end of Long Island Sound, working to the eastward and westward. Their appearance is certain, though their abundance is greater in par ticular seasons. They leave gradually in November and December, working to the westward after leaving the sound. Small and large are mixed indiscriminately in the schools.

At Block Island, according to Mr. Henry W. Clark, they appear about the 1st of May, and continue running in until about the middle of June. Their appearance is certain but their number variable. They work in and out with the tide, but when they are making a passage, the tide does not stop them. They start southward about the middle of October, and continue running for a month.

Mr. Dudley on the schools of Eastern Connecticut.

74. Mr. Dudley, whose vessels ply their nets in both Block Island and Long Island Sounds, tells me that fishing begins at Pine Island from May 1 to May 12, and that for quite a number of years fish have been taken the first day the vessels went out. In 1877 the vessels which started April 20 found plenty of fat fish. Whether the season be hot or cold, the fish come at about the same date. Of late years the first schools have been very fat; immediately followed a run of poorer fish. The run which begins in the middle of April and continues for three or four weeks, is composed of fish yielding from five to seven or eight gallons to the thousand. The next run of fish continues until about the 1st of July. These yield not over four gallons. Then follows a poorer run, averaging two gallons. In 1877 millions of fish have been taken which have not averaged above one quart to the thousand. In 1876 it was much the same, but in July, when the poor fish were most abundant, a few schools made their appearance which yielded ten gallons to the thousand. Of two gangs, fishing side by side, one might make a haul of ten-gallon fish, while the other secured only half-gallon fish. Good fish are usually expected in the fall. In 1876, however, they were few and poor. In 1877 the schools of fat fish made their appearance near Point Judith on the 30th of October.

Narragansett Bay.

75. At Point Judith they come in from the westward, according to the statement of Joseph Whaley. They appear about the 20th of May, and continue to pass, moving eastward, until July. Their arrival is very regular, but sometimes cold weather and easterly winds put them back ten or fifteen days. They begin to leave in October.

Mr. Daniel T. Church, of Tiverton, R. I., states that the menhaden make their appearance in Narragansett Bay about May 1, and continue running in during the season; their arrival in Narragansett Bay for the past eighteen years has been certain, though the time of arrival varies with the weather; they drift with the tide at times, and at others swim against it. No fish are taken in the purse-nets after the cold weather

of the fall, but the gill-nets often take them as late as New Year's. Benjamin Tallman caught 1,600 barrels (400,000) on December 3,*

Martha's Vineyard Sound.

76. At Menemsha Bight the menhaden appear from April 21 to May 10, according to Jason Luce & Co., and swim west. Mr. Marchant, of Edgartown, thinks that they enter the Vineyard Sound from the southwest. It is more than likely that both are right, and the fish enter the sound at either end indifferently. They are seen here in November.

According to Captain Edwards, menhaden come to the vicinity of Wood's Holl, Massachusetts, in May, and remain until October. Captain Hinckley, of the same place, states that they first appear to the westward, striking Montauk Point and following along the coast exactly like the scup, but going more into the bays; they go in more shallow water; he has seen them in 12 feet. A school looks reddish. He has seen a school a mile wide and a mile and a half long. They frequently swim near the surface and make a ripple that can be seen. The first school swims rather deep, but as they become more plenty they can be seen. They generally come in about the 10th of May; in 1871 the first were taken the 21st of April, about three weeks earlier than the average. But they strike off again for about a fortnight before they come regularly.

Capt. Isaiah Spindel, of Wood's Holl, took the first menhaden of the season of 1870, April 23, and the first mackerel at the same time; these were only stragglers, and the best time for catching menhaden that year was about the 10th or 15th of May; in 1871 they came on the 21st of April, when a thousand were caught; a few stragglers had been taken before, perhaps as early as the middle of April. In 1872 no menhaden were seen after the 15th of October.

In the autumn of 1877, which was unusually late and warm, the men. haden lingered on the coast until very late. Vinal Edwards saw many taken, November 28, by the North Truro fishermen, and himself found them at Wood's Holl, December 1.

A very definite idea of the date of appearance of the menhaden in the Vineyard Sound may be gathered from a table given in the Report of the Massachusetts Commissioners of Inland Fisheries for 1871, and here reproduced with additions for convenience of reference.

* Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1873, p. 184.

77. Table showing days of first appearance in abundance of menhaden, alewives, scup, and bluefish, at Waquoit weir, since 1859.

Irregularities of movements shown by returns of Waquoit weir.

78. The returns of Waquoit weir, which was rented in 1871, by the Massachusetts commissioners of inland fisheries, for the purpose of getting exact statistics on the subject of pound-fishing, show how uncertain and irregular are the movements of the menhaden and their capture in any fixed locality upon the shore. April 21, 1871, 6,000 were taken; April 23, 13,300; May 1, 17,420; May 5, 35,920; May 9, 10,020; May 10, 16,800; May 11, 14,945; May 13, 14,200; May 15, 7,300; May 16, 900; May 18, 1,280; May 19, 1,040; May 20, 7,600; May 22, 6,000; May 23, 26,000; May 24, 2,205; May 25, 780; May 31, 40,300; June 1, 13,260; June 10, 7,540; June 14, 27,300; June 16, 93; June 17, 19. In 1865, from April 21 to May 15, were taken 175,300, and from May 16 to June 2, 35,800; in 1866, between these dates, respectively, 213,730 and 104,780; in 1867, 82,680 and 121,060; in 1868, 45,706 and 79,020; in 1869, 66,680 and 79,030; in 1870, 152,590 and 255,340; in 1871, 136,005 and 99,256.*

South shore of Cape Cod.

