5. No.

6. First seen in May. Main body arrives in June. First are scattering, and generally largest. There are more runs than one; intervals Hot regular.

7. Schools swim high, and are always seen. They attract fish-hawks. 9. Their appearance is regular and certain.

10. No.

11. They seem to have no regard to state of tide.

12. In this neighborhood the whole of Long Island Sound and the mouth of Connecticut River, for several miles up.

13. From three inches upward, indefinitely.

14. They are never seen here when the water is cold.

16. Yes, in August. Three to five inches long.

17. In October, mostly in a body.

20. Doubtful; said to be infusoria.

28. Yes; in the creeks and coves about the mouth of Connecticut River.

29. No.

30. Enemies not known. Parent fish do not devour them. ·

31. No.

32. A great extent.

33. No.

34. Purse-nets and pound-nets (pens) and hauling-seines.

35. Purse-nets 100 fathoms and upward long, and 6 to 10 fathoms deep. Pound-nets 100 rods (more or less) long, and as deep as the wa ter where they are used. Seines 60 rods.

36. With purse-nets. Sloops of from 12 to 20 tons. Pound-nets and seines, boats of 2 to 3 tons.

37. Purse-nets and seines, 8 to 10; pound-nets, 3.

38. Any part, as occasion requires.

39. No.

40. No.

41. Between Connecticut River and New Haven, probably 25 vessels and 200 men.

42. Sold for manure, or manufactured into oil and scrap (fish guano). Those for manure are used on the spot; those to be manufactured are sold to neighboring factories.

43. One at Salt Island, Westbrook, owned by John Stokes and others. 47. One dollar and twenty-five cents to $2 per 1,000 fish; not sold by barrel.

48. One and one-half to 8 gallons to every 1,000 fish, according to size and condition of fish.

54. New York City.

55. Everywhere. It is like wheat flour or greenbacks.

56. Tanning leather and adulterating more expensive oils. 58. No.

43. Statement of J. L. Stokes, Westbrook, Conn., February 25, 1875.

1. Whitefish.

2. Most numerous.

4. Salt Island Oil Company, 6,400 barrels.

6. About the middle of May.

7. Swim low at first.

8. Around Montauk Point.

9. Quite regular and certain, though more plenty some years than others.

11. Come in on the flood tide and go out on ebb tide.

12. Bays and rivers.

13. About 15 feet. Swim all depths.

15. Mature in one year.

16. Young fish are seen in October, about 6 inches long.

17. Leave in November in continuous schools.

18. Around Montauk, bound south.

19. In a southern climate.

20. Live on suction; we always find mud inside.

21. In large bays and sounds.

28. Yes; they are some seasons abundant.

30. Eels; parent fish cannot swallow them.

31. A living species is sometimes found on poor fish, near the gills, and are called by fishermen lousy.

32. Bluefish destroy more than all other fish. Sharks and porpoises scatter and break the schools.

35. From 15 to 75 feet deep and from 40 to 100 rods long.

36. Sloop, steamers, and lighters.

37. Twelve men to a gang.

38. All times of the day.

40. They drift to the leeward in hard winds.

41. Five vessels; thirty men.

42. Used by farmers and on the spot for oil.

43. Salt Island Oil Company; J. L. Stokes, manager.

46. A hydraulic press costs $1,000 cash.

47. Thirty-seven cents per barrel in 1873.

48. Four gallons to 1,000 fish.

49. Nine thousand fish make one ton of scrap.

50. They yield double.

54. New York and Boston.

55. At patent manure manufactures.

56. Used by tanners and rope-makers.

57. Fifty cents per gallon.

44. Statement of F. Lillingston, Stratford, Conn.

1. Whitefish, generally.

2. One thousand to one.

3. General catch same. Growing scarce on shore previous to, but abundant in 1874.

4. About 5,000 barrels each year.

5. Not appreciably, according to old fishermen.

6. Seen near shore May 20. First largest, August.

7. High. Attract no birds.

8. From the east. During July and August, they came at the first flood, west-northwest to Stratford point; then south-southwest toward Long Island, and returned on ebb tide.

9. Come every year, but do not always strike on shore.

10. No.

11. Old fishermen say none in deep water. My experience is, they always follow the tide.

12. Near fresh water.

14. Yes. Swim high in warm weather.

15. Yes. Sometimes along shore; not usually in deep water.

16. Yes. Three to six inches long.

17. Last of October. At once.

18. South.

21. I have often seen, in a set-net holding 10,000, a roll of spawn 3 feet in circumference, lying on, but not attached to bottom of net; this was in June and July.

