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JAMES M. MOULTON DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY BOWDOIN COLLEGE BRUNSWICK, MAINE 04011

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yk Aw kh tT OA N FISHERIES, ax Fob a ES rORY © THE MENHADEN ss BY

G. BROWN GOODE

CURATOR U.8. NATIONAL MUSEUM; ASSISTANT, U.S. FISH COMMISSION; AUTHOR OF “‘ THE GAME FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA ;”’’ SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR TO AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE AGRICULTURAL USES OF FISH

BY W. O. ATWATER

PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY; SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR TO AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST

AND AN INTRODUCTION, BRINGING THE SUBJECT DowN TO DATE

KD Q LENE a3 a

tr THIRTY PLATES J

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

WOODS HOLE, MASS. w. H. 0. |

NEW YORK ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 245 BROADWAY 1880

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INTROD Ye CTION.

Tue following HISTORY OF THE MENHADEN, having been pre- pared for the fifth annual report of the Commissioner of Fisheries for the year 1877, makes no claim to completeness for the subsequent years, though much of the history of the season of 1878 was added while the book was passing through the press. In this SPECIAL EDITION of the work it has been thought desirable to add, in the form of an Introduction, an account of several interesting observations recently made, and to include the re- ports of the Oil and Guano Associations down to the present time.

The most important phase of the subject is the complete absence of the menhaden, in 1879, from the waters of Cape Cod, resulting in a total failure of the very important fisheries on the coast of Maine. More than forty steamers went into the Gulf of Maine in July, to return in a few weeks without wetting their nets. The total catch for 1879 was one hun- dred barrels of fish, taken by one of the steamers in July, in Casco Bay. Mr. R. E. Earll, who visited the Booth Bay region in September, thus describes the general distress which is the result : ‘* The total absence of porgies is causing no little loss to all interested. The shore fishermen have lost fully half of their time and over half of their usual catch from not being able to get any porgies to fish with, while the < George’smen ’ from Cape Ann have been driven far out of their way, going even to Rhode Island and Connecticut to obtain their usual supply of porgy bait. Some have ventured to seek bait here, in the ‘hedges’ and traps of the river fishermen, and have frequently taken river-pilots and gone far up the Kennebec, often waiting fully a week before getting their supply. The oil and guano factories had gone to considerable expense in getting ready for the season’s work, and their property is entirely idle. The factory hands and steamers’ crews have been thrown entirely out of employment, and are perhaps less able than any of the other classes interested to bear such a loss. ‘The general prosperity of the porgy fisheries, for some years past, has drawn to them a large class of workmen from other occupations. Some, in moying into this region, have built for themselves small houses, and have been depending on the summer’s work for the means to pay for them or to complete them. Others have spent their entire means in getting their families located, and almost none have money laid up to carry them through the winter, and but little employment can be had from this time forward. They were all on hand to begin work the first of June, and kept waiting, in the hope that the fish would ‘strike,’ until late in August. When they at last gave up the idea, it was too late to engage in any other occupation. A few of them have gone out in small boats to ‘ hook’ for

lv INTRODUCTION.

mackerel, but have met with indifferent success. After waiting for a long time for the fish to appear, the following firms allowed the crews to take their steamers south and sell the fish to factories there : Joseph Church & Co., 8 steamers; Albert Grey & Co., 4 steamers; Gallup & Holmes, 4 steamers ; Gallup, Morgan & Co., 3 steamers ; Fowler & Foote, 2 steam- ers; George W. Miles & Co., 2 steamers ; Tuthill, French & Co., 3 steam- ers; Maine Oil Co., 2 steamers. Three steamers spent a short time in seining mackerel, landing a total of about 550 barrels.”

The absence of menhaden north of the Cape does not seem to have been compensated for by any remarkable abundance in southern New England, where most of the other factories were located. They are said to have been enormously plenty on the New Jersey coast, and here as well as in Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake, the unusual abundance of young and middle-sized fish has occasioned general remark. The total catch for 1879 will probably fall below that for 1878, although in southern New Eng- land it will exceed the average, owing to the unusually large number of steamers fishing in those waters throughout the summer.

Mr. N. B. Church, of Tiverton, R. I., communicates to Professor Baird his experience in 1878 and 1879: “I find that I caught my first school of porgies in 1878, May 3d, between Montauk Point and Shinnecock Light. There had been some caught previous to that by the Long Island fisher- men. ‘The menhaden came in large bodies, and remained in this vicinity about four weeks. The average yield of oil was about four quarts to the barrel of fish. The Maine fishing commenced June 7th—a little earlier than in previous years—and the fish were a great deal plentier than they usually are when they make their first appearance. They were very plenty on the Maine coast during the season, but, contrary to custom, went further east, so that we were unable to catch as many as we would had they re- mained on their old ground. The body of porgies left the coast of Maine about the last of September, and on the 9th day of October Cape Cod Bay was alive with them; more, I think, than I ever saw there before. Our fish, caught east, yielded, on an average for the season, nearly two and a half gallons of oil to the barrel of fish. I can’t tell exactly, as I never figured it. We had no fishing on the Rhode Island coast, owing to * blowy’ weather.

“<TIn 1879, the first fish were caught May 6th, some ten miles southward of Montauk Point. They were very plenty for five weeks, and a large quantity was taken. There has been a very large body all the season be- tween Fire Island and Point Judith. Sometimes they were at one place and again at another—were moving all the time. Long Island Sound has been well stocked with them all summer. ‘The steamer ‘G. W. Humphrey,’ of which I was master, caught, in 1878, 43,000 barrels ; in 1879, 60,000 barrels. Our yield of oil has not been large this season—not averaging over four quarts to the barrel of fish.”

Mr. D. T. Church also describes the season of 1879 in Narragansett Bay : ‘Menhaden were found about the first of May between Montauk

INTRODUCTION. Vv

and Sandy Hook, and they have not been seen east of there for any length of time since about the first of June. There was a heavy body seen off Rhode Island for ten days; they then disappeared as suddenly as they ap- peared. They struck on again in July, and the waters in this vicinity swarmed with them for two days, and then they again disappeared, and have not been seen since. Off Cuttyhunk, I hear, they were seen in large quantities in July. On the same date they appeared here, and left on the same day. I don’t think the catch has been much larger this year than last. Last season they were easy to catch ; this season hard tocatch. The result has been less catch to a steamer, but there have been more steamers, and the result has been about the same.”

Mr. R. L. Fowler, of Guilford, Ct., writes as follows: ‘‘A very few menhaden were caught in this vicinity by the 28th of April. This was about as early as usual. They became abundant by the 10th of July, and have not yet disappeared (November 29th). They have been as plenty as usual in this vicinity, but on the New Jersey coast there has been an un- usually large quantity of them. Our firm, Fowler & Colburn, have used 23,500,000 fish.”

Mr. Louis C. d’Homergue, of Brooklyn, writes of the season off New York : ‘‘ The first menhaden for the season of 1879 were observed in suf- ficient quantities to warrant the commencing of fishing in the vicinity of Barren and Fire Islands on or about the first week in April. They were very abundant in April and May, less so in June and to September, when they began to scatter and spread so that it made it difficult to catch them. The fishermen called them ‘ wild.” They began to grow scarce from Sep- tember Ist, showing also less oil to the thousand, and continued so doing until September 23d, when, up to October 6th, there came a perfect rush of them, yielding more oil than they had previously : this run over, they again became scarcer and thinner until the fall fishing commenced. Another run began about the first week in November, and quite a large additional quantity of fish were taken. They seemed to ‘bunch up’ well, but were poorer in oil than any previously caught, so that the fall fishing, in point of oil, was a failure. These fish, up to this date (November 27th), are lingering in our waters, but the four factories on Barren Island and the ‘two on Fire Island have been closed since November 24th. My vessels cruised all the season between Fire Island and Barnegat.”

Mr. James E. Otis, of Tuckerton, N. J., writes: ‘‘ Menhaden were first caught here about April 25th, or nearly two weeks earlier than usual, becoming abundant about the middle of May, and continued so until about the middle of September. They have been very plenty this season along the coast of New Jersey, more so than for four years past. My vessels have taken some 3,000,000 each, the largest single haul being 125,000.”

Mr. W. D. Hall, of Millan Creek, Va., says that in the Chesapeake re- gion menhaden appeared about April Ist, became abundant about May Ist, began to grow scarce about June 15th, and that on November 30th some were still in the bay,

hava INTRODUCTION.

Menhaden appeared in Washington (D. C.) markets February 25, 1879, nearly three weeks in advance of the ** branch-herring,” four in advance of the shad, and eight before the ‘‘ glut-herring.”

The cause of the unusual movements of the menhaden in 1879 is dif- ficult to ascertain. The idea has been suggested that they were driven back by the schools of blue-fish, which, by this theory, are supposed to have approached the coast in advance of them. This explanation seems scarcely satisfactory, for there is no evidence that the blue-fish were earlier than usual. On the other hand, there is reason to doubt whether blue-fish ever come near the coast until they are lured in by the presence of their favorite food. See the table, on page 46, which shows that for thirteen years the menhaden always entered Waquoit Bay from five to twenty days in advance of the blue-fish. In fact blue-fish, as well as menhaden, have been unusually searce north of Cape Cod in 1879.

A more satisfactory explanation is to be found in the unusual coldness of the water in the Gulf of Maine. The following preliminary conclusions have been reached, but I hope in future to be able to discuss the subject more at length :

The season of 1878, in Maine, was fairly successful, the three sum- mer months being warmer than in 1877, but cooler than in 1876. The absence of the menhaden schools, north of Cape Cod, in 1879, may be explained by the study of the temperatures of the water of the Gulf of Maine, as indicated by the observations made in Portland harbor. The averages for the three summer months are as follows, the numerator of the fraction being the average surface temperature, the denominator that of the bottom :

62.5 08.5 61.5 56.1

1877, 1878, 1879, 57.9 56.7 58.1 54.6

1876,

The average for the three summer months of 1879 is less than that of June, 1876. In August, 1878, there was a very rapid fall in the tempera- tures of the surface in the Gulf of Maine, so that the average of that month was less than that of July, instead of being higher, as is usual. This, perhaps, had the effect of driving the fish into the warmer water of the bays and estuaries. The monthly averages for 1876, 1877, 1878, and 1879, are as follows :

56.9 66.7 63.9 1876, June, —— July, -— August,

54.0 59.4 60.4

54.9 58.1 32.4 1877, June, —— July, —— August,

53.3 56.3 60.6

56.8 66.9 60.7 1878, June, July, August, ——

55.2 59.3 59.9

52.9 55.9 59.6 1879, June, July, August, ——

1,7 4,1 98,0

INTRODUCTION. vil

While it is impossible to predict what may be the temperature of these waters in the future, there is little reason to fear that the absence of the menhaden will be permanent. Several of the leading firms have agreed to have water temperatures taken from their steamers in the coming season ; this cannot fail to throw much light on these puzzling subjects.

The sixth annual meeting of the U. 8S. Menhaden Oil and Guano Asso- ciation was held in the United States Hotel, New York, Wednesday, January 8, 1879. The meeting was called to order by the President, Mr. R. L. Fowler, fourteen members being present. The minutes of the last meeting and the T'reasurer’s report having been approved, the following officers were elected: Mr. R. L. Fowler, President; Mr. D. T. Church, First Vice- President ; Mr. B. F. Gallup, Second Vice-President ; Mr. H. L. Dudley, Secretary and Treasurer, and Captain John Luce, Messrs. 'T. F. Price, and R. L. Fowler, Executive Committee.

The meeting adjourned subject to the call of the chairman.

The following is the report of the Committee on Statistics for the year :

Nimber otatactories in xOperabion se. a c= «ce eiereee Ooi eare ores 56 Numberof sail vessels employed. =, .\..5.):clecue oes ceteee ee ci 279 IM CLEASELOVED LS iit esa atc, stthe.s «sn 108 ae PO Ree 9 Nuamberofssteamersvempl oy edie): cieva -pa0's cieyicha sce Serene 64 Increasejover USI oe soe cso 7h haa s Seen Sees 1 Nanibermor men employeds tern cas savas Aare steele ciel « sic rset 3,387 Imerease OVER TST il eee sere cn: oylores tiscccislea tle ercds cos 5, SUR ie ais 650 ANTI Ole GH PL TANASE ey Soe He olog dee nendeobed de ma comme $2,350,000 IN CreASCLO VEL Silence cnc che eters omelets. caters oltre ove 302,388 INmbermotyfishsenugh ters ney vacuo sitesi siesta eee Oe 776,779,250 ImceressecOveral 8 iiiseis oe ore, seis orate ant anise cores 189,155,125 Numberort eallons oilmanufactured) 2 o6.c setae cin cee s+: 3,809,233 TRETEASE OVET ESO schon 2. oss, caci-\s o.s's'ois oes bs aeayee a 1,892,644 Number ofe tons. omano mad es ce ieis, «1 5, ceyeyo.-(eicte rs ser eres serena eras «ops 55,164 ess yphanyg |S tie sean aie heya ncteges or ey Pose eh apie paee iss 280 Niumberofstons! cuanol dried s)pys a1. sm pari elever ais cis cn echo sectors 19,377 IMCKeAse <OVEE UN Siie jcaioue aie deters v seteeters eas ee 13,367 Number of gallons oil held by manufacturers January 15, 1878. 742,600 Increase ING 1S ceallOns terete sarcti earlier cleats l= 6 =~ 478,600 Number tons guano held by manufacturers, January 15, 1878. 885 Less GhancinhlS ies teeensteiietc oele recast te cies ee oes se els 6,390

Yield of oil per thousand, 1878, gallons... ..........0.22...000. 4

‘AABYAIES ‘SHMOOGGCVW YAHLNAT

INTRODUCTION.

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INTRODUCTION. 1X

In 1877 I was able to learn of but four oi] and guano factories in opera- tion on the Chesapeake Bay, and it was not thought necessary to make a special survey of that region, but in that and the following season the industry seems to have assumed considerable dimensions. I am indebted to Col. Marshall McDonald, Commissioner of Fisheries for Virginia, for the following memorandum, which, although not prepared by him, he considers to bein the main correct. It is an extractfrom a circular, without authen- — tication, dated ‘* Northumberland Co.,Va., December, 1878.” I have not been able to learn that the Chesapeake manufacturers are identified with the U. 8. Oil and Guano Association. The proceeds of their industry, if added to those of the northern manufacturers, will considerably swell the statistical aggregates, increasing the total catch for 1878 to nearly 900,000,000 of fish, the total yield of oil to over 4,000,000 barrels, and of guano to over 30,000 tons.

LIST OF FIRMS ENGAGED IN THE MANUFACTURE [OF OIL AND GUANO FOR THE SEASON OF 1878, IN VIRGINIA.

—_

. Little Bay Oil and Guano Co., Little Bay, Lancaster Co., Va. . Whaley & Burgess, Mill Creek, Northumberland Co., Va. N. H. Timbs, Fairport, Os Soe Yes

E. W. Reed, “s os ale Jeu

. Reed & Woodhull, Little Bay, Lancaster Co., Va.

. Lampson & Grinel], Pecancatauck River, Middlesex Co., Va. Taylor & Jackson, s Ti YT OR ian G. T. Owens & Co., Fairport, Northumberland Co., Va.

W. D. Hall & Co., Point Pleasant, Northumberland Co., Va. . L. Cockerell & Co., Wicomico River, Northumberland Co., Va. . O. E. Maltby, New Point Comfort, Va.

. Darling & Smithers, Hampton, Va.

. Stearns & Co., Black River, Va.

. Lewis Crockett, Tangier Island, Va.

. Henry Crockett, ‘“ cs <

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calles wroenr

eS eR or Re CO

“Being desirous to know the extent of the fishing interests of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, we have looked up what information could be found, and herewith submit it to the careful inspection of those who take an interest in that direction. We find that in the year 1869 more than usual attention was turned to this matter, and we are able to gather the following details of its results from a party engaged in the busi- ness that season, viz. :

1869. Men employed on vessels fishing............ ........-00- 12 WEBROI Sh GNP LOY COs mre erareyer ofc ocr d wres e clas there Muchos AAS [ale Slaien sy aire 4 Men employed making guano..................-.. voenoes 9 ROM RGENR gM IM ge ctci aco okie aiaeheuh ata eee ae. e oa jhe 3,000,000 RRM ORS Msc te Be ho a ater vies ae a) fle 2 Sinie Mieka te (SNe oS aka ee 200 bbls.

"SSSI GReTL RRS > EP pe ann ae lei eden et en sea ci 300 tons.

X INTRODUCTION.

«<The returns from those engaged in the business for 1878 is also ap- pended, showing an increase of products encouraging to a vigorous prose- cution of the enterprise, viz. :

1878. Men employed on vessels fishing. .......... ...-...2+--5. 286 Vesselsenployedthisiimpr sae arial -\cl + eerie) tee ietnyetermteeete 78 Mentem ployedtonyshore yas serie = + slci-lelesscionstelejeteler sr seer 201 His (a Keni iat. et Me ationd ts ete de oes 5.5 seca At MepSe eS sels Oh ee 118,309 ,200 Gallonsfotcoilimadese ayi6 po cyors ee sie, aha: 03/8. RS sm apes : 234,168 MONS 10 fe CUA Oe rete hye e yay. qajete!s Js en ysiea came Reneteg es eitee (el 10,832

‘*« This industry is yet in its infancy, and the best means of handling the product of the fisheries of the rivers and bays of the State may not yet be fully understood, but with the ingenuity and energy of the fishermen and patronage of the farmers in the liberal use of the fertilizers made, and the protection of the Legislature we have no doubt that ultimately the enter- prise and capital employed in this business will realize satisfactory results.”

The much-vexed problem of the spawning habits of the menhaden has been advanced a step nearer to solution by Mr. D. 'T. Church, who sends to the Smithsonian Institution, November 6th, a number of specimens of large menhaden, taken from a large school which appeared at the mouth of Narragansett Bay, November Ist. These fish had the ovaries nearly ripe, and probably would have spawned within a month. This is a very satisfactory corroboration of the views supported on pages 95-100.

Col. M. McDonald sends me four menhaden caught by him in gill-nets in Hampton Creek, Va., November 27th, one of which was full of nearly ripe eggs. Mr. d’Homergue states that the November fish at Barren Island are full of spawn.

Another very important result obtained by the study of these fish, is the first accurate approximation to an idea of the fecundity of this species. I wish to cancel the estimate of the number of eggs in the ovary of a men- haden on page 90. The particles counted at that time must have been agglomerations of eggs, so closely united in the immature ovary as to be incapable of proper separation. The eggs in the fish sent by Mr. Church. are very much more minute than the first, and there cannot be less than 150,000, a number far exceeding the highest estimates for shad and her- ring, and indicating that the menhaden must be ranked among the most prolific of fishes.

The attempt of the Maine Legislature to regulate the fishery in that State has been of little moment, owing to the unexpected absence of the men- haden from that region. This movement has met with much opposition on the part of the oil and guano manufacturers. It is to be hoped that the constitutionality of the law will be tested in the courts.

G. BROWN GOODE.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, l Washington, D. C., Dec. 1, 1879.5

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page. Section A.—INTRODUCTION .....<-------+---- Seererrrrre treet reer ee eeceeccewer sacceeeces 1 Pela ee al oe oa cass ete ta Sa ee 1

jaded awe ol

THE typographical blunders enumerated below are in large part due to the absence of the author from town when the proofs were being read.

Page 9, line 13, insert Eastern Maryland—Pilcher or Pilchard,

Page 44, line 39, for Daniel Y. Church read David T. Church.

Page 66, line 9, for diagram sections read a diagram section.

Page 68, line 24, for paragraph read paragraphs.

Page 77, insert heading to paragraph 102, Recent changes in the northern Kimits of distribution.

Page 89, line 7, for fat-fish read fat fish.

Page 93, line 17, for ostracoda and copeopoda read Ostracoda and Copeopoda.

Page 99, line 30, for Boardman and Atkins read Goodale and Atkins.

Page 115, line 1, for F. 7. Babson read F. J. Babson.

Page 118, line 24, for has already been described read is described below.

Page 120, line 28, for William T. Fithian read William Y. Fithian.

Page 182, insert heading to paragraph 182, The menhaden fishery and land indus- tries. .

Page 161, insert heading to paragraph 224, Comments.

34. Mitchill’s Olupea sadina and Gronow’s Olupea carolinensis. ..-++---00-+---2r---0-2-2 17 35. Brevoortia patronus .....0.--.eecen scene ne nnn cee cece en ceee en cen cece nec nnnanenrecsces 17 36. Agassiz’s Clupanodon aureus..-------222 000-22 enone nee ne cee e nee e eee c reenter essees 17 37. Jenyns’s Olupea pectinata..-....--- 222-02 -n eee nee eee et ene ner creer ccen eer cer esas 18 38. The generic relations of the species and Gill’s genus Brevoortia. (See also Appen- OBR GJ aces pase were nn co napecar ses cn cape ---rrssapeme=ennseunap@s7 “no -q9= ene sacs = ee 39. Revision of the American species of menhaden ....-...----------+----+------+-2-72- 18 SEcTION C.—A DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF BREVOORTIA WITH ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL NOTES ...20.. 2002 c ccc cn penn cnc ence cence ne cnnninn cnccce cence nnecenens 19 %. Technical descriptions ...-...---0+ eeecee-eeccennecen cn en en cence cece nen me es tens naccceneenes 19 40. Brevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe), Goode..--.--------+eceene cenene nr ereeneenseeersnteees 19 41. Brevoortia patronus, GOOdO ...... 2-20-22 een n ne cee ne rennet ents ener ececrenterentees 26 42. Brevoortia pectinata, Jenyns, Gill.........-- ean anatase pagecassescesnreqsar=s 30

Ii

Xx INTRODUCTION.

“The returns from those engaged in the business for 1878 is also ap- pended, showing an increase of products encouraging to a vigorous prose- cution of the enterprise, viz. :

1878. Men, employed ionsvessels fishing. 2.3.55. .0.- s+ ceemae 286 Vesselsvemployedsnsininpe isan eaes os) lene eee eee 7 Men emnlaved an shara aa

ring, and indicating that the menhaden must be ranked among the most prolific of fishes.

The attempt of the Maine Legislature to regulate the fishery in that State has been of little moment, owing to the unexpected absence of the men- haden from that region. ‘This movement has met with much opposition on the part of the oil and guano manufacturers. It is to be hoped that the constitutionality of the law will be tested in the courts.

G. BROWN GOODE.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, l Washington, D. C., Dec. 1, 1879.5

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page.

SEcTION A.—INTRODUCTION .....<----------- a conse nee c eee c ewes wenn sce cn scar ccereccncres acecesces 1. Object of the memoir..... Cec esdes secede Sereno niece oodascedecaesse AGES HCC One mien sepaeee 1. Previous memoirs of the series. ..........--0----0--2-2-2---- eynennceasdes eae eieness z

2. The commercial impertance of the menhaden ...........-.-.-..-. ccmmcsass Aproeee ad

3. The imperfect knowledge regarding this species ......-----.---- +. neceeeecneeeneen-e

2. Means employed in gathering information.......------- Soesassrae0007 SSRnODO COOSA eS 4: Circular issued. (See also Appendix AY fico. - cco sccccccncncccenscaceeasacces = ote

Se pVeuLOns Obeid NILY SON UO G..- 25 < ccs tame eneeeianoniaa eae cece nse ae geriae toe GIPREPRONA UA LULES MIAOGs. coca coca 5 os cise ania eeee a eae sons ena aan asa -

Bo ROLE RN OFM) UT NOUS ONS ora wale ance casas ain enc odes aceon enae aaa eae selene asa saaea ie nesine = 1. Materials in “he archives of the United States Fish Commission ................---.

8. Personal observations and the aid of individuals. .......-.... 22.222 -eeeeeccneseeee--e

9. Responses to the circular. (See also Appendices B and N} ......... Neluceevacepceeees

19. Published accounts of the species. (See also Appendixes C and D)...........-..---

11. The collections in the United States National Museum. (See also Appendix E).... STAOURCLS OP CTI UT CILICR MAUVE ULEN SRUNTIED sone ouccccatene dpsacasesaesinenee laces ced= cence c 12. The difficulty of obtaining exact information ........... See eon ote eoe seccc ceeecases

13. Prejudices and superstitions .................0-2.--- eres Seana ae as asain nipaicc aimee

14. Inaceuracies of observation and stutement..............----- See amines aa asinine aisna Sscrion B.—THE NAMES OF THE MENHADEN. ...---...--...---2----0- GA eedncsocesonee ser Se eP ood PPM NRAMOB <8 one cst acc kes ceceatcacseeascccce ectiacsccdeaeaccusge nent cee tae ete cnaes = Pewee TINMOS ANG UsAPOR: - coos ccanacansisnasisa'assssaccnccsece~s aes castasecdeeeoeeecs

16. The geographical distribution of popular names .....-..-........--..e2e-eeee ee en nee

17. A table showing the geographical distribution of the popular names of the men-

UG eG Be B CORR ASEEEECEEECEC SESE BOE E ROSE CEASE SES nce Ane ES NR Ea a.

18. Discrepancies in these names ...........-----.---e-eeeeeenenes Sockbotabecoteiterc con

19. The name of ‘‘menhaden” claimed to be the preferable one.........----.-----------

20. Trade names of the menhaden and their liability to mislead .........-...---.-- oe

21. Origin of the popular names of the menhaden ..................-.-------------- aaa

ee ROLY, WANG) MONNSUOM: <. cac'c.c css caccscen-ccccopces pee SEE EROS ASS Sapa oes ase

Cae IONE NOAM aN “CHUN YER! 2 coos scan ness acai ceaquievdese escscecsecencigcacisescesrse

was Se WHNLODISM recs cccncenceeaccan eects Meepaacta cemomen aaeniclanaeae eee colnemowsca ncn se!

ae POURS PUD KOE: ie cate sae ae anon aus on cee cetie onansecaiuch cen ceclece suspen ophesieias sane ==

Bie BAS ns Sos caecas Sao cddas cas eee a a dita awisiae we atcws mc sia pe sae sinne ce Sosa aCe AN VONOW-talle cn. = ccscct ce cade tac cin cmae cia wae cele a-sscbasa cm ecieeets 29. The conflict of names among the American representatives of the herring family-. Bar OCIAICL MONNES Se nes renee an ca eee re te ane earner oes Soeninc cas cae ce cenrsasenaqe ees 30. Latrobe’s description of Olupea tyrannus and the reasons for adopting this specific

name. (See also Appendix E and Plate 11) ........-.--.22--- eee eee nee nn ee eeenne

31. Mitchill’s description of Clupea menhaden. (See also Appendix E)...-.. aadbercdisdg

32. Rafinesque’s Olupea neglecta .....------.- Meee seep asec s Sn0t 25 cee aseeee seer eee es = ELTIGURUAD MCLE MUN Dc comme ceca antecacets paewncancaspecanss-sonpcccaataem lene siccmae'e

34. Mitchill’s Olupea sadina and Gronow’s Olupea carolinensis...-..2--c2-+--e00---0-2- :

Bias ESF CCOOTING THING nero a cae cameo ccn conn acies «vale ss caascacepeeneas aqaeae hans sanc<e

OG A PRES Bh OLCDUSOUON CUIENE nc ac carat ace cccs ocvcnsscsce~seseneraescspoceneera=esmes

Sta ENN Yi A OLA TEM TECIIMI econ rics Seay aces sae=ssaaecrenepaparsenesdaprdseings aus <=

38. The generic relations of the species and Giil’s genus Brevoortia. (See also Appen- MERE aa nase eee Ne ee ne on ainda ge dag anteicms onviapacsile sea cating toa pas

39. Revision of the American species of menhaden ............------.--2-0-- 2-22 eee eee SECTION C.—A DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF BREVOORTIA WITH ANATOMICAL AND PR VMOMAGCIOATY NOTES tetas cc oiec ac cepanerecicsecareccecaswanasosaceae+< sar scp a>

7. Technical descriptions .......-.c02eece-eee0e pple aes hd ts os a aes naa : 405 Brevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe), Goode... 22-0 c cc ccdepcccp cence nrapccncccccccccacacne

41. Brevoortia patronus, Goode .......-...--- Seeaawe een eae see elia ecarenac scp csp = aaa =

42. Brevoortia pectinata, Jenyns, Gill........ccegs-oececcnnsccsccccee cence AGSRecAAcoce -

AAD A AD SD Ot ot St wm wm Co 2 W Ge GO OF G2 OD et re om

13

IV TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page. SECTION C.—A DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF BREVOORTIA, WITH ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL NOTES—Continued.

Ch S120 cap GSB OOg UOCO SEO HAO SSeS SCOTS n OOS SABO OOAOO BEBO DE HOHOD 7250c caacen SOB DOBEaDUOSSaS6e5 = 3h 43. Limits and relations of length and weight. -...-..-.--.2.-220 penne ceee ncn n ene e enone 31 44, Variations in individuals of the same schools ......-.-------. ee 1 SREP on 5G 31 45) ate OL crowthOlsy OUD Sifts Ne se lena <jels)-ln)-aicn -nicieie ele o eee eaten mss = caesice sees 32 46. Rate of growth of fish during their sojourn on the northern coast ...........--..--. 33 9) Ooloriand othennmitnonlenaractemmsties s..\e/s<)n1- 0i0<inis -iaa1- == -[nis ee senate temeieemine sce os ecece 5 33 4. COlorio’ MOTtRELM TSM secee awe ais osiels inns oe vices saci eens eee See eee Eero em circ 33 - 48. Color of southern fish.-...22......... yeaa deed esos wba See ess aide ae nae ER sa 3 33 49, Axillary appendages ..-...22.2......2..2202- o = Gata ete a nich coe ee = u's GBs 50. Arrangemént and number of scales .....--.-..--.----- Seenne ode tmeanepasmansaea 5 eo BY! LORTRIGNNGL OT patna Noes coy om oe ae icwe neon pps scene eae eg in can np eae ee eee. 5 USA ‘51. The strainer in the mouth of the menhaden......-........2s.2eseccencceecececeeesee: 34 52. The accessory branchial organ ..-....---. BESS OTA gag ROI Seen n andr OnsS IeScSsooose saa5 ' 34 So. Lhe aliMeNntaLy, CANAL ~ jse05 ccc ss cne alse = sence =\enie cea ran naPaienae anes eee 34 od CP he Swill Dd Ors sesac Nea ancc acs sees cheno connate ce asmeserian sn seeeae Sew aaettess Mes eid RR SECTION D.—GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND THE MOVEMENTS O¥ THE SCHOOLS....-..-.------.- 35 DE GCOGTODRACOUT ONGC = vee crisis one n poo a= eee eee Ag Sade Sedo Saesnoonaonsaeecsees = na RES 55. Limits of range of Brevoortia tyrannws 10 1877 . 26... conscnemac nnn cocancennnts tence 35 7 565 Variations 1n norbhern limit)in Ghempaster eq c-snnmel-ocne=iseceeis secs cinieieinince pene sates 35 Di MOUtNerN, LIMIb Of TAN VC. <= - cise eee nese atest eee enone pepseinesniesie eee anes ates 36 HS Oceanic limits Of TANGO. ~ -.<5. pain sae eenininel= asia baleen ete ae eee siidepctiacssausccges : 36 59. The alleged occurrence of the true menhaden in the Gulf of Mexico............._-. 36 60; Range of other species of the genus... - oe. = cece nn denne a eo taamsieetaeee ost reoag, 61. The alleged occurrence of a menhaden on the west coast of North America......... 37 125 "The arrival and departures Of the SchOOl(Ss «non encm ne mn =o selena see appease = sae == 38 “62; Causes influencing arrival and departure... <-- -<ecnen cen orion seen ceap eee ease ae 33 63; Material’on hand for determining dates 2.-.-.2 = 22. 0oc-s= ce oc cecsiscancesenecweenens 2 38 64. Review of the dates of movement upon the entire coast.......-......----.---.------ 39 65, Stay of the schools on the coast.of Plorida..... -. -n-- <i n-0-5=oeseenvenceactes cede ee 39 66. Stay on the coast of Georgia and South Carolina............---------- +--+. aiuatteeice 39 67. (Stay,on theycoastiof North! Carolinas. <2 oo oc. lececccnecsee cece se==-esehashciee eens 40 68. Stay on the coast of Virginia and Chesapeake Bay.......--2--s--------eees--- eden 41 697.5 tayan Delaware (Bay. ese ae - ncenien pean eelsn see dae aes eaten a elena ae elas 41 70° Stay on the coast of New Jersey .- <6) <oe cnc ao nma-bsjcnsemsinas = =s.insoe ad faacteen ae fone) peed 71. stay at the eastern end of Long Island. eect <a nmn an ecieeni-a-beise seieee p= se =< 42 V2: Stay in Wone sland) SounGesnoaccsnsco=cencineseessee pe erinesese ae season ae ee eee 42 Nanstayun block Island Sound.) een sicce ccna s tothe tae eee a ee eee 43

74. Mr. Dudley’s account of the movements of the schools en the coast of Eastern Con- MeCUOUL ccs esa. cose secs ee aces aoe ee eee Sais Sela cies U sia Sleve:aia a'e 5 Sta LS eg ators 44 MoS bAY IN NATTACANSCLO BAY 22. ecee cence moa e soem tees Sinisaneidiscicacsmasbs oacie » 44 “os stayin Martha's) Vineyard Sound). .5o--cessisecesein= = - see eeeeeae = Mane ae 355 45 77. Table showing dates of appearance of menhaden at Waquoit Weir 1859-’72 .......-. 46

78. Irregularity of the movements of the schools illustrated by the returns from Wa- QUOILIWIOUT co en ieee elnc- oes cosa ee melee ene nla neaielai= me iii fee 46 79. Stay of the schools on the south shore of Cape Cod ............-.-- Bpsausqane 25/70 eae. 146 80: Stay iniCapei@ed Bay: --- 2. 22-3 etna te ocise eh eases siaiie sas sneia's(s mi aeiniaiaieteia(e i= meio 47 SRS i) groin C26) NITE Sa Ae REPS OSes Ga GbSeano cose Sadsae ceootontecconsondspe ose: 48 82.) Stay in the GuliiofeMaine ao serie ocr ae coe cinelee secre seinen aes ees alleieeinta iste siete 48 83. Mr. Maddocks’ account of the movements of the schools on the coast of Maine..... 50 13. Migrations. (See also Appendix F) .....- FPO ORR ee oe ano an aoc s oct caso nsase noadee cad 50 84. Miyrations of fishes in general, andthe Causes... sc.:-2=2 sce massnssenenaete sae 3a 50 85. The influence of ocean temperatures upon the movements of the menhaden......... 52 86. General considerations as to the winter retreat of summer fishes.-.--..--..--------- 56

87. The theory of hibernation of sea fishes discussed with special reference to the 11a: Y4) 2) 2) Ue ae ae yee ee a Pe peice quedaebee soa doadde fc ma-ceemdesas 56 88. The theory of extended migrations discussed, with special reference to the mackerel. 62 89. The arguments against extended migrations of the menhaden.....--...-.----------- 65 90. The hypothesis of the oceanic sojourn of the menhaden...--...-..-.-----+-----+--+s 66

91. A criticism of Rimbaud’s classification, with a new classification, by habits, of east- -

CORSE TSHES Me nfa2 oe cio Sees Selselele meine ete ne etean a Relabi fa lsiclelaesisieate sete nrarlefels|aspsivietn 68 14, The movements of the schools of Menhaden. ..--------+---0cenwee cece nase cnc cee nencenees 5 70 92. Habits of the schooling fish..-........-...-.. hoanaceic on soca Seen eee inletelo a <55 70

93. Movements of the schools to and from the surface...... SMSO SD OCIS ORO CASS EOOSDOEO CODES val

TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vv

. ‘ ie i. SEcTION D.—GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND THE MOVEMENTS OF THE SCHOOLS—Continued. = 14. The movements of the schools of mendhaden—Continued. 94, Differences in the swimming movements of the menhaden end the mackerel........ 71 -. 95.. Birds attracted by theschools/of fish. -----.. ..--- 5 <<< <.nnscnnwnceencecaasnan sues val ObeDhenniuence of wintiandkweathotsetess ess cee c sone sa saeee fk he sa ee orela 72 97. The movements of the herring as influenced by weather.............-.....---.---- 72 98s) Dhenfinence of the ywodesaaceqcises access ne co cetesesie eae Sal sipisie Sila maleate aes ciel che’ 74 15. Alleged changes in the haunts and habits of the menhaden. ......-.+------caeneeeeneeneeenes 74 99, ‘Lhe allegation that the menhaden schools have been driven out tosea by the fisheries. 74 100% Che: opinion of, Maw Aton as mpom Gos sD) CC ls nat oe naps cen aie cjonsseujsnccase aes anaes 76 Lit Che opiniomot vie Mi sd lots eewecteteeste Sete lst iene eon edb cinm sees eeceae seas 77 102. Recent changes in the northern limit of distribution.......-.........2222...00-00-0- 77 SECTION E.—ABUNDANCE OF THE MENHADEN COMPARATIVE AND ABSOLUTE....-...-.---.cseeeeees 78 DGS. AOU20 ONCE UEC eine aja '~'= 2 5 = =~ = =a ain win'slae eS oo eitefas eww sin 9 oon aiom)se - 3 n ee gee 78 103. Abundaxce before 1850, from testimony of early writers .-.-....-........2.--2ee00e0 78 1Y:, Abundamcawnitha presen soe ss. sca eso a3) ate aaa saecta =e laccs caeeeceeleecasceaueceoece 79 1035 Ahundanceonthecosst of Maine ... ...seseseseaesaseas> naormas secs cianekssectte sccs's 19 los eA bnndence.on the coastor New Hompshiresesasecmeas seca siccsccen cecans- ces secmen 81 106. Abundance on the coast of Massachusetts. ...2 25-0225 .cecsscceccecccecaccceeeccnce 81 107. Abundance on the coast of Rhode Island.............- Ree eimai Sem eietae es apecmaes 84 10S5-Abundancelon the coast: of: Connecticut; .<< ...-sqeee(y- senses namndemepecsensceccecce 85 rove obundance.on theicoast of New York: <<< s-ccdsemeeseesisasi-einisasninanccocscageecececs 87 110. Review of the success of the fisheries in New England since 1865, by Mr. D. T. Whorchhecese eae -uiccas sac oo ogi no toys be sae eee eee cena mae tr oct cesedsee 88 111. Review of the success of the fisheries in Tone Island Sound since 1870, by Mr. Georrenwrinleses a sncosece sees sca eescco sc omecneuene neon een i eenane weenie conta’ 88 iQ eA pandance onthe coast Of NOw Jersey. cu. csc essseeceoascememeee arene eecelsccice 90 Lissa bundance onvthecoash of Delaware’... ..sss-5-2<+00secceticcestee sees eneeneeseeneas 90 114. Abundance on the coast of Maryland and Virginia.........-....---...--2-ceenee eee 90 dio. A bundance.on the:ecoast of North Carolinal.-2..2.- =... 5.2 .-cssencctececatectenssecs 91 MG eA PUnCAnCOMMNEOMG ag m= sasiece a4 acissatain se neisee sn. Sisaaes's <eidio dace acon one a eeeeee 92 117. Summation of evidence as to increase or decrease -..--.--.---.---2----.-neeceecnnees 92 EPI EEE TD CEM RETIUNE) ate = oie oie mae erate ona asia sae eet ernie nis oa Se miaje weaea be ame eaten 93 Hee erobapiliyoretauure! CCChGASG) 2 .-- aicoast soos cocoa e saa) Sanccs sacncessscsunceses 93 SECTION F.—FooD OF THE MENHADEN ...-- sa noonehin nee ooereaSLourhchosoodotae Ado casdedesecenese 93 MESH OM ee eee aera Ome Sat cies ero Sie Six Sige Sita eiwacaks Lecce eeticmamece domutccleccaudecessusess 93 119. Fishermen’s ideas about the food of the menhaden ..-.--.......--...----------neeene 93 120. Fishermen’s ideas about the manner of feeding..............2-2------22-eceeeeeeeeee 93 {2p PRAM AMONS Ors stOMaAch-CONLONGS =< aye coseas neces ce ccnebasce eee cacsccce sas essses 94 daze interonces trom UElMOXAMIMANONS- 2 ocnccoe 2s cases 22 cn cceaewecictosce ct asecccutee eee 94 123. Professor Verrill’s opinion as to the nutritive properties of bottom-mud...........-. 94 124, Explanation of the evolutions of the menhaden schools ....-.....--..-02------2--0-0 95 125. Character of their food affecting the value of the fish for use for bait...........-.-.- 95 SECTION (G.-——NEPEODUCTION OF THE (MENHADEN|s.-s2ncas2-<cacie esses ceeccnecccecseescesescesmee 95 LAER OP LEMOTONT Jebly same see awe eia harocaete marcia caac ae oes te naaueae saeco sacacseeeres 95 MiseDissectioniol menhaden:in Connecticut «2c eecmascsnc-~ cence cos s- 500 cece oemeesece 95 Pod U BSCOUONAe! MONNAACTH Ine MAIN Gyso6 a aay aces aoe es cee acic «once oo eicieeeeneeeeeeees 96 D225. NUM per Olle In WMNMAtIYe OVATION a. -. cues caciec~ceciatcces ++ secces- os caneeeeree ss 96 129. The fact that no ripe milt or spawn has been observed by naturalists.........-...--. 97 130; Avstatement made by MrcAtkims: 92555222 o ooo c5. nce oc scene ccaceseieaeecoseeess 97 PL SMTRLLLES Of PLE OUNY MINIE an none <cem slacoe eens cadens s sac oun sees ssa cseeeneenaadoceeancs 98 131. Appearance of the young south of Cape Cod .....-....2. 2.22. sence ene e ene n ee ene wns 98 132: Powers of locomotion possessed by the young’... ...-----.--s-esacceneececenescecese= 98 22. Inferences as to the tume and place of spawning..--.--------------<ae--ce-2-- + -cocesceennns 99 133. Inferences from studies of parent and young as to the times and places of spawning. 99 134. The opinions of fishermen upon this subject........--..----.-------..----e20- eee 99 135. The claim that menhaden spawn in southern rivers ...-.-.---.--0-.---0-ecenesennene 100 136. A criticism of a statement made by Professor Hind...............-..--..--0.---2--- 100 REL ERMUES UL) OF OTELICTOL CUMUTE? saonae sdae access seewahes sactacescese cules ewedtecabaeteces 100 ' 137. The claim that menhaden can be artificially bred in the waters of the North........ 100 SECTION H.—THE ENEMIES AND FATALITIES OF THE MENHADEN ..2... 2.2200 ccceceececcscencceeees 101 Soe EMEMC CRE PRIUS CTE TLCTEIULOCTD ON Pa a oes ou ow EPR ede Sos oe Se ate o ew ade ca deeknce 101 138. Mortality of menhaden in the Merrimac River ............2.0.-2020cccececeecescecnes 101 Wee LMM O ISIE MCN OUETN A ter eas atat aes ccas con ena eon are eee dec ote ced came a vob ddoapidnee ccs 101

139. The crustacean parasite Oymothod preegustator... 2.20 cceece eens cecncencnenscceceees 101

VI TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page. SEcTION H.—THE ENEMIES AND FATALITIES OF THE MENHADEN—Continued. 25. Parasites of the menhaden—Continued. 140. Inferences to be drawn from the presence of these parasites.........-..--..-------- e203 T41 Other Parasites a. -e= eee eee eee me Rhee eet aes] ou Jone ee Celene a eee eemeeaseeea by ae nl6 104 26. “Predaccous foes of the Menhaden. nwa nw ce ween ceevecceescbeucecs es sbeeebten ae Beak ee ceiees 104 142, The destructiveness of whales and dolphins. .......-.--........... PeeeeeSciee= ck b as 104 143." The'destructiveness\Of BhaAvkES |. - ote we toe wees et tele een a eeeeE Eeen ashe occas 105 144: ‘The ‘destructiveness’ of) othorfishés 2 22. (20k se cht. Lecce sete eeeeteeeewaelccis siete 2 105 145. Ravagesiof the bluefish and the bonito. 2s... 0 coe secs babpewenen cane =ocoe 106 146. Dhe:menhaten-driven-upon the shores -- 62. - nos s sce ceece eo sec seeeheeeeeeesere-cce = 107 147. Captain Spindel’s account of the ravages of the bluefish -.....-....---20 22222-2220. 108 148. Professor Baird’s estimate of the destructiveness of the bluefish..-................. 108 149. An estimate of the number of menhaden annually consumed by predaceous fish.... 109 150." Lhe place’of ‘the menhaden in nature . 50.06.26 ee sateelec ons «own els aeeeeeise ne eae eee = 109 27. MOTION NE TSICTICR semanas aaa oe = ae oie = eee se eee Rete ea a ene am ntelstona eaten nee ee eee ee 110 151. Former allusions to the influence of the fisheries...........-- bceecenedustebeeueeeens 110 152. Probability of future decrease. ..........-..-----.---6- Sidecdecseeapessssbtesoseess 30 110 153. ‘Phe alleged destructiveness of fishing 2.-20ou.. 225% ce Secee caw wacccene--2esesesanee 110 154. Comments upon these allegations .--. 2.2222... co ce cee ecw tec m ne sn oce ence ccc ecewcene= lil 155, Professor Hinds unwarranted statements: o- =a e= on ale eeeiceieee wee Ueetcs Cena roenie= 112 156. The agitation in Maine concerning productive legislation ...........---- = See ees 112 RECTION. —— UM eMENITADENDIISHERIES: .~ aaj ccsiaaisennan|asennaiesisaseeeeaenl-eeateeese esti ae =sse 113 QBreLELOCHMLONIOI MERE) JISRULY QTOUNOS) Janse sneioae eens anne h ee aeeeeeeaeeiene nieee eae eee eae 113 Lor Distrib uiionsof hoe dishing STOUNGS |. =< se cop ae seal ee ean inte eee eee eee eeccee 113 ZO MIMELN OAS OPACODUUTE Rano tae alan wae oSaloneneeleeeecne acee ape ce eeeeeeeeeceae eee ene rie= 113 158) Pastiand present methodsicontrasted.-2. +--+ --meccoc eens sceeseeeeteneneeeceeeene 113 159; Difficulty experienced in obtaining statistics - <-.- <0 <<. - een cecine nem smee soreness 114 160. Hisheries in Maine e.226¢ esac cane etiactsanpenices 0 wieense canes cane ccces inn acisnaeearoaeae 114 161, Misheries in Massachusetts en. ceo sciienis- epics n= selena eee ecencaemaeenesereeeae ets 115 162; Wisheriesiin, Rhode Aslan iyec tol. os 220 Seiaisisteys onloe clas «/ss\eialcia slo was sie sisieisioeaciomeee eens 115 163. “Mishetiesiin (Contiecticut) .<-5.</< 22-0 se eeaciscnsiewloace am cee sbsnis sees cnesisseiteceecices 116 164, ‘Hisheries inyNew: Vor, Jass2c-cs-< 2a setae an acoso ceases oan ch eceee cericeererics 116 165. Fisheries in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland ........-...-.-...-.0.-----0---+-- 116 106.) bisheriesinvarginia ands North Carolinay jecss sec-eeeseceseret ee eeeeae steerer ee eee 117 167.) Misheries:in( the SOUbM.,..<-.--225-cescesneosceeeneseccaeesoenchene- peter eemeeees 117 SOSPA DDONALUSO/ MCODUUTNE Som nna miei ete nce eaiene sania s eee eacee cae eee tie ineeeer eee meee 117 GEER Oe} PULSO-SPINES enema = ae eleeae ae seem alsa eee aniae seemete eile cia eetee eet 117 169 Mitheyseine-boats as msmcleeciee om inctee = cieeaee eee ra eeee cease eee eee meee eee ae 120 170; Che'sailing-yessels:, (Seelalso Appendix) ~~. 2s cane enna cise snes scenes 122 Lil ENO StCRINOLS i25 bowocs oe acess ne soaacecest ecince eee onesicenine ste ce seine aoe 123 ol. sOentain requirements Of DUTSE-SELNE PERING: woo ene -/ooon coir aes son sade eae lse eee eee eel 123 ie we eculiarities! Of purse-Selle TIS HIN Oe earn otc talosioe celine lee elaoeee iste sees eee cere 123 173. The best time of day for using the purse-seine .....---.- 2. sennce cece ncn mene enn ne nae 124 32. Descriptions of sfisling | SCeNes eam ance ee eae eee cee eee eeee cesses Ee caer eee 124 174. Mishingunisouthern New Pinelands ce-\eeesases ne semaine ciaeine ee se sisete serene 124 175. Fishing on the coast of Massachusetts .......-.2 2.222225 2202-2 cee e ne cone ne cenene sane 125 176. Mishingtonithe)|coastiof Maines 2... o-.2ssssse esos selene se sana == = sacs soeeia see eee 126 77. Gill nettishinovonvihe Coast olp MainOls cee melase reise sim aeae miei lie cise eel eens ee ees 128 i78. Weir fishingstorimenhadeu. a: cc sesee cose eee eats cee ae ae ee eee eee eee 129 179. Colonel Lyman’s description of weir fishing for menhaden..-...-.......-----..-----.- 129 TeO Mishins for fat-backsjim North Carolinas sen-s-.- 2. --) eee eee eee ee eee eens 131 33. The fisherman and the relation of the fisheries to the population of the neighboring shores.... 131 Leino fishermen of Maing. sceescae sececen sce se sas oane eae cant eet sce eeReoae eee meee 131 182. The menhaden fishery and land industries ..........-...-..--. prctte cesses eeeeeee 132 DA. PENOteChiDe WUShETY LAWS - 0s census ccadeennae te cneet Sa ceeeebesrenccecernes nate merece rece 132 183. Laws regulating the menhaden fishery of ‘Maind).2s.sc-s-5 coeur es ee settee eoenee 132 184. Laws regulating the menhaden fishery of Massachusetts..-......------------------- 133 SUPER-SECTION.—ECONOMICAL VALUE AND APPLICATIONS OF THE MENHADEN.. 135 SECTION K.—THE MENHADEN -AS- A ‘SOURCE (OF ZOOD cn. cee oo sana ee esee es aae[t= =n ase seeseeriac=n <6 135 35. The menhaden as a table jish. 185, Menhadeniusedtiresh..s). 5.20 2--\socerelscasewocec oeieeseecee ccna -ameaiee tom e/seneseenia 135 186. Menhaden’salted. (Seeialso Appendix G)-- so. ncn one ween cee nesacee an so ercece 136 187. The demand for salt fish in seasons of scarcity of nel supplied by menhaden.. 136 188. The question of allowances of drawback on salt...... AQUOOS OES acelin aeaniecisiaisicislaauiaaeneL oe

TABLE-OF~CONTENTS. VII Page. SECTION K.—THE MENHADEN AS A SOURCE OF FooD—Continued.

36. Food-preparations derived from the menhaden. ......22sscencceccnuccccaccccsucesccanessanea 137 189, Menhaden preserved in oil, ‘‘ American sardines” ....-ceeccscedecccccncscccsscescens 137 190. Lhe qualities of ‘‘ American sardines”....... 50 Sip asaomosaacoorcnoccecotescssdoccooc) | a RTS 191. Menhaden preserved in Spices. 2... .2..0.2nncencnn cence nccccccecnnces sense cemasedieaten) LOS 192. Mr. Goodale’s “Extract of Fish "Methods of Pecpanitian pad BAGS wanes eee cenae - 139 193, Possible yield of “Extract of Fish”................-- sogesasced See noeee ase acen ai 140

37. The menhaden as a food for animals.......-0.------6 FOnoceccooseemSansccsondpecsebesceso MET) 194, Menhaden scrap as a food for cattle and poultry. ....sc.e.ececce conccecnneenccesnees 140

SEcTION L.—THE MENHADEN AS A BAIT-FISH....... Se sch cweccebcbccstoctdesceedtnatnantecesaee, 141

38. Theuse of menhaden for bait...... Slee tiame a's slam sec Astrea taecSceRerecod BOSS AGO SHO 141 195. Menhaden as a bait for cod........ Sele ater at ala CEOS CCS CReOTRSOECe jabooceccshoste a5 iT 196, Comparative value of menhaden and other bait ..................----- Sespendecosso5 | 2 197. Menhaden as a bait for mackerel ......-....22--00---ccceceneene sosostiee eppconcecaae ep 198. Comparative value of herring and menhaden for toll-bait Le isan Ea Jose acenee = AES) 199, The testimony of Canadian officers as to the value of menhaden bait............... - 146 200. Testimony before the Halifax Commission regarding the greater value of menhaden

Dilitecsaansedaee fees ean Gcanmceccee per onond eee ee nae a eomeces seisiawene ssclas\sielan x Uke 201. “Slivering” menhaden..-.............. bicsae Paes ee eae Paonia PD seer ssha aebek LAT. 202. The preparation of menhaden bait ......... eae ate eels Sos ce eiccnt dpamometcekie wel? 203. The use of menhaden bait in coast fisheries ..........-.-...2.-s0- . Cte asaate cng -- 148 204. The extent of the bait-fisheries in Southern New England..........-...-------0-02 as 148 205. Bait-fishing in the Merrimac River and in Salem Harbor ...,....... Liaaeete ERR AS eew 248 206. Estimate of the annual consumption of menhaden bait........ce.cesec-ececcascenees 149 207. Use of menhaden bait by the Georges Bank fleet..... Daaice odwbience ns ee tae & ete os 5 a 208. Use of menhaden bait by the Grand Banks fleet. .. .........2.0. ence ween eeccee cee ay 150 209. Use of menhaden bait by the mackerel line fishermen..... waneeue se matees See enoS noes og 200, 210. Use of menhaden bait by the Connecticut smacks. ...........0.20-eccecnnnceeneee so US 211. Use of menhaden bait by the New York halibut fleet................2..000-2- eeFagss 151 212. Annual sale of bait by the vessels of the Maine manufacturers.............-------- 151 213. The Connecticut method of icing bait........... Gaawisis clans cause cen beclcataseennene 5 ab 214, The Cape Ann method of icin’ baitveie cess ds, Sud ieteeoenad kanes cee ceases eu cdeee 152 215. Comparative value of different methods of icing bait ............------2-2eeeeeeenne 152

39. Conflicts between bait-jishermen and manufacturers Of Oil.....--2022----20 eee neeaeeneeeeceee 155 216. Barly £0008 os .c ica cetcciccaeecesitcecenisaases welceactwates ddccslveconceeecacecce es seme) LOO 217, Present-aspects of the-conflict-in Maine... 2.05... ccccee cecocadsecccceccescesensces aye Le6

40. Menhaden bait as an article of commerce, and the discussion of its value before the Halifax

Commnisstoniof WIT: 22552526 c0's cscs cs ckende cdteacecdee ek SNe EL Sa weM e 156 218, The export of menhaden bait to Canada and Newfoundland as discussed before tho Ata COMMISSION so7scoac sos fas cccacsoddadsccctseucccavcorsdesascecceugceeccese =e 156 219. Claims of Her Majesty’s government .......... aes RE EET eG fone nee to clah ace eke a 157 220: Reply of the agent of the United States. ..........-..ccccecennnccancccccnccnnccscces 158 221. Reply in behalf of Her Britannic Majesty’s government ..............- acertcss Jc ceauloo 222. Other references to the menhaden in the testimony and affidavits.............--.-- - 160 ete NO aT SDMONT GL Ver. ANB. ccaseceicc cams Sense ects ce cetasscadveccceccaccdcaccceme 161 224. Comments. .---....-. eecsizicse Sdstaacddestesscccssseseassecs SUORCOORDHOOCe ane soocOs 161 SEcTION M. THE MANUFACTURE OF OIL AND GUANO ..... Bie asia teem elas alel Seecccee den ceaeeeee = ile

41. A history of the manufacture of menhaden Oil........---------2ee eee eeenee ences Soccnencos - 161 225. The claims of Maine to the first discovery of menhaden oil ..........--....--- sqseeg LG! 226. The claims of Connecticut and New York...... eee Bh eecedidas one PR a ence sendaao 162 227. The inception of the oil business in Maine .......... eetvcaad icscatwseseeesseceeeae 164 228. The dates of erection of factories in Maine........... Barer un Seceaneeeceeneseecaese 164

42, The location of the oil-factories. (See also Appendix H)...........-- Seeeaeesecedeetesceas 165 229. Factories in Maine..........-...--02ce00 vata ale sacl seaerine pocoococe So0co=EOSCOraHO 5) alts) 230. Factories in Massachusetts.......... Saladawacdon Bre precoamnscoccedac pees ea wont - 165 231. Factories in Rhode Island.......... POSH ORREE REECE EE oc hacc Jhorcedadade anetHadane 166 232. Factories in Connecticut ........... peedsveanacmme shana eae temas cs neae Abacos - 166 233. Factories in New York............- Bosc dadtedesiwdsane eee eee noe anleceties ane =i 5 altace PE MCAGEGHIGS NOW: DEYSOY. - as ond once noon a- cos -noussccassasstmmsscesccodcuccacsmeccmne 168 Goon ACtOrios 1 Chesapeake Bay. =.25c---c-s-0 cnsncniseccaccacsesccronsccccorcecasececcen 168 236. Factories on the Southern coast. ......ececscceenenancccncnccncnes eee ee ale aaeie 169

43, Methods: of manufacture: scocccccstccdoccnsceacccccgeaence Pee aa ceenesadaeesecessaaee 169 237. The principles involved in the manufacture of oil...........-- SA cciiwaneenseeonest e-- 169 238. A description of processes employed in manufacture..... Benes en ae neadennnan qa - 170 239. A description of the processes employed in refining .........--....------- eee eer toilet,

171

2a0s ENG Ade wNy OL, George Wie Mila iGo COs, (oon diac ac cteeccsenttccaerecaaswsenasecacen

VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS, ued Page. SEcTION M.—THE MANUFACTURE OF Of AND GUANO—Continued. 43. Methods of manufacture—Continued. 241. The factory of Judson, Tarr & Co...... MeECOs eee detec ci easieldsintalendsceesensnccsscee, LIL 242. The factory of Joseph Church & Co.........2.-c-secseenee pie eerie Chie sare snide 2 = siatalee 172 243. The factory of Kenniston, Cobb & Co..... din elaine} cisioia clots Setemteap nates aioe wind eiweisle «caida o ee -244, The factory at Napeagie, IN. WY. Jn-sceieen 25 -- sce cceoaactenecwnccis Seiettreelne sate = sige 5 ila} 245. The model of the factory of Joseph Church & Co....... Sadsee Seamnerie te lessee astiga~ 174 246.. The.costiof anol factory je qq-ie/onn 0-2-4 <sees [seine ces elmo eee ete arya Sees 174 247. Organization of the fishing gangs ..-....... BORER IDE CHE CODE Se OnOtoC 3005" CSSA eR eB CES 176 248. The advantages claimed for floating factories...2...--.cscececnccennneccenecccescens 176 249. Mr. Goodale’s improved method for extracting the oil.............. ete a Misses areata aie Be aheie( 250.. Proposed. chemical method .......-..---.---.--.00. Sefer ate ini s iofols otal stulsiota ta ecteleietete a tia oe 178 251. Proposed mechanical methods. ....-..--.--+-- aepmpela|std vied o1= Cre cine a eemideaete ee» 178 44, Value Of. fish 10 MONUSACturers q< a0nn<ecnj-<-000,<050cenanplen no selsas seas a aiale fetes eee aees = 178 252. Prices paid for fresh menhaden in different seasons.........-----.--<- eeaagcee ae eeeee 178 253. Prices proportionate to amount of oil to be obtained from the fish ......-...----.-. =) 180 254 dOil-yvield ofmorthern Wishes Je os ccs sala ne nitatne a mainte ss = ao nioiee ald a's elem eee - 180 bins -(Ovibialele Berne) salt) Nb GRpeegederccs c¢ an oon SoS SCO Sor SOOO S OS SU BOUNSES-F Saashcose 183 256.. Comparative oil-yield in different localities... ....2. 222. sce esecenee conc enn ese ete sen ae 13} 45. Statistics of the manufacture of oil ANd QUAND... -cecneeneaneeecneane Ve mtaleiateletonieia eccliedwaees (084 257 eReturnsfor the State.of Maine 2 seckswsesnsiesesneismiteesie aestsom stdeis «fecie area acldamiee 184 258) Returns, for the UnitediStates: cae cmasecteme cas sale aseanaselaseracemanem seareces aca 187 259. Comparative yield of oil from the menhaden and whale fisheries -........---.---.--- 190 -260. Comparative yield of nitrogen from the menhaden-factories and from the imports of DITO CU ANO eee cece ome a seman elele re eleee ee oe aio ain ate eames eile te elite ee = ofall = - 191 261. The associations of oil and guano manufacturers. (See also Appendices Land M).. 191 46. The uses of menhaden otl and the otl market. ...-.- ee eeee cen n ee ween ee neem nneens Boceesemess 191 , 262;. he uses.of menhaden Oils aseeeeee seein ea cemwae= scien sae clonae tela Banas odeAnee ABS 191 263. The markets for menhaden oil. ..... ihe oat m Poise pple bobn cine delaste siaideeamtiam teemet ee oetae 192 264. "Theisrades of oiler qu sseamoscaeciece ere sic sissies seiee sas cee Oac Bere dane ocondess 206 192 265; "Lhe prices/of oll. {(Seeialso A ppendix Keo ocios- vnc siete ee aaltepet foto ep: 266. Reviews of the market for individual years... 4%... -..ccccceccnccccscuccnccucoccane 193 ‘SpcTION N.—MENHADEN AND OTHER FISH, AND THEIR PRODUCTS, AS RELATED TO AGRICULTURE.— By W. 0. Atwater. (See also Appendix Q) ....... adinecsdabeuwes des sie Sale lea aetneele 194 OY. AANtrOdUCtOLTY. NOLO 5 <ncmcjeo= neces co secpeismenucisioe eis ceraacetie sc ban enenes aeteaae eet 194 47. Menhaden in.a fresh state used as a Fertilizer: = soe. na aewesacne sac dencsceme sine dasvoasese ae 195 268. Use among Indians and early colonists..........---..--------- abomiedexidegienancanae . 1195 269. Use at beginning of present century and later -.....-.-.-2c0-seccen-neceeeceseeccces 196 270, Use-at, present ay nis n0othcjiade ed cecamiemcte seca asian oldie dajecebsietlvaceemactegeacene 200 ABT US SCTOPIAS MANUTE....x'aacam coenne scam tnccamse ce caccsaarancacdeeweeuisscces suicaneaomee cee 5 200) 271. The inception of its use. Experience in Maine.....-. sebeniniés's cin cloe Sue seca eteeetione 200 272. Experience in Connecticut. Mr. Clift. ..........--.cc-es-- Semele wletaratfe atemiatotetetom alate ae 201 2735 xperience,of Mr: Hall and) Mr. Loveland so. <s-c..<<ssouncecice ses cemecesmeecse ochiaa 203 274. Statements of Professor Cook of New Jersey ----0--<-22-=<t-scesce-secsceenssossae- 205 275. Further experience in Maine. Messrs. Hinckley, Kanneten, Smith, and Captain (Colbbels} SS so heos bono CeO DROS OO be GnOs QoDUED DdoC sasosdaoDSsadosboonbataccascccnos geese (205 276. .Other'bestimony sa. -.ce)(--e anne aoe e oad ae ese nae eee cee avetsteneioeeeeaeee 208 AQ! | The! MANUFACHUN ENO AIST ING NMUTES soo ce nays ae Bee eo ote ee eae er ee ee EE OL) 277. Early attempts at manufacture in Connecticut ......-..- .--.-0--ceee enecne eens ennnce 208 278. The De Molon process in Europe and in America ......--.---202 ceenee sence eee nne ene 208 279) _Harls. mannfacture.n bhode lslandacccseocecmeceecema (ano acs| oaijaae em eee=e s wee auaes 209 280). Manufacture:in Canadas... ca. -<ceeeeee ea eeeeeees eee Beeb nd qeadoccecbaBonoccnos 210 281._ Manufacture of cancerine in New Jersey ...--<----------s-00e- ERS COQ OSE CRO IOOBE ESE 210 2082.2 Marly. manufactures in Maine <0) saesinnlenoce eaemeenoesianaseue om ennensecesier sane a Pal) 2283,-Harlyomanufacture.in brane... <.sesecccadesusescceeaeatemenaeeee aeetes care teenie 212 2845 Marly, manufacture in) Enpland 2... ssce~ecamann(asscmeemenenatcensecm aaa ere Scgandecne - 213 285. Other European manufactures of fish manures...... ...-.2eeceeeceees Sita mavin Taye antes w 213 286,, ChewNonwepian fish-onanod’ ..ncjacancnstancensninecosccsaree uses erceearauseenacicacaiss 214 “287. Manufacture of glue and removal of oil in preparation of fish guanos ......---.-.-.- 217 288. Success of fish-guano as.a fertilizer in Europe ............-.------ Sonmocdongaostocds 218 289. The manufacture of fish fertilizers in the United States........-..--sseesseeeeenonee 218 290. Kinds of fertilizers made from fish refuse -...-.......---.------0- eects agaanonosis 219 291. Lish-gnano; methods of manufacture and needs of improvement; statements of Professor Goessmann. -sasscceu. cases sedecciceoen ines sade eee aledeecie’s aa ve ale caeeets 223 292. Statement of Mr. Maddocks; manufacture in Maine ...ncennnnnnceccrccerenccenscens rh

TABLE OF CONTENTS. IX Page. SECTION N.—MENBADEN AND OTHER FISH, AND THEIR PRODUCTS, AS RELATED TO AGRICULTURE— Continued. 49, The manufacture of fish manures—Continued. 253. Goodale’s new procesS.---00-----------0--- eee SS eres cstant ce oaee ce 224 Gas AAG DTT GUTH DES bose scicic somos ee ASRS ne ROS OOS SO DOnSaS ceerCHSSoScearscuenecBBoScseHocd 225 295. Immense waste of fish at present. Possibilities of future manufacture....-...--.-. 226 296. ‘‘Acidulated fish” and “Fish and potash salts” ...........2. 22202 .ce eee scene een nne 226 297. Manufacture of ammoniated superphosphates. ..-.-. nr easoabosenoerosccdasoc Blememcsc. 227 50. Chemical composition of menhaden and other fish and of fish manures ....---.------------+ 228 298. Analyses of whole menhaden ond of flesh and bones of whale .......--.. Sadeoooeace 228 299. Analyses of fish fertilizers .......--2 2-2-2 eee nen een ne nee nnn nnn teen sewn n eee ne nce 229 300. Waste from faulty manufacture and use of fish fertilizers -.....--..-.---.-----+----- 230 51. The use of fish fertilizers tn agriculture ..--+++---0+-020-0---- psosSbabasooocossngcotisosdils oq PB 301. Chemistry of plant nuttfition .......... 22-20-2220 - eee e ee eee e ee eens jose SsoRodaooC - 230 302. Essential ingredients of plant food ...........--2-2 enen es cence enon nnn cen e ene ee cenne = PR 303. Exhaustion of soils by crops .-..--- eee acetals eae ieee Saat cea weisiecs cidieieeeeses'ee ak 304, Ingredients commonly lacking in worn-out.soils, and hence most important in ferti- [TEG)Rls Senge c ssa eOOCbesobo ce Snes Robe SEndodic tic bond C6cHSetHCouSHaooHosDSSocdrecEccouc 233 305. Principles to be observed in the manufacture and in the purchase of fertilizers..... « 233 306. Composition, character, and uses of fertilizers in general.......-.-.----------------- 233 307. Explanation of chemical terms used in fertilizer analyses. ..-..-.-.----------++----- 234 308. Valuations of commercial fertilizers. (See also Appendix O) .......---.-----------+ 235 309. Relative values of different fertilizers. Fish and Peruvian guano .........--..----- 244 310. Ways of improving fish manure; fermentation ..-...-..-..------------+--eeeeee eee 247 She (CHD TGS ING 222 ap ocoscedeeeacdoon etooeree Eee pe ncdd edocesosseqaceedoseeesesconctondad 247 LB BOLI GO) SHOCK eae oie sini sie seis esa alae ec aciein es ean ala aaesiatenelslesleiael=imaaim=slolmisin elmn'* 248 313. Danger in using fish fertilizers alone -...........---.--------200------- +22 - eee ofeicce 249 52. Fish as food for domestic antmals. ...-.-. 222-22 2en nnn ewww ne wenn nn wenn ene nnn ne en ane ane 250 314. Laws of animal nutrition as shown by experiments. European researches.....----. 250 315. General principles of feeding, maintenance, and production..........-.-.----------- 251 316. Digestion of foods by animals as tested by European experiments......---------.--- 254 317. What is essential to economy in feeding. Proportions of albuminoids and carbo- LIV GIES se paksasocenssnscocsecbiabondssoosecbedes cceseosoubesEpecouencdanesecascciciac 255 318. Composition and valuations of various food materials. German tables......-..----- 256 319. Early experience in use of fish as food for stock. Feeding cattle on fish in Massa- GIT GIIGs Ssssee Baecbs Sosn6¢ Sono Acer onk SE CNROdDe SEAuticis paecsOSeRocnnsSecoSScDn oa. - 208 320. Experience of Mr. Lawes in England on fish as food for swine ......---.------------ 258 321. Other European experience ..-.......------2 eee ene enn conn en eee e ee cece ee cennes 259 322. Sunecess of Maine farmers in feeding sheep on fish ........-.---------------2---+---- 259 323. Experiment of Professor Farrington on fish scrap vs. corn-meal for sheep. .--.--.--- 260 324. European experiments on digestion and nutritive value of fish..........-..--..----- 263 eB EC ONCUIN IOUS steeteetal ae mie aaa st ectneminte setae ee teeiaeet eta sletermeteriai= ela =|a"= lc in/=!= =mimimi 264 a). Tee MOI ssa bee Seon eeeeock sono SbasoonssocossocsosonedboseddecesSc See Se ee pOCOnEcHC’ 265 ope ISIN I SIDTO) oes a aeioam ae ee cinlee aaiaa nee mne ae aeiniae Aalpianicicic sinsin siainla o/c. w= <n m/ninisinlsimime 265 Bee ERSMAS TONE SOL ALOCK sence me ecee na saan asses eaten eeleccicc nls sicaaie.ctule naiciseiminaiinelninia 266 328. The loss to our agriculture from waste of fish. The cvil .....--..--.---------------- 266 Se POO TEU Vier rs ite ara cre icte eee ain laia cian ees remteesisiciere calcite eia'a ale/s © <e.s'ai duclaraialstetetetmtataistate 266 Appenpix A.—Circular relating to statistics of the menhaden fishery ....-..-...+---2206 -0+---- 268 APPENDIX B.—List of correspondents from whom contributions have been received..........-.- Q71 APPENDIX C.—Bibliography of literature relating to the menhaden ...-...----------2----+ce-0- ee Pate! APPENDIX D.—Extracts from writings of ichthyologists relating to the menhaden.............-. 279 A drawing and description of the Clupea tyrannus and Oniscus pregustator. By B. H. Latrobe. < Transactions of American Philosophical Society, Vol. V, 1802, pp. 78-80.... 279 From Mitchill’s “Fishes of New York.’ < Transactions of Literary and Philosophical SOC Gay Gis Lip VADs 1 6 oe Sede SRE eSpSacsop onc « BodchdagroSanncacbescanosas 282 From Storer’s ‘‘ History of the Fishes of Massachusetts,” 1867, p. 168.... ...-.--.------- 283 From Dekay’s ‘‘ Zoology of New York, Fishes,” 1842, p. 259 -..-.-.-.---.2-22-e-e-eee-eene 284 From Cuvier and Valencienne’s “‘ Histoire Naturelle des Poissons,” XX, p. 424..........- 286 From Uhler and Lugger’s “‘ List of the Fishes of Maryland,’’ 1876, p. 133........----.---. 287 From Perley’s ‘‘ Report on the Sea and River Fisheries of New Brunswick,’ 1852, p.208.. 287 From Gray’s Catalogue of Fish, by Gronow, 1854, p. 140... 22.2... - 2-20 eee ee ene e ene nne 287 From Giinther’s ‘‘Catalogue of Fishes in the British Museum,” VII, p. 436. em awe sa cenwe 288 APPENDIX E,—Catalogue of specimens in the United States National Museum illustrating the history-ompehemenhadensss2seces ccc vide scescccsconsnccssncten testes sebeetewers ete Evewan eee . 289

x TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page.

APPENDIX F.—Tables of ocean temperatures for certain points on the east coast of the United States ..... Sindistesacbd saaagaszasosagNesS SA DSOO QO SOSA DUO SON SEOs cDS900 Sasso Senge seNqac89 SOS05056

TABLE I.—Table of surface temperatures, March, 1876, to February, 1877.......-.----cce2-e-- TABLE II.—Table of bottom temperatures, March, 1876, to February, 1877 ..............----- TaBLEIII.—Table of mean temperatures of surface and bottom, March, 1876, to February, Obese. on 2 pee ree heen es PaeM ene e eee rriaeiaisaa ne isiacinine sei ance nanpe ee npaine c= Sqcn sos55 6 TABLE I[V.—Table of mean temperatures of surface and bottom, March, 1877, to February 28, IGT Ch Se sqaeno 39 cnc 9e5 sass SAS SEs Son ROE SDI SRI OR RRIE JERFIISNS6SoNe sogdcs tabs Hoe Sees APPENDIX G.—Table showing comparative amounts of menhaden, mackerel, shad, and alewives inspected in the State of Massachusetts, 1804 to 1877.......... PoSnAninasaoqsaccoosnoncocsdaseseg APPENDIX H.—List of manufacturers of menhaden oil and guano. (Compiled by Mr. Jasper 1ETAYG®) Sapo ge Sete SoS oO cel SCO ade SRA ame SOs ene Seen Es or oo sao Osan THcgnEaae saactoa5 eatnenic mene APPENDIX I.—Partial list of vessels employed in the menhaden fishery.........-- Sone asssH As : Steamers pes sacceaseste acces nese ROSE SOOO SOnoD NSatesa ren SSHASE ORE soe acanccs: Soreness Sallincawessels peace ewe seca bocswcic oe os ceeeamon eetnee DESHC SOO SIU EROS ICOM SARSSS occ Ss APPENDIX K.—Prices-current of menhaden oil and review of the markets. [From the ‘Oil, lerbane foetal Dinste eying ree) | ha ee ate SSeS c CH Oe GUNC EREDAR Seo Apanecas sas6e=5 Prices-current for the years 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, LOTisse cons cinsces passes e wanes 4 Weekly review of the market for the years 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877..... SCnRS5 APPENDIX L.—Proceedings of the United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association........-. HMirstannnal meeting S74 ---- 8. 6 no eee eee a a[e panne ee eee dana anan anemia ose

Seer beserenr ail mest nbotes, Mer pe pene se CORSCOOCCEOS CRIS REE S SERA SS EESE SStSeAas0e So=S5Ree 5 = Phirdiannwvalimesiinge 610)... -nesnaseeieaele Scnna elements nag negecestbneodenoes soneose Hourthsannnalimeehing 1814) .-2.s0-mperispeceessha-scomseee es =aeeeeeres seem eel ra aise teianis 3 Bfthiannual meetinewd 878-05 sen ccmeccsecelestetees see ee eee = ele Gee eenceeee Ree nce APPENDIX M.—Annual reports of menhaden oil and guano manufacturers in the State of Maine. Mins annal Tepprs, 1873)o~ 2. osieis oeoeeeeeeiee serene e eemaa enn as cee eo eae ee ee ee ee Second-annual report, 1874 coaseemaceeiswaeesaccccsesepianana ance aascnes Saracoscandachesog

-Dhird annual report. TOipiecsseseae ean see wan eisianicn ap aes nels sine eee ee eee eee

Fourth annual report, 1876 ...--..----- Dogg Sate sosecnesn case gseosecnssans sosens- arsoetsec Hifthjannual reponh wie ie se aase tose anner anaes ee Snosscnes aaa se Bac sane 26 (APPENDIX .N'.--Statements: of CarrespQud Nt o's oaccmeienoin sae aeininccinc sige see nc eosin ea maep teen a 1. Statement of W. H. Sargent, Castine, Me., January 26 and December 28, 1874 -......-

2. Statement of J. C. Condon, Belfast, Me., communicated by Marshall Davis, deputy collector; “Belfast: Mo: oa:2 vunat a14-cacsp qeeteenebiacne nc asacee Spree aer sm 5oC hese J..oratementiot R.A. Kriend,, Brooklin -M@is.- s=\aee = sae saat eter eee tenn eae e oases

4. Statement of John Grant, Matinicus light-station, Matinicus Rock, Me., March 31,

WOME eae lo aratain ta joreisiareintntelaraicis itsieinrei oie eine ictets eters cietaree ere let mista se ate eieersietetoee ater ete

5. Statement of Benjamin F. Brightman, Waldoborough, Me., March 18, 1874.........---

6. Statement of L. Maddocks, Booth Bay, Me., December 25, 1877......-...-------0-0« 6

7. Statement of G. B. Kenniston, Booth Bay, Me., February 14, 1874..-...----.-.----.---

8. Statement of Judson Tarr & Co., Rockport, Mass., and Booth Bay, Me., January 23,

ABTA Socociwcdccasccscaises osoe cepeteescaceceeteo senses. -eceee eer et haar ee ase eeernee.

9. Statement of Mrs. B. Humpkrey, keeper of Monhegan Island light, Monhegan Island,

Me; sBepraary 4: 184. sc ccck sc ccee ccs ae cess co cen eee eee et eee ee eae ae cee aes 4

16. Statement of J. Washburn, jr., Portland, Me., February, 1874........-..-------.------

11. Statement of Chandler Martin, keeper of Whale’s Back light, Whale’s Back, N. H., February 23,644; aud January 9 189 ose asm waqeeenen a cncn-a-esea-eeereescciee ones

12. Statement of Thomas Day, keeper of Seguin light, Parker’s Head, Me ...-..-....-.....

13. Statement of William S. Sartell, Pemaquid light-station, Bristol, Me., February 1,

S74. .. .ninim emits Sulake penn niste sasn ian saaiciatibisio de neaaie ici os aceaeio one en ene ne aac

14? Statement of Alden H. Jordan, keeper of Baker’s Island light, Cranberry Isles, Me., December'29; 1873, and/Kebrnary/G: W874 <. aoe acen eee soko a nem ere ee ier aeeeeer sea ee

15. Statement of Washington Olin, keeper of Pond Island light, near Booth Bay, Me.,

February 18, 1874... cca hence seme nee seen oe ao eee ere 16. Statement of an unknown correspondent, Gloucester, Mass., March 28, 1874 ....---.-- 17. Statement of Capt. F. J. Babson, collector of customs, Gloucester, Mass.......---.---- 18. Statement of Simeon Dodge, Marblehead, Mass .....2 ...------ 202 oneceqcenceaennesces 19. Statement of Eben B. Phillips, Swampscott, Mass., January 21, 1874....... ....-.-- *. 20. Statement of Thomas Loring, collector, ee Mass., January 24, 1874,and March

ROASTS wes sincicnceenisd sitios see e cine anne meamanmoswals cise Ee a Re eee ee Bae obmannaeeeoe

BST Taainis ozo meinialeveinie imtayaie > fain\a, = laiwimiatetete Saale ae wine mete crsniciamiateleaate ee eae enacienion oe eons 22. Statement of Heman §, Dill, Wel'fleet, Mass., January 9, 1875 .....eccenenccncnccaceae

291 291 292

293

294

295

296 297 297 298

299 299 304 358 358 359 360 363 365 368 368 369 370 371 372 373 373

375 377

378 379 382 382

385

387 388

390 390

391 391 393 393 395 399 401 403

404 405

TABLE OF CONTENTS. xI

Page. APpprenpDix N.—Statements of correspondents—Continued. 23. Statement of David F. Loring, Highland light-station, North Truro, Mass., March 2,

1874 ..... aoc8ee Sashe peat eeee eee ea scdieakenseatae ae ae SOB passe aasesoce 407 24, Statement of David F. Loring, Cape Cod light-station, Ni ond Truro, kan! February

ORLY @) saeecee ap acweie Seek Ge aaeh aakenlawibtencwa=-ninan rea cope eeatene meses seme 409 25. Statement of Josiah Hardy, 2d, Gat has Btaaa® February 17, 1874, and J: anuary 9,

TOTO ae aan on ances anno ee 8 eS es Se oS eA SEAS COE: 5-40 3 SOB OEtS 410 26. Statement of Alonzo Y. Lothrop, Hyannis, Riad February 18, 1874, and J ray 1,

Reese ane Cue ed Se eee eee Ree eee ee note abe canbe eeten van escccen Snccmce cas = om 419 27. Statement of William S. Auer Nantapees Mass,, January, 1875....<...necccccecens= Sy 8) 28, Statement of R. C. Kenney, Nantucket, Mass., January 21, 1874...........-..----.--. 414 29. Statement of C. B. Marchant, collector of customs, Edgartown, Mass., January 13,

1675. ce oe eb eeeeeeas com oso hee eee eee dake chebaeie ee ea esh cercbscctanemcthce 416 30. Statement of Jason Luce & Co., North Tisbury, Mass., January 6, 1875 ............. - 417 31. Statement of Gallup, Morgan & Co., Groton, Conn., December 28, 1877 ...---..-.-..- Shr ALY. 32. Statement of Luce Brothers, East Lyme, December 4, 1877 ...--..----------2---2---- 418 33. Statement of Daniel T. Church, Tiverton, R. I..-.-. oer eee send a seks Ske 418 34. Statement of E. T. De Blois, Portsmouth, R. I., November 26, 1877........-..-.-.---- 425 35. Statement of H. D. Ball, New Shoreham, R. L., January 11, 1875 ..........--.....-... 425 36, Statement of Henry W. Clark, keeper of Southeast light-house, Block Island, R. L.,

Meabruary, 6; 18S... eens Seo cmaelom tice so mu ewe peewee bees wiswcwelenscceenwccwcscen 425 37. Statement of J. S. Crandall, Watch Hill, R. I., February 20, 1874, and January 1,

1 GY EARS Re Sys 5 es set ose os See Sper Reece a. 427 38. Statement of William H. Potter, Mystic River, Conn., January 27, 1874......... sstee. 428 39. Statement of John Washington, Mystic, Conn., December 30, 1874............. SCRE = 450 40. Statement of Leander Wilcox, Mystic Bridge, Conn., January 15, 1875 .........-..--. 431 41. Statement of Samuel C. Beebe, Cornfield Point light-vessel No. 12, Saybrook, Conn.,

JERE, USE ce cecqnesoososes cba ear ccocoouUSOU HOOD TOCBESEDhccarSscacemoragsecannes 432 42. Statement of R. E. Ingham, Saybrook light-house, Saybrook, Conn., March 17, 1874.. 433 43. Statement of J. L. Stokes, Westbrook, Conn., February 25, 1875 ..-..- Sac aconsnadseo¢ 435 44, Statement of F. Lillingston, Stratford, Conm -...-..........2-20ceescecennce en nneee-ee 435 45. Statement of B. Lillingston, Stratford, Conn., February 23, 1874.......-.--.--------- 437 46. Statement of George W. Miles, Milford, Conn., January 17, 1874 .......-..-...-...--- 437 47. Statement of W. S. Havens, Sag Harbor, N. Y., January 1, 1875........ ......-..--.. 441 48, Statement of J. Norrison Raynor, agent of Sterling Company, Greenport, December

Cal) LIS TDs coe sosesestnee sooonad dé cceoaodosnbos ca caoseoond so ocoososespnocSSndecemasSoss 443 49, Statement of Hawkins Brothers, Jamesport, N. Y., February 25, 1875...-....-.-- zeoe 443 50. Statement of Benjamin H. Sisson, Greenport, R. I., January 29, 1874............-..-- 445 51. Statement of David G. Vail, River Head, Long Island, March 20, 1875 ......--...---- 447 52. Statement of Joseph Whaley, Point Judith light, Point Judith, R. I., December 28,

DS ie senate a te ars are ee etal tae aie lorie wie ante weenie ciaamineroae dace es seadasceect axles ss ecdes 449 53. Statement of A. G. Wolf, Absecom light, Atlantic City, N. J., March 6, 1874......... 450 54. Statement of Albert Morris, Somers Point, N. J., January 12, 1875......--...-.------ 451 55. Statement of D. E. Foster, Cape May light-house, N. J., February 15, 1875 ....... coos 4003 56. Statement of A. A. Owens, Philadelphia, Pa., March 31, 1875............------------+ 453 57. Statement of James H. Bell, Mispillion River, Delaware Bay, January 23, 1875....... 454 58. Statement of Benjamin Tice, Maurice River light, January 11, 1875 ............. Sao. ear’ 59. Statement of Joseph B. Benson, Bombay Hook, Del., January 18, 1875 ...........---. 457 60. Statement of Hance Lawson, Crisfield, Md., January 22, 1874......----------.-..---- 458 61. Statement of Isaac D. Robbins, Hog Island, February 21, 1874 ........---...-.-- eect 400 62. Statement of J. L. Anderton, Apateague Island, Va., January 12, 1875............... 460 63. Statement of G. Henry Seldon, Kinsale, Westmoreland County, Va., August, 1874... 461 64. Statement of Henry Richardson, Cape Henry, February 9, 1874 .......--...---------- 464 65. Statement of C. G. Manning, Edenton, N. C., January 6, 1875 .......--.-------------< 465 66. Statement of A. W. Simpson, jr., Cape Hatteras, N. C., April 15, 1874 ........-.-..--. 465 67. Statement of A. W. Simpson, jr., Cape Hatteras, N. C., January 20, 1875........-.--- 470 68. Statement of A. W. Simpson, jr., Cape Hatteras, N. C., January 25, 1875......-.---- an, 470 69. Statement of Wallace R. Jennett, Cape Hatteras, N. C., February 26, 1874 ....-....-. 474

70. Statement of A. C. Davis, Beaufort, N. C., February 14, 1874, and January 27, 1875... 475 71. Statement of W. T. Hatsel, Body’s Island, N. C., March 4, 1874, and February 23,1875. 477

72. Statement of W. A. Harn, Morris Island, S. C., January 21, 1875............---------- 478 73. Statement of Patrick Conner, Daufuskie Island light, S. C., March 15, 1875...-.....- o) Ad 74. Statement of George Gage, Beaufort, S. C., January 20, 1874 .....-..---.---2- 22 +e eee 479

75. Statement of Joseph Shepard, Saint Mary’s, Ga., March 30, 1874, and January 28,1875. 479 76. Statement of J. F. Hall, Brunswick, Ga., April 11, 1876 ........-.......-- SSE OOO AES say age

XII

Page

APPENDIX N.—Statements of correspondents—Continued. 2 :

77. Statement of Capt. David Kemps, Yellow Bluffs, Fla., February 10, 1875........ Bette. 481

72. Statement of Charles Koch, Jacksonville, Fla., January 15, 1874 ...............-.-.--- 482

79. Statement of D. P. Kane, Matagorda, Texas, March 1, 1874.............22..20-ce eee e ee 483

APPENDIX O.—Miscellaneous items regarding the use of fish for manure...............--.-.----- 483 1. The earliest printed account of the use of menhaden for a fertilizer, being an extract

from an article by. Ezra.’ Hommedien, 1801... - 2.0 eevee ewee ee eee atetncns panpad 483

2. Letter from C. A. Goessman on the agricultural value of menhaden fertilizers. ....... 485

. 8. A description of the factory of the Pacific Guano Company at Wood’s Holl, Mass.... 487

4. ‘The Cumberland Bone’ Company siworks.-.- 0255 se tse en teen ee ce seen eee eee tees soe. 491

5. The Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company’s works........... SHS onpobabesarna dost co OHSee 492

6. LheiCrowelljMannfacturing, Company * 25-2. leee en bese bce. cen ssh ooe eee ee cee 493

7. Method of calculating costs of valuable ingredients of fertilizers. By W.O. Atwater. 495

8. Improvedimethodstofidryingmfish-scrap.. jo. Gnsene seeee == + sees see eee eames. 502 APPENDIX P.—Exports of menhaden oil, from the port of New York, from January, 1875, to July,

eve 5 35 Sans 5s so se endo Sop gesoneosssooce sosod.oc0 3bonst seb noD SRE Soo dood atooSoosu0 503

APPENDIX Q.—Supplementary works, September 22, 1878... ...--.-.-226 0225200. teen ee pec e eee cene 506

_.1. An early allusion to the ‘‘ fat-back” on the Southern coast ........-.--.-----.------ 1. 506

+2; Departure/of, shewschools'inithetfall peso teeeeee shinee sete meer nlc sees ceo e mee ete 506

3./ Lheispawning/orounds of thesmenhadene ss ..c.5 sciee wane gceellseseececs cecnienleoaee 507

4. Menhaden fishing on a Long Island steamer. By Ernest Ingersoll ......-.---..----- 508

5., The manufacture of sardines from menhaden 22.0. 20.5 5-05.02. ens cen cece eee c ce 512

6.comalloi-tryine ain Maine 18602 eee eessaseennse meee eaee cee eee ee eae eetem ile eee acl =e 513

7. The use of fish for manure by the early colonists of Massachusetts ......-...--.-+--- 514

8, A fish fertilizer company in Boston, 1860.........-..-.. sane esos a 1 See etie 514

Hxplanahiom Of plates toc «ntsc semlanteie +> etaelatel= =o ciee ile ale ame stetste atelne Ohelafesteeetarete (ee iaatate 515

Alphabetical index............ noctaleislaciaetets Seca pale baa nln nieleiacee eects Bee Waeacaee fisecs O19

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I.—THE NATURAL AND ECONOMICAL HISTORY OF THE AMER- ICAN MENHADEN,

By G. Brown GOODE.

A—INTRODUCTION. 1.—OBRJECT OF THE MEMOIR. Previous memoirs in this series.

1. In the first report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries,* was commenced the publication of a series of memoirs upon the im- portant fishes of the United States. Professor Baird inaugurated the work with two treatises from his own pen with the following titles:

I. THE Scup. Stenotomus argyrops, (Linn.) Gill.t Il. THE BLUEFISH. Pomatomus saltatrix, (Linn.) Gill.t

The present memoir is the third of this series. The work of prepar- ing it was assigned to me in September, 1874. Ihave tried to make it exhaustive, including everything known about the subject, and statistics up to January 1, 1878. There are still, however, many questions which need further study, for the subject is not at all well understood. I send the manuscript to the printer with reluctance, hoping at some time to resume the study of the many unsolved problems.

The commercial importance of the menhaden.

2. The menhaden has grown greatly in favor within a comparatively short time. Twenty-five years ago, and before, it was thought to be of very small value. A few millions were taken every year in Massachu- setts Bay, Long Island Sound, and the bays of New Jersey. A small portion of these were used for bait; a few barrels were occasionally salted in Massachusetts to be exported to the West Indies. Large quantities were plowed into the soil of the farms along the shores, stimu- lating the crops for a time, but in the end filling the soil with oil, parch- ing it, and making it unfit for tillage. Since that time manifold uses have been discovered. As a bait-fish, this is found to excel all others. For many years much the greater share of all our mackerel have been caught by its aid, while our cod and halibut fleet use it, rather than

* United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. | —— | Part 1. | —— | Report | on the | Condition of the Sea Fisheries | of the | South Coast of New England | in | 1871 and 1872. | By | Spencer F. Baird, | Commissioner. | —— | With supplementary papers. | —— | Washington: | Government Printing Office. | 1873. 8vo., pp. xlvii, 852, 40 plates, 2 maps.

tOp. cit., pp. 223-235. { Op. cit., pp. 235-252.

1F

2 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

any other fish, when it can be procured. The Dominion mackerel fleet buy it in quantity, and its value has been thought an important element in framing treaties between our government and that of Great Britain. As a food resource it is found to have great possibilities. Many hun- dreds of barrels are sold, salted, in the West Indies, while thousands of barrels are salted down every year for domestic use by families living near the shore. In many sections the fresh fish are sold in the market. Within five years has sprung up an important new industry, which consists in packing these fish in oil, after the manner of sardines, for home and foreign consumption. The discovery made by Mr. Good- ale, that from these fish may be extracted, for the cost of carefully boil- ing them, a substance possessing all the properties of Liebig’s ‘ extract of beef,” opens up a vast field for future development. As a food for domestic animals, in the shape of “ fish meal,” there seems also to be a broad opening. Asa source of oil the menhaden is more important than any other marine animal: its annual yield usually exceeds that of the whale (from American fisheries) by about 200,000 gallons, in 1874 not falling far short of the aggregate of all the whale, seal, and cod oil made in America. The refuse of the oil-factories supplies a material of much value for manures: as a base for nitrogen it enters largely into the composition of most of the manufactured fertilizers. The amount of ‘‘ammonia” derived from this source in 1875 was estimated to be equivalent to that contained in 60,000,000 pounds of guano from Peru, the gold value of which would not be far from $1,920,000. In 1876 the yield of the menhaden fishery was more than twice that of any other earried on by the fishermen of the United States. In the value of its preducts it was surpassed only by the cod and mackerel fisheries.* Imperfect information regarding the species.

3. At the time of beginning the investigation, the results of which are partially detailed in this memoir, comparatively little was known about the menhaden. ‘The species had been described or referred to in most of the books on the ichthyology of North America, and in

* The following table of estimates shows in a general way the relative values of the fisheries in 1876:

. . Yield in Fisheries. pounds. Value.

Wenhaden| AShery: = 15-2) meeae cee tacos ce ieiin ae See ae eee eles ate ai ete 462, 000, C00 $1, 657, 790 CTT NEA Ree ee aE ABC OS BIE IR CRs ie eee eee ne | 215, 000, 000 4, €25, 540 IMIREKOREMMISHODYC mae ace acne tee eres ne pate eeloe me eicieee cee ieee eees serene ete 49, 000, 000 2; 375, 262 inshenesioL tne) oreah lakes\\(1872)2 -- foes see aaceee setae eeee seeereeenoe 32, 250, 000 1, €00, 000 Salmonwisheny ot Columbia River: < iccssesek sc osereee ceeee ceases coceeeeee 30, 000, 000 2, 500, 000 FONT BSSSHOLY io -inainct cise close os eae ecu come cies eee ee Eee meet man omee eee 22, 000, 600 1, 546, 24

Nhadwmisnernya (estimate) mecee- soc «less sees eee er eee ae eee eee ee neeeee 20, 000, 000 J, 000, 000 CUD RHSHBUV a eerste fetta aes ine eeininie «none eee nese inseam selenite ate eee eee 7, 760, 600 504, 400 BiMehshAShery.-.<is255 = s'ee soaks csc cece loses cease asec sesuee cess a eee eeeee 7, 68, 000 424, 000 Swordfish fishery ..---- 1, 500, 600 165, 000 Bonito fishery ..--.-- 2, 200, 000 143, 000 Squeteague fishery 1, 200, 000 138, 200 Flounders fishery.-.-.--. 1, 827, 000 109, 620 Herring fishery (partly in British waters) ......-......--.---+-2e0-------- 27, 933, 500 507, 977 AMD el HITS Oyo Ao ahe be adoco Gaon IaOOOA po Ions og Seodeounensosnedsasos6dsdesGen saéeuesse 2, 850, 000 Oysterifisheryenaseccere essere tees ea anicesre-eecees ea eas Gea = Geers eee peeeereeaseene 25, 000, 000

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 3

some of the general ichthyological treatises. Mitchill, Storer, and Dekay had given imperfect figures. Allusions were made to its economical value by some of the books mentioned, and in agricultural and statis- tical works occasional reference had been made to its importance as a manure. Up to the present day the reports of the Commissioner of Agriculture have barely referred to the existence of this source of fer- tilizing material. Many persons engaged in fishing or manufacturing had a comprehensive knowledge of some ‘parts of its history, but these had never been written or printed. There was no adequate account of this fish accessible to the student. Recognizing the necessity of supply- ing this need, the Commissioner of Fisheries chose this species as the next to be studied.