79. At Hyannis, Mass., writes Mr. A. F. Lathrop, they appear in May in small numbers, the greatest season of plenty occurring in June. They work along the shore line and into the sounds, bays, and rivers. Their appearance is regular and certain, and they disappear in a body about the 1st of October.

Capt. Reuben C. Kenney, of Nantucket, Mass., states that they appear in the vicinity of that island about the 1st of May, or a little earlier (if the season be favorable. They appear to come from the direction of Sandy Hook and the coast of New Jersey. They are most abundant in June and July, and begin their return in October, all disappearing in November.

Capt. Josiah Hardy second, of Chatham, Mass., writes:-"The menhaden seen here are on their route to the eastern shores, coming from

*

Report of the Massachusetts Commissioners of Inland Fisheries for 1871, and Report of United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries 1871-72, pp. 174–176.

the west; when they strike Chatham Bay they swim in large schools, coloring the water and followed by numerous sea-birds. They are governed by the winds and weather about showing themselves; in fine moderate southerly weather they come up on top of the water. They have been caught in our bay as early as the 15th of April, but generally not before the 1st of May. I never knew them to fail coming; they generally follow the shores, making their way down the sound by Monomoy Point, and those that get within the point, into the bay, follow the shore to get out on their transit east. There is no difference in their size in the spring, or a very slight one in some schools. In our bays, ponds, and rivers they will head the tide; they come inshore at high water on this coast and at low water keep off the flats and shoal water into the channel or deep water, which is from three to seven fathoms in our bay. I do not think it makes any difference to them about the depth of water; they seem to have a natural instinct, and are just as regular in their course and movements as a flock of sea-fowls; when one is frightened they all start, if one turns all in the school turn, if one goes down all in the school follow. One peculiar trait in them that cannot be accounted for is, that on this coast, as well as on the eastern shore, sometimes for hours there is not a fish to be seen, then all at once they rise to the surface and it is literally full of schools, sometimes turning in a complete circle, at other times all headed one way, then all at once every one has disappeared. The fish pass here (the cape), bound south, in the latter part of September and the first part of October, all moving about the same time. Sometimes in their transit south they find their way into our ponds and creeks and get bothered and belated; they chill very quick in a cold night. Their route south is outside of Nantucket Island."

Cape Cod Bay.

80. Mr. David F. Loring, keeper of Highland light, at the northeasternmost point on Cape Cod, states that pogies appear in that vicinity from the last of April to the middle of May, making their appearance in large schools on the surface. After passing by the cape in the spring, they frequently throughout the summer make their appearance in Provincetown Harbor, the bluefish chasing them. They are very seldom seen to school on the ebb tide, but as soon as it turns flood they are seen on top of the water. Mr. Loring states: "I have seen the surface of the water literally covered with schools on the flood tide, while on the ebb there is hardly a fish to be seen. I have 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 to 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." They commence to leave the coast about the 1st of October, moving south by

degrees. During the month of November, 1874, the small seining steamers belonging to an oil and guano company in Fall River, Mass., which has a large factory in Boothbay, Me., having left the Maine fishinggrounds after the pogies had left the coast, fell in with large schools just outside of Provincetown Harbor and took 30,000 barrels of them in a short time.

According to Mr. Heman S. Dill, light-keeper on Billingsgate Island, pogies appear in Barnstable Bay about May 10, not varying over four or five days from year to year.

Vicinity of Cape Ann.

81. At Marblehead, Mass., we are informed by Mr. Simeon Dodge, the fish appear about May 9, a larger body appearing in July; their course is northward, their appearance certain. Their favorite locality is at the mouths of fresh-water streams, moving up the creeks with the flood and and down with the ebb. They take their departure in a body about the last of October.

Capt. F. J. Babson, of Gloucester, Mass., states that the appearance of this fish for the past thirty years has been regular and certain. They first appear in Massachusetts Bay about the 15th of May, and are present in the greatest numbers a month later. When in deep water they are not affected perceptibly by the tide, but when near the shore run in and out of the rivers and creeks with the tide. They swim low during easterly winds, but in warm and pleasant weather play at the surface, They begin to leave the coast about October 1, and by the last of the month are all gone.

Gulf of Maine.

82. According to Judson Tarr & Co., they come on the coast of Maine about the 1st of June, though they are not plenty until June 20; they continue coming until July. They follow the shore coming and going, and their appearance is certain; they have never been known to fail. They leave the coast about October 1, on the approach of cold weather. Mr. J. Washburne, jr., of Portland, Me., states that pogies appear in that vicinity June 10 or 15. They come in two schools; the first, which are small, usually come about ten days before the second school. They remain during the summer and work in shore on the flood tide and out on the ebb. They leave for the South about October 1; in 1874, some were taken November 4.

Mr. G. B. Kenniston, of Boothbay, Me., who is largely engaged in the menhaden fisheries, thus gives the result of his personal observations: "The pogies are first seen about May 20 in occasional schools. The main body arrives about June 20, which, passing to the eastward, is followed by others continually for about thirty days longer. There is considerable difference in the size of the fish caught. At times, mixed sizes are taken at the same set. Usually those arriving at different periods differ