26. Sink. No. No.

28. Mouths of rivers.

30. Porpoises, sharks, and bluefish.

33. Many of those we caught on shore had a reddish blotched ap pearance; sometimes thousands found dead on shore appearing similar. Others were eaten as if by cancer.

34. Greatest catch is by purse-nets.

37. Ten each.

38. All day.

39. No.

40. Yes.

41. Thirty. Three hundred men.

42. Make oil.

43. Geo. W. Miles Company, Welche's Point Company.

44. One thousand to 2,000 barrels.

46. Steam boilers and tanks.

47. Fish sold by 1,000, @ $1.50 to $2 per 1,000.

48. Fifty to 100. Much more oily sometimes than others.

49. Twenty to 50 gallons.

52. Yes.

54. New York, Boston, and New Bedford.

55. Principal part goes south.

56. Tanning.

57. Thirty-five cents to $1.25.

58. No; not appreciably.

45. Statement of B. Lillingston, Stratford, Conn., February 23, 1874.

1. Whitefish, bunker, and manhaden.

2. Surpass in numbers all others.

3. Diminished very considerably.

5. Very much.

6. Generally about the 1st of May first seen.

7. Swim on surface; do not attract birds.

8. From east, going west.

9. Found here every season, but in equal abundance. 10. Undoubtedly.

11. Generally follow the tide.

14. Probably, as they are not found here in winter.

16. Immense numbers of young, 2 to 3 inches, long are found in this river (Housatonic) during the fall.

21. In August and September immense numbers strike on and follow up the river; those are invariably poor when so caught. In October the young appear in the river.

28. In and at the mouth of the Housatonic.

30. Bass and bluefish.

33. Large numbers are sometimes washed ashore along this coast in September and October.

34. Pounds, purse-nets, &c.

36. Vessels of light tonnage.

38. Whole day.

39. Flood tide.

40. Does not.

42. Caught for oil; refuse sold for fertilizers.

43. One in Milford Harbor, Miles & Co.

58. Very materially, in this locality.

46. Statement of George W. Miles, Milford, Conn., January 17, 1874.

1. Whitefish and menhaden.

2. There are no fish to be compared to them in abundance; they are innumerable.

3. Have not diminished, so far as a person can judge, but have rather increased. We count by the thousand; it takes 3 barrels for one thousand.

4. 1873, 12,000,000; 1872, 10,000,000; 1871, 8,000,000; 1870, 8,000,000. 5. No, it is not.

6. April and May. Main body arrives in Long Island Sound during June and July. Sometimes the first fish are the largest; have known small fish to come in as late as August. The schools or runs appear to come at intervals of from two to three weeks.

7. The fish swim both high and low, and can only be captured to any

extent when seen on the surface of the water; they can be seen for miles in every direction lying on or near the surface, and are discovered by the ripple on the water; also by birds, sea gulls being attracted by them.

S. We first hear of them along the sea-coast of New Jersey and Long Island; they come into the sound by way of Montauk. The early fish follow along the Connecticut shores and up the rivers, but later in the season, when the waters are warm, they are found off shore in deep water. Occasionally they work in shore and up the rivers.

9. Their appearance is regular and certain; have never known them to fail.

10. No; but they are more difficult to capture.

11. Not noticeable.

12. Long Island Sound, during the summer months, appears to be one of their favorite localities.

13. Early in the season they prefer shoal water, and they swim low, but during the summer and fall they prefer deep water and swim high. 14. In warm weather they appear to be in thin schools and are scattered more on the surface.

15. Yes. The one and two year old fish are often found with the oldest.

16. The young fish are seen during the months of August and September, from 3 to 4 inches in length.

17. They begin to leave the sound about the 1st of September, and leave by degrees in large bodies. They are all gone by the 1st or 15th of October.

18. Same route as they come by.

19. South or near the Gulf stream.

20. Scum, or minute insect, on the surface.

21. Along the shores and rivers in May and June.

22. Sexes are mixed indiscriminately.

26. They sink to the bottom.

28. The young are found in great abundance all along the shores of the sound," and more particularly in the vicinity of the oil factories," in large schools. I have seen hundreds of schools at a time, containing millions in a body. In fact, the expert fishermen sometimes mistake them for large fish, and make preparations to set their net before they find their mistake.

29. Seldom, if ever; occasionally we see fish that have spawns in them; it shows after being cooked; the very large ocean fish that never come into the sound but come in from sea and are captured east of New London at Montauk, south side of Long Island, Sandy Hook, and the Jersey coast; from these more particularly the spawn is found to run. 31. Occasionally lampreys. We sometimes notice red lice late in the fall on the large fish that come in from sea.

32. Sharks are their greatest enemy; these and porpoises prey upon them continually and destroy large numbers of them.