2.—MEANS USED TO GATHER INFORMATION.

4, A circular was issued, December 20, 1873, requesting information upon many points in the history of the menhaden, and propounding fifty-eight questions for the guidance of those disposed to aid in the investigation.* This was distributed to manufacturers, fishermen, and all known to be interested in the fisheries. Through the courtesy of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Light-House Board it was also sent to all coliectors of customs and light-house keepers on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. <A second edition of this circular was issued in 1874.

5. Personal letters have been addressed to nearly all the intelligent respondents to the circular, and to many others, asking information upon uncertain points.

6. The attention of the marine branch of the Fish Commission has for four seasons been especially directed to the menhaden, especially with a view to learning about its food and its habits of spawning.

3.—SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

7. At the beginning of this work Professor Baird gave me five or six pages of closely-written manuscript containing his own observations made during five or six summers on the coast of New England. These have been of the greatest importance, and my own work has been little more than that of expanding and carrying out the suggestions there made. I have also made use of notes made by Professors Smith and Verrill, and by Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, and the testimony taken by Pro- fessor Baird, in 1872.

Personal observations and aid of individuals.

8. While with the Commission at Eastport, Me.,in 1872; Portland, Me., in 1873; at Noank, Conn., in 1874; at Wood’s Holl, Mass., in 1875; and at Salem, Mass., and Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1877, I used every oppor- tunity to study this fish. I have also had opportunities of observing it at the mouth of the Saint John’s River, Florida; in the Potomac, at sev-

* This circular is reproduced in Appendix A.

4 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

eral of the fisheries; at Greenport, N. Y., and Provincetown, Mass. In October, 1877, I visited Mr. H. L. Dudley, at his works on Pine Island, Connecticut, and there had an excellent opportunity of observing the operations of an oil and guano factory. A similar opportunity was atforded me by the officers of the Pacific Guano Company at Wood’s Holl. Here I was enabled, by the aid of Mr. Herbert Gill, stenographer, to obtain very full statistics.

In addition to the circulars, over two hime personal letters have been written. In almost every case full and satisfactory replies were received. The following gentlemen have been particularly obliging :—

Mr. H. L. Dudley, Secretary of United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association, New Haven, Conn.; Mr. D. T. Church, Tiverton, R. _ L; Prof. C. A. Goessman, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass.; Mr. E. H. Jenkins, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Conn.; Hon. S. L. Goodale, Saco, Me.; Mr. Hh. G. Blackford, New York City ; Mr. Barnet Phillips, New York City; Mr. W. O. Alli- son and Mr. Jasper Pryer, New York City.

I am also under obligation to Prof. W. O. Atwater, of Wesleyan Uni-- versity, who has written the portion relating to agriculture; to Mr. H. L. Dudley, for advice and criticism; and to Mr. Herbert A. Gill of the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. William* Jameson, and Mr. Walter P. Stoddard, of Wesleyan University, for aidin preparing the manuscripts for the press. My associate, Dr. T. H. Bean, has worked with me in studying the specific characters of the two species of Brevoortia. The drawings are by Mr. J. H. Emerton, of Salem, and Mr. H. L. Todd, of Washington. Electrotypes have been obtained from the ‘ American Agriculturist,” from George W. Miles & Co., the American Sardine Com- pany, and the Pacific Guano Company.

Responses to the circular of inquiry.

9. The circular of inquiry elicited responses from the correspondents named below, in Appendix B, most of which were carefully prepared, and in many cases give the results of years of observation. In Appendix N will be found these responses in full.

Published accounts of the species.

10. In discussing the history of the name and classification of the Brevoortia tyrannus and its allies, allusion is made to various books, and so incidentally under other heads. In Appendix C will be founda complete bibliography of the subject, containing about one hundred and forty citations. Many of these authorities have been quoted in the text. Some of the most important descriptions have been reproduced in Appendix D.

Most of the work on this report was done in the winter of 1874~’75. Since that time two pamphlets have been published, containing very valuable contributions to the knowledge of the menhaden. From these

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 5

I have derived much information and have quoted freely. The first was the report of Messrs. Boardman and Atkins.* The most recent contribution is that prepared by Mr. Luther Maddocks, under the au- spices of the Maine association.t This is a most interesting little essay, especially valuable for the complete statistics of fisheries and manufac- tures in Maine, and the account of the relations of the fisheries to the fishermen, the shore population, and the property of the adjoining towns.

The collections of the United States National Museum.

11. The collections of the Fish Commission, deposited in the National Museum, contain over one hundred bottles of menhaden in alcohol, including probably over one thousand specimens, from many localities, with photographs and casts. <A list of these is given in Appendix E,

There is also a model of the menhaden fishing steamer ‘‘ Leonard Brightman” with seine-boats (No. 25824, Ethn. Cat.), made by Joseph Lawler, of Bristol, Me.; models of the Cape Ann seine-boat (No. 25800), with fittings, and the Cape Ann seining-dory (No. 25827), from Higgins and Gifford, of Gloucester; a full series of ‘‘ fittings” for seine-boats, manufactured by Wilcox and Crittenden, of Middletown, Conn., includ- ing “cleats” (No. 25177), “‘ steering rowlocks with stern-sockets” (Nos. 2511314), “ oar-holders” of old and new models (Nos. 2517172), “ davit- iron” (No. 25166), ‘*tow-iron” (No. 25167), and “tow link and hook” (No. 25168); a pump box and haft for seine-boat (No. 29499) from Andrew Kennedy, of Provincetown. The Pacific Guano Company is represented by a large model of their works, the same which was ex- hibited in their pavilion at the Exposition grounds in Philadelphia, and there is a very satisfactory model of the oil factory of Joseph Church & Co., at Bristol, Me. (No. 26899), made by Joseph Lawler.

4,—SOURCES OF ERROR WHICH HAVE BEEN SHUNNED. The difficulty of obtaining exact information.

12. It has been necessary to make allowances for many inaccuracies of statement on the part of our correspondents. Some of them, having

*The | Menhaden and Herring Fisheries | of Maine | as sources of fertilization. | A Report made to the Maine Board of Agriculture | By Samuel L. Boardman, Secretary of the Board | and | Charles G. Atkins, formerly Fish Commissioner of Maine, | 8vo. 1875, pp. 67.

Under direction of the Maine Board of Agriculture, Mr. Samuel L. Boardman, its secretary, visited in 1874 and 1875 nearly all the manufacturing establishments in Maine, thoroughly investigating their operations. The account of the agricultural uses of fish is the most complete which has yet been published (pp. 34-67). Mr. Charles G. Atkins, formerly commissioner of fisheries for the State of Maine, and for several years in charge of the salmon-hatching establishment at Bucksport, contributed a very thorough study of the habits of the fish (pp. 1-33).

+The Menhaden fishery of Maine | with statistical and historical details | its | rela- tions to Agriculture | and as a | direct source of human food |——| New processes, products, and discoveries | | Published by the | Association of the Menhaden Oil and Guano Manufacturers of Maine | Press of B. Thurston & Company, Portland, 1878. 8vo. p. 46, 4 cuts.

6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. -

been unable to obtain exact information, have ventured to guess at what they did not really know from experience. I do not think that there has been intentional misrepresentation or any effort to withhoid information. There being no ulterior object, such as future legislation, in collecting this information, there has been no temptation to con- cealment; still the testimony has been partly that of interested persons. The most fair and honorable men, however careful may be their obser- vations, are involuntarily influenced by preconceived opinions or by considerations of personal interest, and, even if it were possible to secure unprejudiced opinions, these necessarily would express only part of the truth. Then, too, the movements of fishes are so capricious, the oppor- tunities of observation so few and so imperfect, that satisfactory results can, in most cases, be reached only after years of constant study.

Prejudices and superstitions.

13. Some curious prejudices and fancies have been encountered among the fishermen. These refer chiefly to the time and manner of spawning, the character of the eggs, the nature of their food, and the relation of the fish to its peculiar parasite.

Inaccuracies of observation and statement.

14. There has been some difficulty in eliminating unreliable data from the great mass of facts contributed by correspondents. This, however, has not been so great as was apprehended at the beginning of the work, since a knowledge of the beliefs and traditions current among sea- faring men renders it easy to detect many of the errors at once. The coneurrent testimony of a number of reliable correspondents has been thought sufficient to establish points in question: when possible, these have been investigated personally, to render their establishment doubly certain. A large proportion of the communications received have evi- dently been prepared with much care. It is believed that many facts hitherto unrecorded have been brought to light by this investigation. All communications are given in full in Appendix N. This bas been done both to show the character of the testimony upon which this his- tory has been founded, and to put upon record many facts which, while not directly connected with the subject under consideration, are never- theless of value to the student of the fisheries.

B.—THE NAMES OF THE MENHADEN. 5.—POPULAR NAMES.

Local names and usages.

15. Brevoortia tyrannus has at least thirty distinet popular names, most of them limited in application within narrow geographical boundaries. To this circumstance may be attributed the prevailing ignorance regard-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 7

ing its habits and migrations, which has perhaps prevented the more ex- tensive utilization of this fish, particularly in the Southern States. It ac- counts for the extraordinary blunder of the compilers of the fishery sta- tistics of the census of the United States for 1870, in which the oils pro- duced from the whitefish of the great lakes (Coregonus albus) and the whitefish of Connecticut are classed as identical, a blunder which is followed by a number of others of the same character and quite as certain to mislead. The discrepancy of local names also enables us to understand how the extensive manufacturing interests and fisheries connected with this fish have gradually sprung up, little noticed save by those directly interested in the business.

The geographical distribution of the popular names.

16. In Maine and Massachusetts the name “ pogy ” is almost univer- sally in use, though in the vicinity of Cape Ann it is partially replaced by “hard-head” and “ hard-head shad.” The name “menhaden? is exclu- sively applied in Southern Massachusetts, the Vineyard Sound, Buzzard’s Bay, and Narragansett Bay, where it appears to have originated. From the eastern boundary of Connecticut to the mouth of the Connecticut River the name “ bony-fish” predominates, while in the western part of the State the species is usually known as the ‘‘ white fish.” In the waters of New York the usage of two centuries is in favor of ‘‘mossbunker,” a name which also holds throughout New Jersey. In Delaware Bay, the Potomac, and Chesapeake Bay other variations are found in “ alewife” and “ygreentail.” Virginia gives us “ bug-fish” in its various forms, while in North Carolina we first meet the name of “fat-back,” which is more or less prevalent as far south as the Saint John’s River, Florida. In all the Southern States, especially in the vicinity of Beaufort, N. C., the names ‘“ yellow-tail” and ‘‘yellow-tailed shad” are occasionally heard. I am informed that in the Indian River, Florida, the fish is occasionally called the “ shiner” and the “ herring.”

17. The following table gives the usage at a number of points on the coast chosen to exhibit most clearly the geographical distribution of the popular names of Brevoortia tyrannus :

Passamaquoddy Bay, Me....... Pogy; Bony-fish.

ase. Me... se ase to oa se Pogy ; Menhaden. PCSOs 5 oo fe coe cee SED OW. Gels NG) 5. seins w.c,0 sop ahes Pogy.

Cranberry Isles, Me..........-. Pogy.

Sargentsville, Me ...........4.- Pogy.

Matinicus Rock, Me............ Pogy; Porgie; Menhaden. Newellarbor, Me: ..:... -< sds .-- Menhaden.

Manhegin Island, Me ....,..... Pogy.

Damariscotta, Me.......-...... Pogy ; Mossbunker.

PCHSGMRE OMG, 6. acess: 02's o:tidié Pogy ; Menhaden.

8 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Miseonous; Me™: 20.5 )2 202.0282 Pogy ; Menhaden. Boothbay i MMe: .).2.') So eee soe Pogy; Menhaden. Brsolle iJ. .).c Oo Pogy; Menhaden. Hound Pond, Me: :2.f204. 5.222 Pogy. Waldoboro’, Mex toss coe a. Pogy. Pond Island, Mes... vo tses Pogy ; Menhaden. Bortland, Me.) 22302602 Ue Pogy. Bine; Point, (Merce. ecu: ieshee Pogy. Bortsmouthi Nera, Sete Pogy. Reckport, Massie: 22.522. 1l6.¢% Pogy ; Menhaden. Gloucester; Mass (262/21) «0 0'ss Pogy; Porgie; Menhaden; Hardhead. Salem, Mass.....- Bee es Ae Pogy ; Hardhead. Marblehead, Mass .....-..2-.2. Hardhead ; Pogy; Menhaden. Swampscott, Mass ............. Pogy ; Menhaden. Bey NTGSS 5/2 ao nnic See ete Pogy; Menhaden. Syiciitleets Mass) 0.) 2/22 <5 alclae Pogy; Hardhead. MrUTO. NbASS ec. Bele Go's wins ep bees Pogy. Provincetown, Mass...--..---.- Pogy ; Menhaden. Chatham, Mass». -.-:.2:c00% «sees Pogy ; Menhaden. Hyannis, Mass .....- ae: Pogy; Menhaden. iNaptucket, Mass. os .-<2-j!d26kien Pogy; Poggie; Menhaden. Edgartown, Mass ........<....- Menhaden. North Tisbury, Mass ..........- Menhaden, Woods Holl, Mass .-.......-.-% Menhaden. ‘New Bedford, Mass .-...-..-..- Menhaden. Pivertans Reds <i, siete sia siete Menhaden. Mowrort. MicD oo. 08 os ewisie etics Menhaden ; Mossbunker, New Shoreham, RB. I., (Block Is?d)Menhaden. ‘ Pombugith: Ry Ds ase casteeke Menhaden. Wateh Hill, R.1..... SH On Goon Bony-fish. Stomimeton,Conny.j. 2-).-.4..- _.- Bony-fish. PUD eS toon 0/0) 00 A Sa ee ee a Bony-fish. Noank, Commie biotic cbt Bony-fish. New, London, Connie)... <<... Bony-fish. STOLOR (OONTM: ceuieeericcr so1.cis;¢ Bony-fish. Mivme, CONN - ..0...c1tense sok > Bony-fish. | Saybrook, Conn. . eee eek Bony-fish ; White-fish Wiesterook./Conn .: i.5eeceen se: White-fish. Guilford, ‘Conny. )...5.. hae ..-.- White-fish. News Elaven, Conn... 2.c,cs0cemes White-fish; Menhaden. pvtiond. (Conn)... see oe .-. White-fish ; Menhaden. moraniord, Oona: sis sic Awe eo White-fish ; Menhaden; Bunker. Bridgeport, Conn’... <...< eee White-fish. NorwallenConntsec: daicteccc shee White-fish. Montauke Point, NV es ee Bony-fish.

NADEAU NaN ce viene eh Bony-fish.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 9

gamesport, WoW oo. 5. asceee Mossbunker ; Menhaden. SapiBiambor, Noy . 2.220322. Mossbunker.

New York City and vicinity. ...Mossbunker.

Port Monmouth, N. J ....... ,.-Mossbunker.

PMGKELfOn. IN. dS ... cc cmesereee nee Mossbunker.

Walantic sCiby, Ned}. scccpmsccipimels Mossbunker. ‘ Somers Point, N. J ...-..--.<> Mossbunker.

Gane ay, Ni ok .o ss san pastes Bony-fish.

Bombay Hook, Del ..........-. Mossbunker; Oldwife; Bug-fish. Mispillion River, Delaware...... Old-wife.

MU AUTICE FIVE scr cae! so iss «,-( Mossbunker ; Old-wife Chebog. liom Wslamileracere ceric ccc... 5 <'s Mossbunker; Hil-wife. Tangier Sound, Maryland ...... Alewife.

Pocomoke Sound, Maryland ....Alewife.

RTSDOR NEL C wna <li caine oc 6 Alewife.

IO ee Alewife.

Pern ookOut.). 226.225.0256: Alewife.

Apateague Island, Va.......... Alewife.

\VIRASU ICAO 5 0 BS 0 RS a Alewife; Bug-fish.

PPMOIOACS EGIVOL a). 5-5. «)< <n's Sa ease Alewife; Bug-fish; Greentail. Winks ILyer iW ai oss ise ie} os < Alewife; Bug-head. Rappahannock River, Virginia..Old-wife ; Wife; Bug-head. Cape Henry, Virginia .........-. Alewife; Bony-fish.

Bam bom iN Of ot ta cio. sis passions Bug-fish.

Cape PH asbergs 29 -is'- 2 bins wel> Fat-back ; Menhaden. Bemmtort, Ne ©... 300-0550 _2---Fat-back; Yellow-tail shad. Body islands IN. ©...) .i..:3.00 Fat-back.

Wert Macon, NaG ec. . 20 esa. Fat-back.

Srarieston; S20... sts cere ec ss Menhaden; Mossbunker. eatin Mary's, Gai. «o-oo nosis sin'« Menhaden.

Saint John’s River, Florida ..... Menhaden; Mossbunker; Fat-back.

Discrepancies in the popular names.

18. These names are not separated in their distribution by sharply- defined boundaries. Still, as a glance at the table will show, the habitat, if that term may be legitimately used, of each local appellation appears to be clearly marked. Where there is a discrepancy it can usually be explained. For instance, the general use ot the name “ menhaden” in the vicinity of Boothbay, Me., is due to the presence of a large number of fishermen and laborers from Rhode Island who carry on the oil-fac- tories in that region. In the same way the name “ bony-fish ” has been naturalized at Montauk Point and Napeague, N. Y. The factories in that neighborhood are owned by firms in Eastern Connecticut, and the Connecticut “bony-fish fleet” has a favorite cruising ground in the waters of Eastern Long Island. The names “ menhaden” and ‘ moss- bunker ” have been introduced into Florida by northern fishermen, who

10 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

prosecute the winter shad fisheries on the Saint John’s, and these same names are more or less familiar all along the coast wherever the north- ern coasters and fishing vessels are known.

The name preferable for adoption.

19. The adoption of some one suitable name for popular use is emi- nently desirable. ‘‘ Menhaden” is the name most generally known, as well as the most distinctive. It has the additional recommendation of having been derived from an aboriginal language. It has been used in the titles of the two manufacturers’ associations, and it is hoped that this usage will soon be conformed to by all.

Trade-names.

20. Among the manufacturers in Port Monmouth, N. J., who prepare the menhaden as ar article of food, a number of trade-names are in use, such as “ American sardine” (in distinction from the Huropean fish, which is prepared in a similar manner), “ shadine,” and * ocean trout.” *

_Etymologies.

21. A few words concerning the origin of the above-mentioned names may not be out of place. ‘‘Pogy” and “menhaden” are derived some- what remotely from the Indian dialects of New England, the latter apparently from that in use in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the former from ‘a more northern source. The writer is indebted to Prof. J. Hammond Trumbull, of Hartford, Conn., for the following very sugges- tive letter:

* This fanciful name has been the occasion of many erroneous statements. In the New York Times for April 12, 1874, appeared an article entitled “‘ American Sardines,” which contained the following bit of biography: “ The fish selected as the substitute for the sardine of Europe is the menhaden, more commonly known as the moss-bunker, and the scientific name of which is Trutta Oceana, or ocean-troat, Its color issilver, spotted with dark brown, and in the night-time assumes areddish or fiery tinge. They abound in the seas east of the Canadas and in the bays and deep rivers which indent the New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia coasts, and from which they migrate in the spring of the year to the southward, and appear in great shoals along tke coast of Long Island and in the Raritan and Lower New York bays. A mile or two to the north- ward of Sandy Hook is their favorite feeding-ground for the spring and summer, and thither they rendezvous toward the close of April in vast schools, numbering millions. They invariably come on with the warm weather, and remain until fall. Their breed- ing time is late in the winter,” &c. These ridiculous statements, evidently compiled in part from printed accounts of the sea-trout (Salmo immaculatus, Storer) of the North, partly from the statements of the menhaden fishermen, but principally from the imagi- nation of the writer, would perhaps not be worthy of notice had they not been copied by the European newspapers. A translation, with emendations which make it still more absurd, appeared in Das Ausland for August 17,1874. The Stuttgart paper emends its name to Trutta trutia, and states that it resembles in color the brook-trout to which it is very closely allied.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 11

“HARTFORD, CONnN., Dec. 19, 1874. “Mr. G. BROWN GOODE:

“My DEAR Sir: In reply to yours of the 14th respecting the local names of the Brevoortia menhaden, about all I can give you is in my note to the new edition of Roger Williams’ Key, ch. xix. Williams names, together, among spring fish, “‘ Awmstog and Munnawwhatteaty.” Under the former name are included several species of the herring tribe, aum’su (plural, awms’uog) meaning ‘small fish” Munnawhatteatig, corrupted to Menhaden, means, literally ‘fertilizer’ (‘that which man- ures.) This name was applied to the herring and alewife as well as the ‘menhaden’ proper,—all these species being used by the Indians for manuring their cornfields.

“Tn the northern and eastern parts of New England the Brevoortia is commonly called Pauhagen, and probably in some localities ‘ pogha- den’ (as you write it and which is nearer the Indian original) though I have not heard it so pronounced by eastern fishermen. This name in the eastern dialects has precisely the same meaning as ‘menhaden’ (or rather munnawhatteatg in Southern New England). The Abnaki (i. e., coast of Maine) name was Pookagan as Rasles wrote it, and the verb from which it is derived he translated by ‘on engraisse la terre.’

“¢ Mossbunker is classic. Dr. Bartlett in his Dictionary of American- ’ isms quotes from Dow, jr.’s Sermons a remark that ‘under the surface [of some smooth faced people] there may be found as many asperities as there are bones in a mossbunker? ~

“Jacob Steendam mentions it in his poem ‘in the Praise of New Netherland,’ printed in 1661. Dankers and Sluyter, the Journal of whose Voyage to New York, 1679, was translated by Mr. Murphy for the L. I. Historical Society’s Collection, vol. i. (p. 100), saw in the bay schools of innumerable fish, and a sort like herring cailed there ‘ Marsbanckers,

“7 have never looked for the origin of this name, but have had the impression that it was Dutch, perhaps transferred from some European species. I can make nothing of it as Indian.

“Yours truly “J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL.”

22. According to Mr. J. V. C. Smith,* the older fishermen of Northern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine called the fish by the Indian name “ Pauhagen,” and I myself have heard it called “poghaden” by old fishermen about Cape Cod. The modern name may easily have been derived from this by dropping the final sylable. At the present day this name is almost universally in use among the fishermen north of Cape Cod, though it is occasionally varied by “poggie” and “porgy.” The use of the latter name should be carefully avoided: the same name, a corruption of the Indian “scunpaug,” being commonly applied to

* Natural History of the Fishes of Massachusetts, embracing a practical essay on angling. By Jerome V. C. Smith, M.D., Boston. Allen and Ticknor, 1833.

12 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

another fish, the “‘scuppaug” or *‘ scup” (Stenotomus argyrops.)* As may be supposed, the name of Narragansett origin is most exclusively used in Southern Massachusetts and on the shores of Narragansett Bay, the former bome of that tribe of Indians. In its present form it first appeared in print in 1792, in the New York Agricultural Transactions, in an article by the Hon. ve L’Hommedieu.t

23. ‘ Hard-head” and “bony-fish” explain themeelaes both referring to the same peculiarity of structure. The former name was first used about 1813 by Belknap in his History of New Hampshire; the latter, as well as “white-fish,” by President Dwight in his Travels in New England.

24. The application of “white-fish” is also sufficiently evident, although this name is not a distinctive one, being applied to a large group of North American fresh-water fishes, the Coregonide, and in certain localities to the bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix). In England the term “ white-fish” is used to designate cod, haddock, hake, ling, pollock, soles, turbot, plaice, halibut, and whiting

25. “Mossbunker” is a relic of the days of the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam, and the name is still lovingly retained by the inhabitants of Manhattan Island. It was in use as early as 1661, as we learn from an allusion in Jacob Steendam’s poem in ‘Praise of New Netherland” (’t Louf van Niew Nederland).

The allusion to the Mossbunker is as follows :

“Swart-vis, en Roch, en Haring, en Makreel

Schelvis, Masbank, en Voren die (se veel)

Tot walgins toe, de netten’vuld: en heel Min ward ge-eeten.”’

“The black and rock-fish, herring, mackerel, The haddock, mossbanker, and roach, which fill The nets to loathing ; and so many, all

Cannot be eaten.”

Allusion has already been made in the letter of Professor Trumbull, to the great schools of “ marsbanckers” seen by Dankers and Sluyter on their visit to New York, in 1679, and every one remembers the refer- ence to this fish in Irving’s ‘ Knickerbocker,” in connection with the death of the renowned trumpeter, Antony Van Corlear, where the name first appears crystallized in its present form. §

*This probably misled De Kay, who stated that the menhaden were known at the eastern end of Long Island as “skippaugs.” He also remarked that “ pauhagen” (pro- nounced Pauhaugen) was the Narragansett epithet, while “ menhaden” was that applied by the Manhattan Indians.

t+ Appendix O.

{ This poem, cited by Professor Trumbull in the Report of the Commission of Fish and Fisheries for 1871~’72, p. 168, was printed, with an English translation, by Hon. Henry C. Murphy, for the Bradford Club, of New York (Anthology of New Netherland: Bradford Club Series, No. 4, 1865, pp. 52, 55).

§ A History of New York * * * By Diedrich Knickerbocker. New York, 1809.

“Tt was a dark and stormy night when the good Antony arrived at the creek (sagely denominated Haerlem river) which separates the island of Mannahatta from the main

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MBENHADEN. 13

The derivation of this name may be easily traced, it having evidently been transferred by the Dutch colonists from the scad or horse-mack- erel, Caranx trachurus (Linn.) Lacepede, a fish which annually visits the shores of Northern Europe in immense schools, swimming at the sur- face in much the same manner as our Brevoortia, and which is known to the Hollanders as the Marsbanker.* j

In the Museum Ichthyologicum of Gronow,} published in 1754, the name Marsbanker is used in speaking of a scombroid fish, frequently taken with the herring, probably the same below referred to.t

The name is variously spelled ** mossbunker,” “mossbonker,” “ mass- banker,” ‘‘mousebunker,” “ marshbunker,” ‘ marshbanker,” and “ morse- bonker,” and is also familiarly shortened into “ bunker,” a name in com- mon use at the eastern end of Long Island.

26. The name * alewife” was given by the Virginia colonists to this species from its resemblance to the allied species known by that name in England. This name is preoccupied by the Pomolobus pseudoharengus, and should never be applied to Brevoortia.

27. The presence of a parasitic crustacean (Cymothoa preegustator) in the mouth of Brevoortia, when found in southern waters, explains the name ‘“ bug-fish” prevalent in Delaware and Cheaspeake Bays, the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, and the inlets of North Carolina, with its local variations of ‘“‘bug-head” and “ buggy-head.”§ “ Yellow-

land. The wind was high, the elements in an uproar, and no Charon could be found to ferry the adventurous sounder of brass across the water. For a short time he vapored like an impatient ghost upon the brink and then, bethinking himself of the urgency of his errand, took a hearty embrace of his stone bottle, swore most valorously that he would swim across in spite of the devil (Spyt den Duyvel), and daringly plunged into the chasm. * * * Anold Dutch burgher, famed.for his veracity, and who had been a witness of the fact, related tothem * * * that he saw the duyvel, in the shape of a huge moss-bonker, seize the sturdy Antony by the leg and drag him beneath the waves. * * * Nobody ever attempts to swim across the creek after dark, and as to the moss-bonkers, they are held in such abhorrence that no good Dutchman will ad- mit them to his table who loves good fish and hates the devil.”

*See Schlegel, Die Dieren van Nederland, Visschen, p. 4.

t Museum | Ichthyologicum, | sistens | Piscium | indigenorum & quorundam exoti- corum, | quiin | Museo | Lawrentii Theodori | Gronovii, J. U. D. | adservantur, descrip- tiones | ordine systematico. | Accedunt | nonnullorum exoticorum Piscium icones eri incise.| * * * * * | (Cut) | Lugduni Batavorum, | Apud Theodorum Haak, | MDCCLIYV. | folio, 10 preliminary pages, pp. 70.

£80. Scomber linea laterali aculeata, pinna, ani ossiculorum triginta, Arted. Gen. 25, n. 3, Synon. p. 50, n. 3.

Scomber linea laterali curva, tabellis os- Belgis Marsbanker Frequentissime in seis loricata, Gronov. act. ups. 1742, p. 83, Mari Septentrionale cam Clupeis p. 5, n. 4, ibique defer. Trachurus, Bossuet, epigr. p. descriptis capitur.

74, Bellon. Aquat. p. 180, Dale. Hist. of Op. cit. p. 34. Harw., p. 131, n. 5.

§ Captain Atwood states in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, x, 1565, p. 67, that the half-grown menhaden are called “ bug-fish” by the Virginia negroes, because they believe them to have been produced from insects, since they never find spawn in them there.

14 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

tail,” ““yellow-tailed shad,” and “ green-tail” refer to the yellowish-green tint of the caudal fin, observed only in Southern specimens. The former of these names has led to some confusion among our correspondents, the same name being applied in Georgia and Florida toa very different fish, Bairdiella punctata (Linn.) Gill.

28. An allusion to the oily nature of the flesh is found in “ fat-back,” a name in general use in the Southern States. This name is sometimes applied in Northampton Ccunty, Virginia, to the mullet (IZugil lineatus). In the last century it was used for the Albula conorhynchus.*

The conflict of names among the American representatives of the herring Samily.

29. The representatives of the herring family most abundant in the waters of Great Britain are three—the shad (Alosa finta), the alewife (Alosa vulgaris), and the herring (Clupea harengus). Their names were at an early date appropriated for representatives of the same family on our own coast. The name “shad” is, from Maine to Florida, yielded by common consent to our Alosa sapidissima, which, in many particulars, resembles its namesake, though they “be bigger than the English Shaddes and fatter,” as an early writer declares.t

In the Southern States this fish is sometimes called “ white-shad,” to distinguish it from the Dorosoma Cepedianum, there known as the “mud-shad” or “ gizzard-shad.” On the coast of New England, the mattowocca or tailor-herring (Pomolobus mediocris) is sometimes called the “ bickory-shad,’”’ and also the “ sea-shad,” under which name it is often confounded with the true shad, which is known from recent invest- igations to be frequently taken far out at sea in company with mackerel, alewives, and menhaden. In the Bermudas, there being no large clu- peoid fish, the same name has been for centuries applied to two species which somewhat resemble it externally—Hucinostomus gula and Eucinos- tomus Lefroyt, Goode.

The “ herring,” or “* English herring,” of New England north of Cape Cod is identical with that of Great Britain, but at certain points in Southern New England, such as New Bedford, this name is transferred to Pomolobus pseudoharengus, and on the Hudson River the usage is general, though the species is occasionally called the alewife. South of the Hudson the name “herring” is universally used in connection with this species of Pomolobus, and the allied Pomolobus mediocris or ‘“mattowocca,” which is known as the “tailor-herring” or sometimes, asin the Saint John’s River and about Cape Cod, as the “ hickory-shad.” In the great lakes the name “ herring” is also represented, being applied to one of the whitefish family, the lake-herring (Argyrosomus clupet- JSormis).

To Pomolobus pseudoharengus the name “alewife” is commonly ap-

* See Garden, in Correspondence of Linneus, p. 335. t New England’s Prospect. By William Wood. London, 1634.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 15

applied in New England, and even, occasionally, as mentioned above, in New York. South of New York it is used for Brevoortia tyrannus only. The name is corrupted into “old-wife” and “‘ell-wife,” “wife,” and on the Connecticut River appears under the guise of “ell-whop.” At Maurice River the Brevoortia is called “old-wife chebog,” ‘chebog” being probably of Indian origin. Thomas Morton, writing in 1632 of the fishes of Virginia, gives the names ‘‘shadd” and “allize” as in use among the colonists at that time.* The original derivation of the word “alewife” is somewhat obscure, though it may probably have originated in Alausa, the name applied by Ausonius to the European shads in his celebrated poem on the Moselle River—

Quis non norit, Stridentesque focis opsonia plebis alausas.

The transition through the French “alose,” the English “allis,” “allice,” or ‘ alize,” is not difficult, and when we find these names together with ‘“‘alewife” applied indiscriminately to the same fish, it is, to say the least, suggestive. Such an etymology is at least more satis- factory than that of Josselyn, so often quoted: “The Alewife is like a Herrin, but has a bigger bellie; therefore called an Alewife.”t

6. ZOOLOGICAL NAMES. Latrobe's description of Clupea tyrannus.

30. Our species was first described by Mr. B. H. Latrobe, in a communi- cation to the American Philosophical Society in 1802,¢ under the name Clupea tyrannus. Although this article, and the name therein proposed, have long since been lost sight of, there-can be little doubt that they refer to the menhaden, and that the laws of priority demand that the species shall henceforth be known as Brevoortia tyrannus. The tishes of the Chesapeake and its tributaries have, until within the past three years, been very little studied, and the habits of the menhaden in those waters are so different that it is not strange for Northern ichthyologists to have made mistaken identifications of Latrobe’s specific name.§ In fact, it was supposed, not many years since, that the southern limit of the men- haden was north of the Capes of Delaware, while its habit of ascend-

* New English Canaan ; or New Canaan; containing an abstract of New England. Force’s Hist. Tracts, vol. ii, Tract 5.

+t An Account of two voyages to New England, a Description of the country, natives, and creatures. By John Josselyn, Gent. 1675. Col. Mas. Hist. Soc., 3d series, III. 1833. ;

1A Drawing and Description of the Clupea Tyrannus and Oniscus pregustator. By Benjamin Henry Latrobe, F. A.P.S. < Transactions of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge. Vol. V, 1802, p. 77.

§ Dr. Dekay, misled by the name “‘ alewife,” which he supposed to be applied to the same species at the north as in southern waters, applied Latrobe’s name to the north- ern ‘‘ alewife,” calling it Alosa tyrannus, a usage which was concurred in by Storer and by Cuvier and Valenciennes. The same name was referred to the shad by Professor Gill in some of his earlier writings.

16 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

ing the rivers of the South and the presence of the peculiar parasite were quite unknown.

Latrobe’s description is reproduced in Appendix D, and the reader may decide the question for himself. It is believed that the following circumstances clearly indicate the meaning of its author:

(1.) The figure, while undeniably bad, resembles the menhaden very closely, and manifestly cannot be intended to represent any allied species. The‘contour, were the missing dorsal fin supplied, is similar to that of the menhaden, the black spot upon the scapular region is con- stant in the menhaden only, though a similar one is occasionally seen upon the shad and the alewife. While the figure resembles somewhat the menhaden, it does not resemble the allied species.

(2.) The name “ bay alewife” is still applied to the menhaden in this region. Thisis a strong argument, for, although seventy-five years have passed since Latrobe wrote, the persistence of popular names is very remarkable, as I have elsewhere pointed out.* Moreover, Latrobe was also acquainted with a “herring” and a “shad.” These being elimin- ated, there is no fish but the menhaden to which the description in question can refer. |

(3.) The habits of the alewife as described by Latrobe are essentially the same as those of the menhaden in the present day. As has been remarked, it is only recently that the river-ascending habits of the spe- cies have been understood, and the statement that the alewife began to ascend the Potomac in March, which was two months earlier than the menhaden was known to strike our coast, formerly was thought to throw the identity of the two out of question.

(4.) The presence of the crustacean parasite is the strongest argument of all. While this is found in the mouths of a large percentage of the southern menhaden, it has never once been found attached to any other species, although careful search has been made by several persons. As has been remarked, the northern menhaden are free from this parasite, and this is still another reason for the failure to identify.

31. The next mention of this species was by Professor Mitchill, under the name Clupea menhaden.t By this specific name it has been known ever since, and it is to be regretted that it is necessary to replace by another a name so appropriate and of such long standing.

Descriptions of later dates.

32. In 1818, the eccentric Rafinesque redescribed the species as Clupea neglecta, the specific name being chosen because he supposed the species" to have been neglected by Dr. Mitchill in his comprehensive catalogue of the fishes of New York.t

* Catalogue of the Fishes of the Bermudas, 1876, p. 15. ©

t The fishes of New York described and arranged. < Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, Vol. I, 1815, p. 453.

{American Monthly Magazine, Vol. II, 1818, p. 206.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 1%

33. In Belknap’s History of New Hampshire, this species is mentioned under the name ‘ Clupea dura levi mystax (hardhead).’* Since no de- scription is given, this name can have no significance.

34, Mitchill’s ** New York Shadine” (Clupea sadina)t appears to be identical with Brevoortia tyrannus, as is indicated by the smutty oper- cular spot, the wide and toothless mouth, and protruding gill apparatus, The deciduous character of t'.e scales may have been due to poor pres- ervation of the type specimen.

Gronow, in 1763, described the species under the name Clupea Caro- linensis,t but his manuscript was not published until 1854, and his name must yield precedence to those which are really much more recent.

The Gulf Menhaden.

35. A second North American species of menhaden has recently been discovered. A description will be given in a subsequent paragraph (42). This species has been reported only from the Gulf of Mexico. The name chosen for it bas reference to the presence of a parasite which has already been mentioned, and which was described by Latrobe as the Oniscus pregustator. This parasite is common to both Brevoortia tyran- nus and Brevoortia patronus, the gulf form; the specific name of the latter has been selected to carry out the quaint conceit of Latrobe, who fancied that the menhaden resembled a Roman ruler in having a ‘“ taster” who first tested every dish to prove its harmlessness.

The Menhaden of Brazil.

36. The species described, from Brazil, by Agassiz and Spix, under the: name Clupanodon aureus§ does not appear to be distinctly separated. from Brevoortia tyrannus. No diagnostic characters can be detected in. the descriptions of either Agassiz or Giinther ; that is to say, characters. which do not disappear upon the study of a large series of specimens.. Agassiz’s specimens, collected probably at Bahia, and in 1829 preserved. in alcohol in the Munich Museum, were eight inches long. He himself seems to have had an inkling of their identity with the North American species, from the fact that he cites, doubtfully, as a synonym, Mitchill’s Clupea menada. The difference in spelling this specific name is doubt- less an attempt to put in Latin form the Indian name used by Mitchill.. Two specimens from Sambaia, Brazil, and one from Rio Janeiro, col- lected by the Thayer expedition, agree closely with the figure in Spix’s

* Belknap’s History of New Hampshire, 2d ed., 1813, ILI, p. 133.

t Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc., N. Y., 1814, pp. 457, 453.

t Catalogue of Fish, collected and described by Lawrence Theodore Gronow, now in. the British Museum. Published by order of the Trustees, London, 1854, pp. 140.

§ Selecta | Genera et Species | Piscum | quos | in Itinere per Brasiliam | Annis: MDCCCXVII-MDCCCXX | * * * |collegit, et pingendos curavit | Dr. J. B. de Spix,| * * * | digessit, descripsit, et observaticnis anatomicis illustravit | Dr. L. Agassiz,| * * * | Monachii, | Typis C. Wolf | = | 1829, p. 52.

2F

18 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

work. The species is not well separated, and is at best but a geographi- cal race of Brevoortia tyrannus.

Darwiws Menhaden.

37. The Alosa pectinata described by Jenyns,* from specimens col- lected by Charles Darwin at Bahia Blanca, appears to be a well-defined species, distinguished chiefly by the lesser number of transverse rows of scales. In the Natural Museum is a specimen (No. 1709) collected by Captain Page, U.S. N., in the expedition of the United States steamer ‘“‘ Waterwitch” to Paraguay. The extremely pcctinate scale, given in the figure of Alosa pectinata, and upon which so much stress is laid by Mr. Jenyns, is taken from one of the differentiated rows immediately in front of the dorsal fin, which are alike pectinate in all species of the genus. Two specimens belonging to the Museum of Comparative Zoology, col- lected in the Rio Grande, agree thoroughly with Mr. Jenyns’ description and with the Paraguay specimens already referred to.

Generic relations.

38. Dr. Storer first referred the species to the genus Alosa, where it stood until 1861, when Professor Gill proposed for it a new genus, which he named Brevvortia, in honor of the Hon. J. Carson Brevoort, of New York City. This genus is characterized by peculiarities of structure in scales, gills, gill-rakers, and alimentary canal.

A revision of the American species.

39. The type of the genus Brevoortia of Gill is the species described in 1802 by Latrobe under the name Clupea tyrannus, and later by Mitehill under the name Clupea menhaden. As has already been indicated (Proceedings U.S. National Museum, vol. 1, p. 5), the former name has the prior claim to adoption, and the species must be called Brevoortia tyrannus. Of this species there appear to be two geographical races or subspecies. One of these is the typical form of the Atlantic coast of the United States, the other a closely-allied form from the coast of Brazil, already described by Spix under the name of Clupanodon aureus. For the species the name of Latrobe should be retained, and the two subspe- cies may be distinguished as Brevoortia tyrannus, menhaden and Brevoortia tyrannus, aurea: a third subspecies is temporarily adopted to include some aberrant forms from Neank, Conn., tor which the name Brevoortia tyrannus brevicaudata is proposed. On the coast of Patagonia and Para- guay occurs a well-marked species, described by Jenyns under the name of Alosa pectinata. This species is readily distinguished by its larger scales, which are arranged in 18 to 20 lateral rows, instead of 25 to 27, as in B. tyrannus. The generic relations of this species were recognized many years ago by Professor Gill, and its name should stand as Brevoortia pectinata, (Jenyns) Gill.

*The Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle, &c. * * * Part IY. Vish. « * * London, 1842., p. 135, pl. xxv.

HISTCRY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN,. 19

A third species occurs in the Gulf of Mexico. It is distinguished by its larger head and fins and other characters. It appears to have never been described, and, for this form, the name of Brevoortia patronus is proposed. It is accompanied by the same crustacean parasite that is found in the mouths of B. tyrannus, to which Latrobe gave the signifi- cant specific name of preegustator.

C.—DESCRIPTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF MEN- HADEN, WITH ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL NOTES.

7.—TECHNICAL DESCRIPTIONS.

Brevoortia tyrannus.

40. The following is a careful description of the common menhaden, which occurs on the east coast of the United States and Brazil:

Brevoortia tyranmus (Latrobe) Goode. Tur MENHADEN.

Diagnosis.—Head and jaws short; the length of the head less than one-tuird of the length of the body less the caudal fin; especially short in subsp. aurea, the maxillary in length much less than three-twen- tieths of the length of the body.

Height of body about one-third of total length, in very fat individuals about three-eighths. Fins comparatively short, the height of the dorsal less than length of maxillary, and considerably less than three-tenths of length of body; that of the anal usually less than half that of maxil- lary; that of ventral always less than one-tenth of total length; tke length of middle caudal rays one-fifth that of body, aud less that of ex- terior caudal rays, usually about three-fourths, often less than two-thirds, and rarely more than five sixths of total length. Fins all shorter in subsp. aurea. Insertion of ventral far behind tip of pectoral. Insertion of dor- sal about equidistant from snout and base of middle caudal rays, but varying two or three one- hundredths to either side of this median point, and always slightly behind the vertical from insertion of ventral.

Scales of medium size, much serrated, arranged very irregularly in 24-26 transverse and 60-80 longitudinal rows. Scales forming sheath at base of pectoral not large. Squamation of caudal lobes moderate. Oper- culum strongly striated in subsp. menhaden, almost smooth in subsp. aurea. Scapular blotch conspicuous.

This species is easily distinguished from Brevoortia patronus by its shorter head and fins, by its slender body and its pectinated scales, and from DB. pectinata by its smaller, less regularly arranged, and more humerous scales, and its shorter, less furcate caudal fin.

Individual variations and special descriptions.

Head.—The length of the head varies from 28 to 33 hundrdths of total length. The posterior end of the maxillary extends to a point in the vertical from the centre of the orbit. The length of the skull, as

20 REPORT Oi COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

indicated by the ‘distance from snout to nape,” varies from .19 to .23. The length of snout, measured from a line drawn perpendicularly through the centre of the orbit, varies from .09 to .11. The length of maxillary varies from .12 to .144; that of mandible from .15 to.18. The diameter of the eye enters 43 times in the length of the head ; its width varies from .11 to .15 in very fat individuals.

Shape of body.—This is exceedingly variable, and the variation is caused largely by the fatness of the individual. In very plump ones, the expansion of the belly throws back the origin of the ventrals and anal, and greatly changes the appearance of the fish. In the specimens before me the height of the body ranges from .51 to .383. The table of measurements subjoined shows the effect of increased height of body upon the other measurements of proportion.

Fins.—The range of variation in the position of the dorsal is indicated in the diagnosis. There is no appreciable correlation between the positions of the dorsal and anal in the same specimen. ‘The insertion of the analis distant from the snout from .68 to.75. The length of the rays in dorsal, anal, ventral, and caudal vary much, as the table of measure- ments indicates. In the caudal the upper lobes vary from .16 to .25, the lower lobes from .18 to .27. The relation of the pectoral and ventral fius is much affected by the length of the head, the insertion of the former being thrown much farther back in long-headed individuals.

Scales.—The degree of serration varies much in individuals as well as the squamation of the bases of the vertical fins, and the number and regularity of the body-scales. In young individuals the scales are ar- ranged with much regularity, but in the adults I have strong reason to believe that other scales are intercalated here and there throwing the arrangement into great disorder and rendering an accurate enumeration impossible. {

Subspecies.

The series before me embraces some two hundred specimens of Bre- voortia tyrannus of various ages, seasons, and localities. Almost every feature is subject to wide variations, and there is usually no decided correlation between different characters except that a long head is accom- panied by long jaws and a pectoral set farther back and extending more nearly to the insertion of the ventral. There are, however, certain groups of individuals which can be included within a diagnosis, which may serve to distinguish them from all the others of the same species. To what extent it is desirable to define varieties which are not separated geographically, Iam not well satisfied. The exact meaning of the terms ‘‘sub-species” and ‘“ variety,” as employed by Cope, Coues, Gill, Yarrow, and other recent writers, has not been definitely interpreted. It seems desirable, however, to designate in some way the limits of variation from the normal specific types in different directions. With this pur- pose, and remarking that by a subspecies I mean simply a divergent form connected by intermediate forms with the typical specific form, I have

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 21

thought it desirable to name provisionally two varieties, and to call attention to others which may possibly exist. This is done with much hesitation, and only with a view to an attempt to formulate the minor differences to be observed between fish of the same species on different parts of our coast. <A precisely parallel case is to be found in the shad of the different Atlantic rivers, which are well-known to exhibit strong distinctive marks. Very possibly every school of menbaden has its own characteristics. In every case where I have had an opportunity to observe them, the individuals composing the same school were closely similar to each otber.

The typical form of the species, as now defined, is taken from the coast of Southern New England and the Middle States. It has the height of the body about one-third of the total length, the head three-tenths of the total length, or a little more; the maxillary long (.14 to .143), and exceeding the height of the dorsal.

The species described by Spix, under the name of Clupanodon aureus, cannot be distinguished by any apparent specific characters from Bre- voortia tyrannus, since one or more of the specimens of the latter species before me partakes of some of the peculiarities of the Brazilian fori. There is, however, a general average of character exhibited by tke Bra- zilian specimens, as well as the figure of Spix, with which they closely agree, which seems to me to entitle them, for the present at least, to recognition as belonging to a distinct geographical race. The dis- tinctive characters appear to consist in (1) a greater average height of body ; (2) a lesser length of head; (3) a lesser average length of maxil- lary and mandible; (4) a slightly lower anal and dorsal fin; (5) a greater average distance of anal from snout; (6) a greater average length of the medial caudal rays; (7) a shorter average length of pectoral; (8) a more regular arrangement of the scales, and a more luxuriant growth of small seales at the basis of the fins.

A number of specimens from Noank, taken in 1874, vary quite as much from the normal type, and in almost the same respect as the vari- ety just described. The maxillary and mandible are shorter, however, than in the Brazilian form, the anal fin lower and the lobes of the cau- dal are extremcly short, sometimes hardly exceeding in length the pec- toral fin. But for the fact that these specimens show almost all the characters of the Brazilian Brevoortia, and in some cases exaggerations of them, I should be inclined to consider the aurea a distinct species. Having with some hesitation allowed to this the rank of a subspecies, the question must be decided as to the propriety of also allowing sub- specific rank to this peculiar form from Noank. The exact meaning of the terms subspecies and variety, as recently employed by zoologists, is not very clear tomy mind, but I infer a “‘ subspecies ” to be composed of av assemblage of individuals varying uniformly from the typical spe- cific forms in a degree sufficient to be susceptible of description and definition, thongh not necessarily separated from it by the absence of

22 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

connecting forms. Premising, then, that in giving to the Noank speci- mens a subspecific name, my object is simply to define the limits of variation from the normal type in a given direction, I would provis- ionally propose that they be designated as subspecies brevicaudata.

The specimens from the Saint John’s River, Florida, are extremely variable in every respect. Certain individuals show a tendency to elon- gation of the head and fins, and also a slenderness of the posterior part of the body, and nearly all the individuals from that region are more lightly and gracefully shaped; they all have a tendency to a yellow coloration, especially upon the caudal lobes. I have not felt justified, however, in calling it a subspecies.

J have not had an opportunity to study the Maine schools, but am inclined to believe that their differences are very perceptible.

In plate VI are shown the chief variations of form. Tig. 1 shows the typical form; fig. 2 the subspecies brevicaudata ; fig.3 the average form from the Saint John’s liver, llorida; fig. 4 the subspecies awrea.

Table of measurements.

: 10.405 =709 | 10,405 = orig. Current number cf specimen........-....--..-...- ; Cals: No. 247. 5 20,666 a. IOMOAy Saas beeSeso cobsdg elses osdnccéoc Seaededsa ses Wood’s Holl. | Wood’s Holl. | Wood’s Holl. Millim, 100ths.; Millim.| 100ths. | Millim.) 100ths. Very fut. Plump iE XGremoven pier sae -e- snr se = sess cine eeas elma Oath se ee OUSs tewecse ae 130) eee Body: Greatest height .....-- PARES A GeeaacsaseeulsoS46see SBN becca Stat Jaa es 344 IPAS UN enn up hl Ls sce esosocessesceee ces |lsoocgas WY Wbeaageeellsacooeec\ipcosgss: leeao cous Length of caudal peduncle..-...-..-...----.----}._..-... UPS beedoenallseeacace|soouesslensdacsc Head : (Giremiaga emma oedods ssdecbodcontoebessocdsce: ||-scosaee SQA eetaiseers SEO baceecee 31 Distinceitrony snout FO MApes.- = oe < same «imei soe 20a lb eee 2055 |2 ose 204 GireaiespmaGt( Neeseic cae ss oc einiels olemwie= late ieer| emeeere 15. |sesecost|sceocecs| eens |oee meee Leneih of snout from perp. trom centre of orbit | .....-. LOW Sse .33 LOM | Eee oe ae 1034 Iai @ Ween Repo soos ab eceoraceeneso jesossoar G) Weses5c6 Y) |lesasone 9 Menethiot maxillary. .--- = -<-.--co-. == -- see] cian gees W4dS Se seics Ar tet 14 Length (xe TAU Gy Gees eee ae ee =" lacie al W738 | eeswece Ube sere 17 Distance from snout to centcr of Pout ust teen deer VOPR eee ces OF eee 10% Dorsal: WIS tan ComLOMUVSUGM bee eeinselew icicle waala melee a elelelate cl etal elas Da | aac Op oes e a 49 JES Aa OI! ERG) <2 2 cos. cactgoe 558 su basboesacesnes|[eoosdas- TI Sones U7 pel Sees oe 174 Origin of pectoral to origin of dorsal......-.----|........ AN Seco SUed| Sete 354 Endick dorsalstowendsotannlsssssseceatee sosne aa Seeman O54 iets 24 eesee 25 encth of longest raiyiee sree — = mena mmr == all tenia Nee enanos He eeosoe 123 ene thiot las turaiyy. saree meme lee seine |= teeta iene eae HP eesescc U Weeseose cs Anal: Distance from Snodheescssecescem en -eas<el==\eeaeee 1P EAS Seas 72 Henethot base) 222-2 m miele Wee Sneodes 154 Origin of anal to origin of dorsal - ape oleaesso = 36 Length of longest ray ........-.-- : feo aedoe 6% Menerhiok fasbaray) ce ce esse sel eee eles eltelie= ia 4} |---..-- 44 Caudal: Went ofamid dle ray Sisoe—ceeeee eee eee sero see eee LE eB aaaoS 54 Length of external rays, superior...---..-..----|.-...... ORG | Saeco 20 INfeTIOLr Eee se sess Ses ee eee PATS lGaaseose 23 Pectoral: Distance tromsnout 2.5... 205.222 ckecse see ee aleeeees SOU 2.252202 BPs: Nencisaces 30 Stan COOLtlpaOM, SNOW: = <5. ccm aeiseeiieeattl teeter A Ra etait dh eB Sage 46 jUfyatta OCR: Oe Sees are ear mere S50 4 ol See Ao OP ye S4556= 1 ree 18 Length of longest axillary appendage. ......... |.---.--- Wir WsasosaoslenassaeelSeoonb. llbcocasca Ventral: IDSA CANTINA He eromodoscs case neocanoodas -||sceebone Ol isohsac- OS). eta eer 51 Jip N -p oboe weds oh Sob ose caeegsueeneScb0s 3555) lsecneaes Be esses e ie a ae oes 9 Origin of ventral to end of dorsal........-...---|----.-- SG vail ceinere SI eee 33 IDES as sees etAneseboatonapsac SEEcnHESpooe hoossc Sen Ree See OH)” Preridoete QO sesneeers JQ b peas + Saas oe Oni ORTHOD ED OOS DED OC ORGOOEOOSOoSsese PA Sosa cece PN Peebpace De eSaceeos Number of scales in lateral line ........-..--...---- SLT Sear er S(O (is Beer ooaceilosaconLe

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN.

Table of measurements—Continued.

23

Current numberiof specimen ...-.....---.-.---.-... 20,666 b.

Tp cnh slate? ha RO ; Wood's Holl.

18,049 b.

Saint John’s River.

Miliim.} 100ths.

Millim.| 100ths.

1,696 a.

Indian River, Florida.

Millim.) 100ths.

Fat. Pixtramevene the 5-4 6- scpe cc aseeeins aac usteclecioseene IG ae see TAQD |S cantae OG eck soos Body : (Care ies tyler ER os ee ook Soon geoeeooconccou |soepdebc SY Veeoseodac OL ee Sec 37 Head : (Orv tgeOy WORVaTI Te cacosene como cncecocScesesonense|lossonece 32a | pee e te SO ee steeeies 30 Distance trom snoutito NapeOs=- =.= 2. -nesescceaee| ase seems PAW Secporee ma i acoance 20 (ENTE aA Tt UL Laces CoC DOSE ge te ESE Ere deal tnecer od Sseeapartd encore 0 ecperon Senceare Lergth of snout from perp. from center of orbit | --.---.- 1) Po) Baparace Oi eee eer 10 Menpihroimoneren ater sec ia= eis so sn cas = [Sees NO seaacose OFa Races: 9 ThenmthiobamiaKN an vsesta css sec eee ce sacs /5scis) |cemeniee IER lsapescas 1 ae 13% Ie TG ENN Seen beceny cass CeCreoesed Eeorecce ealleeeesace UG WNeseetos 17 Distance from snout to center of orbit..........].--..--. 1 4S ee sSeaed SAsecces lbaades 24l Spooaeae Dorsal: DIRSAMEEMNOM SHOUGE occas ccscesssccecwcsicecde | saaces boils scce: AOE cmstisee § MonrehvOm ase. .osq= =< seco- seco 5 Us seh cecciccnde.f-cesees 119) eee one eSeminars 17 Origin of pectoral to origin of dorsal ....--.... | ---.--. ei 2 Se deoeeeed of Oe eee 36 nd Gorsal to Gnd Of ANAL .2c25s cc ccce cose cee. |cosndens ye eeeeeaee 26a) | seiooe se 30 Hen tnron lONSESHLAY 66-<--cosnc6 <scmies Gsarate eos)|'sseamciee i) Sige Geen T2) Ieeesesce 13 AGH SHnNO baLAR TARA Vin canta <2 /fotels oc sise ease Secec=lasecce=- Gs ee aoe (| eeoacee 5 Anal: PistancertroMy Snot...) asa-sss cesses ceeccesceccs-| cet eee. 12h eee ee (OR eSseeersa 72 Length of base ....-.-- ae cneeeiaaseris sdenceec|scasa ce 15.2 eee U9 Geese 16 Origin of anal to origin of dorsal _.-.........--.|....---- Sea teeoeee SO ke ae ee 38 Menothiot lonpestiray? .2sk~o-oocsctasesnscaesta= |eccesce- Gholaseneees Sia Rose eee *5+ Hench! of last Lays. <siseo sa sss<c-nseco0s Dp et: eae te iil leeiesereaee bi al eee *3-+- Candal: enmthor Mido Tays \ ss ses Sasecscetsaare soees <si|'cecee se (faa eos cP a eseaese *4qt Length of external rays, superior. ..--....--.--.| --.---- PA eal ePrice QA ei cee 522 Inf GrlOl ae aes teen ele ce ees: 2 ee eee PX ua eeacict: *24 Pectoral: PNATANCEMONNATOM-— ose bees soos es dscccreee: |seonces So lessees 30% |. ccestees 30 Distance of tip from! snout... -.--22.-. 255. -.-2-. ae ceee hen Seema Me |e eonan | aeccane IL GUIN 255, se SUSE S6r HABER CO ASD GREE: SUE race tat sen sieeai BS ete A?) |ecteee lees Ventral: Mignanee: from /Suout).c2-se<esce~ cee en reece seex [be ae ae aN Sesame 50) Weessed ae 50 EGU CLs ee ee ore ae Cee asardeedoueeeee Insay Seles OF" heatcees Oli | a acess etctae Origin of ventral to end of dorsal...:........2-.|.=------ BBY | Sasneece GE ileeacoce 35 VOLS Lene eee eee tee 8 te SER 8S Soe ee byt | eta hey s al reo eee 1 ee eSere Ariel lence tee eee ole ccae oes saeeesee eee ascaccestace sex 2) a ee ODM Peers ce 20) kascees Current number of specimen .....-..........--.---- 5152 17,927. 19,046. “ Saint Jchn’s Saint Jobn’s SISO CAL GY ata a el mm eciclacleic) em atle elacloweeiewinineeinneeleniae q| West Florida. | “River, Fla. River, Fla. Millim.} 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. | Millim.} 100ths. (7-inch.) LOPAHWATG) LENG ero See ae ao a Bee ee TON ° ne Seen 178" caer 23M) Seoceene Body: GTGATCH NEI O HENS = bee ce Ae ee Se te 38) |e eee S4B il weeps 32 TESS UB OEE TOteEal lee Aare cee tars moe omen sae oO lanioos ene |\sciSere cinia|'s,o.eceteee TOM ales sce: 9 Men p ht omenleal pedunelesee seen. Sa sere oot sek lseaccae|-asccare|ssereege She ease 8 Head: Gapanestiloncih a Sios fou e ser cee aa enon ose ceminda||sesonn en 29). |beaeeeee Biel soamneee 33 Hisiance from snout to Nape...6.5-=22-+---+-c+-|eoses--- 20): «|eeaee 20h becacete- 20% SEGRE ECR DWV CLUE = See ee ne oe Soo» [icinaisroteell eee 10) 9h eee 12 Length of snout from perp. from center of orbit.|.....--. LO)» eeeesciee LOS NWeeeacses 104 MeMPtiOl ODErCULUM n= 2oes. eee: bac cae ae oan noe = 9%. (B.2 ear: OW |eeccc sre 94 LIGHGTL OPN pot Pina ae es ee Oe ee ee 13%; eee 1 eee 14t eM APN auMANCID 1 Overs soe sees Sere nee cemseiis 2 ||b amen Tig | eae TS ie ene 18 Distance from snout to center of orbit.........-|.--.- aah eee eae | eee TIVE east See 104 Dorsal: WSL Sift STi ee ee ee rr AB ee BOR ae ccs! 524 PE MMG IN ARO eet ae ee ee a a2 | oc wees FI el [eee Orie eee a 17 Origin of pectoral to origin of dorsal ......-----|-------- SbF eee se. BYE [SS eerp 34 nwo dorsaitoend-of anal): .2:-. .- cscuene- -|.n00ce oe 30m tiae.ee: Dir || Maes ee 25 JUGI ERGO ER nny Cee etme OCS. aN a Sales hd ell Sar Shc 11) oe Sead 12 Menetiocsinni rayne nee oe I ee leecmowce C(I A =o

* Broken.

24

Table of measurements—Continued.

REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Current number of specimen....-...--.---.<.-...... 5,152. 17,927. 19,046. ‘ : Saint John’s Saint John’s Locality ..----.------2--20000222------ ene ee eee e ee ; West Florida. | ‘River, Fla. River, Fla. Millim.| 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. Anal: (7-inch.) Distance microm |SNOMb easeeeeeseee= = eeiosse sce ely | Reescese 72 Length of base ..-----.. + saobROnOL pabeeoeceseEos 1G). | setehes 16 Origin of anal to origin of dorsal ...-.--...-.--- Bou | Soessses 32 ene thvotlongestara yaraem nese scare ere es a fete art alate (i aeeedoee 6 meng thiotelastenayeeeeeer seem aeiamsice oe sine ee = alm la| emlalerttan | eteetetetat | marae ta 5 Bee 64 Caudal: IG aAIN Ot Wale Wey oso s6sendsooesssode osoBco|beoocecs|leoscoscefecaceas: 5 |ocsemnee 54 Length of external rays, Superior. ....-. .-.-.--2|----.c5 |/)--.----|-.-.---- O1 Ss. cece 20 WMA) Pe Aes meroosooosos\joudabac |lsoadcogs|socdoaec 23) oe kee 24 Pectoral : istancenroml sno mbes see oe ssk oom ose | sseh meee ee teeeiecll serine ear S1AS| beens 32 IDUShAn COTO taGH RO MNST OW Geran iain clei low lare am mlefe teint eieleimteteteiel| eine tetera herelel=iar=r 49 ui 3. ese eters 50 IO eo ss Soteb5 Bones sepeneneeEes eases Ios |S osoesollsscesecc|lcios osc TS NeSoobes 18 Length\of longest axillary appendage .---.< 222.) )--.- 221) scescmeulo---o--- OR Becaoecalsoagon os Ventral: DIS TAN COMMOMIMSNOWE sociale a2 sce wiea = \n1a 5 eetaleia aera eteioetayetete | elete eileen eee eetere 49 dls. sees 48 IOP I A, 2 Sno Se iSad ano opdooe seeeco ceoosoessoee one |lbdeooscel|scosssIboseciacc eT Roetaceo 9 Oneinlofaventraltoendlof dorsalle ~~ Sees seer sae en eee eee ee ee BEES peeeme ee 30 Wosaleaereere cece sca sine a6 ccc mena emicmee mater RO eamrrat PN eemoane LSior 10] eaeeeeee J XEN oomnd 2keobe eobone cospeaboSsSo0NanoS Soocos CODbE. PA eS aecose PAN eecaass Qe seeese cs Cuxrent numberof specimens Jss-ene<- c= sees = 19,044. 18,049 a. 19,468. : Saint John’s Saint John’s sae Locality -----. ----++ 2-2-2 sees ec cence renee eenenes ; River, Fla. River, Fla. Virginia. Millim.| 100ths. | Millim.) 100ths. | Millim.} 100ths. LosapRe one) Wee ep oe Soenonoode asocdesesesriccoce: 928 eater 144. | oscees 2345 | Seeennlee Body: (Grentest MOMOse asec eessec teases seme aa sees | ae eeeee 34°) | Ssceecice SIO || constant 32 Heast Hero ih Ot bade ee see ete ecioels sete tema | mre Rene see ese sncncaor beorces: 9 Menrthvot caudal peduncleseesaq.-s- cease eee ae | eee esicen| eeRee ee Peeeeree eater mateeie 9 Head: Greatestilengtlisc.: <-=.28.ns-scabmcemen oreo eee oeeeeer OORT Ae sae 99) lessee 32 Distance from snout to nape..---. Becanocasadecallacpocce 1 lacemeoce Me NW esGeGo ne 204 Gireatestawid thie: aac an s\io5 seseeee aceeecrltesmeniere 12) ec caes a a eee 12 WidthrorinuterorUitall ‘area: 222-56 a2. nicer stelle secioe hel ee meee alone cen See eeers eee sees 7 Length of snout from perp. from center of orbit |......-- ORAS eee 10) ||Secese 10 Menpthvotoperculom 2s. <5. se. see eels oeise se Samiccees POL Peacleses Os Nsasas 9 MOT HG Oren AU AT y eee eas ac Scere ale eine wine ciseielelle seer 1a ecco pk a Besese ae 14 Ibfyapail sh Oe, PR AOMOL) Costs) GoeepeEecaoaeboobaodod|laosasanc 169 (eetesere 163) eee eee. 18 Distance from snout to center of orbit....-...-.|.--..--. TO y a sees Dh eee 11 Dorsal: Distancedromesnowbeseseee esis sie seni selmi (eee ee AQ Ses eRe EW esoas, os ol enrihof WMIsemeseeeeecrease occ viaccess ccemaace ll eeecr LW? || Soeecsee Ob (ae ete 1x} Origin ot pectoral to origin of dorsal......-..---|.-.. .- 30) | feee eee aie aesnoaee 34 Hind of dorsalitoendtotwanaleasc seen cee ecse eres sie OG ee ec QW aliss oareeree 23 Menoth of lon gestmaysesaenneeaee mene. ema es |e nln ea 12h ee UP ellscasacc 11 eneth of last ray stessesseeeeaeemes ese is oe em ar| sacs (ie | arse ese Gh leases -¢ BE) Anal: Mistance from snout sseeeeeee eee sane weeise elt ea|Jaaee eee UU) | Sees Dl legates 72 ene thot base --. 2. -20 eee eee eee ace sate ae este sies = bre yen wet NES leeecco ne 144 Oxrizinof anal to oripintomdorsaleeee eee eseres| ela = B4xk| eee Bian eccants 33 ienethsot longest ray --aes--neeeeee eee eee ar sea ciae (ialess sees WN gaets eae 54 Menieth of last ray... =: sesaecseeeneeeeneeen ane tees = a5 Ga eee 2 Paes 6 Caudal: Menugthrof middle rays2.2s ce se eae eee ae eel Gialeseneee OMe pees see 4 Meneth ot/external rays; superiors. ---- sce eee | Seen eee eel eee eee OF ill cetacean Se tbis cinwis INterion ese seem teeter eee Qi diccnmtaeat QT llleaee betes 24 Pectoral: Distancentrom snout -<- <5. 5.-bs5.- keeles eel eee eee 30 jlesaeeace 307 Bliss asses 32 Distancelof tiptromsnout..<-sa.co- eee ee see | seeeestee Adi) Me ctece Ai Sel Sees cece 49 MLOM PONE yee anisie nities ce slal= snes nivesinmalce eee amen seeetaie LG pas eee MO aBoac0 18 Length of longest axillary appendage. .-.--..--.|.--.---.|---.----|-------- Soddcsas|shecoocs 12 ‘Ventral: Dishancemromesnou tires ace saa = seis e ance weietereeas eee err AO) Wicerotcctels DOL | cio Seceres SL Mente thie sae scence eee eee nos! coe ese eneestoee | eeeeeee CO Pacossss Shy jacaoesc 9 Origin of ventral to end of dorsal B34. o|gensccves B34 \c|) Saeees 50 aDorsall eee eck ces sis co becuse sews beste seine ee Ps scien TEE Nosoasece Ue eSceecce INI) Bee aecoascds os0Ggd0baDOSUdanon Saco pOeEcEcScooace OR Tad eraeiceiae Dye es aaese O10 | peewee

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN.

Table of measurements—Continued.

Cu

Current number of specimen .........--.-...---+- ; 14,846 a. 14,840 b. pa arogntle Z. TD RO PUN SenarS ocB Cen CC BEBOO CERISE roc cnaciaaciooene Noank. Noank. Rio Janeiro. | yesitim. 100ths. | Millim.} 100ths. | Millim.] 100ths. BP RUREMOWONCUNS « 3. Sais os cunlsceccataeeeeeee sea a IBY6 lesooas=2 UD sserese PUD | -Soqmoee Body: Gmeaitest Nee ty. ose nicew cde eceme eeeaen een eee ae Ge! [bSsconee 34%) |e cctem es 35 Head : Greatest length? ? 22. boats ose de eke Semen ot [ase ccee rN isscoSSce 2B) Wee saesee 27 Distance from snoutito nape-..=-2-5.------se.2--|u------ WY) leccesodtllescoosadlacescco- 21 Length of snout from perp. from center of orbit. |-.-..---.- LOR Saeeeee OY (esa 10 Heneplh of operculum eee seers sae cos este mecis= = [osenrice UO poe aeeon lbodenced BesHocicialls>odetaec Teens hh Of mae pit ye eee rises ee wise sae dae ae eee errs DS Weppoorss 258 jl oeatel eee 12 Moenpthyotpmandiblorsseesc-- 455 -ense> + 5-5 --54| bese HES loconcane Ne |sgccedos 15 Distance from snout to center of orbit..........]..-..--. NAY Jlecetesod| |ssaccsse|sesbocsa|-ccenne : Dorsal: IDShaNcennoOnusNO Cur seeem scsi ceesincsciscc'- = nd aoe CAR Sct Hs El iSecogee 51 IbesyeN en! OTS SSeS Sosa pr se Se osecec neo aden seccncos NO) |pceesone AY Nocemcmce||soascass Origin of pectoral to origin cf dorsal...--.......|......-- Big ilee sees = By Eee ae cece losnceeers ind olkdorsalito;end ofpanal.= <2... j-- s-cccs--|aese cscs QM leasecas Qog he aaina Gea ncees cee ene VBieilOn OSU TA Ye mcice|oces ac cine o0l= aie cee -)| on aceee 10-2 s=25 : Ue BAe ABAe 10 MEN AURO DI ASULAY ewe= sales onal om oeis\sees'e camisi=./|(- Beas @ Leck 5Ss5 WY |[osoosse 4 Anal: DSM NCe TLOULANO Wb) 54 <5:-\e iid. dacd «cect eens | coke ae 74 Ke eet 73 Dien Pane) 8S Oveete Saree aerate s cisis wisis'd cic cisicteisisie sites ee oe ed 15 TO See eecee Bo eee ees Origin of anal to origin of dorsal ........--.--..|..-...- 364 Bi yl Secee aes Bei cCeees Menrthion lon Gest rayacssace sos s==ccceeccacacn [eecaees 43 )- |Iddooute 5 ILGNyS NGI ER) 18h7 53555 segeoub esas te CODE DUE SoS I] eeepaee 4 HES \looegecc 4 Caudal: enon) of mid dlomayStoo- sce ee eh seses coos teste cece = AR | So see Ss. Bea |e arate 5 Length of external rays, supericr.......-.. ---.|----..-. AT || Paeresiee LWGR ea roe 23 INISPIOLe She me se ease: (satan. 18% || Soseeee PAD eso Seccr|lnceaoces Pectoral: MIS CAUeSrOMUSNOMG)-ce > a-1oe~ se etc cease eet eeeek 2 OB seeeeee QB lieaaaas 28 PIAcANCO OL Up from sNOUt esse ease secsmecsca|- coccee 2 eee BN pe0ps0Ke 42 Mee Pease a see roe ae teadcseceius etaeeeet esos fesedcnn 19%) |Sscja8 15\) [Ese eeee 15 Ventral: PSU LMCOMrONY SNOUG Se sem ese cette ete eaee ss ce | eeece as BO) Aes = aah 50s) BA-nees 49 Length -..-.- ee Este sen iat o Sale enw cia mam a) afe)-|| cia ateier s,s Th (eee eecater ey SOR e AZ R Origin of ventral to end of dorsal...---......--.]..2.-... SAME Ss A Wassoes-c||4_ebagde MDGS eye eens oeiaceiaan ce cee Sete cece cme ce eieie PINAiReateee PL ee Aaa ae |eees=2 <= JAH a Bee Saas e See Rae ea mee sie aero SE 199) | ates ee 207s Pete se 19g FAs 2 5 Current number of specimen........-.-...--..-..-.- B. aurea, A. B. aurea, B. ‘i vers M.C.Z. Thayer | M.C.Z. Thayer | age aoocalitiy, 22-2 ssses%—-sciscee ee == 26 Seen caceneeecies Sambaia. Exp. |Sambaia. Exp. Millim. | 100ths. | Millim. | 100ths. | 160ths Petrome vengtn.= 2.522 so easbtes ists ae bases tease NG eee 154 |e 2555232 eeee Body: Gmrcatestiheioht,:° s-estcsses... Leases oe ceshae se |/see diye se SY Ale Segoe 34 35 Head: Tremescilonmthie sys 8 352 5) st es he chee S| eae ae OB in| feee ae Ae 29 28 DIBMINCHALOMSNOUY tO DAPO}-sccsas-esaceense ssl coecsec 9! Se eee eee 22 21 Length of suout irom perp. from center ot orbit.|.......-- Wl eoocosee=< 10 002 enpth.of maxillary .---.--... oS eh nny nd Sl Daa 13) oe 14 13 Menoth or mandiplore. soos. 5 she ek stew esc ake | s-okek oa 15) ll. soe Seppe 17 15 Dorsal : DISLANCOMTONMN ANOLE: = -toncaiese oa bee oe a etal sb wckisicee 49) |deemacdae 48 491. BRenoihretslonrestwayy sds =s sce eee ceteseces|beaecese-- 19: eee 10 102 mengthiot lashiray S2.he-soccsee ese costes eons es lese ease. 5, |agetteste see 5 04% Anal: WIS ANCE Tron? SNOUt2 co. acces wa ect coe cae othe RDA se ee 73 Bz Length of longest ray 6 | eaoceeee: 5 054 Henpu OL Ast Pay cera cuc ccc ca doen sen ewetescn 4) (SRS: Sys 3 033 Candal: Bay OLIN Goma ys ecasan ce eee cers tees leet ese eee (allesanneedes 5 054 ength of external rays, supcrior ..-------...- e 2 y INfOTION tte eee: } saree e ee BF |laseceroaee 23 233 Pectoral: BRIER ATOM IGNOU LS =o5- -aci2a'ss/oesse ecto: =< ssc|s~-ceeceer OUP eS eta 30 29 iapancooLatip from) SNOUt 7.2228 s2285: -2e-ce-es-|-o--cnccas Cre Wal a a eg 47 444 Length j ‘ Ventral:

26 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Brevoortia patronus.

41, The following is a careful description of the new species of Bre- voortia from the Gulf of Mexico: Brevoortia patronus, Spec. nov. Goode. THE GULF MENHADEN.

Diagnosis.—Head larger than in the other American forms; its length usually more than one-third that of the body, the maxillary about three- twentieths of the length of the body.

Height of body always more than three-eighths of its total length, its anterior inferior profile cultrate, convex, giving an obtusely rounded pro- file to the subpectoral outline, and throwing the snout above the median horizontal axis of the body. Fins long and powerful; the height of the dorsal usually equal to the length of the maxillary and about three- tenths of total length of body; that of the anal equal to a greater than half the length of the maxillary ; that of the ventral one-tenth of body- length; length of middle caudal rays always more than one-fifth and often more than one-fourth the length of the head; that of the exterior rays almost equal in length to the head and rarely less than five-sixths of itslength. Insertion of the ventral under or slightly posterior to the tip of the pectoral. Insertion of dorsal always posterior to a point on the dorsal outline equidistant from the snout and the base of the medial caudal rays (Sometimes as much as seven-one-hundredths of total length), and always in advance of the vertical from the insertion of the ventral.

Scales of medium size, with entire fluted margins arranged regularly (in young) in 24-25 transverse and 50-70 longitudinal rows. Scales forming sheath at base of pectoral very large, round squamations of cau- dallobes inconspicuous. Axillary appendages large. Operculum smooth or very delicately striated ; scapular blotch inconspicuous.

The variations of individuals are sufiiciently indicated in the sub- joined table of measurements. The most characteristic specimens occur at Brazos Santiago, Tex., and the more northern specimens show a tendency to shortening up of the head, jaws, and fins.

* Description.—The body is much compressed, especially below and in advance of the pectorals ; the contour of the belly between the ventrals and the gill-opening is cultrate, projecting, obtuselyrounded. The height of the body equals two-fifths of its length, and the least height of the body at the tail is one-fourth of its greatest height in front of the pec- torals. The length of the caudal peduncle, from the end of the anal to the base of the exterior lobes of the caudal, is one-fifth of the height of the body and one-twelfth (.08) of its length.

The head is elongated and large, triangular; its length is more than one-third (.35 and .34) that of the body, and its height at the nape is slightly more than its length. The length of the skull, as indicated by the distance from snout to nape, is about one-fourth (.24 and .244) of the

* To avoid confusion this is drawn up from the Brazos Santiago specimens, which are most characteristically developed.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. aa

length of the body, and the greatest width of the head (.13) slightly exceeds the half of this. The width of the interorbital is about equal to the diameter of the orbit and slightly more than one-fourth the length of the head. The maxillary reaches to the vertical from the posterior margin of the pupil; the mandible nearly to the vertical from the pos- terior margin of the orbit. The length of the maxillary is about equal to that of the longest ray of the dorsal fin (.15 to .16); that of the mandi- ble (.19), to half the distance from the origin of the anal to the origin of the dorsal (.38), or to the length of the base of the anal (.18). The distance from the tip of the snout to the center of the orbit (.13 to .133) equal the greatest width of the head. The length of the opereulum is equal to that of the eye; the opercular striations are fine, but distinct and numerous. The dorsal fin is inserted posteriorly to a point equidis- tant from the snout and the base of the caudal, and in advance of the vertical from the insertion of the ventrals. Its length of base (.20 to .213) is double that of the operculum. Its greatest height is nearly half the length of the head. It is composed of 19 rays, of which the third is the largest. Its upper edge is slightly emarginated. The height of the last ray (.10) is equal to half the length of the base. The distance of the anal from the snout is slightly less than three-fourths of the length of the body (.70-.72); its length of base (.18-.184) one-fourth of this dis- tance. The distance from the origin of the pectoral to the origin of the dorsal (.37-.374) is about equal to that from the origin of the anal to that of the dorsal (.58). Its height (.9-.9$) is about half its length of base ; its least height (at last ray), one-third of the same (.6-.53). The fin is composed of 22 rays, its edge slightly emarginated. The caudal fin is much forked and elongate; the middle caudal rays (.08) half the length of the maxillary ; the exterior rays above (.31-.32) twice that length; the lower exterior rays (.35-.34) nearly equal to twice the length of the mandible.

The pectoral fin is strong, faleate, inserted under the angle of the suboperculum at a distance from the snout (.35-.34) about midway to the insertion of the anal. Its tip extends beyond the insertion of the ventrals, its length (.22) being nearly two-thirds that of the head. The axillary appendages are half as long as the fin, or more.

The distance of the ventral from the snout (.54-.55) is about the same as that of the dorsal, though by the contour of the body it is thrown slightly behind the point of dorsal origin. Its length (.10) is equal to that of the last ray of the dorsal. The scales are quite regularly arranged in about 24 to 25 horizontal and 50 vertical rows. Their free portion is narrow and high. They are entire at the edges and fluted or crenulated. There are two rows of differentiated scales upon each side of the dorsal line, but they are scarcely pectinated. The scales furming the sheath at the base of the pectoral are large and round. Color: silvery, with a brassy sheen upon the sides and greenish-gray upon the back,

28

Table of measurements.

REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Current number of specimen....................-.-- 892 a. 892 b. 89L a. fie Brazos Santiago,| Brazos Santiago | Meuth of Rio BE UU fae ele = cielo eee eee ele ; Tex. ee Giande. Millim. | 100ths. |Millim.) 100ths. | Millim | 100ths. LOS Re NG) WO MVER Nae Soosaccoedetcon Ss0e sha qesUdueaeee: MUO Gecsos OE | sosaose S6a\..oseees Body: Greatestuhoights=sscceee acer seca sac eens 32-8 |e eciee ty |laososdoe AQS al 2atreisarce 2 JOQENSHH aes led ny Cit, UU Goh SS Aap aneSaesenboSoeoosac|amoadcc LS eae LOM |S eS28 10 Length of caudalipeduncle..-...------s-.------ | o=-2-- 8) Necmomsce oie Bee socc| RSC eeee Heat: Greatestponuctheeseereeseeecescesel= cine a4. yl | eee OE soqece= By ll oe o 33 Distance trom snout to nape --....-.--------+---].---.-- Cre booabee he AE oeiane 234 (Ghyeriassia GAN eee sean beseepeUsete dsceen|soseoac eS) yleetek core LIB Ta ee ee 11 Length of snout from perp. from center of orbit | ....--. AQ) Ose cose Is ees 12 ene throLOpercu) Wms sae cos = == me) al een NO) |) soacese OVS Weeceooee 1l Meno th oLemaxilayryee ss sci aca <0 eae poaete| erecta GP peeecece 122 |e 16 ene hotpemandl Overs seeee 22 see =lomisl< sone ieell Ree eee th EP aaes Se VOR, |i coca 19 Distance from snout to center of orbit ..---. sie ane 13% |e soske. AST eemarser 124 Dorsal: DIS DANCE MLOMESHOM Ghee: ceisisncise laa solos eee eee eee apt |aseeses piel Pessca ss DL Joe OH ORGY 65555) Sseecssceseceoosoccounson|escoss Oi lscaosors 205i |i gsaetee 17 Origin of pectoral to origin of dorsal..-..-.----.|.--..-- Bie | eceeeee ON al eae Sas 37 imiofrdorsal) to’end'of anal : =. -5-2ce-----=-6 aloes see 5) iseoonbes oie heaeorer 26 pene thO LONG CS hitAY ee ao leae elem a a eee ee US eosobses UG! oogsece 144 Length of last HEN? SobooupsSopobooUBsossSososnNS: |fbssodce NO) |eicspene- dy || Saeece 1% Anal: Mistancesnomisnoube-s--- see eee sees seesaee seel|ememere (ed Veeneaoas Cie Pee eee ee 704 Length of base ..----. ieee Ueeeceaieectecemeeall) seers 0 eee rc 1895 || 22 es 19 Origin of aval to origin of dorsal bess Ae oo gs SOr tl Pieces 38 i 36 ene thioteloncestira yin sassee ae enee seeeeeee san aeeenee SP WeS5ascee er concede Tk Length of last PAN padi wee teases ne eins eeeen |e aaiian Go liesosonds OP llesebauae 5 Caudal: ene thvotmiddle may seca. a eemteete eee ieee ean | een Bygleeesceee S) Perea ee 8 Length of external rays, inferior ......-.-...:.--|.------- SH0 seasons 32 ; * ae Pectoral: MistancedrOomisnOUt cee esac eae see econ | Maree ee Son | peeee = GHh HW psoshe 334 Distance of tip trom |SNOUt Es. occ scm aeeienny ence Bi) a25o560e OE | sacceue 53 Ween miline seems sree estar ee acetone oe eisteae Seva | meee QI eerie: Bs Nwmosin die 1e4 Length of longest axillary appendage. ROpeocoe ss: | \raacces Ly eepocaen TSP aoc aasellescooss5 Ventral: Mistancemromusnou bic se cysacee mea eael= wees esl eeleeioe Day. | espeiien se O25) ceeeere 54 CHAU ee eee sec eee ameo | eae TO noes tO) Seren 10 Origin of ventral to end of dorsal.........-..-- ngeeie l= Bee eto ars Bol dl Ma stae 33 DOTA eee ceo eemaewicisinic a sawies = ea n'geinieismierenes LOM mre ster OT le caters 1B. G|poecers DAC Nee a ete te eect cao ssccsiwee be ssiee cesses PP Was aaa 272 ial terarsiarat = 22) Bee aeetcte Number of scales in lateral line..................-- 47t050)|..-.--- 47t0 50 |..--.-- {OD eee sees Current number of specimen ..............-----.-- 891 b. 891 ¢. 5,864 a. 3 Mouth of Rio | Mouth of Rio | New Orlears Locality .- +--+ +-2+2+2-2202 eooene econ re tec nce rec en- ; Grande. Graade. Academy. Millim.} 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. TXINGMO NEN StH: . soeasasie eaetene metas eerie aee SON Meee Td eseeires BG ee sscs ss Body: Greatest height: 20: . 72sec een eee Least height Of tail):.o2 eee Length of caudal peduncle Head: Greatestleneth <2... - 222 eeapeeeen eee oeeoeeale eas 33) Bl eseese 30° Sees 32 Distancetrom snout to nape --e-eee ees eee e ee eed eeeeeeee PE Neeacscod PPR Socee ae 23 Greavesowidth — 22.0.2 schacmcee cere eee cm eens semeeeres AD il Se carae.e | eretsiere oes [eases leisy | tines Length of snout from perp. from center of orbit | -------- 1b eee eee HAR S| Foose 12 Length ofoporcilum <a a-c52 bel catee mee eee eeoeealneeeeeee 1) silleesacuae TO le cetsere 10 Length Of MaxiWanyj. <2 a5 co. caciseoseecee ees aml sees 1 pecoosb. TA Heme 14 Length GtimMandible;.... dscc0ccces te cee eeeen ee | Caeeeee ES see sae nig tl enesaeesey 17 Distance from snout to center of orbit .......-..]-------- TRY ee ogS5ac MF Neeaodeis seu Ree = Dorsal: Mistancentrom| snout. ce. sc: --5 25 oeiee = eee eee ee | Meee 52) tsehee-3 DM \ |sabemee 50 Meng thiot ase n~ s.<\dcecen cos cns se aciscceniseeerelteeeenne 19)" |ogasess ly |edaeces: 16 Origin of pectoral to origin of dorsal .........-.-|.----.-- SOMA ae Sect Sie iszabees 36 End of dorsal to end of anal........-.-0..2-.---.|ss2e0e-- Os}. \sanenere P20 IN Neko ote 3L enpthioftilongestiray essen cei e scien eeeee-|peeeeeee TE Seagace EY ap sisos 14 Length of last MBs sstieeceer ne caeet ce cca ae nen cee we Oy UeSso5n05 UO Wspsoccan 8 * Superior. t Inferior. tAbout

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN.

Table of measurements—Continued.

29

Current number of specimen ..............--------- 891 Db. 891 ¢. 5,864 a. F Mouth of Rio | Mouth of Rio | New Orleans Locality ..-----+-++++++2-++2eeee reece eee reece ee ; Grande. Grande. Academy. Millim.} 100ths. | Millim.} 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. Anal: Stance trom SNOW ons anlssda case teas maatte te GE) HlseSaccas GON" [ease c ee 72 MON CEH VOL DaSGps\: <5 <1. bina Sooo an oN eee Q0iF etene ns 1h ie es et 19 Origin of anal to origin of dorsal aoe \eabee Si, lee aoe 7 Length of longest ray......-.........-.--.--... hy eneeene 7 (*) 7 Meneth! of lash may teosaa see ee eae scene nee |e ee Be Pete ac 5 (*) 5 Caudal: Meneth of middle rays 2. sess cee snee Sosceen. [eee one Ul albectice OF areca 7 Length of external rays, superior......-..----.--|..--...- Seta Sees Dileilese tase oF PIT OV OMe. <2 = cles acs iers oS | eee eae PYG El Seemee QT \eanwae 30 Pectoral: DIStEN CH MnOMIsNOM Wlesses a --5-ciewencclne cso ccien | cceeeee 34) eesseoce SOF Ssnes5/- 33 DIshiNGe/O LiIpmMAMISNOUb)--<- ceo sees - <c2s||-ssceone BPP We oeesee Ue heseeer 43 en Ohheee een er eee cee cas cancloweee | cce noun 20 Zane il?) SB ASeese 18 Length of longest axillary appendage ........--.|.-...-..|------..|- 2m Geebr| |choan See eres (he scoece Ventral: DISiMICE ATOM SHOUL o222 =. 2 5,2-2-.2sesne ce eee se-||lseaeone- OL eee O2h ese iest 53 LUPNEUG) ocec conejo Sac JRO ROSES Ane PERE COBH ED eC Oe Enmneene Ce ibaaesee i) lleeeenas 9 Origin of ventral to end of dorsal..........--.-..|--...... Chie Beenie LG ei: ae 32 SUN OT Nee ia aie enim a aie aioe alc widaidei wn om aces eoaie cles 1B} scenes Ue eaeeemee I) ere eerste = INN SS oS ee ae ey ee doo Ss casGoocbouos uecurs Q2iiwse see Ce eek all catia tests Number of scales in lateral line. ......:.....-.--...- 163) |Peeaeee AGO lee cane (ic Seee seed Current number of specimens........-..-.-------.=----- BoneeesoooSae 5,864 b. 5,864 c. : New Orleans ack IG HHL Dy seca oaacecic Saad SSS DC OR GOROOC ESE EaMHIge Sees So SE eH ene OEE ; Academy. Millim.) 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. HR ELPMEMeHC Nes ome non sanac cancess sche Jovan acice ciee cote vss sone saeses ila easise a eeras = reaps OMEN tees ant ae oe eaceee oan siemoncnna tino mmacee cacaeeos=aluetccee B19 Wesonecse 33 Heed: Creates tilenp tperes ema he sc cetowcitec cack eect se cieece we soezeealusssce ss SOPs este ete 33 DV sbance tro MEsNOM Git ON APG; cen ec.n/4o es ene nen manine s soanicntenee|asecieccs DAU ml memes 24 Length of snout from perp. from center of orbit................. |.--2.--. LOPA wEneee. 11 Men nO MOPencWlulme. tase ese sen es oak hee ann oc nae qa qeers esses Meianes LOE | Re cet 10 Mencihtotantaxallany sone reset econ che oe ce lkc Soe cee ey Pee, ea 132 ees 144 MEH rEhrOhsmAaneiyl esas nseee, omen coe ae lees one eaten ea me ace dure oe GMs tase 1it Dorsal: PSEA MEO SOM SUOU Uioas acc Solace woe Seen ae ete ee eR One cae Sirah) Meee sc 52 LETH AD IS WETS 2. OBS SERS Ca een ee aetise ees es atta LIN pa en VEd il peeee 19 Urreiompecworal to orci ob Cordal oes oe. eeen ne seta ronececenelesco too. 3371 |( eee 36 MGC MCOLIMA ONCOL) ANA Cos. ochak aor bere dapat suisse meee sbek teenie 26) |ewseecs 25 LLG TEETIT, GI RLGT FLED Stic Th 7 oe ep oe Ce Se RN el AN A SPARED 5 oe ener | ac 12) | 2seee 14 en iitio glass tiny te. ooo aa hese Noone tate es fn okie eee (Liosiens.« oi: 54, Wie eaece 7 Anal: IDISianc ee rOMSuOU ipsa mses same eee Be eect Socata acceececlscees Ss UW WSeccahe: 7k Ap OT EOL ASG a eee ae are ae mee me nS eenin ade, Re ae fia i= waseees 19 SiMMon aia CoOLOrmin Ol COs sens). ese ee eases cones cceces|oeccecu: t. SOs Geceee= 37 Wen umOmlOnceshUay esses eee sete tee ose e tenia cone ccccces | as acer | iia Seonwe 9 MORENO MARINI ese Ss sea ce es s)se ee eos aoe Bare seman mociscis we wg san [Sncracien | AS | Geena 6 Caudal: AGH HNO LAN CLG TAUB) pass oe nee e se res oeion saee ne nises assesses. |Paaneuee Ghaheaaees of Henrie OxicEnal rays; Interior oes seo e sees nsec csc sece-< se lsceemee ae ereyecieie=lasiciine sie Pectoral: PUSAN CeMCOMN SONG penne sons ae ee ao ase one ce sees oc'sinesienle oe A BOM eesce,- ce 32 BSI DALCHOL tip MoCOn SNOUG = =" open eee te ne ees coc ac .<snde es eee AOR eras 82 50 Wenie lines coe ae aces cote oo ec eek oe otto vcs biases nae. soccedaec leone (ae eee 19 Ventral: SE SHUOULONN SOM oe oncsa case teen ote cee ec cwicenevadsceeee ee eee BE nel | oes 52 LEAD 2262 SiS ee ae Se eae Ss 10 > ya ene Sie) Uo oa oe Sp altea ce os 10 Umeentet ventral to end of dorsal s.o. cee nano odes «woos se 2eneeeealn oe eece. Se eae 35 Lyn 3h Ton 22 bela ee ay a CE ee a er ist seem 19) |B Ste Jet te oo oe ear SO OE ee Pee Sno 902220 bon Pa) eoeeare Numi femmrencalonanilatoral lino +2--s<22s0c.... 2... .--.c2eeel. sen. TSoaleceecs {a5:||\Szcseee * Imperfect. t About t Or more.

30 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Brevoortia pectinata.

49, The following is an exact description of Jenyns species of Bre- voortia from the Atlantic coast of Paraguay and Patagonia:

Brevoortia pectinata (Jenyns) Gill. DARWIN’s MENHADEN.

Diagnosis.—Proportions of head and jaws as in B. tyrannus. Height of body almost three-eighths of total length, and greater proportionally than in B. tyrannus. Fins nearly as in B. tyrannus, but uniformly averaging slightly more; the height of the dorsal somewhat less than three-twentieths of total length; that of the anal equal to or slightly less than half the length of the maxillary. The caudal fin is somewhat longer and more furcate; the length of the external rays never being less than five-sixths of the length of the head, while that of the medial rays remains proportionally the same as in the species first described. Insertion of ventral somewhat behind tip of pectoral, this fin and this dorsal being uniformly somewhat farther back than in B. tyrannus; the insertion of the latter from one to four one-hundredths posterior to a point equidistant from the snout and the base of the median caudal rays, and, as in B. tyrannus, behind the vertical from the insertion of the ven- trals.

Scales very large, considerably serrated, and arranged regularly in 18-20 transverse and 50 longitudinal rows.

Scales forming sheath at base of pectoral not large. Operculum smooth or with inconspicuous and few striations. Squamation upon lobes of caudal extensive and conspicuous.

Variations.

The variations in the individual specimens studied are not of great importance, and are indicated in the tables of measurements.

Table of measurements.

Current number of specimen ..-...-...-...-- 1,709. A. B. Aver- : 6 FS M. GC. Z. M.C. Z. age. Locality .---++--+-00 see ee seer e renee eens 2 Paraguay. Rio Grande. Rio Grande. ~~ Millim.} 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. | 100ths. Htremetlenoth. .. duc... cscees ne rereeerees PAT | Dasnacee 224 ae eee ee Q09 We ss jase aeons Body: Greatest height -.....6sscocaeseeeeeeerie|eeereee BD ia | sParetaierere = 364) Sc.ces. 36 36 ead: Gueatestlenrth 3... .-.....ces ceesceceeee eeaeeae 33)» |esceeaite SI Baenscac 30 31 Distanco from snont to nape............|.--.---- PS aA see 21 ewscceiss 21 QL Wencthotmaxitlary 5.22552. .cceseeesee aeeeeeee 1 Ol eee iB Bl eereees 14 14 enainvolimandible: 2... 2. . asc meee ne] Meeeseee DB ed. Soames 1G) Serer 163 17 Dorsal: MiStancomMromisnout) .o....socs-ce .e seca eoeeeeee fay, Nea a Do ee areca 51 523 Henao mMlonGesh/ PAY en. = + -secce soaccnlseeemees 2 Dl Pe oRcran De ree secs 12 12 Men siniotilast may secacesnl-- <2 * seee| peace Geist Gal eaeneser 6 6 Anal: DistancemnOMpsnOUteasasceaactanc coe ce|Seaeeeee NOR Ncaaceee Oil cmaceete 72 val Wen SGM ORLONCCSb TRY. cccmncc casos. ei cnenenee Unaltisceacias @]) coossas 5 6 Lengthyotdasuray = .cmes cesses seces-- clan eemers ee sSaecc6 AMR Santee 4 43

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN.

