BONITOES AND TUNNIES. 
209 
they were preferred to the bluefish and striped bass, would not now be true ; 
his prediction that they would in time become as abundant as the blue- 
fish seems, however, during some years to have been almost verified. The 
dealers, by the change of name in the market above referred to, are able 
to obtain a high price for a fish which, under its own name, would be 
looked upon with suspicion. An absurd report that the Bonito was poison¬ 
ous was current in 1874, probably owing to the fact that similar fish taken 
in warm climates are sometimes deleterious. 
In 1875 the ordinary price in New York was one cent apiece, though 
in the wholesale markets they commanded the same price as bluefish, and 
many were sold, as has been stated, at the high rates of Spanish Mackerel. 
The market was so glutted that many of the vessels could not dispose of 
their cargoes. 
According to Stearns, our Bonito occurs also in the Gulf of Mexico, 
where it is everywhere abundant, and is found in the bays on the Florida 
coast. It usually moves, according to the same authority, at the surface 
of the water in small schools. At sea it is found throughout the year, and 
along the shore only in the summer. Small schools are sometimes taken 
in drag-seines in shallow water. Its market value at Pensacola is not 
great, although it has become an article of food. 
A writer in the Providence Journal July, 1871, remarked : “ Last night 
I had a fish on my table which they said was a kind of Spanish Mackerel; 
the moment I tasted it I said it was a Bonito, having eaten it thirty years 
since, on my first voyage to India, and the taste had never been forgotten. 
It is the salmon of the sea. Mark its solidity of flesh, its great weight, 
its purity of taste, entire absence of the slightly decayed taste all fish has 
during warm weather. It is as nourishing as beef, and Bonito is the 
worthy rival of the Spanish mackerel and the sheepshead. ’ ’ 
They seem first to have attracted the attention of New England authori¬ 
ties about 1865. Genio C. Scott, writing in 1875, remarks: “ His first 
arrival along our beaches and in our bays was about eight years ago, and 
his shoals have increased remarkably fast ever since his advent. As a 
table luxury it ranks, with epicures, below the striped bass and bluefish, 
but because of its comparative rarity it commands a price rather above 
either. The numbers of this fish annually taken about the approaches to 
our harbors with the troll and in nets has increased so much that it bids 
fair to become nearly as numerous as the bluefish.” 
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