As already remarked; the size of this fish varies considerably with 

 season aiid locality, those spending the summer on the southern coast, 

 according to good authority, rarely exceeding two or three pounds in 