Table of measurements—Continued.

31

100ths.

Current number of specimen. ............-. 1,709. A. B. ‘ WEORA, M. C..Z. Locality... 22 --- 00-700 ---- ~~ 2eeseo do 22in $| | Paraguay. | pioGrande. | Rio Grande. Millim.) 100ths. | Millim.] 100ths. | Millim.| 100ths. Caudal: iheneth of midMe rays: 22 ces-a-seesees eee ser (im | ecadses Grlt oar 6 Length of external rays, superior. ....-.].--.---. py aE eecbosar QO eve se ate 25 InTerlorse asses eee e eee PAD» jsoeckeoe (alee Se 98 Pectoral : stance from SNOUtee seceeasa as} cases leaeeees. Bll eterate sinints OOF ren taters: 30 Distance of tipifromisnout: <2... .<- -|eence--e Si) |sgeccce: Bil Pevsner 47 MON SGD aoe ema ete ee oe tiaras oa letsalee ae Ws loeaosene A Ee (a) ee 18 Ventral: Distance trom enontooeee eee eee oe = os ||om ve oars Dist |sesenie=- 4Qt lEacasen: 49 Then Othe eee cetee seme case seis: |aece cat Muy uSodaeme ceil Sees teh Dorsal sass sees seas s ecbas sivccalsscdecs 19! | peecmeete 20 ial eseedaee NT all ert tae ‘Amallts. 08 sneer eee da scwins sci cae bls ck isch - ID esate ater i E21) 5| eee THQ) ieee Sece Number of scales in lateral lino .-.......--. *5Os tee eee BOY Re sia ais AQ" | aceite Number of transverse rows. .----...-------. QOD |e sapere PAN Sposa DG) cree ~Approximately.

8.—SIZE AND RATE OF GROWTH.

Length and weight.

43. The largest specimen on record is represented by a plaster cast

in the National Museum, which is 20 inches in length. ‘The average size of the fish upon the coast of Connecticut and Massachusetts is not far from 12 to 15 inches. The United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association, in estimating the number of fish in a certain bulk, allow 22 cubic inches to each fish. The relation between length and weight is indicated in the following measurements, made at Noank, Conn., in 1875. These fish were all members of the same school.

Number. Length. | Weight. Number. Length. | Weight.

Inches. | Ounces. Inches. | Ounces.

1 ea a ES Ce ol 12: Ge RG Renee ae eee ee 124 12 OSE CCRERSE PP Rt RESET OR eaes 123 10 Ue seatela a wiajyalsigjecicisla wicjats < xia v 11 Ae Bee. en ae Pets 123 1 1S a ee nS ee oe 12 11 OES ay ee ot TOW | ORE ce eh Ae a 124 12 Disgeavia stesteccaudeus casceeies 124 U2) |) BUsosscasace sococseopoum cogent 124 12 ‘ie 2 oe a a aaa 13 18}. | MOU SCS. So odee eased eee 124 11 Daduata es wotccececectvestcedess 2 RS See Neral tretor crores t ais.ce cs wicients 12 10 B.g De rtcte ia a iptets = aterermievetics "sara 124 1) || Pie Sos ecasoccRBasOGBEEae.soac2 12 11 QUMEE won caccat cos eaewedecs cose 124 ie eedemee cece wo cccwae esccieecesoee 13 12 MO tees so san aak scree oan esenizne 123 12) 2||| a) She cee Hee aRneeaeernes Saad 123 12 Wikwan vs cee deccus oceececsclecet 123 11 Pe MOAB COCOCOBEIE EOE EEDOOC Coes 12 Bi ee ees since’ cam meclaais a> acisiema cine 194 1B) Nl) Oiistsn decade espepoceencoconSec 12 1L re See es Oa OS 124 TN N33 pe a 8 dS 12 11 A So ena ctcatesweccicus oct 13 TS WC SS ae ese co ae 12 il PD Se ee Re a Se eg 13 12 SA) eatetete, a: cicicia=/<: -/ohoamei stats ateteneieterte 12 11

Variations in the schools.

44, The table given in the preceding paragraph indicates a very decided uniformity in the size of the individuals making up the same school. I have observed this uniformity in many schools, though I have not often measured many individuals from the same school. This

>)

32 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

uniformity in length and weight is less remarkable, however, than the uniformity to be noticed in the shape and proportions of the members of the same schools. Variations are chiefly observable in the thick- ness and height of the body and the head and in the length of the fins, especially the pectorals and the caudal. These differences in shape are necessarily correlated with the activity and swiftness of the fish. Hence the differences in the wariness, swiftness, and difficulty in capture, so often referred to by old menhaden fishermen.

As a general rule, according to Mr. Dudley, the fall fish are mixed together without reference to fatness; the latest ones, however, which are supposed to be the main fish on their southern migration, are gen- erally fat.

Annual rate of growth.

45. The shad is supposed to attain its full size in four years. Cap- tain Atwood believes that the mackerel requires an equal length of time in which to grow to its adult size of 17 or 18 inches. From studies made in 1856, he concluded that they grew to the length of 2 inches in about thirty days, and 4 inches in forty-five days, becoming 63 or 7 inches long before the October migration, the spawning having taken place about the middle of May. In the second year they are the “blinks;” in the third, “ tinkers;” and in the fourth, full-grown mack- erel. The menhaden must require three and perbaps four years to attain adult size. Those which strike in at midsummer on the coast of New England are probably hatched from the eggs spawned in the pre- vious fall and winter. They are from 2 to 5 inches long. The second year’s growth is doubtless represented by the smallest sizes of the school- ing fish, measuring from 7 to 10 inches, such as are catalogued in bottles Nos. 14045, 14846, and 18049. The third year’s fish would be represented by the abundant schools of fish of 12 and 14 inches, like those with measurements specified in paragraph 43. The full-grown fish are the immense ones taken in Maine and Massachusetts, measuring 16 and 18 inches. '

A most interesting circumstance is narrated by Mr. George W. Miles, to whom I am indebted for many very valuable suggestions utilized elsewhere. His observations were made in Long Island Sound. He writes:—‘“‘In 1873 there were immense numbers of small fish, from 1 to 2 inches long, which appeared on the surface in the month of September. Thousands of schools could be seen at & time and great numbers in each school. They appeared to take possession of all the waters for the remainder of that season. In 1874 these fish appeared again, late in the season, and were about double the size they were in 1873. In 1875 they appeared again, much earlier, and in 1876 they came in about the first of June, having increased in size and numbers. Apparently they occupied the whole waters of the sound, so much so, that the larger fish which frequented the sound were actually crowded out of it or left for other waters, and remained off Block Island at sea the remainder of the

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. ao

season, and gave up the field to be occupied by the smaller fish. The result of this abundance of small fish was a complete failure of the fishery for the two years 1875 and 1876. In 1877 we provided ourselves with smailer-meshed nets, and proceeded to catch the smaller fish, which had now attained about two-thirds the average size of fish in this locality and weighed about half a pound each. We could catch these by using nets of 23-inch mesh. About 15,000,000 of them were taken by our twelve gangs.” Mr. Miles’s observations seem to indicate that the period of growth sometimes, if not always, extends over a period of five or Six years.

Seasonal rate of growth.

46. There is probably a much greater proportional increase in the size of individuals in the three or four months of their sojourn in northern waters than in the winter and spring. This is clearly indicated by the emaciated condition in which they make their first appearance in our waters, their winter’s existence having been apparently sustained by the absorption of the fatty tissues elaborated in summer. Indeed, as will be shown below, there is some reason to believe that the winter months are passed in partial or total torpidity.

9.—COLOR AND OTHER MINOR CHARACTERISTICS. Color of Northern fish.

47. The adult menhaden is a most beautifal fish. Its color is pearly opalescent, like that of the cyprinoid fishes from which the commercial Lssence d’ Orient, or liquid pearl, used by artists, and in the manufacture of paste jewelry, is prepared. Tach scale has all the beauty of a fine pearl, and the reflections from the mailed side of a fish just taken from the water are superb. The scales of the back and the top of the head are of a purplish blue. The blotch of black upon the scapular region, just above the origin of the pectoral, is very constant, although I have seen fish in which it did not occur. Many, especially the older and fat- ter ones, have a number of irregular, roundish, blue-black blotches upon the sides and flanks. The young fish are not so brilliantly colored, and, in general appearance, resemble the young of the shad.

Color of Southern fish.

48. Many of the Southern fish show metallic, brazen, and golden re- flections from the flanks and fins. Agassiz’s Clupanodon aureus, from Brazil, was similarly colored. The name ‘yellow-tail,” commonly ap- plied to this species in the Southern States, is in common use as far north as Cape Hatteras.

Axillary appendages. 49, In the axils of the paired fins are long differentiated scales, which

cover the angles of the fins, and are evidently intended to promote swift 3 F

34 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

progression in the water. Those attached to the pectoral are often nearly as long as the fin itself. A series of large shield-like scales cover the bases of these fins, apparently with the same object as the axillary scales. These are particularly large in the species from the Gulf of Mexico.

Scales.

50. The scales are, in the young fish, arranged in comparatively regu- lar rows. In adult specimens of the Brevoortia tyrannus all sem- blance of regularity disappears, and it is impossible to count either lon- gitudinal or vertical rows. The number of scales is enormously increased, apparently by the growth of additional scales in the interspaces between those already arranged in regular order. The number of scales in the longitudinal rows is from 60 or 70 in young individuals, to 110 in adults; in the vertical rows, 25 or 26.

10.—INTERNAL ORGANS.

Gill-strainers.

51. There are no vestiges of teeth in the mouths of any members of the genus Brevoortia. These fish do not feed upon living animals, and teeth would be useless to them. Their place is supplied by an ar- rangement of setiform appendages, attached to the anterior edges of the arches supporting the gills. These are closely set, flexible, and in Brevoortia tyrannus about 170 in number on each side of each of the arches. There being thus four rows upon each side of the mouth, there must be in the mouth of the menhaden from 1,400 to 1,500 of these thread-like bristles, from one-third to three-quarters of an inch long. These may be so adjasted that they form avery effective strainer, much resembling that of the right whale. This strainer is much finer and more effective than in the whale, the number cf bristles being much more numerous than are the plates of baleen in the mouth of the right whale. The uses to which this strainer is applied will be discussed below, in paragraphs 119-120.

The accessory branchial organ.

52. There is also a curious accessory branchial organ, situated be- tween the top of the fourth branchial arch and the base of the skull. This has been described from dissections of a fish identified as Clupano- don aureus, Spix, in a paper by Prof. Joseph Uyrtl,* cited in full in the Bibliography.

The alimentary canal.

53. The alimentary canal in the menhaden is peculiar. The pharynx is continued, in a straight canal, to the point of the siphonal stomach, which extends backward nearly to the posterior extremity of the in- testinal cavity, then turning at an acute angle returns nearly to the

*Denkschriften Kaiserl. Akad. Wiss. Mat.-Nat. Class, vol. x, 1855, p. 49.

- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 35

head, where it expands into a globular pear-shaped muscular organ with thick walls, which have their inner surfaces rugose, like those of the gizzard of a gallinaceous bird. At the anterior end of the stomach is a mass of fine, filiform, pyloric appendages, surrounding the origin of the intestine, which is very long and is arranged in two coils, one upon each side of the stomach, enveloping it completely. The length of the intestine is five or six times that of the whole fish.

The swim-bladder.

54. The swim-bladder is small and inconspicuous. Its walls are thin. It is not probable that it contains enough gelatine to be of commercial importance. Hyrtl was unable to detect its presence in the fish studied by him as Clupanodon aureus, but which was probably something very different.

IIl.—GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND MOVEMENTS. 11.—GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE. Limits in 1877.

55. It is not easy to define exactly the boundaries of geographical range for any species, unless they be marked by some impassable bound- ary. It is especially difficult in the case of fishes. The limits of their wanderings appear to depend directly or indirectly upon temperature, and to vary considerably, from season to season, with the seasonal vari- ations in the mean temperature of the water.

As nearly as it can conveniently be expressed the range of the north- ern menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, is as follows: it is to be found at some period during tle year in the coastal waters of all the Atlantic States from Maine to Florida (approximately between the parallels of north latitude 25° and 45°); on the continental side it is limited approxi- mately by the line of brackish water; on the ocean side, by the inner boundary of the Gulf Stream. What may be the limits of its winter migrations it is impossible to say. A surface temperature of about 51° is necessary for its appearance in waters near the shores.

Variations of the northern limit in the past.

56. Its northern limit of migration seems to have always been the Bay of Fundy. Perley, writing in 1852, stated that they were sometimes caught in considerable numbers in weirs within the harbor of Saint John’s, N. B.*

*Descriptive Catalogue (in part) of the fishes of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, by M. H. Perley, esq., Her Majesty’s emigration officer at St. John’s, New Brunswick. (Second edition.) Fredericton: J. Simpson, Printer to the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, 1852, p. 30.

36 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Mr. G. A. Boardman, of Calais, Me., informs me that large sclocls have been seen during the summer in Passamaquoddy Bay and the lower Bay of Fundy.

James Lord, of Deer Island, Charlotte County, N. B., testified before the Halifax Commission that he had taken porgies in the neighborhood of Campo Bello, but that none had been seen there for ten years or more.*

Mr. J. F. Whiteaves declares that of late years none have been found in New Brunswick, nor to the north of Grand Manan.t

The claim of Professor Hind that they have been found as far north as Canso, is not, to my knowledge, supported by satisfactory evidence.

At present the eastward wanderings of the scbools do not appear to extend beyond Isle au Haut and Great Duck Island. These islands are less than forty miles westward of the boundary of Maine and New

Brunswick. Southern limit of range.

57. Dekay supposed the southern limit of the menhaden to be in the neighborhood of Chesapeake Bay, but it has for some years been known that they occur in great abundance on the coast of North Carolina. I found them to be abundant in the Saint John’s River, Florida, in March and April, 1874 and 1875, and it is quite certain that they are found there throughout the winter. In the National Museum are specimens (Catalogue No. 7696) collected at Indian River by Mr. Wurdemann. Mr. Charles Dougherty, of New Smyrna, Fla., tells me that he has observed numerous large schools during the winter in the open ocean off Cape Canaveral and Mosquito Inlet.

Old fishermen from Key West, who are perfectly familiar with the fish, assure me that it is never seen about the Florida Keys.

Oceanic limits of range.

58. Beyond these bounds nothing certain is known. The thorovgh and indefatigable labor of the twenty years during which Professor Poey has been investigating the ichthyology of Cuba justifies us in tak- ing his word that the menhaden is not found in those waters. It has not been found at any other point in the West Indies, nor is it recorded from the coast of South America, though other species of the same genus have been found there. The investigations of Mr J. Matthew Jones and myself have failed to discover it about the Bermuda Islands, and it ap- pears to be unknown to the fishermen at that point.

Menhaden in the Gulf of Mexico.

59. Mr. S. H. Wilkinson, keeper of Cat Island light-house, Missis- Sippi Soand, writes that no fish resembling the menhaden is found in

* Proceedings Halifax Commission, 1877, Appendix F, p. 245. tSixth Report Department of Marine and Fisheries, Appendix U, p. 195.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. ah |

those waters; and a similar statement is made by Capt. D. P. Kane, of the Matagorda light-station, Texas, who is a native of Maine, and has been engaged in pogy-fishing in that State. He has for the past eight years been engaged on the coast from Florida to Mexico, and has never seen menhaden or heard of their being caught south of Cape Hatteras, with one exception.

Capt. William Nichols, pilot, residing in Saluria, Tex., informed eae tain Kane that in September, 1872, great quantities of pogies drifted upon the beach at Saluria, and that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Matagorda Bay were full of them. Capt. William EH. Spicer, of Noank, Conn., is positive that he has’ encountered schools of these fish while seining for the Mobile market off Tampa, Fla.

These statements probably refer to the Gulf menhaden, recently dis- covered at various points in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and easily dis- tinguished from the northern species.

Range of other species. :

60. On the coasts of Brazil and at Montevideo occurs a geographical race of our northern species, the Prevoortia tyrannus, aurea, while still farther south, in the waters of Buenos Ayres, is another species, Bre- voortia pectinata. The latter was first taken by Charles Darwin, on his memorable voyage around the world, in a net on a sand-bank at Bahia Blanea (latitude 39° 8S). Very probably the species is abundant along the coasts of the Argentine Republic, in the broad mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and from the analogy of our species, well up the southern coasts of Brazil, perhaps to Rio Janeiro. It is not unlikely that the eastern coast of South America is as abundantly supplied as our own with these most valuable fishes. Valenciennes states that the Portuguese of South America call the Brevoortia aurea by the name Savega.

Again, on thecoastsof West Africa occursa species, Brevoortia dorsalis, closely resembling the menhaden. An old fisherman in Maine told me that he had seen the menhaden in immense quantities on the western coast of Africa, where the negroes spear them and eat them.

Illustrations and descriptions of all the known American species are given elsewhere in this memoir.

Alleged occurrence on the Pacific coast.

61. The Hon. S. L. Goodale, of Saco, Me., writing under date October 25, 1877, states that some menhaden fishermen of Bristol, Me., have recently sent one of their number to prospect for them on the Pacific coast, and that his reports were so favorable that several of them with their families had left a few weeks previously for Washington Territory, © where they were informed that ‘‘ pogies” were abundant. If this report be true, it is quite certain that the explorers are doomed to disappoint- ment. No fish resembling the menhaden occurs in the Pacific Ocean.

08 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

It should be noted, however, that wherever representatives of this genus of fishes occur there is doubtless an opportunity for establishing new industries of great value. It would be well worth while for enter- prising fishermen to investigate this subject. The Government of Japan has recently employed one of the best informed of our New England fishermen * to instruct the natives of that country in the arts of catch- ing and preserving food-fishes.

As has already been stated, there are abundant supplies of these fish on both sides of the South Atlantic. There is apparently no reason why extensive manufacturing interests may not be inaugurated in Brazil, the Argentine Republic, Paraguay, and Africa.

12.—THE ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF THE SCHOOLS.

Causes influencing times of arrival and departure.

62. The date of the earliest appearance of the schools of menhaden at any given’point upon the coast corresponds very closely with that of the arrival of scup, shad, bluefish, and other of the non-resident summer species. It depends primarily upon the temperature of the water. This element is of more importance, perhaps, in the case of the menhaden than with the carnivorous fishes, since the food-supply of the former is not likely to be affected by changes of temperature. There are other questions to be considered, such as the movements of hostile species and the direction of the prevailing winds, though the latter may, perhaps, be merged in the question of temperature. Their departure is regulated by the same causes, though, since their food-supply is less uncertain, they linger later in cur waters than most of their companion species of the spring.

Material available for the determination of dates.

63. The material for determining the movements of the schools is very unsatisfactory, though perhaps of necessity so. Although many ot our correspondents give dates of arrival and departure, these are under- stood to be merely approximations to the truth. The only series of observations showing the dates of the arrival of menhaden for a period of several successive years is one from the Waquoit weir, and this profes- ses to show nothing except the date at which the fish began to be abundant. In the nature of the case, observations of a more definite nature are impracticable. Since so little that is definite can be recorded, it may be desirable to review the statement, of some of our correspond- ents, thus putting on record a series of observations all carefully made and many of them extending over a long period of years. In this way -the movements of the menhaden at different points upon the coast will be described more accurately and graphically than they could be by any compiled account, however carefully it might be prepared. It is

* Capt. U.S. Treat, of Eastport, Me.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 39

hoped, too, that this course may suggest and elicit faller observations from persons living in our seaboard towns.

A review of the general movement along the coast.

64. At the approach of settled warm weather the schools make their appearance in the coast waters. They remain in the bays and near the shores until they are warned away by the breath of coming winter. The date of their appearance is earlier in the more southern waters, and the length of their sojourn longer. It is manifestly impracticable to give anything but approximate dates to indicate the time of their move- ments. In fact, the comparison of two localities, distant apart one or two hundred miles, would indicate very little. When wider ranges are compared there becomes perceptible a proportion in the relations of the general averages. There is always a balance in favor of earlier arrivals at the more southern localities. Thus, it becomes apparent that the first schools appear in Chesapeake Bay in March and April, on the coast of New J ersey in April and early May, and on the south coast of New England in late April and May, off Cape Ann about the middle of May, and in the Gulf of Maine about the latter part of May and the first of June. Returning they leave Maine in late September and Octo- ber, Massachusetts in October, November, and December, Long Island Sound and vicinity in November and December, Chesapeake Bay in December, and Cape Hatteras in January. Farther to the south they appear to remain more or less constantly throughout the year.

Coast of Florida.

65. In the Saint John’s River, Florida, menhaden are abundant throughout the winter. They appear in November clogging the shad- nets. It is not known how far they proceed up the river, but I was unable to learn that they have been taken above Buckley’s Bluff, twelve miles above Jacksonville and thirty-six from the mouth of the river; they are particularly numerous at the mouth and in the vicinity of May- port and Yellow Bluff. That they remain as late as May is well estab- jished, and it is the opinion of Mr. Kemps that they are found through- out the summer, the young fish, at least. I have found the grown and half-grown fish abundant at Arlington and Jacksonville in April, 1874 and 1875. After the first of May the opportunities are not favorable for observation, the use of shad-nets being then discontinued. Young fish are seen from May to October, according to Mr. Kemps, in schools over two miles long and extending from shore to shore of the river. Along the coast of Florida, from Cape Canaveral north, the schools of adult fish are said to be common through the winter months.

Coast of Georgia.

66. Mr. Joseph Shepard, of Saint Mary’s, Ga., states, on the authority of a Saint Andrew’s Bar pilot, that small schools of menhaden are seen in Saint Andrew’s Sound during the summer months, coming over

40 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

the bar with the flood tide and going out with the ebb, and that the same fish are also seen in large schools in calm weather during the win- ter months outside the Sea Islands in about seven fathoms of water, aud three to four feet below the surface. Mr. Charles C. Leslie, a fish-dealer in Charleston, S. C., informs me that schools of menhaden frequently are seen in the winter off Charleston Harbor; a statement which is con- firmed by others, among them Mr. Daniel T. Church, of Rhode Island. Coast of North Carolina.

67. Mr. A. C. Davis, of Beaufort, N. C., writes that the fat-back first approaches the coast at that place in June, the main body arriving in July from the south, entering the rivers and drifting up with the flood tide and down with the ebb; their appearance is regular and certain, and has never failed, the numbers seeming to be greater every year. They remain in the rivers and inlets throughout the summer, gradually departing toward the close of October and the first of November to the southward. During the season they are constantly coming in at inter- vals. Those which first arrive are one-quarter to one-half grown, no full- grown fish appearing until later in the season. In bad weather, espe- cially with northern winds, they leave for the sea, returning in moderate weather, with southerly winds.

Mr. A. W. Simpson, jr., of Cape Hatteras light-station, records sev- eral interesting facts concerning the movements of the fat-back around that cape. They first make their appearance in June and remain until December; they generally come in to the shore on the northern coast of the cape, running south along the beach and entering the inlets and rivers. In the first of the season they may be seen, in moderate weather, five or six miles at sea, in large schools half a mile in length, apparently floating upon the surface of the water. They always make their appearance from the north and leave the coast by the same route. Some are seen in the sounds and rivers all the year. When the second large run occurs in the fall they appear in immense numbers. This is sometimes in November and in other seasons in December. In 1873 they were first seen on the coast about the 6th of December, and the main body arrived about the 10th of December. Many schools may be seen at one time. They seldom come near the coast in high winds and rough seas, or if they do they swim so low that they are not seen from land. Their appearance is certain and they are about the same in abundance every year at the spring run, but the fall and winter runs vary somewhat, the number in some seasons being very much smaller. Mr. Simpson thinks that the tides do not affect their move- ments in any respect, except that they prefer to swim against the tide; he has convinced himself, by careful observation, that more enter the inlets on the ebb than on the flood, though they are frequently seen drifting up and down channels with the flood and ebb. The one and two years’ fish school by themselves, the young in large schools along the sandy shores. Many fish pass the winter in the inlets and rivers,

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN, Al

but most of them leave the coast by a northern route, the spring runs leaving in October, the fall runs about the middle of January. Some seasons they go to sea in large schools and others they drop away grad- ually. The first of the spring-runs are usually the smallest. During the summer the large schools are only seen occasionally, though Mr. Simpson thinks that they are on the coast continually. They only come near the outer sea-beach when driven in in October and November by the tailor (Pomatomus saltatrix), or blue-fish of the North, and the dog- fish (Mustelus levis).

Coast of Virginia and Chesapeake Bay.

68. According to Mr. Henry Richardson, the alewives are caught in the vicinity of Cape Henry as early as March, though the main body does not come in until June and July. During these months they are constantly passing the Virginia capes and entering Chesapeake Bay, coming from the south.

The Potomac fishermen inform me that they appear in the spring soon after the shad and herring, remaining in the Potomac during the season, where they prove a serious hinderance to the working of the shad seines. Young fish seven inches in length were taken in the lower Potomac at Nanjemoy Reach as late as December 10, 1874, but disap- peared after the first heavy frost. The first schools appeared late in March and early in April, 1875, and in 1878 early in March.

At Apateague Island, Accomac County, Virginia, according to Mr. J. L. Anderton, they are first seen swimming northward near the coast in April, the main body arriving in June. Their appearance is regular. They run in-shore on the flood, drifting off with the ebb. In November they are seen making their way toward the south.

In Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds, says Mr. Lawson, they appear about May 1, the fish of different sizes in separate schools; they are found there in quantity throughout the season, the southward migration beginning in August and continuing until the middle of October.

I find a manuscript note by Professor Baird to the effect that they are found in large schools at Cape Charles, Virginia, from April to October, being most numerous on the bay side of the peninsula.

Delaware Bay.

69. Mr. James H. Bell, keeper of Mispillion River light-honse, Dela- ware Bay, states that fish are first. seen in those waters early in March, and grow more numerous until about the middle of April, when they are frightened away by the sea-trout. They soon return in increasing num- bers until the middle or last of May, after which they begin to disappear in large schools until the first of August, when they again become numn- crous, and continue so if the weather is mild, when they begin to dis- appear, working out to sea through the channel. The opinion of Mr. Bell is that after entering the bay they follow the main channel, spread-

42 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

ing toward the shcres on either side as they advance, until arrested by brackish water. The western shore of the bay is very shallow, the tide near the beach seldom rising above six or seven feet. When the tide is three-quarters flood the fish run in close to land and are caught within twenty yards of the beach; from slack water to first quarter ebb, if it is calm, the water is spotted with the break or ripple, and as the tide recedes they float out with it to deep water. Medium and small fish are found together, not probably in the same schools, but close enough together for the seine to catch fish ranging in length from three to nine inches. Coast of New Jersey.

79. According to Mr. Albert Morris, menhaden make their appear- ance in Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, about May 1, the main body arriving about June, and leaving about the middle of September, the “eastern run” coming along in October or November.

Mr. A. G. Wolf, keeper of Absecom light, Atlantic City, N. J., writes that the appearance of the first schools is regular and takes place in April, the main body coming in July. They come from the returning south by degrees in the fall, beginning in September.

D. i. Foster, of Cape May light-house, states that they appear from the south about April, larger but not so fat as the second arrivals in July, the majority of which are from four to six inches in length. They disappear in November, heading to the north.

Eastern end of Long Island.

71. In the vicinity of Greenport, N. Y., according to Captain Sisson, the first arrivals are in March and April, and according to Mr. Havens, about April 1, while Hawkins Brothers, of Jamesport, put it about the Ist of May. These gentlemen agree that the first schools contain the largest fish; that they are followed for some weeks by other runs, and that the schools leave for the south on the approach of cold weather in October and November.

Mr. Dudley tells me that his steamer usually starts out from Pine Isl- and from the Ist to the 12th of May. She never fails to find fish out- side of Montauk Point. The gangs which started out for the season, April 20, 1877, found plenty of fat fish on the first day out.

The late schools of large fish which come upon the Connecticut coast about the Ist of November, and which are supposed to come from the coast of Maine, usually strike across from Watch Hill and Fisher’s Island to the Napeague shore, where they sometimes remain several days before their final disappearance from those waters.

Long Island Sound.

72. In the western partof Long Island Sound, at Stratford, according to Mr. Lillingston, they appear about the 1st of May and remain until Octo-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 43

ber, when they leave at once, swimming east. They approach from the east. The largest fish he thinks are found in August. In August and September immense numbers “strike on” and follow up the Housatonic River, and these are invariably poor.

At Milford, Conn., we are informed by Mr. Miles, the first white-fish are seen in April or May, the main body arriving in Long Island Sound in June and July. Sometimes the first fish are the largest. The schools or runs appear to come at intervals of from two to three weeks. The fish come in around Montauk Point, the early fish follow along the Con- necticut shore and up the rivers ; later in the season they are found off- _ shore in deep water, though they occasionally work inshore and up the rivers. Their appearance is regular and certain. The schools are mixed as regards size, in the opinion of Mr. Miles. The schools begin to disap- pear about the 1st of September, passing around Montauk Point to the south, and are all gone by the Ist to the 15th of October.

At Westbrook, according to Captain Stokes, they appear about the middle of May and leave in November in continuous schools, passing around Montauk, bound to the south. In July the schools are the largest.

At Saybrook, says Captain Ingham, the first bony-fish are seen in May, the main body arriving in June. The first are scattering and gen- erally the largest ; there are several runs at irregular intervals. The appearance of the fish is regular and certain. They leave in October mostly in a body.

Captain Beebe, of the Cornfield Point light-vessel, writes that the first bony-fish are seen in April, but that these are not the largest. They work along the bays and rivers of the sound, drifting in with the flood and out with the ebb. They leave about the middle of November in a body, passing around Montauk Point to the southward. They ascend the Connecticut above the Shore Line Railway bridge, where they are often followed by the seining gangs belonging to Luce Brothers, of Niantic.

Block Island Sound.

73. Captain John Washington, of Mystic River, Conn., states that the first bony-fish arrive in Block Island Sound early in April, followed by larger schools toward the last of the month, and that they continue to come in during the first half of the summer. They come in around Mon- taukin large schools, and after passing the outer islands, thelarge schools break up into smaller ones, which make their way toward the rivers and coves. Their arrival is certain and quite regular, varying but afew days from year to year. They begin to leave in Cctober, and by the last of November are gone. A few stragglers are seen in the Mystic River until the beginning of freezing weather. They swim southward in their fall migration, going faster than when coming north in the spring.

Capt. Jared S. Crandall observes that they first appear in Block Island Sound about May 1, coming from the southward and through the east

44 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

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 cf April and continues for three or four weeks, is composed of fish yielding from five to seven or eight gal- lous to the thousand. The next run of fish continues until about the Ist 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 abun- dant, 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.

7d. 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

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 45

of the fall, but the gill-nets often take them as late as New Yea1’s. Benjamin Tallman caught 1,600 barrels (400,000) on December 3.*

Marthws 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 trom the south- west. 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. Cap- tain 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 iu about the 10th of May; in 1871 the first were taken the 21st of April, about three weeks earlier than the aver- age. But they strike off again for about a fortnight before they come regularly.

Capt. Isaiah Spindel, of Wood’s Holl, tock 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. 8. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1873, p. 184.

46 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES,

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

Year. Menke Alewives. | Scup. | Blue-fish. HGS Sea Cee eee RSET Scio Gr OOS SS COP TOHO HOS BEES OS SE aee May 6] Aprl | May 5 |’May ‘16 HB GO Meee eacnciccecccoe com ce eee cee emeeneec cieesiaiceyem sie ae <= May 4] April 3]May 2/May 15 HR GEE stole foes aos cals eoemeeie eee err em eee enemas e eens s-ciee May 1/{Aprl 1 | April27 | May 17 OBO eee te.cte <ivinie wie eerie selene aoe eee ieset ee clsiaisincicien == =-'-ie1= May 6] March 30 | May 10} May 13 MSGS rials son's yo ite aesine ae eteeareiaiere sees evata= 2 «/- ini =[='=ltatelars May 2] March 29/ May 8] May 15 HS GAS See cons eee See eee eee eee ais salaceisiemneeere May 5] March 28 | May. 6| May 17 MEOD tannin o 3 Soe ohees seen seeenine se secisiesscee es ae s- cess May 1] March 29 | May 1] May 16 US Meee ce sacooccesecaccconceoe GaqsqunnccoseBeseadsoddsc May 7] April 2] May 8] May 15 DEO ie cams e onan nee Seen a ais ae cas eee ie csseacis accolmmtee aes May 3]| March 28 | May 4] May’ 14 UG} sap eeleGeccocc+ ca coodcuoos SHOR SORES PORRBE ae oasacs oo F May 15] March 30] May 10} May 19 WEGQE So Perea Meiaeeten cence e wisletoee won cineteis's so a cicie oe sisi tare May 10 | March 31 | May 7 | May . 17 UB Oe cteetaie ciate citar aie cnn ir eictncisjs eoaeic wesnsiseeaee gees May 8] March 23} May .2| May 11 US eee me mare eee sake pass sa cakee ssib ects coeoct cess eee aenes April2i March 24} April25 | May 24

Trregularities of movements shown by returns of Waquott weir.

78. The returns of Waquoit weir, which was rented in 1871, by the Massachusetts commissioners of inland fisheries, for the purpose of get- ting 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, i, 600; May 22, 6 "00; May 23, 26,000; May 24, 2,205; May 25, 780; May "31, 40,300; fai 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 bi in 1868, 45,706 and 79,020; in 1869, 66,680 and 79,0030 ; in 1870, 152,580 and 255,340; in 1871], 136,005 and 99,256.*

South shore of Cape Cod.

79. At Hyannis, Mass., writes Mr. A. IF’. 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 Ist 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 cuape eae in November.

Capt. Josiah Hardy second, of Chatham, Mass., writes :—‘* The men- haden seen here are on their route to the eastern shores, coming from

* Repért of the Massachusetts Commissioners of Inland Fisheries for 1871, and Re- port of United States Commissioner of F:sk and Fisheries 1871—72, pp. 174-176.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 47

the west; when they strike Chatham Bay they swim in large schools, coloring the water and followed by numerous sea-birds. They are gov- erned 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 gener- ally not before the 1st of May. Inever knew them to fail coming; they generally follow the shores, making their way down the sound by Mon- omoy 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 dewn 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 turn- ing 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 Nan- tucket Island.” Cape Cod Bay.

80. Mr. David F. Loring, keeper of Highland light, at the northeastern- most 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 Province- town 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 gen- erally 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

48 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

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

According to Mr. Heman 8. 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 Jarger 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 pres. ent 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 & Oo., 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 sammer and work in sbore 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 considera- ble 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

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN-MENHADEN. ° 49

in size, the larger may come sooner or later; nothing certain is known as regards this. After rounding Cape Cod, some touch the coast in the vicinity of Gloucester, Mass., but by far the larger portion it appears keep off shore, and near it anywhere from Cape Elizabeth to Monhegan. The main body of these fish continue to pass toward the east till about the 20th of July, when that impetus seems to be checked, and for thirty or forty days their movements are seemingly local. Then they begin their return te the west, and contiune to repass until in October. The last bodies are urgent in their westward course. Their appearance is regular, and they have never been known to fail. The temperature of the air affects them; they will not ‘show’ or come to the surface when cold north or east winds prevail.”

Boardman and Atkins state that the latest date at which menhaden have been observed on the western coast of Maine, between Cape Eliza- beth and Pemaquid, is October 25, and the period of greatest abun- dance about the last of July or the first of August, although for several weeks preceding and following that date, there is little variation in their number. Since the publication of his report Mr. Atkins has observed small menhaden as late as December in the vicinity of Bucksport.

Mr. Benjamin I’, Brightman, of Round Pond, Me., also largely inter- ested in the fisheries, states that the first fish make their appearance about the Ist of June, though usually scattering. Seining begins about the 15th; the fish are poor then and rather smaller than those taken in August and September, when the smacks go off shore from five to thirty miles to get larger and fatter fish. Seining begins about the 15th of June, and continues until the 15th of October. They are most abun- dant and easily seen on a warm, sunshiny day. The fish start to go west about the middle of September, and continue going until the last of October.

Mr. John Grant, keeper of Matinicus Rock light-station, writes that they arrive about the Ist of June, the larger body from the middle to the last of June, the last school being much the largest and fattest. There are commonly several schools at irregular intervals. A favorite play- ing-ground is between Seguin Island, and Matinicus Rock, and in the bays and mouths of rivers between those two points. The fish leave about the middle of October in a body.

On the eastern side of Penobscot Bay near Brooklin, according to Messrs. J. C. Condon and R. A. Friend, pogies come in from the 10th to the 15th of June, and leave by degrees after the 1st of October. They are most abundant in June and July.

In the same vicinity, according to Mr. Z. D. Norton, the first menhaden seen are scattering individuals that are caught in gill-nets and wears in May, often as early as the middle of the month. The schools do not appear until the middle of June, on an average. They leave in Septem-

ber commonly. In Bluehill Bay they are sometimes known to stay as late as October.

4 F

50 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Mr. William H. Sargent, of Castine, Me., has known them to come in as early as May 25, and has seen them in November.

Eastward from this point the stay of the menhaden is materially shortened up. At Jonesport, according to Mr. George R. Allen, it is almost confined to the month of August, scattering ones being taken in July. In Passamaquoddy Bay and vicinity menhaden are now rarely seen. Formerly they were found in all these waters in August.*

Mr. Maddocks on the Maine schools.

83. Mr. Maddocks states: ‘‘ Its appearance on the coast of Maine is from about June 1, to October 1. The date of coming rarely varies more than five days; that of departure is sometimes delayed until October 15, if the weather continues mild and calm. It usually dis- appears from the surface during the continuance of cold northerly winds; and even in favorable weather alternately rises and sinks dur- ing the day, the morning and evening being the time of most general appearance. The first straggling comers are generally discovered on the ‘ outer grounds,’ so called, some forty miles off shore. The numbers increase with the advance of the season, the fish gathering in schools or bunches from the size of a dining table to ten acres large, and fifty of these being frequently visible at once from the mast-head. In these bunches the fish extend from the surface two or three fathoms deep, more or less, as far at least as can be seen, in a compact mass, either lying perfectly still or moving slowly with their heads all pointed one way as if intently gazing upon an object before them.”t And again: ‘It is certain that the disapparance of the menhaden from the Maine coast in the autumn is accomplisbed by a movement of vast numbers (not necessarily the whole or even the greater number) to the west and south along the shore. The withdrawal is nearly simultaneous, but in a body so immense that the vanguard reaches Cape Cod before the rear has left the Maine waters. Our fishermen follow the retreating army as far as Cape Cod and Sandy Hook, and make large captures.”

13.—MIGRATIONS. Migrations of fishes and their causes.

84. It was formerly believed that all seasonal migration was directed toward and from the equator, but zoologists of the present day recog- nize another kind of migration quite as important although not usually soextended. Atthe approach of the hot season in subtropical climates the birds seek a cooler temperature, either by flying northward or by ascending the high mountains. In like manner the fishes of any region may find water of suitable warmth by moving north or south along

* Goodale & Atkins, op. cit., p. 4. t The Menhaden Fishery of Maine, p. 4.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 51

the shores of the continent, or by changing to waters of less or greater depth. The former may be called equatorial, the latter bathic migration.

Bathie migration is the most common. The cod family, the halibut, and flounders, the scuppaug, tautog, sea bass, and sculpins, are well known examples. The cod prefers a temperature of from 35° to 42° Ff. and this it secures in a temperate climate, such as that of Southern New England by remaining on the off-shore banks in 15 to 30 fathoms of water, coming near the shore in winter. On the coasts of Labrador, New- foundland, Nova Scotia and Eastern Maine they are near the shore in summer and in deep water in winter. In Norway the fish are caught to some extent in the fiords in the summer season, though more in winter, In summer they still remain on the off-shore banks. The halibut moves up and down on the sides of the great oceanic banks and the continental slopes, with the seasonal changes of temperature. In summer they are abundant in the shallows of South Greenland, while in winter they are in deep water. On the coast of Massachusetts they come near the shores only in the dead of winter, though abundant in snmmer on the edges of the outside banks in 80 to 300 fathoms of water. The sand dabs (fippo- glossoides dentatus) are abundant in July in water of 60 and 80 fathoms ten miles off Cape Ann; in the middle of winter they swarm upon the sand flats in two or three fathoms depth.

The Spanish mackerel, the bonito, and the tunnies are good examples of nomadic species. In summer they throng our northern waters; in winter they are under the tropics.

Others, like the sea-herring, appear to migrate in two ways. ‘Their movements are, approximately, both parallel with and vertical to the coast line; that is to say, they secure charges of temperature both by leaving the upper strata of the ocean and by moving toward and from the equator. The researches of Boeck in Norway, show that the schools ap- proach the coast by gullies or submarine valleys from the oceanic depths. Such is doubtless the case on our own coast, in their earliest approaches, though having reached the shallows near the shore, the schools range along great stretches of coast line. Since fishes have no restrictions upon their movements except those of food and temperature, all active species must traverse areas of many hundreds of miles during the year.

The tendency of all the researches made during the past few years has been to confirm the views advanced by Professor Baird in an un- published letter written in 1873 to the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary ° of State.

“The question in regard to the migration of fishes is one that has attracted the attention of both fishermen and naturalists for many years past, and a great deal of eloquence has been expended by Pennant and other writers, in their history of the movement of herring and other species.

**For many years it was considered beyond question that the sea herring, having their homes in the northern seas, were in the habit of

52 REPORT OF COMMISSJONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

prosecuting extensive journeys, in the course of which they successively visited the shores of Europe and of America, penetrating into their bays and sounds, and returning afterwards to the point from which they started; the adults decimated by the predaceous fishes and their capture by man, but their numbers kept up by the progeny, the result of their spawning operations, for which purpose it was supposed their journeys were initiated.

‘“‘In the same manner the shad and the fresh-water herring of the American coast were supposed to start in the late winter along the southern coast of the United States, in a huge column, the herring first, and afterward the shad, first entering the Saint John’s River in Flor- ida, and while passing up the coast sending off detachments into all the principal rivers, and finally stopping in about the latitude of the mouth of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

‘This theory is at present almost entirely abandoned, and there is reason to believe that after the herring and shad have spawned in the rivers they proceed to sea, and spend the period until their next anad- romous movement in the immediate vicinity of the mouths of the rivers, where they are followed in due course of time by their young. This is illustrated by the fact that fish of nearly every prominent river show some peculiarities by which both the fish-dealer and the naturalist can distinguish them; the difference not being sufficient to constitute a specific rank, but such as to mark them as local races. Numerous cap- tures, too, in gill-nets and otherwise, off the northern coast, during the period when they should be gathered together in the southern waters, prove that a portion at least remain. It is difficult to imagine how a shad or a river herring, spawned in the Saint Lawrence River or any northern stream, could avoid entering a more southern river, if in its vicinity ; but if any fact has been well established of late years in the history of the fishes, it is that the anadromous fish, or such as run up the rivers from the sea to spawn, will return if possible to the river in which they first saw the light. So true is this, that where there may be two or three rivers entering the sea in close proximity, which have become destitute of shad or herring in consequence of long-continued obstructions, and the central one only has been restocked by artificial means, the fish, year by year, will enter that stream, while those adja- cent on either side will continue as barren of fish as before.”

The influence of ocean temperature on the movements of menhaden.

85. The influence of ocean temperature on the menhaden is not at all well understood, and I can here record only crude generalizations founded upon very unsatisfactory data. I have before me three tables showing the variations of temperature, by monthly means, for Key West, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Savannah, Ga.; Charleston, 8S. C.; Wilmington, N. C.; Norfolk, Va.; Baltimore, Md.; New York City; New London, Conn.; Wood’s Holl, Mass.; Portland, Me.; and Eastport, Me. Table I shows

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 53

the monthly means of surface temperature; Table II, of temperature at the bottom near the shore; and Table ITI, the average means of the surface and bottom temperatures. The observations were all made at 3 p.m., and are continuous from March 1, 1876, to March 1, 1877. These are reproduced in Appendix F. There is, also, a table of the daily ob- servations of temperature at the surface at the same stations. A study of tliese tables, which, for convenience, were mapped out in curves upon section paper, affords some interesting results.

Minimum limits of temperature and the dates of appearance and disap- pearance of the schools—The monthly mean of surface temperatures at Eastport is greatest in September, when it is 50°.6, while the highest daily observation is 51°.5. The menhaden do not visit Eastport in mid- summer. Let us divide the monthly averages for May, at Portland, into quarterly periods. The average for May 16-23 is 479.1; for May 24-31 is 51°. The quarter-month averages for October are 53°.8, 50°.8, 47°.9, 48°.8,

The schools of menhaden arrive in Eastern Maine late in May and early in June, and depart, usually, before the middle of October.

At Wood’s Holl the quarter-month averages for May, as taken by the Signal Service observer, are 48°.2, 499.6, 539.1, and 579.6, approximately, or the monthly average, 52°.3. These observations are made in the Great Harbor, at the railroad-wharf. Another series of observations, made by Captain Edwards, for the Light-House Beard, in the Little Har- bor, are believed to indicate more nearly the temperature of the Vineyard Sound. These, however, are only for bottom. The difference between the monthly mean of bottom temperatures for May, at the two stations, is almost two degrees (1°.8), the figures being 519.5 for Great Harbor, for Little Harbor 53°.3. It does not seem assuming too much to place the quarter-month average for the first half of May at 50° and 519.4. For November the Great Harbor quarter-month means are 51°, 51°, 479.7, 43°.3.

The menhaden strike into Vineyard Sound early in May or late in April, and linger until November, and even December.

At New London the quarter-monthly averages for the last half of April and the first half of May are 49°, 48°.5, 529.5, 549.5; for late Oc- tober, 559.2, 549.9 ; for November, 53°.5, 519.1, 489.1, 469.1.

The fish come on the eastern coast of Connecticut late in April, and are frequently taken as late asthe middle of November. The temperatures of New London suggest that there may be something in error in the Wood’s Holl observations in so far as they are supposed to indicate the temper- ature of the ocean in its immediate vicinity. The periods of appearance and disappearance at Waquoit and Menemsha, in the Vineyard Sound, agree nearly with those of Eastern Connecticut.

The temperature of the Chesapeake must be studied from the obser- vations made at Baltimore and Norfolk. At the latter place the April means are 52°, 569.5, 619.2, 60°; the November means, 59°, 549.6, 539.5,

54 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

489.5; at the former for April, 45°.6, 50°, 549.5, 559.7; for November, 549.2, 529.1, 50°, 47°. At Norfolk the averages for the last half of March are 48° and 50°.

The movements of the menhaden in other waters have not been very carefully observed, but we know that they enter the Potomac late in March and early in April, and that they linger till the last part of November.

In 1874 the young menhaden lingered in the Lower Potomac until the middle of December. In 1876 the average for December surface tem- perature at Norfolk was 369.8, for bottom temperature 369.4. In 1874 the surface average for December at Norfolk was 43°, or 6°.4 higher than in 1876, the year from which our tables of observations are madeup. The average for Norfolk surface temperature in November was, in 1876, 539.4, in 1874, 55°.1 or 1°.7 higher. Itis quite probable that in 1874 the water of the Lower Potomac did not become colder than 50° until December.

At Wilmington the monthly means of bottom temperature in 1876 and 1877 were for December, 43°.1, January, 43°, February, 48°.5; in 1874 and 1875, December, 48°.1, January, 43°.8, February, 45°.5. De- cember, 1876, was unusually cold, the mean temperature of the air being 46°.3, against 599.1 for the same month in 1874. January and February of 1874 were relatively cold, their air temperature being 459.1 and 539.1, against 579.1 and 52°.5 in 1876. The surface quarter-month averages for the last half of February, 1877, are 499.1, 509.5; for the first half of March, 1876, 529.6, 57°; for late November and early December, 1876, 579.1, 5396, 46°.6, 45°.3. |

No observations have been made upon the movements of the menhaden at Wilmington. At Beaufort, 30 miles farther north, they appear to be absent during the winter. ;

It is much to be regretted that there are no temperature observations from Cape Hatteras. The relations of this locality to the Gulf Stream are peculiar, and corresponding peculiarities in the temperatures no doubt exist. The hundred fathom curve is distant about 40 miles from the point of the cape, and the average summer limits of the Gulf Stream, as laid down upon the British Admiralty charts, extend nearly into this curve. The observations made at Wilmington, situated as it is in a bend of the coast, at least 100 miles from the summer limits of the Gulf Stream, and at the mouth of a river which rises 200 miles away in the elevated central portion of North Carolina, can hardly be taken as criteria of the temperatures of Cape Hatteras. This is still more unfor- tunate from the fact that the movements of the menhaden, bluefish, ‘“‘sea-trout,” and other warm-water species are very peculiar at this point. It will be strange if the monthly mean of water temperature for Cape Hatteras in December, and perhaps January, does not prove to be more than 50°.

Savannah is at least 120 miles from the Gulf Stream, and its means for December and January, 1876-1877, as well as those of Charleston, are below 50°, Charleston water appears to be uniformly warmest. In

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 55

1874, December in Charleston averaged 48°.8; in 1875, January aver- aged 50°.2.

The movements of the menhaden in this region have not been observed, but since in the north it is not more hardy than the shad, and since the shad do not venture into the Georgia and Carolina rivers in December, it is safe to predict that the habits of the menhaden are similar. :

Jacksonville, Fla., is the only point on the east coast from which there are observations showing a temperature unformily above 51°, and here the menhaden remain throughout the winter.

Maximum limits of tenperature.—On the coast of Eastern Maine we are told that the menhaden schools keep passing to the eastward until about the middle of July, when their impetus is apparently checked and their movements for thirty or forty days seem to be local only. During this period the temperature at Portland ranges from 60° to 70°, this being the height of mid-summer. The monthly means for July and August, 1876, were 669.7 and 63°.9. The same months at New London are placed at 73° and 73°.3; at Norfolk, 84°.1 and 78°.3. Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah do not range much above Norfolk; June, July, and August at Jacksonville average above 85°, and we have no satisfactory evidence that the menhaden are seen there in mid-summer. At Key West the lowest monthly mean is December, at 66°.4, in an unusually cold winter.

Preferred range of temperature.—These facts appear to indicate that under ordinary circumstances the menhaden prefers a temperature of 66° to 70° Fahrenheit. When the rising temperature of spring has passed the limit of 50° to 51° the fish are certain to appear, and when the fall- ing temperature of autumn reaches that point their departure is equally sure, though a few individuals may linger in waters not congenial to them. The opposite limit seems to be marked by the line of S0° or per- haps 75°. An easterly or northerly wind, lowering temporarily the sur- face temperature, causes the schools tosink below the surface, as is shown in paragraph 95: The chill of night also drives them down.

These conclusions are not to be regarded as final. The movements of the fish about Cape Hatteras are very puzzling and need to be inter- preted by a series of careful temperature observations.

It is a well-established fact that the summer of 1877 was not so warm as that of the preceding year. It is also known that the catch of men- haden in Maine for that year was much smaller than in 1876, when it Was unusually large. There may be a connection between these circum- stances, though the observations of water temperatures at my disposal are not sufficient to warrant decided generalization. The means for the summer months of 1876 were, at Eastport, 45°.5; at Portland, 579.9; at Wood’s Holl, 709.4; at New London, 6°; at Norfolk, 789.7. The corre- sponding means for 1877 were, at Eastport, 42°.8; Portland,57°.6; Wood’s Holl, 679.7; New London, 669.9; and Norfolk, 77°.2. The summer of

56 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

1877 was then colder than that of 1876 by 2°.7 at Eastport; by 0°.3 at Portland; by 2°.7 at Wood’s Holl; by 19.lat New London; and by 19.5 at Norfolk. July, 1877, was colder than July, 1876, at Eastport by 2°.8; at Portland by 29.2; at Wood’s Holl by 5°.9; at New London by 12.2. August, 1877, was colder than August, 1876, at Eastport by 0°.3; at Portland by 0°.6; at Wood’s Holl by 09.9; at New London by 3°.1. September and October of 1877 were warmer than the corresponding months of 1876 at Portland, and this agrees with the fact that the catch of menhaden in Maine was entirely made in the fall months.

General discussion as to the winter habits of summer fishes.

86. The relations of the temperature of the water to the movements of the menhaden schools having been studied, a new question is at once sug- gested. When the schools disappear from our coast, driven by falling temperature, where do they go? The answer must be in the form of a theory, for no one has seen them during their winter absence; at least no one has been able to identify the New England and Middle States — fishes after their departure in the autumn. It is evident that there are but three courses open to our coast fishes when it becomes necessary for them to leave inshore—

(1.) They may swim out to sea until they find a stratum of water corre- sponding in temperature to that frequented by them during their sammer sojourn on our coast.

(2.) They may swim southward until they find water of the required warmth.

(3.) They may descend into the abyssal depths of the ocean, there to remain for a season in partial or total torpidity.

The last of these theories is the least plausible, from the fact that it necessitates the greatest change in habits. The susceptibility of the menhaden to slight changes of temperature has been pointed out. Hi- bernation in the oceanic depths involves a change to a temperature 10° to 25° colder than that preferred by them in summer, as well as other important changes in respect to specific gravity and pressure.

The theory of hibernation discussed with special reference to the habits of the mackerel.

87. The hibernation theory is a favorite one with the fishermen of the British Provinces, and has recently received strong support from Pro- fessor Hind, in his treatise on the fisheries of North America. His argu- ments refer to the mackerel, although the scup, tautog, and herring are included by implication. He refers to the appearance of the mackerel ‘‘ with scales on their eyes and blind,” and suggests that the winter sleep of fishes is probably much more general than is usually supposed. He takes the position that there are only two alternatives possibly open to fishes which cannot live in cold water. They must migrate south or

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. Da

hibernate. His arguments naturally fall into two categories—those against migration and those in favor of hibernation. Those in favor of hibernation may be summed up as (1) the testimony of fishermen and travelers ; (2) the quoted opinions of theorizers ; (3) the alleged hiberna- tions of other fishes ; and (4) peculiarities in early and late fish.

(1.) The statements of one M. Pleville le Peley, ‘“‘an eye-witness,” are quoted both from Lacepede and H. de la Blanchere. M. le Peley gravely states that he had observed about the coasts of Hudson’s Bay “the mud at the bottom of the smail clear hollows incrusted with ice round their coasts, entirely bristled over by the tails of mackerel im- bedded in it nearly three parts of their length,”* and again “affirms having seen in the middle of winter, in deep muddy bottoms, myriads of mackerel, packed ‘close one against the other, with one-half of the body plunged in the mud, where they remained during the winter. As soon as spring came they aroused themselves from their torpor, and appeared always on the same day on the same coast at the surface of the sea, and repaired to favoratle spots to spawn.” The absurdity of these statements renders it unnecessary to criticise them. The other testimony is less definite. A Newfoundland fisherman remembers to have heard his father say that forty years before ‘‘he had often seen mackerel in White Bay come on shore like squid, with seales on their eyes and blind, about Christmas.”£ And, again, a statement quoted from the Rev. John Ambrose, that ‘* mackerel have been brought up from the muddy botcoms of some of our outer coves by persons spearing for eels through the ice,”§ which statement is not supported by the personal evi- dence of Mr. Ambrose, being merely a hearsay story. And this is all.

Professor Hind, in Part If of the same work|] remarks confidently : ‘That the mackerel spends the winter months in a torpid condition near to the locality where the schools first show themselves on the coast has already been adverted to,” and again refers to “ the fact, already noticed, that it is taken in winter from muddy bottoms.” I submit that no such fact has been established and that Professor Hind’s general- izations are without foundation. There is much better evidence to prove that swallows hibernate in the mud of ponds, a theory which has had numerous advocates since the time of Gilbert White, of Selborne.

(2.) Professor Hind first quotes from ‘La Peche et Les Poissons” of M. H. dela Blanchere. The statement, printed as it is in a single para- graph instead of two and not given in full, conveys the impression that M. de la Blanchere indorses the views of Pleville le Pcley, already quoted. On the contrary, he states explicitly: “‘ The question of the annual and

* Hind, op. cit., Part II, p. 10, note.

t Part I, p. 78.

t Part I, p. 78.

§ Observations on the Fishing Grounds and [ish of St. Margaret’s Bay, N.S., by Rev. John Ambrose. <Proceedings and Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Nat- ural Sciences, 1866~67, quoted by Hind, op. cit., Part I, p. 79.

| P. 10.

58 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

regular appearance and disappearance of this fish is still unsolved.” He then proceeds to contrast with M. le Peley’s views those of Duhamel de Monceau, Anderson and others, who represented that the mackerel pass the winter in the northern seas, and in spring, beginning their migrations, pass southward visiting first Iceland, then Jutland, then Scotland, and Ireland, and the coasts of Continental Europe, in autumn assembling together for a return to the polar regions. Then he quotes Pleville le Peley, and remarks: ‘‘ This theory associates the mackerel with many other sedentary fishes which pass the winter at the bottom of the sea, stupefied by the cold into a kind of lethargy, and would serve to explain why, in October, young mackerel of 10 and 15 millimeters are taken, why in winter others of larger size are taken, not with a line, but with nets, which entangle those which had not already buried them- selves in the mud or the sand.” *

Another quotation is madef from Shaw’s “ General Zoology, or Sys- tematic Natural History,” published in 1803. Professor Hind says that “the four disputed points in relation to the natural history ef this fish are there asserted, namely, its local habits, its torpidity during hiberna- tion, the film over the eye, and the fact of its being partly imbedded in the soft mud or sand during its winter sleep.”

I admit that Shaw asserts the presence of a film over the eye. He does not, however, even give the theory of hibernation his personal in- dorsement, but remarking that the long migration of the mackerel and herring seems at present to be called in question, continues, ‘It is thought more probable that the shoals which appear in such abundance round the more temperate European coasts, in reality reside during the winter at no very great distance, immersing themselves in the soft bet- tom, and remaining in a state of torpidity, from ‘which they are awakened by the warmth of the returning spring, and gradually recover their former activity.”

Kiven if Shaw could fairly be quoted as a supporter of this theory, his opinion is of little value. He was not a naturalist, but a book-— maker, and his compilations are acknowledged to be inaccurate. t

The opinions of Dr. Bernard Gilpin and the Rev. John Ambrose, two excellent Nova Scotian observers, are quoted, § though with no appar- ent reason, for the latter remarks only that “it is the opinion of some” that the third run of mackerel, which takes place at St. Margaret’s Bay about the first of August, are not returning from the Gulf of Saint Law- rence, but from sea, and ‘it may be that a portion of the immense schools passing eastwardly in the spring strike off to some favorite bank

* Nouveau Dictionnaire Général des Peches, &c., par H.de la Blanchere. Paris, 1868, p. 183, article Maquereau.

t Hind, op. cit., Part II, p. 10.

{See a criticism upon Shaw’s General Zoology in Gill’s Arrangement of the Fami- lies of Fishes, &c.,. 1872, pp. 40, 41.

§ Part I, p. 79.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 59

outside to deposit the spawn. Or there may be a sort that never go as far east or west as the others, but winter along our shores,” &c.; while Dr. Gilpin expressly remarks that though the asserted torpidity and blindness favor the idea of hibernation, he does not think that we have yet sufficient proof to assert them as facts.

The authorities quoted in support of the hibernation theory do not in fact support it, and the testimony cited by Professor Hind is merely tradition and popular opinion, some obtained directly, the remainder at second-hand.

(3.) Still another set of arguments is based upon the supposed hibernat- ing habits of other species of fishes. Professor Hind remarks: “in seas which are not ice-encumbered the winter torpidity (of the mackerel) may be of very short duration; in ice-encumbered seas it may extend over several months. In this particular the mackerel resembles the sturgeon of the Caspian Sea, whose torpidity during winter is well known, and this winter sleep is not confined to these fish, bat is probably much more general than is usually supposed.” *

Here we have a definite statement. The mackerel hibernate, and the winter sleep is not confined to the mackerel.

The only hibernation which is definitely known to occur among fishes takes place in the fresh-water lakes and streams of cold regions. The fish are driven by cold into the deeper waters, and there remain in a state of torpor proportionate in degree to the amount of cold which they experience. They may even be frozen up in the midst of a mass of ice and recover their vitality when the ice is melted. +

In warm regions an analogous phenomenon takes place which has been called estivation. When the lakes and streams are dried up by the heat the fish seek refuge in the deepest pools, and when these to are dry they bury themselves in the mud at the bottom and remain torpid until the rainy season refills the reservoirs and revives them.

Fishes in the extreme north doubtless undergo similar experiences, though I am not aware that any record of such a phenomenon has ever been published.

Hibernation and xstivation do not appear to be in any case voluntary acts. The fish do not become torpid of their own volition. They avoid it as long as they can, and only succumb when they are deprived of means of escape. They never become torpid when there are greater depths to which they can retreat.

* Part I, p. 11.

+Mr. Milner had a mud-minnow (Umbra limi) which was frozen in solid ice in the middle of an aquarium globe three or four times, and each time recovered its vitality upon thawing out.

¢{“A curious phenomenon in Indian fresh waters, and one which has never been sat- isfactorily explained, is the sudden appearance of healthy adult fishes after a heavy fall of rain, and in localities which for months previously had been dry. When pieces

of water inhabited by fish yearly dry up, what becomes of them? On January 18, 1869, when examining this question, I was taken to a tank of perhaps an acre in extent, but

60 RFPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

(4.) Professor Hind lays much stress upon the presence of a “film” over the eyes of the spring and autumn mackerel and upon their alleged capt- ure in winter in the waters of the Dominion, and also quotes arguments for hibernation based upon the resemblance of the mackerel to the batrachians (which are known to be capable of hibernation) in color, and upon its resemblance to embryonic forms of other fishes which is supposed to “prove him low in the scale of intelligence.”* To the latter it is needless to refer. The so-called “film” on the eye is not peculiar to the mackerel. Many fishes, such as the shad, the ale- wife, the menhaden, the bluefish, the mullet, the lake whitefish, and various cyprinoid fishes have a thick, rough membrane covering the anterior and posterior angles of the orbits narrowing the opening to the form of an ellipse with a vertical major axis. This possibly be- comes somewhat more opaque in seasons of decreased activity. It

which was then almost dry, having only about four inches of water in its center, while its circumference was sufiiciently dried to walk upon. The soil was a thick and con- sistent bluish clay, from which, and not nearer than thirty paces to the water, five live fish were extracted from at least two feet below the surface of the mud. They con- sisted of two of Ophiocephalus punctatus and three of the Rhynchobdella aculeata. All were very lively and not in the slightest degree torpid. They were covered over with a thick adherent slime. Among the specimens of fish in the Calcutta museum is one of the Amphipnous cuchia, which was dug up some feet below the surface of the mud when sinking the foundation for a bridge. If when the water failed fish invariably died, the tank would be depopulated the succeeding year unless a fresh supply was obtained from some other source, while the distance from other pieces of water at which they reappear excludes, in many instances, the possibility of migration, which must always, to a certain extent, be regulated by distance, time, and other local circum- stances. Some species, especially ‘‘compound breathers,” are unable to live in liquid mud, which they cannot employ for purposes of aquatic respiration.

“The practical question is, whether, when food and water fail, some fish do not esti- vate until the return of a more favorable season. Natives of India assert that they do thus become torpid in the mud. As the water in tanks becomes low, the fishes con- gregate together in holes and places in which some still remains, where they may be frequently seen in numbers huddled together with only sufficient water to cover their dorsal fins.

“Jf disturbed they dive down into the thick mud, so that a net is often found in- effectual to take them. The plan employed to capture them is for the fisherman to leave the net in the water, and to walk about in the surrounding thick mud; in time they come to the surface to breathe, and fall an easy prey.

“As the water gradually evaporates, the fishes become more and more sluggish, and finally there is every reason to believe that some at least bury themselves in the soft mud, and in a state of torpidity await the return of the yearly rains. In Ceylon, Mr. Whiting, the chief officer of the western province, informed Sir Benercon Tennent that he kad accidentally been twice present when the villagers had been engaged in dig- ging up fish. The ground was firm and hard, and ‘‘as the men flung out lumps of it with a spade, they fell to pieces, disclosing fish from 9 to 12 inches long, which were full-grown and healthy, and jumped on the bank when exposed to light. Many other animals which possess a higher vitality than fish xstivate during the hot months, as Batrachians, the Emys, the Lepidosiren annectens, and some of the crocodiles. Mollusks and land-snails are commonly found in this state during the hot and dry months. (Day’s Fresh- water Fish of India, p. 28.)

““Partelnpadios

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 61

never bas been observed to cover the whole eye. Until the fact has been established that ‘a skin forms over the eye in winter” it is quite unnecessary to propose the theory that such askin “is probably de- signed to protect that organ from the attacks of the numercus parasiti- cal crustaceans and leeches which infest the external portions of the bodies of fishes, and are also found internally, as in the gills of cod- fish 29%

Criticism of the argument based upon the presence of mackerel in northern waters late in the season.

A number of instances are cited to prove that the mackerel schools remain on the coast of the Dominion throughout the winter season. If this can be well established it is a very strong argument in favor of hi- bernation. Let us analyze the testimony.

Dr. Gilpin is quoted to the effect that during some seasons they linger on the Nova Scotian coast until December, and allusion is made to a mackerel obtained by him at Halifax, October 27, 1875. +

Mr. John Rice remembers that his father used often to speak of mack- erel ‘‘coming on shore like squid with scales on their eyes and blind about Christmas,” about 40 years ago. t

Mr. Jabez Tilley states that they have been taken in November in Trinity Bay.

Professor Hind also states that they are to be found on the whole coast from Quirpon to Cape Spear during November and December. He gives no authority for this statement, and it is to beinferred that it is founded upon personal observation.

Then there is the vague statement of Mr. Ambrose, already quoted, that mackerel have been speared on muddy bottoms under the ice.

Now this testimony does not, by any means, tend to prove that the mackerel remain near the coast in winter.

In the first place there is no satisfactory proof of.their occurrence later than October 25, since that is the only evidence fortified by a memorandum of date, and the memories of fishermen are not more cer- tain than those of other men.

In the second place it is not impossible that mackerel linger in these waters until November or even December in the case of a very warm autumn. The temperature necessary for the menhaden cannot be many degrees below 50°, while the mackerel appears to endure a temperature of 41° or less. Menhaden linger in Maine waters till November and in Massachusetts Bay and the Vineyard Sound till December.

Finally, the undoubted capture of many individuals in winter on the coast of Newfoundland would by no means prove that the great schools were there throughout the season. Disabled, blind, or diseased individ-

* Hind, op. cit., Part II, p. 11.

t Part I, p. 79. t Part I, pave:

62 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

uals would naturally be unable to accompany the departing schools. Such fish would naturally grovel on the bottom in a helpless state and might easily become impaled on the eel-spears, or might be thrown on shore by the waves, as the Newfoundland fishermen relate. Even healthy fishes might occasionally be accidentally detained. Mr. Peter Sinclair a well-known fisherman of Gloucester, stated to Professor Baird that some years ago a school of mackerel were detained all win- ter in a small river in Nova Scotia, and were speared out of the mud. This is doubtless hearsay testimony and is given for what it is worth. I do not doubt that there have been individual cases of this kind, but I maintain that no generalization should be founded upon them.

The theory of extended migration discussed with reference to the habits of the mackerel.

88. The preceding paragraph is devoted to the refutation of the idea that sea-fish hibernate. This is regarded as the least probable of the © three hypotheses stated in paragraph 85. In paragraph 84 it is stated that the sea-herring and many other fishes have two kinds of migra- tions: one bathic, or from and toward the surface ; the other littoral, or coastwise. Now, in some species the former is most extended; in oth- ers, the latter. The anadromous species very probably strike directly out to sea without coasting to any great degree, while others, of which the mackerel is a fair type, undoubtedly make extensive coastwise mi- grations, though their bathic migrations may, without any inconsist- ency, be quite as great as those of the species which range less.

Upon this point I cannot do better than to quote from a manuscript letter from Professor Baird to the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, dated July 21,1873. Having expressed the views concerning the migration of the herring and shad already quoted in paragraph 84, he continues : ;

“The fish of the mackerel family form a marked exception to this rule. While the herring and shad generally swim low in the water, their pres- ence being seldom indicated at the surface, the mackerel swim near the surface sometimes far out to sea, and their movements can be ‘readily followed. The North American species consist of fish which as cer- tainly, for the most part at least, have a migration along our coast northward in spring and south in autumn, as that of the ordinary pleas- ure-seekers, and their habit of schooling on the surface of the water ena- bles us to determine this fact with great precision. * * * Whatever may be the theories of others on the subject, the American mackerel- fisher knows perfectly well that in the spring he will find the schools of mackerel off Cape Henry, and that he can follow them northward day by day as they move in countless myriads on to the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia.”

It is difficult to estimate to what extent the advocates of the hiber- nation theory have been influenced by patriotic motives in their efforts

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN., 63°

to prove that the mackerel remain in the waters of the Dominion of Canada throughout the entire year. It is certain that all recent treatises on ichthyology by Canadian writers have appeared in the form of cam- paign documents apparently intended to influence the decisions of diplo- matic commissions.

I am by no means prepared to maintain that mackerel do not pass the winter in the American domain of Her Imperial Majesty. It seems important, however, that the subject of the migration of fishes should be restored to its proper position as a question of abstract scientific im- portance. Let us glance at the arguments of Mr. Whitcher and Pro- fessor Hind against what the former is pleased to style the “American theory.”

In the report of the Minister of Marine and Fisheries for the year end. ing the 30th of June, 1871, Mr. W. F. Whitcher, Commissioner of Fish- eries, published a paper entitled ‘“‘American theory regarding the mi- gration of the mackered refuted”.*

Mr. Whitcher opens his letter by claiming that the theory of north and south migration was invented solely in support of a claim advanced by citizens of the United States to participate.in the Canadian inshore fisheries. ‘This ingenious but traditional theory of annual migration having gained local credence among some of the Nova Scotian fishermen engaged in United States fishing-vessels, has been sagaciously indorsed and circulated by American authors.” He also refers to evidence “ sup- posed to have been procured among the fishing population of the New England States.”

I need only say that these claims are unjust, and that the theory of the annual north and south migration of the mackerel is time-honored, and was held conscientiously by ichthyologists of the Unitéd States and the provinces long before the question of fishery treaties assumed its present aspect. It is manifestly unfair to state that, while the theories which prevailed respecting the habits of herring and mackerel were formerly similar, that ‘“‘in the former case it is probable that traditionary and imperfect information formed the basis of error, whilein the latter instance it is most probably founded on misinformation dictated by sec- tional interests.” Mr. Whitcher’s own paper upon migration is the only one of American origin in which I have seen scientific method sacrificed to partisan spirit.

Having read Mr. Whitcher’s introduction, one might readily predict what sort of an argument he will wrench out of the statements of ‘ such disinterested authorities as may be readily quoted.” . First he gives extracts from Mitchell and the Edinburgh Encyclopedia regarding the habits of the herring. Granting all that is claimed about the herring, without reference to the liability of these authorities, what do we find? Merely a begging of the question. The habits of the herring and the mackerel are not known to be the same. In many particulars they are

* Pages 186-189,

64 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

diametrically different, for the former loves cold water, the latter warm water.

Various provincial writers are now quoted; Mr. Perley, who says that ‘naturalists now tell us” and “it is now considered settled ” that the mackerel is not migratory, but draws off into deep water at the approach of winter, and Mr. Knight and Mr. Fortin, though the reason for these quotations is not apparent, since no reference to the winter habits of the fish can be found therein. He does not refer to the writ- ings of Mr. Ambrose and Mr. Johnson, Canadian writers, who advocate the migratory theory.

Yarrell and Couch are next quoted, though neither of them has ven- tured to give a decided opinion.

Finally, we have a paragraph compiled from five French encyclope- dias, good and bad, no means being afforded of distinguishing the opin- ions of Cuvier from those of Chenu’s literary staff.

Mr. Whitcher’s conclusion is this: that ‘‘it is clearly neither necessary nor accurate that mackerel should perform the migrations ascribed to them by American writers.”

The migrations of the mackerel are neither proved nor disproved by special pleadings of this description. The spirit of Professor Hind’s writings is very different. He writes from the stand-point of an inves- tigator, and his book is an important contribution to our knowledge of the habits of fishes in relation to temperature and currents. I feel obliged, however, to call attention to a very serious flaw in his chief argument against the annual migration of the mackerel.

In the chapter on the ‘“ Relation of the Supposed Migratory Move- ments of Mackerel to Isothermal Lines,”* it is claimed that a migration to the north in the spring “ presupposes the movements of bodies of the same great schools of mackerel which are alleged to pass Massachusetts Bay from the waters of the coasts of Virginia and New Jersey, not only through from ten to twelve degrees of latitude, but it assumes that they are able to cross in the early summer, and frequently before spawning, numerous isothermal lines in descending order.”

He then refers to the article upon the Gulf Stream in Petermann’s ‘¢ Mittheilungen” for 1870, in which the marine isothermals for the differ- ent months are shown by means of achart. <A table is given showing the isothermals for July. That of 68° would touch the coast at Delaware Bay, that of 63°.5 at Long Island, that of 59° at Boston, that of 549.5 at Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, that of 50° at Cape Race, and thatof 459.5 at the Straits of Belle Isle.

From this he concludes that a ‘‘ a school of fish, moving rapidly from Delaware Bay to the Straits of Belle Isle, would pass in July from a mean temperature of 68° to a mean temperature of 45°, a difference of more than 22° Fahrenheit.

This theory would be very satisfactory if it could be admitted that the

*Hind, op. cic., part ii, pp. 15-17.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 65

isothermals for July indicate the actual temperature of the sea from day to day. In reality the marine isothermals are constantly varying, and, in this respect are different from those printed upon a chart. <A glance at the tables in Appendix F, and the conclusions deduced from them in regard to the menhaden (paragraph 85), will show that schools of fish do not find it necessary to force their way through walls of sea tempera- ture, but that their movements from south to north are exactly corre- lated with the seasonal rise of temperature. As soon as the water at a given point reaches the necessary temperature, which for the mackerel on our own coast appears to be as much as 45°, the fish make their appearance, and with the advance of the season they appear farther and farther to the north. Mackerel do not appear on the coast of Maine un- til the water is as warm as it was off Cape Hatteras at the time of their first arrival. This is the case whether we suppose their general move- ment to be parallel with or vertical to the coast line.

I have entered the discussion of this question not with any idea of at- tempting to prove that mackerel migrate south from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but to show that a comparatively rapid northward movement in May and June does not necessitate a “sudden plunging from high to low zones of temperature.”

Arguments against extended migrations of menhaden.

89. There is no satisfactory evidence that the menhaden pursue ex- tended migrations north and south. ‘The same evidence which tends to show that the shad, salmon, and alewife do not follow this course will will apply, with modifications, to the menhaden.

The menhaden schools at different points along the coast appear to have individual peculiarities, corresponding to those of the shad in the different rivers. A Maine menhaden may easily be distinguished from a Long Island menhaden, a Chesapeake or a Florida one, by certain in- describable characters, easy to perceive but difficult to define. The presence of the crustacean parasite in the mouths of southern menhaden, and its constant absence from those of the north is a very strong argu- ment in favor of local limitation in the range of menhaden schools.

That the same schools of menhaden return year after year to the same feeding grounds is rendered very probable by the statements of Mr. Miles in paragraph 72.

The schools in the southern waters do not receive any apparent incre- ment at the time of desertion of the north coast, nor are the southern waters deserted at the time of abundance in the north. There is, how- ever, a limited north and south migration. The Maine schools on their departure in the fall appear to follow the southward trend of the coast until they strike the hook of Cape Cod, where they are detained for some days; they then round the cape and are again detained by the hook of Montauk Point. They first strike the shore at Point Judith and are

5 F

66 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

turned over into Peconic Bay by the line of islands stretching across the eastern end of Long Island Sound.

In this same way the Chesapeake schools are said to be detained for some days by the projection of Cape Henry.

The hypothesis of oceanic sojourn of the menhaden.

90. The questions of hibernation and extended migration having been considered, it only remains to discuss the third alternative, that of the possibility of sojourn in the warm strata of the open ocean.

In plate XII is given diagram sections of the North Atlantic Ocean between New York and Bermuda, showing the soundings and isothermal lines obtained in Her Majesty’s ship ‘“* Challenger”, April 24 to May 8, 1873. The vertical scale is necessarily enormously exaggerated, but the diagram shows the presence of strata under the Gulf Stream, and be- tween it and the American coast, the temperature of which exactly meets the requirements of the menhaden. At adepth of 50 to 100 fathoms there is a shoreward extension of the warm stratuin of 50° to 55° which extends inward one hundred and twenty miles. There are no means of determining the corresponding isothermal lines on the coast of North Carolina, but an extension of much less degree would approach very near the shore in that region. The diagram represents the condition of the sea temperature near New York at the very period when the menhaden are approaching the coast in April, and a similar relation not improbably exists in November, at the time of their departure. The schools of fish Swimming out to sea when the shore waters become too cold for them, and driven below the surface by the winds of November, would naturally strike these temperate strata, and being kept from descending deeper by the uniform coldness of the waters below, as well as by the increasing pres- sure, and their efforts to approach the shores being also opposed by a tem- perature barrier, they would remain in the temperate strata until they were enabled by the warmth of spring to regain their feeding grounds near the shores.

No authorities can be quoted in support cf this hypothesis, but, in the case of the menhaden at least, it appears to explain more of the difficult questions in relation to periodical movements than that of hibernation or that of extended migration.

(1.) It presupposes less sudden changes of temperature than that of hibernation. It has been shown that hibernation of fishes is never vol- untary, but is a state of torpidity induced like that of sestivation by a - change of temperature and surroundings which they have no power to avoid. Before entering upon hibernation or estivation fishes retreat to the deepest water, and only become completely torpid when they are fol- lowed thither by the changed conditions of existence. In the fresh waters of temperate regions fishes do not become entirely torpid in cold weather, but are sufliciently active to be taken with hooks from under the ice. This is also the case in very deep waters in subpolar regions. The

Se i =

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 67

kalleraglitz or American turbot (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) is taken with hooks, in the dead of winter, under the floe ice of North Greenland at a depth of 300 fathoms; in South Greenland, on the oceanic banks, at 60 and 80 fathoms; and at. Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, it is captured in the shore herring-seines at the same season.

So long as the menhaden can avoid the extremes of temperature which they so carefully avoid in the summer by seeking congenial warmth in the ocean strata under the Gulf Stream, need we suppose that they will plunge into the colder strata below ?

(2.) It involves less radical changes than hibernation in the habits of the fishes. Some fishes, like the mud-minnow (Umbra limi) of the Kastern United States, are peculiarly adapted for life in the mud; others, such as the ‘compound breathers” (Labyrinthici) of India, are said to respire with ease with their heads covered by liquid mud. Such fishes, how- ever, are totally different in organization from the free-swimming spe- cies of the open seas. All free swimmers are especially heedful to avoid contact with the bottom. This is especially so in the case of the herring family, of which the menhaden isa member. They are provided usually with deciduous scales, and never suffer themselves to come in contact with the bottom. If one of the herring or mackerel tribe is placed in an aquarium, it will be noticed that it keeps itself always free from the bottom. Other fishes in the same tank, such as the sea-bass, tautog, or king-fish, will be seen to rest on the bottom, and even to take refuge under the stones.

It is improbable that mackerel ever voluntarily sink into the mud of the ocean bottom; still more so in the case of the menhaden.

(3.) It accounts better than the other theories for the early appear- ance of the fish in the spring.

Adwitting the possibility of a winter’s sojourn in the mud, we are met by a difficulty when we try to account for the prompt appearance of the fishes in the spring. The deeper strata of the ocean are now known to preserve throughout the year the uniform temperature of 22° to 40°. The fish, once mummified in the depths of the ocean, would remain so forever, unless they possess powers unknown to exist in other animals.

On the other hand, if we suppose the fish to be swimming in the strata of mid-ocean, we know that they are in just the position to be suscepti- ble to all the daily variations of temperature. Following, with the advance of the season, the inward curving of the Gulf Stream, the warm strata below it gradually approach the shore. The schools of fish are thus enabled gradually to draw nearer to the coast line, and when the strata of 50° to 55° in temperature touch the coast the menhaden are at hand.

(4.) It explains, as well as the hibernation theory and better than the migration theory, the peculiarity of the schools at different localities along the coast. This was discussed in paragraph 88.

68 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

(5.) It explains better than the other theories the appearance of the fish at the time of their arrival in the spring.

The menhaden appear to be bottom feeders. If they migrated coast- wise to the south, they would there find feeding-grounds; if they sank to the bottom, they would there find food if they had sufficient vitality to resurrect themselves in the spring; if they passed the winter in the mid-ocean strata, they could obtain no focd and would naturally become emaciated, the accumulated fat of the preceding summer being absorbed.

Rimbaud’s classification criticised and a new one proposed,

91. Rimbaud’s classification, which is a modification of one recognized in the markets of South France, is very suggestive, but it does not appear to me to be entirely applicable to the fishes of our coast, at least not in the way in which it has usually been adopted.

Rimbaud makes four divisions, viz:

I. Wandering fishes (Poisson nomade).

II. White fishes (Poisson blanc).

Ill. Bottom fishes (Poisson de roche or Poisson de fond).

IV. Alien or outside fishes (Poisson jforain).

The distinction between Classes I and IV does not appear to be very clearly marked. In the Western Atlantic, some of the fishes-‘making up Class IV belong to each of the other classes.

A more natural classification would be in three divisions, which might readily be correlated with the three kinds of migration mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

The first group would include the wandering fishes, the Poisson nomade of Rimbaud, whose migrations are entirely oceanic and con- fined to the surface zones. The second group would include the bottom fishes of restricted range, the Poisson de fond of Rimbaud, which move to and from the shore or the shallows, and which do not range. The third group would include the middle classes, those which take advan- tage of both methods of migration, and corresponds approximately to Rimbaud’s second division. ‘‘ White fishes” seems hardly an appropri- ate name: ‘coast fishes” would perhaps be more expressive.

Colonel Lyman, in his report ‘‘On the Limits of Artificial Culture, and the Possible Exhaustion of Sea-fisheries”* (p. 67), speaks of the first class as ‘the wandering or schooling fishes of the high seas.” The term * schooling ” is liable to mislead, for the ‘+ white fishes” also school. Among the wandering fishes he mentions only “the herring (Clupea elongata), mackerel (Scomber vernalis), menhaden (Alosa menhaden), cod (Gadus morrhua),” &c. The cod and herring most certainly are “ white fishes,” and the menhaden and mackerel are certainly not to be ranked with ‘‘ those which appear on the coast only when ‘ migrating,’ and then in vast but uncertain troops” (p. 63).

* Report of the Commissioners of Fisheries (of Massachusetts) for the year ending January 1, 1870, pp. 58-67.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 69

A provisional classification, by habits, of the fishes of our eastern coast might stand somewhat as follows:

I. Wandering or surface fishes—These remain in our waters only fora short time, their movements being capricious or accidentally directed by the ocean currents, or else in search of food. They do not spawn on our coast, and their young are never seen in our waters.

The best-known examples are the sword-fish (Xiphias gladius), the spear-fish (Tetrapturus albidus), the bonito (Pelamys sarda), the tunny (Oreynus thynnus), the dwarf tunny (Orcynus alliteratus), the ceroes and Spanish mackerel (OCybiwm maculatum, OC. caballa, and C. regale), the rud- der-fishes (Seriola zonata, Naucrates ductor, and Palinurichthys perci- formis), the dolphins (Coryphena, two or three species), the remoras (Lcheneidide), the barracuda (Sphyrena borealis), the lady-fish (Albula vulpes), the tarpum (Megalops thrissoides), the oceanic sharks, such as Galeocerdo tigrinus, and the numerous waifs from the West Indian fauna.

Of these only the sword-fish, bonito, and the ceroes and Spanish mack- erel are of economic importance at present.

If. Local or bottom jishes.—These remain in our waters throughout tke year, their movements being chiefly to and from the shores, though many of the species move for long distances up and down the coast. They prefer a somewhat uniform temperature, which they secure by going into the shallows in summer and deeps in winter in the northern districts of their distribution, while in their southern districts of distribution these movements are reversed. They spawn on our coast, usually in shallow water and during their shoreward sojourn.

The principal representatives of this group are the goose-fish (Lophius piscatorius), the founders and flat fishes, the halibut (Hippoglossus vul- garis), of whose spawning habits little, however, is known, the lump-fish (Cyclopterus lumpus), and the two species of Liparis, the cod (Gadus morrhua), haddock (Melanogrammus eglefinus), pollock (Pollachius car- bonarius), and the hakes (Phycis chuss and P. Americanus), the gurnards and sculpins (Prionotus, sp. and Cottus, sp.), the rose-fishes (Sebastes, sp.), the tautog (Tautoga onitis), and the chogset (Ctenolabrus chogset), the skates, the rays, and the ground-sharks.

Ill. The coast or ranging jishes—These are in our coast waters for a portion of the year, and when absent from them are supposed to retreat to the depths of the ocean. When near the shores their movements are a combination of those of the two previous classes, and they wander widely up and down the coast. They spawn upon our continental slope, some entering the rivers, some upon the inshore shallows, and some upon the off shore shoals, their young coming to the shores with the par- ents. They all are summer visitors in the northern districts of their distribution, though some, like the herring, only appear in New Eng- land in the winter.

The best-known examples of this group are, among the river-spawn- ing or anadromous species, the salmon (Salmo salar), the shad (Alosa sap-

70 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

idissima), the alewife (Pomolobus pseudoharengus), the mattowacca (Pomo- lobus mediocris), and perhaps the striped bass (Roccus lineatus) and the smelt (Osmerus mordax); among the shore-spawning species, in the north, the capelin (Mallotus villosus), the launce (Ammodytes lanceolatus), and the herring (Clupea harengus) ; in the south, the scuppaug (Stenoto- mus argyrops), Sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), the sea-bass (Centropristis atrarius), the atherines (Chirostoma notatum), the mullet (Mugil, sp.), and the mackerel (Scomber scombrus); and among the off- shore spawners the pompano (Zrachynotus carolinus), the squeteague (Cynoscion carolinensis and C. regalis), the menhaden (Brevoortia tyran- nus), and probably the bluefish (Pomatomus saltatriz).

14.—THE MOVEMENTS OF THE SCHOOLS. Habits of the schooling fish.

92. Making their appearance in our waters in the early spring, they rapidly increase in abundance until the sea appears to be alive with them. They delight to play in inlets and bays, such as Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, Great Egg Harbor, Long Island, Block Island and the Vineyard sounds, Narragansett Bay, Buzzard’s Bay, and the numerous narrow fiords on the coast of Maine. They seem particularly fond of shallow waters protected from the wind, in which, if not molested, they will remain throughout the season, drift.ng, with the tide, in and out of the shallow indentations of the shore and into the mouths of creeks and rivers. Brackish water attracts them, and they abound at the mouths of streams, especially on the Southern coast. They ascend the Saint John’s River more than thirty miles, the Saint Mary’s, the Neuse, the York, and Rappahannock. The Potomac they ascend nearly to Wash- ington, a distance of sixty miles, and the Patuxent to Marlborough. In these rivers they come soon after the shad, and are so troublesome to the fishermen that their presence is easily determined.

Iam not aware that this difficulty occurs in northern rivers. Pro- fessor Baird found them in the Hudson and its tributaries in the sum- mer of 1854.*

They enter the Housatonic late in the summer. I am not aware that they ascend the Connecticut to any considerable distance from its mouth.t

They are found in the Mystic, Thames, and Providence Rivers, in the creeks on Cape Cod, in the mouth of the Merrimac River, and in some of the large rivers of Maine, such as the Kennebec and Penobscot.

Boardman and Atkins state that fish caught in the brackish water of the rivers are generally inferior as to fatness, ‘‘a fact indicating that they find there a poor feeding ground, and also that their stay there is long enough to affect their condition.”

*Fishes of the New Jersey Coast, 1855, p. 34.

t This is perhaps due to the swift current of the river. Sea-going vessels fill their water-barrels at Essex, six miles from the bar.

' HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. fi: Movements to and from the surface.

93. The arrival of the menhaden is announced by their appearance at the top of the water. They swim in immense schools, their heads close to the surface, packed side by side, and often tier above tier, almost as closely as sardines in a box. A gentle ripple, caused by the motion of the vertical fins, indicates the position of the school, and this may be seen at the distance of nearly a mile by the lookout at the masthead of a fishing-vessel, aud is of great assistance to the seine-men in setting their nets. At the slightest alarm the school sinks toward the bottom, and in this way often escapes its pursuers. When sailing over a school of menhaden, swimming a short distance below the surface, one may see their glittering backs beneath, and the boat seems to be gliding over a floor inlaid with blocks of solid silver. At night they are phosphorescent and their backs glow like fire. The motions of the schools seem capricious, _and without a definite purpose; at times they swim around and around in circles, at other times they sink or rise. Why they swim at the sur- face so conspicuous a prey to men, birds, and other fishes, is not known; it does not appear to be for the purpose of feeding ; perhaps the fisher- man is right when he declares that they are “playing.” When they are pursued by other fish they fly in confusion like a flock of fright- ened sheep, and are often driven in great masses upon the shores.

The swimming habits of menhaden and mackerel.

94. An old mackerel-fisherman thus describes the difference in the habits of the schools of mackerel and menhaden :

‘The pogies school differently from mackerel. The pogy slaps with his tail, and in moderate weather you can hear the sound of a school of them as first one, then another, strikes the water. The mackerel go along ‘ gilling’—that is, putting the sides of their heads out of the water as they swim. The pogies make a flapping sound, the mackerel a rush- ingsound. Youcan sometimes, in calm and foggy weather, hear schools of mackerel miles away.”

Birds attracted by the schools.

95. They do not attract terns, as do the schools of predaceous fish, for they are too large to be an easy prey for those birds, and they are not in pursuit of crustaceans or smaller fish, which might also serve as food for the small birds. The bluefish and bonitos are attended by eager flocks of gulls and terns, which find a bountiful supply in the remnants of their voracious feasting, floating on the surface in their wake. The fish-hawk (Pandion carolinensis) often hovers over the schooling men- haden, and some of the larger gulls occasionally follow them in quest of ameal. About Cape Cod one of the gulls, perhaps Larus argentatus, is known as the * pogy-gull.”

12 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. The influence of wind and weather.

96. On warm, calm, sunny days they may always be seen at the sur- face, but cold or rainy weather, and prevailing northerly or easterly winds, quickly cause them to disappear below the surface. In rough weather they are not so often seen, though schools of them frequently appear at the surface when the sea is too rough for the fishermen to set their nets.

Mr. Atkins and Mr. Dudley agree that the best days for menhaden- fishing is when the wind is northwesterly in the morning, dying out in the middle of the day, and then springing up again in the afternoon from the southwest, with a clear sky. At the change of the wind on such a day the menhaden come to the surface in large numbers.

A comparison of the influences of the weather upon the movements or the menhaden and its allied species, the herring, gives some curious results. The herring is a cold-water species. With the advance of sum- mer it seeks the north, returning to our waters with the approach of cold weather. The menhaden prefers a temperature of 60° or more, the herring of 55° and less. When the menhaden desert the Gulf of Maine they are replaced by the herring. Cold weather drives the menhaden to the warmer strata below, while it brings the herring to the surface.

The observations of Herr von Freedon, of Hamburg, director of the German See Warte,* are important in this connection. Herr von Free- don made a thorough analysis of the log-books of the luggers engaged in the German herring fishery, and made an elaborate report to the Fishery Commission at Embden upon the influences which affect this fishery, especially the influence of winds and the temperatures of the sea. He has come to the conclusion that northwest winds are the best for large catches, and northerly winds better than southerly, westerly better than easterly ; also that moderately strong winds, sufficient to ruffle the sur- face of the sea, are better than calm weather, and light winds almost as unfavorable as stiff breezes ; a ruffling of the sea being, in his opinion, of considerable importance to success in fishing. For the temperatures of the sea, he regards a temperature from 53° to 57° as most favorable, the chances of success diminishing with higher or lower temperatures.

The conditions most favorable, then, for the appearance of herring at the surface are least so for menhaden, it being borne in mind that northwesterly and westerly winds on the east side of the Atlantic cor- respond to northeasterly and easterly winds upon the west side.

The movements of the herring as influenced by weather.

97. In the “Scotsman” of August 25, 1876 (quoted in “ Nature”), is an interesting observation regarding the movements of the herring on the Scottish coast. Thesurface temperatures of the sea,as determined by the sea-thermometer furnished to the fishermen by the Scottish Meteorologi-

* See Report of the Commissioner of the Fishery Board of Scotland, 1875

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. io

cal Society, is regarded to have been from 58° to 59° during the week end- ing August 19, but on the 21st, when the nets were shot, the temperature had fallen to 55°, and this was the first night the herring were caught. They were found low in the nets during the prevalence of warm weather between Northumberland and Peterhead.

“The Meteorological Society of Scotland have for two or three years had this capriciousness in the movements of the herring under special investigation, and in the past year the deep-sea thermometers provided to the society by the Marquis of Tweeddale, its president, for test- ing the temperature of the sea, were again sent out by the Fishery Board to their officers, and the temperature obtained at different periods of the herring fishery. Daily registers of the weather were kept and other particulars furnished to the society, both by the district fishery officers and by Samuel McDonald, esq., commander of the “ Vigilant,” fishery-cruiser. From the registers and the information thus supplied, the following conclusions have in the mean time been drawn by the committee of the society :

‘From the observations of the catch of herrings and the tempera- ture of the sea off the east coast of Scotland, during the two seasons of 1874 and 1875, it is seen (1) that the temperature of the sea from the middle of August to the close of the fishing season was continuously and considerably higher in 1875 than 1874; and (2) that the catch of her rings was continuously and considerably lower during 1875 than during the same period of 1874.

‘*Another result is this: If there be a district where, from any cause, the temperature of the sea is lower than in surrounding districts, in that district the catch of herrings is heavier; and conversely, if there be a district where, from any cause, the temperature of the sea is higher than in surrounding districts, in that district the catch of herrings is less. Among the causes which bring about a local increase or decrease of sea-temperature, the chief are clouded or clear skies in respective dis- tricts, according as these occur during the day or during the night. These local variations in the temperature of the sea in their bearings on the catch of herrings have been shown by the observations both of 1874 and 1875.

‘‘Another important point is the relations of surface temperature to bottom temperature, and the relations of the deepest parts of the sea to the positions of the fishing grounds. It is found, for instance, that when the surface temperature is high—higher than lower down—the fish, if any be caught, strike the nets far down, in such a way as to lead to the supposition that a good deal of failure may often arise from the nets not going deep enough. The fish prefer, apparently, so far as the inquiry has gone, the lower to the higher temperature. The herring committee are most desirous of carrying out this line of inquiry into greater detail, if some of the fishermen could be induced to take the trouble of obsery- ing the temperature of the sea at the surface and also at the depth at which the fish strike the nets.

74. REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

- “The influence of thunder-storms was equally seen as in former years.

If there is a thunder-storm of some magnitude extending over a large portion of Scotland, good takes may be made on that day; but on the following day few, if any, fish are caught over that part of the coast unless at the extreme verge of a deep part of the sea, as if the fish were re- treating thither.

‘Owing to the shortness of the time over which the inquiry has ex- tended, the committee wish these results to be considered only as provis- ional. Theresults are, however, of the greatest value,'not merely as indi- cating the lines of inquiry to be followed in further carrying on this large investigation, but also as indicating, in some cases not obscurely, the nature of the results which will ultimately be established—results which, since they lead directly to a knowledge of the localization of the herring, will serve as a guide to the fishermen where to set their nets with the highest probability of success.”

The influence of the tides on the menhaden.

98. There has been no decided relation observed between the move- ments of the schools and of the tide.

Following the coast in its northward trend they crowd into the bays and sounds, and breaking up into smaller schools the detachments find their way into the shallows. In outside waters they do not appear to be affected by tides, and when they are migrating they seem independ- ent of its influence. Mr. Dudley states that they often rise to the surface when the tide changes near the middle of the day. This is doubtless in waters near the shore, where the change of tide would be accompanied by some slight change of temperature. Mr. Simpson feels certain that more enter the inlets of North Carolina on the ebb than on the flood. It seems to be true, however, that throughout their halt during the summer, many schools drift lazily with the tide into the bays and creeks, coming in with the flood-tide, going out with the ebb- tide. In Southern waters they appear to hug the shore as closely as they can, and at high water thus gain access to waters too shallow for them at any other time.

15.—ALLEGED CHANGES IN HAUNTS AND HABITS.

The alleged changes of habit caused by the fisheries.

99. Many. of the remarks in the preceding chapter are applicable to the menhaden only when they are left to enjoy tbeir favorite haunts undisturbed. On the coast of Maine their habits are said, temporarily at least, to be greatly modified through the influence of man. They no longer hug the shores, but are found many miles out at sea, where they are followed by the fishing-vessels. The introduction of steamers into the fisheries is an evidence of this change of habit, and indeed the almost unanimous testimony of the Maine fishermen, from whom letters

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 715

have been received, is that the use of nets and seines tends to scare the fish farther out to sea. The purse-nets are set generally at a distance of from five to twenty-five miles from land.

Off Penobscot Bay menhaden are frequently caught-by Brooklin fishermen outside of Isle au Haut and Great Duck Island.

According to Mr. W. H. Sargent the fish are much less numerous in the creeks, coves, inlets, and rivers, thougu outside no decrease is per- ceptible.

Capt. William 8. Sartell, keeper of Pemaquid Point Light, writes: “The menhaden come regularly every summer into the bays, but the seining draws them off out of sight of land so that the fishermen here can’t get bait to put on their hooks. They get some fish in their nets on Sundays when the seines are laid by.”

Mr. Babson writes: ‘‘ Since they have been taken in large quantities for their oil, they have gradually avoided the bays, creeks, harbors, and rivers to which they once resorted in immense numbers, and are now principally taken from one to ten miles from the shore. (Some of the fishermen maintain that since the advent of the bluefish, some twenty years ago, the pogies have sought deeper water for their own safety, while others maintain that the bluefish drive the pogies into shoal water; both statements are doubtless at times true.)”

Mr. Kenniston states that the fish are now farther off shore than in former years, and in this he is confirmed by Mr. Phillips, who states that they are taken better off shore where the seines cannot touch bottom. On the other hand, Mr. Washburne and Mr. Brightman are of the opinion that the use of the seine does not influence the movements of the fish.

Mr. Church, who has had much experience in the fisheries of Rhode Island, is very positive in his opinion. He writes: ‘The nets and seines do not scare the fish from the shore, for Narragansett Bay has been the theater of their greatest capture for forty years or more, and they hive been more plenty than ever before known for the last ten years. I have seen a school of fish set at ten times in succession in deep water, and they would dive under the seine each time, but when they came to the surface they would not be ten feet from the seine, and they would lie still until we got ready to set, and when the seine was around them they would dive again. Fish will drive menhaden but man never does, ex- cept by use of powder; the menhaden are sensitive to a jar, such as is caused by striking the deck of a vessel with an ax. Even so Slight a jar as the dropping of an oar or the careless slat of a rung on the gunwale has sent a school of fish off at top speed.” Mr. Dudley con- firms this. Steamers must carry low-pressure engines and run as noise- lessly as possible.

Fishermen on Long Island Sound and about its eastern entrance seem to be divided in opinion. Messrs. Sisson, Havens, B. Lillingston, Wash- ington, Crandall, and Dodge incline to think that fishing with nets

16 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

drives the fish away, while Messrs. Whaley, Potter, Wilcox, Beebe, Ing- ham, Miles, I’. Lillingston, and Hawkins Brothers share the opposite belief. It should be noted in this connection that in Long Island Sound and vicinity purse seines worked off shore have almost superseded the haul-seines used twenty or thirty years ago, which were worked from row-boats and drawn up on the beaches. Does not this point to a change in the habits of the fish? In this district, where the fisheries are mostly prosecuted in waters more or less land-locked, the fish are not so apt to be driven out to sea as in Maine, where the fishing is prose- cuted on an open coast. The timid fish may easily be crowded out into deep water by the vessels, which, working from the shore, usually ap- proach them from that direction. If the fisheries of Maine were to be suspended for a short time the fish would doubtless return in full force to their former haunts. It appears from the statement of Mr. Sartell, already quoted, that they appear inshore in considerable numbers if the large seines are laid up for a single day. Mr. Simpson thinks that a school which is frightened away by nets returns to the same place in the course of two or three hours. South of Long Island, menhaden fisheries have not been carried on to such an extent as to exert any modifying influence upon the habits of the fish.

The opinion of Mr. Atkins.

100. There is room for difference of opinion on this subject. Boardman and Atkins do not accept this view, and after the thorough study they have made, their views are entitled to much respect. They remark:

‘In general, it is safe to say that the surface movements of the men- haden are characterized by nothing so much as by capriciousness. They appear suddenly in the most unexpected spots, and, after a stay whose length nobody can foretell, all at once they disappear. One day they may be found at the moutk of the Kennebec, the next at Pemaquid, and the third all along the shore. Occasionally they reappear daily in the same spot for weeks at a time. Such was the case in the latter part of the season of 1874, over the sandy bottom off the Phipsburg beaches. Then it will sometimes happen that a whole season will pass without their appearance in bays where they have previously swarmed. Again, in some seasons they crowd the harbors and coves; in others they seem to avoid them altogether. For some years past they have so generally absented themselves from these places as to excite a good deal of spec- ulation as to the cause.”*

And again: ;

‘Of the desertion of the harbors and coves there seems to be abun- dant testimony. An observer in Boothbay says: ‘Menhaden can be driven out of small bays so that they will not come in, ‘Certain it is that they do not come into the bays as they used to.’ In Bluehill we are

* Op. cit., p. 11.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 17

told the same story. In Jonesport it is said, ‘Pogies used to run into all the coves and creeks. Of late years they do not appear to frequent the shores as formerly.’ Testimony of this sort might be multiplied; but it is unnecessary. The fact is notorious. During the past season (1874) they returned to some of their old haunts in great numbers, but have by no means resumed their former habit in this respect. Of this singular change of habit there are various explanations offered. Accord- ing to some persons it is caused by the practice of seining; others lay it to the oil and decaying matter from the oil-factories. Neither of these causes appears sufficient to produce such a result. The desertion of the coves is observed in localities far removed from those where the alleged causes have operated. Perhaps, after all, the thing to be accounted for is why the menhaden ever crowded into small bays as they used to. Were they there in search of food, were they simply obeying blind instinet, or were they driven in by hordes of hungry foes outside? The latter supposition seems quite as probable as the others. We know that small fishes sometimes rush ashore to escape pursuit; we know that this happens with herring when flying from the pollock, and with men- haden when flying from the bluefish and horse-mackerel. ‘The presence, outside, of a large number of predaceous foes, of whatever species, would be ample to drive the menhaden in. This might happen year after year; while with the cessation of the cause the result would cease too, and the menhaden would no longer crowd into the coves as before. If this view be correct, then the recent absence of the menhaden from the shores indicates an improvement in its chances of life, by the removal of its destroyers. Lack of information forbids an attempt to point out the species that have been most active in producing these movements of the menhaden; and indeed the theory itself is not proposed as one that has much of positive evidence in its favor, but just to show the possibility of accounting for the absence of the fish from shore on the hypothesis of the operation of causes purely natural, and not inimical, but posi- tively favorable.”

The opinion of Mr. Maddocks.

101. Still another view is advanced by Mr. Maddocks: “The menhaden, it is believed, does not of its own preference visit the coves and inner harbors, for its food seems to be less abundant in such localities, but to be driven into them by predaceous enemies. Upon the withdrawal of these, either in part or in full, the menhaden may reoccupy their former haunts at a remove from the shore, and thus disappear from inner waters.”

LT hardly think that the facts support this opinion. The habits of the fish when undisturbed, as they may be studied on the thousand miles or more of coast south of Cape Cod, are a safer guide than their habits on the much-seined coast of Maine.

102. Boardmanand Atkins record some very interesting facts regarding

78 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

the change in the northern limits of the range of the menhaden within the past thirty years.

At Jonesport, Me., menhaden used to be very plenty. They were commonly caught in gill-nets two and one half fathoms deep, but it was practicable, almost any time, to get enough to go fishing with by spear- ing. They became scarce seven, eight, or ten years ago, and now very few are caught, although some come as far as this every year.*

At Lubee, thirty years ago or more, menhaden were so plenty during their short season (July and August) as to bea nuisance. They have not been plenty since 1840 or 1845, and now none are found east of Jonesport. They left suddenly, and since the date mentioned have been rarely seen. Mr. E. A. Davis, of Lubec, a man of long experience in the herring fishery, has not seen a single specithen for ten years. Mr. E. P. Gilles, also of large experience, in 1860, or thereabouts, got three hogsheads of them one afternoon tide, and since then has seen none.

At Pembroke, says Mr. Moses L. Wilder, ‘‘twenty years ago, and always before that, the menhaden used to come here every year in great numbers, filling every cove and creek; but for the past twenty years none whatever have been seen. Little use was ever made of them except for bait, and of that but little was needed here.” +

There is also evidence to show that the waters of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have of late years been entirely deserted by them.t

E.—ABUNDANCE. 16.—ABUNDANCE IN THE PAST. The testimony of early writers.

103. Of the abundance of menhaden in times gone by we can know very little, for they have never been considered an important species, and might easily escape the observation of writers. We infer that they were abundant the time of the Dutch colony on New York Island, two hundred years ago, from the name given to it by the New Netherlanders ; in fact we have the statement, already quoted, of Dankers and Sluyter, who before 1679 saw in the bay of New York ‘schools of innumerable fish, and a sort like herring, called there marsbanckers.” L’Hommedieu speaks of their abundance at the close of the last century.§

Professor Mitchill, writing in 1814, states: “They frequent the New York waters in prodigious numbers. From the high banks of Montock, I have seen acres of them purpling the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The waters of Long Island Sound and its bay are often alive with schools of them.” 4]

*Statement of Z. D. Norton.

t Boardman & Atkins, op. cit., p. 21.

$ See below, paragraph 222.

§ Agricultural Transactions of New York, I, p. 65. See Appendix O.

{| Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, 1815, I, p. 453.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 719

In his deposition to Professor Baird, August 3, 1871, Capt. Nathanael Smith, an aged Newport fisherman, gave the following testimony : ‘Menhaden are decreasing too. In 1819 I saw a school of menhaden out at sea, when I[ was going to Portland, that was two miles wide and forty miles long. I sailed through them. We were out of sight of land. They appeared to be all heading southwest. There were no fish near them. I have seen a school on this coast three miles long. I think they spawn in April and May.”*

Dr. DeKay, in his “ Natural History of New York,” says of this fish that, “although it is seldom eaten, as it is dry, without flavor, and full of bones, yet it is one of the most valuable fish found in our waters. They appear on the shores of Long Island about the beginning of June, in immense schools; and as they frequently swim with a part of the head above or near the surface of the water, they are readily seen and captured. They are commonly sold on the spot at the rate of $2 the wagon-load, contain- ing about 1,000 fish. The largest haul I remember to have heard of was through the surf at Bridgehampton, at the east end of the island. Kighty-four wagon-loads, or, in other words, 84,000, of these fish were taken at a single haul.”

Mr. George H. Cook, writing in 1857, thus speaks of the abundance of menhaden on the coast of New Jersey:

“The moss-bonker (the Alosa menhaden, or Clupea menhaden), or, as it is sometimes called, bony-fish, menhaden, and other rames, is an abun- dant fish in all the waters of this part of the State. It is frequently seen in immense shoals, fairly blackening the water for many miles. It is easily caught, and in large quantities at once. Mr. John Stikes, sen., of Beesley’s Point, with his brother, some years since, caught, in a ninety-fathom net, thirty two-horse wagon-loads, at four hauls, tak- ing fourteen of the loads at a single haul. Last summer, in a trip through the sounds from Beesley’s Point to Cape Island, we passed through water filled with these fishes. Many of them swam so near the surface that their back fins projected above it ; and the appearance of the water was entirely changed by the slight ripple they made In moving. They were most abundant then in the vicinity of Hereford in- let; but they are found near all the shores; and the only limit to the amount which can be taken is in the ability to take care of them when caught. Sixty wagon-loads, of at least 2,500, fish each, were taken at one haul in Raritan Bay this season.”

17.—ABUNDANCE IN THE PRESENT. On the coast of Maine.

104, Mr. W. H. Sargent considers the pogy the most numerous fish on the coast of Maine. Their capture affects their abundance in the coves and rivers and along the shore, though not outside. In 1873, Friend & Co.,

* Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1471-72, p. 21.

80 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

of Brooklin, took 25,000 barrels; Allen & Co., 15,000; others in the vicinity, 85,000. In 1874, about 15,000 were taken, the larger portion by Friend & Co. Between 1863 and 1868, some years 500,000 barrels have been taken. In 1877, Mr. Sargent estimates the total catch in his district at 100,000 pounds, or less than 400 barrels. Mr. J. ©. Condon states that the fish are quite abundant about Belfast, Me.; 2,000 barrels were taken in the Belfast customs district in 1873; 3,000 in 1874. Sein- ing does not appear to diminish their number. According to Mr. R. A. Triend, the pogies are much more numerous about Brooklin, Me., than any other fish ; their numbers are not apparently diminished. About 14,000 barrels were taken in that vicinity in 1873, and 23,000 in 1874.

Mr. John Grant writes that, though pogies are more numerous about Matinicus Rock than any other fish except the herring, their numbers are decidedly diminished, probably on account of their wholesale capture.

Mrs. B. Humphrey states that at Manhegin Island these fish are more numerous than any other, but that seining has greatly affected their abundance.

Captain Coombs, of Esterbrook, who fishes for the Brightmans at Round Pond, Bristol, Me., recently caught with his seine, at one haul, 1,300 barrels of menhaden, and saved 1,179 barrels, made and valued as follows: Thirty tons scrap, at $10 per ton, $300; 3,650 gallons of oil, at 60 cents per gallon, $2,190; total, $2,490.*

At Sargentsville, Me., according to Mr. W. G. Sargent, 1,500 barrels of pogies were captured, in 1877, by Herrick & Bayard’s boats. These were taken to the factories in the adjoining township of Brooklin.

Capt. Frank A. Chadwick, of New Harbor, Me., states that seven purse-seines are used in that vicinity, which catch an average of 15,000 barrels of menhaden annually, and a total amount of 125,000 barrels.

Mr. William P. Sprague, of North Isleborough, Me., writes that pogies are extremely abundant in that vicinity. A fleet of menhaden steamers, some twenty in number, has fished much here.

Mr. Lewis McDonald, of North Haven, Me., estimates the catch of menhaden for 1877 at 400 barrels.

The number of fish taken about Booth Bay and Bristol is given in the report of the Maine Oil and Guano Association, cited elsewhere. Mr. Sartell thinks that the fish are driven away by the seines. Mr. Ken- niston and Mr. Brightman think that there is no perceptible diminution, as they continue by far the most numerous species. Mr. Washington Oliver thinks that they bave been diminished by the fisheries about Booth Bay.

Mr. Kenniston states that in the town of Booth Bay, in 1873, 152,000 barrels were taken by five factories, as follows: Kenniston, Cobb & Co., 17,000; Gallup & Holmes, 17,000; Gallup & Manchester, 25,000; Suffolk Cil Works, 48,000; Atlantic Oil Works, 45,000. In 1872 the aggregate reached 110,000 barrels; in 1871, with six factories, about) 95,000; in

* Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser, August 27, 1872.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 81

1870, less than 75,000; while in 1866, the first year of the work, only about 35,000 barrels were taken. Judson Tarr & Co. think that they are more plenty than ever before, but not so numerous inshore.

Mr. Edward E. Race, of East Booth Bay, Me., reports, November 5, 1877, the total catch for the season in that vicinity at 156,000 barrels, or 51,948,000 fish.

Mr. W. A. Abbe, manager of the Pemaquid Oil Company, states that the season of 1877 was a poor one, both in the number and quality of the fish taken. The company’s fleet of five steamers took during the season over 61,000 barrels (20,000,000 of fish), yielding about 127,000 gallons of oil and 1,800 tons of guano. The fishing began off Gloucester, thence extended to the coast of Maine, and ended off Provincetown. Some of the steamers fished for other parties after the close of the Provincetown season off Newport and Sandy Hook, but the catch was insignificant.

The three steamers owned by Edward T’. Deblois took, in 1877, on the coast of Maine, 26,649 barrels (9,000,000 of fish).

Mr. George Devoll, of Fall River, Mass., fishing in 1877 for the Nar- ragansett and Atlantic Oil Works in Maine, caught from his steamer, the Chance Shot, abort 12,000 barrels of menhaden.

In 1877, Gallup & Holmes took 52,000 barrels of fish on the coast of Maine and at Provincetown, besides 8,000 barrels caught and sold further west. These fish yielded 120,000 gallons of oil and 1,500 tons of guano.

On the coast of New Hampshire.

105. Mr. Chandler Martin, of Whale’s-Back Light, near Portsmouth, N. H., in his communication of February 23, 1874, reported that the fish were diminished January 9, 1875; he writes that they were more abun- dant in 1874 than for ten years previous, and that they are probably not affected by the fisheries.

Mr. Winslow P. Hayrs, of Nashua, N. H., calls attention to the rapid diminution of the pogies in that vicinity, attributing it to the extensive operations of the oil-factories and to the pollution of the waters by the refuse dye-stuffs and chemicals from the factories. *

On the coast of Massachusetts.

106. Mr. W. W. Marshall estimates the catch of gill-nets at Rockport, 1877, at 1,000 barrels. The fisheries at Newburyport are described below.

According to Mr. Babson the pogies are more numerous about Cape Aun than any other fish except herring and mackerel. He thinks they have decreased somewhat during the past ten years and keep more off the shore. Statistics of capture are given elsewhere.

* Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1871~72, p. 136. 6 F

82 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

About Marblehead, Mass., says Mr. Dodge, they are greatly dimin- ished and are less numerous than most other species.

Mr. Horatio Babson states that the value of the catch of menhaden off Gloucester in 1876 was nearly $800,000. Mr. George W. Plumer estimates $750,000 for the New England coast. George Norwood esti- mates its value at from $300,000 to $500,000.

Capt. Charles C. Pettingell estimates the number taken in Salem Harbor at 2,000 barrels. This is probably below the actual figure.

Mr. Horace M. Merchant, of Lanesville, Mass., estimates the catch in that vicinity at 750 barrels. They are taken mostly by gill-nets, 300 of which are in use, and are sold for bait. d

Mr. J. G. Pond, of Provincetown, estimates 1,000 barrels for that port.

At Plymouth, Mass., according to Mr. Thomas Loring, the menhaden are very few and are diminishing.

About Wellfleet, Mass., states Mr. Dill, the number is greatly dimin- ished on account of the bluefish; they are not so numerous as the mackerel; the capture for the past eight years (in 1873) has been about $500 worth a year. In 1874 about 6,000 barrels were taken in the bay. Fishing does not appear to diminish their numbers.

Capt. Hanson Graham and Capt. Zephaniah P. Lanman estimate the eatch of Wellfleet for 1877 at 20 barrels. This is far too small.

Capt. Henry E. Hatch, of North Eastham, Mass., states that many menhaden are taken in the pounds of that neighborhood.

Capt. Solomon Dinnel, of East Orleans, thinks that 100 barrels are taken in the gill-nets belonging in that town.

At Provincetown and Truro, Mass., according to Mr. David F. Loring, the fish are greatly diminished; they are more numerous than any other fish in late April and May. Only 1,000 to 2,600 barrels were taken in 1873.

At Chatham they are more numerous than any other fish, though they do not enter the bay so plentifully as in former years. Ifrom 3,000 to 5,000 barrels have been taken annually for the past six years. Cap- tain Hardy does not think that their abundance is affected by the fish- eries.

Mr. Kenney states that at Nantucket pogies are the most numerous fish. They vary in abundance from year to year but for the past ten years, as a whole, their numbers remain about the same. Fishing does not affect them. On the other hand Capt. 8. H. Winslow, line fisher- man, testifies: “The menhaden are very scarce now (July 19, 1871), and I think we shall lose them too very soon, because they are using them up for oil.* In this month and from the 20th of June the ocean used to appear to be literally covered with menhaden. Now there are not a quar- ter. as many as there used to be. People think they are plenty because by using a purse-net one or two hundred fathoms long they can purse several hundred barrels at a haul.”

8 Report of United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1871-—’72, p. 46.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 83

N. B. Tower, of Cohasset, states that menhaden are taken in the weirs located in that town. Mr. A. J. Hathaway estimates the annual catch at 10 barrels.

John W. Cook, of South Dartmouth, estimates the catch for 1877 at 30,000 barrels or 9,990,090 fish.

Warren A. Gifford, of Dartmouth, puts the catch of that town at 465 barrels.

_ Capt. Darius I’. Weekes, of South Harwich, reports “thousands of barrels.”

Capt. Remark Chase, of West Harwich, who sets a small weir for shad, herring, and pogies, reports about 2,000 barrels of the latter.

At South Westport, according to Capt. John W. Gifford, there are five seines 120 fathoms long and 20 feet deep used in the capture of menhaden. Their average annual catch is about 300 barrels. Mr. Gifford thinks that 1,500 barrels are taken annually in Westport.

Capt. Eldad Gill, of North Eastham, estimates the catch for that place at three or four barrels.

Mr. Alonzo F. Lathrop, of Hyannis, Mass., thinks that the number of pogies is increasing, though it was not so great in 1873 as in 1874 or the preceding years. They are quite as numerous as other fish, and are not perceptibly affected by fishing. Alexander Crowell testified June 29, 1871, that menhaden were more scarce. *

At Edgartown, Mass., and about Martha’s Vineyard, they are more numerous than any other species. Five thousand barrels were taken in 1873 by the pounds; 10,000 in 1872. Fishing is not thought to affect their abundance. According to Mr. Marchant and Mr. Luce, they are not more or less abundant than they were ten years ago.

In the weir at Menemsha Bight, owned by Jason Luce & Co., the number of barrels of menhaden taken in 1869 (April 4 to June 7) was 1,590; in 1870 (April 14 to June 8), 1,375; in 1871 (April 14 to June 9), 3,200; in 1872, 3,800.

At aconference on the subject of fisheries at Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, September 27, 1871, Captain Rease, acting as spokesman for a number of other fishermen, gave the following testimony:

‘The law ought to be uniform. One reason why the pounds were not stopped by the legislature of Massachusetts was, that the Provincetown people made a statement that they could.not fit out their vessels with bait unless they had pounds to catch it for them.

** Question. Could they ?

“Answer. How did they do it before? They had the same facilities then asuow. They used to send to Nova Scotia for bait; now they use only menhaden and herring for bait. Menhaden are getting scarce. The harbor used to be full when I was a boy; but it is a rare thing to find

.any here now, because they are caught up. They don’t catch them at Saughkonet Rocks as they used to. If they keep on catching them up

* Report of United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1871-72, p. 49.

84 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

as they have done, we shall have to send to California to get a mess of fish.” *

At Waquoit weir, near Wood’s Hole, Mass., the number of menhaden taken in 1865 was 211,100; in 1866, 318,510; in 1867, 203,740; in 1868, 124,726; in 1869, 145,710; in 1870, 407,950; in 1871, 235,270.+

On the north side of Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, there are 19 weirs; 10 of these were estimated to have yielded in 1876 16,236 menhaden, giv- ing an average of 1,624 to a weir, making an aggregate for the whole of about 32,480. On the south side of Cape Cod, in 1876, were 22 weirs; 10 of these yielded 1,527,729, and the total yield is estimated at 4,000,000. The number of weirs in Martha’s Vineyard Sound is 9; 6 of these yielded 1,395,270, and the total yield is estimated at 2,093,000. The number of weirs in Buzzard’s Bay is 30; the yield of 11 in 1876 was 54,878,000, and the total yield is estimated at 162,000,000. The total amount taken in the weirs of Massachusetts is estimated at about 170,000,000.

The returns of the catch of these same weirs in 1877, as given in the Report of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries, is as follows:

WMCIPS <2 odie d Soles os An Dee eee ene ee Peer pee lee eer 1, 770, 136 illonets 222. (2 0S. Ue ee ee eee ee oe eee eee as 81, 256 DEINCS ttc 24g tise eck eee eee eRe Coe E RR ee: eee ce Eee 600, 198

While the estimate given above is perhaps too large, the returns cited are probably much too small.

On the coast of Rhode Island.

107. Mr. Edwin A. Perrin, postmaster, Pawtucket, R. I., puts the catch of the five drag-seipes there owned, at 2,500 barrels.

Mr. Daniel T. Church writes: “There are no fish in Narragansett Bay so plenty as menhaden if we take several years as the standard, but if we should take years as they come and name each year separately it would be different. For instance, during 1571, 1872, and 1873, seup ap- peared in Narragansett Bay in immense quantities. There is no doubt in my mind that there has been, during the years named, more of them than menhaden. Bat, for a number of years preceding, scup were scarce. A few years since squeteague were more plenty than menhaden, for the bay seemed to be full of them from near Providence to Point Judith, and from Seconnet to Somerset. Menhaden, as an average, have been plenty in Narragansett Bay for the last ten years; but not far from ten years back they were scarce, and some of the fishermen left the business on that account. It is my opinion that the blue-fish were so plenty as to destroy the menhaden in large numbers. It was seriously feared that they were to disappear; but since blue-fish, sharks, and horse-mackerel,

*Testimony in regard to the present condition of the fisheries, taken in 1671. <Report of U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1871, pp. 39, 40.

t Report of Massachusetts Commissioners of Inland Fisheries for 1871, and Report of United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 187172, p. 176.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 85

have become, for some unknown reason, scarce, menhaden have grown plenty, and 1871, 1872, and 1873 have been great years in the business. Taking for a basis of estimate that there are eight menhaden factories in Narragansett Bay that use about 20,000 barrels each, it would make the number of barrels caught during the year 1873 about 160,000. We do not think fishermen have any perceptible effect on menhaden, for it is a fact well known that a few years back they were so searce that boats and seines were in the market at less than half their value. The year 1875 has been the year of surprise and wonder of all years, for the sea has been one blanket of menhaden from the Chesapeake to the Bay of Fundy.”

Lieutenant-Governor Stevens, of Rhode Island, who owns a pound in Narraganpsett Bay, found menhaden more plentiful in 1871 than for many years before.*

Mr. Joshua T. Dodge, of New Shoreham, R. I. (Block Island), writes that menhaden are very plenty, though they are scarce in particular seasons ; 1873 was a very good year for them. The fish do not seem to be less numerous, but they are wilder than formerly.

Captain Crandall is of the opinion that about Watch Hill, though still more numerous than other fish, they are considerably diminished in number by the use of seines. The catch of 25 drag-seines, owned in that vicinity, was estimated for 1877 at 100 barrels.

On the coast of Connecticut.

108. Captains Wilcox and Potter, of Mystic Bridge, Conn., think that there is no perceptible decrease in the numbers of bony fish on account of the fisheries, and that they are on the increase. They estimate the amount taken in the neighborhood (from Stonington to Poquannock) in 1875 at 6,500; in 1874 at 109,000 barrels.

Captain Washington, of Mystic River, Conn., is unable to see any decrease of late years.

Capt. 8. G. Beebe, of Niantic, thinks that the fish are on the increase, and are more abundant than any other species. He estimates the num- ber taken by Luce Brothers in 1873, three seines, 9,000,000; in 1872, four seines, 13,000,000 ; 1571, four seines, 17,000,000.

At Saybrook, according to Mr. R. EK. Ingham, there is no decrease, and the fish are more abundant than any others.

It is the opinion of Mr. H. L. Dudley that there has been no actual decrease. The wears in the vicinity of New Haven have been as suc- cessful in 1877 as in any previous year. In 1871, when the Pine Island fishermen captured 10,000,000 they thought the climax had been reached, but in 1876 the quantity was increased to 18,000,000. The catch for seven years is approximately as follows:

ES essa Mean are «e+ = cid eames eho as» 10, 000, 000 1872 13, 000, 000

i a ee

* Report ot Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1871—72, p. 19.

86 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Pee) 0 OS nS se Bie Ara 11, 000, 000 ie. ee metal re Eee 10, 000, 000 ten). 104 ee Oe PER *12, 609, 000 TSTO) 0 2. Oot R 18, 000, 000 HST oon 3 ae eens 2. 0) ee 14, 000, 000

In 1869, Miles Brothers, of Milford, Conn., are said to have taken 8,000,000 or 10,000,000 of fish ; a season’s catch which has not yet been exceeded, although their facilities for fishing have been greatly increased.

A correspondent of the American Agriculturist wrote to that paper in 1873,¢ that during the season of 1872 the factories between New Lon- don and Stonington caught 40,800,000 fish, which yielded about 142,000 gallons of oil and 4,080 tons of scrap.

The season of 1877 has been an eminently successful one for the fish- ermen of Long Island Sound. From Pine Island Mr. Dudley counted at one time 30 schools of fish. This year, however, the fishing has been most successful around and outside of Montauk Point.

Gurdon 8S. Allyn & Co., with three seines worked from sloops took in 1877, 13,000,000 of fish, yielding 42,000 gallons of oil. ;

Luce Brothers, of East Lyme, Conn., with one steamer and nine sloops, with 48 men, took in 1877, 3,800,000, fish producing 103,200 gallons of oil.

There are eighteen weirs in the harbor of Westbrook, Conn., which take, according to Capt. J. L. Stokes, about 8,000 shad and 500,000 menhaden each, giving an annual yield of 144,000 shad and 9,000,000 menhaden. This is probably rather an overestimate. The Westbrook weirs have leaders of 250 to 500 fathoms, and are managed by four men each. The menhaden taken in them are sold to farmers.

The following are the returns of George Stannard & Co.’s pound at the mouth of the Connecticut:

Year. Shad. Smallshad.| Whitefish. | Alewives.

cs Barrels.

MESS. |. SER Roan eee eee tae eaene onec cee tees 1, 200 Heese tcsceee 446, 090 15 859. 3c < Less 2 Beet oe ee ee enieeris suas scasmenben 11082)| sseseecss cae 990, 600 114 MS60 32552 a SUS ee eee Ae Ee ee 1, 004), | Saas 549, 650 252 SGD oo oo seco e soe CCE ee ease aan 4, 381 602 771, 930 163

TGQ ee SSeS Sd _ eee dba 4,056 667 1, 144, 410 40

BGS). 2,2 ie stale jk cise cto cl Oe EE merc een 9, 400 1, 655 67x, 070 12 HSG4s eco ee clit. fs Se See Sate erenic 8, 305 1, 248 569, 040 113 BOSE Sas oc laceis oa je,0.chere eb eee oe ee eee 7, 069 1, 320 642, 107 103 ECO ee Ck eck ete LS Oe ele eee ea nas 8, 891 892 855, 575 124

UGG TMS Se oS ccicis tars oie Dae ce ee era: 9, 469 1,214 1, 113, 158 27 HBOS ce cwaicn nice wadeLe cs coe eee Oe ee eae 8, 781 2, 212 249, 070 94

Captain Stokes, with a shore-seine of about 400 fathoms, took during the season of 1877 about 1,000,000 menhaden, which were chiefly sold to farmers at $1.25 the thousand.

Mr. Miles, of Milford, Conn., states that there are no fish in the waters of the western part of Long Island Sound to be compared in numbers

*In 1875 the steamer was first used by the Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company. t American Agriculturist, 1873, vol. xxxii, p. 139.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 87

with the whitefish, and that so far from being diminished by capture they appear to be on the increase. The men in the employ of the George W. Miles Company, took 12,000,000 fish in 1873, 10,000,000 in 1872, 8,000,000 in 1871, and 8,000,000 in 1870.

Mr. F. Lillingston, of Stratford, states that the propotionate abundance of whitefish to any other species is about 1.000 tol. About 5,000 barrels are taken each year. Fishing has no effect on their numbers, though previous to 1874 they were growing scarce close to the shore.

On the coast of New York.

109. In the eastern district of Long Island, according to Captain Sisson, the mossbunkers are, and seem likely to be, the most numerous species. He estimates that the number taken by purse-nets in 1873 was 50,000,000, by other nets 10,000,000. Captain Sisson.

Mr. Joseph D. Parsons, of Springs, Suffolk County, New York, esti- mates the total catch of 1877 at 150,000,000 of fish ; 1,150,000 of these he credits to the 50 pounds and traps.

During the three months ending June 30, 1872, there were 20,000,000 of menhaden caught in Gardiner’s and Peconic Bays. These fish were rendered into 14,400 gallons of oil and 1,500 tons of guano, and yielded $80,000. The business of the year it is stated will be a failure. In 1871 the receipts of the season amounted to $456,000.*

New York papers of August, 1872, stated that during the two weeks ending on the 17th of the month, the waters of Long Island Sound swarmed with menhaden. One fishing company took 1,300,000, realizing $1 per thousand; another took 3,000,000. One company had rendered 5,000,000 into oil and guano during the season, not running to its full capacity. The price of the fish, formerly 60 cents per hundred, had been reduced to $1 per thousand; yet the fishermen asserted that they could wake money at the latter rate if they could sell their whole catch, but only one-third had been taken by the factories.

During 1871 24,520,000 menhaden were taken in the Eastern Long Island Bays. In less than one week, in 1872, six companies took 1,650,000. The * Cove Company” was said to have surrounded with its nets 1,000,000 at a time, but through a fault of the nets only 400,000 were taken. One of the pound nets became so full that the crew could not haul it, and the fish succeeded in breaking it loose from the stakes ; it was afterward washed up on the bar. By actual count it contained over 800,060. In two weeks, in 1872, the seines took over 2,000,000.

The two steamers and three sloop-yachts of Hawkins Brotbers, James- port, N. Y., took in the season of 1877 29,500,000 fish, yielding 52,350 gallons of oil and 3,275 tous of scrap, about one-half of which was dried fresh from the presses.

The two sloop-yachts of William Y. Fithian & Co., Napeague, N. Y.,

*Public Ledger, Philadelphia, J uly 17, 1872.

88 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

seined in 1877 10,500,000 fish, which yielded 24,000 gallons of oil and 1,500 tons of scrap.

The Sterling Company of Greenport, N. Y., took in 1877, with three seine-yachts and six lighters, 14,449,000 fish.

The steamers often make wonderful captures. The “ Cambria,” Capt. Lorenzo Tallman, is, I am informed, one of the most successful, fishing chiefly outside of Montauk. In 1876 this steamer was brought to the factory, loaded to the water’s edge, thirty-six dzys in succession. In 1876 the ‘ William Spicer ” captured 729,300 fish in five days.

Review of the fisheries of New England since 1875, by Mr. D. T. Church.

110. Mr. D. T. Church, who is recognized to be one of the leading spirits in the menhaden fisheries, gives the following estimate of the success of the fisheries for three years past:

“1875 was a successful year; so was 1876. The year 1877 from New York to Cape Cod was the best since 1870. North of Cape Cod it was the worst since 1865. There was plenty of fish but no oil. J. Church & Co. caught, in 1876, 200,000 barrels and made over 620,000 gallons of oil. During the year 1877 they caught 183,000 barrels, and only made little over 300,600 gallons of oil. A fish called baracouta drove the men- haden from their usual feeding-grounds, and were absent until they (the baracouta) disappeared; they then put in an appearance, but too late for the factories todo much. The first taken during the summer of 1877 in Maine were from the waters of bays and rivers, and they were less than one-half as fat as they were the year betore, when we took them 10 to 15 miles at sea.

‘¢The fishermen usually steam square out to sea, and for the last ten years have found immense beds of them, and apparently inexhaustible amounts, 3 to 4 miles off shore, and generally after about the middle of July they get fat. This year the fat sea-fish could not be found at sea.

‘‘About September 10, the baracoutas left and then they suddenly made their appearance off Portland and vicinity, and at one time the bay between Cape Elizabeth and Wood Island was packed full of the largest and fattest fish that was ever seen on this coast. Our fleet were in the midst of the schools part. of two days. A storm came on, and after it was over, they were gone and were not seen afterward. It was about the 1st of October.”

The baracouta referred to by Mr. Church is doubtless the tunny or horse-mackerel.

Lteview of the fisheries of Long Island Sound since 1870, by Mr. G. W. Miles.

111. Mr. George W. Miles, of Milford, Conn., for fifteen years engaged in the menhaden fisheries, writes: . ‘* We cannot perceive apy diminution in numbers or quantity, but we

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. ; |. 88

do find a great difference at times (and some whole seasons) in size and quality.

“Our usual average catch here in Long Island Sound has been about 8,000,000 per season, beginning June 1, ending October 1. The past season, 187%, our catch was 15,000,000; nearly double the catch ef pre- vious years. :

“In 1870 there was a large quantity of large fat-fish in the sound; these fish could be seen occasionally several feet under the surface by persons at the mast-head, but could not be seen by the fishermen from the deck of the vessel except occasionally. For some cause, we think they were at the bottom feeding; they did not appear on the surface sufiiciently long for the fishermen to catch them until very late in the season.

“On the 10th day of August we had made only 14 barrels of oil. Some of our neighbors, having got discouraged, closed their factories, thinking there would be no catch for the season. At this time the fish suddenly made their appearance on the surface, and were caught in great abundance. They being unusually fat, yielding from 12 to 14 gal- lons of oil per 1,000, we made in the next six weeks 3,000 barrels prime oil.

“In 1871~72 there was about the usual quantity of fish, yielding from 4 to 6 gallons of oil per 1,000; an average of several years previous to 1870.

‘‘Tn 1875 there were immense numbers of small fish from one to two inches long appeared on the surface in the month of September; thou- sands of shoals could be seen at a time and great numbers in each shoal; these appeared to take possession of all the waters for the remainder of that season. ‘

‘“‘In 1874 these small fish appeared again late in the season and were about double the size they were in 1873.

‘In 1875 they appeared again much earlier; and in 1876 they came in about the Ist of June, having increased in size and numbers; appar- ently they occupied the whole waters of the sound, so much so, the larger fish that frequented these waters were actually crowded out of the sound, or left for other waters, and remained off Block Island, at sea, the remainder of the season, and gave up the field to be occupied by the smaller fish.

“The result of this abundance of small fish was a complete failure of the business for the two years 1875 and 1876 in Long Island Sound, the factories and fishing gears having run at great loss.

**In 1877 we provided ourselves with smailer mesh-nets and proceeded to catch the smaller fish, which had now attained a size about two thirds the average here and averaging about one-half pound each. We could catch these by using nets of 22 inches mesh. They were hardly worth catching, but the men could not stand another season of light catch, and there was uo alternative for them; they must catch these or noth-

90 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

ing. There was not much oil in them, averaging only from 14 to 3 gal- lons per 1,000. Consequently, those manufacturers who carried on a large business barely paid their expenses.”

On the coast of New Jersey.

112. At Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to Mr. A. G. Wolf, the mossbunker is the most numerous fish. About 215 barrels were taken in 1873 by Adams & Co., and about the same the previous year. The fishing does not tend to diminish their numbers |

At Somers Point, Great Egg Harbor, the mossbunkers are ‘a thou- sand fold more numerous” than any other species. In 1873, 7,200 barrels were taken; in 1874, 12,000. Mr. Morris thinks that there is no decrease from fisheries or any other cause.

At Cape May, Mr. D. Ii. roster writes they are more numerous than any other fish, but are not so plenty as on the eastern coast of New Jer- sey. As none are caught in this vicinity, the fisheries are not likely to affect their abundance, nor are they at any point south of Delaware Bay.

On the coast of Delaware.

113. About Bombay Hook, Delaware, according to Mr. J. B. Benson, the oldwife is the most numerous fish in July and August. At Mispil- lion River, writes Mr. James H. Bell, “they rank equal to, if they are not more abundant than, the sea-trout, * and far exceed any other fish in number: a thousand bushels of trout are sometimes taken at a haul, but the main fishing season does not last over a month, while menhaden are caught more or less during stx months of the year. No diminution is noticeable, and the number seems to be about the same one year with another. These fish are not sought in this vicinity for any purpose whatever: they are caught in seines laid for other fish and are left on the beach to rot or taken home to feed hogs, or are composted for fertiliz- ing the soil, for which they are only valuable. The quantity taken from the water never seems to affect the supply.”

On the coasts of Maryland and Virginia.

114. In Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds, Maryland, the alewife is the most abundant fish. Mr. Lawson thinks that their number is decreasing from the influence of the fisheries.

At Apateague Island, Accomac County, Virginia, the alewives are more abundant than any other fishes, and are increasing, according to Mr. J. U. Anderton; and this is also the case at Cape Henry, in the opin- ion of Mr. Richardson.

Mr. H. L. Dudley informs me that a party of New London manufac- turers, visiting the Chesapeake in 1866, found menhaden in almost in- credible quantities. As he expressed it, ‘‘they were so thick that for

* Cynoscion carolinensis.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 91

25 miles along the shore there was a solid flip-flap of the northward- swimming fish.” One enthusiastic member of the party jumped into the water and with a dip-net threw bushels of fish upon the beach.

On the coast of North Carolina.

115. Mr. Manning writes that at Edenton, North Carolina, these fish are very few.

According to Messrs, Jennett and Simpson the fat-back is by far the most numerous species on the coast of North Carolina. Mr. Simpson writes: ‘Heretofore the fat-back has been only about one-third more abundant than any other species, but I have seen twice as many during the fishery season of 1873 as I ever saw of any other species on our coast. They are on the increase, and not even their wholesale destruction by the bluefish seems to affect their abundance. About fifty barrels were netted in 1873 at Cape Hatteras. In 1877, in Cape Dare County, about 300 barrels.”

‘At Beaufort,” writes Mr. A. C. Davis, “the menhaden are more abundant than any other species and are increasing; and so it is at Body’s Island, North Carolina, where 50,000 barrels were taken in 1868, the fishery having since been discontinued. About 500 barrels were taken in 1877. They are used only for fertilizing purposes.”

Mr. Simpson describes their abundance at Cape Hatteras in 1874 in these words: ‘‘ During the past season the fishermen provided them- selves with seines and boats in time to meet the first run of the blue- fish. The seines were made of cotton marlin and were about 100 yards leng, 24-inch mesh, and from 40 to 50 meshes deep. The bluefish made their first appearance on the coast from the north. The menhaden passed about three days in advance of the bluefish.. Ido not think I ever saw so many of this species at any one other time, or at any one other season. From the balcony of the light-house at least 25 schools might have been seen lying along the coast, both north and south of the cape. Hach school seemed to cover many hundred yards of surface and to be moving south at the rate of from four to five miles an hour. This continued, and school after school followed, for ten days, before the appearance of the bluefish; and when the bluefish did appear there seemed to be more of the menhaden with them than had passed the station during the three previous days. Hundreds of barrels, I think, were washed ashore and were driven so close by the bluefish that they had not the power to resist the surf, which was quite rough or heavy, and they were consequently thrown ashore upon the beach. Only a very small quantity of these fish were saved, as the fishermen give their attention more particularly to bluefish, but some of them were saved and salted down, when they were sold to a good advantage. Some sold as high (in trade) as to bring ten bushels of corn, equal to $7 in currency, for one common fish-barrel of the menhaden.

“It has been generally thought by old experienced fishermen here,

92 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

that the bluefish drive the fatback south in winter, but I have learned differently during the past season from personal observation, which the following fact strongly attests. The menbaden came three days in ad- vance of the bluefish, and entered the sound at all the principal inlets, and made their way directly for the fresh-water rivers. They could be seen as numerous in the sound heading north as they were in the sea heading south. Furthermore, by a letter from a gentleman of Ply- mouth, N. C., I learn that they passed that place, eight miles above the mouth of the Roanoke, in five days after passing this station; and, by another letter from Windsor, 38 to 40 miles above the entrance, I hear that they arrived there as early as the 18th of December. Thus it may be readily seen that the bluefish are not the cause of the fatback com- ing south. I would sooner think that the fatback caused the bluefish to come south in winter, as they generally follow in the sea, and among the last of the run of fatback.

‘‘ Last year there were not so many of the menhaden, but there were millions of young spot about two years old; but, however, this winter there was not a spot to be seen.”

Dr. H. C. Yarrow found enormous schools of very small menhaden about Fort Macon, N. C., December 31, 1871.

Dr. Elliott Coues, U.S. A., states that they appear in great numbers about the harbor at Fort Macon, N. C., in spring and summer.*

On the coast of Florida.

116. In the Saint John’s River, Florida, the menhaden are more abun- dant than any other fish, and apparently on the increase. They clog the shad-nets in the spring.

Summation of evidence.

117. The statements above quoted seem to indicate that the menha- den is by far the most abundant fish on the eastern coast of the United States. There is, moreover, no evidence whatever of any decrease in their numbers. They are apparently quite as abundant as any species on the eastern coast of the United States, not even excepting the cod, herring, and mackerel. There are, however, no data for definite com- parison, nor is there any means of determining the ratio of increase or decrease within a given period of years. Thesame must be said regard- ing the effects of the wholesale capture going on every year on certain parts of the coast, for the present perfection of fishing apparatus and the skill of the fishermen is likely to prevent any apparent diminution in the yearly returns of the fisheries, even though the species be gradu- ally approaching extinction. It is quite evident that with the improved methods now in use a much larger proportion of the fish frequenting any given body of water may be taken than was formerly possible.

* Notes on the natural history of Fort Macon, N.C. <Proc. Phil. Academy of Nat- ural Sciences.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 9m

18.—ABUNDANCE IN THE FUTURE. The probability of future decrease.

118. There is no evidence of a decrease in the abundance of menhaden during a period of fifteen or more years of fisheries conducted on an im- mense scale. It seems, therefore, that no one can reasonably predict a decrease in the future. The movements of marine fishes are capricious in the extreme. The only cases in which the fisheries have been clearly shown to exercise a pernicious effect is where the spawning fish are taken in great quantities. It has been clearly determined that the menhaden are never captured upon their spawning-beds.

F.—FOOD. 19.—FooD OF THE MENHADEN. The opinions of fishermen.

119. Fishermen generally say that the menhaden feed on “brit” and “seed,” ‘ red-seed,” ‘ cayenne,” or “ bony-fish feed.” These are sailors’ names for small fioating animals of any kind, such as the minute crus- tacea, mostly entomostracans (ostracoda and copeopoda), which swarm the surface of the North Atlantic and are the favorite food of mackerel, herring, and many smaller species. They describe this food as ‘“ some- thing of a red or green color and about the size of hay-seed,” and very naturally suppose the menhaden to be feeding upon it when they are swimming with their heads at the surface. Others think that they “live by suction,” meaning that they feed by drawing through the mouth water containing particles of organic matter. The sturgeons, pipe-fish, and eyprinide, all with toothless mouths, are supposed to havé this habit. Others say that they feed upon the jelly-fishes (acalepha),* upon the ‘‘ mossy substance” which clings to the eel-grass (Zostera marina), and upon the “scum” or ** mucus” which floats on the surface. Perhaps all are right, for most fishes relish changes of diet. At Greenport, N. Y., according to Mr. W.S. Havens, the slimy coating of the eel-grass (which is composed of small alge, Spyridia filamentosa, with various species of Polysiphonia and Ceramium, &c., often clogged with a soft, slimy de- posit) is known as “bunker-feed.”

Peculiar movements of the menhaden.

120. Captain Loring has seen the menhaden in Provincetown Harbor in groups of from 20 to 500 gathered among the eel- grass in shoal water, swimming around and around in circles. He supposed them to be spawn- ing, but it seems quite probable that they were feeding. Mr. Hance Lawson states that in Chesapeake Bay the schools break up into small

* Acalephx do not have the appearance of being nutritious food, but the fattest hogs

I have seen in Florida are those at Mayport, which greedily devour a large species of discophore which is cast on the beach in great quantities.

94 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. .

bodies at night, coming in-shore to feed and dispersin g into deep water in the morning. Mr. Simpson states that in spring and summer they subsist principally upon mud and scum from the surface of the water, which they obtain by feeding in muddy slues and channels on the ebb, and grassy rivers and shoals on flood-tide.

The examination of stomach-contents.

121. The examination of the stomachs of a hundred or more menhaden, just from the water, taken off Portland, Me., in Block Island Sound, at the mouth of the Potomac, and in the Saint John’s River, Fla., has failed to reveal any traces whatever of animal food. Mackerel examined at the same time, in Maine, contained numerous specimens of ‘ seed,” which were mostly a large entomostracan (Lrenwus Pattersonii), and small shrimp (ZThysanopoda, sp.). Every menhaden stomach which I have opened has been found full of a dark greenish or brownish mud or silt such as is found near the mouths of rivers and on the bottom of still bays and estuaries. ‘ When this mud is allowed to stand for a time in clear water, the latter is slightly tinged with green, indicating the presence of chlorophyl, perhaps derived from the green alge so com- mon on muddy bottoms. A microscopic examination by Dr. Emil Bes- sels brought to light, in addition to the particles of fine mud, a few com- mon forms of diatoms.*

Inferences from these examinations.

122. Perhaps no decided opinion should be formed without additional data, but the plain inference seems to be that the food of the menhaden, in part at least, is the sediment which gathers upon the bottom of still, protected bays, which is largely composed of organic matter, and upon the vegetation which grows in such water. Upon what they feed dur- ing their long sojourn at sea there are no sufficient grounds for conject- ure, though it is quite possibly the soft gray ooze and mud which recent explorations of the depths of the Atlantic have shown to exist at every depth, and on the numerous protozoans and Bathybius-like substances there flourishing. The peculiar digestive organs of the menhaden were described in paragraph 53.

Professor Verrill on bottom-mud.

123. In remarks upon the characteristics of different deposits of mud, Professor Verrill writes as follows:

‘In some cases, especially in well sheltered localities, where the water is tolerably pure, the mud may contain large quantities of living and

* “A large number of specimens [of menhaden ] freshly caught in eines were examined, and all were found to have their stomachs filled with large quantities of dark mud. They undoubtedly swallow this mud for the sake of the microscopic animal and vege- table organisms that it contains. Their complicated and capacious digestive appa- ratus seems well adapted for this crude and bulky food.” (Prof. A. E. Verrill, in Amer- ican Naturalist, 1871.)

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. a

dead microscopic organisms, both animal and vegetable, and these may even constitute more than one-half of the bulk of the mud, which, in such cases, is peculiarly soft and flocculent; such mud is extremely favorable to many kinds of animals that feed on the microscopic organ- isms, especially the bivalve shells, holothurians, and many annelids, and the ‘menhaden’ among fishes. The last variety of bottom, when it has a substratum of sand or gravel a few inches below the surface, is the most favorable kind for oysters, which grow very rapidly and become very fat in such places.” *

The evolutions of the schools.

124. Why do the menhaden, when in deep water, swim from morning to night with their mouths at the surface? Perhaps, with their widely expanded jaws and the complicated straining apparatus formed by their gill-rakers they are able to gather nutritious food which is floating on the water. To be convinced that this is possible, one needs only to ob- serve the immense “slicks” of oily matter, often miles in extent, rem- nants of the bloody feasts which bluefish and bonito have made on other fish, generally the menhaden. An insightinto the habit may be gained by watching the menhaden at the head of New Bedford Harbor, near the mouths of the large city sewers. Here a school of these fish is said to be invariably found circling around near the surface with open mouths, apparently in the act of feeding.

Whatever may be the character of their food, their rapid increase in size and oiliness indicates that there is an abundant supply in our waters.

Mr. J. Carson Brevoort states that he has seen menhaden plunging among the floating beds of jelly-fishes. He infers that they feed upon these creatures, though he has not seen the entire act.

The value of menhaden for bait affected by their food.

125. Fish taken in Salem Harbor are not considered good bait. Some- thing in the food which is there obtained renders them very liable to decay, and however carefully they ay be packed in ice the viscera soon rot away. A similar phenomenon is well known to the herring fisher- men of the coast of Norway, where a certain kind of food, presumably larval forms of small mollusks, often eaten by the herring, causes the fish to decay, in spite of the utmost precaution in salting. It is the custom of these fishermen to keep these fish alive in the nets for sev- eral days, to allow them to “ work off” this undesirable food. Perhaps a similar precaution might be useful to the Salem Harbor fishing gangs.

G.—REPRODUCTION. 20.—STUDIES OF THE PARENT FISH. ‘

Dissections of Connecticut fish.

126. Of the breeding habits of the menhaden, like those of the blue- fish, nothing definite is known. Hundreds of specimens have been ex-

American Naturalist, 1871.

96 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

amined in the north by the naturalists of the Fish Commission, between the months of June and November, and in the south in March and April, without in a single instance discovering matured spawn, soit may be regarded as a demonstrated fact that the species does not breed upon the coast of New England and New York. A large number dissected by me at Noank, Conn., in July and August, 1874, had the ovaries and spermaries partially developed, but still far from maturity, and it seemed probable that three or four months would pass before spawning time.

Others examined at Pine Island, Groton, Conn., October 30, 1877, had the ova more mature, but at least six weeks or two months from perfection, as nearly as I could estimate. The fish then examined were taken in the last runs of the fall, and were supposed to be the Maine schools on their southward migration.

Dissections of Maine fish.

127. Boardman and others state that in the last week in September fish taken in Boothbay had spawn and milt so slightly developed that only persons accustomed to the examination of such subjects could dis- tinguish the sexes.* °

The number of eggs in immature ovaries.

128. Hon. 8S. L. Goodale took the ovaries from a large number of men- haden at Boothbay, September 14, 1876, three to five days before their autumnal departure from the coast. Twelve hundred fishes were ex- amined, and only three were found to contain ovaries which approached

*The following letter by Mr. Atkins was received while this report was being printed:

““BUCKSPORT, MAINE, June 4, 1878.

“Dear Sir: I have discovered something about menhaden which is new to me.

“A short time ago a fisherman sent me a menhaden caught in Verona, an adjoining town to Bucksport, which turned out to be a male adult, with well developed sperma- ries, weighing ,4 ounce, the whole fish weighing 114 ounces; 10 inches long. To-day I have another specimen, also taken in Verona, which turns out to be a female, 11 inches long, with fully developed ovaries, which I have not yet weighed, but which contain eggs a little more than half a millimeter in diameter. I should think they would count out 200,000 or more.

“ Another Verona fisherman, Mr. Dudley Abbott, says that last year he slivered a lot of menhaden, and should judge that one-third or one-half of them contained spawn ; previous to last year he had seen menhaden with spawn occasionally, but not often he thought; continued to find some such till August last year.

“Mr. Harrison Heath, who sent me the female before me, told me yesterday that he had observed these ‘pogies’ with spawn for three years past, but did not recollect seeing them before; thought they were plentiest last year.

“You will recollect that I stated to you some months ago that the smelt fishermen reported that last fall they caught considerable numbers of young menhaden of various sizes—small at first and a good deal larger the first of winter—and that it was quite uncommon for so many of them to be taken.

“Tf these facts are sufficiently interesting, I will endeavor to follow the matter up.

“Very truly, yours, CO. G. ATKINS?

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 97

maturity. These ovaries are deposited in the United States National Museum (Cat. No. 16946). 1 examined the ripest of them in order to es- timate the number of ova. The ovaries with their membranes weighed 17,570 milligrams, or 271.140 grains (0.62 ounce). A portion weighing 420 milligrams was detached. This was found to contain approximately 250 ova, giving to each an average weight of one milligram and eight- tenths. The estimated total number of ova is 9,760, or in round num- bers 10,000, which is close enough for all probable necessities. There is no indication of the size of fish from which the ovaries were taken. I am informed by Mr. Milner and Dr. Bean that in the shad and white- fish the number of eggs varies with the weight of the parent. In the latter species a mother fish of one pound weight will yield 20,000 eggs, and one of twice that weight double the number of eggs. This enumer- ation of the menlhaden eggs merely serves to show that, comparatively, the species is not exceedingly prolific.

I am not aware that the number of ova in the ovary of the menhaden has ever before been accurately determined. Mr. Joseph D. “Parsons, of Springs, Suffolk County, New York, writes that 70,000 have been counted. Mr. Walter Wells, of Portland, Me., states that he has some- where heara of two millions having been counted. Several writers have lately expatiated on the immense fecundity of the menhaden. This has not yet been established.

No mature ova have been observed.

129. From Maine to Florida there can be found very little satisfactory evidence that spawn fully ripe has been seen, or that spawn or milt ever has been observed to run from the fish when handled after capture.

An instructive circumstance is mentioned by Mr. Bell, of Mispillion River, Delaware Bay, who states that after the last of these fish had dis- appeared from those waters, about the 7th of November, 1874, the bay from Cape May to Cape Henlopen and eighteen miles above its mouth was crowded with the largest menhaden ever seen on the coast, many of them equaling a medium-sized shad, and nearly three-fourths of them pregnant with large and nearly matured roe. They had been driven in by the bluefish which destroyed and pursued them ashore in vast num- bers. Sixty hours after the arrival of the menhaden not one was to be found on the coast.

According to Captain Atwood, of Provincetown, some menhaden taken at that place in December had mature spawn.* Hesuggests that these fish, which were very few in number, may have been detained in the creeks by accident.

A statement by Ir. Atkins.

150. Boardman and Atkins, apparently quoting from Mr. George B. Kenniston, state that off the coast of Virginia, about Christmas, the

* Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. x, p. 67. = ‘Ff

98 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

females can be readily distinguished by the distension of the abdomen; both sexes are so ripe that eggs and milt can be easily pressed from them. In Chesapeake Bay, in early spring, just after the advent of the adult fish, great schools of the young are seen, thought to be one and a half or two inches long. These little ones huddle together in dense schools, preyed upon by shovel-nosed sharks and other enemies. They are bound, so far as can be seen, in no particular direction, and are not supposed to come further north, but to pass the summer there and leave in the fall greatly increased in size. The color of these young fish, when seen in mass, is black, instead of red, which is the color of a school of adults when seen beneath the surface. ‘These statements are not au- thenticated by the name of the observer, and must be received with

caution. 21.—STUDIES OF THE YOUNG FISH.

The young fish in Southern New England.

131. Young fish from four to six inches long make their appearance in vast numbers a few weeks after the arrival of the adult fish. So extensive are the schools that experienced fishermen are sometimes de- -eeived, mistaking them for schools of large fish, and make every prepa- ration for setting their nets. These little fish play up into the shallow coves and the brackish water at the mouths of rivers and become an easy prey to small bluefish, eels, flatfish, and other small fishes.

Young menhaden seldom round Cape Cod, though they are not uncom- mon in Provincetown Harbor in September, where the fishermen catch them in dip-nets for bait. They have never been seen on the coast of Maine, Mr. Dodge states that they are occasionally seen in coves near Marble- head, Mass., and Mr. Babson has seen schools of half-grown fish at rare intervals about Cape Ann. In the museum of the Peabody Academy of Sciences, at Salem, is a bottle containing specimens about three inches long taken in Salem Harbor. South of Cape Cod, as far as Cape Hat- teras, they Swarm in the waters in late summer and autumn, and in the Saint John’s River, Florida, the creeks and coves are alive with them in summer and early autumn. In the harbor of Beaufort, 8. C., they are said to occur in December.

These schoels of small fish, some of them little over an inch in length, suddenly'make their appearance in the bays of the Vineyard and Fish- er’s Island Sounds about the middle of August. It may be regarded as certain that they are not hatched from the eggs in these localities, be- cause for several seasons the ground has been thoroughly explored daily for two months before the appearance of these fish without finding a trace of fish of smaller size. ;

Locomotive powers of the yourg menhaden.

132. It has been suggested that young menhaden, less than two inches in length, cannot be. thought to have traveled from the Virginia coast, a

HISTORY OF THE AMERIVAN MENHADEN. 39

distance of three hundred miles, nor even fifty miles, and from this it is argued that some of the species must spawn not far from the Vineyard Sound. It is not impossible that this conclusion may be true, still the premises aro hardly sufficient. The young menhaden at the time of their first appearance on the southern coast of Massachusetts are strong and active, and apparently fully developed in bone and muscle. There is no apparent reason why they might not make long journeys.

22.—INFERENCES AS TO TIME AND PLACE OF SPAWNING.

The testimony of young and parent fish.

133. Certain inferences may perhaps be drawn from the facts men- tioned above. The menhaden taken in summer and early autumn on the coast of New England show ovaries and spermaries in an unde- veloped state, but evidently slowly approaching maturity, while others accidently delayed in Cape Cod Bay and Delaware Bay show in Novem- ber spawn nearly ripe and in December ova quite mature. In October the southward migration begins, and by the 1st of December they have deserted the coasts of the Northern and Middle States. These sehvols winter, in part, on the coast of North Carolina, where they arrive in large numbers from the last of November to the middle of December, and are also found throughout tne winter on the coast of Florida. The young fish, from one to three inches in length and upward, are common throughout the summer on the southern coasts, and those of a larger growth, from five to eight inches, oceur in late summer and autumn on the coast of Southern New England south of Cape Cod. There is no satisfactory evidence that spawning takes place in the rivers of the Southern States. Will not these considerations warrant the hypothesis that the breeding-grounds of the menhaden are on shoals along the coast, from North Carolina, and perhaps Florida, northward as far per- haps as Virginia or New Jersey? This idea was first advanced by Captain Atwood and has received the sanction of Messrs. Goodale and Atkins.

The opinions of fishermen.

134. The majority of intelligent fishermen in the North seem to believe that the menhaden is a winter spawner, breeding in Southerft waters, though some, arguing from the presence of small fish in autumn, advance the idea that they spawn in Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay, while others still think it probabie that there are two spawning seasons, one at the north in the summer and another in the winter at the south. I have been assured by several fishermen that when seining menhaden they have found a mass of their spawn, two or three feet in diameter, carried in the center of the school, and the idea was advanced that the fish transported and in this way cared for their eggs until they should be hatched.

I have had the opportunity of examining one of these supposed

100 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

masses of menhaden spawn, which proved to be a cluster of squid (Loligo Pealii) eggs, and it is probable that these singular objects have given rise to all similar stories.

A claim that menhaden spawn in Southern rivers.

135. The young menhaden which frequent the coasts north of the Carolinas are usually four or five inches in length, and there is no record of their having been seen of a less size than three inches, and these are probably the fish hatched from the eggs during the winter, which, in obedience to the migratory instinct, move northward along the coast. The movements of the schools of young resemble in every respect those of the grown fish, and they approach the shore from deep water by the same routes. At Cape Hatteras, according to Mr. Simpson, the young fish from one inch upward are seen throughout the summer, which points clearly to a proximity to the spawning-ground at that point. In the Saint John’s River they are found two inches in length. It is the opinion of Mr. Kemps that many of the menhaden spawn in the river, and he is positive that he has seen spawn running from the fish taken in the early part of the year. The presence of the young fish in the waters, however, does not necessarily point to that conclusion, as he very naturally supposes it to do.

Mr. Simpson believes them to spawn in the Neuse River, but this is not proven to be a true supposition.

Criticism of a statement by Professor Hind.

136. In this connection I must call attention to a misapprehension on the part of my friend Professor Hind, who, basing his conelusions upon some uncollated returns in Professor Baird’s first repert, states that the spawning period of the menhaden is in the spring, at which time it ap- pears to come from its winter home in the deeper waters off the coast to the shores, at dates corresponding to those of others whose move- ments are governed by temperatures.* And again he. states, without citing any authority, that “following the law which govern fish life, its mode of spawuing resembles that of the typical herring.” This may or may not be true. No one knows.

23.—THE FEASIBILITY OF ARTIFICIAL CULTURE.

A claim that menhaden may be acclimated in Northern waters.

137. In a report to the minister of marine and fisheries, Mr. J. G. Whiteaves remarks: ‘It would perhaps be desirable to try and acclima- tize mennaden in British waters. All that would be necessary would be to send a vessel or two, each provided with well-room, to the United States, and liberate the menhaden thence procured at the mouth of any of the New Brunswick or Nova Scotia rivers, such as Saint Andrew’s

* The efiect of the fishery clauses of the Treaty of Washington, &c¢., 1877, p. 73.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 101

Bay, L’Etang, Lepreaux, or Musquash, in New Brunswick, or Saint Mary’s Bay and its tributaries, or Tusket River, in Nova Scotia.”*

In his report for 1875, Mr. Peter Mitchell, minister of marine and fisheries, announces that he intends to suggest the artificial preduction of bait for the deep-sea fisheries on some part of the coast of Nova Scotia, and to devote attention especially to the growth of the menhbaden and otber bait-fishes of that class.t

In the ‘‘Case of Her Majesty’s Government,” before the Halifax Com- mission (see below in paragraph 219), the claim is made that ‘the men- haden bait itself can be bred and restored to places in the Bay of Fundy on the coast of Nova Scotia, where it existed up to the time of its exter- mination.”

With regard to these claims it can only be said that they are untrue and unsound. Noone having the slightest acquaintance with the prin- ciples of fish culture would entertain the idea of the feasibility of such schemes.

H.—ENEMIES AND FATALITIES. 24,— DISEASES. Mortality in the Merrimac River.

158. Capt. Moses Pettingell tells me that great mortality often pre- vails among the menhaden at the mouth of the Merrimac River. In 1876 the dead fish were heaped upon the shore to a depth of two feet, and the municipal authorities of Newburyport expended a large sum of money in carting them away. ‘The fish seem to die in great pain; they come first to the surface, then, after a severe flurry, die. They sink im- mediately to the bottom, but float at the surface after a day or two.

It is stated that the same mortality prevailed forty years ago as now among the mendaden in the Merrimac. They covered the shores, tainted the air, and were taken away by the farmers as dressing for land: It was noticed that the fish would come to the surface, spin around and around, and then turn over on the back and die.{ These strange deaths are very probably caused by the presence of some internal parasite.

25.—PARASITES OF THE MENHADEN. The crustacean, Cymothoa pregustator.

139. Seme of the parasites which infest the menhaden are particu- larly curious and interesting.

The name “bug-fish,” commonly applied to the menhaden in the Southern States, has reference toa large parasitic crustacean frequently

* Sixth Annnal Report of the Department of Marine and fisheries, 1874, appendices of the fisheries branch, p. 196.

t Fifth Annual Report, &c., p. 66.

i Springfield Republican, August 21, 1871.

102 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

found in the mouth of this fish. This parasite appears to have been first described by Latrobe, who proposed for it the name Oniscus pre- gustator.* Say subsequently referred it to the genus, Oymothoa.t It is known to the fishermen asthe ‘‘ bug,” “ fish-louse,” or “ crab-louse,” and belongs to the order of Isopoda or equal-footed crustaceans, familiar examples of which are the whale-lice (Cyamus ceti, &c.) and the boring shrimps (Limnoria lignorwm) which riddle so completely the planks of ships and other submerged timbers, or, better still, the * wood-lice,” ‘““saw-bugs,” or “pill-bugs” to be found in any old cellar or wall and under stones and logs which have lain for a time on damp ground. Verrill and Smithy give twenty-three marine species for the coast of Southern New England. Most of these inhabit the rocky shores, cling- ing to the roots and branches of rock-weed or crawling among the rocks near high-water mark. Three are parasitic, one upon the bluefish, one upon the orange filefish; a third was found by Professor Leidy in the gill cavity of a hermit-crab (Gelasimus pugilator). Cymothoa pregustator § resembles in its shapea large “ pill-bug,” the females reaching the length of two inches, the males somewhat smaller; they are provided with seven pairs of legs, with claws sharply pointed and adapted for clinging to their protector ; their color is dirty white. The females earry their eggs in a large pouch on the under side of the body, formed by a series of large scaly plates, where they are retained until the young are hatched and large enough to care for themselves. The Cymothoa is not in any true sense of the word a parasite, drawing nourishment from the fish to which it attaches itself; it is commensal, stealing shelter and transportation, but not subsistence, and Latrobe was very happy in his selection of a specific name, for a Roman pregustator was a foretaster, a cup-bearer, one who tasted the meats and drinks before they were served on the table of a prince. Clinging with its hook-like claws to the roof of the men- haden’s mouth, its back downward, its mouth in close proximity to the front of the fish’s upper jaw, it is in a very favorable location to take toll from every mouthful of food which passes into the brevoortian throat. It may change its quarters at will, and when the fish is dead frequently relaxes its grasp and crawls out of the mouth. Latrobe writes: “I have sometimes succeeded in taking out the insect in a brisk and lively state, but as soon as he was set free he immediately scrambled back into the mouth of the fish and resumed his position.” The presence of so bulky a guest must greatly inconvenience the menhaden. I have taken from the mouth of a fish nine inches long two of these crustaceans, a male three-fourths of an inch long, and a female measuring an inch and three-

* A drawing and description of the Clupea Tyranous and Oniscus Preegustator. By Benjamin Henry Latrobe, F. A. P.S. Transactions of the American Philosophical So- ciety held at Philadelphla, for promoting useful knowledge. Vol. V., 1802, p. 77, pl. 1.

+ Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Voi. 1., part II, 1818, Piped.

¢ Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1871—72, p. 567.

§ See plate X.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 103

quarters, the vertical diameter of whose body, with distended egg-pouch, was a half-inch; this pair of lodgers completely filled the mouth of the fish, and must have incommoded him in theact of feeding. Aside from in- conveniences of this nature, the presence of the parasite does not appear to affect the well-being of the fish, those whose mouths are tenanted seeming as plump and healthy as those having apartments to let.

About seventy per cent. of the menhaden from the Potomac examined by me in November, 1874, had the Cymothoa in their mouths, and even a larger proportion of those in the Saint John’s, in April, 1875. Say states that a large number of those in the Delaware were thus infested, and Mr. I’. C. Goode writes that this is the case in the Saint John’s River, Florida. The thirty-first question of the ‘‘ Menhaden Circular” issued by the Commissioner of Fisheries was intended to draw out in- formation on this point, and, from the statements of correspondents, in reply to this query, we may quite definitely conclude that this parasite of the menhaden is unknown in northern waters. Mr. A. G. Wolf, keeper of Absecum light, New Jersey, writes that a “bug” is sometimes found in the roof of the mossbunker’s mouth, and almost every correspondent from localities south of that point notices its occurrence. On the other hand, it has never been observed in the waters of New England and New York. I have examined many specimens from Long Island and Block Island Sounds without finding it, and Prof. S. I. Smith tells me that his search for it in the vicinity of Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, was equally unsuccessful. In Chesapeake Bay and the Potomag, in the Delaware River and Bay, in the inlets of North Carolina, and the Saint John’s River, Florida, it is well known as the companion of the alewitfe or fat-back.

Capt. Robert H. Hulbert, in the latter part of May or early in June, while seining mackerel from the Ellen M. Adams, of Gloucester, near Block Island, took, with the mackerel, about a barrel of large menhaden, most of which had the parasite in their mouths. At this time most of the menhaden had gone farther north. The later a school comes in, the faster it rans to the northward, says Captain Hulbert.

Inferences to be drawn from the presence of this parasite.

140. It is not known whether Cymothoa pregustator is a constant com- panion of themenhaden, accompanyingit inits migrations and dependent upon it for existence, or whether it simply seeks shelter in the mouth of the fish at a particular season of the year. Is it not possible that it may be free during a part of its life, seeking shelter perhaps during the breed- ing season? Latrobe found it parasitic in March; my observations were made in November. It is very important that the chasm between these dates should be bridged, for whatever the truth may be, it will throw much light upon the migrations of the menhaden. If it be a constant parasite, the presumption will be that the schools of fish which frequent the shores of the Southern States, during the summer, do not in their

104 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

winter migration come in contact with the schools from the north, other- wise the parasites would naturally be communicated. If it inhabits the mouths of the fish only while they remain inshore, and has there- fore a fixed faunal relation to certain parts of the coast, it may be con- cluded that the menhaden of particular schools are like, the anadromous fishes, restricted to particular portions of the coast, and that those schools which enter the southern inlets in spring do not proceed farther north in their migration, but remain in those localities throughout the season. Still other cenclusions may be forced upon the investigator: it may be that the adult Cymothoa never quits its position in the mouth of the fish, and that the young only swim about in search of unoccupied quarters, and in this case it need not necessarily follow that the parasite would be communicated by southern to northern fish if they were to find their winter homes in the same waters. The study of this curious para- site and its habits will at any rate prove interesting and instructive.*

Other parasites.

141. The menhaden seems remarkably free from other parasites, and especially from intestinal worms, not one of which has been met with in numerous dissections. Leeches are occasionally found upon the gills, and there are one or more species of lerneeans. Mr. Hance Lawson, of Crisfield, Md., refers to one of these, saying that ‘there is a five pronged insect sometimes found on the tail which makes a sore and which we call grappling”—a name doubtless referring to its shape, which might call to mind a grappling-iron; several other correspondents refer to a parasite which is unmistakably a Jernzean.

I know of only one deseribed species of crustacean parasiiie upon the species, and this is found also upon the alewife. It is the Lerneonema radiata (Lesueur) Stp. and Ltk., first described in 1528. It is found figured in the first report of the United States Commissioner of Fish- eries, plate VII, Fig. 30, and below, plate X.

26.—PREDACEOUS FOES. Whales and dolphins.

142. Man, with his instruments for wholesale destruction, takes six or seven hundred millions of these fish annually, but he is only one of its many enemies. Whales follow the schools and consume them in great numbers. Mr. E. B. Phillips states that fin-back and hump-back whales always appear in Massachusetts Bay when the menhaden come. According to Capt. John Grant, keeper of the light-house on Matinicus Rock, Maine, ‘The whale rises beneath them as they play upon the surface and, with extended jaws, forces himself up through the school with such speed as to project his body half out of water, closing his jaws over large quantities of fish as he falls heavily back.”

*'This paragraph was written two years before paragraphs 84-91.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 105

Mitchill remarks: “‘ The whalemen say he is the favorite food of the great bone-whale or Balena mysticetus. This creature, opening his mouth amid a school of menhaden, receives into its cavity the amount of some hogsheads of menbaden at a gulp. These pass one by one head foremost down his narrow gullet ; and eye-witnesses have assured me that on cutting up whales after death great quantities of menhaden had been discovered thus regularly disposed in the stomach and intes- tines.”*

I have seen fin-back whales apparently feeding in this way at the eastern end of Long Island Sound. Schools of dolphins and porpoises follow the menhaden, consuming them in immense numbers, and seals are said to be among their persecutors.

Mr. Dudley informs me that in 1877 the fish left the sound on the 12th of October; on the 19th enormous quantities were driven back by a school of 30 or 40 whales which the fishermen saw playing off shore.

Sharks.

143. Sharks prey largely upon the menhaden. Capt. B. H. Sisson has seen 100 taken from the stomach of one shark. Mr. D. T. Church gives an account of the destruction of a school off Seaconnet, R. I. ‘¢ They were lying,” he writes, *‘ apparently undisturbed, when a school of sharks appeared among them. The havoe was fearful. One gang of fishermen had their seine in the water at the time, and they com- pletely destroyed it; they were so ugly that they would seize the end of an oar as if it were a fish.”

Mr. E. &. Taylor, of Newport, R.1., gives an amusing account of the habits of the thresher shark (Alopias vulpes): ** The heaviest shark we have around here is the thresher shark; they feed on menhaden. I saw a thresher shark kill with his tail, which was nearly eight feet long, half a bushel of menhaden at one blow, and then he picked them up off the water. They come up tail first, and give about two slams, and it is ““eood-by, John,’ to about half a bushel of menhaden.”{ ‘This story should be taken cum grano salis, but still may contain a few grains of truth. .

The horned dog-fish (Squalus americanus) and the smooth dog-fish (Mustelus levis), the smallest representatives in our waters of the shark family, doubtless do more injury than their larger brethren by reason of their great abundance. The former are so voracious that when they make their appearance all other fishes are driven away. When the dog-fish “strike on,” an experienced fisherman always pulls in his lines or his nets and abandons his work.

Other fishes.

144, All the large carnivorous fishes prey on the menhaden. The horse-mackerel or tunny (Orcynus thynnus) is one of the most destruc-

* Trans. N. Y. Lit. and Phil. Soc., 1, 1815, 453. t Report of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1871—72, p. 28.

106 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

tive in certain localities. ‘I have often,” writes Mr. George R. Allen, of Brooklin, Me., ‘observed these pests, with the most imaginable indignation, in their destruction of these fish, and watched their antics from the masthead of my vessel, rushing and thrashing like demons among a school of fish, darting with almost lightning swiftness through them, scattering them in every direction, and throwing hundreds into the air with their tails.” This is doubtless the barracoutar spoken of by Maine fishermen.

Boardman and Atkins accuse the pollock (Pollachius carbonarius) and the whiting or silver hake (Merlucius bilivearis) of much damage done. In reference to the latter they write: ‘It is known to pursue both herring and menhaden. The former it devours in great numbers, and at Grand Manan a great many of the smaller ones are sometimes caught in the herring-nets. In Biuehill Bay, in Kennebee River, and doubtless in other places, it is caught in the weirs, and the Brooklin fishermen often take it in their seines with menhaden. Its teeth are rather long and remark- ably sharp, and they are charged with wounding a good many menhaden which are aiterward caught with their sides and backs lacerated as if in that way.” *

The striped bass (Roceus lineatus) is destructive, and so is the sque- teague or weakfish (Cynoscion regalis) and its southern representative, the spotted squeteague or so-called *‘ sea trout” (Cynoscion carolinensis. t) I have found a menhaden a foot in length in the stomach of a sque- teague.

In the southern rivers the gar-fish (Lepidosteus osseus), the ‘‘trout” (Micropterus nigricans), and the cat-fishes (Siluride) with the tarpum, (Megalops thrissoides), are said to be its worst enemies. I have found menhaden to be the only thing in the stomachs of specimens of the latter species, taken on the northern coast in summer, and it is probable that these were attracted from their usual haunts in pursuit of their favorite food. The sword-fish (Xtphias gladius) destroys many, rushing through the masses of fish, striking right and left with its powerful weapons. From examination of their stomachs it would appear that the bayonet- fish ( Tetrapturus albidus) also feeds extensively upon them. The codfish is said to eat many of them, and this seems quite probable, for these fish bite freely at a menhaden bait.

The bluefish and the bonito.

145. The bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) with the bonito (Pelamys sarda) are, however, their most destructive enemies, not even excepting man. Mr. Simpson, examining a great many of the biuefish caught on the North Carolina coast in the summer of 1874, found from one to three ‘¢ fatbacks” in the stomach of each. These corsairs of the sea, not con- tent with what they eat, which is of itself an enormous quantity, rush

* Op. cit., p. 14.

+t A southern correspondent speaks of finding eight menhaden in the stomach of one sea tront.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 107

ravenously through the closely crowded schools, cutting and tearing the living fish as they go, and leaving in their wake the mangled frag- ments. Traces of the carnage remain for weeks in the great “slicks” of oil so commonly seen on smooth water during the summer season.

Menhaden driven ashore.

146. The terrified fish fly in every direction, and are often driven ashore in great numbers. Mr. Chureh states that the bluefish some- times come into Massachusetts and Narragansett Bays in such force as to completely exterminate the menhaden, driving them ashore in great pumbers.

Mr. James H. Bell; keeper of Mispillion River Light, Delaware Bay, writes that about November 7, 1874, the sbores of the bay from Lewes up to Mispillion River were lined with dead fish, bitten to death by the bluefish, or snapping mackerel as it is there called. Many of the dead fish were without tails, and all were more or less mutilated. Many other cases may be mentioned where the fish were thus floated ashore, but whether their death is to be traced to the persecutions cf the blue- fish or to some epidemic prevailing at the time can never be certainly known.

Mr. David #. Loring, keeper of Highland Light, Truro, Mass., has seen hundreds of barrels of them cumbering the shore in the western part of Provincetown Harbor, driven up by bluefish, and has also seen them tkrown ashore in numbers at the mouth of the Merrimac Liver.

About 1856 they were thrown up on the coast of Maine in such quan- tities that the people im the vicinity were obliged to bury them as a sani- tary measure.

Capt. Joseph Hardy second, light-house keeper at Chatham, Mass., states that in 1852 they drifted ashore on the southeastern point of Cape Cod in such numbers that the inhabitants were summoned to bury them in pits, for fear of a pestilence, and that the same thing occurred a few years later.

Mr. B. Lillingston, of Stratford, states that large numbers are sometimes washed up along the coast of Connecticut in September and October. Mr. F. Lillingston, of the same place, has seen thousands dead upon the shore, some with ‘a reddish blotched appearance, others eaten as if by cancer.” According to Mr. Albert Morris, they floated ashore by tons at Somers Point, New Jersey, in October, 1873.

Mr. Isaae D. Robbins, keeper of Hog Island light station, Maryland, States that in August, 1852, he saw a great many dead ones, about two inches in length, in Swangut Creek, on the Eastern Shore, near the line between Maryland and Virginia. He attributes their death to the effects of the warm weather.

According to Mr. Wallace R. Jennett, they have sometimes drifted ashore on Cape Hatteras in such abundance that the stench of the de- composing mass was almost unendurable.

108 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Capt. David Kemps, of Yellow Bluffs, Fla., writes that about the year 1870 the menhaden in the Saint John’s River died in large numbers and were washed ashore upon the banks.

The Newport (RB. I.) Daily News of June 13, 1870, states: “ Millions of fish, principally menhaden, scup, and young shad, have been driven on to the New Jersey and Long Island shores the past week. Coves, rivers, flats, inlots, and ditches have been so full that farmers have gath- ered them up by the common pitchforks and shovels, carrying off thou- sands of cart-loads to manure the land. It is supposed that these schools of small fry were driven inshore by the bluefish.”

Mr. Phillips has known them driven by the bluefish up the great rivers of Maine until they died and were washed ashore by thousands.

Captain Spindel on the ravages of the bluefish.

147. Capt. Isaiah Spindel, manager of a fish-pound at the eastern ex- tremity of Buzzard’s Bay, states: “I do not think pound-fishing is a quarter as bad as bluefish for destroying fish. A bluefish will destroy a thousand fish in a day. When they get into a school of menhaden you can see a stream of blood as far as youcan see. They go into them and they will destroy the whole school before they let them go. I think menhaden are more scarce than they used to be. They put up the guano factory here (at Wood’s Holl) on account of menhaden being so plenty then. Twenty-five or thirty years ago there were no bluefish, and menhaden were plenty. Only once in a while were there any blue- fish there. Jinally the bluefish got so plenty they drove all the men- haden out of the bay. There are plenty of menhaden up in the heads of the harbors; some bluefish will go up and drive them up as far as they can, but bluefish don’t like to go up into fresh water. Squeteague will swallow menhaden whole. I have seen bluefish and squeteague throw the food out of their stomachs when caught. I think the blue- fish fill their stomachs and then empty them just for the fun of the thing, so as to catch more fish. I have seen them go into a school of menha- den and catch some and throw them up again, and then goin again. I could not swear they throw the stuff up, but Iam positive that it is so. I have seen the fish all chewed up thrown out in the water. They often bite and swallow a part and leave the rest.” *

Professor Baird on the destructiveness of the bluefish.

148. Professor Baird, in his well-known and often-quoted estimates of the amount of food annually consumed by the bluefish, t states that prob- ably ten thousand millions of fish, or twenty-five hundred millions of

* Testimony in regard to the present condition of the fisheries, taken in 1871. <Re- port of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1=71~72, pp. 68-70.

tNatural History of Important Food-Fishes of the south shore of New England. II.—The Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatriz, (Linn.) Gill. Report of United States Commis- sioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1871—2, p. 241-2.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 109

pounds, daily, or twelve hundred million millions of fish and three hun- dred thousand millions of pounds annually, are much below the real figures. This estimate is for the period of four months in the middle of the summer and fail, and for the coast of New England only. The eal- culation allows ten fish, or two and one-half pounds, daily, to each bluefish, and estimates the number of these corsairs of the sea in New England waters at one thousand million. This calculation includes only those fish which exceed three pounds in weight, taking no account of those of a smaller size, which are at least a hundred-fold more numer- ous, and fully as voracious, and which prey upon the young fish.

Sach estimates profess to be nothing more than vague approximations, bat are legitimate in their way, enabling us to appreciate more clearly the luxyriance of marine life. The application of similar methods of caleulation to the menhaden would be much more difficult. At least one-fourth of the fish devoured by bluefish on the shores of New England are probably menhaden, aud as many more are no doubf destroyed by squeteague, bonito, sharks, horse-mackerel, cod, and other predaceous species. The waters of Kew England wash only one-fourth of the extent of coast upon which the menhaden is abundant, and the estimate of Professor Baird covers only one-fourth of the entire year. Bluefish are abundant for at least half the year as far south as the Carolinas, and commit terrible havoc among the menhaden in the winter months. Farther south they are the favorite food of other species, chief among which are the sea-trout (Cynoscion carolinensis). Then there are the schools of porpoises and the whales, which pursue the herded menhaden with wholesale destruction.

An estimate of the annual destruction of menhaden.

149. Is it too much, then, to multiply the three hundred millions of millions of menhaden probably consumed by the full-grown bluefish alone on the coast of New England in the summer months by ten? This would allow three thousand millions of millions of menhaden, old and young, annually destroyed in the waters of the United States, in comparisou with which the number annually taken by man is perfectly insignificant. This estimate will seem extravagant at first sight, but I believe that it will be found a very moderate one by any who may take the pains to investigate the question fur themselves.

The place of the menhaden in nature.

150. It is not hard to surmise the menhaden’s place in nature; swarm- ing our waters in countless myriads, swimming in closely-packed, unwieldy masses, helpless as flocks of sheep, close to the surface and at the mercy of any enemy, destitute cf means of defense or offense, their mission is unmistakably to be eaten. In the economy of nature certain orders of terrestrial animals, feeding entirely upon vegetable sub-

110 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

stances, seem intended for one purpose—to elaborate simpler materials into the nitrogenous substances necessary for the food of other animals whieh are who!ly or in part carnivorous in their diet. So the menhaden, deriving its own subsistence from otherwise unutilized organic matter, is pre-eminently a meat-producing machine. Man takes from the water annually six or seven hundred millions of these fish, weighing from two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand tons, but his indebted- ness to the menhaden does not end here. When he brings upon his table bluefish, bonitos, weakfish, swordfish, bass, codfish, What is he eating? Usually nothing but menhaden!

27.—MAN AND THE FISHERIES.

Former allusions to the influence of the fisheries.

151. [haveremarked above (paragraph 117) that the menhaden appears to be the most abundant species on the eastern coast of the United States, and that there is no evidence of any permanent decrease in its numbers, although from year to year there are fluctuations in their numerical representation.

I have «also discussed (paragraph 102) the question of the alleged change in their habits from the tendency of seine-fishing to drive them farther from this coast. Upon this question there can be no decided judgment at present. In paragraph 118, I have spoken of the slight probability of decrease in future. .

Future inerease or decrease.

152. Whether there is any likelihood that the myriads which now swarm our waters will ever be perceptibly diminished by the loss of six or seven hundred millions of their number annualiy I will not presume to say. I simply call attention to the fact that spawning fish are appar- ently never taken in the nets. It is the opinion of many authorities that if fish are not interfered with at the time when they are reproduc- ing their kind there is no great probability of decreasing their number.

Alleged destruction of the fisheries.

153. The Commissioners of Fisheries of the State of New York, Messrs. Horatio Seymour, Edward M. Smith, and Robert B. Roosevelt, in their report for the year 1874* (p. 31), speaking of the depletion of the waters of Great South Bay, remark:

‘¢ Last season was favorable for the pound-fishermen, in the circum- stance that the sharks did not destroy their nets. The result was, that there was absolutely no fishing inside the bay the entire summer. Usually, by the month of August, they have to move from the inlet to

* Report | of the | Commissioners of Fisheries | of the | State of New York. | —— | Transmitted to the legislature, February 1, 1875. | —— | Albany: | Weed, Parsons and Company, Printers. | 1875. | 8vo. pp. 61.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. BB

safer quarters, and the weakfish get in sufficiently to furnish fair fish- ing, and to promise a continuance of the supply. But that year the pounds remained undisturbed, and not even the weakfish could find an entrance. Formerly moss-bunkers, or bonyfish which are manu- factured into oil and manure, frequented the bay and brought bluefish after them. They are the favorite food of the latter. They have been the foundation for quite a business in that part of our State, 2 number of factories having been established along the shore. Now they are never taken inside the bay, and the bluefish, whether for the reason that their food is wanted, or on account of their natural shyness, are also rarely seen inside. The latter are still caught in seines at some of the inlets, but seem to be stopped by the pound-nets, or else return of their own accord to the ocean. They do not enter the pound-nets, being seldom taken in them. This would go to show that they are frightened away; that when they meet the wings of the net they do not attempt to pass around it, but simply retrace their steps to safer quarters. The loss thus inflicted on the residents along the bay, without benefit to any one, is incalculable.”

Comments upon these allegations.

154. It is the commonly received opinion that purse-net fishing is des- tined eventually to destroy all the menbaden in our waters. Many de- cided views to this effect have been advanced by correspondents. Ail that can be said at present is that the commonly received opinion has not yet been proved to be true. The same may be said regarding pound- net fishing. It is doubtless true that the fisheries in a given locality may deplete the waters of the immediate region in which they are prose- euted. The cod and halibut may be fished for upon a single bank until the local supply is exhausted. This depletion does not, however, neces- sarily affect the aggregate numbers upon the entire coast.

The barrier of pounds will doubtless prevent the menhaden from enter: ing a body of water like the Great South Bay, but this does not neces- sarily have any effect upon the aggregate representation of the species in the coast waters. The small number of fish consumed by man propor- tionately to the number consumed by other fishes has been alluded to.

A writer in Chambers’s Journal estimates the herring-eating power of the Solan goose as follows: ‘ Say that the island of St. Kilda has a popn- lation of 200,000 of these birds, and they feed there for seven months; let us also suppose that each bird, or its young ones, eat only five her- rings per diem ; that gives a sum total of one million of these fish, and counting the days in the seven months from March to September as 214, that figure may be taken to represent in millions the quantity of her- rings annually devoured by these birds. It has been calculated that the cod and ling in the seas and friths around Scotland would devour more herrings than could be caught by 50,000 fishermen. We have examined the internal economy of a codfish, which contained in its stomach no less than eleven full grown herrings.” :

112 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Professor Hind’s unwarranted statements.

155. A voice of warning comes to us from the provinces. Professor Hind writes: “It is not the fishermen alone who diminish the value of the waters of the United States as food producers, it is the agriculturist, the manufacturer, and the lumberer. If the supplies directly or indi- rectly afforded by British-American coastal fisheries were suddenly anni- hilated, the effect of the inquiries instituted under the direction of the United States Commissioner of Fish- and Fisheries would be at once diverted against the fish-oil and fish-guano manufacturers as-well as the lumbering and other interests, which have so diminished the anadromous species and destroyed the cod-fisheries on the New England coast. What with the ravages of the bluefish and the demands of the industrial interests named, the drain upon the United States waters is far beyond the natural resources of the limited area in which the cod, the hake, the halibut, and other deep-sea fish aresought. Hence recourse must be had to British-American waters or the open sea remote from the coast of the United States, and bait must be obtained to secure remunerative fares. Without this bait the fishery would be commercially impossible; with it, it becomes not only renumerative, but permits those special fisheries which have fish-oil and fish-guano as their object to go on with- out that legislative interference which would otherwise be invoked by a powerful interest contemplating impending ruin and discerning its cause.’*

Comment is unnecessary. The facts above stated alone are a suffi- cient commentary.

Protective legislation in Maine.

156. As this memoir goes to press, the question of legislative restric- tions of the menhaden fisheries is being agitated in Maine. One of the valuable results of this discussion has been the publication of Mr. Mad- dock’s report upon ‘‘ The Menhaden Fishery of Maine,” which is intended to counteract the statements of the advocates of more stringent laws. The proposed law is intended to prohibit fishing with seines in waters within three miles of the shore. Mr. Maddock’s remarks, quoted below, seem very sensible and temperate, and I am prepared to indorse them:

‘‘Tn fact, where all the data point to the conclusion that the meuhaden while on our coast are being destroyed by predaceous enemies in greater numbers every day than by man with all his appliances in a whole sea- son, it would seem sheer unreason to establish a petty restriction of the catch lest the stock should be ultimately exhausted.

‘¢No other State will be guilty of such folly, even if we should allow ourowntobe. The effect of restricting the fishery, as referred to, would be to drive the oil and guano manufacture and those engaged in it out of the State, with all their capital and equipment, and to extinguish the industrial activities set in operation by their business. The time for

*HIND, op. cil., p. 142.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 113

‘ restriction will be when restriction has been shown to be needed. Other States have made a trial of the interference policy in this same matter and have abandoned it as uncalled for and unwise.

‘The complaint that the seines ‘scare’ the edible fish from the interior waters may be dismissed as too trivial for notice. If the limited opera- tions of seining inshore scare the fish out, much more should the far more extended operations outside scare them in. The same weight is to be at- tached to the charge that the seines injure the shad fishery by capturing the fish. The total number of shad caught by all the members of the Oil and Guano Association combined does not amount to over two hundred barrels per year. Salmon are never caught in their seines.”

I—THE MENHADEN FISHERIES.

28.—THE FISHING GROUNDS.

The location of the fishing grounds.

157. As has been already indicated in the description of the migra- tions and movements of the menhaden, there are certain portions of the coast which they frequent more certainly and constantly. These are marked upon the map accompanying this memoir and may be designated as (1) the Booth Bay Region, (2) the Cape Ann Region, (3) the Cape Cod Region, (4) the Narragansett Bay Region, (5) the Long Island Sound Region, (7) the Sandy Hook Region, (8) the Chesapeake Region, and (9) the Hatteras Region.*

Bearing in mind the fact that the menhaden is fond of shallow, brack- ish waters while the mackerel is not, it is quite curious to remark that their favorite haunts are much the same. Both species are caught most successfully in the great, partially-protected indentations of the coast. Whether it is on account of the calm waters, the abundance of food, or the detention of the schools in these great *‘ pockets,” as they may be called, is not apparent. Perhaps all have their influence, probably the latter has the greatest.

