198 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
(3) The spawning season ; as to its varying with the latitude, its ex- 
treme limits, and its height. 
(4) Spawning places — whether in salt, brackish, or fresh water; kind 
of eggs — whether floating, free and heavy, or adherent; the period of 
incubation at a given temperature ; and all other facts that will serve 
to disclose the methods and apparatus necessary for artificial work. 
(5) Quantities of eggs that can be obtained from the regular fisheries, 
and whether it will be necessary to have recourse to apparatus of our 
own to secure a supply. 
On November 21, 1887, I left Washington for Morehead City, N. C., 
which is situated at the junction of Bogue Sound and Newport River, 
about 2 miles from Beaufort, and where most of the fishermen have 
their headquarters. On my arrival the mullet season there was over, 
only a few small ones being taken for local consumption. From the 
largest dealers there I learned that the mullet season commences there 
about June 1 and continues until November 15, during which time there * 
are three distinct runs: small mullet, 4 or 5 inches long, from June to 
August 30 ; fat mullet, from September 1 to October 10 ; and roe mullet, 
from October 10 to November 15. 
The roe mullet appear in large schools, coming from fresh and brack- 
ish water and going out to sea, where they are believed to spawn and 
then go on down the coast, as they are never seen returning, and spent 
fish are not caught. The fish shipped from this point are caught en 
tirely in salt water, from Bogue Sound out to Cape Lookout and all 
along the banks down the coast, about 500 gill-nets and 15 or 20 haul- 
seines being used during the past season. Large mullet seem to be 
getting more scarce every year, though more fish were actually shipped 
than for several years, the increase in the amount being due to the im- 
mense number of small fish now caught. The total shipment from More- 
head City and Beaufort was 900,000 pounds — 400,000 fresh and 500,000 
salted.* One dealer told me that on several occasions he had gotten 
4,000 fine fish in the Trent River (fresh water) during the month of 
January. 
Having arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., on the 25th and visited the 
markets and seen the mullet then being caught (all of which were 
full-roed), and having interviewed the largest fish-dealers there, I 
went down the St. John’s River to New Berlin and Mayport, the 
headquarters of most of the men who fish in the Lower St. John’s. Dur- 
ing my stay at these places I had an opportunity of overhauling all the 
mullet caught below Jacksonville, and found most of them full-roed, 
and one or two u galarn boties” (as the spent mullet are called by the 
natives) ; but did not succeed in getting any ripe fish. 
Mr. David Kemp, of New Berlin, who has fished for the past twenty 
years from Lake George to the mouth of the St. John’s, says that mul- 
let have decreased very rapidly in the past ten years, and that unless 
measures are taken to protect them the fishery will soon be broken up. 
