23. The water is whitened.

34. Gill-nets.

35. Forty fathoms long, 4 fathoms deep.

36. No vessels wholly employed in the business; only a few caught for bait.

40. We think not.

41. We do not have any vessels expressly for this business. 42. For bait only.

21. Statement of William Atwood, light-house keeper, Plymouth, Mass., February 23, 1874.

1. Menhaden or pogy.

6. Formerly about the 1st of May. The first are the largest.

7. They swim high and make a ripple on the surface of the water,

but do not attract the birds to any considerable extent.

8. From the south. They work into the sand in bays and coves. 10. Yes.

11. They come mostly on the flood tide.

14. Yes; they prefer an even temperature.

15. They usually keep separate.

16. Yes; and are from one to one and a half inches long.

17. September, in a body.

18. Southeastern.

19. They spend the winter off Virginia, the Capes of Delaware, and in deep waters in the Gulf.

20. Suction.

31. No.

32. Very much.

33. Not on this coast.

34. Gill-nets and seines.

35. The gill-nets are from 15 to 20 fathoms long, and from 4 to 5 deep. Seines vary; are much longer than nets.

36. Propellers, steamers, and schooners, varying from 50 to 100 tons. Beside these, many small boats are employed on the eastern coasts of Maine.

There are no oil manufactories here.

Within the last ten years, these fish have diminished to such a degree that they are almost extinct in this vicinity. It is supposed that the cause of their leaving here was on account of their being frightened by the seines being placed in deep water. We hear that they are taken quite abundantly on the north coast of this State and in Maine.

22. Statement of Heman S. Dill, Wellfleet, Mass., January 9, 1875.

1. Pogy or hard-head.

2. They are sometimes very scarce.

3. Diminished.

4. In 1873, I do not know. About six thousand barrels in 1874, in this bay; there is no sale for them in the spring here.

5. I think not.

6. About the middle of May; they are small in the spring and large and fat in the fall.

7. They swim high; are seen in shoals.

8. They come from the south.

9. Quite regularly, about the same time of the year.

10. I think seines are a damage; gill-nets do no harm.

11. The ebb tide they show themselves the most.

12. It seems to me that shoal water or eel-grass bottom, or close in shore, are their favorite localities.

13. You see them in all depth of water.

14. I think it does; they will not stay in cold or warm water; I think they will stay in cold water the longest.

15. We find those of different ages together.

16. They are seen quite plentifully here in August and September, from three to five inches long.

17. They leave by degrees, and are not all gone until September.

18. They leave by passing to the east of Cape Cod.

19. Somewhere in the South, or near the edge of the Gulf.

20. Some small shrimps of a red color we find inside.

21. They spawn here in May or June.

22. They are generally all together, as far as I know. 23. I never saw anything like it.

24. Quite a low temperature.

25. From three to five fathoms in this bay.

26. They are, I think, attached to stones or grass.

28. They are found here in considerable abundance sometimes; I have seen them in shoal water for two months. The blue-fish then drove them out, or they would have remained there for two months longer. They grow from two to three inches while in this shoal. I have noticed them grow from day to day.

29. It does, sometimes.

30. I think most kinds of fish devour them. I think crabs destroy a great many.

31. I never saw anything of the kind.

32. Blue-fish will drive them into creeks and bays, and finally drive them off the coast entirely. They used to stay here all summer in Barnstable Bay; now they stay but three or five weeks, in May and in the first part of June.

33. I never saw anything of the kind.

34. Seines and gill-nets and weirs.

35. The gill-nets are 40 yards long and 6 yards deep.

36. There are no vessels employed anywhere here.

37. The men stay on shore and arrange their nets and the weirs. There are plenty of them here; one weir caught 4,000 barrels in one night this fall.

38. In the first part of the day; sometimes all day.

39. At low water or slack tide.

40. I do not think it does.

41. There are no vessels employed here.

42. Some sliver them for bait; some try them out for the oil, and send it to Boston.

43. There are a few small places here; J. Sparrow, P. Smith, I. H. Horton, and some other places around the bay.

44. Not over 20 barrels; they do not carry it on only in the fall. 45. *

46. About one hundred dollars; that is, for press, kettle, house, and fixtures.

47. Fifty cents per barrel. The same price in other years.

48. It takes one barrel to make three gallons of oil.

49. About 5 barrels.

50. Three gallons, I believe, is the least.

52. Yes.

54. Boston.

55. Sometimes it is used here and sometimes it is sent to Boston. 57. In 1873, 55 cents; in 1874, 33 cents.

58. If there was no blue-fish I could tell better; there are not half as many now as there were. There used to be plenty all summer; now there are only a few during that season. I have been in the fishing busi ness for forty years. There are not so many of the sort of fish referred to now as there used to be. I have seen, in this vicinity, the water alive with them; the cause of their scarcity at the present time is the prevalence of bluefish. The pogies stop for a short time only. They pass here in the spring bound north; in October they return again, and stay here about a month. They do spawn here in the spring. I have seen them here five inches long. I have seen barrels of them in the weirs; they would stay in there for two months; the bluefish would keep them in. I think bluefish are their worst enemies. The weirs use up all kinds of fish; one weir caught four thousand barrels of pogies and hardheads in one night this fall. To sum up the whole matter, there are not half so many pogies as there used to be. They do not stop here long enough for us to make a business of catching them. I think seining is a damage to all fishing.