In these localities, at different seasons of the year, the fisheries can be most successfully carried on, and here only can they be made profit-

able. 29.—METHODS OF CAPTURE.

Past and present methods contrasted.

158. Twenty years, azo when the menhaden fisheries were of very small importance, the business of manufacturing oil and guano being still in its infancy the only use for the fish was as a fertilizer in its raw state. This demand was easily supplied by the use of seines and gill- nets along the shore, for at that time the habits of the fish were prob- ably very different. They swarmed our bays and inlets, and there is quite good authority for the story that 1,300,000 were once taken with

* Plate XI.

SF

114 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

one haul of the seine in New Haven Harbor.* Constant fishing on the northern coast has driven the menhaden out to sea, though in the south their habits are much the same as of old. In NewEngland the menha- den fishery has become to a considerable extent sea-fishing, and is prose- cuted on the grandest scale.

Estimates of numbers of vessels and fishermen by collectors of customs.

159. Under the statistics of manufacture will be found the statements of the manufacturers in reference to the number of vessels and men employed by them. it may not be out of place here to give a corre- sponding estimate on the part of the collectors of customs and others in connection with a general statement of the location and methods of the fisheries. The manufacturers’ enumeration excludes the vessels engaged in catching the menhaden for bait, but is, as far as it goes, probably more nearly correct than any other, the laws of registration being so lax that many fishing-vessels do not appear upon the custom-house books.

Fisheries of Maine.

160. Mr. William H. Sargent estimates for the district of Castine, Me., about 20 decked vessels and 150 open boats. The vessels range from 15 to 80 tons. The number of men employed (probably including the factory hands) is about 425.

For the district of Belfast, Mr. Marshall Davis estimated in 1873 about 25 vessels with 125 men. In 1877, according to the same authority, there were about 100 boats owned by line fishermen, each of which uses from three to six gill-nets.

Mr. Benjamin F. Brightman, collector of customs at Waldoborough, Me., gives 54 gangs of 10 to 12 meneach. This district includes the region between the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, where all the large factories are located. The vessels in this region are steamers, schooners, and sloops of from 20 to 100 tons. This estimate is for 1873 and refer- ence to the report of the Maine Menhaden Oil and Guano Association for the same year shows that these gangs include 55 vessels, 17 of which were steamers and 533 men. The number of men for 1874 is 551. More than half of these gangs are fitted out in Rhode Island.

For the town of Booth Bay, in this district, Mr. G. B. Kenniston esti- mates 21 gangs and 210 men.

Mr. J. Washburn, jr., collector of the Portland, Me., district, gives an aggregate of 110 vessels with 500 men, but this estimate evidently in- cludes parts of other districts.

*Mr. Arthur T. Neale, of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, tells me that he has talked with one of the fishermen concerned in this famous haul. There was no accurate account of the numbers and the catch was variously estimated at from 1,00v,000 to 1,500,000. Numerous carts were employed for three days in carrying the fish from the shore and finally a large part of the fish were allowed to escape.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. Big I) Fisheries of Massachusetts.

161. Mr. F. T. Babson, of Gloucester, Mass., states that in his district are 40 vessels employing 400 men and a capital of $200,000. In this enu- meration are included at least four steamers belonging to Judson Tarr & Co., of Rockport, which are used for their factory in Bristol, Me., and perhaps others. The remaining vessels are schooaers of from 20 to 70 tons, which are wholly engaged in taking fish for bait. Fisheries of some importance are carried on at the mouth of the Merrimack River. They are described under the section relating to boats.

Mr. Simeon Dodge, of Marblehead, Mass., reports ‘no large vessels em- ployed” in his district, though small boats fish for menhaden to be used for bait, and Mr. E. B. Phillips makes the same report for the vicinity of Swampscott.

Mr. Thomas Loring, Plymouth, Mass., says that in his district no ves- sels are wholly employed in this business; a few menhaden are caught for bait in gill-nets.

Capt. Hermann 8. Dill, of Billingsgate Island, writes that for about three weeks, in the fall when menhaden are fat, 12 or 15 men and one or two small vessels are employed in catching them in Wellfleet Bay. A few are caught from dories.

About the extremity of Cape Cod very slight attention is paid to the menhaden. Capt. David F. Loring, keeper of Highland Light, Nerth Lynn, Mass., writes under date February 23, 1875: I believe the fish- ermen in this vicinity have an idea of going into the business quite ex- tensively the coming season.” He probably refers to the business ot catching the fish for bait, which would naturally prove very profitable in the neighborhood of a great fishing center like Provincetown.

At Chatham, on the heel of Cape Cod, according to Capt. Josiah Hardy, 2d, in Chatham Bay, there are 13 weirs, but no vessels are employed in taking the menhaden.

From Nantucket, Mass., Mr. Reuben C. Kenney, collector of customs, reports that sail-boats of 5 tons burden are employed in setting the gill-nets, of the proceeds of which about half is used for bait, the other half sent to factories upon the mainland.

In the vicinity of Hyannis, Mr. Alonzo F. Lothrop, keeper of the light, states there are no menhaden fisheries.

Edgartown, Mass., and the Island of Martha’s Vineyard employ no vessels in this fishery. Mr. C. B. Marchant, collector, writes that large numbers are taken in the pounds, and are sold for bait.

Fisheries of Rhode Island.

162. In Narragansett Bay, according to Mr. Church, about 10 gangs and 100 men are employed. Nearly 30 gangs fit out for the fisheries in Maine, and these usually seine Narragansett Bay for a short time, spring and fall.

116 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

No vessels are engaged in the menhaden fisheries at New Shoreham, ht. I. (Block Island), nor in the vicinity of Point Judith.

Fisheries of Connecticut.

163. In the vicinity of Fisher’s Island Sound, according to Capt. Will- iam H. Potter, of Mystic, Conn., there are employed 14 large boats and 36 small, and about 240 fishermen. There are 14 gangs working be- tween the Thames River and Stonington, Conn.

Between the Thames and the Connecticut, Capt. 8S. G. Beebe states that there are 8 sloops of about 20 tons, each carrying about 10 men. Luce Bros., of East Lynne, have 1 steamer, 9 sloops, 48 fishermen, and 40 factory hands.

Mr. R. E. Ingham, of Saybrook, Conn., thinks that between Saybrook and New Haven there are employed about 14 vessels and 80 men, but this estimate is undoubtedly too great.

In Western Connecticut, according to Mr. G. W. Miles, there are employed 7 gangs, with 21 sloops and 230 men. Mr. F. Lillingston, of Stratford, puts the figures at 30 sloops and 300 men.

Fisheries of New York.

164, For the Eastern District of Long Island, Mr. W. 8S. Havens estimates 60 vessels and 540 men. © Captain Sisson, for 1873, put it at 105 vessels and 400 men; in this estimate he probably includes the lighter boats.

Hawkins Brothers, of Jamesport, N. Y., employ 110 men, 50 of whom are factory workmen.

The Sterling Company, of Greenport, N. Y., employ 3 gangs, consist- ing each of 8 men, 2 boys, and a cook, working from 3 yachts and 6 lighters.

Mr. Joseph D. Parsons, writing from Springs, Suffolk County, New York, December 10, 1877, states that in that vicinity 43 vessels and 175 men are employed in the menhaden fishery.

At the entrance to New York Bay and off Sandy Hook the fish are taken for the sardine factories, small sail-boats of about 10 tons being used.

Fisheries of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.

165. In the vicinity of Little and Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, Mr A. G. Wolf, keeper of Absecum light-house, states that there are 10 vessels and 40 men employed; this includes the gill-net boats of 4 and 5 tons, sloops, schooners, and one steamer of about 15 tons. This perhaps includes the Somers Point Oil Works, where, according to Mr. . Albert Morris, there is a gang of 9 men with 3 vessels.

In Delaware Bay there are no menhaden fisheries, though many of these fish are taken in seining for other kinds.

In Chesapeake Bay no effort is made to take them in quantity except

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 11%

in Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds, where, according to Mr. Hance Law son, of Crisfield, Md., there are employed 5 vessels averaging about 15 tons each and 5 oared barges. Small numbers are taken in gill and trap nets at other points.

Fisheries of Virginia and North Carolina.

166. In the inlets of North Carolina no menhaden are taken in quan- tity.

The Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company, of New Haven, inaugurated men- haden fishing in North Carolina and Virginia in 1866. Their prospect- ing party passed the winter in Roanoke Sound and established weirs for the capture of menhaden, which were there very abundant, They were, however, driven away by the natives, whose jealousy of strange fishermen led them to tear up their weirs. They then located themselves near Cape Charles. Four companies established factories here—one from Maine, one from Long Island, and two from New London. They found the fishery very good, although the fish produced little oil, and were only adapted for the manufacture of fertilizers. The laws of Vir- ginia do not encourage the inauguration of sech enterprises by stran- gers, and the following year it was thought unadvisable to continue the business.

Since 1872 several stock companies have been organized, under Vir- ginia laws, for the purpose of carrying on the menhaden fisheries in the Chesapeake, and their success is well assured. Although the oil is not produced in great quantities, there is suffivient to pay the cost of man- ufacture, thus leaving a clear profit in the scraps.

Fisheries in the South.

167. At Cape Hatteras and in the five adjacent townships there are, according to Mr. Simpson, 200 boats and about 500 men. None of these, however, make a special effort to capture the menhaden.

In the rivers near Beaufort, N. C., they are taken in small quantities in gill-nets worked from open boats and canoes.

South of Beaufort, N. C., the menhaden has no statistical importance. They are sometimes caught incidentally in the shad and mullet nets of the Saint John’s River, Florida, but, as in the Potomac, they are con- sidered by the fishermen to be useless annoyances.

300.—APPARATUS OF CAPTURE. The purse-seine.

168. The purse-seine is doubtless more effective than any other fish- ing apparatus ever devised. By its use a school of almost any size may be secured without the loss of a single fish. The enormous demands of the oil factories can be met only by fisheries conducted on the grandest scale, and the purse-seine is used by the factory fleets to the exclusion

118 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

of all other nets. In the vicinity of Gloucester, where menhaden are caught for bait, the purse-seine is also used. It need only be said that it is an immense net, which when in use is a flexible wall of twine, sus- pended by its upper edge, extending from 90 to 180 feet below the sur- face, and from 800 to 1,500 feet long. This wall is made to encircle the fish and then its lower edge is gathered up by a rope passing through rings prepared for the purpose. The seine when pursed becomes essen- tially a huge dip-net, from which the fish may be taken at the pleasure of their captors.

The purse-seine is said to have been invented about the year 1837 by a native of Maine, who had been for some years employed as a hand on a Gloucester fishing-smack. He conceived the idea of capturing mack- erel in large numbers, and invented a seine which is substantially the same as that now in use. Finding the Gloucester fishermen unwilling to experiment with lis new apparatus, be carried it to Rhode Island, where it was first put into use in the vicinity of Seaconnet for seining menhaden.

The first seine used north of Cape Cod was introduced in the year 1850 by Capt. Nathaniel Adams, of Gloucester, in the schooner ‘ Splen- did.” Capt. Nathaniel Watson, of the ‘* Raphael,” began using one the same year.*

The early seines were about 200 yards in length, 22 fathoms in depth, and of 2.5 inch mesh, there being about 350 meshes in the bunt of the seine. The twine used was much heavier than that used ip the present seines, and the whole net weighed six or seven hundred pounds. The present seine, however, did not-come into general use, as I am informed by Mr. Marchant, of Gloucester, until about 1869.

During the last eight years there has been greater change in their size than during the ten years previous. In 1869 the nets were 160 fathoms in length, 700 meshes deep, the meshes being 24 inches, and would weigh about 400 pounds, being made of No. 9 twine (Hadley 29).

Fishing in deeper water began in the years from 1869 to 1872; and since that time a gradual increase has taken place in the size of the nets corresponding to that which has already been described in the case of the seine-boats. The popular size for seines in 1877 is 200 fathoms in length, 1,000 meshes deep, the mesh being 2 and 23 inches, those in the bunt being sometimes finer, the twine heavier. They are made of No. 6 twine (Hadley 16), and weigh about 700 pounds. ‘The largest one known to Captain Marchant is 247 fathoms long, and weighs about 1,000 pounds.

In order to understand the method of working a purse-seine, it is necessary that the manner of ‘‘ hanging it” should be described. At the top of the net is the cork-line, upon which corks are placed at dis- tances apart of from 12 to 15 inches; two corks are usually put together (which are designated in trade as numbers 2 or 3), and are 4 inches in

* Mr. Maddocks states that the first purse-seine was used on Chelsea Beach.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 119

diameter. There is no lead-line, properly speaking, though light weights are placed upon the bottom line of the seine, near the ends, about 2 ounces in weight, about 60 pounds in all, four inches apart at the sides, and far- ther apart near the middle. Sometimes twelve rings are strung close together so that they touch. The rings through which the pursing rope passes are almost heavy enough to render other weights unnecessary. The lower edge of the seine is hung on six-thread manilla rope ; to thisis attached a series of so-called bridles, these bridles being 3 fathoms in length and placed 3 fathoms apart. Upon each of these bridles slides an iron ring weighing 14 to 24 pounds and 3} inches in diameter; through these rings runs the purse-line. The average weight thus placed upon the bottom of the mackerel-seine is about 220 pounds; this, however, includes special leads put on at the ends of the seine, 55 to 80 pounds of lead being thus distributed in leads of one-eighth to one-quarter to one- sixth of a pound in weight. Upon the menhaden-seine about 35 pounds of lead is considered sufficient. In operating this seine a large heavy weight, called by the fishermen of Gloucester a purse-weight, by those of Southern New England ‘* Long Tom,” is used, which is placed upon the vertical ropes at the end of the seine by the use of snatch-blocks, and is allowed to run down to the bottom of these ropes, thus fastening securely together the ends of the so-called lead-line before the operation of pursing begins. The mackerel-seine is usually arranged so that when it is pursed there are large triangular flaps of netting hanging at the end and closing the opening. ‘This is accomplished by allowing the purse-lines to pass obliquely from the last purse-rings, which are placed at the distance of about six feet from the ends of the lead-line. In mackerel-seining these are not, by all fishermen, considered necessary, as the mackerel do not, like the menhaden, strike for the bottom of the net when they find themselves inclosed. This weight weighs from 60 to 120 pounds, and varies somewhat in shape; the usual form is figured in plate XIV. Some seiners now use two smaller weights, one upon each line. The best fishermen prefer to use the weight, and by this method the largest fares of fish are taken.

The seines used by the menhaden vessels are smaller than mackerel seines, although the latter are frequently used in this fishery, especially - near Gloucester.

From the letters of our correspondents it appears that the length of menhaden seines varies trem 100 to 300 fathoms, and their depth from 10 to 25 fathoms. Some seines, 50 fathoms long and 5 fathoms deep, are mentioned, but these must have been excentionally small.

In early days, it is said, a mesh of 44 inches was used. In 1873 Maine fishermen preferred a mesh of 34 inches. From 1875 to 1877 a still smaller mesh was employed. The seines now in use in Connecticut have a mesh of 24 inches (that is, 14 inches square, or 14 “‘ bar”); they are 130 fathoms long when “hung,” or 200 fathoms “straight twine” or stretched as they leave the factory, and 15 fathomsdeep. They are made

120 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

of small cotton twine (No. 20 to No. 12 thread), except in the middle, or “bunt,” which is knit of stronger twine (No. 14 to No. 9 thread), to hold the fish when they are gathered into a small compass. They weigh 600 or 700 pounds, and cost not far from $1,000 when ready for use. On the coast of Maine they are larger, being commonly from 225 to 275 fathoms long and 20 fathoms deep in the middle, tapering to 14 fathoms at each end.*

The American Net and Twine Company supplies the Maine fishermen with seines usually 250 fathoms long and 20 or 25 fathoms deep, those of Southern New England and New York with shorter ones, usually 150 fathoms long and 15 to 20 fathoms deep.

The steamers of the Pemaquid Oil Company carry each two seines; a long one and a short one. The long seines are about 9,500 meshes long and 650 meshes deep (size of mesh 3} inches), and when rigged are from 280 to 300 fathoms long, and 15 to 17 fathoms deep. The shallow-water seines are from 7,000 to 7,500 meshes long and 500 to 550 meshes deep (size of mesh 24 inches), and when rigged are from 170 to 180 fathoms long, and 8 to 10 fathoms deep. Each steamer employs from 12 to 15 men, including captain, mate, engineer, fireman, cook, and sharesmen, and is supplied with two large working boats from 22 to 82 feet long, as well as two small boats,—‘ drive boats,”—which are rowed by the men who drive the fish into the seine.

The three sloops of Gurdon S. Allyn & Co. carry seines 200 fathoms long and 580 meshes (24-inch mesh) deep.

Gallup & Holmes use seines of 3-inch mesh, 9,200 meshes in length and 600 meshes deep, with shallower seines for shoal water.

The three steamers of E. T. De Blois carry seines 300 fathoms long and 17 fathoms deep.

The two sloop-yachts of William T. Fithian & Co., Napeague, N. Y., carry seines about 160 fathoms long and 15 fathoms deep.

The three sloop-yachts and two steamers of Hawkins Brothers, James- port, N. Y., carry seines from 100 to 130 fathoms in length and of 24-inch mesh.

Luce Brothers, of East Lyme, Conn., use seines 150 fathoms long and 18 fathoms deep.

The seines used by the Sterling Company of Greenport, N. Y., are 125 to 150 fathoms long and 80 to 100 feet deep.

The seine-boats.

169. The boats used by the Gloucester fleet in the purse-seine fishery are built after a peculiar model and solely for this purpose. The present form of the seine-boat was devised, about the year 1857, by Messrs. Hig- gins & Gifford, boat-builders, Gloucester, Mass. The seines had pre- viously been set from square-sterned lap-streak boats, about 28 feet in length, and resembling in shape an ordinary ship’s yawl.

* Boardman and Atkins, op. cit., p. 23.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 121

The seine-boat as now in use resembles the well-known whale-boat, differing from it, however, in some important particulars.

The seine-boat, according to Mr. Gifford, must have three qualities: (1.) It should tow well; consequently it is made sharpest forward; a whale- boat, on the other hand, is sharpest aft, to facilitate backing after the whale has been struck. (2) It should row well, and this quality also is obtained by the sharp bow; the whale-boat also should row well, but in this case it has been found desirable to sacrifice speed in part to the additional safety attained by having the stern sharper than the bow. (3.) It should be stiff or steady in the water, since the operation of shooting the seine necessitates much moving about in the boat.

The Gloucester seine-boat of the present day is a modification of the old-fashioned whale-boat, combining the qualities mentioned above. The average length of such a boat is about 34 feet, its width 7 feet 5 inches, its depth amidship 33 inches. At the stern is a platform, meas- ing about 4 feet, fore and aft, on which the captain stands to steer: this is 6 to 8 inches below the gunwale. Another platform extends the whole length of the boat’s bottom, from the after part of which the seine is set. In the bow is still another platform, on which stands the man who hauls the cork-line. There are four thwarts or seats, a large space being left clear behind the middle of the boat for the stowage of the seines. Upon the starboard side of the boat, near the middie, is arranged an upright iron support, about 18 inches in height, to which are attached two iron snatch-blocks used in the working of the purse ropes. Upon the opposite side of the boat, generally near the bow and stern, but with position varied according to the fancies of the fisherman, are fixed in the gunwale two staples, to which are attached other snateh- blocks used to secure additional purchase upon the purse-ropes. In the center of the platform at the stern of the boat is placed a large wooden pump, used to draw out the water which accumulates in large quantities during the hauling of the seine. The steering rowlocks, with the peculiar attachment for the tow rope and the metallic fixtures described above, are manufactured especially for seine-boats by Messrs. Wilcox & Crit- tenden, Middletown, Conn.*

Until 1872 the seine-boats were always built in the lap-streak style ; since that time an improved form of smootb-bottomed boats, built with battened seam set-work, sheathed inside with pine, and with oak frame and pine platform, has been growing in popularity. The advantages claimed for this boat by the builders are: (1.) Increased speed; (2.) greater durability, on account of the more solid character of the wood- work and tighter seams; and, (3.) less liability to catch the twine of the nets by reason of the smooth sides. It is not so stiff as a lap-streaked boat of same width, but in other respects superior.

Since the general adoption of the purse-seine, in the menhaden and mackerel fisheries, an account of which is given elsewhere, there has

*The Cape Ann seine-boat, with all its attachments, is illustrated in Plate XV.

122 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

been a gradual increase from year to year in the size of the seine-boats, keeping pace with a corresponding increase in the size of the seines.

In 1857 all boats were 28 feet in length. In 1872 the length had in- creased to 30 feet, and in the summer and fall cf the same year an ad- ditional foot was added to the length. In 1873 almost all boats which were built had a length of 31 feet; a few of 32.and 33. In 1874 almost all were 33 feet, as they were during 1875 and 1876, although some were made 35 and 36 feet. In 1577, 34 feet is the most popular length, though one or two 388-foot boats have been built. Seven, eight, or nine oars, usually 13 or 14 feet in length, are used in these boats, besides a steering-oar. of 16 or 17 feet.

These boats last, with ordinary usage, six or seven years. At the close of the fishing season they are always taken ashore and laid up for the winter, in a shed or under trees, and are completely refitted at the be- ginning of another season.

The seine-boats, carried by the “menhaden catchers” south of Cape Cod and by all the steamers, are shaped like ships’ yawls, square-sterned, smooth-bottomed, and batten-seamed, 22 to 26 feet long and 6} feet beam; they are built at New Bedford, New London, Greenport, and at Mystic River, and cost about $125 each, the finest $185. The New Bedford boats are preferred by many fishermen.

When boats of this model are used every gang has two, each carrying three men and half of the seine; this arrangement leaves one of the crew upon the sloop and two in the lighter. On the coast of Maine, a man is usually sent out in a dory to drive the fish.

The Cape Ann fishermen stow their seines in one boat, and in shooting the seine one end of it is carried in a dory.

The Cape Ann dory is 15 feet long on the bottom, 19 on top, 5 feet 2 inches beam amidships, 21.5 inches deep, 36 inches high at the stem, 34 inches at the stern, 2 feet 10 inches wide at bottom of stern. These dories are built with considerable difference in their “sheer,” those used on the shore having a straighter bottom than those used in the Bank fisheries. Theboats used on the seine fisheries are generally of an iuier- mediate form.

Messrs. Higgins & Gifford manufacture an improved pattern of dory (patented January 2, 1877), for which they claim the same advantages already mentioned under the description of the seine-boat. They are built of pine, with oak-timber gunwales, stem and stern. There are four boards upon each side fastened in battened set-work. The gun- wales are whole instead of being bent and capped. They have no pro- jecting stem-head, in this respect also differing from the old form.*

The sailing-vessels and steamers.

170. Small schooners and sloops were used in the early stage of the business, these succeeded by larger, and these to a great extent by

* The Cape Aun dory is illustrated in Plate XVI, fig. 1.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. Bags

steamers, of which there are now about sixty, each from 60 to 150 feet in length, and costing from $7,000 to $40,600. The advantages of steam are too obvious to need special notice, such as dispatch, economy of time and labor, ete. With the advent of steam-vessels, larger factories with more ample equipment become a necessity in order to utilize the augmented supply. The first factory had the capacity to work up 500 barrels per day. The larger factories can now take 3,000 to 4,000 bar- rels daily. At the outset 4,000 barrels per steamer was a large catch to each fishing “ gang.” Now the average catch per steamer is 10,000 bar- rels, and 20,000 barrels are not unprecedented.* The Pemaquid Oil Company employs several vessels in shipping oil, and in carrying the dried scrap to England.t

Description of steamers.

171. The average burden of the menhaden-steamers is about GO tons. They are built of hard pine, with white-oak frames, with a water-tight tank in the middle in which the fish are stowed. This tank is said to make the vessels exceedingly safe, enabling them to float when their planking is badly injured. The steamer “ Jemima Boomer,” owned by Joseph Church & Co., while at sea in rough weather had 50 feet of her keel knocked out, together with eleven of the bottom planks. She was taken upon a marine dock without sinking. Each steamer carries from tweive to fifteen men, who live in the forecastle. ¢

Mr. George Devoll, of Fall River, Mass., describes his steamer, the “ Chance Shot.” It is39 tons in burden, 68 feet long, and 18 feet wide, and 5 feet in depth of hold. Its carrying capacity is about 700 barrels of fish. The consumption of coal is about one ton daily. The cost of ranning is about $8 per day, including coal, oil, and the wages of the engineer. The crew are employed on shares, each man paying his own board and running his chance. The boat and seine draw one-half of the profits, and the gang half—the gang paying provision-bills and cook’s wages. There are seven men in the gang besides the cook and the engineer.

A model of the fishing steamer ‘‘ Leonard Brightman,” owned by Jo- seph Church & Co., of Round Pond, Me., was exhibited in the United States Government building in Philadelphia and is now deposited in the National Museum. The steamer “ Seven Brothers,” also owned by Joseph Church & OCo., was the first steamer built for and used in this fishery.

31.—CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS OF PURSE-SEINE FISHING.

Methods of handling the net.

172. Much care and expedition are necessary in handling a purse- seine full of fish. In the event of a very large draught, if the fish are

* Maddock’s Menhaden Fishery of Maine, p. 15. +t Appendix I, contains a partial list of vessels employed in the menhaden fishery. } Plates XVII and XVIII show the menhaden-steamer and its plan of arrangement.

124 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

left in the net too long they are killed by the confinement and close pressure, and sink. In such a case the only alternative offered the fish- ermen is to cut open their seine. Sometimes the dead fish carry the net with them to the bottom. When there are more than enough fish in the seine to fill the vessel to which it belongs, and there is danger that they may be lost, other vessels which are near often take the sur- plus fish. In such a case, writes Mr. Babson, one-half the value of the fish is paid to the captors.

In calm or moderate weather, fishing is carried on from dawn till dark, though morning and evening seem most favorable. In rough weather the nets are not easily set, while the fish usually swim farther from the surface and cannot be seen. Cold northerly and easterly winds seem to affect the fish, causing them to sink toward the bottom. Southerly winds seem the most propitious.

Mr, Dudley states that in the fall, during the southward migration, the fish play at the surface with a northwest wind.

The best time for seining.

173. The early morning is apt to be the stillest part of the day, and a large part of the fish are taken at that time.

So far as I can learn, the motions of the fish are not particularly affected by the tides, except that, like other Clupeida, they prefer to swim against strong tides and winds. An impression seems to hold among the fish- ermen that rather better success attends fishing on the flood-tide. This is no doubt the case where gill-nets are in use, for in localities where the fish have not been frightened off shore by constant fishing they like to play up into coves and bays with the rising tide, and are then easily taken by the gill-nets and the pounds or weirs.

Where the purse-seines are worked in deep water off the shore, as on the coast of Maine, little attention need be paid to the tides; but where they are used in bays or channels where the tide has much head, there is a practical difficulty in using them except at or near the time of slack water. In aswift current the seine is liable to accidents from being caught on rocks or other obstructions, or may be capsized or pulled out of position. In Narragansett Bay, the difficulties of this kind appear to be particularly great. According to Mr. Church it is not uncommon for a gang to work all day without success, their net being capsized every time it is Set.

32.—DESCRIPTIONS OF FISHING SCENES.

Menhaden jishing in Southern New England.

174. The first time the writer ever saw menhaden-fishing was in August, 1874, when cruising off Watch Hill, Rhode Island, in the lish Commission yacht “ Cygnet.” Several trim-built sloops are beating off and on, within a mile of the rocks. That they are “bony-fish catchers”

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 125

is evident from the two long boats which are towed astern, carrying the purse-seine, which looks like a bale of brown hay stowed in the middle of each boat. A man stands at every mast-head watching for the well-known ripple. A school passes under the bows of our yacht and rises to the surface at a short distance, the bright sides of the fishes glistening in the sun and their tails flipping the surface noisily. The sharp eyes of the “lookout” of the nearest vessel soon detects their presence. The sloop comes about and sails to the leeward of the school. As soon as they are near, three men jump into each boat. Two man the oars, a third stands in the stern and pays out the net, while the boats, rapidly diverging, are rowed around the fish, each describing a semicircular course. Now their courses converge and the men row faster. They come together and pass, thus closing the circle of net- work. Themen all jump into one boat, the purse-weight, or “‘ long Tom,” as they call it, is hooked to the two lead lines, and a splash of water announces that it has been thrown overboard to slide down the ropes and draw the lower ends of the net together. Now they begin hauling at the bottom lines, and in ten minutes they have drawn the bottom of the net into a purse and the fish are secured. The “lighter,” or traus- porting boat, now sails up. The men on board heave a line to the seine- boats and they are brought alongside. A large dip-net, three feet in diameter, is now suspended by a block and tackle in the rigging of the lighter, and the fish are rapidly transferred from the seine to its hold. The silvery masses of fish are hoisted into the air and dropped into the vessel, settling in the bins with a flapping noise like the sound of distant thunder or the hand-clapping of a large audience.

In August, 1876, when on the steamer from Saybrook to Greenport, I saw a fleet of sixty vessels busily plying their nets in the sound near the mouth of the Connecticut. In the evening a gale sprang up from the southwest, and as the steamer entered Peconic Bay the little sloops were seen secudding to harbor under low-reefed sails. Jivery wave swept the decks, but they floated like sea-birds. Some of them were loaded to the rail with fares of fish.

Menhaden fishing about Cape Ann.

175. We are indebted to Captain Babson for facts about the fisheries at Cape Ann, which are carried on for the purpose of securing bait for the codfish and mackerel fleets. Vessels for this business are fitted ovt from the port of Gloucester on the same basis as those for other fisheries. The owners furnish the vessel-outfits, seine and boats, the crew going ‘“‘on the halves”; that is, taking for their share half of the entize “catch” while the other half is claimed by the owners. A good vessel with boats costs about $5,000. <A seine costs about $1,000, and with fair usage lasts through two seasons; it is made of cotton twine and pre- served by the use of salt and tar. The seine is carried on a small deck at the stern of the seine-boat, which is about 30 feet long and 8 feet

126 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

wide and is built on the plan of a whale-boat of the old style. Only one seine-boat is used here, and on this the whole seine is carried, one end of the seine being taken by a “‘dory” with two oarsmen.

The Cape Ann Advertiser reported in 1872 that the menhaden fishery was prosecuted by about 40 vessels from that port.

Mr. Frederic G. Wonson, of Gloucester, states that the crew of a “‘ pogie-catcher” consists of about 10 men, and that the cost of a three weeks’ trip is about $400.

Menhaden fishing in Maine.

176. Mr. Church has furnished a very fall account of the organization of crews on the seining-vessels. The largest steamers are 70 tons in burden, the smallest 25, the sailing-vessels about 30; these vessels are used for the men to live on, and tenders are employed to carry the fish to the fac- tories. These tenders have an average capacity of 250 barrels, though recently they are built of a larger size, some carrying 600 barrels. Be- sides these there are the “purse” and ‘‘*mate” boats from which the seine is worked. These are 28 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 2 deep. The sailing- vessel has a cook who manages the vessel while the crew are working the seine. Hach boat carries a “seine-setter” and two men torow. The captain of the gang is in charge of the “purse-boat,” the first mate of the other, and in addition to these most gangs have a “ fish-driver,” who keeps close to the school in a small-boat and guides the gang in setting the seine. Some gangs have still another man, called the “striker,” who is generally an apprentice learning the business and working at low wages. Jour men to row, two to set the seines, and one (the cook) to manage the vessel, seven in all, are all that are really necessary for steamer or sail-vessel, the other functionaries being added as may be con- venient. ‘The seines are 280 fathoms long and 100 feet deep. One-half of the seine is put in each boat. The steamer cruises with men at mast- head looking for fish. When they raise a school they put what are called Striker-boats on them. Hach steamer has two, with one man in each; they are men with sharp eyes, quick and active. They row close to the school of fish, observe its course, and then by signs they direct the purse- crew how to set their seine to catch them. If fish get scared, they drive them with white sea-pebbles which they carry in their boats. If the fish turn to run out of ths seine, they throw the pebbles before them, and as they pass through the water before them the fish turn and swim in an opposite direction. After the fish are surrounded the purse-crew and strikers all work together to get the seine around them. It is different from sail-gangs in this, that sail-gangs hoist the fish by hand, and have boats to take the fish from the fishing-grounds to market, while the purse-crew stay on the ground with a separate vessel. Steamers go on the ground, catch their fish, hoist them on board by steam, and when the day is done take them to market, and the same men that catch them discharge them.” A steamer has no tenders, aud thereby saves much

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. bey,

expense. A sail-vessel with a purse-gang of seven men requires three tenders, with a man to sail each of them, making ten men in all as Sharesmen. The steamer dispenses with the three extra men, and in consideration of the expense of coal and machinery takes their three shares. This leaves the shares of the remaining men proportionally the same as on a Sailing-vessel.

Sail-gangs and steamers have gear just alike to catch the fish. It is not a sure thing to catch even when they see plenty of fish. A gang last year set nineteen times and did not catch a fish.

A writer in the Boston Daily Advertiser newspaper of August 5, 1875, states that persons chartering a steamer and sharing equaily the profits with its owner easily make from $1,000 to $3,000 in a season.

Boardman and Atkins thus describe the methods in use about Bvoth- bay, Me., in 1874:

“« Attached to each seine is a gang of fishermen and boats. The gangs are described as ‘sailing gangs’ or ‘steamer gangs,’ according to the means of locomotion. A sailing gang comprises two working boats and a light row boat for the ‘driver’; two carry-away boats, with a capacity of about 250 barrels each ; one vessel and ten men in all. The working boats work the seine, the carry-away boats carry to the factory, and on the vessel the crew are fed and lodged. Ina steamer gang, the vessel and the carry-away boats are replaced by a screw-steamer of 35 to 60 tons (new measurement), and the number of men is reduced to nine. These steamers cost from $10,000 to $16,000 each, and will carry 800 barrels of fish. They were introduced on the coast of Maine three years ago. The advantage of the steamer over the sailing gang is obvious. It is not dependent on the wind, and can proceed without less of time to the place where the fish are playing. Of course they catch a great many more fish, but they are so much more expensive that they do not appear to be much more profitable. The seine gangs are always attached to the oil-factories, and the latter employ no other mode of fishing. Each fac- tory runs several gangs.

‘* Let us now follow the process of catching the fish as practiced by a steamer gang. We will begin at the sailing of the gang from the harbor, some cleti morning in August. The engineer bestirs himself and has on steam early enough to reach the fishing-ground about as early as the fish ean be seen. The fishing-ground is just where experience, and particu- larly the experience of the last few days, dictates. Commonly it is out to sea. As soon as it is light a sharp watch is kept on every side. Wherever menhaden are seen, thither the steamer’s head is pointed. Sometimes it is close by home, and sometimes twenty or thirty miles are passed over before there is a single school to be seen. On ap- proaching a playing school they always try to get on the outside of it, because the first movement of a school of pogies on finding themselves entrapped is invariably a rush seaward. The driver, in his swift row- boat, armed with a pile of stones, gets on the other side. Having

128 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND- FISHERIES.

divided the seine between them, one end and half the seine being on each, the two working boats approach tbe school within a short dis- tance and endeavor to get in a favorable position. Sometimes a whole day will be spent in vain endeavors to get near swiftly moving or capricious schools. When the favorable moment comes the boats separate and row around the schools of fish, paying out the seine from eaca as they go. Meanwhile the driver, on the opposite side, throws stones at the timid fish and starts them in the direction of the boats. At last the boats have encircled the fish, and meet on the side opposite to their starting point; instantly the purse-lines are seized, and no mau stops to breathe until the bottom is pursed up. The crews exert themselves to complete the operation before the fish take the alarm, and many a time it happens that they pass out between the boats just before they meet, or under the bottom of the seine before the pursing is com- plete. The affrighted fish first, itis said, rush seaward. Finding them- selves shut in on that side, they turn and rush landward; headed off there, they furiously follow the net around at the top of the water, some going this way and some that. Finding the circuit complete, they grada- ally subside, and finally settle to the bottom of the bag. The seine is now drawn aboard the working boats until only a small portion of it is left in the water, and the fish brought in a compact body to the surface. The steamer is now brought alongside, and with a great tub holding two or three barrels, and worked by steam, the fish are rapidly taken on board. When everything works well it takes about two hours to catch and take on board a school of 500 barrels ; commonly it is longer than

that.” * Gill-net fishing in Eastern Maine.

177. East of the Penobscot River, in Maine, most of the fishing is carried on with “float” or gill nets. These are knit usually of twine (size No. 12 to 14, 4-threaded), and of 34 to 4 inch mesh, and are from 30 to 180 feet in length and from 6 to 16 and 24 feet in depth; usually from 12 to 18. Two men in an open sail-boat will, according to Mr. W. H. Sargent, of Castine, take care of a dozen nets. These nets are usually set in the night by béing anchored in favorite haunts of the menhaden. When a school strikes the net large numbers of the fish are “‘ meshed” by running their heads through the openings until they are caught by the gill-covers. According to Mr. Brightman, of Waldoborough, the gill-netting in that vicinity is mostly done early in the season; he states that this method of fishing is not nearly so productive as in former years. Netters sometimes build a furnace for trying out oil on the deck of a small vessel, thus saving the trouble of transportation.

Gill-nets are also used about Boothbay in the early part of the sea- son, but not so much as formerly. The nets are made, according to Mr. Brightman, of fine cotton twine, about 4 inches mesh, 12 feet deep, and 20 fathoms long.

* Op. cit., pp. 24, 29.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 129

Until the introduction of the purse-seine and its general adoption, about the year 1860, gill-nets were exclusively used. In the intermedi- ate time the stationary gill-nets were supplanted by sweep-nets, arranged by fastening together several small gill-nets.

Weir fishing for menhaden.

178. Weirs and pounds are never set for the express purpose of capt- uring the menhaden, but large numbers of these fish are taken in these traps. In Chatham Bay, Massachusetts, there are thirteen weirs of various lengths set in water from 2 to 5 fathoms in depth for the purpose of catching mackerel, sea-bass, and shad. The average catch of menbaden for the past five years has been about 5,000 barrels, about haif of which is sold for bait, the remainder thrown away. Goodale and Atkins state that on the coast of Maine there are a very few weirs built especially for the capture of menhaden ; two or three near Stock- ton, on Penobscot Bay, being all of which they have knowledge. Some are also taken in the weirs built for salmon and alewives. The herring- weirs, on the other hand, are not adapted to their capture, their en- trances being so wide that the menhaden generally “play out” after once entering.

On the eastern end of Martha’s Vineyard are numerous pounds, ex- tending 1,200 feet and more from the shore, set for sea-bass, squeteague, scuppaug, and bonitos. Many menhaden are taken here, which are sold for bait.

In the vicinity of Greenport, N. Y., ‘‘’longshore seines” are some- times used, though not so generally as in former years, when this was the usual mode of capture.

Colonel Lyman on weir fishing at Waquoit.

179. Col. Theodore Lyman has given a very graphic account of the capture of bait menhaden in the Vineyard Sound:

‘“The weir is hauled once a day, and always at slack water, because with a strong tide running east or west it is impossible to handle the bottom-lines. The men pull out in two parties, of which one in a large scow passes round the outside of the bowl, casting off the bottom-lines, while the other in a yawl-boat pushes inside the bowl, pulls up the slid- ing poles, and closes the entrances. The slackening of the bottom- lines allows the bowl-net to hang free, and the crew inside begin to haul up the bottom of this net in such a way as to work the fish toward one corner, letting the net as it comes to the surface pass under their boat, which is thus slowly drawn across the bowl toward the corner where the capture is to take place, and where the scow is already wait- ing outside.

‘“ The scene now becomes an exciting one. The menhaden in thou- sands begin to show the sharp upper lobes of their tails above the water;

oF

130 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

here and there darts a feverish mackerel like a blue and silver flash; great leathery skates, looking like pigs rolled out flat, raise their snouts in slow astonishment; here a shark suddenly works his way through the crowding mob; hundreds of goggle-eyed squid, smothered in the press, feebly ply their force-pumps; and there the murderous bluefish, undismayed by imminent death, glares fiercely and snaps his savage jaw to the last. All these, with flat-fish, sea-robins, butter-fish, and many more, are taken and rolled in a fluttering mass iridescent with changing colors, and shower their silver scales high in air. It moves even the wear-men, in their oil-skin clothes, with a slight excitement as they cull out from the menhaden the choice and the offal fishes. There is Uuecle Abishai smiting sharks with a spear, like so many Sauls, and he smiteth them not twice, and Captain Ed’ard endeavoring with a swift scoop-net to capture a dodging shad, because Mrs. Asa has boarders and needs a fish for dinner; and Captain Charles, with the air of one who gets a toy tor a good child, diligently striving after some of them ‘ere striped robins that the professor wanted. All this is strange and entertaining even to a commissioner, who, by the motion of a long swell and the evil piscatory odor, is somewhat afflicted with what the local satire terms ‘ white-ears.” And now the menhaden, bushels on bushels, are scooped all quivering into the great scow, for a little outside lies a mackereler who bas just let go her anchor with a rattle, and a boat is pulling in with the skipper to buy bait. ‘ What you got,’ cries he, in an indifferent tone. ‘Menhaden,’ retorts Captain Warren, as if speaking of a new and scarce fish. (A pause.) ‘I don’t know but I might take a few barrelsif they was low,’ says the skipper. (No reply.) ‘What do you want for ’em?’ ‘ Highty-five cents,’ shouts Captain Warren, and then (sotto voce), ‘I don’t believe he’s got a scale’ At this answer, the man of mackerel pushes over the tiller and steers oif indignantly; but presently pauses, ‘Give you sixty five, for seventy barrels.” ‘ Seventy-five cents is the lowest,’ replies Captain Warren. ‘Call it seventy cents for seventy-five barrels.’ ‘Waal! Waal!’ And by this time the scow is full, and the weir-men pull for the vessel, whose numerous crew is ready to hoist the bait on board and salt it down. They stand with knives, barrels, and chopping-blocks, and rapidly cut off the heads and tails of the fish, and the thin parts of the sides, then give a gash in the shoulder, and throw them into the barrel for salting. A mackereler will take as many as 120 barrels of such bait, which is minced fine in a hand-mill and thrown over to toll the fish.

‘‘ Many years ago, when mackerel were cheap, the younger ones, called ‘No. 5s,’ were laboriously chopped up with a hatchet and thrown over as ‘chum.’ When mackerel became dear, especially during the war, the No. 3s were too valuable to be thrown away, and cheaper material, such as menhaden, was resorted to.”*

*Ann. Rep. Commissioners on Inland Fisheries, for the year ending January 1, 1872, pp. 24, 25.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 13k Fatback fishing in North Carolina.

180. At Cape Hatteras, according to Mr. A. W. Simpson, two kinds of nets are used in the capture of the “‘fatback.” The “ drag-net” is from 75 to 100 yards long, and 25 to 37 meshes deep, with a mesh of from 1$ to 2 inches. The lead line is provided with heavy lead sinkers, the cork line with floats made of gum-tree roots. The ‘set net” (which like the preceding is made of gill-twine No. 25 or 30, and five or six strand cotton cord made of No. 10 cotton) is from 35 to 45 yards in length, 18 to 20 meshes deep, the mesh being the same as in the “ drag- net.” Instead of a lead line is used a heavy cotton cord which has been dipped in pine tar and rolled in a bed of pebbly sand until a sufficient quantity is fastened to it to weight the bottom of the net. Such a net is called a “ fly-tale,” and is set at night on the playing ground of the fish, with both ends made fast. To work these nets canoes are used, ranging from 16 to 30 feet in length and 34 to 7 in beam; two men are required for a small canoe, three for a large one. The fish are taken mostly on the flood-tide. When fishing with the drag-net, moderate weather is preferred; with the gill-net, a light wind, as the fish run most in windy weather. The fishermen do not make a special business of catching the menhaden, but are on the lookout for all kinds of fish. Purse-nets have been used about Cape Hatteras, but without very great results. ‘

In the rivers near Beaufort, N. C., according to Mr. Davis, the fat- backs are taken in gill-nets about 50 fathoms in length, and 50 or 60 meshes deep, the meshes being 14 to 12 inchin dimension. Nets which are partially worn out are generally used, the fishermen having an idea that the slime of the fatback ruins a net so that it cannot be used after the first season. The nets are worked from open boats and canoes ear- rying from 10 to 25 barrels of fish. Two men and a boat are necessary for each net. In making what is called a “ drop,” from four to six boats | join their nets and surround the school. The fish, getting confused, mesh themselves and are easily pulled in with the net, and are then disentangled. From two to four hours are necessary for each haul, and one haul will generally fillthe canoes. Two loads can be taken in a day.

33.—THE RELATION OF THE MENHADEN FISHERY TO THE FISHERMEN AND THE MARITIME VILLAGES.

181. On the coast of Maine, according to Mr. Maddocks, “the catching of menhaden is a favorite occupation with fishermen. The steamers return every night if they have any fare, and are hardly ever absent more than two or three days. Operations are suspended in bad weather. The oil is manufactured at once, and meets a ready market. The men can thus be promptly paid; whereas in the mackerel and cod fisheries the hands are obliged to wait until the end of the season for settlement, the service is. dangerous, and comparatively full of hardships, the Men-

132 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

haden Association has never lost a man in its service, and not one of the steamers has ever burst a boiler. This is the more important since the cod and mackerel fisheries have been and are grievously oppressed, and greatly reduced by tbe tariff regulation that admits English fish free to our markets. The Englishman can build his eraft at less cost than the American, can fit and equip her cheaper, and can therefore afford to sell his fish at a lower figure than the home fisherman; and at the same time he pays none of our taxes while enjoying the benefit of our market. The menhaden fishery has afforded no little relief in this condition of things to the unemployed fishing population on our coast and elsewhere.”

182. Mr. Maddocks gives a very interesting picture of the influence of the menhaden fishery upon the population of the neighboring shores.

In the villages of Boothbay, Bristol, Bremen, and East Boothbay, the centers of the menhaden fishery on the Maine coast, the number of dwellings has doubled in the past fev years, and all the outward signs of thrift, of enlarged comfort and abundance manifest themselves. The companies engaged in the menhaden business pay in the aggregate a handsome per cent. of the annual taxes of the towns in which they are lo- cated. The oil companies of Bremen pay over one-fourth of the total tax of the municipality. The oil-factories of Boothbay have, since they were built, paid an amount of tax equal to two-thirds of the war debt of the town. The Bristol factories pay one-eighth of the town tax. The indi- rect contributions of the business to the public treasury, by promoting the building of houses, vessels, &c., have been very considerable. All the money made has been spent on the spot, where it is open to taxation.

“About $60,000 worth of cotton twine is used yearly in the menhaden fishery of Maine for the manufacture and repair of seines. Quite a number of hands, men, boys, and girls, are employed in this work. The Seines are of course made by machinery. Ten thousand tons of coal are consumed for various purposes, and 40,000 bushels of salt.”

A correspondent of the ‘“‘American Agriculturist” states in that pa- per * that the proceeds of the menhaden fishery and industry between New London and Stonington in 1872 amounted to $113,000, which was distributed along the coast of 12 miles on the north side of Fisher’s Island sound. The business gave employment to over 200 men at the factories, and indirectly to as many more, besides the business of freight- ing the products.

34.—PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION. Laws of Maine.

183. The legislative acts relating to the menhaden fishery in Maine are summed up as follows:

Sec. I, chap. 313, Public Laws, 1865, provides as follows:

‘* No person shall set or use any seine within three miles of the shore

* American Agriculturist, 1873, vol. XXXII, p. 139.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 133

in any waters of this State, for the purpose of taking menhaden or pogies; but a net of no more than one hundred and thirty meshes deep shail not be deemed a seine.” * * + a - a

The penalty for violation of this act was fixed at “not less than four hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, and the forfeiture of all the vessels and apparatus employed.”

By the act of February 21, 1866, chap. 30, Public Laws, the penalty for violation of the law was reduced to ‘‘not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars,” and the number of meshes deep in- creased to one hundred and forty to constitute a seine.

The act of February 27, 1869, chap. 36, Public Laws, repeals the fore- going, and re-enacts it in substance with various modifications.

The legislature of 1870 re-enacted the above with fuller details as to the collection of penalties, &c. Chap. 120, Public Laws, 1870.

In the revision of the statutes in 1871 the above act was consolidated into one section, sec. 54, chap. 40, Revised Statutes, 1871, which still retained the three-mile restriction, and the penalty of one hundred to five hundred dollars for each violation, and a forfeiture of all equipment employed.

Chap. 211, Public Laws, 1871, approved February 27, 1871, repeals the above sec. 54, chap. 40, of the Revised Statutes.

Laws of Massachusetts.

184. The following acts have been passed by the legislature of Massa- chusetts :

“AN ACT to protect the menhaden fishery in the towns of Duxbury, Plymouth, and Kingston.

“(Ch. 85.) SECTION 1. Be it enacted, Every person who shall, between the first day of May and the first day of November, inclusive, in each year, deposit the offal or waste dressing of the menhaden fish upon the shores or flats, or throw the same into the waters of the bays, harbors, rivers, or creeks of the towns of Duxbury, Plymouth, or Kingston, shall, for each and every offense, forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding fifty dollars, one-half to the complainant, and the remainder to the town within whose jurisdiction the offense was committed, to be sued for and recovered in any court competent to try the same, on complaint of any one of the selectmen, or any legal voter of either of the towns of Dux- bury, Kingston, or Plymouth.

“Src. 2. Any boat, craft, vessel, or fishing apparatus used by persons violating the provisions of this act, may be seized and detained not exceeding forty-eight hours by the selectmen of either of the towns aforesaid, in order that the same, if need be, may be attached or arrested by due process of law, to satisfy said fine with costs.

“Sec. 3, This act shall take effect from and after its passage.”—[ April 24, 1857.

134 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

“AN ACT regulating the seining of menhaden in the rivers of the commonwealth.

“(Ch. 52.) SECTION 1. Be it enacted, The mayor and aldermen of any city or the selectmen of any town situated upon or adjacent to any river in which the seining of the fish is now or may hereafter by law be pro- hibited, may, upon the petition of twelve or more legal voters, and after due notice and hearing thereon, grant permission to such persons, upon such condition and with such restrictions as they may see fit, to seine menhaden therein, if, in their judgment, the same is consistent with the public good: Provided, however, That in all cases where two or more cities or towns are situated upon such waters and interested in said fishery, no action shall be had except upon petition to each of them, and by their concurrent vote.

“Sec. 2. If any person so licensed shall exceed in any manner the terms of said permission, or violate any of the conditions thereof, he shall be subject to the same penalties as would attach to seining without such license.

“Src. 3. Such license may be altered or revoked at any time, by the concurrent action of the municipal authorities granting the same.”— [March 15, 1858.

“AN ACT relating to the taking of menhaden in the waters of Buzzard’s Bay and Vine- yard Sound.

[1856, ch. 176. Additional act, 1870, ch. 249. ]

“(Ch 212.) SecTIon 1. Be it enacted, From and atter the passage of this act it shall be lawful for any person to take menhaden by the use of the purse-seine, so called, in the waters of Buzzard’s Bay or of Vine- yard Sound, or the waters of any bays, inlets, or rivers bordering on or flowing into the same: Provided, That no authority shall be hereby given to use any such seine at the mouth of any river where there now is or where there may hereafter be a herring fishery established by law, un- til after the fifteenth day of June, in each year: And provided further, That no authority shall be hereby given to use any seine in the waters around Nantucket or the islands belonging thereto.”—[May 9, 1865.

In the report of the commissioners of ivland fisheries for 1877, p. 65, it is stated:

‘‘ Fishing with seines in the Merrimac, at the season when the menha- den stand in, is forbidden by law. The mouth of the river has, however, never been defined by the governor, as permitted by statute ; and it was represented to the commissioners that valuable menhaden fisheries ex- isted in this neutral ground of brackish water. Therefore, under the personal promise of the fishermen to capture no shad or salmon, and with the guarantee of responsible persons in Newburyport, the commis- sioners agreed to defer the definition of the river-mouth, and to assume that these menhaden were not positively included in the river proper.”

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 135

K.—ECONOMICAL VALUE AND APPLICATION.

30.—THE MENHADEN AS A TABLE-FISH. Its use in a fresh state.

185. In many parts of the United States menhaden are in favor as table-fishes. When perfectly fresh they are superior in flavor to most of the common shore-fishes, but if kept they soon acquire a rancid and oily flavor. The Maine fisherman finds his breakfast of fried pogies both substantial and palatable. I can testify from personal experience that a bony-fish chowder is not to be despised.

They are often eaten in the vicinity of Newburyport, under the name of “hard-head shad.” They are considered more palatable than the early runs of the river shad.

I am indebted to Mr. Barnet Phillips, of the New York “Times,” forthe information that in 1513, during a season of searcity, large numbers of moss-bunkers, both fresh and smoked, were consumed in New York City. It does not appear probable that they were ever extensively used for food except in seasons of scarcity.

Professor Gill, writing in 1856 of the fishes of New York, remarks that moss-bunkers appear in the markets in the fall months, but in small quantities.

Storer remarks* that the fishermen who supply Boston market with codfish set their nets about the outer islands in the harbor each night as they come up to the city, and examine them in the morning as they go out for the day’s fishing. Large numbers of menhaden are thus taken, frequently one hundred barrels at a haul, and such as are not used for bait are sold to the pocrer classes for food, at about 64 cents per dozen.

The Rey. A. W. Church, editor of the Middletown (Conn.) “ Constitu- tion,” informs me that the moss-bunker is a staple article of food among the people living on the sea-coast of New Jersey in the vicinity of Bricks- burg, Somers Point, etc., and ten or fifteen miles inland. Every family makes a practice of salting down a barrel or two for winter use. They are preferred to any other fish which can be taken in that vicinity.

In the fall and winter the alewife is in good demand on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. In November and early part of December, 1874, I frequently saw twenty or thirty strings on the tables in the Washington fish market and they seemed to meet with a ready sale at 40 cents a String, a price nearly as high as that of striped bass, the favorite fish in Washington.

At Cape Hatteras the winter fish are in demand and are salted in quantity for summer use. In 1873 they sold for $7 a barrel. The sum- mer fish are used only as fertilizers.

* Hist. Fish. Mass., p. 159.

136 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

The abundance of bones and the oily flavor have given rise to a preju- dice against the menhaden as a food-fish, which the oil factories on the coast have done much to confirm. Still the fish is not unpalatable, and is capable of much valuable service in the capacity of a table-fish.

Its use salted.

186. For many years salted menhaden have been shipped from Glou- cester to the WestIndies and Guiana, to serve as food for the negroes upon the plantations. These fish are not carefully prepared, but are chiefly the surplusage of the bait supply remaining in the hands of outfitters of fishing vessels at the close of the season. They sell for about $2 per barrel. Mr. Ff. W. Homans ships from 1,500 to 2,000 barrels annually to Surinam. These would weigh from 300,000 to 400,000 pounds, and be worth in the aggregate some three or four thousand dollars. Other individuals doubtless dispose of their refuse stock in the same manner.

Capt. Moses Pettingell, of Newburyport, informs me that about the year 1840, and before, large quantities were annually salted down in Newburyport, to supply a regular market in the West Indies. Salted menhaden were found to meet with a readier sale than salted mackerel, since, while little inferior in quality, when well prepared, they could be sold at a much lower price.

In the “ Topography and History of Wareham,” 13815, it is stated that the inhabitants of Wareham and Plymouth were accustomed to vote to allow a certain number of barrels of alewives to be taken annually from the brooks within town limits, and that ‘‘menhaden were also taken in quantity at Wareham and barreled for exportation in former years.” *

It is stated by the editor of Forest and Streamt that some Brooklyn people have a patented process for extracting the bones and superflu- ous oil from the menhaden or moss-bunkers, hitherto useless as food, and then salting the fish, which they claim are fully equal to No.3 mackerel. ‘Chus all parts are utilized.

Salt mackerel at times replaced by menhaden.

187. The inspection returns of Massachusetts show a curious relation between the anuual returns of salted menhaden, alewives, shad, and mackerel. An examination of the table given in Appendix G shows that an effort was made during the season of scarcity in the mackerel fisheries to supply the demand by the use of menhaden. .

The question of drawback on salt.

188. Capt. Fitz J. Babson, collector of customs for the. port of Gloucester, states that the question yearly comes up as to whether the menhaden fishermen are entitled to privileges under the law granting

* Collections | of the | Massachusetts | Historical Society | —— | vol. iv. | of the second series. | Boston: | printed MDCCCXYVI |: p. 284. — t Vol. II, 1874, p. 215.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 13%

drawback on salt used in pickling, nets, and fish. This discussion brings on the question whether menhaden are or are not “food-fishes.” The decision has usually been made that they are food-fishes.

36.—lFO00OD PREPARATIONS DERIVED FROM MENHADEN. The manufacture of sardines.

189. On the coast of New Jersey, near Port Monmouth, are several factories, whick carry on an extensive business in canning menhaden in oil and spices. One of the largest of these is that of the American Sardine Company, a representation of which is given in Plate XXIV. Mr. F. F. Beals, of New York, gives the following description of the methods in use in this establishment:

“ We aim to have cur catch of moss-bunkers in by 6 or 7 o’clock a.m., as the fish seem to be strongly impregnated with phosphorus and soon spoil in warm weather. As soon as the fish are landed, we put our entire force of men to cleaning, cutting, and scaling, for which we have machinesadapted. When the fish are cleaned, they are at once put in hogs- heads, and salted just sufficiently to keep and to remove their extreme freshness. They are then packed in cooking cans, which are a little larger than the packing cans, and put into the tanks, where they are steamed for the space of about two hours. After the fish are taken out, they are placed in the regular market cans, which are then laid upon zine- covered tables, where they are filled with salad oil. They then go to the tinners, who solder on the lids, after which the can is again steamed and vented, and passed up into the cleaning and labeling room. Hach day’s work is piled up separately, each can being thoroughly tested to see that it is perfectly air-tight. Forthis we have an experienced hand. Not a can is packed until it has stood for at least a month. At the expiration of this time, after being again tested, the cans are packed in wooden cases containing two dozen each, and are then ready for the market. As we make all our tin cases, we are able to secure good results, and it is a rare occurrence to have a swollen can. If there is one, it is at once thrown aside.

‘¢Our company was incorporated April 21, 1871, under the laws of the State of New York. Seeing the magnitude of the sardine business on the other side of the Atlantic, we were impressed with the idea that, there was a large field for operations in this country alone. We at once set about to find a fish which woald supply the place of the European sardine. After many experiments, we at last found one to suit the purpose, viz, the moss-bunker, and commenced a series of experiments to find a means of extracting or softening the bones without the use of acids of any kind. After over a year of experiment, we at last found the desired process, which we secured under United States letters patent, dated May 21, 1872. This process consists of varous modes of steaming until the bones become so soft that they can be eaten, like the flesh of the fish, without the slightest inconvenience. The two first years most of our time was con-

138 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

sumed in experimenting, so that it was not until a year ago that we really commenced to manufacture, though prior to that we put up some goods. Last year, 1873, we packed and sold about 30.000 dozen whole caus or boxes. We have now capacity to turn out double that amount and we expect to be obliged to do so, as our trade is rapidly increasing. Our goods have received various awards, including a medal of merit at Vienna in 1873, and a silver medal at Bremen in 1874.”

During the season of 1877, the works of the American Sardine Com- pany were not in operation. Mr. Beals, the secretary, informs me that the manufacture will be pressed strongly in 1878.

The qualities of American sardines.

190. Many persons are incredulous with regard to the possibility of manufacturing sardines of good quality from the menhaden. It need only be said that they have been carefully tested by many unprejudiced judges in the city of Washington, and that the verdict has always been that they were almost equal to French sardines of the best brands. There can be no reasonable doubt that if olive oil of good quality were to be substituted for the cotton-seed oil now used in the preparation of American sardines, they would be fully equal to similar articles imported from abroad.

The American sardines should be carefully distinguished from the sardines prepared at Eastport, Me., fiom young herrings; they are sealed up in tin cases imported ready-made from France, and are put upon the market in the guise of foreign goods—a misrepresentation which is not at all necessary, since they are quite as good as the articles with which they profess to be identical.

Menhaden preserved in spices.

191. There are other establishments near Port Monmouth which pre- pare menhaden in spices and vinegar under the trade names of ‘‘Shad- ine,” “Ocean Trout,” and “American Club-fish.” I have been unable to obtain statistics of this branch of manufacture. Hoope & Coit, of New York, contributed samples of these preparations to the Centennial collection of the United States Fish Commission, and I suppose this firm to be engaged in the manufacture.

‘‘ Russian sardines” are prepared at Eastport, Me., from the herring, and are branded with spurious names and labels imported from Germany.

Mr. Barnet Phillips describes, in the New York Times, a visit to the “ocean-trout” manufactory at Port Monmouth. He writes: “If the name of the salmonide be taken a little in vain, the trout manufactured out of moss-bunkers are by no means to be despised. ‘Ocean trout” may not be the garum cooked with Tragascean salt, but is a fair fish- food and as an alimentary substance is in good demand. The process of manufacture is simple. The fresh fish are scaled by machinery, by means of a revolving wheel, are then cooked in steam, packed into

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 139

boxes, which boxes have a cover put on them perforated with a couple of holes. The box containing only the fish is then plunged into a bath of pickle, where it remains until it fills itself, then the box, now full of fish and pickle, goes through a second cooking. When all hot, filled with steam, the two minute holes are closed with solder, a label is put on, and the moss-bunker, now metamorphosed into ‘ocean trout,” instead of being turned into oil or being employed as a top-dressing for sterile soil, makes quite a delectable food, and doubtless to-day the advance of civilization in the United States is shown in remote portions of the country by cairns made up entirely of empty tin boxes once filled with edible moss-bunker.

Goodale’s “‘ Extract of fish.”

192. The Hon. 8. L. Goodale, of Saco, Me. (secretary of the Maine Board of Agriculture from 1856-1873), has invented a process by which the juices of the flesh of fish are extracted to form an article of food which promises to be of much commercial value. He writes: ‘‘Some time since the idea was conceived by me and reduced to practice of concen- trating the juices of the flesh of fish into a food extract. The attempts were successful and the product satisfactory, bearing close resemblance to Liebig’s extractum carnis, and possessing a like percentage of saline constituents and extractive matter, soluble in alcoho]. My results thus far indicate that the more abundantly occurring Clupeid@ appear to be much better adapted to this use than any other fish yet tested, especially the menhaden and the herring, the latter having a more distinctively fish flavor, the former more nearly a simply rich-cooked meat flavor. The alewife I have not yet proved, but anticipate excellent results from its employment.

** During the two seasons past I have worked a few barrels of men- haden at a time, at intervals of a fortnight or more, to see if the juices varied in flavor or richness. My apparatus is imperfect, and although the extract must be, judging from my former experience with beef extract, inferior in flavor to what it would be if prepared with a vacuum pan and all suitable conveniences, it is good enough to elicit many commendations. No one needs less than yourself to be told how great are the possibilities for this new project. From each barrel of menbaden, as taken, I get three pounds of extract when flesh alone is used and four pounds if the spine is retained in dressing. And my rejections yield just as much oil and serap as any manufacturers get who treat them for this alone. The skins may be used to make glue. I remove them by sealding quickly, in either mode of dressing. The details of manu- facture are fully worked out.

Considering the large amount of fish annually taken and hitherto treated for oil and scrap alone, the juices of which have been allowed to run back into the ocean as a worthless by-product, I cannot avoid the

140 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

conclusion that a new source of food is within reach, which at no distant day may contribute materially to human welfare.”

Mr. Goodale exhibited specimens of the extract of fish at the inter’ national Exhibition in Philadelphia.

The writer has had an opportunity of testing the qualities of the prep- aration and can testify to its agreeable flavor and manifestly nutritive properties. Two tablespoonfuls of the jelly dissolved in hot water yield a large dish of savory soup, most closely resembling the potage consommé of the French cooks.

Professor S. W. Johnson, of Yale College, wrote to Mr. Goodale: ‘I can- not doubt that the fish extract is entirely new, and as food or stimulant is equal to beef extract in all respects (except possibly in the matter of iron*), and if put into the market in the proper shape would shortly share the patronage now so largely bestowed on beef extract, &c.” And again: ‘I find your extract of fish both by actual use and by chemical analysis in ail respects equal to the best Liebig’s extract of beef.

Mr. Frederick Law Olmstead, of New York, wrote: “I have made a trial of your extract and find it more palatable than any beef extract L have used. It is not at all fishy, but I think it has a slight distinctive agreeable flavor which is also found in rich fish gravy. Iam strongly disposed to regard it as a very important invention.”

The extract of fish has also been tested in hospitals in Portland, Me., and in New York City. Concerning the latter, Professor Johnson may again be quoted: ‘The fish extract was tried in this hospital. The physicians consider it in no way inferior to Liebig’s. It was not sus- pected by nurses or patients to be anything else.”

Possible yield of “extract of fish.”

193. Mr. Goodale estimates that the fish used by the factories in the towns of Bristol and Boothbay, Me., in 1873, 1874, and 1875, allowing the product to equal one-fifth of the weight of the live fish, would have yielded in either year upwards of a million of pounds, or five hundred tons of extract of fish. Carrying out the same calculation for the entire catch of the Atlantic States the potential yield of the menhaden fisher- ies would exceed ten millions of pounds.

37.—MENHADEN AS FOOD FOR ANIMALS. Menhaden scrap as food for cattle and poultry.

194. At a meeting of the ‘‘Maine Board of Agriculture and Farmer’s Convention” at Wiscasset, Mr. Wasson gave an interesting account

* With regard to Professor Johnson’s suggestion of possible difference in contents of iron, I cannot speak confidently, but my impression is that this element occurs mainly if not wholly in the blood corpuscles; that these are entangled in the albuminous constituent, as it coagulates in boiling and are removed in the serum which rises and is taken off, consequently that iron would not be found in appreciable quantity in extract made from either beef or fish.—S. L. GOODALE.

Professor Johnson’s later analyses seem to confirm the impression of Mr. (joodale.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 141

of the use of “porgy chum” as a food for sheep and poultry, stating that he had used it for five years. To prepare it for food it is prepared by drying it in the sun for two days on elevated racks, thus expelling a large portion of the water. When thus dried it will keep for an indefinitely long period. Mr. Wasson had kept a quantity in an open barrel in his barn for at least five years. One barrel, costing $2, was sufficient to feed three sheep during the entire winter. Sheep thus fed showed an average increase each of one pound and a quarter of wool, while they were constantly fat and brought heavy lambs. Hens also ate the scrap with avidity. Mr. Thomas Boyd of Boothbay, stated that hens, ducks, and turkeys prefer it to corn, and become large and heavy when fed upon it. It is customary to discontinue the scrap and feed them on corn three or four weeks previous to killing them. Pro- fessor Charles A. White inquired in regard to its effects upon the qual- ity and flavor of the meat of animals ted with chum, stating that hogs fed in the acorn or mast region of the west do not make such firm sweet pork as those fed on corn. None of the members present were able to answer this question.

Mr. Luther Maddocks, of Boothbay, a leading manufacturer, stated that if a demand should occur for scrap to be used as animal food, it could be so pressed as to retain only 25 per cent. of water, and in that form it would be more suitable for transportation. Ordinarly it con- tains about 50 per cent. of water.

Apparently this subject deserves careful investigation. Jn the Nor- wegian Department in Agricultural Hall at the International Exhibi- tion of 1876 were exhibited some biscuits made from ‘‘fish-flour,” a preparation invented by the late Anton Rosing, a prominent agricul- tural chemist of Norway. These biscuits were in good condition after having been kept for ten years in an unsealed jar. They were intended to be applicable to the uses of soldiers, miners, and farmers, to whom a supply of fish, other than salted, is beyond reach. The editor of the American Agriculturalist suggests that a similar process might be em- ployed in utilizing the refuse of the oil manufactories as food for stock.* The proper preparation of this material for feed, either alone or mingled with bran, corn-meal, or other products of grain, would doubtless be a great economy, both for feeding and enriching the manure.t

L—THE MENHADEN AS A BAIT FISH. 38.—THE USE OF MENHADEN FOR BAIT. Menhaden as cod bait. 195. Menhaden bait is extensively used in the cod and mackerel fish- eries in New England and the British Provinces. Its popularity is no doubt chiefly due to the ease with which it may be obtained in large

* American Agriculturist, Vol. XXXV, 1876, p. 314. + The value of menhaden as a.food for animals is discussed mere in detail by Profes- sor Atwater in the succeeding part of this report.

142 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

quantity, though its oily nature and strong odor render it particularly well adapted for use as a toll bait for mackerel. ‘Slivered pogies” are carried by the “‘ bankers” or vessels fishing for cod on the Newfound- land and George’s Banks from the ports of Gloucester and Province- town.* According to Captain Atwood, salted menhaden are good bait for haddock but inferior for cod. On the Labrador coast the bait prin- cipally used is a small fish of the salmon family known as the capelin (Mallotus villosus) large quantities of which are easily procured in those waters for a short period iu the summer. The herring (Clupea elongata) is the most common bait in the Bay of Fundy cod-fisheries and it is also used by the English “‘ bankers” to a considerable extent, as well as young mackerel. The English vessels also consume a large amount of “slivered pogies” which they bry from Massachusetts vessels. Fresh “slivers” are preferred to those which have been salted, and vessels bound to George’s Banks usually carry their bait preserved on ice.

Menhaden as mackerel bait.

196. Asa toll bait for the mackerel fishery, the menhaden is better than any other fish. The mackerel seem to prefer it, and the pres- ence of a great quantity of oil renders it especially convenient for the use of fishermen, since a small quantity of ground menhaden bait will spread over a large area of water.

The introduction of the use of menhaden bait.

197. In early days it was the custom to grind up small mackerel for bait, much to the detriment of the fisheries in succeeding years. Cap- tain Atwood remarked in his testimony before the Fishery Commission at Ualifax: “‘We now use menhaden for bait; but when I first went fishing we did not do so. Our practice then was to grind up small mackerel for the purpose. Any quantity of these mackerel were at that time to be found along the coast and plenty of them are there to be met with now. These fish were of no account then, and so we ground them up for bait; and when we could not obtain them, we ground up for bait what you call gurry, the inwards of fish with the gills attached. Ameri- can fishermen, when they fish with hooks, use menhaden bait almost exclusively. The superiority of this bait over all otbers.is such that when this fish can get menhaden they won’t take any other. At first mackerel fishermen were afraid of this bait. It is a very bony fish, and they then thought that if it was cut up for bait, the mackerel would soon get sick of it, owing to the number of bones. There is a species of fish belonging to this family found on our coast which is exceedingly fat. Wecall them blue-backed herrings ;f and some preferred this fish for bait, as it was not so bony as the menhaden; but when the poorer

* Vessels also carry for bait ‘ sea-clams ” (Mactra solidissima) salted, and the common long clam (Mya arenaria). The former are preferred by vessels fishing off Block Island and Nantucket to supply the New York market with fresh cod and haddock, They are sold at Nantucket at the rate of 30 cents a bushel

t The alewife, Pomolobus pseudoharengus. -

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 143

mackerel got to be worth having, about everybody adopted menhaden for bait. It is the cheapest bait.” *

The comparative value of herring and menhaden for toll bait

198. Mr. Sylvanus Smith stated before the Halifax Commission: ‘All the bait used in mackerel fishing consists of menbaden or porgy, which is only found off the coast of the United States, and which the Canadians bought from the American fishermen to a great extent” +

Also to the same effect Mr. James G. Tarr: “ The only bait used for mackerel is the porgy or menhaden, which is found entirely in the United States, and which all the Canadians have to buy from the Ameri- cans in a Salted state. This fish (the porgy) is pot found in Canadian waters, and is almost the only bait used in the mackerel fishery ; if the Canadians were unable to procure this bait, they would be compelled to use herring bait, which is much inferior for the purpose. * * * [ have known vessels to sail from this port (Gloucester) with as many as 300 barrels of porgy bait on board, which was sold in Halifax and the Straits of Canso to Canadian fishermen. * * * The bait which we buy from them for the cod-fishery consists of herring and some small mackerel.” ¢

John KE. Saunders remarked: ‘“Iresh herring is used by Canadians somewhat, but it is an inferior sort of bait, and they much prefer men- haden when they can get it. * * * Canadians import menhaden bait from the United States to some extent ; the menhaden is not found north of Cape Sable.” §

Richard Hannan, of Gloucester, also stated: ‘¢I have sold menhaden bait to the Canadians, a few barrels each year; they import a great deal of this bait from the United States; now by the treaty they can come here and catch this bait themselves. To my own knowledge there have been two or three vessels here from Yarmouth and Argyle which came to catch porgies for use in the bay. ||

James G. McKeen, of Port Hastings, Nova Scotia, on the Strait of Canso, stated: “ The bait chiefly used by American mackerel-fishing vessels is menhaden or porgies. These fish are taken, I believe, entirely on the coast of the United States, and mostly in seines within three miles of the land, so I have been informed. British mackerel fishermen use the same kind of bait principally, and depend on the United States for the supply. Clams are also used as bait for catching mackerel by both American and Colonial mackerel vessels, and they are obtained chiefly in the United States.” ]

George Critchet, of Middle Milford, Guysbore County, Nova Scotia,

mee Be Atwood. Proceedings of Halifax Commission, Appendix L, p. 42, September J, 1044.

t Affidavit 34. Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, 1877, Appendix M, p. 8&1.

t Affidavit 56, op. cit., p. 83.

§ Affidavit 4@, op. cit., p. 86.

|| Affidavit 42, op cit., p. 86.

4] Affidavit 176, op. cit., p. 195.

144 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

stated: ‘*The only bait used by mackerel fishers in the Gulf of St. Law- rence is clams and porgies, and that comes all from the United States.” *

Christopher Carrigan, of Lower Milford, Nova Scotia, also stated that, he has been on two trips in the north bay in provincial mackerel vessels and that they used only clams and porgies for bait. +

A similar statement was made by Martin Ryan, of Middle Milford, who had fished five seasons in provincial vessels,¢ and Philip Ryan of the same place, who stated that porgies and clams are universally used in the bay (Gulf of St. Lawrence), although a few provincial vessels may occasionally use herring. §

Andrew Laurie, of Lower Milford, also stated that herring is only used as bait when the vessels of the provincial fishermen are out of porgies and clams, which are better, || and this was confirmed by Thomas England, { Rufus Carrigan, ** and Charles Lowrie, tt of Milford, George Laidlaw ii and R. McDonald, of Low Point, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, who remarked: ‘The only bait American mackerel vessels use is porgies and clams, and that is the bait nearly always used by provincial vessels, but sometimes the latter use herring, which is not a good bait and would not do at all to use as bait in fishing alongside of vessels throwing out porgies and clams. ”§§

Daniel McDonald, also of Low Point, stated that “ ten or twelve years ago or longer there were about 400 or 500 American mackerel vessels in the bay of Saint Lawrence, and during the same time there were about 100 provincial vessels in the bay. The only bait used for mackerel, or almost the only, consists in porgies and clams, and these all come from the United States, whether used by provincials or Americans; a few English vessels use also a little fat herring, but this is nsed in quantities hardly worth mentioning.” ||||

James R. Maclean, a merchant of Souris, Prince Edward Island, called on bebalf of the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, sworn and exam- ined, testified :

‘‘Question. With regard to the bait in use for cod-fishing and mackerel, where is it obtained ?—Answer. They very often use herring and some- times porgies.

‘““Q. Where do they get the herring ?—A. They catch them around the coast and at Labrador.

“(. Are herring caught there?—A. Yes; there is a lot of herring taken. * * * * * * *

“Q. The different fishermen—the large fishermen and the small fisher- men—don’t they all catch their own bait ?—A. Yes, with nets; and for

* Affidavit 188, op. cit., p. 202. ** Affidavit 195, op. cit., p. 206. t Affidavit 189, op. cit., p. 202. tt Affidavit 197, op. cit., p. 207. { Affidavit 191, op. cit., p. 204. tt Affidavit 200, op. cit., p. 209. § Affidavit 192, op. cit., p. 204. §§ Affidavit 201, op. citi, p. 210. || Affidavit 193, op. cit., p. 205. |||| Affidavit 202, op. cit., p. ae

4] Affidavit 194, op. cit., p. 205.

MNISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 145

mackerel bait they take capling—a very fat little fish—and they make out that it is a better bait for mackerel than porgies.

“Q. But the large proportion of the baitis herring?—A. Yes; but they uso porgies, which they often buy for bait.

“Q. To any extent ?—A. The vessels which go fishing generally buy them. They prefer herring when they cannot get porgies good.

*“(. Where do they buy porgies ?—A. They generally buy them on the island, where they are imported. _

‘“@. They buy them from the merchants?—A. Yes. It would not pay to send down to American waters to fish for porgies for the number of vessels engaged in mackerel-fishing.

“©. They prefer to take herring, to do that?—A. Yes. *

‘‘ Cross-examined by Mr. Dana:

“Q. And your people are buying bait from the United States ?—A. They sometimes do so.

“Q. You said that they very often bought pogies, which were used by your people ?—A. Yes.

“Q@. You mean menhaden—it is the same thing ?—A. Yes.

‘“@. Where do the merchants get their pogies ?—A. From the States.

“Q. Do you really suppose that the American fishermen, instead of buying menhaden from first hands, would buy them of your merchants, paying their profit, and commissions, and freight, and all that?—A. Yes. I have seen these fishermen buy them when their own bait had turned sour or was bad. If the merchants have a quantity of good bait on hand, they can generally sell it.

““(. Is that considered an article of trade ?—A. No; not to a great extent.

*@. Then the Americans get caught; their bait sometimes turns sour?—A. Yes. Consequently, of course, if out with other vessels fish- ing, a vessel having bad bait could not secure her share of the fish.

“ @. Can they not catch something else to be used in place of it; ber- ring, ior instance ?—A. Not always. The mackerel-catchers could not wait for this. Their business is to catch mackerel.

“Q. But they can obtain it at the Magdalen Islands ?—A. It would take too much time to cross at that point.

“(. Your own fishermen could not get across any sooner ?7—A. No.

“(. If you could fit out a great number of large vessels for mackerel- fishing, you would want to import a good deal of this bait, pogies or menhaden, would you not?—A. Yes; we would then, likely, import quite a lot of it. They could, however, use herring if no menhaden or poges were thrown into the fishing ground. Herring would do nearly as well.

“(@. But the fish want something better.—A. Yes.” t ’

Mr. George Mackenzie, fisherman, of New London, Prince Edward

—

* Reoceedings of Halifax Commission, 1877.. Appendix F, p. 24. t Ibid., p. 29. 10 F

{ 146 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Island, witness called on behalf of the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, cross-examined by Judge Foster, testified :

“ Question. There is no mistake but what the American bait is a good deal better than any other; there is no question about that ?—Answer. No; it is always very well liked, but we have to pay pretty high for it.

‘““@. Do you buy it ?—A. Yes.

‘“@. How much of it do you use 7—A. I used 20 barrels last year, and I bought 20 more barrels this year, at $5 a barrel.

“(. That makes $100 spent for manhaden bait 7—A. Yes.

© @. Do you mix this bait with herring ?—A. Yes; and sometimes we mix it with clams. At-the latter end of the season it is that bait which we want. When the fish are poor almost any bait will do, but when they are in good condition they require good bait.

“ Q. When do you use herring bait ?—A. In the springof the year and July.

‘““@. Do you mix manhaden with it?—A. Sometimes.

‘““(). If it was not for its expensiveness, you would not use herrings at all?7—A. No.

“@. Do you use mills to grind the bait?—A. Yes.

“@. And you mix the herrings and menhadens together ?7—A. Yes; and we also chop up clams with it.”*

And, again, James McKay, deputy inspector of pickled fish at Port Mulgrave, examined by Mr. Hanson:

‘* Question. On your different trips mackerel-fishing, what bait do you use ?—Answer. Fogies.

‘¢(. These are generally put up on the coast of Maine?—A. Yes.

‘“(). Where would you buy them if British vessels take them ?—A. Our merchants used to import them from Portland, Boston, and Glou- cester.

‘“@. To Port Mulgrave ?—A. Yes.

“(. And sell them as articles of merchandise 7?—A. Yes.

‘““@. They bought and sold them?—A. The same as a barrel of flour.” +

The testimony of Canadian officers.

199. H. W. Johnson, of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, wrote, in 1868, a ** Special Report on the, Distress among the Nova Sco- tia Fishermen.” One of the reasons assigned by him for the failure cf the fisheries is that ‘“* the pogies, the only real mackerel bait, is not caught east of Portland, and must all be imported for our fleet, the in- creased cost of which, added to the American duty, the fisherman has to pay on his share of fish, besides charges of transportation, place him in the position that if he catches during the season, to bis own share, forty barrels of mackerel in one vessel, he has not made as good a sea- son by about $100, gold, as if he had been in an American bottom.”{

% Proceedings Halifax Commission, 1877, Appendix F, p. 132. t [bid., p. 190. { Ibid., p. 67.

od

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 147

Capt. P. A. Scott, R. N., commanding the marine police of the Dowmin- ion, reported, in 1870, to the Commissioner of Marine and Fisheries: ‘Hor mackerel-fishing the Americans use pogies and clams, chopped fine, as bait. The pogies are found only on the coast of the United States, and when imported into the Dominion cost about $6 per barrel.” *

Capt. Charles G. F. Knowles, R. N., commanding H. M.S. “ Lapwing,” cruising on fishing-station No. 4, which includes the west coast of Cape Breton and the east coast of Prince Edward Island, reported to Vice- Admiral Fanshawe, November 7, 1870, in these words: ‘¢ The bait with which the Americans are supplied is far superior to any which can be procured in this country, to which may be attributed in a great measure the success of the Americans previously to the recent restrictions, although, even now, the local fishermen complain that they have no chance while an American schooner is fishing near them.”T -

200. Professor Hind, in his treatise on the Effect of the Fishery clauses of the Treaty of Washington on the Fisheries and Fishermen of British North America (part 1, p. 75), remarks that its value as a bait for cod is, in a considerable degree, superseded by the herring; but as a bait for “tolling mackerel” it is still in repute, although other fish, similarly treated and finely ground, appear to be equally useful in this respect. The first part of this statement is undoubtedly true, at least as far as the fishermen of the British Colonies are concerned. In regard to the comparative value of herring and menhaden for toll-bait, there is still room for difference of opinion.

An average of, perhaps, 250,000 barrels of mackerel is annually caught by the United States vessels, using menhaden bait solely, against 110,000 caught by the provincial fleet, which appears to use menhaden bait when it can be obtained, buying it at the rate of $6 a barrel in pret- erence to herring bait, which costs only the labor of catching and the salt for preserving.

Slivering menhaden.

201. The method of preparing menhaden for salting, to be used as bait, is very simple. The head of the fish is taken in the left hand of the workman, and with a knife held in the right hand he cuts a Slice, longi- tudinally, from each side of the body, leaving the head and vertebre to be thrown away, or, occasionally, to be pressed for oil. The slivers (pronounced slyvers) are salted and packed in barrels. The knife used is of a peculiar shape and is called a “ shivering knife.” The operation of slivering is shown in Plates XXII and XXIII.

The preparation of mackerel bait.

202. The use of menhaden bait for mackerel-fishing was inaugurated in 1835 or 1840; the bait is ground up into a mush and salted, to be used

* Third Report Commissioner Marine and Fisheries, 1871, p. 312. + Third Report Department Marine and Fisheries, 187), p. 342.

148 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

as a “toll-bait,” and to be thrown over the side of the smack to attract the school to the surface and to keep it alongside; this is called “‘chum- ming up the fish,” and the bait is called “chum” or “ stosh.” To prepare it for use the “slivers” are passed through a ‘ bait-mill,” which is a ma- chine like a farmer’s feed-cutter; the fish are thrown into the hopper, from which the fish pass between a roller armed with small knives in rows, and a series of similar knives arranged along a board whick slopes toward the bottom. The bait is usually ground at night, by the watch on deck; when the vessel has no “ bait-mill,” the fish are cut up with a hatchet or scalded with boiling water ina tub. Bait-mills were first in- troduced about the year 1824. In fishing for mackerel, one man throws over the bait while the rest ply their lines. ‘ Toll-bait” is also used by the smacks, which use purse-seines aud drift-nets, to attract the fish to the surface: The use of menhaden bait in the coast fisheries.

203. Menhaden bait is also used in the coast fisheries for sea-bass, on the “bull-tows” or ‘“‘trot-lines,” and in the eel and lobster pots. They are not much in favor for the latter use, however, for the oil of the fish is thought to permeate the flesh of the lobster, imparting to it an un- pleasant flavor.

BHetent of bait-fishery in New England.

204, Captain Babson, of Gloucester, whose account of the bait-fishery of Cape Ann is quoted elsewhere, and to whom I am indebted for much other valuable information, informs me that there were over 60,000 bar- rels of “round fish” taken in his district in 1873. Vessels belonging to the companies of the Maine Oil and Guano Association sold in 1873 for bait 2,977 barrels ; in 1874, 10,400; in 1877, 10,795. From the bait fisheries about Marblehead, in the vicinity of Provincetown, 1,000 to 2,000 barrels were taken for bait in 1873, according to Mr. Loring. At Chatham, for the past five years, the average catch has been about 5,000 barrels, a iarge portion of which are sold to the George’s Bank codfish vessels. Nothing has been heard from the bait fisheries about Nan- tucket, which are, however, quite unimportant.

A large part of the fish taken at Martha’s Vineyard are used for bait; in 1573 there were 5,000 barrels according to Jason Luce & Co.

At Gloucester, according to Mr. Babson, the 60,000 round barrels of fish make 20,000 barrels of ‘“ slivers,” worth $4 per barrel to the pro- ducer. At Marblehead, it averages $1 per barrel for fresh and $6 for salt; at Chatham, $1.50 fresh; at Nantucket, 50 cents to 75 cents, and at Martha’s Vineyard 50 cents, as lam told. In Narragansett Bay, ac- cording to Mr. J. M. K. Southwick, bait sold in 1871 for $1 and $1.50.

Bait-fishery in Merrimac River and Salem Harbor.

205. Fisheries of some importance are carried on at the mouth of the Merrimae River. The menhaden thus obtained are used chiefly to sup-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 149

ply the Cape Ann fishing fleet with bait, although they are salted for food to a considerable extent. Ten seines and about seventy men are en- gaged in this fishery during its continuance, which is usually about one month—from the middle of June to the middle of July. The seines are 100 to 200 yards long and 5 to 8 fathoms deep, requiring 6 to 8 men to manage them. The boats from which they are worked are light scows, about 25 feet in length, and 8 feet in breadth of beam. The seine is set from the stern of the scow, and is worked from the shore by means of long warps.

Capt. Moses Pettingell, of Newburyport, to whom I am indebted for the above facts, tells me that the seine-gangs have occasionally taken 2,000 barrels of fish in a single day.

Boston and Gloucester vessels come to anchor at the mouth of the river and wait for their supplies of bait. At one time in 1877 there were 25 fishing schooners waiting. Captain Pettingell estimates that 500 supplies of bait of from 10 to 60 barrels are sold annually by the Mer- rimac seine-gangs.

The regular price of fresh bait for the past ten years has been $1 per barrel. Probably 1,000 barrels of slivered fish were prepared in 1876; these sold for $5 per barrel. Captain Pettingell estimates the annual eatch for 1876 at 2,000 barrels to a boat, making an aggregate catch of 20,000 barrels, or perhaps 6,600,000 fish. The returns are probably not far from $20,000 in a good season.

The following table is from the Report of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries for 1877 (p. 65). It is possibly not complete:

TABLE.—Seine fishery at mouth of the Merrimac.

Name. | Menhaden. MT OWi 52 2 (ser sm.33:2 sis = ayer sista bine claesstnsts ap uncSe ete picam sca tieciccis se) | Reis D Rete ol roa ra oe ae a a sc cece ae eeige case aetes oo oe U Wil TRS RTI Sod See 6 Ge Ban Ses CoOU SSBB Dee Ee SE eae Dae saan is eae "5 TEUTEA TT os a aR) SEAT RIE | bape wl LpiMivi®) See ee Races HeOSBO CBs De USDC e SCE ea ea | B. Oe ES ater 9

A similar fishery, though of much less extent, is carried on by Glouces- ter vessels in Salem Harbor. There being no considerable body of fresh water, the schools are smail and are easily dispersed. July 15, 1877, I observed six or seven gangs busily plying their seines opposite The Willows. After a day or two the menhaden were driven away, and the fishing ceased until the following week, when they returned and were soon followed by the same boats.

An estimate of the total consumption of menhaden bait.

206. It is not practicable to make, from the data to which I have access, aly very accurate estimate of the total quantity of menhaden

150 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

bait used in one year. I have given below a number of estimates for individual ports or fisheries ; 60,000 round barrels are thus accounted for. I do not hesitate to estimate the total consumption for 1877 at 80,000 barrels, or 26,000,009 of fish.

Consumption by the Georges Banks fleet.

207. The George’s Banks cod fleet is owned entirely in Gloucester There are about 130 vessels, making usually one trip every twenty days. When they can get slivered menhaden they carry no other bait. Early in the summer they go to the Vineyard Sound for their bait, where they buy it from the pounds ; later they are able to buy it from Gloucester and Newburyport seines. Each vessel carries about 40 round barrels of menhaden, iced. Mr. Joseph O. Proctor estimates the annual num- ber of trips made with this bait at 600. This gives a total amount of 24,000 round barrels, or about 8,000,600 of fish ; 24,000 round barrels are equivalent to 8,000 barrels of slivered fish.

Ten years ago, according to the estimate of the same gentleman, the ‘‘ Georgiamen ” did not carry menhaden bait on so many trips, nor did they carry somuch. He estimates 300 trips, at 30 barrels each, giving an aggregate of 9,000 round barrels, or about 3,000,000 fish.

Consumption by the Grand Banks fleet.

208. Mr. Proctor estimates that the Grand Bank cod vessels of Glou- cester use in all about 600 barrels of slivered menhaden bait.

Major Low’s statement of the outfit of the schooner “ Madam Roland,’ * copied from the trip-book, shows that she was supplied with 5 barrels of pogie slivers, at $8 per barrel, making $40; and 5 barrels of slack-salted clams, at $11, making 855. His model table, to show the cost of a new schooner fitted at Gloucester, 1875, for a four months’ trip to the Grand Banks for codfish and halibut, with 14 hands, estimates for 12,000 pogies or herring, at $100.

Consumption by the mackerel line-fishermen.

209. Each mackerel-vessel engaged in line-fishing consumes during the course of the season about 20 barrels of salted menhaden slivers. In 1867, when the entire fleet fished with hooks, the amount consumed by Gloucester alone amounted, by Mr. Proctor’s estimate, to 6,500 bar- rels, and the total consumption in the United States of mackerel bait must have exceeded 25,000 barrels. In 1877 the purse-seiners are in a large majority. The whole amount consumed by a seining-vessel does not exceed 5 or 6 barrels in a season. Gloucester had in 1877 about 60 “‘mackerel-hookers,” using about 2,400 barrels of slivers, while its seining-fleet used about 2,000 barrels more.

* Sailed for the Grand Banks August 26, 1873; arrived at Gloucester October 10, 1873 ; time absent, one month fourteen days; gross stock, $2,758.27.

t Ibid., p. 362.

t Ibid., p. 368,

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 151

Capt. Sylvanus Smith, of Gloucester, stated to the Halifax Commis- sion that a vessel fitting out for a four months’ trip to the Gulf of St. Lawrence would need to be supplied with 40 barrels of pogie bait, worth $6 a barrel, making $240, and 10 barrels of salt clams, worth $8 a barrel, making $80.*

Major Low’s statement, copied from the trip-book of the schooner Oliver Eldridge,t shows that she fitted out with 55 barrels of slivered pogies, at $6.50 a barrel, making $357.50, and 7 barrels of clams, at $6, making $42.¢

The amount of these outfits is much greater than that upon which the above estimate was made.

The entire amount used in the mackerel fishery in 1877 probably did not exceed 8,000 or 9,000 barrels of slivers, or 24,000 to 27,000 barrels of ‘“‘round fish.”

Consumption by the Connecticut smacks.

210. There are seven Connecticut smacks fishing for the flounder (Chaenxopsetta ocellaris) in Long Island and Block Island Sounds. Five of these hail from Noank, one from Mystic, and one from New London. Captain Ashby tells me that these smacks average one trip every four or five days for five months (May to September inclusive). They use only menhaden bait; about one barrel each trip, or perhaps 150 bar- rels in the season.

Sixteen Noank and four New London smacks fish for sea-bass. Hach carries two or three barrels of menhaden bait each trip, making an ag- gregate annual amount of about 1,000 barrels.

Consumption by the New York halibut fleet.

211. The New York halibut fleet of 11 sails, owned at Noank, New London, and Greenport, uses only menhaden bait, which is iced fresh in the vessels’ holds. Each vessel carries from 6,000 to 10,000 fish each trip. Each vessel makes five or six trips. The aggregate number of menhaden thus used is perhaps 480,000, or 1,400 barrels. The usual price is $4 a thousand.

Annual sale of bait by the Maine manufacturers.

212. The Menhaden Oil and Guano Manufacturing Association of Maine sold for bait:

Barrels

of fich. LE Sp ae eae nnn Sc 2, 9717 Eee 10, 400 ee eae fd pia 10, 752 RE es Me... ce 8, 432

I 10, 795

my me

* Proceedings Halifax Commission, 1877, Appendix L, ne

+t Which sailed for the Bay of St. Lawrence August 5, 1 5 Capers 2 months and 28 days), arrived at Gloucester November 2, 1875, stocking $1,771.83, or 224 barrels of mess mackerel.

§ Ibid., p. 364.

152 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. The Connecticut method of icing bait.

213. A peculiar method of preserving the unsalted menhaden is made use of on board of the Connecticut halibut-catchers. The fish, after being very carefully cleaned and eviscerated, are packed with pounded icein bins holding about 125 cubic feet (about 5 feet in each dimension). A ground-layer of ice-blocks 12 inches thick is first laid, then a tier of fish consisting of two layers and about 4 inches thick, then a layer of 4 inches of pounded ice, and so on until the bin is filled, after which its sides are packed with pounded ice and covered with canvas. Seven to ten thousand fish are thus stowed in one bin. The stowing having been completed, the fish and ice freeze together in a solid mass, which is left untouched until the fishing-banks are reached.

Their supply of bait being thus secured, the vessels are never obliged to make harbor in search of a new supply. They often catch their fare upon La Have or Brown’s Bank, and return home without having an- chored. The bait is good for three weeks. Captain Ashby assures me that he has used it on the thirty-third day.

The Cape Ann method of icing batt.

214. On board the Gloucester vessels the menhaden are not eviscer- ated, nor are they packed with so much care; consequently they never last more than three weeks. Since twenty-four hours or more are usu- ally occupied on both outward and home voyages, there is only a short time left for which the supply of bait can be counted upon. If by any means this time could be doubled, an important advantage would be acquired. Vessels would often be able to complete their fares on the eastern banks without going to Newfoundland for bait. Does the Con- necticut method fulfill this requirement ? Captain Hurlbert, one of the most experienced fishermen of Gloucester, says no. He claims that neither cod nor halibut will bite well at a fish which has had its blood removed. He says that a half-decayed fish, with the blood still in it, is better bait than a perfectly sweet one kept by cleaning it. He says, still further, that Gloucester fishermen formerly followed this method, but that it was abandoned many years ago, as early as 1866.

