35 2 
AMERICAN FISHES . 
Bay of Fundy and everywhere except in the muddy waters, such as those 
of Cumberland Bay and the Basin of Minas. 
I have seen large individuals taken in midsummer in the pounds in 
Vineyard Sound, and the capture of small individuals in these waters is 
not unusual. They are often taken, according to De Kay, off Mew York, 
in company with the Cod. In June, 1881, the schooner “Edward E. 
Webster,” of Gloucester, Solomon Jacobs, captain, returning from a 
southern mackerel trip, fell in with a school of Pollock and captured sixty 
thousand pounds of them in her purse seine. Its range, as now under¬ 
stood, is in the Eastern Atlantic between the parallels 46° and 8o°, in the 
Western Atlantic between 40° and 70°. That its southeastern limit is as 
near the equator as the parallel of 36° seems quite improbable. 
Unlike the Cod and the Haddock, the Pollock is, to a great extent, a 
surface-swimming species. The fishes of this species congregate together 
in large schools, roaming from place to place in search of food. To a 
certain extent they feed at the bottom, like Cod, but are more often seen 
at the surface of the water, where they prey upon young fish of all kinds. 
Prof. Sars gives the following account of the manner in which they prey 
upon little Codfish : 
“I was much interested to see how the Pollock caught the young Cod¬ 
fish. It looked like a systematic chase, and it certainly looked as if the 
Pollock were acting with a common and well-defined purpose. As far as 
I could observe, the schools of Pollock surrounded the little Codfish on all 
sides, making the circle constantly narrower until all the Codfish were 
gathered in one lump, which they then, by a quick movement, chased up 
to the surface of the water. The poor little fish now found themselves 
attacked on all sides; below, the voracious Pollock, which in their eager¬ 
ness often leaped above the water; and above, hundreds of screeching 
sea-gulls, which, with wonderful voracity and precision, pounced down 
upon the places where the Pollock showed themselves, to share the spoils 
with them. The whole chase is carried on so rapidly, and the young fish 
stay only so short a time at the surface of the water before they are scat¬ 
tered in all directions with lightning-like rapidity, that it was not even 
possible for me to see any, much less to catch any with my insufficient 
implements.”* 
On the coast of New England they are much disliked by the fishermen, 
who claim that they consume great quantities of other fish much more 
* Report of the United States Fish Commission, Part 5, 1879, p. 593. Another vivid description of the 
manner in which the Pollock feed upon the sand-eels, or lant, may be found on pp. 619 and 620. 