23. Statement of David F. Loring, Highland Light-Station, North Truro, Mass., March 2, 1874.

1. They are called pogies.

2. They are full as plenty from the last of April to the middle of May as any fish that I know of; during that time they are passing in by the cape into the bay, coming from the South. They follow the shore down to the coast of Maine. Whether they go farther to the eastward than the coast of Maine, I do not know; but presume they do certain parts of

the year.

3. Apparently not one-half as plentiful as they were ten years ago. 4. There are very few taken at this part of the cape for their oil; about all that are taken are what the fishermen catch for bait for catching codfish, dogfish, &c.; probably all that are taken by the fishermen during the year at this place and Provincetown does not exceed 2,000 barrels. I believe there are a few establishments, for extracting the oil, farther up the cape at Eastham and Dennis; the number of them, and the quantity of oil they get, I do not know.

5. The opinion of people generally seems to be, that they will become extinct in a few years if they continue to be taken for the oil.

6. From the last of April to the middle of May.

7. They first make their appearance in large schools on the surface of the water.

8. I do not know how far to the south they strike the coast when they are coming to the North in the spring. They come in by Block Island, and come through Vineyard Sound, or Martha's Vineyard (so called), as they catch thousands of barrels in the fish-weirs that are built along the north shore of the vineyard. After passing by the cape in the spring, they frequently make their appearance in Cape Cod Bay, through the summer, with the bluefish chasing them; where they come from it is impossible to tell. Whether they come from the eastward, or whether they are new bodies come from the South, I do not know. I have seen hundreds of barrels of them lying along the shore in the western part of Provincetown Harbor that were driven ashore by the bluefish.

9. I do not know as there is any great difference in the schools from year to year, but they are decreasing because so many of them are caught for their oil. I presume there has been years when they did not make their appearance, but not within my recollection. I think they are very regular in their habits.

10. I do not think the use of set nets makes any change in their movements, as they are used for catching the fish in the night; but I think the use of the seine has a tendency to frighten them. I know that seining does frighten mackerel, and do not see any reason why it should not frighten pogies.

11. Very seldom see them schooling on the ebb-tide; but as soon as the tide turns flood they commence to school on top of the water. I

have seen the surface of the water literally covered with schools on the flood-tide, while on the ebb there was hardly a fish to be seen. I bave seen them under water on the ebb-tide, two or three fathoms down, in schools; but they move very slowly until the tide turns flood; then they school up on the surface of the water, and are quicker in their movements. I have seen them in the fall of the year, when not schooling; but whether schooling or not, they generally play on the surface of the water, except on the ebb-tide.

12. Around the islands and harbors on the coast of Maine.

13. During the summer season generally find them very near the shore, near the surface of the water or a few feet below.

14. It does not.

15. Never noticed young fish with the old ones; very seldom see the young fish after the first year until nearly full grown.

16. Generally see the young fish in October; they are then about three inches long.

17. They commence to move south about the first of October; leave the coast by degrees.

18. I do not think the main body follows the coast in the fall, after passing Cape Cod, as they do when they come north in the spring. I believe the main body, instead of going through Vineyard Sound and following the coast, go out through South Channel and go wide off shore, but presume they strike in on the coast farther south.

20. What the fishermen call cayenne, a sort of fine, red substance floating in the water. Mackerel feed on the same.

21. I think, from observation, they spawn where there is plenty of eelgrass, in localities where they are not apt to be disturbed by bluefish. Their spawning season is about the last of June.

22. I have seen them when they were spawning; they get together in bunches, from twenty to five hundred in a bunch, more or less, in shoal water, over a body of eel-grass, and then swim around in a circle, pressing against each other as they swim. I suppose they deposit their eggs on or among the eel-grass.

23. It is not.

24. Do not know the temperature of the water, but when they spawn the water is quite warm.

25. Where I have seen them spawning it would not ebb quite dry at low water.

26. Presume they become attached to the eel-grass.

27. Do not know how soon they hatch after being deposited, but prob ably not a great while, as in October the young fish are from three to four inches long.

28. When they make their appearance in October they are very plenty. I have seen the fishermen catch them with dip-nets, for bait. They act very much like the old fish, being in schools or bodies. I never hap pened to notice them anywhere except in Provincetown Harbor.