The comparative value of various methods of icing.

215. The comparative value of the different methods of preserving bait was discussed by Professor Baird in his testimony before the Hali- fax Commission, which is quoted:

‘Question. Now will you state what observation you have made respect ing the method of preserving fresh bait from the start all the voyage through ?—Answer. As a general rule it is now preserved either by salting or freezing. Of course they keep it as long as it will remain without spoiling, and when you have to carry it beyond that time either ice it or salt it. Salting, of course, is a very simple process, but it alters

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 153

materially the texture and taste to such a degree that fish or other bait that under certain circumstances is highly prized by the fish is looked upon with a great deal of indifference when salted. Now, there are special methods of preserving the fish or ‘bait by some chemical prepar- ation, which preserves the fish without giving the saline taste. There are preparations by means of which oysters or clams or fish can be kept in solutions for six months without getting any appreciable taste, and without involving the slightest degree of deterioration or destruction. One process submitted to the group of judges, of whom I was chairman, was exhibited by an experimenter, who placed a jar of oysters in our room prepared in that way. I think about the 1st of August those were placed in our room, and they were kept there until the middle of Sep- tember, for six weeks during the hottest portion of the Centennial sum- mer, and that was hot enough. At the end of that time we mustered up courage to pass judgment upon this preparation, and we tasted these oysters and could not find them affected. We would have preferred absolutely fresh oysters, but there was nothing repugnant to the sensi- bilities, and I believe we consumed the entire jar. And we gave the exhibitor, without any question, an award for an admirable new method. That man is now using that process on a very large scale in New York for the preservation of fish of all kinds, and be claims he can keep them any length of time and allow them to be used as fresh fish quite easily. I don’t suppose any fisherman ever thought of using any preservative except salt.

“Q. That is entirely experimental ?—A. It is experimental, but it promises very well. Now, borax is one of the substances that will pre- serve animal matter a great deal better than salt, and without changing the texture. Acetic acid is another preparation, or citric acid will keep fish a long time without any change of the quality, and by soaking it in fresh water for a little while the slightly acidulated taste will be removed. I don’t believe a cod will know the difference between a clam preserved in that way and a fresh clam.

“Q. Now, about ice. We know a good deal has been done in the way of preserving bait in ice. How far has that got?—A. It is a very crude and clumsy contrivance. They generally break up the ice into pieces about the size of pebble stones, or larger; then simply stratity the bait or fish with this ice, layer and layer about, until you fill up a certain depth or distance. The result is that if the bait can be kept two weeks in that method it is doing very well. They generally get a period of preservability of two weeks. The ice is continually melting and continually saturating the bait or fish with water, and a very slow process of decomposition or disorganization goes on until the fish be- comes musty, flabby, and tasteless, unfit for the food of man or beast.

““(. Well, there is a newer method of preservation, is there not 7—A. There is a better method than using ice. The method described by the Noank witness, by using what is equivalent to snow, allows the water

154 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

to run off or to be sucked up as by a sponge. The mass being porous prevents the fish from becoming musty. But the coming methods of preserving bait are what is called the dry-air process and the hard-freez- ing process. In the dry-air process you have your ice in large solid cakes in the upper part of the refrigerator and your substance to be preserved in the bottom. By a particular mode of adjusting the con- nection between the upper chamber and the lower there is a constant circulation of air, by means of which all the moisture of the air is con- tinually being condensed on the ice, leaving that which envelopes the bait or fish perfectly dry. Fish or any other animal substance will keep almost indefinitely in perfectly dry air about 40° or 45°, which can be attained very readily by means of this dry-air apparatus. I had an instance of that in the case of a refrigerator filled with peaches, grapes, salmon, a leg of mutton, and some beefsteaks, with a great variety of other substances. At the end of four months in midsummer, in the Agricultural Building, these were in a perfectly sound and prepossess- ing condition. No one would have hesitated one moment to eat the beefsteaks, and one might be very glad of the chance at times to have it cooked. This refrigerator has been used between San Francisco and New York, and between Chicago and New York, where the trip has occupied a week or ten days, and they are now used on a very large ~ scale, tons upon tons of grapes and pears being sent from San Francisco by this means. I had a cargo of fish-eggs brought from California to Chicago in a perfect condition. Another method is the hard-frozen — process. You use a freezing mixture of salt and ice powdered fine, this mixture producing a temperature of twenty degrees above zero, which can be kept up just as long as occasion requires by keeping up the sup- ply of ice and salt.

‘“Q. How big is the refrigerator ?—A. There is no limit to the size that may be used. They are made of enormous size for the purpose of preserving salmon, and in New York they keep all kinds of fish. I have been in and seen a cord of codfish, a cord of salmon, a cord of Spanish mackerel, and other fish piled up just like cord-wood, dry, hard, and firm, and retaining its qualities for an indefinite time.

‘*(). Well, can fish or animals be kept for an unlimited period if fro- zen in that way ?—A. You may keep fish or animals hard dried frozen for a thousand years or ten thousand years perfectly well, and be as- sured there will be no change.

‘‘(). Have geologists or paleontologists satisfied themselves of that by actual cases of the preservation of animal substances for a long period ? —A. Yes; we have perfectly satisfactory evidence of that. About fifty years ago the carcass of a mammoth, frozen, was washed out from the gravel of the river Lena, I think, one of the rivers of Siberia, and was in such perfect preservation that the flesh was served as food for the dogs of the natives for over six months. Mr. Adams, a St. Petersburg merchant, came along on a trading expedition, and found it nearly con-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 155

sumed, and bought what was left of it for the St. Petersburg Academy of Science—the skeleton and some portion of the flesh—which were pre- served first in salt and afterwards in alcohol. Well, we know the pe- riod of time that must have elapsed since the mammoth lived in the are- tic circle must be very long. We kuow we can talk with perfect safety of ten thousand years. The geological estimate of it is anywhere from fifty to a hundred thousand years; we cannot tell. There is no unit of measure; we know it must have been some hundreds of thousands, and probably it would have remained in the same condition as much longer.

**(. Now, to come to a practical question, is this a mere matter of theory or of possible use? Tor instance, could this method be adapted to the preservation of bait for three or four months if necessary ?—A. The only question of course is as to the extent. There is no question at all that bait of any kind can be kept indefinitely by that process. I do not think there would be the slightest difficulty in building a refrig- erator on any ordinary fishing-vessel, cod or halibut, or other fishing- vessel, that should keep with perfect ease all the bait necessary for a long voyage. I have made some inquiries as to the amount of ice, and I am informed by Mr. Blackford, of New York, whois one of the largest op- erators of this mode, that to keep a room ten feet each way, or a thous- sand cubic feet, at a temperature of 20° above zero would require about 2,000 pounds of ice and two bushels of salt per week. With that he thinks it could be done without any difficulty. Well, an ordinary ves- sel would require about seventy-five barrels of bait, an ordinary trawl- ing vessel. That would occupy a bulk something less than 600 feet, so that probably four and a half tons of ice a month would keep that fish. And it must be remembered that his estimate was for keeping fish in midsummer in New York. The fishing-vessels would require a smaller expenditure of ice, as these vessels would be surrounded by a colder temperature. <A stock of ten to twenty tons would, in all proba- bility, be amply sufficient both to replace the waste by melting and to preserve the bait.”*

39.—CONFLICTS BETWEEN BAIT FISHERMEN AND OTHERS. arly feuds.

216. Some jealousy has naturally arisen at times between the bait- fishermen and the manufacturers, as is shown by the following extract from Professor Johnston’s “‘ History of the Towns of Bristol and Bremen, in the State of Maine.”

A special branch of the fishing business has of late been undertaken quite largely here (in Bristol), as at other places on the New England coast, called the “‘porgey fishery.” ‘The fish are taken in seines, usually several miles from the coast, and are used for the oil they produce, and for manure.

* Proceedings Halifax Commission, Appendix L, p. 457,

156 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

These fish, the common menhaden of the coast, have been caught for use as bait in the cod-fishery from the earliest times; and at first the new branch of industry, in which such immense quantities are con- sumed, was viewed by the old fishermen with no little suspicion, as likely to interfere with the important and older braneh of the fishing business by depriving them of bait. Some riots were at least threat- ened, and one oil factory was actually destroyed, as was believed, by the old fishermen, or at their instigation; but the opposition has ceased, and the general opinion seems to be that it is best to foster such an extensive branch of business, giving profitable employment for a part of the season, as this does, to so many men, even though it may be attended by some disadvantages, which in the end may prove more imaginary than real.*

The present aspects of the conflict in Maine.

217. In 1877 and 1878 a determined effort was made by the Maine line- fishermen to secure the passage of a legislative act forbidding the use of seines near the shores. Their claim was that the present methods employed in the fishery iuterfered with their legitimate privilege of catching menhaden for bait, and that their tendency was to drive away all other fishes as well, and to destroy the fisheries.

To this movement the manufacturers made strenuous opposition, claiming that the menhaden fishery is practically inexhaustible; that the habits of the species have not been changed by the fishery, and that so far from making it difficult to obtain bait the large fishery made it easier, capturing it in great masses and selling it to the fishermen in any desired quantity cheaper than they could obtain it for themselves. Mr. Maddock’s report, which‘has frequently been mentioned, was prepared at the wish of the Maine manufacturers as an argument to be presented to the legislature on their behalf. All the questions involved have been elsewhere discussed. It seems very unlikely that any legislature will at present interfere with so extensive an interest as that of the menhaden oil manufacturers. t

40.—MENHADEN BAIT AS AN ARTICLE OF COMMERCE, AND THE CON- SIDERATION OF ITS VALUE BY THE HALIFAX COMMISSION OF TST ve The export of bait to the Dominion.

218. In the section relating to the value of the menhaden as a bait- fish (paragraphs 186-190), allusion was made to its extensive exporta- tion for use in the fisheries of the Dominion of Canada.

The evidence of several witnesses was quoted to prove that menha-

* A History of the Towns of Bristol and Bremen in the State of Maine, including the Pemaquid Settlement. By John Johnston, LL. D.,a native of Bristol, and Professor Emeritus of Natural Science in the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and Cor. Mem. of the Maine Historical Society. Albany, N.Y. Joel Munsell. 1873. 8vo. pp. 524. p. 460.

t See paragraph 156.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 157

den bait was preferred to any other kind by the provincial fishermen. I am told that a considerable number of the vessels of the New England fleet fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are accustomed to carry par- tial cargoes of salted menhaden to sell in the Straits of Canso. I have been unable to obtain any satisfactory statistics of this exporting trade. This is doubtless due to the fact that every mackerel vessel carries twenty barrels or more of salt slivered fish, and there being no law re- quiring their entry in the custom-house or for reporting sales after the return of the vessel, no one has the data upon which to found an esti- mate. More than 5,000 barrels of slivered menhaden, worth more than $30,000, were probably carried to Dominion waters during the past sea- son. Many vessels doubtless expended all the bait which they carried; many others sold their surplusage to the provincial mackerelmen. I should hardly venture to estimate the amount of these sales at more than $8,000 or $10,000, and very possibly they are even less extensive.

The claim of the English Government.

219. The subject of the alleged trade in menhaden bait was referred to frequently in the course of the proceedings of the Halifax Commis- sion of 1877. The subject was first introduced by the English counsel in the ‘* Case of Her Majesty’s Government,” * as follows:

‘The question of bait must now be considered, as some importance may, perhaps, be attached by the United States to the supposed advan- tages derived in this respect by British subjects. It might appear a first sight that the privilege of resorting to the inshores of the Eastern States to procure bait for mackerel-fishing was of practical use. Men- haden are said to be found only in the United States waters, and are used extensively in the mackerel-fishing, which is often successfully pursued with this description of bait, especially by its use for feeding and attract- ing the shoals. It is, however, by no means indispensable; other fish- baits, plentiful in British waters, are quite as successfully used in this particular kind of fishing business, and very generally in other branches, both of deep-sea and inshore fishing, as, for example, fresh herrings, ale- wives, capelin, sandlaunce, smeits, squids, clams, and otber small fishes caught chiefly with seines close in shore. British fishermen ean thus find sufficient bait at home, and can purchase from American dealers any quantities they require much cheaper than by making voyages to United States waters in order to catch it for themselves. It is a remarkable fact that for six years past American fishermen have bought from Canadians more herring bait alone than all the menhaden bait imported into Canada during the same period. The menhaden bait itself can also be bred and restored to places in the Bay of Fundy, on the western coast of Nova Scotia, where it existed up to the time of its local exter- mination.”

* Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, Appendix A, p. 28.

158 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

And again: “It is notorious that the supply both of food and bait fishes has become alarmingly scarce aloug the United States coast. At Gloucester alone some thirty vessels are engaged during about six months in each year catching menhaden for bait. They sell about $160,000 worth annually, and, by catching them immoderately in nets and wears for supplying bait and to furnish the oil mills, they are rapidly exterminating them. ‘The Massachusetts Fishery Commis- sioners, in their report for 1872, state that ‘it takes many hands working in many ways to catch bait enough for our fishing fleet, which may easily ba understood when it is remembered that each George’s man takes fifteen or twenty barrels for a trip, and that each mackereler lays in from 75 to 120 barrels, or even more than that.’ One of the principal modes for the capture of bait and other fishes on the New England coast is by fixed traps or pounds on the shore, By means of these, herrings, alewives, and menhaden are caught as bait for the sea-fishery, besides merchantable fish for the markets, and the coarser kinds for the supply of the oil factories. ‘There are upward of sixty of these factories now in operation on the New England coast. The capital invested in them approaches $3,000,000. They employ 1,197 men, 383 sailing ves- sels, and 29 steamers, besides numerous other boats. The fish mate- rial which they consume yearly is enormous, computed at about 1,191,100 barrels, requiring whole fishes to the number of about 300,000,000. These modes of fishing for menhaden and other bait are, furthermore, such as to preclude strangers from participating in them without exceed- ing the terms of the treaty; and even without this difficulty it must be apparent that such extensive native enterprises would bar the competi- tion and suffice to ensure the virtual exclusion of foreigners.”

The reply of the agent of the United States.

220. In the ‘“‘Answer on behalf of the United States of America to the case of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government,” * Judge Foster, states: ‘‘Off the American coast are found exclusively the menhaden or porgies, by far the best bait for mackerel.”

This is well stated by Sir John MacDonald (in a debate in the Domin- ion Parliament, May 3, 1872), who says:

*‘ It is also true that, in American waters, the favorite bait to catch the mackerel is found, and it is so much the favorite bait that one fishing vessel having this bait on board would draw a whole school of mackerel in the very face of vessels having an inferior bait. Now, the value of the privilege of entering American waters for catching that bait is very great. If Canadian fishermen were excluded from American waters by any combination among American fishermen or by any act of Congress, they would be deprived of getting a single ounce of the bait. American fishermen might combine for that object, or a law might be passed by Congress forbidding the exportation of menhaden ; but, by the provision

—

* Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, Appendix B, pp. 18, 19.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 15d

made in the treaty, Canadian fishermen are allowed to enter into Ameri- can waters to procure the bait, and the consequence of that is, that no such combination can exist, and Canadians can purchase the bait, and be able to fish on equal terms with the Americans.”

These statements were based upon the Canadian official reports pre- viously published, which say :

‘“ For mackerel, the Americans use ‘pogies’ and clams, chopped fine, as bait. The ‘pogies’ are found only on the coast of the United States, and, when imported into the Dominion, cost about $6 per barrel.

“The bait with which the Americans are supplied is far superior to any which can be secured in this country, to which may be attributed in a great measure the success of the Americans previously to the recent restrictions, although even now the local fishermen complain that they have no chance while an American schooner is fishing near them.”*

‘¢ Phe menhaden fishery has within ten years grown into an immense business. Formerly they were taken only for bait, and were either ground in hand-mills, for mackerel, or used in what is called “slivers” for codfish bait. There is now a large fleet of steamers and sailing-ves- sels engaged in this fishery. Large factories have been erected on shore for extracting the oil. As these fish are not valuable until they are fat, which is in August and September, they are not much taken in their spawning time; and they will not therefore be exterminated. They are eaught solely with seines, near the shore, their food being a kind of ma- rive seed which floats upon the waters; consequently they will not take the hook. ‘This fishery is one of the most profitable of all the fisheries, the oil being used for tanning and currying, extensively at home, and being exported in large quantities. The refuse of the fish, after being pressed, is used for manufacturing guano or fish phosphate, and is very valuable as a fertilizer. This fishery is purely an American fishery, no menhaden ever being found north of the coast of Maine. It is entirely an inshore fishery, the fish being taken within two miles from the shore.”

The reply of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government.

221. The ‘ Reply on bebalf of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government to the Answer of the United States of America” responds:

** The Auswer (pp. 18 and 19) lays much stress on the importance to Canadian fishermen of the menhaden bait-fishery on the coast of the New England States. The menhaden is here represented to be the best bait for mackerel, and is said to inhabit exclusively the American coast. An entirely fictitious value has been attached to this fishery. British fishermen do not frequent United States waters for the purpose of catch- ing bait of any kind, or for any other purposes connected with fishing, consequently the privilege of entering those waters to catch menhaden is of no practical value. Any bait of that description which they may yequire may be purchased as an article of commerce.

* Annual report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries for the year ending June, 1870, pp. 312, 342.

160 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

‘¢ There are not now, nor have there ever been, treaty stipulations to prevent British fishermen from entering American waters to buy bait, if they prefer to do so. As a matter of fact, whatever menhaden bait British fishermen use is either purchased from American dealers or from Canadian traders, who import and keep it for sale like any other mer- chandise. Reference is made in the Answer to the possible contingency of legislation prohibiting the export or sale of menhaden-bait, the im- plied consequence being a serious disadvantage to Canadian fishermen in prosecuting the mackerel fishery. It would, in such contingency, be necessary to use other baits equally good, or resort to some other method of fishing, such as that described at page 10, enabling the fishermen to dispense with bait. Moreover, it is well known that menhaden are now caught in the open sea, many miles distant from the American coast. The Answer asserts, at page 19, that ‘ it is entirely an inshore fishery.’ It can be proved that menhaden are chiefly caught off shore, frequently ‘out of,sight of land.’ ”

Mr. S. L. Boardman, of Augusta, Me., in an interesting report to the State Board of Agriculture, of which he is secretary, published in 1875, at page GO, says:

* Parties engaged in taking menhaden now go off ten or twenty miles from shore, whereas they formerly fished near the coast, and they now find the best and ‘ most profitable fishing at that distance” This fish is included among the shore fishes described by Prof. 8S. F. Baird as having suffered ‘an alarming decrease’ along the inshores of the United States, owing partly to excessive fishing throughout their spawning time in order to supply the oil-factories.”

Chapter 5 of the Answer deals with “the specific benefits which the treaty directs the Commission to regard in its comparison and adjust- ment of equivalents.” The admission of Britsh subjects to United States fishing grounds has been dealt with at length in the third chapter of the Case. There is nothing in the Answer on this subject calling for any reply excepting the statement at page 20, that Dominion fishermen ‘have in the United States waters to-day over 30 vessels equipped for seining, which in company with the American fleet are sweeping the shores of New England.” Leaving out of question the ‘American fleet,” which has nothing whatever to do with the matter, the correct- ness of the statement is directly challenged in so far as it implies that these 30 vessels or any of them are British bottoms, owned by Dominion fishermen; and the United States is hereby called upon to produce evi- dence in its support.

Teveferences in the testimony and affidavits.

222. In the testimony and affidavits presented by the United States counsel,* referred to in the biography of the menhaden appended to this memoir and quoted to some extent in paragraphs 188-189, are many

* Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, Appendices L and M,

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 161

allusions to the value of menhaden bait. In the series of statistical tables filed* is given a statement, prepared by the writer, of the annual product of the menhaden fisheries. In the speeches of counsel during the session of the Commission very little attention was paid to the menhaden.

Mr. Dana’s remarks in his argument.

223. Mr. Dana remarked in his closing argument: t

“We need not catch our mackerel bait any more than our cod bait, within the three-mile limit. On the contrary the best mackerel bait in the world is the menhaden, which we bring from New England. All admit that. The British witnesses say they would use it, were it not that it is too costly. They have to buy it from American vessels, and they betake themselves to an inferior kind of bait when they cannot afford to buy the best from us.”

224. Few comments are needed upon these statements.

(1) While other fish than the menhaden may be used as bait, the lat- ter is preferred by mackerel fishermen generally. (See quotations from affidavits of Nova Scotian fishermen quoted above, 186-190, and the depositions of numerous American fishermen before the Commission referred to in the Bibliography of the Species, Appendix C.)

(2) For the period of six years past, referred to in the comparison of the sales of menhaden bait and herring bait, the mackerel fisheries in Canadian waters have been far below their usual importance, and there has been no large demand for menhaden bait. The bank cod-fishery has been as successful as usual and the demand for herring bait undi- minished. Moreover a large proportion of the frozen herring exported to the United States are consumed as food, not as bait.

(3) The claim that the menhaden are being rapidly exterminated is discussed above in paragraphs 151-156.

(4) The criticism by the British counsel of the statement that men- haden are not taken at a distance from the shore is well sustained.

(5) The very extraordinary statement that menhaden can be bred and restored to their former haunts in the waters of Nova Scotia may be met by the statement that there is no evidence that the species was. ever other than an accidental visitor to those waters, that none have been seen there for the past twenty-five years, that the present eastern limit of the geographical range of the species is forty or fifty miles west of—

M.—THE MANUFACTURE OF OIL AND GUANO, 41.—A HISTORY OF THE OTL MANUFACTURE.

The claims of Maine to the discovery of menhaden oil.

225. The manufacture of menhaden oil has been prosecuted for a few years only. Several individuals claim the honor of having been first to

* Ibid., Appendix O, t Appendix J, p. 78. 11 F

162 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

discover its value. About the year 1850 Mrs. John Bartlett, of Blue Hill, near Mount Desert, Me., while boiling some fish for her chickens noticed a thin scum of oil upon the surface cf the water. Some of this she bottled, and when on a visit to Boston soon after carried samples to Mr. E. B. Phillips, one of the leading oil merchants of that city, who en- couraged her to bring more. The following year the Bartlett family industriously plied their gill-nets and sent to market thirteen barrels of oil, for which they were paid at the rate of $11 per barrel, in all $143.*

Mr. Phillips gave them further encouragement, furnishing nets and large kettles, which they set up out of doors in brick frames, for trying out the fish. It was thought that much oil was thrown away with the refuse fish or scrap, and the idea of pressing this scrap was suggested. This was at first accomplished by pressing it in a common iron kettle with a heavy cover and a long beam for a lever; afterward by placing it under the weight of heavy rocks, in barrels and tubs perforated with auger holes. Mr. Phillips subsequently fitted out some fifty parties on the coast of Maine with presses of the model known as the “screw and

lever press.” The claims of Connecticut and New York.

226. Others claim to have manufactured oil about the same time.t It is said that as early as 1850 or 1852 there was an establishment for the manufacture of white-fish oil near old Fort Hale, New Haven Har- bor. Iam informed that Elisha Morgan, of Poquannock Bridge, Conn., made oil from bouy fish previous to the year 1850. He owned seines with which he caught fish to be spread upon land fresh. When he -eould not sell all his fish to the farmers he extracted their oil by boiling them.

Whether the value of the article and the methods of manufacture were first brought to notice in Maine or not, the people of that State ‘were slow to improve their opportunities and the trade first assumed its importance on the shores of Long Island Sound. Whether the fish- erman’s wife of Blue Hill is the sole discoverer of the properties of men- haden oil is not evident; perhaps the facts were also known to others. At any rate tbe tradition of the Bartlett family is not current on Long Island. In the year 1850, according to Captain Sisson, D. D. Wells and

* As this account is somewhat different from those hitherto published, I give the story in the words of Mr. E. B. Phillips himself: ‘In about 1850 I was in the fish-oil business in Boston. An elderly lady by the name of Bartlett, from Blue Hill, Me., -came into my store with a sample of oil, which she had skimmed from the kettle in boiling menhaden for her hens. She told me that the fish were abundant all summer ‘near the shore, and I promised $11 per barrel for aJl she could produce. Her husband and sons made thirteen barrels the first year, and the following year one hundred barrels.”

t'The manufacture of oil and of artificial guano from fishes has long been practiced in France, where the fish called Merlan (Gadus merlangus) is employed for the purpose, yielding 14 to 2 per cent. of oil. In France the fish cake remaining after the extrac- tion of oil is dried at asteam heat and is then ground fine and packed in air-tight casks for sale as manure.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. ~ 163

his son Henry E. Wells started the first factory in the vicinity of Green. port, using steam for making oil and scrap. ‘At that time there were some few pots (whalemen’s try-pots)used by other parties in boiling the fish in water and making a very imperfect oil and scrap, but were not very successful. The first oil made by D. D. Wells & Son was very black, impure, full of fleshy matter, and had a very offensive smell. It did not come much into use, and for along time the profits of the business were small; but by persistent effort in perfecting machinery the qual- ity of the oil was so much improved as to come into general use for certain purposes, such as painting, tanning, manufacture of rope, and adulterating other oils. The scrap was also very much improved by grinding and drying, pulverizing, &c., so that during the war the business was quite remunerative. At that time quite a number of factories were established and for a time the business was somewhat overdone, which caused some to abandon it altogether, and others to consolidate; and at the present time there are ten factories in operation, doing a fair business, giving employment to a large number of people and bringing up a hardy race of boatmen and sailors.”

Professor Baird, visiting this region in 1857, wrote: ‘Quite recently several establishments have been erected on Long Island for the man- ufacture of oil from the moss-bunker. The fish, as brought in, are chopped up and boiled, and the oil skimmed off; a heavy pressure on the residuum expresses the remaining oil, and what is left is still useful as amanure. The oil finds a ready market. It has been estimated that a single fish will furnish enough oil to saturate a surface of paper eigh- teen inches square.” *

Notwithstanding the fact that the coast of Maine was adapted for much more profitable prosecution of the oil manufacture, nothing of im- portance was done there until 1865. The trade grew rapidly for about four years, but has not augmented considerably since 1870. Twenty factories were built in a short period, fourteen of which are still in operation, though several have failed from the too sudden expansion of their business. As has been seen, the only points at which the trade has any statistical importance are within a limited area on the coast of Maine, on Narragansett Bay, and on Long Island Sound. At other points, one or two factories absorb the whole business; they are but half worked, and many of them have been abandoned. I am informed that efforts are being made to establish factories on Cape Cod and on the coast of South Carolina.

Great improvement has been made in the processes of refining and clarifying the oil, and the clear, yellow, nearly odorless substance now produced is vastly different from the article manufactured in early days.

The process of extracting oil by steam was patented in 1852 or 1853 by Wm. D. Hall, of Wallingford, Conn., the originator of the Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company. Mr. Hall was engaged in bone-boiling and tallow-

* Fishes of the New Jersey Coast, 1855, p. 33.

164 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

rendering at Wallingford ; he had a load of white-fish carted to his fae- tory from Branford, 16 miles distant. At night, after his men had left the factory, he cleaned out his tallow tanks, steamed his fish, and ex- tracted the oil; his experiment was satisfactory and the process was immediately patented. The priority of his discovery is challenged by Mr. D. D. Wells, of Greenport, who claims to have used the process for some years previous to this time. After securing his patents, Mr. Hall visited numerous “ pot works,” which had by this time been established, for the purpose of introducing his new methods. At this time he also secured a patent for the process of drying fish scraps upon platforms by solar heat. The inception of the oil business in Maine.

227. The first factory in Maine was built by a company from Rhode Island, in 1864, at Blue Hill, and the next by another company from Rhode Island, at Bristol, on John’s Bay, the same season. Operations being successful, home parties in Bouth Bay, Bristol, Bremen, and South- port went into the business. In the spring of 1866 eleven factories were built, all using steam. This may be regarded as the beginning of the industry in Maine on a scale at all in ratio with its capabilities.

Erection of factories in Maine.

228. The following table, taken from Mr. Maddock’s pamphlet, gives the dates at which the factories of the several firms named were built, and the cost of the same. The titles of some have since been changed by incorporation with others, change of ownership, Ge. Of the eleven factories specified before as built in 1866, one has been burned, and two absorbed by now existing corporations.

Date of building of factories in Maine.

Cost of build-

Names. Waren Where. ings and

% equipment.

Gallup iéesHolmess-ssewstecsae~ asec <%= === 1266 Boothebaye. eee e-eeee ream eee $15, 0CO Gallop) MonganteC of eereiariscs asi °. o.-f=- TSCM psesee GID) -Sn6s5 song cachs saeesooese 15, 000 Suitolki Oi Niorkseeeeeneeeeeetsseiss( alas -=1= Ue) loose (ON desdoamadononsadcnes osda.se 30, 000 ACENDIShOn) COpOKGs CO see ese ae cee aise IEG Pal Sea sue 0 eee SRO SHOE ae Ses ane cai 15, 000 White Wine Brook Company..------------- TS) /BSsooe 0) Goapccue da sose sorcoosecoos 12, 000 Maddocks? Hactony:-sssse-ebrees-ce - =~ 1266 | Southport (now Booth Bay)..--.-- 25, 000 Bristol"Orl Worksite caeceeeee eee ee actesee 1866" "Bremen sa ceaset aeesce eee ee eee 10, 000 ANDertiGrayse CO-ce see psem eee etter eisre BGO Meese GO! se bion ces) cee sa ate e eee 12, 000 Round PondiCompanya-e-e-saeeeeescer eas 1866)" ABristols- ss =. eeoeee ee eee es ener 15, 000 L. Brightman & Sons. ........0.ss2-<< s----- Tela Ml esaaee 0 jre steesesoemee teseeeecee 15, 000 Pemaquid Wiorks -Go.so ese eee eee eee esas 1869 apace dO mes ace ne ernaeime renee 15, 000 Jos: Church’ & Cob Wiorks-fe seep eee eens Ubsyil* Nesoace dO, Asse temisee ce eeeee eee ees 40. 000 oeud's Island Works:4 2s. ose see-eneeseesees ikeVG}, | |SSeeee GOS e Ssaboeeboasabcodece soared: 6, 0CO Brown’s Cove Works....-.- Pir Ree ss See aT. Soul eee OO St ehildotdaoae da ateetecicse 10, 000 Mavbil Mrench).& Co..coscescseneteeteeeeee 1868.4 |/ss---- DO Mic sed vein Saencteeesmoteeecies 10, 000 BVO S hci Cons S225 - Eo See ee PSBAS eee. CO! tine Seesia tesco eet 12, 000 Mowler Moote& Colca... -aecceeee eee eeeeee TS ie Eee eee OO @ sosceh cwiaceceee aac sececes 2, 000 South Saint George Factory....-..---.----- 1876 | South Saint George.........-..-- 1, 500 Oba welds... Sele el Fess eR ae tees eee ee ee sete ese eosepeecsee Osean ot cee seeeee 260, 500

The original investment of $260,500 has been increased, as shown by the report for 1877, to $1,083,612.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 165

42,.—THE LOCATIONS OF THE OIL FACTORIES. Factories in Maine.

229. The oil and guano factories are located chiefly on the coasts of Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Long Island, at the localities already designated as being most frequented by large schools of men- haden. |

In 1877 there were on the coast of Maine fourteen establishments of sufficient importance to be represented in the Maine Vil and Guano As- sociation, all but two of them in good financial standing. Iam indebted to Messrs. Church, Pryer and Maddocks for the detailed list given below, including those not now in operation. There are, besides, several small factories of no great statistical importance.

On Muscongus Sound, near Round Pond, are six factories owned by THE BRISTOL O1L WORKS, with two presses; ALBERT GRAY & Co., with two presses; JOSEPH CHURCH & Co., with four presses; the RounD PonD Ort CoMPANY, not now in operation ; LEONARD BRIGHT- MAN & Co., now bankrupt; the BRown’s CovE CoMPANY (not operated in 1877), and the LouD’s ISLAND O1L CoMPANY.

On John’s Bay, Liniken’s Bay, and in that vicinity are ten, owned by the PEMAQUID OIL CoMPANY, with three presses; WELLS & Co., with two presses ; TUTHILL, FRENCH & Co., with two presses; FOWLER, Foote & Co.; the SUFFOLK O1L CoMPANY, with two presses; GALLUP & HOLMES, with two presses; GALLUP, MorGAN & Co., with two presses; KENNISTON, COBB & Co., with two presses (not now in opera- tion); LutTaER Mappocks; the WHITE WINE BRooK CoMPANY.

There is also a factory at Brooklin owned by ROBERT A. FRIEND, and the SoUTH SAINT GEORGE OIL WoRKS, at South Saint George.

The GEORGE W. MILES Company, of Milford, Conn., have for several years operated their ship, the Alabama, with two presses, in John’s Bay.

There have also been within a few years factories at Blue Hill, owned by Conary & Co.; in Brooklin, owned by G. ALLEN & Co.; in Brook- ville, owned by E. C. Cuarro & Co.; in Belfast, owned by J. C. Con- DON and by J.C. Mayo. The first is known to be abandoned, and no returns have been received from the others since 1873.

A considerable amount of oil is also tried out by individuals who carry on a small business of this description in connection with other occupations. The amount thus produced in 1874 was estimated by Mr. Eben B. Phillips at from 50,000 to 75,000 gallous.

Factories in Massachusetts.

.

230. In Massachusetts there are no important factories; the CAPE Cop Oil Works, at Provincetown, and the NortH AMERICAN OIL WORKS, at Wellfleet, try out a small quantity of menhaden oil annually, but this is merely incidental, their chief source of supply being bodies of stranded blackfish and porpoises.

166 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

A small quantity of oil is tried out by the fishermen on Cape Cod, chiefly, perhaps, from the refuse remaining after the fish have been ‘¢ slivered ” for bait.

Near Wood’s Holl, Mass., is the factory of the PAciFIc GUANO Com- PANY, which at the time of its establishment in 1863 was engaged largely in the fisheries and oil pressing, but has now discontinued this branch of the business. At Dartmouth is the factory of ERSKINE PIERCE, and at Fall River that of Jos T. WILSON, which is referred to below in the Narragansett Bay list.

Factories in Rhode Island.

231. In Narragansett Bay are thirteen factories, specified in the fol- lowing list kindly furnished by Mr. Church:

THE ATLANTIC OIL AND GUANO COMPANY, operating 3 presses.

Jos T. WILSON & Co., at Fall River, Mass., operating 3 presses.

Wm. J. BRIGHTMAN & Co., at Tiverton, R. I., operating 2 presses.

IsAAc Brown & Co., at Tiverton, operating 2 presses, good condition.

CHARLES Cook, at Tiverton Four Corners, operating 2 presses.

AMASSA SIMMONS, at Tiverton Four Corners, operating 1 press.

IsAAc G. WHITE, at Tiverton Four Corners, operating 2 presses.

BENJ. MANCHESTER, at Tiverton Four Corners, operating 1 press.

ANTHONY MANCHESTER, at Tiverton, operating 1 press.

Otis H. ALMy & Co., at Tiverton Four Corners, operating 1 press.

NARRAGANSETT O1L AND GUANO COMPANY, operating 2 presses.

JAMES MANCHESTER, at Tiverton, operating 1 press.

THoMAS F. GRAY, operating 2 presses. ;

Mr. Pryer gives the names of the following manufacturers not in- cluded in Mr. Church’s list. Some of them are doubtless concerned in the titled companies already mentioned :

JOHN SOUTHWORTH, Portsmouth, R. I.

W. H. H. HOWLAND, Portsmouth, R. I.

WILcox MANCHESTER, Tiverton Four Corners, R. I.

Tthode Island has no factories west of Narragansett Bay.

Factories in Connecticut.

232. Another group of factories is located between the eastern bound- ary of Connecticut and the Connecticut River. In 1877 these were five in number, as follows: ;

GURDON S. ALLYN & Co., on Mason’s Island, between Stonington and Noank, running three gangs.

e LEANDER WILcox & Co. (formerly J. GREEN & Co.), on Mint Head, also east of Noank, running two gangs.

WALEY & Co., at Poquonnock Bridge, east of the Thames River, running one gang.

QUINNIPIAC FERTILIZER COMPANY, on Pine Island, Groton, at the mouth of the Thames River, running four gangs.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 167

LucE BRotHERs, at Niantic.

Several other factories were formerly operated in this vicinity, namely, the QurlAMBOG O1L ComMPANY, on Noyes Neck (one gang), burnt down in 1876; the GARDNER O1L ComMPANY and REUBEN CHAPMAN’S WORKS on Mason’s Island (one gang), abandoned.

Luce Brothers, of Niantic, formerly had a floating factory built on the hull of the old railway ferry-boat “Union.” In 1876 a new factory was built by them and the floating factory was abandoned.

West of the Connecticut River the factories are not numerous. I learn the names of the following companies:

SaLt ISLAND Ori CoMPANY, at Westbrook, owned by J. L. Stokes and others, not now running.

J. H. BIsHop, at Madison.

FOWLER & COLBURN, at Guilford.

E. R. KELSEY, at Branford, supplied by weir fisheries.

WELCH’s POINT OIL CoMPANY, at Milford.

THE GEORGE W. MILES Co., at Milford, owning a factory on the shore and a floating factory, the “Alabama,” built upon the hull of an old man-of- war. This is usually operated on the coast of Maine and is referred to in the list of Maine factories. In 1878 it is the intention of Mr. Miles to work it on the coast of New Jersey.

Factories in New York.

233. At the eastern end of Long Island is another cluster of oil works. The following list was furnished by Capt. Benjamin H. Sisson in 1873:

D. D. WELLS AND SONS.

HAWKINS BROTHERS.

H. Corwin & Co.

FiToiaw & HORTON.

BENJAMIN PAYNE, GREEN & Co.

B. C. CARTWRIGHT & Co.

VAIL, BENJAMIN & Co.

THE STERLING Co.

Also two floating factories the “Falcon,” 2,500 tons, Capt. Geo. F. Tut- hill; the Ranger,” 1,500 tons, Capt. F. Frank Price.

Many have since been established and in Mr. Pryers’ list (Appendix H) the following manufacturing firms are enumerated, fifteen in num- ber:

W. Y. Firuian & Co., at Napeague (Amagansett).

GREEN BROTHERS, at Amagansett.

JOSEPH D. PARSONS, at Springs.

G. H. PAYNE, at Deep Hole, Easthampton.

HAWKINS BROTHERS, at Shelter Island.

B. C. CARTWRIGH?, at Sheiter Island.

HENRY I. WELLS, at Greenport.

GEORGE F. TUTHILL, at Greenport.

168 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES,

T. F. PRIcE, at Greenport.

J. NORRISON RAYNOR, at Greenport.

W. H. H. GLOVER, at Southold.

G. H. CLARK, at East Marion.

W. W. WARNER, at Good Ground.

W. C. RAyNorR, at Westhampton.

NELSON BURNETT, at Southampton.

Oa the Great South Bay are four factories:

J. S. HAVENS, at Patchogue.

SMITH, GREEN & Co., at Sayville.

Smith & YARRINGTON, at Sayville.

SoutH Bay OIL COMPANY, at Sayville.

Ona the south shore of Long Island, at Barren Island, a few miles east of the entrance to New York Harbor, at the mouth of Jamaica Bay, are four factories, owned by—

SEAMAN JONES & Co.

HAWKINS BROTHERS.

FRANK SWIFT.*

BARREN ISLAND MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

In these four factories, according to Mr. Seaman Jones, about $200,000 capital is invested, half of it on shore and half in “sailing rigs.”

Factories in New Jersey.

’

234. In 1873 there were said to be one or two oil factories in Southern New Jersey, at Somers Point and Little and Great Egg Harbors. The fisheries in this vicinity are not vigorously prosecuted, and in 1873 the factory at Atlantic City had already been deserted. Mr. Miles informs me that he proposes to operate his floating factory, the Alabama, in New Jersey waters during the coming season of 187s.

According to Mr. Pryer the following factories were in existence in TSG

GRIFFIN & VAIL, at Port Monmouth.

Capt. C. DOUGHTY, at Somers Point.

Morris & FIFIELD, at Somers Point.

JAMES E. Oris, at Tuckerton.

Cyrus N. SmitH, at Tuckerton.

Factories on Chesapeake Bay.

235. Iam informed by Mr. H. L. Dudley that there are four factories in the Chesapeake Bay between Norfolk and Baltimore. I have not learned the names and locations of all these establishments. One, ** THE VIRGINIA OIL AND GUANO CoMPANY,” of which Mr. O. E. Maltby, of Norfolk, is president and Mr. Dudley agent, is located at New Point Comfort. A second is owned by WiILLIAM D. HALL, of Willenbeck,

* Better known by the name of its former owner, Mr. Koon.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 169

Lancaster County, Va., who was formerly connected with the Quinni- piac Fertilizer Company. A third was the MANOKIN OIL Works, owned in 1873 by CROCKETT & Co., and a fourth on Tangier Island, owned in 1873 by ForD, AVERY & Cu. The Manokin Works are said to be in Pocomoke Bay. <A factory was operated near Norfolk in 1872 by Mr. Fitzgerald, but this has since been destroyed by fire.

F. H. HARKER has a factory at Hampton, Va.

Factories on the southern coast.

236. South of Cape Henry there are no factories now in operation. Mr. W. F. Hatch, keeper of Body’s Island light, North Carolina, gave the names of the following factories in that vicinity which had at that time already been abandoned :

EXCELSIOR WORKS (cost $30,000).

‘CuuRcH & Co. (cost $5,000).

ADAMS & Co. (cost $5,000).

There is still another abandoned factory near Beaufort, N. C.

At Charleston, 8. C., are the works of the Pacific Guano Company, which consumes immense quantities of menhaden scrap. Thisis however brought from the water by the vessels which carry on their return trip a supply of South Carolina phosphates for the other factory owned by the company, at Wood’s Holl, Mass.

A company in Charleston has a charter for establishing a menhaden fishery at the mouth of Charleston Harbor.—(C. C. Leslie.)

43.—METHODS OF OIL MANUFACTURE.

The principles involved.

237. The manufacture of menhaden oil is simple in the extreme, con sisting of three processes: boiling the fish, pressing, and ciarifying the expressed oil. The apparatus absolutely needful is correspondingly free from complication, consisting, for the first process, of a cooking ves: sel; for the second, a press, and for the third a shallow vat or tank. These were used twenty-five years ago by Mrs. Bartlett, the manufact- urer of the first menhaden oil, who produced an article little inferior to the best now in the market. Very few patents for improved methods of manufacture have been granted: Mr. W. D. Hall’s patent for steam- rendering is the most important. The principal changes have been in the introduction of labor-saving appliances, which enable manufactur- ers to carry on their business with the smallest possible force of work- men. Steam is of course an important auxiliary in handling the fish and in working the presses, and is also used to great advantage in heating the cooking-tanks, as well as for pumping the water and oil. The hydraulic press has replaced the old fashioned screw-press in most of the larger cstablishments, and the size, shape, and arrangement of the bleaching vats, as well as the methods of drawing and pumping the oi! from one to the other, have been perfected.

170 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. Processes employed in manufacture.

238. The process of oil-making at the larger works is essentially as fol- lows: The fish are conveyed to the upper story of the factory on weoden tramways in cars containing about twenty barrels each, and are dumped into large reservoirs from which the cooking-tanks are replenished from time to time, or are emptied directly into the cooking-tanks, which are filled to the depth of six inches with sea-water. From fifty to seventy- five barrels are placed in each cooking-tank, and then steam is turned on and they are boiled for half an hour or more. In this way about two- thirds of the oil is separated ; the remainder is expressed by means of the hydraulic presses, under a pressure of 50 to 150 tons or less; the fish hav- ing been placed in circular curbs of half-inch iron, perforated with holes an eighth of an inch in diameter, each curb having a capacity of three to ten barrels. The oil mixed with water is now run into the ‘“ drawing- off tanks” while it is still hot, and is passed through several of them, the water separating and sinking to the bottom. The oil is now drawn off into a“ settling-tank” of four or five thousand gallons capacity, where it remains a few hours to allow impurities to sink to the bottom. Finally, it is pumped into “ bleaching-tanks” (of which Judson, Tarr & Co. have five, each containing four thousand gallons), where it becomes clearer and whiter in the rays of the sun, and after one or two weeks’ exposure is ready for shipment. °

Processes employed in refining.

239. Boardman & Atkins make the following statements about proc: esses of refining:

‘The oil and water running together into the receivers, separate, by the oil rising to the top, whence it can be drawn or skimmed off. Great pains must be taken to separate the oil from the water before the impu- rities contained in the latter begin to ferment, for if this happens the quality of the oil suffers much. Moreover, in what appears at first to be pure oil there is a variable amount of finely divided fleshy substance that must be allowed to settle, as it will after a while, and the clarified ~ oil drawn off before putrefaction sets in. In order to effect the separa- tion, the oil is commonly passed through a number of settling-vats, and a portion of the impurities deposited in each, and finally before barreling, the oi! is, if practicable, exposed some hours to the sunlight in a broad, shallow tank. If all these processes are successfully carried through, the oil is light-colored, sweet, and of prime quality; but if it is exposed at any time to the influence of putrefying animal matter, it becomes dark and ‘strong.’ The very strongest of oil is made from the ‘ gurry’ or set- tlings of the oil, after fermentation, by steaming or boiling it over.

‘Tt naturally happens that every manufacturer makes several grades of oil, of very different quality, of which the best is very sweet, fine oil, bringing ten cents a gallon more than a strong article. Notwithstand-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. Vit

ing this fact, it is said to be the common practice of dealers to pour all grades into the same vat, and this has led manufacturers to take less pains to keep them separate.

“Tt is a curious fact that oil made from early fish is not so good as that made later. It is called ‘ weak,’ and brings in market five cents per gallon less.” *

Gurry oil is sold for one-third less than the other grades.

Perhaps the most satisfactory way of indicating the processes now in use will be to describe three or four of the principal factories in detail.

The factory of The George W. Miles Company.

240. The factory of The George W. Miles Company at Milford, Conn., illustrated in Plate XXYV, is said to have been the first one built after the model now Sealy followed, with the cooking- tanks and oil- presses upon the second floor of the building.

When the fishing fleet comes in, the fish are hoisted from the holds of the vessels into cars, in which Age are carried over an inclined tram- way tothe upper story of the factory building. Here they are turned into tanks, twenty thousand fish in each, and cooked by steam-power. Then the water is drawn off and the cooked fish are placed in perforated iron curbs, which are so arranged upon railways that they can be pushed under a hydraulic press. Each curb-load of fish is subjected to a press- ure of sixty or seventy tons, by which the greater part of the oil is ex- tracted. The scrap is then dropped into the cellar below.

The ship ‘‘Alabama” is owned by the same firm. It is used as an oil factory, and is usually more productive than the stationary works owned by the same firm. It is illustrated in Plate XXX. For several seasons it has been taken to Maine during the fishing season, where it is usually stationed near South Bristol. It is the intention of the owners to take it to the coast of New Jersey for the season of 1878.

The factory of Judson Tarr & Co.

241. Messrs. Judson Tarr & Co., of Rockport, Mass., kindly furnished the following account of their factory in Pemaquid (Bristol), Me., as it was in 1873:

** The size of the main factory is 30 by 40 feet, with 16-foot posts; the building is two stories high, the upper story being used for cooking and pressing the fish, the lower as an oil-room and for storing fish-scrap. The engine-house adjoining the factory measures 20 feet by 30, with 10 foot posts, and contains three horizontal boilers each of sixty-five horse power. In the upper story of the factery are eleven round wooden cooking-tanks 12 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep; each tank has steam- pipes in its bottom, perforated with small holes to allow the escape of the steam; there are also three hydraulic presses, each with pressure of one hundred and fifty tons, and a small engine of ten-horse power.

* Op. Cit., p. 27.

172 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES,

Connected with the factory are two wharves, the longer 159 by 50 feet in dimensions, the shorter 40 by 80. At the end of the long wharf is placed, on posts 10 feet high, a tank capable of containing 4,000 barrels of menhaden. This tank is sometimes completely filled when all the steamers have discharged their loads after a successful day’s fishing. On the wharf is an engine of twelve-horse power connected with three drums, all or either of which may be used; when in full blast one thou- sand barrels can be transferred from the steamers to the tank in an hour, the process being precisely similar to that of unloading coal from barges.

Also, on the premises of the company, are a main scrap-house, 100 feet by 60, with 15-foot posts, and blacksmith’s, cooper’s, and carpenter’s shops, as well as a boarding-house and stable, all used in connection with the business.

The amount invested in buildings and machinery is between $75,000 and $80,000, and in steamers and fishing gear, such as seines, small boats, &c., is about $60,000 additional.

The utmost capacity of the factory is 2,000 barrels per diem. About thirty-five men are employed at the factory.

The factory of Joseph Church & Co.

249. The Muscongus Oil Works, on Muscongus Point, Maine, the largest in the United States, were visited by Professor Baird in Sep- tember, 1873. These works were erected in 1572, and are carried on by Joseph Church & Co., of Tiverton, R. 1.* The main building is 161 feet long and 40 feet wide. The lower portion is the receptacle of the chum, where about 1,800 tons were in store on the 25th of September, three cargoes of about 190 tons each having been sent away during the year. The establishment is larger than any other in the United States, and is well appeinted in every particular, capable of working up more than 3,000 barrels of fish in a day. About forty-five men were euwployed at these works, and about 5,500 tierces of 40 gallons of oil each had been manufactured during the year. These works are now much more ex- tensive, employing during the past season (1874) seventy fishermen and seventy factory hands, with four steamers and three sailing-vessels. They have invested in buildings and machinery $65,000, and in fishing gear $55,000. During the season 138,000 barrels or about thirty-four millions of menhaden were caught; 200 barrels were sold for bait, and of the remaining 136,000 barrels they manufactured 450,000 gallons (11,250 tierces) of oil and 4,000 tons of chuin or guano.

The factory of Kenniston, Cobb & Co.

243. The establishment of Kenniston, Cobb & Co. is selected for de- scription by Boardman and Atkins, who state that though not one of the largest, it is generally conceded to be a model of convenience and efficiency.

* Illustrated in Plate XXIX.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN, 173

*“ The main floor of the factory stands a considerable height above the water. Here are all the steam tanks and the press, and in an adjoining building is the boiler and the principal engine. The tanks are of wood, 8 feet square and 4 feet deep, with a capacity of fifty-one barrels, with a board platform on which the fish rest, 4 inches above the bottom. Into the space between the platform and the bottom the steam is intro- duced. There are tanks arranged in two rows, between which runs the track leading from the landing. Another track passes by all the tanks and leads to the press. On this track run several cylindrical curbs made of wood and iron. The press is hydraulic, and is worked by steam. On a lower level than the steam tanks are series of receptacles for the oil and water, that are brought to them by conductors leading from the tanks and press. Under the main floor is the scrap-house, into which the scrap is dumped through a scuttle in the floor. The track that runs between the rows of tanks leads down a steep incline to the landing, where there is another engine, and an elevator to take the fish out of the boats. The elevator delivers the fish into a hopper that holds fifty barrels, and from this they are drawn into a car that holds seventeen barrels, so that the unloading of the boat may go on without intermission while the car is carrying its load up to the tanks. The car is drawn up by the engine on the landing, and dumps its load into either of the tanks at pleasure.

“« Preparation for the fish is made by filling the tank a foot deep with water and steaming it until hot. The fish are at first steamed hard from forty to sixty minutes, then punched and broken up. After sim- mering for five hours longer the free water and oil are drawn off, and then, if possible, the broken fish stand draining and cooling for several hours. At last they are pitched into the curbs, run under the press, and subjected to a pressure which is gradually brought up to seventy- five tons. This wrings out all the water and oil that it is practicable to extract, and the cheese is now dropped into the scrap-house to remain until the following autumn or winter.”*

The factory at Napeague, N. Y.

244, In the American Agriculturist for December, 1568, p. 452, was published a description of the factory at the entrance to Napeague Har- bor, near Montauk Point. In Plates XX VI and X XVII are reproduced the illustrations of the factory and its interior arrangements. The fol- lowing description of the factory was published at the same time:

‘** The fish are taken to the factory’s dock. At the factory the fish are measured either in cars or boxes, and are drawn upon the railway to the tanks, where they are thrown into water, and a full head of steam turned on into the bottom of the tank, which contains some sixteen to eighteen thousand fish. After thirty minutes’ cooking, the water is drained off, and a man getting into the tank fills the curbs, which are circular, and

* Op. cit., p. 27.

174 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

formed of strong wooden slats, bound and lined with heavy iron. These are rolled under a solid, stationary head, fitting closely the inside of the curb, and against which the fish are pressed, as the curb is slowly but powerfully raised by a hydraulic press. The oil and the water absorbed by the fish in boiling are pressed out through the slats and carried by leaders to the tanks in the shed by the side of the factory, where the oil- man skims, boils, and otherwise prepares it for barreling. As soon as the pressure is taken off, the curb slowly resumes its position on the railway, and is pushed to where a mean stands ready to remove the cheese as it falls from the curb, upon the opening of its hinged bottom. This cheese or scrap-cake is ground to different degrees of fineness, to form the fish guano. This substance, being rich in ammonia-producing material, is used by some manufacturers of fertilizers to supply ammo- nia to phosphates that are deficient in that constituent.”

The model of a factory in the National Museum.

245. A complete model of the oil-factory of Joseph Church & Co., at Round Pond, Me., was exhibited in the Department of Fisheries in the United States Government building at the Philadelphia Exhibition. It is now deposited in the United States National Museum.

The cost of an oil-factory.

246. The larger part of the cost of an oil factory consists in the ma- chinery, as the buildings are always of wood, substantial but cheap. The amount invested in factories by different manufacturers appears to range from $2,000 to $65,000. The average amount invested in the fourteen factories of the Maine Association is $22,600, but the general average will not probably exceed $12,000 or $15,000.

Mr. Church, of Tiverton, R. I., speaking of the establishments on Narragansett Bay, remarks that a factory ready for business, including buildings, tanks, boilers, hydraulie presses, oil-room, &e., of a capacity to cook and press 800 barrels (200,000) in a day, costs not far from $14,000. A hydraulic press costs about $1,200; in 1877, $700.

Mr. Miles, of Milford, Conn., states that boilers cost from $2,000 to $4,000, hydraulic presses with curbs and fixtures $2,000; engines, pumps, shafting, and pulleys, together with the necessary buildings, bring the cost of the factory to from $10,000 to $50,000.

Capt. B. H. Sisson, of Greenport, N. Y., estimates the cost of boilers, engine, piping, hydraulic press worked by steam, steam drying ma- chines, and steam hoisting. apparatus, to cost from $10,000 to $25,000 for each factory.

Mr. Dudley states that a factory running three or four gangs of fisher- men costs from $20,000 to $30,000.

The capital invested in the factory is one-half of the whole amount. The fourteen establishments of the Maine Association had in 1874 $316,000 in buildings and machinery and $390,000 in “gear”; that is,

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 175

in steamers, sailing-vessels, small boats, and nets ; an average of $27,800 to each for gear against $22,600 for factory.

In Connecticut, according to Mr. Dudley, about the same proportion holds.

The total amount of capital invested in the several companies is given, by Mr. Jasper Pryer, as follows:

Sic enc | 1S TO Sa Ol ieee icons rc a i $25, 000 00 Worse sare htm an 8 \C0) f2..- sa see vasrete s e.a eso aei= sss 20, 000 00 ee ISHO Ps -..\5 0) Sciannlein tales « Cito sjtaygn tcl 5 o,cle sists, Says + 9, 000 00 Bsersval Oil W Orkey ascasre oie. 50 tee See Ca ee 30, 000 00 Browns Cove Company. S225 25 oo Sas ee eee ees 23,000 00 saa row ih Galo. yycbe S502). 2 ok oe Fader Se eee 9, 000 00 Barren Island Manufacturing Company ...........-....- 17, 500 60 Joseph Church & Co. (Rhode Island) ................... 17, 000 00 Dery et srat sw 5 (WISIN E )ie 2 ois, 3-5 «nic 0) 1s ec 200, 006 00 O19 08S (000) a ae SC ECHR Ag OBE OS ooiccs sacs 18, 000 00 Bo WIESE aioe Se EES Se eee ApS Asie et 500 00 PVG aE HOU TOUT OO) Vator e ocd e oF cg oe wey es eens weer aye) stciece 42,000 00 eeu ls COUN DINE s 2.5) 04 eo ia iwc cie ne ew’ wn acne Soe ot .. 47,000 00 ere BUNTY Gr CO So. fone c aicfe, siaa'e ws ecee cies 2s wale aes 20, 000 00 LS EEAy VANSET YE1S017 ( CO 5, 500 00 aslo DETR GHENT CCST OLR: ee Ee oO ie a 55, 000 00 Gallup & Holmes .......5..55 SEER PIR E Pie dhe atev Sie br ae 70, 000 00 Gallup, Morgan & Co........ hy iea: Peer ee Tenet OU LOR ant hee 44,000 00 eet el OWLANG ss fo 20 3 ce hb Sine soe Hoe eie ie oiim ate 20, 000 00 mM ORT SR CORELO rater gaz geeks POI asic clsidla alee =aile'e We nieiere 30, 000 00 VETTES I OLE: MOG) Coa OY o18 An ea ec rg 25, 000 00 Lh Does DEVS ECS BS a al at er ag Se 8, 000 00 Pte spestanide Oil COMPAR, . 205.162 <- -dne c.ceise ciate ss oe 25, 000 00 COMORES 8) F fi S6s sols Soe ne Breet soe c eee enaiare! aye ze 2 50, 000 00 Eos Oil Wonks... 945523103. joie ees ee oe BIN is ds 130, 000 00 The George W. Miles Company (Maine) ........... ....- 59, 000 00 Wiens ecetetteters (Connecticut) ......- .--- 45, 000 00

TOME MEM er oes os se toe oS ia ale Palais coe veweese 5, 000 00 MM SUCHE SUCE cam ant aettde aaa fo ciate ss a ee we ea oe 3, 000 00 CRS Dp CUS tae Taek Ae = SRS A aac ye en 11,000 00 BEsmINe ENCTCE osc cu. sce be oe RN eek. t. 2 11, 000 00 Sainnepiac Fertilizer'Company -..-.0-...-. 2-228 .-« 110,000 00 MEINE OMCOMTNVVOLS oe. Sate wes ok S =. c- 2. 5 oct ceeee 42,030 00 SEE TIO CIN PANY co es ee acice tose wo oe oe sete 45, 000 00 Suan saint Georse Oil Works... . 2.0... 22sec cee enc oly 00000 Smith & Yarrington.......... Be Se bee wk ah eens 15, 000 00 Di HMMPRCMOD Ge OO ssc ccc cas occ c ae eke By Cag ie --- 21,000 00 LDS Veneer ie ons sin ic RM o.oo wae secniantetelaelesia= 10, 000 00

cop i. Wilson sees o2./. 3. Pe oO. sod eee peer’ 40;,000200

176 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Wialey &Coe 2.5 4.5 Cee ieee ets: n'a eee $15, 000 00 lisaacG. White ......2eoeeaoecrikises.s «4 -0(t eee Eee see 35, 000 00 NCES 86 CO: 5:2124. bei eeeet ery, th i< 2 d Be eee 2 Mseee sce 60, 000 00 lueander Wilcox Coreen. =~ - sse-e sesh eh see oe 30, 000 00 Gyros W. Smithnagtagos jc.) |. Pe aides soit siemee oe eee 7, 000 00 Westbrook Oil/@ompany ..... .. .2.-222 sees ee eee 1, 000 00 Eleven factories in Gardiner’s Bay, N. Y.....-..-..-.-0- 310, 000 00

The total amount here specified is $1,857,500. It should be noted that several companies are not reported.

Organization of the fishing gangs.

247. “In the early days of the business,” says Mr. Dudley, “the manu- facturers did not own the fishing-vessels, nor were they interested pecu- niarily in the fishery; they bought the fish from independent fishermen. This method was found unsatisfactory ; the fishermen sold to the high- est bidder, and the supply was uncertain. Of late years the company owns the vessels which supply it with fish. The crew work upon shares, as in other fisheries. In the settlement, at the end of the season, a sail- ing-vessel, with seine and gear, draws one-third of the net proceeds; a steamer, one-half; the remainder is divided by the crew, the captain receiving an ordinary share, in addition to which he is paid a salary by the company, either fixed or proportionate to the success of the season’s work. Itis not uncommon for a successful captain to receive a “ bonus” of $500, or sometimes $1,000. In settling the season’s account, the total catch is paid for ata rate proportionate to the yield of oil. In 1876, the Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company paid $1.25 per thousand. The company usually advances pay to the men to the extent of $1 a thousand, and at the end of the season a final settlement is made. The crew ofa sailing- vessel willaverage form $35 to $75 a month; the crew of a steamer some- what more.”

Advantages claimed for floating factories.

248. Floating factories are in use chiefly on Long Island Sound; in whose protected waters they operate to great advantage. They are now going out of use on account of the introduction of steamers. They are usually built upon the bull of some old vessel, and are towed from point to point, gathering the fish from the smacks and working them up into oil and guano asthey move. Some of them are fitted up with machinery for very extensive manufacture. Two important objects are attained by the owners of floating factories: the objection to their business arising from the offensive odor is to a considerable extent removed; by follow- ing the movements of the fish time and expense are saved, for by bring- ing the factory to the fish they obviate the necessity of having a fleet of lighters to carry the fish to the factory, which might often require two or three days. There are five of these factories; one owned at Mil- ford, Conn., and four at Greenport, N. Y. :

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. LUE

Mr. Goodale’s improved method.

249. I quote from Mr. Maddocks’s excellent little report the following account of an improved process devised by Mr. Goodale:

“ As now generally managed, the scrap remains in large heaps until shipped, in autumn or winter, to the points of manufacture into, or ip- corporation with, superphosphate. In this time a portion of the oil and water leaks away, so as to leave about 10 to 15 per cent. of the former, and 48 to 53 per cent. of the latter. The elimination of the water is an advantage, but the specified per cent. of oil is lost; and a portion of nitrogen is also lost, resulting from the partial decomposition of the mass, the formation and escape of ammonia. It were better, if practi- cable, to drive off the water at once upon withdrawal from the press, so as to prevent the loss in question.

“What has hitherto prevented the driving off of the water imme- diately by artificial heat has been the presence of so much oil, together with the gelatinous or gluey matter which is developed during the cook- ing, chiefly from the skins and bones. These render the process of dry- ing the scrap a very difficult and tedious one, so much so that compara- tively little has been put intoO market in that desirable form. The recent discovery of an easy and simple process for removing the larger part of the oil, and also at the same time the gelatinous hinderance to drying, gives promise of a speedy change in this respect.

“ While pursuing investigations relative to utilizing the menhaden as a source of concentrated food, before referred to, Mr. S. L. Goodale, well known as a chemist as well as for his eminent services to the State as secretary of the board of agriculture, found, by thoroughly washing the scrap as it came from the press, with sufficient hot water and agita- tion, that the oil globules were liberated from their entanglements in the flesh) tissues, and also from ‘the creamy mixture with the gluey matter into which they were forced by the pressing, so that the greater part of it could be readily recovered by draining and re-pressing; and also that after such washing the scrap would bear heavier pressure than at first without ‘ squirting.’ By this easy process the oil product is largely increased, the scrap is left free from the gluey hinderance to drying, and contains less water to be dried out.

‘Tt may appear strange that so simple a method should not have been discovered sooner, but such is the fact. Work had been done on both sides of it. MRe-pressing had been tried, using extra strong curbs, with very powerful pressure, but it failed to give satisfactory results. Re- cooking had been resorted to, which resulted in injury to the oil, and in the development of an additional amount of the gelatinous matter. It is now seen that a simple thorough washing in hot water accomplishes the desired end with neither of these objectionable results. Scrap made by this process last August (1877), and dried in the open air, was lately analyzed at the agricultural experiment station of Connecticut, and the Statement of the director, Prof. S. W. Johnson, of New Haven, shows

12 F

178 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

the proportion of moisture to be reduced to 11.45 per cent., or about one- fifth that contained in the serap fresh from the press, and the proportion of oil to 4.65 per cent., thus proving that the content of oil in the washed serap as it came from the press (before drying it) had been reduced to less than 25 per cent. According to these figures, the proportion of oil hitherto lost is, by the new process, reduced from an average of, say, 15 per cent. of the weight of the scrap as it commonly issues from the press, to about 2 per cent.; the balance, say, 12 or 13 per cent., is saved. Let it be assumed, however, that only 10 per cent. can be realized in prac- tice, and that the annual outtarn of scrap from the factories of the Maine Association is only 40,000,000 pounds. This would give an an- nual saving of 4,000,000 pounds of oil, or 533,000 gallons, worth at cur- rent prices at market for 1877, 40 cents per gallon, $213,200.”

Proposed chemical methods.

250. Other methods of extracting the oil from fish scrap have been proposed, but their adaptability is not yet so certainly proved as to war- rant their adoption by manufacturers.

The proposed plans involve the use of the fumes of benzine, or bisul- phide of carbon, which are brought into contact with the fish in air-tight chambers. The oil is absorbed by these substances, and collects in tanks in the floors of the chambers. Any surplus of benzine or bisulphide of carbon which may remain in the oil is expelled by distillation.

The naphtha process for extracting the oil, remarks Mr. Maddocks, consists in subjecting the scrap, in an inclined iron cylinder, to the action of vapors of naphtha, which combine with the oil, and the latter in a state of solution filters away at the lower end of the cylinder. The naphtha is then recovered by evaporation. The process is slow, costly, and dangerous.

Proposed mechanical methods.

251. It has been suggested that a recently invented filter-press, the invention of Mr. John Bowing, is well adapted for the extraction of oil from the menhaden and the formation of the residue into cakes. It is probably too small for the extended operations of manufacturers, but may be very serviceable for the use of refiners. Mr. C. B. Norton, 25 Astor House, N. Y., is the American agent.

44,_-VALUE OF FISH FOR MANUFACTURING PURPOSES.

Prices of fish at different seasons.

252. The price of fresh menhaden cannot be definitely stated, since it varies from week to week with the abundance and fatness of the fish and the needs of individual manufacturers.

Many factories rely entirely upon their own “ gangs” for their sup- plies; some others buy the fish of the vessels engaged in the trade,

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 179

though this practice is less common than it formerly was. Still every factory buys fish in greater or less quantity, and the answers to ques- tion 47 of the circular are important in exhibiting the variations in abundance at different points on the coast. Perhaps it may not be amiss to quote fully from the letters, it being quite impossible to tabulate the facts.

Mr. William H. Sargent, of Castine, Me., says: ‘‘ For four years past the average price has been 65 cents per round barrel.*

Jason Luce & Co., of Menemsha Bight, estimate that menhaden average from 225 to 240 in a barrel.t

In the report of the committee on statistics from the United States Association for the meeting of 1875, the estimate was put at three barrels to the thousand fish, or 333 fish to the barrel.

Captain Tuthill estimates 22 eubic inches to each fish, Captain Sisson 21, making three and one-half barrels to the thousand, In Long Island Sound the fish are sold by the thousand; farther east, always by the barrel.

Mr. Condon, of Belfast, estimates the price for 1873 at 60 cents; Mr. G. B. Kenniston, of Booth Bay, at 75 cents, stating that in previous years the price has ranged from 50 cents to $1.25. Mr. B. F. Bright- man says that in 1872 and 1873 the average has been 65 cents, but that when oil was high they have brought $1. Mr. J. Washburn, of Port- land, estimates the price at $1 for 1873; during the war, much higher. Mr. Eben B. Phillips estimates the price at from 60 to 70 cents in 1873, 56 in 1874, and about 60 in previous years. Fall fish, for trying, bring 40 to 50 cents in Wellfleet, Mass., according to Mr. Dill. At Nantucket, according to Mr. Reuben C. Kenny, the fish are worth from 50 to 75 cents as taken from the nets; only about half are used in the manu- facture of oil.

Mr. Church gives the average price on Narragansett Bay at 40 cents, and to this correspond very nearly the estimates of the southern shore of Cape Cod and the Vineyard Sound, which find market for their men- haden at the Narragansett factories.

Captain Crandall, of Watch Hill, R.1., thinks $2 to the thousand a fair estimate for 1873 and 1874. Captain Beebe, of Niantic, Conn., agrees with this, giving $2.50 for previous years. Mr. R. BE. Ingham, of Saybrook, says $1.25 to $2. Mr. Miles says that in 1873 the prices ranged from $1 to $2.50, according to the yield of oil. Mr. F. Lilling- ton, of Shatford, puts it, for 1875, at from $1.50 to $2. Captain Sisson, of Greenport, says that in 1873 the price was $2.25; in previous years, $1.75; in 1874 the price was lower. Collector Havens, of Sag Harbor,

*A “round barrel ” is a barrel of undressed fish, and weighs about 200 pounds. The number of fish in a barrel necessarily varies with their size. Estimates range from 150 to 280; but that made by Mr. Fairchild, at the meeting of the “ United States Men- haden Oil and Guano Association,” in 1874, is perhaps fair, putting four barrels to a thousand fish, or 250 fish to a barrel.

t Report United States Commission Fish and Fisheries, 1871-’72, p. 35. ;

180 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

N. Y., estimates it at 30 cents per barrel. In the vicinity of Atlantic City, N. J.. M. A. G. Wolf gives the price at $1.25 to the thousand; and Mr. Albert Morris, of Somers Point, at 39 cents per barrel (about $1.50 to the thousand). Mr. Hance Lawson, of Cresfield, Md., states that the Chesapeake factories pay 15 cents per bushel.* Mr. Dudley says that in 1877 the average price in the Chesapeake was 50 cents a thousand.

Prices proportionate to amount of oil contained in fish.

253. These prices are simply those paid for fish used in the manufac- ture of oil and guano, the prices of those sold for bait or food being given under other heads. No satisfactory conclusions can be drawn from these statements, except the very general one that the fish are more valuable on the eastern than on the southern coast of New En- gland; in Maine bringing from $2.40 to $3.20 to the thousand; on Long Island Sound, $1 to $2.25. As the expense of capture is necessarily as great in Southern as in Northern waters, we must seek the reason of the difference in price either in the methods of manufacture, the abun- dance of the fish, or in the intrinsic value of the fish for the purposes of the manufacturer.

Oil yield of Northern jish.

254. On the first arrival of the schools in Northern water the fish are thin and do not yield a large quantity of oil; but they rapidly gain un- til the time of their departure in fall, so that the late fishing is by far the most profitable. It is the general opinion of fishermen that North- ern fish yield a larger proportionate amount of oil than Southern.

Mr. Sargent, of Castine, Me., says that three quarts of oil to the bar- rel is the smallest yield he has ever known from the first school, and six gallons the most from the last school. When the fish are very poor, about the 1st of June, it takes 259 to make one gallon of oil; when poor, in July, 200; when fat, in August, 150; when very fat, in October, 100. About one ton of scrap is obtained in making three barrels of oil. Mr. Condon states that when the fish arrive in the spring they will produce but one gallon to the barrel, while in October the yield is four or five gallons; the average for the season being three gallons. Mr. Friend states that the least yield, in June, is two quarts to the barrel; the greatest, in August, four gallons. Mr. Kenniston states that May fish yield three pints to the barrel; October fish, six gallons and one-half. These are no doubt intended as the extreme figures. The average yield is two and one-half gallons to the barrel, an estimate in which Mr. Brightman coneurs, though placing the lowest at three quarts; the highest, in August and September, at four gallons. He estimates the yield of a ton of serap at thirty to forty gallons, according to the season. Judson Tarr & Co. put the early fish at less than a gallon, the Septem- ber fish at four gallons to the barrel. Mr. Babson thinks that the early

* About 50 cents per barrel, or $2 to the thousand.

ee

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 181

fish yield about a gallon, the last four gallons ; an estimate in which he is confirmed by Mr. E. B. Phillips.

Mr. Erskine Pierce, of Dartmouth, Mass., states that in 1877 the av- erage yield at his factory was 14 gallons to the barrel.

According to Mr. Church, the fish are fattest generally in the fall, though after a warm winter he bas known them after first arrival to yield 24 gallons. After a cold winter the opposite is true; and he has seen them so poor in the summer that out of one hundred barrels of fish not a pint of oil could be extracted. The first 18,000 barrels taken by Church & Co., on the coast of Maine, in 1873, did not make over 14,000 gallons of oil (about three quazts to the barrel). On Narragan- sett Bay, in 1873, the yield was 14 gallons less than on the coast of Maine; on Long Island Sound, half a gallon.

Mr. Reuben Chapman informed me that at his factory, on Mason’s Island, opposite Noank, Conn., the yield of early fish was sometimes as low as a gallon to the thousand, later in the season reaching fourteen or even eighteen gallons; which would be equivalent to five or six gal- lons to the barrel. :

Mr. Maddocks, writing of the Maine fish, states: ‘The yield of oil sometimes doubles, per head, in thirty days after their coming. The fish taken on the coast of Maine yield a considerably larger supply of oil than those taken at points farther south, around Long Island, off the Jersey shore, &c. The amount of oil per barrel of fish is there about one gallon, against two and a half here, for the whoie season in each case.”

And again: “The amount of oil realized varies from one gallon per barrel of fish early in the season to four or five gallons in September. The scrap contains, on the average, as it comes from the press, 55 to 60 per cent. of its weight in water, and sometimes more. ‘This is, of course, worthless for fertilizing purposes. It also contains from 12 to 20 per cent. of fat or oil, which.is equally worthless for manure.”

Mr. Dudley considers that the first taken in Long Island Sound yield, on an average, about 4 gallons to the thousand. At Pine Island it is somewhat greater; one season averaged 34, another 64. In 1877 the average to June 12 was 5 gallons; to November 1, 3 gallons. On No- vember 1 the fat fish made their appearance, and the average has since doubtless greatly increased. There is usually an increase in the yield of oil after July 1, but since 1874 this has not been the case in Southern New England. Mr. Dudley has cooked fish which would not yield a quart of oil to the thousand. Again, in November, the yield has been 18 gallons. It is the opinion of Mr. Dudley that dark oil only is yielded by fish taken in brackish water; light oil by those taken outside.

The George W. Miles Company, of Milford, states that the largest amount made by them in one factory in any one year was in 1871, when they produced 100,000 in about fifty working days; the largest quantity in the shortest time was 21,000 gallons in seventy-two hours, or 7,000

182 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

gallons to each day of twenty-four hours. In 1872 they produced 60,000 gallons, and in 1873 105,000 gallons in their two factories, one factory not operating all the time on account of a pending lawsuit.

According to Capt. J. L. Stokes of the Salt Island Oil Company, the average yield of oil is four gallons to the thousand, 9,000 fish making a ton of scrap. Captain Beebe and Mr. Ingham put the highest for the region about the mouth of the Connecticut River at eight gallons, or perhaps three gallons or less to the barrel.

Mr. Miles writes: ‘All depends upon the quality of the fish, whether fat or poor. In July, August, and September we only get fish that come into the Sound to feed, and they fatten after they get here. Ifthey are poor, we have the largest catch in June and July; if they are increas- ing in fat or yield of oil, we cannot capture them successfully until Au- gust and September. The fat fish in the Sound are usually wild and hard to take until late, perhaps owing to the fact that their food is plenty and low in the water. When the season is unusually dry, the fish are sure to be fat; but in a wet season they are found to be below the average in yield of oil. After the’ fish get here, if their food is plenty, they grow fat very fast. In the past season (1875), in May and June, one million of fish would make only 800 gallons ; in August, the yield was from 8 to 10 gallons per thousand, and in September, 10 to 12.”

At Greenport, in 1873, the average yield, on Captain Sisson’s estimate, _ was 8$ gallons to the thousand; the smallest yield, half a gallon in spring and late fall; the greatest, 22, in September and October; 8,000 fish make a ton of green scrap. Mr. Havens puts the lowest yield at one quart to the barrel, the highest at 4 gallons, an estimate much below Captain Sisson’s, which would make over 6 gallons to the barrel.

Hawkins Bros. estimate the lowest yield at one gallon to the barrel in midsummer, and 44 in October and ‘November, putting the average quantity of fish to the gallon at one-third of a barrel on Gardiner’s Bay, one-half at Barren Island, and 85 gallons to a ton of scrap on Gardiner’s Bay, 57 at the island.

At Atlantic City, N. J., according to Mr. A. G. Wolf, the average yield is 4 gallons to the thousand, the greatest in November, 11; a ton of scrap corresponding to 40 gallons of oil.

On Great Egg Harbor, states Mr. Morris, July fish yield one quart of oil to the barrel; those of October and November yielding 4 gallons. A gallon of oil is the average to each barrel of fish, and 45 gallons to a ton of serap.

The yield to each barrel of fish was thus estimated by Rhode Island manufacturers in 1877: Joseph Church & Co. and W. H. H. Howland, 1 gallon; Charles Cook, Job T.. Wilson, Isaac G. White, and James Manchester, 14 gallons; Isaac Brown & Co., 1,4; and William J. Brightman, 14.

Connecticut manufacturers are estimated as follows: The George W. Miles Company, 23 gallons to the thousand; Leander Wilcox & Co., 3

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 183

gallons; G.S. Allyn & Co., 33 gallons; Waley & Co. and Luce Brothers, 3} gallons; the Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company, 34 gallons; J. H. Bishop, 34 gallons; and Fowler & Colburn, 33 gallons.

New York manufacturers are estimated as follows: The Barren Island Manufacturing Company, G. H. Clark, W. Y. Fithian & Co., 24 gallons to the thousand; Smith & Yarington, 23 gallons; S. Jones & Co., 43 gallons; eleven feces in Gardiner’s Bey, 3 gallons.

New Jersey manufacturers are estimated as follows: Morris & Fifield, 2 gallons to the thousand; James EK. Otis, Griffen & Vail, Cyrus H. Smith, 24 gallons.

Maine manufacturers in 1877 were reported as follows: Albert Gray & Co., 13 gallons to the barrel; Gallup, Morgan & Co., 2509 gallons ; Fowler, Foot & Co., 24 pean Suffolk Oil Company, 24 gallons; R. A. Friend, 24 gallons; Gallup & Holmes, 24 gallons; Loud’s Island Company, 23 gallons.

M. Maddocks declares that on the coast of Maine “one hundred and ninety-five pounds of fish make a barrel. One barrel yields about two and a haif gallons of oil or eighteen and three-quarter pounds. One barrel yields about eighty pounds of chum or serap.”

Oil yield of Southern fish.

255. Mr. Kenniston makes the following statement: ‘ Corresponding with the successive appearance of the menhaden from South to North there isa progressiveimprovement in size and fatness. When they arrive in Chesapeake Bay, in the spring, they are thin and lean, and appear to be sluggish and stupid, so that they are easily caught—can almost be taken out by the hand along the shore, which many of them follow closely. Between Virginia and Maine the increase in weight is thought to be one-third. In the fall the increase still continues, but the order of it is reversed, the fish appearing to grow larger the farther South they go, and on reaching Virginia again are twice as heavy as in the spring, and have so gained in strength, swiftness, and wariness that they are very hard to catch.”*

Mr. Dudley tells me that from his experience of two years he knows that the first runs of fish in the Chesapeake are fat. This is in March and April.

Mr. A. C. Davis states that the June fish at Beaufort yield from 3 to 1 gallon, those in October and November 4 to 5 gallons.

Mr. W. I’. Hatsel, of Body’s Island, states that the average yield is 13 gallons to the barrel, 75 gallons to the ton of scrap.

Comparison of yield in different localities.

256. These statements indicate in a general way that the yield of North- ern is greater than that of Southern fisb, though the disparity is not so

* Boardman and Atkins, op. cit., p. 6.

184 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

greatin thelatter part of the season. Mr. Davis’ estimate for Beaufort is, however, not much below the average of the coast south of Maine, and it is quite possible that the apparent disparity of the yield on the Southern coast (of which we are not really entitled to judge with the meager re- turns before us) would be in part explained by differences in the modes of manufacture. Florida menhaden are many of them very fat in the winter season, and there is no apparent reason why the manufacture of oil and guano may not be successfully carried on on our Southern coast.

The official returns of manufacturers may add some additional facts in reference to the yield of fish in oil and guano and the comparative advantages of location.

The following table and statement, quoted from Mr. Maddocks, give a comparative view of the manufacture as carried on by the Maine As- sociation and by all the rest of the United States for the year 1876, the latest for which the data are at hand for the whole country.

: | ‘on ad No. of | No. of Tons crude

“stall No. of Total capi- Barrels Gallons oil Locality. men. | vessels. | steamers. tal. fish used. | manufactured. Batted Other States.-.-| 1, 629 291 3 | $1, 767, 000 826, 885 848, 727 29, 831 MAING eee ee eee 1, 129 29 43 983, 000 709, 000 2, 143, 273 21, 414

The most striking fact brought out in the comparison is that Maine realized, from 46 per cent. of the fish, 71 per cent. of the oil. To this it may be added that from the use of $983,000 capital Maine turned out a total product of $1,071,449 value, whereas the rest of the country realized $637,600 from $1,767,000.

45. STATISTICS OF THE MANUFACTURE GF OIL AND GUANO. Returns for the State of Maine.

257. The number of gallons of oil produced at the factories of the Maine Association during the past five years is as given below:

1873 2045, Boke BEA 26 is ya sie sa ee 1, 204, 055 P8742 inkl eee!) ol aaa ale 1, 931, 037 IST 201, ee eee i i 5: MME Ty MI Soe 1,514, 881 STG: f2hcas:leicee ie e tol as ieee atcielk a ee 2, 143, 273 1G RS SS Permit! Aly) a ae 1, 166, 213

Potale i... -see Arga6cs So ASO RAB ASN OAS Se 4 au sae 7, 959, 459

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 185

Table showing average number of vessels employed in fisheries of Maine Association.

Name. : | Address. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877.

L. Brightman & Sons .....-.. Round’ Bond Werte. eases. a) 3 3 OF Il de Se Juadson, Tarr & Co.........-. Pemaquids Mere =ssee-nsas=- 2 i I eos Ae ee ee ee Albert Gray & Co ...-....... Roun iPond}Mereesa-eeeas ss 1 1 1 iL 1 Jos. Chureh & Co...-.. See [siasn =O ane cee ee ee steeeeeaisicinn 2 3 2 2 2 Gallup, Morgan & Co........| East Baothiay, Wiese sooneaod 3 2 2 it eae W. A. Wells &Co............ South Bristol, Me .....-....-. 3 2 1 Sas neo Gallup & Holmes..-.-......... East Boothbay, MOS epee cise 3 4 Qi lis seat sas es Kenniston, Cobb & Co......-. Booey, Wi\sssonaseHoson ses 4 5 5 AN Gece ce PAPA ULC OU OM PANY, =. 2655|-s-eedOmsn a= -ewee st niseiecenane 6 Bl Secse sed cmos mal seccecice Round Pond Oil Works .....-. Road: Pond, Mecasesnecsea= 3 6 3 4 4 VINTON OM WVOLICS: ....<\-\-0 5500 |\cen~ee (eee pan Ssespecceasccel becoseee asoceees 2 2) Sees Delo Oil Works: ... 3...) 2224|-s<20 WOy sc tc cc neon cee eee 5 CN eerie 3 if! Loud’s Island Oil Works .--.]...--- Op. 3-55 fussteessueenes 2 2 2 3 2 I pPARRHCICICL <cis.00:~ cceic sane Brook!in, hfe s23 ao ee Wh leee sesee

prin OCOl ee. cenecase ] a54 SOUL Bclstol, M6: oo oacseeeen laeee eee eens. 1

J. G. Nickerson & Co........ Hodedonis) Mills; Mess: ease. |paneenee ee ctcce 5

DOHMH aShiNeTs == sees ee oles Round Pond? M6... oes sae oeeenen ae Gace 3

Fowler & Footo ....-.....---- South Bristol, M6 oo 22s saseses (Neemeere laters. 2

George W. Miles & Co..-...--].---.- CONE coin ccs ceiee cicune see ae | eeeteeree | eee aioe 2

RGD) Vs WaBON, enna eee aoe see Ble PET IMGs ~ oe oe oc asec stee | eee ee Reece lecteicis ao)

Pemaquid Oil Company..-.--- PeMAGUICN NC). oo sac cncsace Dot eeee leece asec laseeoees

Browns Core Ou Company.) Round Pound, M6. -....ccscas)|nseeeeen|eeelee see |eeaienee:

Mnddoexss Oru Orksess.-- =| bootnbay, Me. - -2.22.5- cece ce| sactesee| pee aemeltwas seer

South Saint George Oil Works) South Saint George; Mes... 5/055. sole gene |eae malate

Table showing amount of capital employed by manufacturers of Maine Association. Name. Address. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877.

L. Brightman & Sons ........ RomNd Pond yMe= ance 22< =) 390, 009 |390, 050 |360, 000 $110,000) $90, C00 MBUSONLaArl 66 COc2s an zac IRemaquids MG es se1 sae sc. CLOSOOON EON OOON RE aaron | meee eee ee Albert'Gray & Co ..2....5-.- Rpm) eb WG aeeeaeose 28, COV | 55, COO | 59, 000 | 45,000 | 55,000 Jos.Church & Co...---.-..--| -.--- UD as es otek te ee id 120, 000 |120, 00.) |145, 000 |153, 000 | 200, Goo Gallup, Morgan & Co ........ East Boothbay, Me.-.-..---- 19,000 | 24,000 | 31, C00 | 35,000 | 44, 612 W.A. Wells &Co....-..----- South Bristol; Me ....---.---. 27, 000 | 35,0C0 | 40,000} 40,000 | 60, 0C0 Gallup & Holmes ............| East Boothbay, Me........... 22, 000 | 25, 000 | 50,000 | 54,000 | 70, 000 Kenniston, Cobb & Co .....-- Booklbey, IMG sso 52. senseo sees 27, 000 | £0,000 | 25,000 | 25,C00 | 25, 000 Aina tie On Gompaniye= soso |po-a-- Olde. cc se accece scence G5, 0CO |LO0, COO | 140, 000 |135, C00 |.....---. Round Pond Oil Works...--- oana! Bond Messsesqseecce- 16, 000 | 18, 0U0 | 20,600 | 12,000 | 21,000 BeISLOl OU WiOLKS' sc... 3-252 |225= =~ AOprscmscas = scemesemcee te 22,000 | 20, C00 | 22,000 | 16,000 | 35,000 Sutffollc OiliWorks--. 0. .cc0.|--cee omer ete eete a sire ces 55,000 | 55,000 |....-... 30,000 | 45, 000 Loud’s Island Oil Works ....|.----- GOS fe aeeceeae siemceeress 6,500 | 8,600} 8,000) 8,000} 25,000 RAG Wren) o522 So cncce we oc, BROOK MOehea.s ss. 5s2 sesen5 wesesee- 6) 500!) S25. ean Ses oeee | eeeoace PAU Ss COs seca. + 2 anita = 5 South Bristol Mees=2-2..2sslbaasecn lesa er 28,000 | 38,000 | 42,000 J.G. Nickerson & Co .....--. HodsdoniseMiallss Meso. 4-255 \eostce sal sae -o- GONO00) eo aeee Seer. John Hastings) 2 222... Round Pond Mes 2-225 sas cce- os ceieor|| Geist 25 23000) |2a 52 seen oss Howlers Hoote:=-2---- ..-2<- South UBrIstul (M6 =s5-— 40 leeoaee eee aeaae 36,000 | 48,000 | 42,000 George W. Miles & Co-.......|.----- iE Ae AS eo5 ss csnee co otleseeeeeelieacieas 57, 000 | 57,000 | 59, 600 F261 OC BACT AS (0 0 i BiIneveWSMewes.c. <cseecneee Rasceeee| So aseaee SO OOO Sis. 2 olleeee ae Pemaquid Oil Company Lee Poem nquidMhloes ons s2a55 es cee yenmonca seses=ctllesece ae £10, 000 | 100, U00 Brows Gove: OlCompany__|) hound bond, Me) ce... seer lea eece sale seen 2: enaen as 15, 000 | 23, C00 Maddocks’ Oil Works....--.. IBSot abaya Oaaee 252 ee cerns ae lesee ear |Meetecciee|t sa cce=s|cesenace 150, 060 South Saint George Oil Works} South Saint George, Me......| .-..-..|.--..--.| --.----|-------- 37, 060

Table showing average number of tons of crude guano produced by the manufacturers of Maine Association.

Name. Address. 1873. 1874 1875 1876. 1877. L. Brightman & Sons ......-. Round Ponds Mere ss 6.2 cs ee 1,500) |. ‘2; 600 |. 2,500) | 1), 450) Bees. Puaason arm co CO. --.n6-4--- Pemaquidsate mM sacce cs soscce- 1800) |" 42: 150) | Sacer erent Albert Gray & Co .......---- Round Pond, Me.....--.....- 750 | 1,30} 1,680] 1,300 800 POR MO HUTCIY Os OOo n= asco aeen|to-ean CO Vas ee se nee ee ems 2,100 | 4,000} 4,500} 6,000 5, 400 Galiup, Morgan & Co........ East Boothbay, Me......-.--- 680 900} 1,016} 1,100 700 \Wea Wells . (oa Oy, Ree eee South Bristol; Me: -...22..<-- 700 $090 519 1, 600 562 Gallup & Holmes............ East Boothbay, Me..-..-..---- 470 790 990 | 1,230 1, 500 Kenniston, Cobb & Co......-. Poerey, IM Gea nese ae e 615 850 714 ZB) oeroudoe Marat OnlCompuny) 6. 2c) | 2-0 2 doe. seine ees 1,200 | 2,450} 2,000} 1,595 ].... ... Round Pond Oil Works..-.-.. Seen ondiMe---- 450 850 550 660 150 BRISLOU OW WiOLKS) .2.<5.c0cee0|. 2-5 <0 GOP ete ete eee cacceas- 600 800 £00 8.0 600 Smokes WOES 2. ..-.0ci00|.5-55 G0) RE BRSGS - - OnE eee 1, 300 950) besos 850 740 Loud’s Island Oil Works.....!.----- On eet eh isiccisie saci 200 500 CANN) | ee 275 gy iit | Brooklin, Vie en ee a eee ae ees | Peciscictas ellis aieis s:ste pL bp EPL, (°C a Southebristol le... 4.2. 22: sentees | eer eee 509 825 800 J.G. Nickerson & Co ........ Hodzdon’s Milla Mo. -- 25. .2:|. =. eee Pao leeecleee = |= 25 Siena John Haghines: 2252.50 54.'5.. Round Pond, Me.......-.---.- aeateetsa leon acta ANO; betwee 24|e 25-2052 Fowler & Foote.............. South Bristol, Moe .< -....- =. 5. nese eee eeeeeree 459 825 562 George W. Miles &-Co.-.....|...-.-. i: aes coool aa @50 | 1,121 725 wou re. Wilson aes ess: Blnestinlienviee sc. -s.-.2cccene | sneer aeons SON ayes s-'| see eet Pemaqui d Oil Company ...... Pemaquid, 1. eed | Ie Se. 21) a Soca loge aetee 2, 000 1, 900 Brown's Cove Oil Company.-| Round Pond, Me......-.--.-- Scie iy aoe Bee Lid" |-eesees Maddocks’ Oil Works. -....-.. | Boothbay, i. pupa | 1" ee al em 1, 600 South Saint George Oil Works South Saint George, Me.....-|.-...-..|.--...-.|--------|------- 352

186 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Table showing average number of barrels of fish taken by fleet belonging to Maine Association.

Name. Address. 1873. 1874, L. Brightman & Sons -......- Roundueond: Me... sscmeeces 49, 000 | 82, 000 dudson, arr & Co. .-.------. Pemaquid, Me .<--5.-2----e-- 61, 000 | 67, 000 Albert Gray & Co....-------- Round! Pond, Mey -2-- 2-4-2 -- 25, 000 | 46, 0CO Joss Chureh ds Cops ces-e eee BPR coin cee ee ae eee 86, 000 138, 000 Gallup, Morgan & Co ......-- East Tasihibay: M@n -eecceene za 000 29) 472 W.. A. Wells & Co....------.- South Bristol, Me .......----- 22,913 | 30, 000 Gallup & Holmes .-...--. Live oe East Boothbay, M6hseeeoe ee 15, 000 | 25, 000 Kenniston, Cobb & Co..-....- Boothbay, Meese seer tee et 18, COO | 28, 339 Aulantic Oil Company ..-.---|.----- OEE Meee en santo cakasse 43,600 | 64, 000 Round Pond Oil Works .----- Round) Ponds Mer ss-se-eeece 16, 500 | 27, 000 BristoliOuaworkseeeseeeeeceal|- ose. OO coc ee ee Lee 22.000 | 33, 000 Saiolk,OuaWorksiseesaeece s+ sos coe QO cscs wsceeeeecseeceecee 41, 000 | 29, 000 Loud’s Island Oil Works. .-...|.----- dO 4 SSe25 tonsa aseoceeecce 8,000 | 15, 000 IR yAGBiriend peeeeeercans se =: Brooklin) M6: 4 voc-cns-ccesealeesaee- 8, OUU Mathie onesies Seton cae Sonth Bristol NMler= s-ceee eee las see J.G. Nickerson & Co .......-. Hod edonis Malis SNielee seme eee seen peeeeeer JOhnPEASHOES sess. 2 cel. Bound Pond) Me fea. eeeeeces| asec ati 5 eer Howler @&ptootes.---.------- South Bristol, MG (oct oa coerce eaen ae wal mete ate George W. Miles & Co...----|.----- OO wih. ey aes oe eeee ese are hoeele maleate oterere GODREMIWaLISOMs = oe c cece A Galore SONNE Ce ee orercases 4 sas5esor| sectmon Pemaquid Oil Company ------ PemaquidSie! Qo25-ac ches anlescieseres| seit Browns Cove Oil Company --|| Round Pond, Meso oo a secesieeseee es |e == 2 Maddocks’ Oik Works. --..-- Boothbay Mor sac ceeee eee ener | see South Saint Georgo Oil Works) South Saint George, Me...--- | shaded Saaeeeee

1875. 1876. 1877. 83,000 | 48, 000 |.....--- 53,000 | 45,000 | 27, 000 153, 000 (201, 000 | 182, 000 29, 545 | 34,763 | 25, 760 28, 000 | 30,000 | 19, 200 32,000 | 40,900 | 51, 847 Zi b2au| 14, 474 || sees JO O00L) 51, B78) so nse. 18,000 | 22,000} 5,500 24,000 | 25, 653 22, 500 ee 26,916 | 22, 200 12,300 | 13,000 | 9, 600 16, 583 | 27,960 | 27,176 43.6207 | Possess lseees cee 145000 i) peemee eee 16, 600 | 26,230 | 17, 721 25, 000 | 37,000 | 20, 000 (0;400%)\. 22s Seale eee Hatt eee) 60,000 | 64,031 eect 0,000) ae oeeee Cees aay he Ea Ran 51, 610 Hike ons See 13, 000

Table showing average number of gallons of oil produced by manufacturers of Maine Asso-

ciation.

