I I 2 
AMERICAN FISHES. 
1870, when it was no longer to be met with, and for several years it was 
entirely unknown in these waters : so much so, indeed, that fishermen of 
many years’ experience were totally unacquainted with its characteristics. 
In 1867 or 1868, however, scattering individuals were taken on the south 
coast of Massachusetts, and in 1870 they were quite abundant and have 
since held their own. But they are nowhere at any season so abundant as 
in summer along the stretch of shore from Norfolk to Nantucket. They 
arrive with the bluefish in late May and early June, are most abundant in 
August, and depart in advance of the bluefish at the very beginning of 
autumn. They swim in large schools at the surface, pursuing the men¬ 
haden and scup 5 on which they savagely feed. I have frequently seen a 
thousand or more taken in one night in one of the weirs on Martha’s 
Vineyard Sound. 
The most remarkable draft on record is thatreferred to in July, 1881, by 
Mr. Barnet Phillips in the New York Times: 
“A great catch of Weakfish was made yesterday about two miles off 
Rockaway Beach, by the steam smacks “ E. T. DeBlois,” Capt. J. A. 
Keene; “ Leonard Brightman,” Capt. Elijah Powers, and “ J. W. Haw¬ 
kins,” Capt. J. W. Hawkins. These smacks are engaged in the men¬ 
haden or “ mossbunker ” fishery for the oil-rendering and fish-scrap works 
on Barren Island, and were cruising off Rockaway yesterday in search of 
schools. About noon a vast school of what the fishermen supposed at first 
to be menhaden was discovered stretching along the coast for miles. To 
borrow their language, ‘ The water was red with the fish, but they didn’t 
break the surface as menhaden always do.’ The boats were lowered, the 
seines spread, and then it was discovered that the school was of Weakfish 
and not menhaden. ‘ I have been in the business for twenty years,’ said 
the mate of the ‘ Brightman,’ ‘ and I never saw anything like it before.’ 
The fish varied in length from one and a half to three feet, and in weight 
from three to seven pounds. The ‘ DeBlois ’ took over 200 barrels, the 
‘ Hawkins ’ 150 barrels, and the ‘Brightman’ 350 barrels. The entire 
catch was estimated at something over 200,000 pounds, which, at the 
ordinary market price for Weakfish—seven cents a pound—would amount 
to $14,000. But, of course, the market price could not be maintained 
in the presence of such a catch as this.” 
The Squeteague comes on the coast of New England in summer in pur¬ 
suit of food. Its wanderings do not often carry it north of Monomoy. 
“In the days of my boyhood,” said Capt. Atwood, when before the 
Rhode Island Legislature in 1871, ‘Any neighbors often spoke of a fish 
called the ‘drummer,’ which is the same variety that you call the Sque- 