Name. Address. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. L. Brizhtman & Sons ..-..-- RoundsPond wie sessscemeee ae 135, C00 |260, 000 | 20, 000 ieee O00} eens Judson Aarne COV seen. s—=- PemeaquirdeMicwes--.seeeeae Mc OOO%} 2005 COON | Ser Se = al ae tenes | eer Albert Gray é:\ Coss. -25-=- Bound Pond) Mes sstes5 sees 70, 000 |153, 665 |135, 000 |129,000 | 44, 000 wos. Churchid&! Cotesseos-s2--|.==se. -----------|250, 000 |450, C00 |446, 000 ‘600, 000 | 365, 781 Gallup, Morgan & Co ....-.--- Fast OG ‘hbay, Me Re As sA 55, 0GO | 8x, 264 | 75,017 \111,018 | 47, 880 WieAre WViGLIS: c| COssea- ~~ scene South) Bristol; Me--.-2723.2- (2, 060 | 93,000 | 76, 060 87, 600 40, 000 Gallup & Holmes ..---.....-- East Boothbay, ING eee 45, C00 | 71,000 | 86,000 185, 555 | 121, C00 Kenniston, Cobb & Co...---- Booullbays NUCE eens eer 93,200) | 84, 108) | 56; 656: |) 39) 500) }2 25.222. Atlantic Oil Company --.=--5-|-=--=- COR as ca aos ens 120, 000 |193, OUO 140, 000 199),0001| <seeuee Round Pond Oil Works..---- Round Pond! Me 222222-2se-- 43,2595 | 87,000 | 45,000 | 72, 000 8, 500 SrIStOlOUMNVOrkKss-=225s2 420 Jee eos CS SR eae Reece aerciceicec D5, O00 |1.02, 000 | 70,000 | 80. 000 53, 500 Sufrolk OWNWiorks:. 2-2-2222 sse-== (hecesemnpcideiesss prs aac: 120, C00 | 8 3, O00! |/S22ese- 82,200 | 51,000 Loud’s Islazd Oil Works .--.|------ (OR eR erinnaeeDaososso sau 20, 000 | 44,000 | 30,000 | 28,000 | 15, 680 RAGS TION aoe osetia ee cain Broolk:lin; (Mee sesascscee sone el |ecs (ee 222,000) ||. 8 Sane eloaeccee | paeeeeer apni ee COs 822s 2ees Sees: South Biistoll Mer sea. seese. | oss ser teaser ae 48,428 | 89,000 | 65, 000 J.G. Nickerson & Co ..-...-- FodpdonisiMirllsts Meee sas me nls cece | Peeenr 114) 380) /s-82 5-6 (fe eee POUMEEASHINGS oss. -2.2- cl <- Round ond Mer etre ese seceeeee|e ee 37000" |S se ae: | eee Fowler & Foote....----..---- Southey BcistolSMewmesscees=s-5\|- eee |eeeeeee 36, 400 | 85,000 | 39, 872 George W. Miles & Co....--. (CO.as secceccocaecoen secu seeaeneel seerees 71, 060 '124,700 | 45, 000 ODES WAUSOM ten 2>= =< == -'-=- - Blue Hill We 2 2 ecet22 ccc el eactesa 2s |seeG se 28; 000g ae: sacle tee Pemaquid Oil Company....-. Pem aquid, Mio. 5555 a2% sae adllecsoeeee| nec ecte esl meeoeees 180, 000 | 130, 000 Browss CoverOuGompany -.|| Round Pond, Me -22-..5--s22n|\s2eeeclee||2-=ee 2 eeeiaes 151000 easter Maddocks’ Oil Worlss.- ..--- Boothbay, Maire 28h Cathe ell ia yc ATS ia) ONO ere a 118, 00 South Saint George Oil Works) South Saint Geormre: Mo soo esp aoe sale een | eres eee ere 21, 000

Table showing average number of sicamers employed in fisneries of Raine Association.

Name. Address. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1576. 1877. L. Brightman & Sons ......- round Pond, Me... .---ccecas~ 3 4 4 Acct Ss udson, Marr & Cou. -ss-ssee Pera mi Ne) So =e cote 4 4 32325228 Seance | Sees wAlbert, Gray & Co...--.5---- ROMMOP EON PMG 2 2-2 oe celniee i 2 3 3 4 wos, Church & Cov. 2-2. s=sn ieee Come. Ree erersieehc 4 4 5 ma 8 Gallup, Morgan & Co.....-.. East Boothbay, 110 a ae |e a ese ets 2 2 W.A,. Wells & Co ..-.--..--- South Bristol, Me .-.-...---- 1 1 2 2 3 Gallup & Holm-s ..-.......--| East Boothbay, IMO Saas. 0 4|Vecemsed|Nateetste 2 3 4 Ienniston, Cobb & Co ......- IBGObMD AWM eerie ats a5] Sects] sec aan = aol Dee eeaee Atlantic Oil Company ..---..|.----- OF atotee ses a2 oe taal ha: 1 3 6 ill Rep paccs Round Pond Oil Worgs...-- Round PondeMenesose sacs e|Caencmect eens Ieiscens/||aene cee eens Bristol Oil Works 222 5-.>ea524|sesse7 CGE ao eer eceaceo 2 2 1 il 3 Suro MRTOW AV OLS aes see eee OO ARE SG Sear Con OCL ane 1 TF eee 2 2 Loud’s Island Oil Works...-..|.----- GO ieee ee oe aemnimaieine a seca ee: eam orem, ferme SS. | ears 1 FEPAUHE PLO eet a.cccine cinta Bronklin Meh sesses tesa ed come dl tae ccc onl closers 4] Se eee eee Mtn AA COE cio ccc nmcence South Bristol Mets caeere== 26sec esta ore 1 2 6) J.G. Nickerson & Co ......- Mode don'suNinlls Mice sree elas ereiee alee =e. BD eee eres s- JODMIAWAISON. coset oc oecnc Blue Meese eee eam ae cae eeioc ces 14). 225 ees Pemaquid Oil Company..---- PemaqnitiMe sao cset sere cones arene oe Sa cee 4 5 Brown’s|CovelOil'Company --| RoundPond) Meseeeeessee- a4 |e- anes ee lise eee access Pease soe A icl ete SENS pele e a as eee ws I ee a SR vey es See etry He Me ae || coco ea Meee Fowler & Foote ....--..-.... South Bristol Mie) eesesc onda lee cen eee 1 2 2 George W. Miles & Co.......|...--. Os 52 ne SCORE ee Sates eal Saat eel aecec'cne 2 2 2 Maddocks’ Oil Works. -..-.-- Booth Bay, “NESS caer p| 2 seco | ONE eT Ae 6 South Saint George Oil Works| South Saint GeorgenMles aa. 22) heke.o select cen see toca eeeeeeer 2

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 187

Table showing aggregate number of men employed in fisheries of Maine Association.

Name. Address. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. L. Brightman & Sons .....--- sound) Pond Me -sesess--e == 80 80 96 60 (*) Tudsapelarn ss CO. -ass+-----| Pemaquid, Mores—-=--e.. =. 60 BO)" ||: nate |Poaececeleean asc Albert, Gray d& ‘Co... 2.22.2 Round Pond yioseseee- heen. 15 24 40 50 59 dosmobunen’ 6 Cols: 5. s2 5.52: ..--5- do Jee RODE A AEaAE 60 70 100 120 140 Gallup, Morgan & Co.....-. East Boothbay, th. ee 27 27 37 735 23 W.A. Wells & Co.-.-...----- South Bristol More--.-+----- 25 20 32 30 40 Gallup & Holmes .-........-- East Boothbay, MGsee ance cece 36 5U +50 40 60 Kenniston, Cobb & Co....-.. Boothbay, Me= 22 s-cceee- oe 50 (*) Atlantic Oil Company .......] .---- ho ereeerns ese 22 03 Bs ees 4 y Round Pond Oil Works..---.- Round Pond, Me. . BTIGIOUOMNY OLS) 222s 5oc.ec|leseane GOb 45 = J.cee eee eee 3 Sat OME VW OCK 62250 occlltecet GOs new. sree ee eee at Loud’s Istand Oil Works.....| ----- G0). 52-3) See eee RAS Mriond .<-- .. . Sditeedee iBrookliny MO te2c-cessemeeee PMU Ce CO .s0--.<coscecce South Bristol, Me J.G. Nickerson & Co ......- Hodegdon’s Mills, Me PHM EASUIN FS) <<a \5 sie gloat Round Pond, Me Fowler & Fuote...-...--..-.- South Bristol, Me GHOraonWe Niles @COmeceoea|seeeenGOr ...-. 22.225 cakes ODE WalsOn Vacances eek es IBinesehnI Me 32. coca oe seu eee eee Pemaquid Oil Company..---. Pemaquid, Me-.------ Brown's Cove Oil Company --| Round Pond, Me Madtdocks’ Oil Works. - -. Boothbay, Meh. 2s. 4.te os ei South Saint George Oil Works| South Saint George, BO RRR ees Fl none i Cone et eae eee 26 * Not operated. t Hodgdon’s Mills, E. B. Table showing aggregate number of men employed in factories of Maine Association. Name. Address. | 1873. 1x74. 1875. 1876. 1877. L. Brightman & Sons ......-. Roandsebond) Mees-e-eec-- => 30 40 45 40 (*) Judson. ‘arr & Co..--.---.:- Bemainidy WiGeesseseceesees- g S00): 2 See eashaee|o-ehenee Alberti Grivd Co. . 225-5555. Round Ponds Mesos e5 scene 17 20 30 30 30 PGE GhurehieWO co. 22:c02—22 22225 2 Ome ee aN eteecie Seta 50 70 80 50 60 Gallup, Morgan & Co....... East Boothbay, Me ..-..-.--. 9 13 t17 15 15 Wma Wellsids COslceec cect. South Bristol, Moneta 15 16 17 18 12 Gallapié; Holmes 222 =: 3.522. East Boothtay, Me ..-..-.---. LOM} 12 18 18 20 Kenniston, Cobb & Co-....-.. Boothbay, Messes2---se--en2- 11 10 12 17 (*) Atlantic Uil Company..-.-.--.|.----- Oj) Roper ee a otetce aces: 24 20 25 20m ae sees tound Pond Oil Works...--. Round!Pond,, Mes. 2.2 ..-----. 15 15 16 15 15 STS tOMOM=EWOLKS) 2.520206 soe |bacene ose eee ee 15 16 2c 13 15 Suffolk Oil Works -.........- East Boothbay, IMiGus se sn one 16 16. Ween see 15 18 Loud’s Island Oil Werks. ---. RoundePonds sMGs.2 sce .cee 3 10 12 9 12 12 Lie wale J irates G Mee See ee Brooklin, Sy AE ESE aaa Fea a gO A Beer ec aece a Oeeceace ETL Oe ee ES fa (il ay TES ahs 0d WI eye ea el See | ee il 14 13 J.G. Nickerson &Co....:.-.-- TS (Cad Yaes (oyaaH Sh AT NS NY (Cap come el Ol eee G8 | cea ietee cee cee JolnvEastines!>=2-.55-—-2-2- RONNIE CUO MCh eens acon nee eaters eras eee IS) | peel oon ssoce Fowler & Foote..----.<.....- ent BS ETO seers all opicto ay ne | zcace-cioe 18 14 13 SPT TE NaS Se (Oa aaa) ee Ee a ee eel Coe er Rear 15 20) 15 DOme WIHEON- == es. 2 cence es - Blue “Till, i oc i eel a te a ae 713) lGaeaneee||acincae se Pemaquid Oil Company..-.-. Pemaquid, TUE ee ee iol |i = 268 A ie il a ee 40 +30 rowan sicoveOil Company—-| Round) Pond: Meé:-..<.iso2sec)|- sconces ess kc |sosee~ d= 12 (*) Maddocks’ Oil Works. --.---- \eBoeth bays Nierenonaae meer ale en emane eee cea sa cae sell: ose sate 20 South Saint George Oil Works| South Saint George, Me.-.--.| .--.-.--|.------- yadseas||esoscose 12 * Not operated. + Hodgdon’s Mills. { Bristol, Me.

Tuble showing statistics of the manufacture of oil and guano in the State of Maine.

1871.| 1872. 1873. 1874. 1875. | 1876. 1877. Mamoer OL tactOTIes:. 225.0]: 20 2) noosa 13 14 17 17 18 Number of sail-vessels....|......]....... 38 37 36 29 13 Manber ot ateamors: 2.0../.-2.-.)..-. 72. 17 22 31 43 48 Number of fishermen.....|......]......-. 533 56L T7L 758 727 Number of factory bands | .....].-...... 249 304 373 7 300 Number of men—total....|....-.|.-..... 782 865 1,144 1, 129 1, 027 Capital in factories’: =...) -2..<|l.-05-.- $278, 500 $316, 000 $397, 000 $431, 000 $459, 812 Gameaeini coat. 2.0.22. -\ecs: olde =. 2. $335,000 | $390,500 | $482,009 | $552, 000 $623, 810 Gaeta cl ._.|....--|...-2... $613, 500 $705, 500 $879, 009 $983, 000 | $1, 083, 612 Number of fish (bbls). SBSES Momence 429, 413 621, 861 635, 771 709, 000 » $57, 145 Mpetemon Hen (M)s.5-...|50---2|.2----. 143, 137, 616 |207, 237, 000 |211, 923, 666 |238, 333, 000 | 185, 715, C00 Geir 261i Gr!) 22S ae ed eee ee 1, 204, 055 1, 931, 037 1, 514, 881 2, 143, 273 1, 166, 213 Tonsroteuanee see yee. 16, 000 12, 965 19, 295 19, 395 21, 414 16, 666

Returns for the United States.

258. The following table, compiled from data furnished by Mr. Jasper Pryer, shows in detail the statistics of manufacture by some of the prin- cipal establishments:

REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

138

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IISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN.

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19¢ k#®PORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

The following table shows the aggregate statistics for the United States for a period of five years:

Table showing statistics of the manufacture of menhaden oil and guano in the United States im the years 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, and 1877,

(Compiled from the Annual Reports of the United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association.]

1373. 1874. 1575, 1876. 1877.

Number of factories in operation.....--. 62 64 60 64 56 Number of sail-vessels employed .-.-..---- 383 223 304 320 270 Number of steam-vessels employed..-..-- 20 25 39 46 53 Number of men employed is fisheries .- -. 1,109 UU eepeeoceeses |lsossncanocc: |laoosacenac Number cf men employed in factories . - . 1,197 D560) -casebcadcrns|\ eat ne ceed Peete oe ae Total number of men employed .-..-.--- 2, 308 2, 438 2, 633 2, 758 2, 631 Amount of capital invested -.-----.-...- $2, 38%, 000 | $2,500, 000 | $2, 650, 000 | $2,750,006 | $2, 047, 612 NUM Berofash taken 52. jsescmen eee 397, 700, 000 |452, 578, 0CO |563, 327, 000 1512, 450, 000 | 587, 624, 125 Number of fish taken (estimated in bar-

THE) 3 cag OSS SES Coe eee ee ee eee 1,193,100 | 1,478,634 | 1, 877, 767 | *1, 535, 885 1, 958, 747 Number of gallons of oil made .-........| 2,214,800 | 3,372,637 | 2,6=1,487 | 2,992, 0U0 2, 426, 5€9 Number of tons of guano made.......--. 36, 299 50, 976 53, 625 51, 245 . 55, 444 Number of gallons of oil held by manu-

facturers at the end of the year ....... 424, 520 648, 000 125, 000 264, 000 94, 000 Number of tons of guano heli by manu-

facturers at the end of the year -....- 2, 700 5, 200 1, 850 7, 2% 2, 840 Waluelot oilvat 37 Cents: 2. --chnesce enone $819, 476.) $1, 247, 950 $992, 140 | $1, 107, 040 $997, 838 Walneloh guano;at wll 2 oee-ac-es-eeeea ee $399, 199 $560, 736 $589, 875 $503, 695 $609, 884 Total value of manufactured products. ..| $1, 218, 675 | $1, 808, 686 | $1, 582, 015 | $1, 670,735 | $1, 607, 722

* The Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter for January 9, 1877, gives this as 1,708,166.

A comparison of the yield of the whale and other fisheries.

259. In 1875, the total amount of sperm oil from the American whale fisheries was 1,000,951 gallons; of other whale oil, 1,414,186 gallons; in all, 2,505,137 gallons. The amount of menbaden oil for the same year was 2,618,487 gallons, an excess of 176,350 gallons. In 1874, the amount of menhaden oil was 3,372,837 gallons, exceeding that of whale oil by 1,115.597 gallons.

In 1876, 2,990,000 gallons of menhaden oil were made, and in 1877, 2,426,000, For the year ending June 30, 1877, the production of whale oil was 2,140,047 gallons, and for the year 1877, 2,151,765 gallons.

In the “ Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter” for January 14, 1874 (page 4), the following statement is made:

‘it is asserted that while the amount of oil produced is equal to that derived from the whale fisheries in this country, the menhaden interest is ahead of the whale, for though the menhaden oil sells at a less price per gallon, for every barrel of oil made there is three-quarters of a ton of scrap, which readily commands $15 per ton at the factory.”

This is not true. In 1874, for instance, the value of the sperm oil alone was $1,250,987; that of other oils from the whale fishery, $775,919. Total value of oils from the whales, $2,026,906; the value of the total products of the whale fishery, $2,291,896.

By way of further comparison, the cod and seal-oil fishery of New- foundland and Labrador may be instanced. The latest figures at hand show the product of the seal-oil fishery to be 1,500,C00 gallons, and of the cod-oil fishery 900,000.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 191

Comparison of yield of nitrogen from Guano Islands.

260. The refuse products of the oil-factories, together with the fish used in a crude state for manure, are estimated to have yielded in 1875 over 10,000,000 pounds of ammonia in the best possible organic forms. This quantity of ammonia is equivalent to at least 60,000,000 pounds of Chincha Island guano, formerly imported from Peru, the gold value of which would be not far from $1,920,000.

In addition to ammonia, the phosphate of lime derived from this source and convertible into agricultural products amounted to nearly 1,430,000 pounds, which is the equivalent of nearly 60,000,000 pounds of Peru- vian guano.

Associations of oil and guano mauufacturers.

261. The Association of the Menhaden Oil and Guano Manufacturers of Maine was formed in the year 1870. The objects were such as are usually sought by organizations of the sort—harmony of action on points affecting the common welfare of the business, social acquaintance, and the communication of information as to improved processes, etc. The annual meeting is held the second Tuesday in January of each year. The United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association was organized in 1873. The annual reports of these societies are given in full in Appen- dix L.

46. THE USES OF MENHADEN OIL AND THE OIL MARKET. The uses of menhaden oil.

262. The uses of menhaden oil are manifold. It is chiefly employed as a substitute for the more costly and popular oils and to adulterate them. It is sold largely to tanneries for currying leather. After the hide has been ‘dressed,” 7. ¢., after its coarser fleshy parts have been pared off, the oil, mixed with tallow, is applied. This is technically called “stuffing,” and results in qualifying any residue of alkali left from the “liming” process, and in filling the pores, and softening the leather. Mr. L. C. d’Homergue states that this oil is largely used in the tan- neries of Russia.

A considerable quantity is used as a burning oil in coal-mines to fill the small lamps, one of which is fastened to the cap of each miner. It is then mixed with parafiine or some of the heavier oils. Some is also sold to be used in the manufacture of rope. A small quantity is used annually for lubricating purposes, but, on account of its gummy nature, it is not much in favor among machinists.* It is used in adulterating linseed oil, and is also sold as a substitute, its cheapness and durability

*Mr. Isaac Bow, of Springfield, Mass., devoted several years to experimenting, with a view to the preparation of a good lubricating oil from menhaden oil, but his success was not satisfactory.

192 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

rendering it especially valuable for rough outside work and for painting ships. Mixed with other oils it is found to be very serviceable for the painting of interiors, and its use is attended with decided economy, its price being about one-half that of the best linseed oil. Some of the most pure is said to be put into the market as olive oil.

Most of that which is exported is used in the manufacture of soap and for smearing sheep after they have been sheared to keep off ticds. Mr. L. C. ’Homergue states in the Manufacturer and Builder that a bright fish oil, cut with some alcohol and mixed with paint, forms a far more lasting covering than linseed oil.

The “Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter” for October 21, 1874, implies that much of the whale oil now sold is really menhaden oil. ‘It is well known that the chief uses for menhaden oil is for currying leather, but with the low prices ruling of late and the scarcity of whale-oil it has found new channels, and very much of the whale-oil sold probably consists of two-thirds or more of menhaden, for it comes when crude nearly as handsome as any whale, and in appearance when bleached is quite equal. It is reported as a fact about the street that one concern alone sells more ‘winter-bleached whale-oil’ than is caught of crude, and they do not by any means get all the crude.”

The markets.

263. The principal market for menhaden oil is in Boston and New York; some is also sold in New Bedford, and considerable quantities are shipped to London, Liverpool, and Havre direct.

Grades of oil.

264. Several grades are recognized. The “Oil, Paint, and Drug Re- porter” usually quotes under the heads of ‘select light strained,” ‘select light,” “choice brown,” and ‘inferior to dark,” and “ gurry.”

The prices of oil.

265. The highest price ever obtained for menhaden oil was $1.40 a gallon—this was a war price. In Appendix K is given a table showing the current weekly prices of the different grades of oil in the New York market for a period of nearly seven years. This has been compiled from the ‘‘ Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter,” complete files of which I have been enabled to consult through the courtesy of the editor, Mr. W. O. Allison. This table ineludes all reliable information regarding the prices cur- rent of menhaden oil, and its valueis enhanced by the addition of a weekly commentary upon the causes of fluctuation in price and the state of the market, also compiled from the “ Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter.” Since the interest in the causes of rise and fall of price is of merely commer- cial interest, it does not seem to be necessary in this place to discuss the subject in detail. See Appendix K.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 193

Table showing highest and lowest prices of menhaden oil for the years 1871 to 1877.

= S > e B = = ci = Said : aS = Years. | S 5 ‘ 3 i ag 3 3 S oh P q Z $s 3 & Ee 2 3 z g 23 5 o = aS r: = iS | MN oO 4 a) 7) AY n ie) = en 6/53 to55 | 50 to522| 472to50 | 35to40 | 60 to 623 lhc Bee eee Bessaacnaes <> 2| 404 to 41 | 393t040 | 35 to38] 20t025 | 5 : it een 1872 § | 62}t065 | €0 to623] 55 to572] 451050

Y| 40 to423) 40 to4l | 36 to38 | 25 to 30 1873 §| 60 to62} 59 toG60 | 52 to58 |] 48to50 |}.-

Seemed as | 323 to35 | 30 to32]29 to— | ........ 45 to4i4| 45 to46 | 423t045 | -..--.-. 32% COid0,| 80 tOBo!| 32) tosd4 |-2~------ 45 to 474) 43 to44 | 38 to4 |...-...-- 32 to'33)| 31 to32 | 20 to30 |.---..-5- 48 to50 | 46 to48 | 36 to— |.-.-...-.-- 32% tose) | 3241033 | 34 to36 |.-..-5.-- 46 to 47 | 45 to46 | 40 to42].--...--- ie 53. to 54 DIMEOasedOe COLDS: | LOO. O'O2 | fe cin = sk Leeeeeacied eases eer 38 423 10 45

Reviews of the markets.

266. in January, 1874, the manufacturers composing the “ United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association ” had on hand 484,520 gallons of oil, or about 21 per cent. of the amount manufactured in 1873; in Janu- ary, 1875, 643,000 gallons, or about 19 per cent.; in January, 1876, 125,000, or over 4 per cent.; in January, 1877, 264,000, or over 8 per cent.; and in January, 1878, 94,000, or over 4 per cent. These figures seem to indicate that the demand for oil quite keeps pace with the sup- ply.

The following editorial on the value of menbaden oil appeared in the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, October 21, 1874:

‘Prices for menhaden oil have ruled very low this year, and it has probably been relatively the cheapest grease in market. This fact, together with a poor run of fish part of the season, caused several of the weakest of the manufacturers to close their works, and the natural re- sult has been less than an average season’s production, except in Maine. The Maine season ended some time since, and the fall catch of the other States, which is usually the best, has thus far been comparatively noth- ing, and as it will soon close cannot be improved much. To-day we- Should estimate the stock in the hands of fishermen as fully one quar- ter less than last year, and with one exception the dealers in this city are almost without stock.

“The entire failure of the Arctic whaling-fleet, the high price of all other grease, and the advance in the price of Newfoundland cod oil point to advanced prices for menhaden. We said early in the season that menhaden oil was cheap at 40 cents, and it ought not to have gone below that price. At the present time some parties talk of 50 cents as the point the market will reach, but we hope that manufacturers wiil not hold for such high prices; this would be as much too high as 35 cents was too low, and as soon as you get an article above its real value some- thing takes its place and you cannot get it into the same channels until it becomes so low that it is forced back.”

13 F

194 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES,

N.—MENHADEN AND OTHER FISH AND THEIR PRODUCTS AS RELATED TO AGRICULTURE.

By W. O. ATWATER. Introductory note.

267. Mr. Goode has placed in my hands a number of documents, manuscripts, and letters concerning the use of fish, and particularly menhaden, as fertilizers, with a request for a statement of the more important facts and principles that have to do with the application of these materials to the improvement of agriculture.

The time allowed for this work is, unfortunately, so short as to forbid anything more than a hasty putting together of the data immediately at hand, in the form of a brief review of the history and a still more in- complete outline of the results of scientific investigation and practical experience concerning the preparation, properties, and uses of fish as a fertilizer and as food for stock. I hope that this may serve to explain the chief practical bearings of the subject, to show its importance, and lead to its more thorough investigation bereafter.

The employment of fish products in agriculture offers a singularly forcible ilastration of the slowness with which the worth of some of the most valuable materials is recognized, and of the need of scientific inves- tigation and experiment to aid practical skill in utilizing them most profitably.

The loss to the agriculture of our country at large, and particularly our sea-board States, from the waste of fish that might be utilized, the wrong manufacture of the materials that are saved, the export of the best products to Kurope, the uneconomical use as fertilizers of what we save and keep at home, and from the almost entire neglect to devote the products to their most profitable purpose, feeding stock and enrich- ing the manure of the farm, if it were capable of accurate estimate, could not fall short of some millions of dollars annually. This is due mainly to the fact that the principles that underlie the right economiz- ing of fish are not generally understood, and, for that matter, are not yet fully learned. It is only lately that science has joined with prac- tice in studying and improving the manufacture and use of fish prod- ucts for agricultural purposes. The best work in investigation has been done in Europe; its results come to us but tardily. Manufactur- ers hesitate to apply and farmers are still slower to use them. Every- thing that brings new knowledge or extends the understanding of what is known must, then, be most valuable.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 195

‘

47. MENHADEN AND OTHER FISH IN A FRESH STATE USED AS A FER- TILIZER.

Use among the Indians and early colonists.

268. Professor Trumbu!! tells us that the Indian names of Brevoortia, “ menhaden ” and “ poghaden” (pogy), mean “ fertilizer,” that which manures, and that the Indians were accustomed to employ this species, with others of the herring tribe (aumstiog and munnawhateatig), mostly the alewife (Pomolobus pseudoharengus), in enriching their corn-fields. Thomas Morton wrote in 1632, of Virginia: ‘There is a fish (by some called shadds, by some allizes) that at the spring of the yeare passe up the rivers to spawn in the ponds, & are taken in such multitudes in every river that hath a pond at the end that the inhabitants doung their grounds with them. You may see in one township a hundred acres to- gether, set with these fish, every acre taking 1,000 of them, & an acre thus dressed will produce and yeald so much corne as 3 acres without fish; & (least any Virginea man would inferre hereupon that the ground of New England is barren, because they use no fish in setting their corne, I desire them to be remembered, the cause is plaine in Virginea) they have it not tosett. But this practice is onely for the Indian maize (which must be set by hands), not for English grain: & this is, therefore, a commodity there.” *

This passage is very interesting, showing the use of fish fertilizers in Virginia two hundred and fifty years ago or more, and, from what is known of the babits of the herring family in Virginia rivers and the persistency of local names, there can be little doubt that many menha- den were used among the fertilizing fish, though ‘‘shadds and allizes” doubtless includes the shad (Alosa sapidissima), the mattowocca (Pomo- lobus mediocris), the alewife (Pomolobus pseudoharengus), and the thread- herring (Dorosoma cepedianum), all of which are common in spring in the Potomac ana other rivers which empty into Chesapeake Bay.

In Governor Bradford’s ** History of Plimoth Plantation” an account is given of the early agricultural experiences of the Plymouth colonists. In April, 1621, at the close of the first long dreary winter, ‘“ they (as many as were able) began to plant their corne, in which service Squanto (an Indian) stood them in great stead, showing them both y® manner how to set it and after how todress & tend it. Also he tould them, ax- cepte they got fish & set with it (in these old grounds) it would come to nothing; and he showed them y* in y® midle of Aprill, they should have store enough come up y® brooke by which they begane to build, and taught them how to take it.” ¢

“New Eugland Canaan; or New Canaan, containing an abstract of New England.

Composed in three Bookes. * * * Written by Thomas, of Clifford’s Inn, Gent. Upon ten Yeers knowledge & Experiment of the Country. Printed by Charles Green, 1632. Force’s Historical Tracts, Vol. II, 2

t Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., ILI, 4th series, 1856, p. 100.

196 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

An allusion to the practice of the Indians in this respect may be found in George Mourt’s “ Relation or Journal of the beginning and Proceed- ings of the English Plantation settled at Plimoth, in New England, by certain English Adventurers both Merchants and others.” * * * ‘London, 1622”: “ We set the last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas, and, according to the manner of Indians, we manured our ground with herrings, or rather shads, which we have in great abundance and take with great ease at our doors. Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good.”* * * *

Again, in Edward Johnson’s *¢ Wonder. working Providence of Sion’s Saviour in New England, Being a Relation of the firste planting in New England in the yeere 1628, London, 1654,” written in 1652, the author says: ‘* But the Lord is pleased to provide for them [the colonists] great store of fish in the spring-time, especially alewives, about the bignesse of a herring. Many thousands of these they used to put under their Indian corne, which they plant in Hills five foot asunder ; and assuredly when the Lord created this corne, hee had a speciall eye to supply these his peoples wants with it, for ordinarily five or six grains doth produce six hundred.”+

Use at the beginning of the present century and later.

269. Menhaden do not appear to have been much used by agricultur- ists of Cape Cod in the beginning of this century, though the old record shows that the horse-shoe crab and sea-weed were extensively applied.

In 1792 the Hon. Ezra L’Hommedieu, of New York, published a paper in the New. York Agricultural Transactions {¢ which gives somewhat more accurate data and directions concerning the use of fish as a fertilizer. He says: “ Experiments made by using the fish called menhaden or mosbankers as a manure have succeeded beyond all expectation. * * * In dunging corn in the holes, put two in a hill on any kind of soil where corn will grow, and you will have a good crop.” He recommends them as a top-dressing for grass. ‘Put them ona piece of poor loamy land, at the distance of fifteen inches from each other, * * * and by their putrefaction they so enrich the land that you may mow about two tons per acre.” But he adds, very wisely, ‘‘ bow long this manure will last has not yet been determined.” He gives, in his quaintly interesting way, an account of ‘‘ an experiment made the last summer by one of my rear neighbors, Mr. Tuthill, in raising vegetables with this fish manure,” which is worth citing as an illustration of the curious combinations of truth and error, which, in their lack of definite knowledge of the laws of plant-growth aud the action of manures, the theorizers of that time invented.

i * Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 2d series, IX, 1832, p. 60. t Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 2d series, III, 1816, 158. {See Appendix O.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 197

“About the first of June he [Mr. Tuthill] carted near half an ox-eart load of those fish on twenty feet square of poor, light land, being loam mixed with sand. The fish he spread as equally as he could by throw- ing them out of the cart; being exposed to the weather, they were soon consumed. He then raked off the bones, to prevent their hurting the feet of the children who might go into the garden, and ploughed up the piece and planted it with cucumbers and a few cabbages. The season was extremely dry, and but few cucumbers grew in the neighborhood except what grew on this small piece, and here the production exceeded anything that had before been known. By his own computation and that of his neighbors, this twenty feet square of ground produced more than forty bushels of cucumbers, besides some fine cabbages. I meas- ured the ground myself, and have no doubt of the quantity adjudged to have grown on the same.”

Mr. L’Hommedieu’s theoretical explanation of this is clear and simple. The fish ‘‘enrich the land by their putrefaction.”. When this process has ceased he questions whether much more good can be expected from them, and doubts if they will make a lasting manure; nor does he find any fault with his neighbor for raking away the bones instead of covering them with earth to prevent their pricking his children’s bare feet. In the decomposition a good deal of “ effluvia” is evolved, which is evidently absorbed by the leaves of the plants, and contributes to their growth. But “by putting these fish on the land for manure, ex- posed to the air until they are consumed, there can be no doubt that a considerable part of the manure is lost by the effluvia which passes off the putrefied substance, as is evident from the next experiment.” This was made by “ Mr. Joseph Glover, a farmer in Suffolk County,” who had evidently learned the art of composting fish with earth, and prac- ticed it in a way which some farmers nowadays might improve their ways by imitating.

‘‘ He first carts earth and makes a bed of such circumference as will admit of being nine inches thick ; he then puts on one load of fish, then covers this load with four loads ef common earth, but if he can get rich dirt he covers it with six loads, and in that manner makes of fish and earth a heap of about thirty loads. The whole mass soon becomes im- pregnated and turns black. By experience he finds that fifteen ox-cart loads of this manure is a sufficient dressing for one acre of bis poor land, which produces him thirty bushels of the best wheat by the acre.”

Now it happened that Mr. Glover made a heap of fish and earth ‘in the manner above related near a fence where a fieid of wheat was grow- ing on the opposite side. The wheat near the heap soon changed its colour, grew luxuriant, and at harvest yielded near double the quantity to the other parts of the field.” The improvement in the wheat near the heap, Mr. L’Hommedieu thinks, must be due to the “effluvia arising from the putrefaction of the fish and absorbed by the leaves of the wheat.”

198 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

President Dwight, of Yale College, visiting Eastern Long Island in 1804, speaks with much approval of the menhaden as a fertilizer, and thus describes the introduction of its use:

‘‘Their agriculture has, within a few years, been greatly improved. For a considerable period before the date of this journey the land had become generally impoverished by a eareless husbandry, in which the soil was only exhausted, aud no attempts were made to renew its strength. * * * Within this period the inhabitants, with a laudable spirit of enterprise, have set themselves to collect manure wherever it could be found. Not content with what they could make and find on their own farms and shores, they have sent their vessels up the Hudson and loaded them with the residuum of potash manufactories, gleaned the streets of New York, and have imported various kinds of manure from New Haven, New London, and even from Hartford. In addition to all this, they have swept the Sound, and covered their fields with the immense Shoals of white-fish with which, in the beginning of summer, its waters are replenished. No manure is so cheap as this, where the fish abound; none is so rich, and few are so lasting. Its effects on veg- etation are prodigious. Lands which heretofore have scarcely yielded ten bushels of wheat by the acre, are said, when dressed with white-fish, to have yielded forty. The number caught is almost incredible. It is here said, and that by persons of very fair reputation, that 150,000 have been taken at a single draught. Such, upon the whole, have been their numbers, and such the ease with which they have been obtained, that lands in the neighborhood of productive fisheries are declared to have risen, within afew years, to three, four, and, in some cases, to six times their former value.” *

Elsewhere he speaks with equal favor of its use in Connecticut, re- marking that it is remarkably favorable to vegetation of every kind, which is the object either of agriculture or horticulture:

“ Within the last twenty years the inhabitants of this [Branford] and other townships along the coast have employed for the purposes of manure the white-fish, a species of herring remarkably fat and so fall of bones that it cannot conveniently be eaten. In the months of June and July these fish frequent the Sound in shoals, and are caught with seines in immense multitudes. Ten thousand are considered as a rich dressing for an acre. No manure fertilizes ground in an equal degree; and none seems more universally favorable to the productions of the climate. Wheat, particularly, grows under its influence in the most prolific manner, and is peculiarly safe from blasting.

* * * * * * *

‘¢ The following is a strong instance of the fertility of land manured with white-fish: Mr. David Dibble, of Killingworth, from 54 acres of land dressed with this manure, had in the year 1812, 2444 bushels of rye,

* Dwight’s Travels, III, 1822, p. 305. Journey to Long Island, 1804, Letter II.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 199

almost 45 bushels to an acre; the most exuberant crop of this grain which I have known in New England.” *

In 1819, Rev. D. D. Field spoke of the use of fish as manure as follows:

“The most efficacious manure in the vicinity of the Sound consists of the white-fish which visit the shores in numerous numbers in June and the first part of July. These began to be used for manure in Middlesex in 1801 and 1802. They are carried as soon as taken and spread upon the land and plowed in; or are thrown into heaps, mixed and covered with earth or turf and suffered to pulverize; and are then spread upon the ground as suits the convenience of the farmers. In either mode the effect even on dry and poor land is wonderful, and though it was at first apprehended by many that after two or three crops they would leave the land poorer than they found it, experience has hitherto proved this apprehension to be groundless.

* * * * * * *

“Hight thousand are requisite to dress an acre. They have been sold lately for a dollar and a half per thousand.” ¢ .

Dr. DeKay in the Natural History of New York, 1842, says:

‘* The use of this fish as a manure is well known in the counties of Suffolk, Kings and Queens, where it is a source of great wealth to the farmer who lives upon the sea coast. They are used in various ways: For Indian corn, two or three are thrown on a bill; for wheat, they are thrown broadeast on the field and plowed under, although it is not un- common to put them in layers alternately with common mold, and when decomposec spread it like any other compost. Its effects in renovating old grass fields, when spread over with these fish at the rate of about two thousand to the acre, are very remarkable.”

In 1853, Mr. Ker 56. Hamilton, governor of Newfoundland, in a “ Dispatch to the Duke of Newcastle” on “the Refuse of the Cod Fishery of Newfoundland as convertible into a Portable Manure,” says :

‘In this island the manure universally applied to the soil is fish, con- sisting of the superabundant herrings and caplins in the process of decomposition, and generally without any earthy admixture ; and the heads, bones, and entrails of codfish, after having been decomposed and formed intoa compost with clay or peat-bogearth. Thismanure * * * when applied to the thin, gravelly, unpromising soil (on the Island of Newfoundland) yields crops of grass and potatoes which, in growth and productiveness cannot be surpassed elsewhere.” ¢

Messrs. Boardman and Atkins, in their excelleut report on “ The Men- haden and Herring Fisheries of Maine,’ § to which we shall have frequent

* Dwight’s Travels, III, 1822, p. 513, 514, 516.

t A | Statistical Account | of the | County of Middlesex, | in | Connecticut. | =| By David D. Field. | = | Published by the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, |, Middletown, Conn. | Printed by Clark & Lyman. | .... | April, 1819. 8 vo, p. 153.

t Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc., Ist ser., XIV, 1853, p. 393. § Agriculture of Maine, 1875-6, page 1.

200 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

occasion to refer, say: ‘ More than thirty years ago, before fish oil had becomea marketable commodity, the farmers of our eastern coast [Maine] were in the habitof using the fish whole in different forms. Insomecases, two or three fish were put in a hill for corn, and covered before the corn was planted ; in others they were covered by being thrown into the furrow as the land was being plowed, while in instances less frequent they were made into a compost and applied as a top-dressing. These were the ruder forms of using fish as a fertilizer, and generally practiced before the manufacture of oil and the consequent accumulation of fish scrap.”

A method similar to the above was formerly in use among the farmers of New Jersey. Prof. George H. Cook, in his report on the geology of that State, says the practice there was to plow a furrow alongside the rows of corn, deposit the fish, and then turn the furrow back again, covering them. In this way the farmers carried their corn through to maturity, and good crops were gathered from the poorest and lightest soilsin the State. A Massachasetts correspondent of the ‘* Country Gen- tleman ” (vol. 5, page 152) says the application of fish compost “appears to ameliorate the effects of drouth.”

Use at the present day.

270. Mr. Goode states: ‘even at this day the fish are often applied to the soil in a crude state, though the manufactured fertilizers are su- perseding it in most localities. Gov. Caleb Lyon tells me that two or three times every summer Staten Island is visited by smacks loaded with menhaden, which are quickly bought up by the farmers. In plant- ing corn, they put two or three fish in each hill, and so with potatoes ; when they plant potatoes in rows, a continuous line of menhaden is placed in the bottom of the furrow, head to tail. In 1871, according to Mr. J. M. K. Southwick, many menhaden were sold for manure in Khode Island at 30 cents a barrel. During the five years previous he had sold about 75 barrels for this purpose.”

Until very lately it has been, certainly, and for aught I know is still, the custom of farmers on the Connecticut coast to use whole fish as a top-dressing.

48. FISH SCRAP AS MANURE.

The inception of its use.-—Haperience in Maine.

271. As aresult of the profitable utilization of fish for the manufacture of oil, the use of the whole fish as a fertilizer has gradually and almost entirely ceased, and given place to the refuse from which the oil has been expressed or otherwise extracted. This is known in its crude State as ‘fish serap,” “ fish pomace,” or “chum,” and when more care- fully prepared, as “dry fish,” ‘dry ground fish,” and “fish guano.” Still farmers have been slow to avail themselves of this more concen- trated material. Messrs. Boardman and Atkins, in the report referred to, say:

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 201

“Tts use in Maine even in this way, notwithstanding the results were almost always satisfactory, except in some instances where it was used in too large quantities, did not seem to extend to any great extent back into the interior; and even along the coast where farmers could get the scrap for the hauling, not half of them made any use of it. When the business of extracting oil from menbaden was first engaged in along the coast of Hancock County, and especially in Union River Bay, the works were situated on shipboard, and the scrap was thrown overboard into the bay. The result of this was to drive out all the deep-water fish, as mackerel, cod, &c., and this was continued for many years. On the first establishment of oil works at Bluehill Falls and other places the scrap was given away, and farmers could get a scow-load any time they wished. It issaid that the farmers in the town of Brook- lin first utilized the scrap by applying it to the land, and during days when no catch of meuhaden would give work at the factories, the men would cart the scrap away and spread it as atop dressing on grass lands. It was used green from the press, and on the sandy soil of that town its good effects were most marked. Afterwards, it began to be composted with muck or with fine loam, and was applied to potatoes and grass with excellent results. As a top dressing to mowirg fields it was spread on after haying, and in this way was generally used fresh. Too large an application was found to induce too rapid a growth of grass and to cause it to rust, and it also gave a fishy flavor to the hay, not relished by cattle ; but these matters were gradually learned from expe- rience in its use, and as gradually mastered and overcome. Asits value became known its price advanced, and for several years, from about 1858 to 1864, it went up to $6.00 per ton.”

Haperience in Connecticut.—Mr. Clift.

272. At a meeting of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture in Decem- ber, 1873, Rev. Wm. Clift, of Mystic Bridge, gave a lecture ou “ Marine Manures.”* This was followed by a discussion, in which a number of the best farmers of the State took part, and is interesting, as showing what the practical experience of men who have used fish scrap as ration- ally as intelligent farmers do anywhere, says of its uses and value. Mr. Clitt said:

‘Along the shores [of the Long Island Sound] where I have lived for the last twenty-five or thirty years, very large quantities of white-fish, or menhaden, are taken for the purpose of making oil. Formerly they were taken simply for the purpose of making manures, and were caught in very large quantities all along our shore ani over on Long Island, in large seines, which were generally owned by companies composed of farmers. These fish were carted by the farmers quite long distances, spread broadcast over their fields, and left to putrefy in the open air, and then along in the fall they would be plowed in for rye and for other

* Report of Conn. Board of Agriculture, 1873, p. 197.

202 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

crops. This, of course, was a very wasteful process, as a large part of the ammonia which the decaying fish furnished went off into the air ; still, it was a very valuable manure used even in that way. Not only were white-fish taken, but very large quantities of sharks, and some valuable food-fishes were oftentimes taken in connection with these fish, which were caught expressly for manure. Latterly the oil has become exceedingly valuable, so that the companies now take the fish for the purpose of procuring the oil, and the refuse, what remains after the oil has been expressed, is sold for manure. I suppose about forty millions of white-fish are taken annually along the shore of Fisher’s Island, in the sound, between New London and Stonington, a distance of not more than ten miles, probably, and there are some six or eight companies that have been organized for the purpose of taking these fish. These companies are quite prosperous, and a source of quite large income, not only to those who are engaged in fishing, but to other people. They make a market for the wood of the farmers in all that region. It is quite a common thing for the farmers to exchange their wood for this fish scrap. About two cords of wood, delivered on the shore, will bay a ton of this fish scrap. * * * Sometimes they get it in season for the farm [spring?] crops or turnips, and always in season for the rye crop in the fall. The price is from $13 to $16 per ton. * * * A great deal of it goes up the Connecticut River. The tobacco raisers know the value of fish scrap, and it is sent quite a distance into the country. * * * The farmers all along the coast use the fish scrap in what is called a ‘fish pie’ The scrap is drawn to the farm, a few furrows are turned up near where they want to use the fish scrap the next year, a layer of scrap is put over these furrows, then a layer of sods and so on, forming a compost beap four or five feet high. Probably eight or ten times as much earth as scrap is used, in bulk or weight. After it has lain a few weeks in this condition, it is forked or shoveled over, so that it is all intimately mixed, and the scrap very nearly absorbed by the soil, and in that condition it is fit either to be spread upon the ground for rye or for corn crop the next season. It is also used in connection with stable manure. The scrap is carted into the yard where the stable and yard manure is heaped up, and mixed with that; it adds very greatly to the value of yard manure. They will put, perhaps, one ton of the scrap to ten tons or more of yard manure; and then, after it has remained two or three weeks, it is carted off for top- dressing for corn or potatoes, or the ordinary crops of the farm. I have used fish scrap for the last three years on the rye crop, and find it exceedingly beneficial and economical. The soil where I use it is a gravelly loam, very well underdrained, but it has been pretty well exhausted by long cropping. I spread about half a ton of this manure to the acre, and get a very satisfactory yield of rye from this light dress- ing. It costs me about seven or eight dollars an acre for the manure, and I get in return for it about fifteen bushels of rye to the acre, and

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 203

nearly a ton of straw. The straw sells with us for about twenty dollars a ton, and rye is worth from ninety cents to a dollar a bushel; so that for a very small expenditure for manure I get very satisfactory crops of rye. * * * A year ago last summer I used a ton of fish serap on half an acre of land. It was nothing but gravel. There was hardly any vegetable matter; none but what had grown out of the gravel, and, perhaps, a little washed from the surrounding land. I did not pay any- thing for the land; the owner did not consider it worth anything. I got a glorious crop of corn, cabbages, and potatoes on that little piece of land, by the use of a ton of fish scrap.”

With regard to the value of green and dried scrap and the loss in drying, Mr. Clift says:

‘*As it comes from the press, after all the oil has been pressed out of it that can be gotten out by the strongest hydraulic pressure, there is still a great deal of moisture in it—40 or 50 per cent. As it lies on the platform under cover, there is, of course, a constant loss of moisture, buat there is also a loss of ammonia, which is very valuable, so that I aw not able to say whether the fish-scrap is any more valuable after it has lain a month or two in the house than when it first comes from the press. I think I should prefer to take it as it comes from the press. I think the ammonia which is lost is worth more than will be gained by the evaporation of the water. Fish-scrap, at $12 to $15 per ton, is the cheapest manure we can buy. Itis the only commercial fertilizer I have bought for the last six or eight years. I do not invest in superphos- phates or bone-dust. I would invest in the latter if I could get a pure article, but when it is half plaster of Paris Ido not know whatI am buy- ing. But this article, when it comes from the factory, is generally fish scrap and nothing else. it always produces just about the same result. You can depend upon it. If you apply one or two tons to the acre, you know what you will gain by its use if it is properly put into the soil and you have a fair season. I think it is a perfectly secure investment for the farmer to make.”

Experience of Mr. Hall and Mr. Loveland.

275. Some of the discussion which followed is worthy of note. Mr. Hall, of Wallingford, remarked:

‘* My experience in regard to fish-scrap is that when it comes from the press it is about 65 per cent. water. Now if that is worth $12 to $15 a ton to carry back ten or twenty miles into the country, when you come to add the freight and the inconvenience of handling it to the freight, I should consider the dried the cheapest. Ihave used a great many tons myself, and I have always used the dry as the most economical. I have been so situated I could have either, but I preferred the dry; and as Mr. Ciift has said, by analysis, it was a cheap manure at the prices at which it was sold.” Mr. Clift replied: ‘‘ Mr. Hall means a different thing by dried fish guano, from what some gentlemen do by ‘dried fish’ He

204 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

means the article spread upon a platform, and made as dry as it can be in that way. What is termed ‘dried fish’ is another thipg. It will take from two to two and a half tons of tresh fish to make a ton of dry, and after that bas lain in a tight building for some time, it will take two tons of that to make a ton of the dry guano. When the green manure is spread out and immediately dried in the sun, there is no loss of ammo- nia, but when it is kept in a pile, cf course putrefaction begins, and as it advances there is loss of ammonia. There is no considerable loss of ammonia by drying in thesun and ofcourse the dry manure, finely ground, is very much more valaable than that which is dried in a heap where there is a great loss of ammonia.”

Mr. Loveland said of his experience with fish-serap :

‘*T would say that I have had considerable experience with fish-serap, having used it for the last eight or ten years. I bougit it as it is pre- pared by the companies at Milford, where it is produced as a superphos- phate, and sold at the rate of $45 a ton. I have used it with Bradley’s superphosphate, with Coe’s and with Wilson’s on tobacco and other crops, and wherever [have used it in connection withthese high-priced manures, I have found that the fish manure was fully equal to them; it bore up its crop as well as any of the commercial fertilizers in the market. I have bought it in the green state mostly, in bags and barrels, and it has cost me about $23 a ton to get it up to the north part of the State. I have not used this fish-scrap much by spreading it upon lands in its raw state, nor by putting it into the hill, as they do in Lyme, and on the coast, in raising potatoes and the like. I have seen some instances in our town where it has been spread upon the ground in a raw state, and then the tobacco set, and the effect has been to stop the growth of the tobacco. It has been too powerful in that condition for the tobacco to grow upon it; and where it has been used in that way, I have never seen half a crop of tobacco. My method has been to compost it, invariably, and I be- lieve that is the true method of using such a fertilizer as that. It is a fertilizer having all the elements of an organized body. It contains all of the fish that we desire ; the oil that has been taken out we hold to be of no use in agriculture. Coming to us in the green state from the fac- tory, it has not lost any of its ammonia to speak of, and in that state it must bea perfect manure, because there is no adulteration in it. In com- posting it, I have used muck, treated with lime and salt—about four cart-loads of muck to four or five hundred pounds of the fish, building up a large pile of it, in that proportion, which, after a while, begins to heat, and the whole mass is leavened and brought into oneness of con- dition. The fish-scrap fertilizes the whole mass with its elements, and it may then be spread upon natural grass-land or cultivated ground, and will invariably produce a very fine crop. It never has failed with me to produce a good crop, and where I have manured grounds in that way and seeded them down, I have got good crops of grass for years in suc- cession afterwards.”

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 205 Statements by Professor Cook, of New Jersey.

274. Prof. G. H. Cook, of New Jersey, in his report as secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, writes:*

“The supply of material tor fish guano is almost unlimited in this State, and it only needs capital and skill to build up a busiuess of great importance to the State and profit to the manufacturer. On the coasts ot Long Island and of Maine, where the business has been carried on for the oil which could be got from the fish, the residuum has been sold at various prices, from $15 to $30 a ton, and has been a very popular fertilizer with those who have used it. It is sought for by the manufac- turers of superphosphate of lime, to mix with their product, and there can be no doubt that it is very beneficial in such a mixture, giving quick- ness to its action, while the superphosphate would add to the duration of efficiency. When this source of manure is properly worked, it can be made to sapply all the guano needed in the State.”

Professor Cook says, also :t

* While the most common mode of using these fish is in the hill or furrow for corn, they are often employed ina compost with barn-yard manure and a little lime. Those who have tried such a mixture say that it is superior to any guano in the market. When applied on corn the crop is considered as certain. Some farmers mix them with muck and apply the compost upon wheat. This fertilizer is wonderfully rapid in its ef- fects, showing changes in the growth of a crop in a few days after it has been applied. But it is not a lasting manure. Ina year or two this stimulating effect is gone, and a second application is necessary. For producing quick results it is so efficient that all farmers who have tried it unite in testifying to its value.”

Further experience in Maine.—Messrs. Hinkley, Kenniston, Smith, and Collins.

275. On pages 47 to 55 of the report of Messrs. Boardman and Atkins, referred to, are some * Practical Notes on the Use of Fish Scrap as a Fer- tilizer,” which contain a number of items of experience of Maine farmers worth quoting:

‘Hon. J. T. Hinkley of Bluehill, in a private letter, writes: ‘I have never used but itin one way. I mix it with fine dirt or sand, and useitas atop dressing on grass-land. <A dressing cf one ton of chum mixed with five times that amount of dirt is about the quantity I would put on one- half acre of land, and from that I have a good crop of grass for four to five years without injury totheland. * * * Thereis an objection here to dressing too heavily with scrap, as it injures the quality of the hay; but using it at the rate of one ton to the acre, in a compost of three parts loam, will produce no effects of this nature.’ Now’to correct the error

* First Annual Report of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture, 1874, page 44. t Geology of New Jersey, 1868, p. 498.

206 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

into which a good many farmers are led by statements that the appli- cation of fish-scrap, or other active special manures, like guano or superphosphate, damaged the land, rendering it unproductive and ster- ile; it may be stated here that the real cause of this sterility does not come from the application of these so-called forcing manures which are applied to the land, but from the taking off of the large crops which follow their application. They exhaust the soil by drawing from it ele- ments which the manure put on does not contain, and which repeated applications of the same fertilizer would not supply; it is in fact the crop taken off, not the manure put on, which injures the land. But it must also be remembered that after land has been brought up to a con- dition of productive capacity by the use of fish-scrap or special fertili- zers, it can be kept so only by the application of stable and barn-yard manure, or the manure made by consuming the hay grown upon the soil thus improved. This should invariably and in all cases be given back to the land, or the time will speedily come when it will refuse to ‘discount.’”

“Mr. William Kenniston, of North Boothbay, furnishes some interest- ing statements regarding the use of scrap upon hisfarm. He has used it more or less for the past eight or ten years, and says he ‘could not farm without it.? He hauls it from the factory generally late in the fall, as it is dryer then and less objectionable to handle, and composts it with yard . and stable manure, muck, and loam. When one year old this is hauled out and spread, in the fall or winter, wherever it is most convenient to do so, at the rate of about eight cart-loads to the acre. In using the scrap with- out being composted, as he has sometimes done, he regards one ton of well- dried scrap better than three just as it comes from the press. The dry scrap is much easier and better to handle, and may be used on grass at the rate of three tons to the acre; but the raw scrap from the press should invariably be composted. In 1867 he used five tons of scrap mostly in a green state. It killed the corn, the grain lodged and was damaged, and grass has lodged on the piece ever since, although no manure has been applied since. He had spread it on grass fields both in the spring and fall, but preferred the latter. Mr. Kenniston believes if the scrap was packed in barrels just as it came from the press it would stand transportation by steamer or rail to almost any part of the interior of Maine without becoming offensive.

‘¢ The farmers in Machias purchase herring chum from Lubec, whence it is brought in small schooners. It is usually packed in barrels of from 220 to 280 pounds each, at $11.50 per ton, but is not used in very large quantity. Lobster chum, trom the canning factories at Englishman’s Itiver, is also made use of to some extent as a top-dressing. It is ob- tained in scows and boats at about $4.50 per ton, delivered in Machias and vicinity. One ton of it is composted with ten loads of common loam, and this amount spread upon an acre. Applied to grass land in the fall, the results are most satisfactory.”

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 207

“Mr. H. T. Smith, of Machias, has perhaps made a larger use of fish- scrap, as a fertilizer, in different ways, than any farmer in that place or vicinity. His usual practice is to obtain the scrap (generally herring scrap) in the fall, and apply it inthe spring. When grass land is in fair condition he uses about one-fourth of a ton per acre, and never more than one and one-fourth ton per acre. It is, of course, less expensive to apply it directly to the land as it comes from the press, but it is often composted, using three parts of earth to one of scrap. For grain, Mr. Smith has plowed under seven hundred pounds to the acre, from which he has grown very heavy crops of barley, oats, and wheat. Mr. Smith says: ‘I have paid $89 per ton for superphosphate, and if given my choice had rather have one ton of fish scrap than one ton of super- phosphate. 1f barrelled as soon as it comes from the press (he is speak- ing of herring scrap, which, it will be remembered, is treated with salt before being pressed), it has no unpleasant odor, and is not offensive to handle. There is nothing equal to it for the land. It is as valuable as night-soil, and is good for grass, grains, corn, garden crops, anything that grows out of the earth.”

* Capt. Jason Collins, of the steamer ‘Star of the East,’ thus relates, in a private letter, his experience in the use of fish scrap as a fertilizer: ‘My experience in the use of fish chum does not reach over many years, but I have applied it to barley and on grass. The amount used per aere for barley was 1,500 pounds, which was mixed with two parts loam to one of chum. This was spread on and harrowed in. In the fall of 1873, I had five acres plowed up, on which I put 2,000 pounds to the acre. It was harrowed and rolled in the fall, and the following spring, about the last of March, I think, it was sown to grass-seed alone. The grass was cut the last of August, and it was very heavy. I have also used it for turnips and potatoes, and it has done well for each crop. In the fall of 1873 I also had chum spread on some six acres of grass land, as a top dressing, at the rate of three-fourths of a ton per acre, mixed with loam in the same proportions as that used for barley. It did first-rate. This fall (1874) I shall use more, which I shall compost and lay over until another fall, as in that form it will be better about handling. From all I can learn, and from my own experience, I am satisfied that late fall is the best time of the year to apply it as a top-dressing for grass lands ; and the amount should be from three-fourths of a ton to a ton per acre. It is best if used as a compost, as I have stated. Tor hoed crops it must be used very carefully, and should in all cases be thoroughly composted. In regard to its price, it cost me $12 per ton green, in bulk, and have had it brought from Boothbay to Gardiner in lighters. When in barrels it costs $15 per ton, but it is cheap at that price, and I shall buy no other fertilizer until I find something better forless money. At $12 per ton it is cheaper than it is to haul stable-manure, even if the manure is given to you. Perhaps I have not used it long enough to speak of its effects upon the land, but during my experience with it I have witnessed

208 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

no ill effects, although if used in too great quantities the grain will grow rank and lodge. I can hardly yet tell what it wiil do in a long run, but am satisfied with it after a five years’ trial.’”

Other testimony.

276. “‘ Numerous testimonials similar to the above could be given from correspondents and from agricultural reports and journals, but enough has been stated * * to show the great value of fish scrap as a fertilizer when composted or judiciously applied in connection with animal manure. Remark: Too much stress can hardly be put upon this qualitication in regard to its use. An instanceis mentioned in a former volume of this report* of a farmer who first began to use the scrap; composted it in the fall with three times its quantity of earth. The next spring the mixtare had so much the appearance of common earth, and the party had so little faith in its efficacy, that a shovelful to the hill was applied for corn. It came up well, grew for a time looking green and thrifty, but soon began to grow pale, finally died, and the crop was a failure. But the effect of this application was noticeable for many years afterwards, and even with no other application of manures of any kind the land continued to bear an immense burden of grass. In the discussion to which reference has been made, before the Connecticut Board of Agriculture, Mr. Fowler, of Guilford, gave a word of caution which he thought should be exercised in the application of fish serap. He said: ‘ My experience has satisfied me it wiil not answer to use fish alone as a (fertilizer for a term of years. It forces the crop and finally leaves the land in very bad condition, very hard and sterile, and it will usually show a pretty heavy crop of sorrel after harvest. But if it is used as it should be invariably, in connection with stable or barn-yard manure, it is perfectly safe to use every year for a term of years for any crop.’”

e

4), THE MANUFACTURE OF FISH MANURES. Harly attempt at manufacture.

277. The first attempt to manufacture a portable manure from fish is said to have been made by Mr. Lewis, at New Haven, Conn., in 1849.7 The white fish, or menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus), was employed, and after a good deal of experimenting a manure produced which contained, according to analyses by Professor Norton, as high as 10.23 per cent. of nitrogen. The enterprise was, however, for some cause, discontinued.

The De Molon process.

*Hon. 8. L. Goodale, Agriculture and Geology of Maine, 1861, page 49.

+See communication by Prof. S. W. Johnson to the Country Gentleman, July 1857, and article on Marine Manures, by S. L. Goodale, Agriculture and Geology of Maine, 1861, pp. 50-56.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN, 209

said to have put up a manufactory at Concarneau, in the department of Finisterre, for the manufacture of guano from the refuse of the sardine fishery, and one on the coast of Newfoundland, at Quirpon, near the eastern entrance of the Strait of Belle Isle, for the utilization in similar manner of the refuse from the cod fishery. According to the Chemie Industrielle, the establishment at Concarneau, in 1854, employed sixteen operatives and worked up daily eighteen or twenty tons of refuse into four or five tons of manure. The composition of this article is noted by Payen at 11.6 per cent. of nitrogen and 10.3 per cent. of phosphoric acid, with only 2.5 per cent of fat. Other analyses gave about 12 per cent. of nitrogen and 6.7 per cent. of phosphoric acid. The Quirpon establish- ment was reported as able to produce 8,000 or 10,000 tons of manure annually.

A manufactory of fish guano by the De Molon process was reported as in operation at Lowestoft, in England, in 1856. The same process was said to be employed in 1857-1861, by the Oceanic Oil and Guano Com- pany at Southold, Long Island, N. Y. A pamphlet put out by this com- pany describes the process as follows :

‘« The raw fish, in quantities of one and two-third tons (or about 5,000 fish), are placed in the inner chamber of a revolving cylinder, the vacuum between the inner and outer chamber being heated by steam at about 80 pounds pressure. Before letting in the steam the cylinder must be put in motion, so that each fish, as the cylinder revolves, is constantly changing its position. The cooking at this pressure of steam requires but ten minutes, during which time a uniform temperature is maintained by means of one head of the inner cylinder being perforated so as to allow the escape of the steam generated from the water con- tained in the fish, which prevents the dissolution of the gelatine and all the soluble parts, and they are therefore retained in the fish. When the heatin the inner cylinder has arrived at the temperature to produce steam from the fish, it escapes through the perforated head, and thus enables the fish to receive a temperature just sufficient to open the cellular tissues and give an easy and speedy egress to the oil.

‘“‘ After the fish are thus steamed, they are put into strong bags, pre- pared in size to fit the top of the press-head, in layers of eight inches of thickness; between each layer or bag is placed a strong iron plate. In this manner the press is filled, when they are subjected for about five minutes to a powerful hydraulic pressure. After the oil has ceased to run, the remains are then put through a strong picker, which reduces the cakes to small particles for the drying process. It is then dried by heated air or by platforms exposed to the sun.”

Earlu manufacture in Rhode Island.

279. Prof. Charles T. Jackson, writing in 1854, remarks: “Tn this country a company has been formed, in Rhode Island, for the manufacture of fish manure, and the fat menhaden of Providence River 14 F

210 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

and Long Island Sound will be used to produce both oil and fish-cake, and the latter, being duly prepared so as to render it inodorous, will be sent into the agricultural market as an artificial guano. I have no doubt of the high fertilizing effects which this guano is capable of pro- ducing, nor of the economy of the manufacture proposed.”*

Manufacture in Canada. ‘

280. Mr. Hunt, in the Report of the Geological Survey of Canada, under date of March, 1858, says:

‘Mr. Dunean Bruce has lately been endeavoring to introduce the man- facture of fish-manure into Canada; but he conceived the idea of com- bining the fish offal with a large amount of calcined shale, under the impression that the manure thus prepared will have the effect of driv- ing away insects from the plants to which it is applied.” * * * An- alyses of this manure, by Mr. Hunt, showed it to contain about 3 per cent. of ammonia and something more than 3 per cent. of phosphoric acid; and so of Jess than half the manurial value of a well-made arti- cle from pure fish alone.

Manufacture of ‘‘cancerine” in New Jersey.

281. Professor Cook, State geologist of New Jersey, in his report for 1856, states that—

“An establishment for making a concentrated manure from king- crabs or horse-feet had been erected at Goshen, in Cape May County, by Messrs. Ingham & Beesley. Several hundred tons of this substance were made last year and sold under the name of cancerine. It is a pow- erful fertilizer, and in its composition, as well as in its effects, has con- siderable resemblance to guano.” The average per cent. of ammonia and phosphoric acid in ‘“ cancerine,” as shown by three analyses by Professor Cook, was 9.92 per cent. of ammonia and 4.05 per cent. of phosphoric acid, and he estimates its value at $31 per ton; and further says, “ the results of trials with it have fully sustained its value as determined by analyses.”

Early manufacture in Maine.

282. Mr. Goodale says further, in the report referred to:

“Until within a few months, I was not aware that any attempt had been made in our State to manufacture a portable manure from fish ; but I have recently learned of several. In Boston I found an article for sale under the name of ‘ fish-guano,’ which by inquiry was ascer- tained to have been made by a Mr. Fowler, at Lubec. I learned subse- quently that he had manufactured a quantity two or three years previ- ously, but that either from not finding a ready sale, or from other causes, had discontinued its manufacture. It is understood to have

* Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1854—Agriculture.—Washing- fon mee deo, p07.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 211

been made by drying the fish after pressure, when it was ground and a portion of gypsum mixed with it. As offered for sale, it was a grayish powder, in which portions of bone could be distinguished.

* Learning that a somewhat similar article had been sold and used in some of the Penobscot towns, from Mr. C. G. Alden, of Camden, I called upon him, and found that he had made last year, for the first time, about a hundred barrels, at Long Island, in Blue Hill Bay, which he sold readily at $1.50 per barrel of about 150 pounds, and learned that it gave entire satisfaction. It was prepared from pogy chum by simply drying it in the sun, and when packed he added a peck of gyp- sum to each barrel. Some barrels were examined which had just been made (August, 1861), and the article appeared to be in a good state of preservation, except that it was slightly moist and gave off free ammonia. Mr. Alden intimated that the lack of sufficient capital alone prevented his entering into its manufacture upon a much more extended scale. He hoped, however, to prepare five hundred barrels or more the pres- ent season.

“At Eastport I found fish guano manufactured upon a larger scale. Messrs. U. 8. Treat & Son, well known for their enterprise, perseverance, and success in the artificial propagation of fish, after preliminary trials for some years past, prepared about one hundred and fifty tons during the season of 1860, nearly the whole of which was shipped to Connect- icut. He makes it undera patent held or claimed by the Quinnipiac Company of Connecticut. It is manufactured almost entirely from herrings, of which they formerly cured a large amount, but now find it more profitable to make itinto guano. They are caught in weirs (about Treat’s Island. on which they reside), and are thence taken to a railway running into the water and dipped into a car, drawn up by a windlass. When the car comes to be opposite one of a tier of tanks near the track, a gate or door in the car is opened and the fish slide in; salt is added in the proportion of one bushel to each hogshead (of four barrels) of fish. After pickling for about twenty-four hours, they are moderately heated in open kettles, when they are pressed to obtain the oil, of which they yield about 8 per cent., and to express as much of the water as possible; after which the cake or chum is broken up, spread on a platform of boards, and dried in the sun. It is subsequently ground and packed in bags of two bushels each, and which contain eigbty pounds—twenty- five bags or about fifty bushels to the ton of two thousand pounds. He sells it for $15 per ton; and the cost of the bags, delivering or shipping, are extra charges.

“The platform in use last year for drying is about eighty by one hun- dred and twenty feet square, slightly inclined to the sun, with a store- house on the lower side. Another was in process of erection when I was there, as also another railway and other conveniences for extending their operations.

212 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

‘The patent held or claimed by the Quinnipiac Company is understood to be ‘for drying by solar heat upon an elevated platform,’ Ifa patent be granted for this, why not for drying salted fish upon an elevated flake, or for drying clothes on an elevated line, by solar heat? T’rom various sources, I learn that the fish guano prepared by this method gives high satisfaction.*

“Prof. S. W. Johnson, of Yale College, chemist to the Connecticut State Agricultural Society, informs me that the article prepared by the Quinnipiac Company is the most popular fertilizer sold in that State.

‘To sum up in a word the results of my investigations and experi- ments regarding the manufacture of a portable, inoffensive, and efficient manure from fish or fish offal, 1 may say that I deem the same practica- ble; that no costly machinery or complicated processes are required ; that all which is necessary is, first, to cook the fish sufficiently to coagu- late the albumen contained in it; then to express as much of the oil and water as may be, and to dry the remainder as quickly and thoroughly as possible. A pickling of the fish first with salt would probably facili- tate the operation.

‘Tt is confidently hoped that the waste of such enormous quantities of fertilizing material as have hitherto been thrown will not much longer go on, but that they may be converted to use, feed our hungry fields, and fill our barns with plenty.”

Early manufacture in France.

283. Turning again to the manufacture of fish manures in Europe, we; note that the process of De Molon, referred to above, is described by Deherain (Wurz Dict., ch. 1, 1256) as follows: “ The fish are first boiled, then pressed to force out the water and oil; the residue is then dried and ground in a mill.” De Molon’s first factory was at Concarneau, Department of Finisterre. He seems to have established others on the English coast and in Newfoundland, in company with Thurneyssen. From disconnected statements in different works to which I have had access, the industry on the French coast seems to have suffered from lack of material. A company, “Credit Mobilier,” into whose hands the enterprise fell, attempted to use city refuse with it, but through business complications, stock speculations, ete., the whole undertaking failed.

About the same time that De Molon introduced his method of manu- facture in France, Pettit and Green patented another process in Engiand (1852), the peculiar feature of which was ‘*the use of sulphuric acid, which was added to change its consistence.” After treatment with the acid, the fish was dried in hot air.

*According to Mr. Boardman, Mr. C. G. Allen, of Camden, Me., was engaged in 1862 in making fish guano from “pogy chum,” by drying it in the sun. (Rept. U.S. Dept. Ag., 1862, p. 57.)

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 213 Early manufacture in England.

284. From an article in the “ Farmers’ Magazine” (London) for August, 1859, by Samuel Osler, of Great Yarmouth, who claims to have discov- ered a method preferable to that of De Molon or Pettit, a few para- graphs are quoted by Mr. Goodale:

“The enormous consumption of guano, its high price, and extensive adulteration, have led to a desire of an auxiliary or substitute. The most obvious source is the fishery. * * * What we require is a simple, cheap, and effectual mode of separating the parts which are needless for manure—the water, gelatine, and oil, the two latter suffi- ciently pure to be commercially valuable, and leaving the fiber, bones, and scales in a state fit for keeping and for use. It has been ascer- tained by experiment, and confirmed by actual working, that the refuse and waste fish may be thus converted, and the gelatine and oil collected by a process which I have discovered. The machinery and the process are simple, inexpensive, and effectual. The principle of the manufacture is founded upon the fact that when fish or flesh is subjected to a long- continued and moderate heat the fluids separate, dissolve the gelatine, and leave the fibrous and bony solids. This is easily shown by putting meat or fish into a flask and setting it in boiling water, corking the flask when fully heated. The fluids will gradually separate, while the flesh will, after a time, be left a dry and insipid residuum.”

Mr. Osler gives the results of several analyses by Professors Way and Voelcker and Dr. Stoeckhardt, by an average of which it appears to contain about 12 per cent. ammonia and 7 per cent. of phosphates.

Other European manufacture.

285. In the Paris International Exhibition of 1855, among the speci- mens of artificial manure was one, ‘‘engrais poisson,” prepared from fish, which, “‘ after being steamed, were pressed into cakes and dried.” It was “ said to contain from 10 to 12 per cent. of nitrogen, and from 16 to 22 per cent. of phosphate (= 74 to 10 per cent. phosphoric acid). The price was about $35 per ton.

On the coast of the North Sea, at Varel, in Oldenburg, immense num- bers of a kind of small crab (Crangon vulgaris), called in German Gran- aten, or Grandlen, are taken, dried, ground without any steaming, and thus made into what is called “ Granat guano.”

On the coast of the Baltic Sea, at Labagiehnen, near Labiau, in East Prussia, considerable fish refuse has been manufactured into a fertilizer.

The following are analyses of the articles just named:

Nitrogen, Phosphoris per cent. acid, per ct.

PTE ve senet, [ERT Sa ae One eee ee EE eee ot aL 8 9) 1 Hele INCH Ere, (near WGC Se eee ae see EP one 9,1 1.6 NSH OT ANON GER ON ct 2 ME 5 on wo ic oo we Eee ae one 1358 052 Fish guano, De Molon and Thurneyssen ...- ...- 2-22 .--- so00sceene-- 11.6 10. 1

OST RSE TE ee ET a a ae oe ho hie? 2.2

214 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

These figures are taken from a report by Professor Schmidt, of Dor- pat, on the ‘Artificial fertilizers at the second Baltic agricultural exhibition, June, 1871,” who adds that none of the articles seem to have attained enough importance to secure a place in the wholesale market.

The Norwegian fish guano.

286. By far the most important of European fish-waste products, in fact the only one that has been made in large enough quantities to bring it into very general and widespread use, is the Norwegian fish guano, manufactured from the waste of the fisheries on the Lofoden Islands, and elsewhere on the Norwegian coast.

In the Polar Sea, near the 70th parallel, north latitude, off the extremely wild, rough, and dangerous coast of Northern Norway, near the famous and dreaded maelstrom, lies a group of islands, rough, rocky, and precipitous, the peaks of some shrouded in eternal snow, about 40 in number, and bearing the name Lofoden. The neighboring mainland is inhabited by nomadic tribes of Laplanders. The islands have neither four-footed beasts nor food for them to live upon; but the sea about them teems with fish, and the air with sea-fowl. But few human beings are there, except during the fishing season, from February until April, when from 12,000 to 14,000 fishermen come, with 35,000 to 4,000 boats ; bring scanty supplies of coarse bread, dried fish, and bacon; live in mis- erable huts, sleep in sheep-skins; and with lines that have sometimes as many as 3,000 hooks apiece, catch from 18,000,000 to 20,000,000 codfish perannum. ‘These fish are cut up; the sides are dried and so!d as * stock- fish” all over the world. A part of the residue is used in the northern regions as cattle food. The heads and backs were formerly thrown into the sea or left to rot upon the rocks. Of late years, however, they are gathered, dried upon the rocks by the sun’s heat, ground in factories that are scattered about in sheltered bays, and thus made into the Nor- wegian fish guano. A business circular concerning the Lofoden fishery products says that the cods’ heads and backbones are collected mostly by women, children, and infirm persons, who canuot take part in the fishing, dried either on the bare rocks or on poles, and then ground, put in bags of about 23 cwt., and shipped; the material delivered at Ham- burg at the rate of about £9 per (long) ton. The circular adds that ‘it has been a great benefit to the Lofoden fisheries to get rid of this waste which formerly spoiled the bottoms of the fish banks, and infected the habors, where in some places it used to le knee-deep upon the beach.” Another account states that the gathering of the refuse has already become an important industry for the poor people there.

The earliest notice J have seen of the Norwegian fish guano is by Stoeckhardt* in 1855, who then reported the manufacture as started on

* Der Chemische Ackersmann, 1, 1855, s. 236. See articles by Stoeckhardt and by Meinert in same journal, I, 1856, s. 118; V, 1859, 44; VI, 1860, 59; IX, 1863, 117; XV, 1869, 43; XVI, 1870, 43 and 53; XVI, 1871, 245; and Landw, Centralblait, 1874, 613; and by Vobl. Dingler’s Polyt. Jow., CCXYV, 1875, 460.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 215

the Lofoden Island by Dr. Scheibler and Herr Froéhlich. In 1856, Stoeckhardt informs us that a joint stock-company had been formed at Christiana for the manufacture of the guano, and had taken the patent from Dr. K. Hansen and F.C. Schiibler. (The Dr. Schiebler above 2) The company consisted of these two gentlemen and three others, Messrs. Frohlich, Broch, and Heftye. In 1859, he reports the manufacture as having finally begun in the past season (1858) on a large scale. In 1860, the guano was offered for sale in Germany, by Mr. Meinert, of Leipsic. In 1863, Mr. Meinert states that, “unfortunately,” the fish guano has become so popular in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, that a large part of the supply has been retained there, and not enough will reach Germany to supply the demand. In 1869, Meinert reports to the ‘‘Ackersmann” that the manufacture has attained such a degree of perfection that an article can be offered of uniform composition, and containing 8 to 10 per cent. of nitrogen and 10 to 15 per cent. of phosphoric acid.

In 1870, it was stated that the refuse of 4 to 5 million codfish was worked up into guano, while that of the remaining 14 to15 million was still allowed to go to waste.

In 1871, Meinert, whose accounts of his journeys to Lofoden, published in the ‘“‘Chemische Ackersmann,” are well worth the reading, reports the success of attempts, undertaken by himself, to make guano from whole fish, from kinds whose inferior value for human food had caused them to be sold at very low prices or to be used in Norway for cattle food. From these ‘“ waste fish” 200 tons of guano had been prepared, of so good quality that a content of 11 to 12 per cent. nitrogen and 5 to 6 per cent. phosphoric acid. The high proportion of nitrogen is due to the use of the whole fish. It finds rapid sales at higher prices than the ordinary guano.

In 1874, the “ Landwirthschaftliches Centralblatt” (XXII, 613) speaks of the Norwegian guano as follows:

“The Norwegian guano, as is well known, is made of the heads and backs of the cod.* These fish are taken from January to May, all along the coast from Finmark to Hammerfest, lat. 68-71 N., but especially on the Lofoden Islands. During the season 2,000 fishermen are engaged. The catch of cod has averaged during the past ten years, according to statistical reports, from 18,000,000 to 22,000,000. The sides of the fish are dried either on lines upheld by posts or upon the rocks. Those prepared in the former way are sold in Spain, Italy, &c., under the name stock-fish ; the others are sent to Russia and Sweden, under the name of Klippfisch.t The refuse was formerly thrown into the sea or left to the sea fowls, except the small quantity used as fodder

*The Dorsch, Gadus callarias, common Cod, and Kabeljau, Gadus molva vel morrhua, Ling, are both said to be taken at Lofoden. Sometimes one and sometimes the other is named as the principal fish of those fisheries. [They are the same. G. B. G.]

t Stock, rod, stick; Klippe, rock; so cod. Anglo Saxon gad or goad, a rod, and the Latin gaudus has a corresponding Sanscrit root, cad or gad, arod. See paper by J.C. Brevoort, on the names of codfish.

21G REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

for cattle and sheep. The heads (some as large as small calves’ heads) and the backs of the cod (Dorsch) form the chief raw material for the fish guano. They are dried in the air on the rocks, then torn up by ma- chines, and finally ground to a product resembling coarse bone meal. Since, however, not inconsiderable quantites of cod are also caught along the Norwegian coast southward from Lofoden, as far as Aalesund, the preparation of fish guano has offered the inhabitants a new and use- ful industry ; the demand has increased every year and since the sup- ply has not sufficed even for the German market, a considerable number of larger or smaller factories have sprung up all along the west coast of Norway. Competition soon led to the manufacture of a more finely ground product, and to the utilization of a large portion of the available material for preparation of fish guano. Nevertheless, a good deal of the material was still allowed to go to waste, so that the production of the guano is capable of further development. Recognizing this fact, Dr. A. Meinert, son and business partner of the original German im- porter, has, in connection with some German merchants, established two new factories in Norway, one in Lofoden, the other in Hammerfest. The former was completed during the past summer (1874). The guano from these establishments is first steamed, then dried and ground to a fine dust, and is consequently very similar in its action to Peruvian guano.”

The report adds that, on aecount of the difficulty of transporting fish guano to Sweden, factories have been put up in that country also, to supply the home demand.

The most remarkable enterprise in this direction is one for the manu- facture of guano from whale refuse, on the boundary between Norway aud Russia, beyond the North Cape, in the latitude of 70°. It was undertaken in 1870-1873, by Capt. Svend Foyn, who is deseribed as ‘“‘the greatest whale fisherman of our time.” With his fleet of steam and sailing vessels he visits the coast of Greenland in February to catch seal, and thence sails in March to the North Polar sea in pursuit of whales. Ie captured, in 1869, thirty-two whales and expected to be able, by use of improved vessels and appliances, to take fifty per annum. <A whale, according to Captain Foyn, weighs on an average 230,000 pounds (115 tons); each fish furnishes about 80,000 pounds of fat, several hundred pounds of whalebone, and 100,000 pounds raw stock for fish guano. Fifty whales are expected to produce 2,500 tons of the latter, containing 8 per cent. of nitrogen and 12 per cent. of phos- phorie acid. The enterprise seems to have halted somewhat from the great difficulties to be overcome, but at last accounts still promised success.

The distance from markets and industrial centers, the wildness of the coast, the inclemencies of the weather, and the length of the arctic winter night, have all combined to make the successful manufacture of

HISTORY ‘OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 217

the Norwegian products a very difficult matter. The bulk of the pro- ducts have, I understand, been sold in Germany by Mr. Meinert, who has from the first had control of the trade in that country. Mr. Mcinert has managed the business in such a straightforward and rational man- ner as to secure not only a large personal profit but also the confidence of the agricultural public. This he has done by personally aiding and encouraging the manutacture of an article of high grade and uniform quality, by selling it on the basis of guaranteed analysis, and thus rec- ommending to the good sense of the most enlightened farmers.

According to Déharain (Wurz Dict. Ch. I, 1236), a Frenchman, M. Rohart, bas established a manufactory of fish guano at Lofoden. This is probably the one referred to by Herr Meinert as ‘an incomplete imita- tion” of the previous manufactories there, and in aid of which the French Government gave a subvention of 160,000 franes. That so large a gift should be made to aid this enterprise is proof of the importance ascribed to it by the French Government.

According to the “ Revue Scientifique,” August 25, 1875, M Levy bas lately started an establishment at the French island of St. Pierre, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for the purpose of utilizing the gurry and offal of the codfish, &c., taken on the banks of Newfoundland. All the heads, entrails, &c., are gathered in, and after the extraction of the oil the residue is made into gelatine and fertilizers.

How important such an industry may be made appears from the fact that the waste material of the fisheries of that region is estimated at 120,000,000 pounds per annum.

Manufacture of glue and removal of oil in preparation of Norwegian fish guano.

287. It is worthy of note, that in the European factories the liquid coming from the steamed or boiled fish, and containing considerable nitrogenous matter in solution, is utilized for the manufacture of a low quality of glue, while in this country the practice is to throw it away.

The Norwegian guanos have generally smaller percentages of fat than occur in the menbaden guanos in this country. But even this small amount is objected to by many, on the ground that it retards the fertilizing action. According to Vohl, this objection has been removed by Radde, of Hamburg, by the manufacture of so-called fatless, evapo- rated, polar fish guano, in whicha minimum of 8 per cent. of non-vol- atile nitrogen and of 12 per cent. of phosphoric acid is guaranteed, and actual analysis of a sample gave a considerable excess above this mini- mum. This article is in the form of a fine dry powder, of a yellowish color, with a comparatively feeble odor. It absorbs water rapidly, and when moist putrefies readily at 52°, with copious formation of ammonia. 1t yields on ignition 37 to 38 per cent. of ash.

218 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Success of fish guano as a fertilizer in Burope.

288. A few words upon the use of fish guano in Europe may be in place here.

In 1855 Professor Stoeckhardt, of Tharand, wrote* of fish-refuse as a manure:

‘Tish forms the basis of all natural guanos, since it forms the sole food of the sea-birds (and seals, &c.), from whose excrement guano is formed. * * * What is accomplished naturally here by the diges- tive processes of the bird, pulverization, fine division and concentra- tion, must be done artificially by the ingenuity of the chemist. If the chemical and mechanical operations necessary for working over the crude material rapidly, on a large scale, into a product of good quality and at low price, can be devised, then it is for the interest of agricul- ture to be put as quickly as possible in possession of this product, whose ofiice it may be to break the monopoly held by guano.”

After describing at length the manufacture, composition, and fer- tilizing effects of materials prepared from fish, he warmly recom- mends them to the farmers of Germany as the “ guano of the future.”

At this time the fish guano was just coming into the European mar- ket; but little was known from experience or experiment as to iis actual value for farming. In 1869, after it had stood the tests of repeated chemical analyses, gone through the trial of manifold field experiments, and run the gauntlet of practical farmers’ experience, with ever-increas- ing popularity and favor, Stoeckhardt wrote again :

“Fish guano has entirely fulfilled the prophecy which I made for it fourteen years ago, at its first entrance into the commercial world, * * * and it is to be desired in the interest of agriculture that its manufacture may assume ever-increasing dimensions.” * * *

The nanufacture of fish fertilizers in the United States.

289. We may now return to the manufacture of fish fertilizers in the United States.

At present pearly all the material in our market is made from the men- haden, which after the extraction of the oil leaves a residue which is prepared in various forms for fertilizers.

The attempt of Mr. Lewis in East Haven, Conn., in 1848, to make a concentrated fertilizer from menhaden has been referred to. The first practical success in this direction was attained by Mr. W. D. Hall in 1853. ‘‘He discovered how the oil might be extracted from the fresh fish in a few hours’ treatment, leaving the ‘pomace’ or ‘scrap’ in such a condition of half-dryness that it could be stored or barreled and trans- ported at once, or could be further dried by exposure to the sun and converted by grinding into ‘fish guano.” The history of the manu- facture of oil from menhaden since that time is given very fuliy in Mr. Goode’s report on the menhaden.

* Der Chemische Ackersmann, 1855, 1. 236.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 219

Fish refuse and kinds of fertilizers made therefrom.

290. It is of interest for us to consider here the scrap” or pomace left from the manufacture of the oil, and its uses.

The fish-refuse enters our markets in several different conditions. The following have come under my observation :

“Orude stock,” ** green scrap,” * chum,” or crude pomace.

. “Half dry scrap” or half dry pomace.

“ Dry scrap” or dried fish.

. “Dry ground fish-scrap,” dry ground fish or * fish guano.”

. Fish guano from which the most of the fat has been extracted by spe- cial processes.

6. Acidulated fish.

7. ‘Fish and potash salts.”

8. Fish mixed with superphosphates in the form of ‘‘ammoniated” super- phosphates, sometimes calied guanos.

No. 1 is the raw material as it comes from the press.

No. 2 is the form it assumes after partial drying. More or less fer- mentation is apt to take place during the drying. This is often accom- panied by considerable loss of nitrogen in the form of ammonia. Large quantities of this “half dry scrap,” ‘‘half dry pomace,” or ‘ fish pomace,” as it is variously called, are used by farmers along the coast where menhaden are taken.

No. 3 is the coarse scrap dried by the sun’s heat or artificially. This also is used in large quantities by farmers near the coast.

No. 4 is prepared by grinding the dried scrap. It makes a reasonably fine, dry, quick acting, and excellent fertilizer.

The green scrap or crude guano generally contains 55 to 60 per cent. of water. The half-dry scrap contains 40 to 50 per cent. of water. The dry guano contains 10 to 20 per cent. of water.

The following measurements and estimates are said to be in use among menhaden manufacturers:

1 ton (2,000 pounds) is reckoned the weight of 3,000 fish.

24 tons of fish yield 1 ton (40 per cent.) of green scrap, chum, or crude pomace.

3 tons of fish yield 1 ton (33 per cent.) of half dry scrap.

5 tons of fish yield 1 ton (20 per cent.) of dry scrap or guano.

One thousand menhaden, weighed by Mr. Dudley, president of the Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company, at Pine Island, June 12, 1877, weighed 685 pounds. Mr. Dudley has kindly furnished the following statements:

‘‘We take them from the fishermen at so much per thousand, reck- oning 22 cubic inches per fish. One thousand fish, measuring 22,000 cubic inches, weighs 667 pounds (3,000 to the ton).

“6,000 to 7,000 fish make 1 ton of ‘green scrap’ from the press. The last I weighed took 6,700 for a ton. Green scrap contains 59 to 65 per cent. of moisture.

la

bo

ee

cn

220 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

‘$10,000 fish, on the average, yield 1 ton of half dry scrap, containing 40 to 50 per cent. of water.

‘615,000 fish, on the average, make 1 ton of sun-dried scrap, contain- ing 10 to 20 per cent. of moisture.”

‘‘In regard to prices for the past ten years, we have sold fish scrap or half dry fish, as it is called in Connecticut Valley, in car-load lots iv bags, free on board cars at New London or New Haven, as follows:

61869, $20 to $24 per ton; 1870, $23 to $25 per ton; 1871, $20 to $25 per ton; 1872, $16 to $19 per ton; 1873, $18 to $20 per ton; 1874, $19 to $23 per ton; 1875, $15 to $17.50 per ton; 1876, $17 to $20 per ton; 1877, $14 to $17 per ton; 1878, $17 to $18 per ton.

“Prices in bulk at factory are usually about $3 per ton lower than at New Haven, owing to cost of packages, labor, and freights. Dry ground fish guano was retailed ten years ago at $55 per ton, now at $40 to $42.50; wholesale, $5 per ton less.”

Methods of manufacture and need of improvement.—Statements by Prof. C. A. Goessman.

291. The following statements from the Third Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Inspector of Fertilizers, Prof. Goessman, who has given a great deal of attention to the subject of fish manures, are of special value in this connection. Professor Goessman gives an analysis of a sample of dried fish scrap obtained at the chemical works under the charge of Hon. 8. L. Goodale, at Booth Bay, Me., where large quanti- ties of fresh scraps were delivered direct from the press of an adjoining fish-rendering establishment. It was deemed a particularly fair sample of a well-rendered and carefully-dried menhaden fish. It contained 10 per cent. of water, 70.75 per cent. organic matter, 18.25 per cent. ask, 8.46 per cent. phosphoric acid, and 8.14 per cent. nitrogen.

“About one third of the entire phosphoric acid proved to be seluble in citrate of ammonia. Ether abstracted at ordinary temperature 18 per cent. more of a thick, highly-colored, oily mass.

‘The following rules of rendering the fish were stated as being cus- tomary in the establishment above mentioned: the fish were boiled tor about one-half to three-quarters of an hocr, by means of steam of from 70 to 80 pounds’ pressure, in large wooden tanks with false bottoms; and subsequently, after the soup had been withdrawn, subjected to a press- ure of about 115 to 120 pounds per square inch. ‘The fish mass, in con- sequeuce of its gelatinous condition, retains usually still from 50 to 55 per cent. of moisture. In a large fish-rendering estabishment near New York City, I noticed that the boiling of the fish was continued only 25 minutes, with steam of 50 pounds’ pressure, and the rendered fish mass subsequently treated with 160 pounds’ pressure per square inch.

‘‘The soup, which contains besides the oil more or less of the glue- producing, soluble nitrogenous matter of the flesh and the bones, is at pres- ent discharged after, by means of settling-tanks, the oil has been care-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. yy

fully removed. This practice causes a considerable waste of nitrogen. The yield of oil differs, often widely, even during the same season, being, it was stated, usually higbest during autumn. The rendering begins usually in May or June, and closes late in the fall. The quality of the fish refuse in general, independent of its moisture and mechanical con- dition, depends, quite naturally, to a large extent, on the following cir- cumstances :

“First. On the kind used and whether entire or in part.

“Second. On the peculiar mode of rendering.

“Third. On the time when the fish are caught.

“Fourth. The course pursued in keeping and preparing the refuse for the general market.

‘‘Hach of these circumstances exerts an influence of its own on the composition of the fish guano.

“ Judging from general appearances, but little attention is paid thus far to the first three conditions; the influence of the last one is, more or less, fully understood, yet not satisfactorily controlled. A main diffi- culty, no doubt, arises from the irregular arrival of large quantities of fish at one time during the season; and the means, which are at present usually employed to meet this difficulty, are, quite frequently, inadequate to the demand. Many manufacturers of fish-oil consider it, therefore, apparently a safer proceeding to dispose at once of their crude stock at low rates than to ran the risk any longer. Without questioning the soundness of their course of action, in case of limited pecuniary means, there seems to be no valid reason why improvements should cease here as long as it is daily demonstrated that it pays well to collect animal re- fuse matters from all over the country and to work them into valuable concentrated fertilizers.

** Nobody familiar with the nature of a good fish guano considers it less efficient for agricultural purposes than any other animal refuse matter of a corresponding percentage of phosphoric acid and nitrogen. In fact, all true guanos, the Peruvian not excepted, owe their most valuable constituents, in a controlling degree, directly or indirectly to the fish.

‘Our fish guano consists of the entire body ot the menhaden fish, which has been deprived purposely of its main portion of fat, and, inci- dentally, more or less completely of its soluble nitrogenous matter. The more the flesh predominates, the more the fat has been abstracted with- out the application of an excessive heat, as far as time and degree are concerned, the higher will be the commercial value of the residue of the press in case of an equal percentage of moisture. The flesh of the fish, like that of our domesticated animals, contains on an average 15 per cent. of nitrogen. The same close approximate relation exists between the bones and the textures of these otherwise widely differing classes of animals; for the fish-bones and the scales consist, mainly, of a varying quantity of cartilaginous (nitrogenous) matter and of (tricalcic phos- phate) bone phosphate.

222 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

“To produce a fish guano which contains in a given quantity the largest possible amount of nitrogen, must be the principal aim of the manufac- turer. It brings the highest pecuniary compensation; for one percent- age of nitrogen is commercially equal to 4 per cent. of phosphoric acid.

‘* During the past, it is true, there has been little inducement for con- siderations of this kind on the part of the manufacturer, because prac- tically there has been scarcely any serious discrimination on the part of the consumers regarding the exact relative chemical composition cf the various fish guanos offered for sale.

‘The future prospect of this branch of home industry depends, in an unusual degree, on the exertions which hereafter shall be made, on the part of the manufacturers, to meet the present more exacting conditions of the trade in fertilizers.

‘To derive any full benefit from the capital invested renders it ad- visable, for all parties pecuniarily interested in the fish guano man- ufacture, to favor a closer scientific investigation into the changes which the menhaden fish undergoes during the customary mode of ren- dering.

‘« Loss of nitrogenous matter, in consequence of misapplication of heat, seems to be not always compensated for by an increase of the yield in oil.

‘¢ The latter, when left in the fish mass in an undue proportion, reduces) to say the least, the commercial value of the guano by adding a worth- less matter, which may affect seriously the analytical results, as far as its percentage of nitrogen is concerned. To heat the fish to a higher temperature, or for a longer period of time than is required to secure the largest possible amount of oil, reduces, invariably, the commercial value of the fish mass for agricultural purposes. A few subsequent an- alytical statements, regarding the composition of fish, and the degree of the changes which they may suffer by steaming and rendering, may serve as a practical illustration of my previous remarks.

‘A well-dried and finely-ground fish guano is one of our best substi- tutes for Peruvian guano, and ranks equally high with the best quality of animal dust from our butcher refuse establishments. It deserves the liberal patronage of farmers wherever a rich nitrogenous phosphate is called for.

‘“T have shown in a previous report, that, as a general rule, the high grades of superphosphates are cheaper than our low grades; the same rule applies to nitrogenous materials.

‘The recent changes in our fertilizer trade tend to stimulate improve- ments in the modes of their manufacture, by rendering true merits prominent, which, as a natural consequence, secures a reliable patronage only to the best quality. We are not yet suffering from an overstock- ing of our fertilizer markets on account of overproduction of home-made fertilizers obtained from suitable home resources.

‘Millions of dollars are annually sent abroad still, for the importa-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 223

tion of materials, which, in their crude form, are by no means better than what we have in abundance at home.

“The manufacture of fertilizers has become in the same degree an art, aS agriculture itself has justly assumed the claim of being a sci- ence.

“The production of fish guano, although respectable already, as far as quantity is concerned, is thus far but incidental to the menhaden fish-rendering industry.

“Tt remains still an open question whether our resources for the man- ufacture of fish guano do not extend beyond that branch of industry.”

Statements of Mr. Maddocks.—Manufacture in Maine.

292. From the fifth report of the secretary of the association of the menhaden oil and guano manufacturers of Maine, Mr. L. Maddocks, which is devoted to ‘The Menhaden Fishery of Maine,” the following quotations are taken. The manufacturing processes are those preva- lent on the Maine coast, particularly in the region of Booth Bay:

“The fish [as brought in by the fishing vessels] are discharged into a car running upon arail-track to the second story of the factory, and thence poured into tanks below, holding sixty to seventy-five barrels. These are filled one-third with water, steam turned on, and the fish cooked an hour, or until the albumen is coagulated, and the oil-cells broken. The cooked mass, after draining, passes into presses worked by hydraulic power, and is subjected to the pressure of a hundred tons per square inch, the oil and water flowing out and being collected in vats. The oil is then drawn off, clarified by settling, barreled, and is ready for market. The residue, called chum or scrap, is usually stored in the lower story of the factory until taken away by the purchasers, chiefly the manufacturers of ammoniated superphosphate of lime.

“The following figures will give more definiteness to the statement :

“One hundred and ninety-five pounds of fish make a ‘ barrel.’

“One barrel yields about two and a half gallons of oil, or eighteen and three-quarter pounds.”

** One barrel yields about eighty pounds of fresh chum or scrap.

“These are average results of the manufacture as now conducted in this State. The amount of oil realized varies from one gallon per barrel of fish, early in the season, to four or five gallons in September.”

*« The scrap contains, on the average as it comes from the press, 55 to 60 per cent. of its weight in water, and sometimes more. This is of course worthless for fertilizing purposes. It also contains from 12 to 20 per per cent. of fat or oil, which is equally worthless for manure.

“ As now generally managed, the scrap remains in large heaps until shipped, in autumn or winter, to the points of manufacture into super- phosphate. In this time a portion of the oil and water leaks away, so as to leave about 10 or 15 per cent. of the former, and 48 to 53 per cent. of the latter. The elimination of the water is an advantage, but the

224 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

specified per cent. of oil.is lost, and a portion of nitrogen is also lost, re- sulting from the partial decomposition of the mass, the formation and escape of ammonia. It were better, if practicable, to drive off the water at once upon withdrawal from the press, so as to prevent the loss in

question.” Goodale’s new process.

293. I have spoken of fish guanos from which the most of the fat has been extracted by special processes (Class No. 5, of page 600). One of these is Mr. Goodale’s, of which Mr. Maddocks speaks as follows: }

‘“ What has hitherto prevented the driving off of the water imme- diately by artificial heat has been the presence of so much oil, together with the gelatinous or gluey matter which is developed during the cook- ing, chiefly from the skins and bones. These render the process of dry- ing the scrap a very difficult and tedious one, so much so that compara- tively little has been put into the market in that desirable form. The recent discovery of an easy and simple process for removing the larger part of the oil, and also at the same time the gelatinous hinderance to drying, gives promise of a speedy change in this respect. While pursu- jing investigations relative to utilizing the menhaden as a source of con- centrated food, before referred to, Mr. S. L. Goodale, formerly secretary of the board of agriculture, discovered that it was chiefly by the agency of the gelatine that the remaining oil was held in the scrap. He found by thoroughly washing new scrap with sufficient hot water, and agita- tion, that it lost its jellyish consistence and slimy feel, and that the cil globules were liberated from their lock-up in the tissues, so that the greater part could be easily recovered by draining and repressing, and aiso that after sach washing it could be pressed much drier than before.

‘“ We can now readily understand why it is that oil, together with a puurid, watery liquid, leaks away from new scrap not many days after it is removed from the press. It is simply because dissolved gelatine, being more readily putrescible than other animal substances, quickly decomposes, and changes to a thin, offensive liquid, which partly drains off. This decomposition, or the change of consistence attending it, so ‘lets the bars down,’ that more or less oil escapes, while subjected to no press- ure whatever, except its own weight.

“Thus by a very easy process, the oil product may be largely increased, the scrap left free from the gluey hinderance to drying, and with less water to be dried out.

‘It may appear strange that so simple a method should not have been discovered sooner, but such is the fact. Work had been done on both sides of it. Re-pressing had been tried, using extra strong curbs, with very powerful pressure, but it failed to give satisfactory results. Re- cooking had been resorted to, which resulted in injury to the oil and in the development of an additional amount of the gelatinous matter. It is now seen that a simple thorough washing in hot water accomplishes the desired end, with neither of these ovjectionable results.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 225

‘Serap made by this process last August (1877), and dried in the open air, was lately analyzed at the agricultural experiment station of Connecticut, and the statement of the director, Prof. S. W. Jobnson, of New Haven, shows the proportion of moisture to be reduced to 11.45 per cent., cr about one-fifth that contained in the scrap fresh from the press; and the proportion of oil to 4.65 per ceut., thus proving that the content of oil in the washed scrap as it came from the press (before drying it) had becn reduced to less than 25 per cent. [The percentage of nitrogen was 10.24 per cent., the phosphoric acid 7.50 per cent. These figures refer to the material as dried in the open air.|

‘According to these figures, the proportion of oil hitherto lost is, by the new process, reduced from an average of, say 15 per cent. of the weight of the scrap as it commonly issues from the press, to about 2 per cent. The balance, say 12 or 15 per cent., is saved. Let it be as- sumed, however, that only 10 per cent. can be realized in practice, and that the annual out-turn of scrap from the factories of the Maine association be only 40,000,000 pounds. This would give an annual Saving of 4,000,000 pounds of oil, or 533,000 gallons, worth, at current prices at market for 1877, forty cents per gallon, $213,200.

‘“ With reference to drying by artificial means, which is obviously important, no doubt is felt that the apparatus now in operation will effect the work as thoroughly as may be desired, and cheaply and quickly also, provided only the oil and gelatine in the scrap be reduced as above described.

“Two companies belonging to the association have succeeded in dry- ing the scrap in considerable quantities, notwithstanding the obstacles referred to. The scrap is passed through a slightly inclined heated iron cylinder thirty feet long and four feet in diameter, and on the pas: sage is agitated by paddles attached to a revolving shaft, and comes out at the lower end dried to about 25 per cent. of moisture. The process. will be greatly promoted in dispatch and efficiency by the application of the new oil-saving method, and the whole manufacture will then be under full control. The scrap can at once, upon withdrawal from the press, be subjected to the drying process by furnace heat, irrespective of the state of the weather, and thus the loss of ammonia by decomposi- tion be forestalled. If the contained moisture is reduced to a per cent. no lower even than 29 or 25, the scrap can be kept on the spot at con- venience, and without offense to the senses, or transported as required.”

Adamsown’s process.

294. The other process for extracting fat from fish is that of Adamson. It depends upon the use of hot petroleum, naphtha, or benzine, to dis- solve the oil. Whole fish, menbaden, or others, as well as scrap, are said to be arranged in layers, in an inclined iron cylinder, the naphtha or benzine directed upon and passed through them. Inthe passage the oil is extracted from the fish, which are left in an excellent form for dry-

15 F

226 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

ing and grinding. The process is said to be easy, simple, and effectual. The main drawback is the necessity for new apparatus and the rejection of a good share of the appliances now used.

Two samples of fish guano prepared in this way and analyzed at the

Connecticut experiment station gave, respectively : ; Per cent. Per cent.

IOS RULY IRR oo G8 co 66 CORO COE EERE EEeEe Rae TOs Sobg Ac ooo naan cosaan KOI 3. 67 OU hectare we eee ees ete = ainia in aje.su, tines ele wassvenie einai ences Saepe melee Oe eee INTRO DOME eee tne Settee ots sce Sine ae ete ntlaiern cm yoinieie es ete atetay ieee eee Onn 10.74

Immense waste of fish at present.— Possibilities of future manufacture.

295. The accounts of these new processes at my disposal are meager. They seem, however, to promise well, and, if successful, must revolu- tionize the manufacture of fish guano. The great desideratum has been a means of removing the oil as entirely as possible, saving the nitro- genous matters and yielding a fine, dry product. This seems to have been found. I understand that the Adamson process is to be used in the manufacture of a fertilizer from the fish that are taken along the coast, but thrown into the sea again on account of their low value for oil or food. The benefit to our agriculture from such an economizing of fish hitherto wasted would be immense. Concerning the number of fish thus lost Mr. Goode writes: “I estimate that the amount of fish annually thrown away from the hundred and fifty-odd weirs on our coast cannot fall much short of ten millions of pounds annually, and probably far exceeds that.”

“Acidulated fish” and “fish and potash salts.”

296. The “ acidulated fish” (class No. 6 on page 219) is prepared by treating the fish scrap with sulpherie acid to render the phosphoric acid more soluble. Unfortunately the constitution of the tissues of the fish is such as to resist the action of the acid, and the desired result is only partly attained. A sample examined under the writer’s direction gave 7.09 per cent. of phosphoric acid, of which only 1.76 per cent. was soluble in water.

It will be remembered that Pettitt’s process for the manufacture of fish waste into a fertilizer was based upon treatment of the fish with acid, and did not prove a success.

Various efforts in this same direction are reported in this country and in Europe, but none, as I can learn, have been found profitable. The imperviousness of the tissues to the action of the acid has thus far been an insurmountable obstacle to success, and will probably remain so.

The “fish and potash salts” (class No. 7, above) is a mixture, as its name represents, of fish, half-dry scrap apparently, in the specimens I have seen, with German potash salts. The idea is a sound one, in that the salts used, doubtless of the lower grades, like Leopoldshall Kainit, and containing large percentages of chloride of sodium (common salt),

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 227

would act as a preservative, and further, the potash supplies a lack in the fish and makes of it a “‘ complete” fertilizer.

The amounts of the * acidulated ” fish and “fish and potash salts” in the market are so’small as to give them very little importance.

Manufacture of ““ammoniated superphosphates.”

297. The most important use of fish waste is in the manufacture of nitrogenous, ‘**ammoniated,” superphospates. These fertilizers, which constitute by far the largest class in the market, owe their value mainly to the two ingredients, nitrogen and phosphorie acid. For phosphorie acid various fossil and mineral phosphates, particularly those from South Carolina and the Island of Navassa, are employed. Of late, mines of apatite have been opened in Canada, and promise to be a rich and im- portant source of phosphates for this purpose. The waste boneblack from sugar refineries is also used in very large quantities for the same purpose. Bone meal is likewise employed, but to a limited extent. The phosphorie acid in all of these is in insoluble or very slowly soluble forms. ‘To render it more available, the phosphates are treated with sulphuric acid, and thus superphosphates are produced.

Various materials are used to supply nitrogen (ammonia) to super- phosphates. Dried blood and meat-scrap from slaughter-houses are, next to fish, the most important materials in common use for this pur- pose. Formerly a good deal Peruvian guano wasemployed. In Europe considerable sulphate of ammonia is used, but manufacturers there are learning that they can get nitrogen cheaper in American fish and slaugh- ter-house products, and thousands of tons of our best nitrogenous materials are annually taken from us and sent across the Atlantic to enrich English, French, and German soils.

According to the report of Mr. Maddocks, already referred to, ‘ nine- tenths of the fish scrap turned out at the works of the Maine associa- tion are bought by the manufacturers of superphosphate to ammoniate their products, of which 400,000 tons are produced yearly in the United States. They combine it, when dried and pulverized, with South Car- olina phosphatic rock, ground bones, with imported guano deficient in ammonia, &c. It is understood that not over one ton of the fish guano is used in connection with three or four tons of the mineral ingredients.”

The largest manufacturers of superphosphates in this country are the Pacitic Guano Company, whose works are at Wood’s Holl, Mass., and near Charleston, 8. C. This company use fish and the Charleston phosphate for the manufacture of their superphosphate, the “ Soluble Pacific Guano.” The Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company, of New Haven, Conn., whose works are on Pine Island, near New London, Conn., and the Cumberland Bone Company, of Boothbay, Maine, are, with the Pacific Guano Company, the best representatives of this most useful industry. The detailed descriptions of their factories and methods of manufacture, prepared by Mr. Goode, are at once too extensive to be

2283 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

conveniently inserted here, and of too much interest to be condensed, and are therefore given in the Appendix O.

50. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MENHADEN AND OF FISH MANURES. Analysis of whole menhaden and of flesh and bones of whale.

298. The only analysis of whole menhaden I have noticed is given by Prof. G. H. Cook.* The specimens were taken in the Raritan River the latter part of October.

“ Five of the fish weighed four and one-fourth pounds—their average weight being three quarters of a pound. The oil was first separated by adding water to the fish and boiling until the flesh was reduced to a pulp. The oil was then skimmed off and purified from water and other substances by ether. It then weighed 2.66 ounces, which is equivalent to 3.914 per cent. of the original weight of the fish. The substance of the fish remaining was then strained out and carefully dried in an air bath, at a temperature of 290° I'., when the dry mass was found to weigh 11.8 ounces. On account of the solvent power of the sulphuric acid, which was added to the fish, it was thought proper to separate all the mineral matters from the fluid in which the fish had been boiled, add them to the dried fish, excluding of course the sulphuric acid. These weighed 1.1 ounces, and added to the weight of dried fish given above, 11.8 ounces, made for the whole weight of the dried matter 12.9 ounces, which is equivalent to 18.93 per cent. of the original weight of the fish. There was stil left in the fluid some animal matter, which could not be satisfactorily separated, and was left out. The water in the fish was 77.15 per cent. as ascertained by deducting the percentage of oil and dried matter from 100. The nitrogen in the dried fish was ascertained by ultimate analysis to be 7.76 per cent., which is equivalent to 9.28 per cent. of ammonia. The mineral substances contained in the fish were freed from the organic matter by pressing, and then separated from each other by the ordinary process of analysis.”

Analysis of the fresh jish.

WALGER! eure ae aklg cee he @ Sie 2c lus dbasd anid. mle mic ore teeta poeta 77. 108 Oa a ee ie ais aie de: ote ds a Jaa RO ne reed 3.914 Dried tigh, ene kee ee ths 2 sick wince is ene aes ete Aan tenements 18, 936 Analysis of the dried fish. Weis iso oe eke ook ae eee eT La 5 ara ear a eine eee 8. 67 Phosphorie aeidi. 2 sack ama een ce jee siete cle ogee mica Mo wate 7.73 SULCIG JACIC! As) s,0 hak 2 ols cfseeaeneeretelee depicts RS te fas ee ee 1.33 POtaSHN: «<a. o/c va de ier aS AES ~ clo SEGRE Bo cede oo meee 1. 54 = (0(6 tae a gna EN CG ANS OS een 8 ch eR 22 102 IMIAEMOSIA. (=) ik, b olejoe epee Seles ered = yer ela pele aia’ as odie Oeeen ONOG CUTAN VATIO) 2. is. < ian toss 5 c:n iS Capea ee ote eee is [oierae ale(oh a 2,212 Sic. eee 0. 69 Orcanieimatter-and ossicles Abels f= (sine 2h Seema 78.3 100. 00

* Geology of New Jersey, 1868, p. 497.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 229

The following analysis by Stéckhardt* of the flesh and bones of the whale may not be without interest in this connection : I.—Flesh of the whale.

Pere a, | Without fat Raw, per anaes g andentire- cent. fat) per ly dry, per C ant! cent.

HATO) Acton <i<,= scats al aaate eee

22. @1 ANDi oc siemens 32.10 57. 44 96. 80

Mineral constituents (ash) 1.04 1. 86 3.2 PURO OM meen ce ch aoe «a cee eas etree nisin sate Socials este nae eee seayaes 4, £6 &. 68 14, 60

II.—Steamed bones of the whale.

PALE cg aotiepeaceme cis Oo. O4 Per Cent, Cartilaginous mass (glue). 34.60 * =(3.0 per cent. nitrogen.) Wave ees o ease sse: Loe Bone phosphate of lime.. 51.66 * =(23.66 per cent. phosphoric acid.) Carbonate of lime-..-... 8.56 Analysis of fish fertilizers.

299. The following tables illustrate the composition of some of our more common fish fertilizers. Those in Table A are from analyses re- ported by the writer.t Those in Table B are reported by Prof. S. W. Johnson: t

TABLE A. EI 3 = nae Biel iene Bem) Shia h) ae. Kind of fertilizer. a8 5 = aS less se= a a : ae S “sa 3 3 2 a = =| sue) fos ee = a re os = n A fo) 4 a Au S Dry ground fish: Per ct.| Per ct.| Per ct.| Per ct.| Per ct. | Per ct. | Per ct Ground fish, G. W. Miles........... 10] 18.74] 61.82 19. 44 7.65 8. 06 9. 78 6. 71 Fish guano, iG WoeMilest 15 2)4 082 2 28] 21.96 | 50.99 | 27.05 8. 66 6. 07 Meson |S sees =e Charles Island guano, G. W. Miles... 80 S163) AOA es 9F AT 7.74 ore GW eS Gi lapmaeces Aulymisttentilizer, J-- i asse--cs2-2< 7S LN ae Se 16. 37 6.17 2.280 | 10. 62 6.35 malynie tertihzer .<.-2 = s-c-s22-- 185 6. 34 71. 31 22. 39 7. 90 7. 88 9. 56 1.3 Dry ground fish, Quinnipiac Ferti- apr Oumpany se: 5 eee apse e: HOON PT4 G40 lees cee 22. 23 6. 67 7.50 9,11 7.68 Dry ground fish, Quinnipiac Fetti- MZCE COMPANY: 2. Wi oe ae keane 140 | 10.85 | 68.40} 20.75 YEPal 7. 38 AM eS opeticic Dry ground fish, Quinnipiac Ferti- ber COMPpPaNy, 2s. <2 — eee ohm 172 | 13.45 | 63.97 | 22.58 7.55 7. 96 9 66 6. G3 Dry ground fish, Quinnipiac Ferti- lizer Cowpany eae Neer ae 203 8599 Ie ceers. 20. 41 8.11 8.25 | 10.00 8. 94 Acidulated fish, SUMING 2 Ferti- PGR COMpADY. | occ. so eminrine bee 222 | 36.53] 39.89] 23.58] *7.09 4.11 45 00h | Eeenaete Dricd fish scrap: “Dry fish,” Green Brothers........ 179} 11.04] 64,01 | 24.95) 10.51 8.60 | 10.44 3. 93 O07) Ui | a ae aly Se a ge a 182 OSE tesla 19. 92 7,10 8.13 OXGG! | Se-/s-< - DUN Gh ee eee eee Tee SAG) a ee 20.17 7.12 7. 46 9. 05 8. 29 “ Bish scrap” Peace eecen ep esses 190 TAN eee oe os Nc c.ctu.<2 ai |Soeteesiee 7. 10 CES UB Aeoeeas EPREWIRIRINY oso). 53 - sb ty e303. 196 Taft Rl | BM ee ee eae eg SER 7.79 OMAGH ER cles -1- Jc lUsb “SiG | 2 pF ea ea TOD RR eee Seo. calle 2th acl Bececs 7. 65 Whats) |lboneoese Lialf-dry fish serap : Fish serap, “‘halfdry”..........-.. 103 | 40.95 | 43.06] 15.99 6. 23 5. 33 BRAG) erect mins Fish sctap)i Halfidry !.o.3:5 kilee- 131 | 25.10) 56.17 | 18.73 7.49 5. 49 6. 66 11.99 Crude fish pomace: Veh Sora ef se ste 2 OT I: A907. | 856569) 1. 5.2/4 24 eee 3. 63 ANAT IN Sarat aa

* Per cent. soluble in water, 1.76; per cent. soluble in ammonium Citrate, 2.47. * Chemische Ackersmann XVI, 1870, 52. t Report of Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 1876, p. 63. ¢ Report of Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 1877, p. 41.

230 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

TABLE B. | AS 5 g asa Kind of fertilizer. aS S ep ee.

Se a S Les

= 5) # SEG =

a A A |A fo}

Per ct.| Per ct.| Per ct.| Per ct DO Ty STOUN CGH SHS CLAN e eer eset e mlare ies ate aol) imtaterate eaten starat 2 10:75. 8.52 O54 ine Meera Dryscroun des b-SCrapeeeeee imac: a <a eee eee aan ee UP lesieasoe toi) el Easeeeeiaes Reese 5 Dry Sround fShescrap Olt SO) sonia n= ine sinle ese seinem =e ei 15} 16.59 (68) S814 |- seca Dry cround!tish-serap; new, 1817 --------- cee cece ew ecmene seee== 16 | 23.95 7.30 Qua O ae sapere DST eeTOUN Metin hs Cie Dire eats seln nico nine e/a cteie mee me cena se ay (a eS ON 2G Brene sas =o teem NERV POLOMM OMI GHES EAN ee tere. aicieiseicinistesieie ine me loeteieiete sae cere ie SES SAG ascent allt ssc5e ID ae feamorminydl MIS NSE) Aa saMASsoa paaooEeO Gel Sbd dol enGondodeacses 22) 19.57 7.98 (RC al he eae Drycroundish-scrap....-c------ BS as at aE AOS SRE: 43 9.03 8. 04 fot SB tel Lak ees See DEV eORO mn Mush -SCLAD ia los =icleyecolorale/wiemeiemieeetninielee mie ecteteteateere 45 | 11.38 8.51 92604 cceecess DD RvgOroun eS SCLAD << ss or six = <i> mepniaie'ehels neem eee inact cee s 46 | 10.74 8. 43 oe as es IDS ey femora! HSIN ORT) pean ooseecedoocnadochs deoqescbactososane 50 9. 76 7.77 8. 61 8. 94 DeysovouMd dish-SCLAD) soe = ince mia ce eeislasieineceiseeeeaer rena 52} 11.19 8. 78 9. c8 7. 30 JSC = 55 95 GOR Osa ng DODDS OCSS Sob Sdn SaoHsOsosSAd Scenes: 13. 66 8.24 9. 36 8.12 Mishiby.Adamson's Process! sacesce sees see ce eee eee see ee ae | 36 4.91 | ° 10.78) 11732 2. 07 ishibyeA damSonis! Process! ei... selec eeiniclsieslelni<cn ale mate eetor 39 SIOTN| LO RAS | a On eee iishupy! Goodaleis pLrocess\. => -spmeeeemes sacle = ene = == eee 41 | 11.45] 10.24] 11.56 4. 64 1

Waste from faulty manufacture and use of fish fertilizers.

300. An enormous loss results to our agriculture from the waste of fish that might be saved, from faulty manufacture of fish into fertilizers, from wrong use of the fertilizers when made, and from the exportation of the best products to Eurepe, where their value is better understood. This loss will be prevented in proportion as the nature and uses of fish manures are learned.

dl. THE USE OF FISH FERTILIZERS IN AGRICULTURE.

Chemistry of plant nutrition.

301. Not only farmers and merchants, but many manufacturers as well, have a very poor understanding of what constitutes the value of fish as fertilizers, and how they may be most economically utilized. © It will be well, therefore, to consider briefly some of the principles that decide the value and usefulness of fertilizers in general, and of fish products in particular.

Fish manures, like other commercial fertilizers, are valuable because they supply plant-food which crops need and soils fail to furnish. Their main value depends upon their content of nitrogen and phosphoric acid. These are the most valuable and costly ingredients of commercial fertilizers.

Plants, like animals, require food for life and growth. A part of the food of plants is supplied from the atmosphere, the remainder is de- rived from the soil. No ordinary cultivated plant can thrive without a sufficient supply of each of a number of substances needed for its food. With an abundance of all of these in forms in which the plant can use thein, and with other circumstances favorable, the plant will flourish and the yield be large. But if the available supply of any one of them

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 231

be too small, a light yield is inevitable. For instance, potash is an essen- tial ingredient of tne tood of plants. If all the other conditions for a profitable crop of corn or potatoes, or other plants, are fulfilled in the soil, except that potash is deficient, the crop will inevitably fail. But if the potash be supplied the yield will be abundant. The chief use of fertilizers is to supply the plant-food which the soil lacks.

Vegetable and animal substances, aud manures and soils as well, con- tain, besides water, two kinds of materials, the so-called organic matter and the mineral matter or ash.

The organic matter consists chiefly of the four chemical elements, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. We do not need to trouble our- selves about the first three of these in fertilizers, because they are sup- plied to the plant in abundance by the atmosphere and the soil through the leaves and through the roots.

But the nitrogen is an important ingredient of fertilizers. It is, in its pure state, a gas, and makes up about four-fifths of the air. Combined with hydrogen it forms ammonia; combined with oxygen it is known as nitrie acid. In these and other combinations it occurs in minute quanti- ties in the atmosphere, and in considerable quantities in soils and manures. Piants are unable to make use of the pure nitrogen of the air, though some, if not all, absorb a very little combined nitrogen from the atmos- phere. By far the largest part of the nitrogen of plants is absorbed from the soil through the roots. From the facts that nitrogen is avail- able to plants only in certain combinativus, that it is slow to form and easily leaves these compounds, that it readily escapes from manures and soils into the air, and is leached away by water, it is one of the most commonly deficient and hence the most costly ingredients of the food of plants.

The mineral matter or ash of plants is derived entirely from the soit. It consists of several ingredients, known as potash, soda, lime, magnesia, iron, Silica, sulphuric acid, phosp'oric acid, and chlorine.

Essential ingredients of plant-food.

002. The results of a vast amount of this sort of experimenting prove that no agricultural plant can attain full growth without a sufficient sup- ply, through its roots, from the soil, of potash, lime, magnesia, tron, phos- phoric acid, sulphuric acid, aud some compound of nitrogen. Besides these, chlorine, and perhaps silica, are sometimes, if not always. indispensa- ble, though in very small proportions, to complete development. If any ove of these essential ingredients be lacking the plant will suffer in growth and development.

Hehaustion of soil by various crops.

303. Crops take from the soil, then, the materials needful for their growth; and these are rightly called “ plant-food.” Some soils yield large crops many years in succession without manuring. ’ They do this

932 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

because they contain large stores of the ingredients of plant-food, as potash, lime, nitrogen, &c., and because these are furnished in available forms, so that the plant can readily use them. As a rule, after cropping for some time, the point is reached where the natural resupply of plant- food is insutficient to produce large crops. In other words, in the so-called “poor,” *‘ worn-out,” or “exhausted” soils, the natural strength is insufficient for profitable production.

In order to know what fertilizers to use on such soils we must know what ingredients of plant-food are deficient, and what manures will best supply them. An idea of the essential ingredients of plant-food removed trom the soil in cropping may be obtained from the table below, which is calculated from the extensive tables of analyses of plants by Wolff.

Materials removed from the soil by various crops.

° | pa a a fo iS) fod A oo a a ° 3 Crops. S| = E = 6 I a a ES ins g 2 § i =) a ey =I DR AY A a Au A RYE. Pounds.) Pounds.|Pounds.|Pounds.| Pounds. Pounds. Grain, 25 bushels—1,400 pounds ............---.-.-. 0.3 11.8 0.7 2.9 7.8 24.6 Straw3 UO POU setae ae eee eee neem ne mee ene 3.8 7.3| 12.2 Bh) ||) OER 14.0 MT Ota: oo nact wa cimiasahiniee Sacer a=e clcivicinaieeielsi=siste ae 4.1 1951 12.9 6.8 35. 1 38. 6 OATS. Soar ac ae rr ail, ean ‘Grain, 30 bushels = 960 pounds ......-..---.--.-----. 0.4 6.0 1.0 1.8 4.2 18. 4 Straw, 2,000 pounds) oo secmac cee soeee geecbbessS3S05c 2.6 3.8 Rae ah) 17.8 Ae OUAL AA Lie cc eases ose mesa eta reece asaemaae 3 9 8.2 by 22.0 29. 6 WHEAT. vei yaa Grain, 20 bushels =1,200' pounds .-......-.2.2 2.2525. 0.1 9.5 0.7 2.4 6.4 25. 0 Sucawes O00 pound se pene. eee ncieeiceeme eimai sees abe 6.6 al ore 18.9 14.4 Mota een Men casas acca seheeceseoeheassie eases 4 16.1 8 yeh Paso 39.4 CORN. eat Grain, 50 bushels = 2,800 pounds ..-................-- 0.6 16.5 0.8 5.6 10.4 44.8 Stailkst6;o00 ponndsenet ese ese seeisaece ce o- sseencer 7.8 34.5 26. 0 16.9 62. 4 31,2 GUAR G BRS A ae ee aD 8 5U.0| 26.8| 225| 728| 76.0 HAY. i Pee hee Nea i Mixed grasses, 14 tons = 3,000 ponnds........-....-. Wa 12.3 25.8 9.9 39.6 46.5 POTATOES. eM RES. ih een Laeee Vint, Tubers, 150 bushels = 9,000 pounds...-...-..-...---- 5.4 1. 44 1.8 3.6 51.3 30. 6 TOBACCO, ir 3 Leaves, 1,800 pounds (1,260 pounds dry) ..-.....----- 14 (ho) 73 17 71 49 Stalks'1)100\poundsidry =o------seseems esas eee ee 3 15 15 2 47 33 otal. (9220202 a ae Rea aa ge 17 22.5| 838 19 | 118 | $2

Large quantities of silica, and small quantities of soda, chlorine, and iron, are also removed from the soil by every crop. Iron is necessary to the growth of all agricultural plants, but in very minute quantity. In many cases s.c.ll amounts of chlorine seem to be requisite. Silica, if needed at all, which is quite doubtful, is required only in extremely

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 235

minute proportions. Soda does not appear to be an essential ingredient of plant food. In so far as these latter are essential ingredients of plant food, they are furnished in abundance by every ordinary soil.

Ingredients most commonly lacking in worn-out soils, and hence most im- portant in fertilizers ; nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash.

304. For our present purposes, then, we have to consider only the potash, lime, magnesia, sulphuric acid, and nitrogen. Of this list the magnesia is commonly, though not always, supplied in sufficient quan- tities in even “worn-out” soils. Sometimes its presence in fertilizers may be of considerable importance to crops. Sulphuric acid and lime are more often deficient, and hence one reason of the good effect so often observed from the application of lime and plaster.

The remaining substances, the nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, are the most important ingredients of our common commercial fertilizers, because of both their scarcity in the soil and their high cost. It is in supplying these that fish guano, phosphates, and bone manures are chiefly useful.

In brief, then, in order that crops may grow, they must have at their disposal an adequate supply, in available forms, of each one of a certain list of essential ingredients of their food. Soils differ in respect to their supplies of these food ingredients. The crop cannot rise above the level of the lowest ingredient in the food supply. The chief use of fertilizers is to fill up the gaps.

_ Principles to be observed in the manufacture and purchase of fertilizers.

305. The cardinal principle to be observed by the farmer in the pur- chase of fertilizers is, to—

Select those which furnish, in the best form and at the lowest cost, the ingredients of plant-food that his crops need and his soil fuils to supply.

The principle that should guide the manufacturer should be, to—

Economize all available materials in his manufacture so as to furnish the valuable ingredients in the best forms in products of high-grade and uniform composition, and at the fairest practicable rates.

The most important ingredients of our fertilizers, because the most rare and costly, are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. The two first are the most important. These are supplied in large proportions in fish.

Composition, character, costs, and uses of fertilizers i general.

306. It will be to our purpose, then, to note briefly :

1. The composition of some of our more important commercial ferti- lizing materials, particularly those which, like fish manures, contain nitro- gen and phosphoric acid ; in other words, the analyses of these ferti- lizers.

2. The comparative costs and values of the active fertilizing ingredi- ents in these articles; or, in other words, the commercial valuations.

234 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

3. The forms of combination in which the valuable ingredients occur, and their consequent agricultural values.

4, Some of the ways in which the fertilizers may be improved, and their values increased.

In the consideration of these topics, which must be brief, some data wili be used which may be found in more detail in previous articles and reports by the writer. *

Explanations of chemical terms used in fertilizer analyses.

307. The following explanations of terms used in fertilizer analyses will be of use to those not familiar with such subjects:

MOoIstuRE.—AlIl fertilizers contain mere or less water, which, of course, has no commercial vaiue, and serves to make them heavier and relatively poorer in valuable ingredients. In the analysis, that which is removed by heating to 212° Fahrenheit (or, in some cases, to a some- what higher temperature) is designated as moisture. By subjecting the dried material to a higher temperature, the organic and volatile mat- ters are driven off, and the ash remains. By treating this ash with strong acids, all that is of any value is dissolved.

SAND AND INSOLUBLE MATTERS.—The residue, which resists the action of both fire and strong acids, consists of silica and other mineral matters. These possess no fertilizing value, and are classified as sand, &e. ;

NITROGEN. AMMONIA.—In our ordinary fertilizers much or all of the nitrogen exists in unavailable forms. By more or less rapid alterations, by decay or otherwise, which take place in the soil, these are changed to other compounds, which the plant can readily use as food. Of these lat- ter, nitric acid, which contains nitrogen combined with oxygen, is one ; ammonia, which consists of nitrogen and hydrogen, and is represented by the chemical formula NH;,is another. Fourteen parts by weight of nitrogen unite with 3 parts of hydrogen to form 17 parts of ammonia. Accordingly, 14 parts of nitrogen are said to be equivalent to 17 of am- monia, or what is the same thing, 100 parts of nitrogen are reckoned as equivalent to 121 parts of ammonia. In pure sulphate of ammonia all the nitrogen isin the form of ammonia. In Peruvian guano some of the nitrogen exists aS ammonia also. In our other ordinary fertilizers there is little ornoammonia. The very common practice of reckoning nitrogen as ammonia in fertilizers which do not contain it in this form is incorrect, misleading, and therefore wrong, and ought to be abolished.

Ammonia combined with sulphurie acid forms sulphate of ammo- nia; nitric acid combined with soda forms nitrate of soda.

PHOSPHORIC ACID: SOLUBLE, REVERTED, AND INSOLUBLE.— By phosphoric acid is understood the compound of phosphorus and oxygen which is represented by the chemical formula P,O;, or PO;. This, com- bined with lime, forms phosphate of lime. Tbe phosphate of lime which

* See particularly report of Conn. Agl. Expt. Station in Report of Conn. Board of Agriculture for 1876.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 235

occurs in bones, and in South Carolina and other fossil and mineral phosphates, contains 3 parts of lime to 1 of phosphoric acid. This is often called bone phosphate, and is insoluble in water. When the bone phosphate is treated with sulphuric acid, the latter takes part of the lime to itself, forming sulphate of lime, and leaves the phosphoric acid in the form of a superphosphate. This last is soluble in water, is more readily diffused through the soil, and when used as a fertilizer can be taken up by the plant at once, while the bone phosphate is slowly available as plant food. Phosphoric acid which has been ren- dered soluble often enters into other forms of combination, with lime, aluminia, &c., which, though insoluble in water, are soluble in citrate of ammonia. The terms “reverted,” “reduced,” and “ precipitated” are applied to 1t when in this form. The reverted phosphoric acid ranks in solubility, in capability of diffusion through the soil, and consequently in value, between the soluble and insoluble. The soluble and reverted are sometimes classed together as available phosphoric acid. _ In some analyses the percentage of phosphoric acid is not stated sep- arately, that of “‘bone phosphate of lime” being given in its stead. Sometimes the expression “ soluble bone- phosphate of lime” is met with, which is certainly a misnomer. One hundred parts by weight of phosphoric acid unite with about 118 parts of lime to form 218 parts of bone phosphate ; 100 paris or pounds of phosphoric acid are said, there- fore, to be equivalent to 218 parts of bone phosphate. I lay especial stress on this point, because those not familiar with chemistry are apt to be deceived in comparing analyses in some of which the term phos- phorie acid and in others the term bone phosphate is used. It would be more accurate and clear, and in every way better, to discard the term bone phosphate of lime in analyses of fertilizers, and speak only of phosphoric acid.

POTASH, OR POTASSA, is the compound of the metal potassium with oxygen, which is represented by the chemical formula K,0 or KO. This, combined with sulphuric acid, forms sulphate of potash. Potas- sium and chlorine together form chloride of potassium, or ‘“ muriate of potash,” as it is called by dealers.

As the analyses and the valuations of the fertilizers to be discussed can be given most concisely and clearly together in tables, explanations of the latter subject may properly be given here.

Valuations of commercial fertilizers.

508. The agricultural value of a fertilizer, the gain which will result from its use in a given case, is subject to such varying conditions of soil, climate, culture, and crop, as to preclude the possibility of exact esti- mate. The commercial value, being dependent upon its composition and the state of the market, admits of more nearly correct calculation.

It is customary to make estimates of the commercial values by attrib- uting to each of the important ingredients a certain value per pound;

236 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

that is to say, each pound of nitrogen,-phosphorie acid, and potash is rated at a certain price, and the value of a ton of the fertilizer calcu- lated on this basis, just as a grocer would make out a bill for a lot of tea, coffee, sugar, by charging a certain price per pound for each, and adding the products to make the amount of the bill. It will be remem- bered that each per cent. or pound in 100 pounds will be equal to 20 pounds in a ton of 2,000 pounds.

Here, for instance, is an analysis and valuation by Professor Goess-

mann: Fish guano.

Per cent.

Morstunerat pl OOSSMOSC 2e nay. a caereeeareeiee 6 660506 Be SosganbcHs doSbcusedesesc 17.50

OrcamiGhmMalere cscs son. < Sais o's 4s aeiele so beloee as wlemisiclete ne Sein io steele ine seve epaee ee emo aU,

ABHICONSHILUCIUS Vote leccc false tleine eee eciaeceasticnet cceebceeciseee Clee comes 29.30

RWoOsphoric-aciG im ash .£5 2). -/ Seiten cueme rs fete cts ie alno tie APDRRIOR cep eee man en,

Nitrogenyimlorganic/matteri-peseteassorr sooner cele selec anise ioslanie nieces ionta sain OneeO

Valuation per ton of 2,000 pounds:

154. 4 pounds of phosphoric acid, at 6 cents per pound -...-.-.-.-.--.-....----.- $9. 26 129) 2 pounds of nitrogen, ati25 cents per pounds. 5-2 eae ncn e = cece eee oon

$41.56

The following statements are from the Connecticut experiment sta- tion report for 1876.

The statements and tables given in the other parts of this report will supply sufficient data for judging the values of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash in different forms in which they are most commonly obtained in the markets. The commercial value of a fertilizer of which the analysis is given may be calculated by the following rule:

I. Multiply the per cent. of each valuable ingredient by 20 to get the number of pounds in a ton of 2,000 pounds. Multiply the number (thus found) of pounds of each ingredient by its assumed value per pound. The sum of these products will be the estimated commercial value of a ton of the fertilizer. Or,

Il. Maltiply the number of “‘ units” (per cent.) of each ingredient by the assumed value per unit, and add the products. The sum will be the estimated value per ton.

What will be fair valuations will depend upon the material by which they are furnished, their market value at the time, the amounts pur- chased, time of payment, distance from market, &c. For the common superphosphates, bought in ton-lots for cash in our larger cities, the

following figures will not be far out of the way: Per pound. Per unit. ©

Nitrogen) vn.\.Usid., cc sdhce scene eee saees be tee a Cake eee Y 21 cents. $4 20 Phosphoricsacid; solublecees a: Seen cee eee eee oeeeeee see ees Lescents: 2 50 hosphoriciacid, reverted {5 -a.cs- ee ee pero eer riaaerie = <sieeice sees) 9 peemtss 1 80 Phosphoric 2cid, ins., from bones, meat, or fish ....-.--..--------. 6 cents. 1 20 Phosphorre’acid; ins., from bone-black-saseesa4-ee- oes = seas |) SCOMUB 1 00 Phosphoric acid, ins., from fossil and mineral Brcepients Selcisiom wines 3¢ cents. 65

It must be remembered, however, that the values thus calculated are not agricultural values.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 237%

The following rates of valuation were adopted by Professor Goess- mann in 1874~75 and 1875-76:

1874-75. 1875-76.

{ Per pound. Per pound. Soluple phosphorie’acid: ..<.--1...so..seeemes seas Pee secinn sc 16. 25 cents. 12.5 cenis. PLedetCed Serer ae % bo <2 x12 3? Re ane cts Sahoo aio 13 ~—s cents. 10) - cents. Inscluble phosphoric acid in mineral phosphates. ....-....-.- 5 cents. 4 cents. Insoluble phosphoric acid in bones, fish,and animal dust....- 6 cents. 6 cents. NGG oeriese sat. . 3h Cl) 2 tee SESS epee ee oca ssc ac 30 = cents. 25 ~— cents. Potasiaw oxide in muriateys: 24s). 2.4 2.522 o- see. chs woe & scents. 7 6 cents: Poteau, oxide in;sulphates: 5. 5.4520. eee Seek 3 8 cents. 8 cents:

Professor Johnson, in the report of the Connecticut station for 1877, says as follows:

‘The following are the trade-values or cost in market, per pound, of the ordinarily occurring forms of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, as recently found in the New York and New England markets:

Cents per pound.

Nitrovenineammoniaand nitrates! 00-262 o-b.-<5 .2tu/ncic cemenceaseamescie aac ce - Of Nitrogen in Peruvian guano, fine steamed bone, dried and fine-ground blood,

PME TEUPRB CUES estes ee oe ai oa) sees ace Sa caie tind. oceisiseb a eae aan a ooo Bee) Nitrogen in fine-ground bone, horn, and wool dust......-..-...-.---------------- 18 Nitrogen in coarse bone, horn shavings, and fish scrap ....-.....-.-..---------- 15 OSH OI Grt Gl GOsOllD LOM WAbOR aa «acm seem ceisa ci one,ciee Soa stes ceene aeleemeeioe 124 Phosphoric acid ‘ reverted’ and in Peruvian guano......-.-.-----..--2e--+------ 9 Phosphoric acid, insoluble, in fine bone and fish guano.......+.. 22-226 see -ee eee a Phosphorie acid, insoluble, in coarse bone, bone ash, and bone-black.........---- 5 Phosphoric acid, insoluble, in fine ground rock phosphate.......----.----------- 34 Man nenion- Trademulphate sacs s> soe ssc ce cen bate e es sceeee cases asecsce 9 Ran AME SRE AOL ce > oo hese ae 'ea5s vaciececsens os icereseacotic-case.cencte 74 otasian muriate or potassium: chloride: =.=. -...-cs. cose cose cecces Sa ceicece cose 9

“ These ‘ estimated values’ are not fixed, but vary with the state of the market, and are from time to time subject to revision. They are not exact to the cent or its fractions, because the same article sells cheaper at commercial or manufacturing centers than in country towns, cheaper in large lots than in small, cheaper for cash than on time. These values are high enough to do no injustice to the dealer, and accurate enough to serve the object of the consumer. * * * The ‘estimated values per pound’ in the above schedule are similar to those employed by Dr. Goessmann and Professor Atwater in their recent reports.”

This method of estimating the commercial values of fertilizers has been long practiced and has its uses, particularly as a forcible means of illustrating frauds, and as the first step in the process of educating farm- ers and manufacturers. People who are not familiar with chemical terms understand dollars and cents, and are much more impressed by a fertilizers “analyzing” $30 per ton when the price is $45, than by its containing only six per cent. of soluble phosphoric acid when it ought to have twelve.

These calculations are, however, open to serious objections, with the rest, because they not only differ very widely from the agricultural

238 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

values, but also in many cases decidedly misrepresent the commercial values. It is on this account that they have so generally fallen into disuse or been discarded in England and Germany.

For the present purpose, another method, which has been proposed in the Connecticut station reports, is more fitting. It consists in com- paring the different materials by the costs cf the ingredients per pound.*

So weighty a matter as this demands full consideration. I therefore give here a table, in which are stated the composition and prevailing market-price per ton, a considerable number of the more important com- mercial fertilizers in our markets, and the costs per pound of the nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash in each at the prices named. Those designated by Arabic numerals were analyzed under the writer’s direction. The others are taken from dealers’ price-lists. Where several prices are given for the same article, the lower ones apply to smaller and the higher to larger lots.

"See Appendix for details of method of these calculations and for tables of analy- ses of a number of commercial fertilizers.

239

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN.

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240 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

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:

242 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

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243

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN.

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244, ‘REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Of fhe above figures it may be remarked : 1. The articles are of the higher grades.

which the markets are infested are not taken into account.

The poorer articles with

The nitrog-

enous superphosphates, for instance, were among the best of about fifty samples from which the selections were made.

2. The costs of the ingredients vary widely in the different articles. This is illustrated by the following figures, which represent average

market-rates:

= Costs per pound in cents. Fertilizers.* Phosphoric acid. Nitrogen. Potash. Soluble. Total.

EMitPAbe OL SONS cua ase sce steeenes eeteceaisere ooeeereee 94 00:05") vs. saecces ce laecandteseses| eee eee eee Sol phate Of aMMON Gc ocmecee sam ee sees Heer 24 LO}25' || 2a oem eel scene cei eelall Meer eoee reise Wried blood << cc scoc ssscecesee see ce pee secitec cee 19) SOS H)).2 sc 5- abl ne samara al seme eerie Superphosphates: --ccecccse acces seeps sone soeeeel es eeee see sone LO'to: 11 §)|-coneeceetes | saee eae motash- salts; sulphates: scene soe cee ane weed eee ee aa ncitier scicci- ll weseemeeneer 8

‘(ovash salts,.muriates'. << 226 cso ceecce sees nse s seeen | pon merpeee eee cs esecoeeclisseceeeseeee 44 tod

Slaughterhouse Treluse =<. cecjere~oeacs-mesesc-eceeee 15 to 20 10'to 12 | ||.. s2e85-2.2.8 ee coeeeeee BONE MANULes; VESt shoo aet ane sece cele See ceeeree OM GOMOD a pecece se ae D0 60% Ge | See eee BONE MANULresin edlamMesn eee eeeseee ees eeT eee ee 4: OG) cesses see 4° GOB? Sie cheese ees Bone manures, inferior.-......--.-.- tats cicese sees ite P tee ol es seseepee 2 9° tol?) |e 2s Nitrogeneus superphosphates, best..-----.-.------.-- 18 to 21 Tees ee oSaacomen||yeooas Soco5s Nitrogenous superphosphates, medium ...._.-.....-- 24 to 28 14 to 16 DAC tee linesagrene < ce Nitrogenous superphosphates, inferior. ...-...----.-- 30 to 40 18 to 24 Di OUR tpsansasacens IPErnydantPuanoss cesses eee sce pee eee cae Ee nee ee oe 17 to2l £0 To 12% essen ose dg to 63 Dry ground tishiouano ss seo eeeser eee eee eee eenee eee TNS} 0) PO eoseeeecoe. 1% tor 8h | ses ee DR VaiSU-SCrap see ne ee ae cee Seeee cece eee oe enone TDS Trot aye SS seseocses LES IOMALEN | Gaeseoceases Half-dry dish-scrapea-coscee sence cee cee eece reece nes We tO Seas ciec see Se bom 4 en cee esct

Relative values of different: fertilizers.—Fish and Peruvian guanos.

309. From these figures, which represent a somewhat extensive and

thorough survey of the northern and eastern fertilizer markets, it appears that, taking into account composition and price, fish manures furnish the active manurial ingredients, nitrogen and phosphoric acid, at lower rates than any other commercial fertilizers except bone manures. But in bone, the fertilizing ingredients act more slowly. Taking the form of combination, the availability, into account, the nitrogen and phospho- ric acid in bone can rival those of fish, only when they are wanted for slow and long-continued use, as in “‘ seeding down” with grass.

Next in order of cheapness come Peruvian guanos. In fairness, how- ever, these ought to be compared only with the dried and finely pulverized fish guanos. Indeed, a pound of nitrogen or phosphoric acid is doubtless worth on the average considerably more, agriculturally, in Peruvian gu- ano than in even the driest and finest fish.

* As was remarked, the nitrogenous superphosphates in the table preceding this were the best of some fifty samples of a large number of brands analyzed at this place. In that list, and in those in the appendix, can be seen the data upon which the above figures are based. The analyses from which the tables are made up were mace under the direction of the writer, into whose hands not far from three hundred samples of the commercial fertilizers in the Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore markets have lately come for examination. Fraudulent articles are excluded from the computation.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 245

This leads us to consider the values of nitrogen and phosphoric acid in different forms of combination. In general, it may be said that nitro- gen is in its most readily available forms in sulphate of ammonia and ni- trate of soda; that it becomes quickly useful to the plant in Peruvian guano, more slowly so in fish, dried blood, and meat scraps, and is very long in becoming available in leather scraps, hoof and horn shavings, hair, and the like. Soluble phosphoric acid is ready for use at once. The insoluble phosphoric acid of fish guano, meat, and finely steamed bones, acts more or less quickly, but in coarse pieces of bone and in bone black its action is very slow. In the South Carolina, Nevassa, Canada, and other mineral and fossil phosphates, it is of comparatively little value.

The nitrogen and phosphoric acid in coarse fish seraps are less valua- ble than in fine dry fish, for two reasons: they are more bulky to trans- port and apply, and are less available to plants when applied.

In 100 pounds of dry guano, there will be say, 10-15 pounds of water, while 100 pounds of half-dry scrap will contain 40-50 pounds of water. To get 100 pounds of dry matter will require on the average, say, 112 pounds of guano and 180 pounds of the half-dry scrap.

Again, the finely ground fish distributed evenly and thoroughly through the soil, is readily decomposed, and thus conveyed where the largest number of roots may have access to it and its materials will be available to the roots when they find it. But the coarse scrap cannot be as well distributed either when it is applied or by natural agencies afterward, less roots will get at it, and when they do find it they will not be able to use it as well as they could the more finely ground and better decomposed guano. Less of the coarse scrap will enure to the benefit of the first crop; and of that which is left over, the phosphoric acid will remain in the soil for subsequent crops, but more or less of the nitro- gen will in the process of decomposition be set free and escape into the air, or be leached away by soil-waters beyond the reach of plants, or fixed in unavailable combinations in the soil and thus lost to vegetation.

A great deal has been said about the relative values of fish and Peru- vian guano. The following table gives the resuits of experiments bearing upon this point. The experiments were made upon twenty different beet- sugar farms in and about Germany. The general plan and the details were the same for all. They were carried on by intelligent farmers, under the guidance of Dr. Grouven, director of the experiment station at Salzmiinde in Prussia. The figures represent the value in German thalers of the increase in yield over unmanured plots, taking into account not only the increase of the manured crop, but the after effect during two succeeding years. The fish guano was the Norwegian,

246 REPORT Of COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

which has more nitrogen and much more phosphoric acid than our fish guanos.

Gain overunmanured plots, in thaler, per morgen.

; : H

1862. 1863. 1864. c th

iS) 3 8

s . — - “ Lal

ER Og nog | & Ep 3

tL aus o oS o 3 |

Se. | eg | eee gees |e

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eo Bas wat | Be x 5

= on aan S os 4 a ! ol G7

ae BAS SEU og a a

90 iaemyen mi Sp as 2 a

SE 2a og | ee S S

= of 7 Ege s = 1

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ete SOR 8e¢2 o S 2

$33 | §23 ge 2 %

52a oan ogre =; cS eI

& 4 A A e) 'S)

Thaler Thaler. | Thaler. | Thaler.| Thater.| Thaler.

WiGtew b.bertvian PUAN Ose see seem reece sete 12.7 2.9 3.9 19.5 ie 12.0 SB ciCWiie era Vian) CUNO: fe aceeeasscers s eases 17.8 4.1 4.0 25. 9 15 10.9 GO iowt seeruvianyoUan Ose ere .eee ee eceeeseree ee 23.8 idan 6Y 39. 4 30 9.4 A'ewit. SUpeCLDHOSPhaAtes. seem cmimels epee tees 8.8 1.3 7.8 Wes) 8F 9.2 Hyewtsuperphosphater-eesesseeee rt eeeeeseere Ot 2.4 10.1 22.2 13 9.2 Sicwtisuperphosphatesscssceses se eeeeeaseee- 10. 6 1.3 8.9 20.8 173 3.9 Bow t fish Og an Open seas. tociemere ene scmicee (eu 0.3 2.5 10.5 9 ABs) Grewit.tiShieuanOy te pe- ccc nececeen scot eaee a Ji.1 1.2 3.0 13.3 18 —2.7 Jecwit. nitrate Of S0da.-.c2ccce-sjes ee ncecees 8.7 0.7 0 9.4 8 1.4 BiCWil. NitravelOl SOGA 6 sso. ace ce cena ee 14.2 1.3 0 15.5 16 —0.5

The German thaler = 72 cents gold, nearly. The German cwt. or centner = 111 pounds, nearly. The German morgen = $ acre, nearly.

Comparing the plots which had 3 ewt. each of fish and Peruvian guano it is to be observed that—

1. The Peruvian guano cost nearly twice as much as the fish guano.

2. The gain from the Peruvian guano, over and above the cost, was Six times as much as that from the fish.

These results are remarkably favorable for the Peruvian guano. But it is to be noted that these experiments were on two crops of sugar-beets, with one of grain between. With other crops the results might have been very different.

Stoeckhardt, who has given as much attention to this matter as any one, infers, from a large number of fizld experiments made under his direction, that the fish guano is very nearly as effective as Peruvian.

Aside from its content of potash, of which fish has as good as none, the greater value of Peruvian guano, which is a fish product, must be due in the main to the fact that, as the result of the changes effected in its passage through the bird and subsequently, the ingredients have en- tered into new, simpler, and more available forms of combination. Taking into account composition, quality, and price, the cheapest fertilizers in | the market are Peruvian guanos; next to these come fish manures.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 247 Ways of improving fish manures.—Fermentation.

310. The advantage of these changes in the composition of fertilizers is much better appreciated in Europe than here. Several ways are recom- mended to bring them about. One of these is by fermentation.

The increasing importance of fish and bone manures in German agriculture has led Dr. Pagel, of the experiment station at Halle, to undertake a series of experiments to gain light upon the best meansof pre- paring these for use. He recommends very strongly the plan of ferment- ing them with urine: ‘“‘The method of fermentation furnishes a most excellent means for transforming the nitrogen in manures of organic origin, which is insoluble and slow in its action, into more soluble and consequently more active forms. It is hence peculiarly applicable to ground-bone and fish guano.” He recommends to add about 30 quarts of urine to 100 pounds of bone or guano, and cover the heap with plaster (gypsum) or earth to prevent the escape of ammonia. If this is properly done, the mass will ferment, and the temperature rise to a Jittle above 100° Fahr. The completion of the process, for which three or four weeks should suffice, is indicated by the cooling of the heap. Pagel found nearly one-half the nitrogen of fish to be made soluble in water by this process. ' Composting fish fertilizers.

311. Another excellent method of utilizing fish is by composting. I can explain this in no better way than by referring to the experience of one of the most intelligent and successful farmers in our State, Mr. D., who lately called upon me to inquire about this subject. Mr. D.’s problem was simply how to get fertilizing materials for his soil in the best and cheapest manner. He proposed this question :

*“T understand that the superphosphate manufacturers make their fertilizers of fish scrap and phosphates, treating them with oil of vitriol to make the phosphoric acid and nitrogen more available. Now can’t I accomplish the same by composting in my barn-cellar? I understand the elements must go out of their original combinations into others before they can become useful to my plants, and that the acid and the manufacturing help this change along. I can get fish scrap for $17 per tou. Can I not bring this change about in a compost-heap, and will it not be a great saving to me ?”

The answer was plain: ‘ Fish scrap at $17 per ton will bring nitrogen at say 10 cents and phosphoric acid at 5 cents per pound. In “ am- moniated ” superphosphates, you will pay from 20 to 30 cents or more per pound for nitrogen, and from § to 20 cents per pound for your phos- phorie acid.”

‘Do I need a phosphate with the scrap ; if so, will bone be as good as anything? J can get ground bone from a gue factory at $30 per ton.”

“The bone at that price will give phosphoric acid at say 5 cents and

248 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

nitrogen at 10 cents per pound. If rightly composted the ingredients will become available speedily and surely. For most soils and crops the increased proportion of phosphoric acid which the bone would add would be very advantageous.”

‘““T am persuaded that my soil wants potash. Should that be put in the compost; and, if so, what is the cheapest way to get it?”

“If you can get fresh ashes cheap they will do very well. If not, the ‘muriate of potash,’ which contains 50 per cent. ‘actual potash,’ and can be bought in the larger markets at $45 or less per ton, will be best. But the ashes have the advantage over the potash-salt that they supply all the ingredients of plant food but nitrogen, and further, by virtue of their large amount of lime and alkalies, they aid the decompo- sition of the matters in the compost very materially. In absence of ashes, lime will serve an excellent purpose.”

Mr. D. explained his proposed method of composting, which con- sisted of mixing muck and mellow earth with the fish, bone, potash- salts, and lime, in alternate layers, in heaps where the urine from the stables would be caught and absorbed. From previous experience he believed that he could secure a moderately rapid fermentation which would keep the heap warm, but not too hot, and after a reasonable time have gone so far as to decompose the fragments of fish and bone and leave the whole heap in a well-rotted and uniform condition. I could only say that this seemed to me an extremely rational, sensible, and profitable way of making manure. And I cannot answer the numerous questions I receive about the best way of composting fish for manure any better than by giving the conversation with Mr. D. substantially as I recall it.

Improving fish for manure by feeding tt to stock.

312. The most rational method of utilizing fish for manure, and the one which it seems to me must prove by far the most profitable way of economizing our waste fish products, is by feeding them to stock.

European farmers have learned in their practice what science has ex- plained in theory, that just as the most reliable and useful manure is that produced in the stable and barn-yard, so this manure can be vastly improved by foods rich in nitrogen. English, french, and German farmers have found the feeding of oil cake and meal so profitable that manufacturers, entirely unable to meet the demand from the home supply, ransack the markets of Russia, India, and the United States to obtain it. Our linseed’ and cotton-seed products are in great demand for foreign export. After our oil manufacturers have pressed out the oil, whose value is well enough understood in the commerical world to keep it at home, the press cake, whose worth our farmers have not yet learned, is sent abroad to enrich the cattle food, manure, and purses of foreign farmers who know what it is good for and how to use it.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 249

What gives the value to these waste products is chiefly their nitrogen compounds.

Cf late the importance of animal wastes, flesh, meal, dried blood, and fish has come to be understood, and a good many accurate experiments have been made to test their digestibility, their nutritive value, and that of the manure produced from them. This will be explained in the following section, paragraphs 314-325, I will here only refer in few words to the results of a late series of experiments by Wildt, at Proskau, aud by Kellner, at Hohenheim, with Norwegian fish guano fed to sheep. It appears that sheep digest the most of the nitrogenous material of the — flesh, and a large part of that of the bone. What is not stored away in the body of the animal is excreted as urea, one of the most valuable forms of nitrogen for plant food. Only a small part of the phosphoric acid is digested, but the remainder is left in a very finely divided form, and hence much better fora manure. Kellner discusses the various methods employed for making the ingredients of fish more available for manure. Treatment with acid and caustic alkalies is unsatisfactory. Fermentation with urine is much better; but the most convenient and profitable way he concludes to be that of passing it through the diges- tive organs of domestic animals.

Practical conclusions.

313. One very great obstacle to the profit from using fish as manure is the fact that it contains only nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and lime, and does not supply the other soil ingredients of plant-food. Where potash is wanted the fish cannot suffice. Illustrations of this are only too abun- dant. Ihave only to look out of the window where I write to see in the distance a farm whose proprietor, some time ago, applied fish to one of his fields at the rate of nearly a ton to the acre, hoping to obtain a good crop of hay. In spite of this heavy and costly dressing the grass failed. At my suggestion he tried a series of experiments with differ- ent fertilizers to test the deficiencies of his soil. Wherever potash salts were used the crop was good; without potash it failed. The best resuits were obtained with a “‘ complete” fertilizer, containing nitrogen, phosphorie acid, and potash, such as could be made from fish and pot- ash salts. The recognition of facts like this often makes the difference between good profit and ruinous failure in farming.

The large amount of nitrogen in fish makes it a “stimulating” ma- nure. It helps crops to get more of the food contained in the soil, and thus to “‘exhaust” the immediately available supply. Farmers often complain that fish, like Peruvian guano, wears out their land. In Maine they talk of land that has been “ herringed to death.” In Connecticut we often see grasses leaving and sorrel coming in after such fertilizers are used. Some good farmers say their soil gets hard and “caked” after continuous use of fish. The remedies are, tillage and use of other manures, ashes, lime, potash salts, bone, yard manure, muck, and so on.

250 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

The nitrogen in fish makes if particularly good for grass and grain, but excess is apt to make grain “run to stalk ” and lodge, and may in- jure or even kill any crop for which it is used.

Besides grain and grass crops, fish does well for corn, potatoes, garden vegetables, ete. It promotes the growth of tobacco, but is thought by many farmers to injure the quality of the leaf.

The fine, dry fish-guano with little oil is the best. The coarse, wet scrap is inconvenient to handle, and cannot be well diffused through the soil. Concentrated fertilizers ought to be thoroughly mixed with the soil so as to be accessible to the largest number of roots and injure none. Neglect to observe this causes immense waste of fertilizing materials and loss of crops. If the coarse scrap is to be used it is best to com- post it. The lumps are thus divided, the material decomposed and. changed to more available forms, its value for plant-food increased, and it ean be applied so as to secure the greatest benefit with the least waste.

Fermentation with urine, as described above, improves fish greatly.

The best method of all tor getting fish into forms most fit for plant- food is to feed it to stock. This brings a two-fold advantage: it sup- plies the nitrogen (protein albuminoids) that poor foods, such as straw, cornstalks, and poor hay lack, and makes excellent fodder from cheap materials, while the nitrogen and phosphoric acid that are not used at the greatest possible profit to make flesh and bone are left in the ma- nure in much better form for plant-food than they were in the fish.

There is great need of improvement in the manufacture of fish ma- nures. What is wanted is a fine, dry product with as little ballast of water and oil and as much nitrogen as possible.

The chief obstacle to the better economizing of fish in agriculture is lack of information as to the best ways of making and using the prod- ucts. To get this, careful scientific research and close practical obser- vation are indispensable. Investigations in the laboratory and exper- iments in the field combined will bring the needed knowledge, and it will be worth a hundred times the cost.

52. FISH AS FOOD FOR DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

Principles of animal nutrition European experiments.

314. Undoubtedly the manure problem is the most important that the agriculture of our older States has to solve. The next weightiest is the food question, how to best economize and improve our fodder materials. Inside this the most important special problem is how to obtain foods rich in nitrogen. Our feeding materials, taking them together, lack nitrogen. In consequence, our animals are insufficiently fed and fail to get the full benefit of the food they do have. The result is under- production of meat, dairy products, and work, and in turn poor manure and poor crops. European farmers have passed through this costly

—

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 250

and bitter experience ahead of us, and have learned the cause and the cure. Necessity has driven them to study these problems in ways of whose cost, extent, and beneficent results we on this side of the water have as yet only a faint conception. Hundreds, we might almost say thousands, of feeding experiments have been made with horses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, swine, and other animals. Some of the ablest chemists and physiologists in Europe are devoting their lives to these special investigations. Governments, universities, agricultural schools, societies, and private individuals are giving money by hundreds of thousands of doilars for the work. In the last ten or fifteen years in- vestigation has been especially active. In twenty agricultural expeti- ment stations, and in a large number of laboratories of universities and other schools, the studies are being carried on to-day, and already definite knowledge has been obtained which many thousands of farmers on the other side of the Atlantic are using to their profit, is beginning to come to us and will, with what must be added by our own efforts, prove of inestimable value to our agriculture.

The lessons our foreign brethren have learned so dearly are free to us if we are wise enough to take and use them. Their substance is briefly this:

The advanced agriculture of the present day looks upon the farm or the stable as a sortof manufacturing establishment. Domestic animals are the machines, food in the form of hay, grain, root crops, commercial food materials, &c., are the raw materials, and meat, milk, wool, labor, and progeny the products.

In cattle-feeding, then, the important question is, how, with the foods at hand or obtainable, to get the most valuable product with the least outlay for raw material.

Feeding for maintenance and production.—Ingredients of foods and their Junctions.

315. Suppose that I have in my stable a cow, standing idle and giving no milk. She will require only food enough to supply the wastes result- ing from the changes that are continually taking place in her internal organism, from the continual building over and renewal of all parts of her body. A certain amount of food of a certain quality is necessary, then, to maintain her in good “ store” condition. This she will need to “hold her own” when nothing else is required of her.

But suppose that I demand of my cow production, say in the form of milk. Tor this purpose she will need more food. And, as everybody knows, the cow should have for the production of milk, not only a larger quantity, but also different quality of food from that which is needed for maintenance alone.

If, instead of milking my cow, I wish to fat her for the butcher, I shall also require production, but of still another sort, of fat and flesh. And if, instead of a cow, I have an ox that is to be kept at work, yet another

252 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND YISHERLES.

kind of production is required, muscuiar force. And I need not say that Yor these different kinds of prodaction different kinds and amounts of fodder are requisite.

In the light of modern experimental science the maintenance of tke animal and the production of meat, milk, heat, and force are not matter of so much hay, grain, and roots, but of the gluten, sugar, starch, fat, and so on, of which these are composed.

It has been already explained that animal and vegetable substances are composed of water, organic matters, and ash.

The following is, for instance, what is found in 100 pounds of wheat (grain) :

Pounds. DRDO M ire a nas oan jain as -epcine gach omen ogee en eee ce eee ee 13.5 Organic substances : Gluten, fibrin, ec. (contamimp nitrogen) sense e-o 6 fase = eee eee eee ee 15:2 starch’ obs. oo S Jt. Se ese doebeagnogsen sbeheu cabs \ 59.5 SIGHS Bap or GonaepHoor Aceosoonsece Hae ors ashp Gaas cooneOee containing ‘ 2.4 Gum and other extractive matter--—--- of2-es se esc- see is nitrogen. | 4.7 Biber (cellulose) jes nee clack deere ee meee J, aoa, Patty matters (containing no nitrogen) .-2-<2 5. -2-. Se... cc te cnee ween coe 1.6 Mineral matters(ash) si. oles ce tease ree se oe oe oe ee ees See Seen ce anal: Cine ee ae Potalys.ieeepis 2 dee h ee fey seems pentane Soe See ed Fars secre. Sete apes ee OG

Corn, hay, potatoes, in fact vegetables generally, contain nearly the same list of ingredients as wheat, but in different proportions. The same is true of animal foods. Meat and milk consist of similar ingre- dients.

For our present purpose we have to consider only the organic substance. Now notice in the table above that there is a distinction between two classes of ingredients of this organic substance of wheat. The gluten and fibrin contain nitrogen, while the sugar, starch, fiber, fat, &c., con- tain no nitrogen.

This distinction between the nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous food ingredients is a fundamental one in economical cattle feeding.

Albumen, found pure in the white of an egg, is a representative of several kinds of substances, which consist chiefly of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. To these nitrogenous materials we apply the general name, albuminoids. The albuminoids are found in all animals and plants. Muscle or lean meat, casein (curd) of milk, fibrin of blood, gluten, albumen, and fibrin of plants, are examples. Clover, beans, pease, oil-cake, are rich in albuminoids.

Again, there are other animal and vegetable materials that consist of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, simply. These are called carbohy- drates and fats. Starch, sugar, gum, and cellulose or fiber are carbohy- drates. The oily and fatty matters of plants as well as butter, tallow, &e., are fats. Potatoes, sugar-beets, fodder-corn, and straw are rich in carbohydrates and poor in albuminoids.

The distinctions between the ingredients of the animal tissues and

.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 253

products are similar. Lean meat or muscle and the casein (curd) 6f milk, like the albumen of the egg, are albuminoid substances and con- tain nitrogen. The fat of the body and the fat (butter) in the milk, like the oils and fats of plants, contain no nitrogen.

The ingredients of the body are built up from those of the food. The nitrogenous materials, muscle, connective tissue, skin, &¢., are formed from albuminoids. The carbohydrates and fats of the food, which have no nitrogen, cannot be transformed into nitrogenous tissues of the body.

To form the fats, both the fats and albuminoids of the food contribute. A large part of the fat meat stored in the body and of the butter given off with the milk is made and must be made of the albuminoids of the food.

Just what work the carbohydrates do in the animal economy is not yet fully settled. They certainly cannot make flesh, and probably do but little at most to make fat. They act as fuel to keep up the animal heat, and doubtless contribute to the generation of muscular force. Just how much of the heat and force produced in the body comes from the consumption of albuminoids, how much from carbohydrates, and how much from fats is still an unsettled problem.

The animal has been compared to a machine. It is, however, a machine that must be kept running whether it produces anything or not. A horse, or cow, or sheep needs food even at rest in the stall. The machine is peculiar also in that it is wearing out continually and very rapidly, and consumes its own material for both fuel and repairs. The tissues of the body are all the while being used up and rebuilt. In the process of using up, heat and force are produced. The animal consumes food to make its flesh and fat and to give it warmth and strength, but it gets warmth and strength from the consumption of its own flesh and fat at the same time.

Now to make up for the continued wasting away of tissues and to maintain the supply of heat, food is necessary. But for this purpose but little of albaminoids is required. Carbohydrates will serve for fuel to keep the body warm. The horse or sheep at rest will get on with comparatively little nitrogen. Maintenance fodder may be poor in albuminoids if it furnish carbohydrates in plenty. Stock may be kept in the barn and even wintered on poor hay, cornstalks, and straw. But when prodnction is required the case is very different. To make lean meat the animal must have albuminoids. [Fat meat may be pro- duced from the fat of the food, if there be enough, but practically a large part of the fat must come from albuminoids. The casein and fat (butter) of the milk likewise come from the albuminoids of the food, and for work also more or less of albuminoids are used. The growing colt or lamb, the working horse or ox, the milch cow and the fattening sheep or swine or steer must all have rich food and food rich in nitro- gen. The nitrogenous ingredients, the albuminoids of the food, are its most important constituents. They may take the place of the carbo-

954 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

hydrates and fats to considerable extent, but their peculiar work must all be done by themselves. Such is the concurrent testimony of a vast amount of experimenting.

Again, of the whole ration consumed only a portion is digested and used to supply the animal’s wants; the rest is voided as excrement, and valuable only for manure. It is important, then, that as much should be digested as possible. The value of the food will depend upon the amount the animal digests from it.

Economy in feeding requires, then, that the greatest amount of food be digested, and that this digested material contain sufficient albumi- noids.

An excessive proportion of albuminoids is, however, uneconomical. The albuminoids are the costliest parts of the foods. No more should be used than necessary.

Proper proportions of digestible albuminoids, carbohydrates, and fats in the food are the chief requisites of economical feeding.

Digestion of foods by animals, as tested by Huropean experiments.

316. The digestibility of different foods and food mixtures by dif- erent animals under varying circumstances has been tested by a very large number of experiments in the German experiment stations. The method consists in feeding animals with rations of known amount and composition, carefully collecting, weighing, and analyzing the excre- ments, the undigested portion, and subtracting the latter from the former. The following examples will serve for illustration :

In the stables of the station at Weende, under the direction of Pro- fessor Henneberg, two full-grown oxen were fed during one period of about twe weeks with oat straw, during another period with bean straw, a third with clover hay, a fourth with meadow hay, and so on. During some of these periods a small amount of bean meal was added. The ration was at all times such as to keep the animals in fair and uniform condition. Careful weighings and analyses were made of fodder and excrement, that is to say, of the total and the undigested material, and from these the digestibility of the food was calculated. or instance, in one of the experiments of this series the ox consumed daily 16.9 pounds of meadow hay, or what is called here “ English grasses.”

Consisting of—

Organic dry

There was contained in— Sa substance, Albumin.

Crude fiber. lOtherearho:

oids. hydrates. Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. L6Oipounds of meadow hay ...25-)4--sees--cese ee eeeee 14, 27 2.12 3. 80 6. 48 Pxcrentent fromysame®: 25.2. .o Soon eae cee eee eeneee 6. 33 Aithirh 1. 63 2. 06

Therewwas then digested. ... 22. .5.doccote~ cmaceacene 7. 94 iby Os ill | 4, 42

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 255

In another experiment the daily ration consisted of 17.87 pounds of oat straw, and 1.82 pounds bean meal.

Consisting of—

Organic dry

substance. C , Albumin- _|O' herearbo- oids, Crade fiber. hydrates.

There was contained in—

Tbs. Ibs. Lbs. Lbs. Pesce pPOUNGS Ol O8b-SULAW) <<m6osienn semen een aminamens » akbey 1.12 6. 41 6. 74 OMNIS CIO OSE. scacc csc ee semen eres scmcceaner 7.10 -93 3. 64 2. 83

The first digestion experiments were made some twenty years ago by Henneberg and Stohman, in the experiment station at Weende in Han- over. Their example has been followed in other places. Four years ago the number of digestion experiments amounted to over one thousand, and they have been increasing rapidly in numbers every year since then. These experiments, each one of which has been conducted with an amount of labor and exactness never equaled by a single experi- ment in this country, have led to many very interesting and weighty results.

What is essential to economy in feeding.—Albuminoids and carbohydrates.

317. The following are among the most important for our present purpose:

1st. Poor foods, like marsh-hay, late-cut hay, straw, cornstalks, and chaff, contain good percentages of digestible material. Their low feeding value is due, not to their lack of nutritive substance, but to its poverty in nitrogen. By adding to them concentrated foods rich in nitrogen, like oil-cake, cotton-seed, bean and pea meal, or nitrogenous animal mat- ters, such as meat scrap and fish, rations are made equal in every respect to the best grass, young-cut hay, or grain.

2d. The digestion of foods, particularly of mixed rations, depends upon the proportions of its constituents. With too little nitrogen the digestion is incomplete. Adding concentrated foods rich in nitrogen to coarse foods promotes digestion. Excess of carbohydrates decreases it. Oil-cake, meat scrap, or fish added to poor hay or straw secures the most complete digestion of the whole ration. But if potatoes or other starchy food are used in considerable quantity the less of the coarse food will be digested.

There is still another principle of great importance to be noted. Well-manured plants are much richer in albuminoids than poorly man- ured. Bountiful fertilizing not only increases the quantity of the crop but improves its quality also.

The farmer who keeps his land in good condition gets larger yields; the produce contains more digestible substance for his stock, and the nutritive material is richer in the most valuable ingredients of all, the albuminoids. .

256 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF -FISH AND FISHERIES, Composition and valuations of various food materials.—German tables,

318. Fuller details and tables illustrating the principles here presented, may be found ina series of articles on science applied to farming, in the “American Agriculturist” for 1874—76, and in a lecture on “ The Re- sults of Late European Experiments on the Feeding of Cattle,” in the report of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture for 1874. <A briefer statement of the subject is given by Prof. S. W. Johnson in the report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for 1877. This latter contains a table which is interesting as including, with German analyses and valuations, some analyses of American products; with the rest, two samples of fish-scrap. The table is explained by Professor Johnson as follows:

“The following table of the composition, content of digestible nutri- tive ingredients, and money value of a few of the most important feed- ing-stuifs, is taken from the Gérman of Dr. Emil Wolff, of the Agricul- tural Academy at Hohenheim, and represents the most recent and most trustworthy knowledge on these subjects.*

“The composition of feeding-stuffs, as here stated, is the average result of the numerous analyses that have been made within twenty-five years, mostly in the German experiment stations.

“The quantities of digestible ingredients are partly derived from actual feeding experiments and are partly the result of calculation and comparison.

“The percentages of the three classes of digestible matters, viz, al- buminoids, carbohydrates, and fat, form the basis for calculating the money value of feeding-stuffs. The values attached to them by Dr. Wolff are the following, the German mark being considered as equal to 24 cents, and the kilogram equal to 2.2 pounds avoirdupois:

‘1 pound of digestible albuminoids is worth 44 cents.

“1 pound of digestible fat is worth 44 cents.

“1 pound of digestible carbohydrates is worth ;9, of a cent.

“ These figures express the present relative money values of the re- spective food-elements in the German markets. Whether or not these values are absolutely those of our markets, they represent presumably the relative values of these elements approximately, and we may pro- visionally employ them for the purpose of comparing together our feed- ing-stuffs in respect to money value. These money or market values are to a degree independent of the feeding values. That is, if of two kinds of food, for example Hungarian hay and malt sprouts, the one sums up a value of $0.66 and the other a value of $1.31 per hundred, it does not follow that the latter is worth for all purposes of feeding twice as much as the former, but it is meant that when both are properly used, one is worth twice as much money as the other. In fertilizers we estimate the nitrogen of ammonia salts at 24 cents per pound, and solu-

* From “ Mentzel u. Lengerke’s Kalender,” for 1878. _

. HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 257

ble phosphoric acid at 124 cents; but this means simply that these are equitable market prices for these articles, not that nitrogen is worth twice as much as soluble phosphoric acid for making crops. In the future more exact valuations may be obtained from an extensive review of the resources of our markets, in connection with the results of analy- ses of the feed and fodder consumed on our farms.

“The column headed ‘ Nutritive ratio’ in the table gives the propor- tion of digestible albuminoids to digestible carbohydrates, inclusive of fat.* * * * Toallow of directly comparing the money value of feed- ing-stuffS with some universally accepted standard, the last column gives a comparison with good average meadow hay taken as 1.”

Average composition, digestibility, and money value of feeding-stuffs, as given by Dr. Wolff * for Germany for 1878.

Digestible mat- Money ters. value.

see ba

; B : Z £ B ||

Feeding-stuffs. S = 3 == 3 a a az

2 5 S 4s By || Priel | Ses

f £ Ds {2 = ee aie ele

5 eee lhe Sell ie = |e] og

Seen eyes loet lush (ah SMa

paisce| steer ym) ory. |” |. | bien | eet ane eos Meadow hay, inferior.....--.-. 14.3 {5.0 | 7.5 [33.5 | 38.2 /1.5 | 3.4] 34.9] 0.5 | 10.6] 0.48] 0.74 Meadow hay, better...--...... 14.3 [5.4 | 9.2 129.2 | 39.7) 2.0] 4.6] 36.4) 0.6] 83) 0.55] 0.86 Meadow hay, average..-....... 14.3 |6.2 | 9.7 [26.3 | 41.4/25] 5.4] 41.0]1.0] &0]| 0.64]. 1.00 Meadow hay, very good .....-.. MOS OD ONE 2159 AG: R22 St iia Wate eS || Gl | Oraa stele Meadow hay, extra...-.......-. 16.0 |7.7 |13.5 ]19.3 | 40.4 | 3.0] 9.2) 42.8)1.5] 5.1] 0.84) 1.32 Clover hay, average.......---.. 16.0 |5.3 |12.3 }26.0 | 38.2) 2.2) 70) 381/1.2] 5.9] 0.69) 1.08 Clover hay. best .-............ 1655; |¢2 0} V0.3, 12252) 8958) [d2 |) LON) | 376) Sak 4.0 | 0.88 1. 39 PINOT YN. socasase- sitsces oo: 14,2 |4.5 | 9.7 |22.7 | 45.8 | 3.0 5.8 | 43.4 | 1.4 8.1 | 0.69 1.09 Hounparian ‘hay $2555--.22-22. =: 13, 4 |5.7 {10.8 |29.4 | 38.5 | 2.2 6.1 | 41.0 | 0.9 7.1 | 0. 66 1.04 ERMINE Wir-- = yeana se aeejece ees 14.3 |4.1 | 3.0 }44.0 |} 33.3) 1.3] 0.8] 36.5 | 0.4 | 46.9] 0.35] 0.55 WAESETAW.S octets So se eek 14.3 1450 | 4.0: /39:5 | 36.2 | 2.0 1.4 | 40.1 | 0.7 | 29.9 | 0.44 0. 69 Rich pasture prass..-........... Renal Parone e450) Otel tOn|) ud. 42 pel Ox9 OIG) va. Gel e0sed 0. 42 Average meadow grass, fresh ..| 70.0 |2.1 | 3.4 |10.1 | 13.4 ]1.0] 1.9] 14.2)/0.5] 81 | 0.22 . 36 Green muize, German..........| 85.0 |1.0 | 1.2 | 4.7 ZAC OG) 0.7 7.4/0.2 | 11.3 5 AW) . 16 Green maize, Mr. Webb, 1874...| 86.0 |0.8 | 0.8/4.8) 73/03] 06] 83/02) 14.4] .11 wee Oured maize fodder, Mr. Webb ..| 27.3 |4.2 | 4.4 |25.0 | 37.9 | 1.3] 3.2] 43.4 | 1.0] 14.4 ot 91 PB OLILOCR scs.-scwee ss sles fsesac HOMOMOS OMe sak te Leds | Q0Lie OL ZU Sih Oe Br Ose) | 10:6 . 29 . 46 Mirinpolds! 2255. 2222525504062 5e55 83.0 |0,8 | 1.1 | 0.9 OU Ol PA 1005); 0.1 953 .14 - 22 MENTAURCAS| oo. tose oat eck ee. BION Me Oneida lata a Oe sm Ooiatee dest | OMGn NOLL | Bas | aedto 24 SEL HITEC) 5 ae ee Sion Ooi Os iets Sls 4 Oy TA) |) Tee Uae SP ale) . 30 Maize German..-..--..-<-- <=. 1454 1 185.1)10507 195251 62) 1) | 655: | (854) 606 | 458 | 826°) 1.10) es Maize meal, American, IT. ...... 12.9 1.2) 87) 1.8) 71.9)3.5| 7.3] 683/26] 10.2] 1.04] 1.69 Ji Sees ..| 14.3 |2-7 /12.0 | 9.3 | 55.7 | 60 SUOn boo: | 4.7 6.1 «90 1.53 Mir aprons 25 25:2535.2--.: LOGE rea 24h Ss ASS oe Oe ath 45:10)! 1.7% |) 250) 31 | es06 Wheat bran, coarse .......--.-- AZO NG. GH TarO LOL oQe en S525 8256 | 42:6 | 26 3.9 | 1. 04 1. 63 iWiteat bran, fine... 2. s-2...5.. 13.1 |5.4 {14.0 | 8.7] 55.0 | 3.8 | 11.8 | 14.3 | 3.0 4.4 | 1.03 1. 62 LUI a a ea 115 5-13)0)|1359) 408 |163)5 1343 | 10!8) | 54.0 |. 2.9) 5.77 | TOw |) 6k Cotton-seed cake decorticated..| 11.% |7.6 |82.8 | 9.2 | 19.5 |13.7 | 31.0 | 18.3 |12.3] 1.6] 2.05] 3.22 Fish-scrap, by Goodale’s process.| 11.5 |..-.|61.0 |....-|...--- LOG | pave eSeeee 4.1 | O25) 2.6%) (4517 Fish-scrap, dry ground .......-. LD ya PPPS Sule Sets | Page. Bol | A643 | eeeee 6.2 | 0.3] 228] 3.56 MAIORUDIOO = =) 25 chs. 55 toe be: 12.0 /4.1 |80.8 |..... Q6) (0) 5: | 541 | 256) Oxon eases 2739) 3h76 LLG" SAE eee eae CPL [tht tla) | Beene Bet O16: || 140) |) 51, (ONG) GAG rata eet NOV Ae Se eee B7s 5p ON 71 |'13-2) | oe 5aO) | 36) |) 342)! S10" horse eto an | leeroS

|

* Except those in italics, which are American products analyzed under direction of Professor Johnson.

Comparing the poorer foods, such as straw, cornstalks, and inferior hay with a good standard food like the best hay or pasture grass, it ap- pears that the great difference is that the former lack albuminoids, just what bran, oil cake, cottonseed cake, and especially fish, supply. One

* Fat and carbohydrates have, it is believed, similar nutritive functions, and it is assumed that 1 part of fat equals 2.4 of carbohydrates. 17 F

258 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. .

hundred pounds of the fish scrap made by Goodale’s process added to 900 Ibs. of the poorest hay would make a mixture equal in composition to 1,000 pounds of the best hay. Three hundred pounds of the same fish-food with 1,700 lbs. of oat straw would be equal to a ton of the best hay.

Tt is clear, then, that what our farming wants, to make stock-raising profitable, manure plenty and rich, and crops large and nutritious, is nitrogenous material for foods.

One of the cheapest, most useful, and best forms in which this can be furnished is in fish products. In proof of this we have the testimony of both extensive experience and accurate experimenting.

Experience in use of fish as food for stock.—Feeding cattle on fish in Massachusetts.

319. The earliest account which [ have met of fish as food for domestic animals is the following extract.from the Barnstable [Mass.| ‘‘ Journal,” of February 7, 1833:

‘“« Feeding cattle on fish.—The cattle at Provincetown feed upon fish with apparently as good relish as upon the best kinds of fodder. It is said that some cows, kept there several years, will, when grain and fish are placed before them at the same time, prefer the later, eating the whole of the fish before they touch the grain. Like one of old, we were rather incredulous on this subject, till we had the evidence of ocular demon- stration. We have seen the cows at that place boldly enter the surf, in pursuit of the offals thrown from the fish-boats on the shore, and when ‘obtained, masticate and swallow every part except the hardest bones. A Provincetown cow will dissect the head of a cod with wonderful celerity. She places one foot upon a part of it, and with her teeth tears off the skin and gristly parts, and in a few moments nothing is left but the bones.”

The inhabitants of Provincetown are not the only people who feed their cattle upon fish. The nations of the Coromandel coast, as well as in the other parts of the East, practice feeding their flocks and herds with fish. The celebrated traveler, Ibu Batuta, who visited Zafar, the most easterly city in Yemen, in theearly part of the fourteenth century, says that the inhabitants of that city carried on a great trade in horses in India, and at that period fed their flocks and herds with fish, a practice which he says he had nowhere else observed.

Hxeperiment of Mr. Lawes, in England, with fish as food for swine.

320. In 1853 Mr. J. B. Lawes, of Rothamshead, England, reported several extensive series of experiments “On the Feeding of Pigs,” in which were tested the effects of bean, lentil, Indian corn, and barley meals, bran, and dried Newfoundland codfish as foods for fattening and making manure. In speaking of the series in which the fish was fed with maize, barley, and bran in different proportions, Mr. Lawes says:

‘In the series * * * where we have * * * a comparatively

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 259

small amount of non-nitrogenous matter consumed, the food consisted in a large proportion of the highly nitrogenous codfish; and in both of these cases we had not only a very good proportion of increase to food consumed, but the pigs in these pens were very fat and well ripened; and hence a large proportion of their increase would be real dry sub- stance. * * * This result is in itself interesting, and it may perhaps point to a comparatively greater efficiency in the already animalized proteine Compounds supplied in the codfish than in those derived, as in the other cases, from the purely vegetable diets.” *

Other European experience.

321. In 1856 Professor Stoeckhardt, of Tharand, Saxony, who was one of the first chemists to recognize the value of fish guano, and has done more than any other one in Europe to encourage its manufacture and use, received a sample from Norway, which, as he says, ‘looked so in- viting that I tried it for fodder also.” He fed it to a half-year-old pig, which “did exceptionally well on this northern food.”

In the northern part of Norway, when during the long winters the supply of hay and straw gives out, cattle are fed upon dried fish. They

‘do poorly on this diet alone, of course, but recover very quickly when the spring pasturage comes.*

Success of Maine furmers in feeding fish to sheep.

322. The value of fish as food for domestic animals has been attested by experience of intelligent farmers in our own country, as is illustrated by the following extracts from Boardman and Atkins’ report, from which so many quotations have already been made:

“As early as 1864, if not in fact previous to that date, the attention of members of the board of agriculture [of Maine], and farmers generally, was called to the matter of the value of fish pomace or scrap as a feed- ing stuff for sheep, swine, and poultry. In a communication to the board¢ Mr. William D. Dana, of Perry, spoke in high terms of its value as a feed for domestic animals, in which he said: ‘Fish pomace, or the residuum of herring after the oil is pressed out, is greedily eaten by sheep, swine, and fowl; and probably pogy chum would be eaten as weil. Smoked alewives and frost fish also furnish a food palatable to cattle. Sheep thrive well, get fat, and yield heavier fleeces when fed on this pomace than when fed on anything else produced in this section of the State. Careful and observing farmers, who have fed it, assert that it is of equal value with good hay, ton per ton, and that its value for manure is in no degree diminished by passing if through the living mill, and thus reducing it to a much more convenient state for applying. It it could be sufficiently dried, without other substances, to prevent putre-

* Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc., lst Ser. XIV, 1853, p. 527. +t Meinert. Travels in Norway. Chem. Ack., 1870, xi, p. 45. ¢ Agriculture of Maine, 1864, p. 43.

260 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

faction, it would form a valuable article of cattle-feed in regions from which it is now excluded by the expense of transportation and its own odoriferous nature.’

‘‘In remarking upon this the secretary of the board said that if sheep would eat the scrap readily, much poor hay or straw could be used to good advantage, thus allowing the farmer to consume all his first-quality hay in keeping other stock. He thought the meat would not taste of the flavor imparted by the scrap, provided other food was substituted for a proper length of time before slaughtering.

‘From time to time following this, the matter was discussed before the board, and formed the subject of many articles in the agricultural journals. In 1869, Mr. M. L. Wilder,* of Pembroke, then a member of the board, presented a brief paper embodying his experience in the use of scrap as a feed for sheep, in which he said he believed ‘fish offal to be not only cheaper, but much superior to any other kind of provender he had ever used’ for this purpose. An extract from his paper is given: ‘I keep about one hundred sheep, and have fed fish offal to them for the past ten years. The offal is made from herring caught in weirs, salted the same as for smoking, cooked, and the oil pressed out, leaving a pomace for which the sheep are more eager than for grain. For the — last three winters I have kept my sheep on threshed straw with one- half pound per day to each sheep of dried fish pomace, or one pound of green (as it shrinks one-half in drying), and they came out in the spring in much better condition than when fed on good English bay with corn. I consider the dry pomace worth as much as corn, pound for pound. When I have had enough to give them one-half pound per day, I have found that the weight of the fleece was increased one-quarter, and not only that but also the carcass in a like proportion; the weight of the fleeces per head averaging from five to seven pounds.’

‘‘Similar statements to the above were made by Hon. Samuel Wassont and other gentlemen, not only at public meetings of the board, but through the press, so that the subject has been kept alive and invested with some interest down to the present time.

Experiments of Professor Farrington on fish scrap vs. corn meal as food Jor sheep.

‘¢ 323. Wishing to test the value of scrap as a feed with more care than had apparently attended any of the trials that had been reported, and also wishing to make a sort of competitive trial of it in connection with corn, a quantity was obtained for this purpose of Mr. M. L. Wilder, of Pembroke. It was herring scrap, salted before the oil was expressed, and packed in barrels directly from the press, each barrel containing about 220 pounds. Its cost in Augusta, including freight from Pem- broke via Portland, was not far from $2 per barrel.

*Agriculture of Maine, 1869, p. 60. t Agriculture of Maine, 1874~75, p. 1.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 261

‘This scrap was placed in the hands of Mr. J. R. Farrington, the in- Structor in agriculture at the State College, Orono, with the request that be would feed it to sheep in connection with Indian corn in such way as would best serve the purpose of ascertaining its comparative value as a provender or feed. Few instructions were given him, and he being left to carry out the experiment in his own way—and public ace. knowledgment should here be made for bis interest in undertaking the matter, and for the care and faithfulness with which the experiment was conducted. The report of Mr. Farrington follows:

‘““¢The statement made by a prominent agriculturist that for feeding sheep fish chum was equal to corn, pound for pound, furnished the basis for the experiment which we conducted to ascertain the compara- tive value of corn and fish chum when fed tosheep. Ten lambs, dropped the previous spring, were selected ; each one was designated by a num- ber, the uamber being stamped on a metallic tag and attached by a copper wire to the ear of the lamb; Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 constituted flock 1; Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, flock 2. We began feeding January 15, 13875. Flock No. 1 was fed with corn; flock No. 2 was fed with fish. Each flock was given what good hay it would eat. The hay fed to each flock during the month (four weeks) beginning February 13 was weighed. Flock No. 1 ate, in four weeks, 335 pounds; flock No. 2 ate 338 pounds.

“At commencement of feeding, January 15, 1875:

Flock No. 1 weighed as follows: Flock No. 2 weighed as follows:

Sheep No. 1 weighed. 46 lbs. | Sheep No. 6 weighed....-...-.....-....-. 49 lbs ae 2 2 are oe “e “ “ ne 44 ia) ia) 3 “ E 67 “ee a3 8 “ec 684 ae as 4 te a = 55 “cc “ 9 “a = 67 ‘ a 5) Ut pete ttt 2k 2 ot Se wee 28 68 ec 7 10 Lit Ae es hs t ee eee Aa es 58

Wephtiot flock Jan. 15.0 oss -cec scene. Sis Weichtiof Hock dans 1osceeseceeee ee eaees 3164 “

During four weeks ending February 13, 183 pounds = my, oe

During four weeks ending February 13, 18} pounds of corn were ted to flock No.1. At this date—

of fish were fed to flock No.2. At this date—

Sheep No. Ll weighed....-. 50 lbs., a gain of 4 lbs. | Sheep No. 6 weighed.....-. 52 lbs., a gain of 3 lbs. cs 2 ON Pease 814 ae 43 oe “ee 7 Stay OC 6 che RL oe 7 be ae 3 ERSP AL gee Sek 73 iad 6 oe “ 8 ACas SOS 5515 Wk +e 4 “ 4 LN nw ap SOE 59 “ce 4 ae a 9 Oe a) ae 68 oe 1 oe “ 5 Lo hd ae Le Gir “a 9 ae “ 10 SELES: 28.) 644 i 6+ “

Weight, February 13 ..... 3404 Hs Die o£

Weight, February 13.-... 338 Q1z “

During four weeks ending March 12, 20 pounds of corn and 335 pounds of hay were fed flock No. 1. At this date—

Sheep No. 1 weighed..--. 503 lbs., a gain of 4 1bs. 5 2 eee HOE 754 lbs., aloss of 6 “ “ec 3 J ee 69 “ 4 “ee oe 4 SO OtI SE a, ¥ 564 “cc 25 oe oe 5 Je ae ER 70 “ 7 ac

Weight of flock .......... 3214 os 19). 4%

During four weeks ending March 12. 20 pounds of fish and 338 lbs. of hay were fed flock No.2. At this date—

Sheep No. 6 weighed. ---. 554 1bs., a gain of 33 lbs. os 7 Oe Sa Se 79 Ibs.,aloss of 2 “* “ 8 CL a, see 2 74 te a1 ae “ 9 sy CD eee? ot 674 “ 4 ae a 10 OO Lot ers 63 “ 14 “

We ight of flock......--. 3364 ‘ 1“

During the above four weeks the corn-fed flock, weighing 3404 pounds,

ate 335 pounds of hay and lost 19 pounds in weight.

The flock eating

fish, weighing 338 pounds, ate 338 pounds hay and lost 14 pounds.

Daring four weeks ending April 9, 19 pounds corn | During four weeks ending April 9, 19 pounds of

were fed flock No. 1. At this date—

51 lbs.,a gain of 31bs.

ESS 764 “ 1“ “ 3 eek | ee 154 ae 63 wo ae 4 Oh rae a 644 ae 8 “ “ 5 32528 784 “ eh “ee

Weight of flock .......... 346 cS 244“

At this date— 62 lbs., a gain of 64 lbs.

fish were fed flock No. 2. Sheep No. 6 weighed...-.- “ 7 oe

Seorce 84 of 5 ae 8 COAT PEARS Ts 43) te 33 “ “ 9 LOT, eae es W1 ae 34 ae “< 10 seat a Sts’ 65 a“ 2 “ Weight of flock .......... 357 5 204 *

262 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Doring four weeks ending May 7, 15 pounds of corn | During four weeks ending May 7, 15 pounds of fish were fed flock No.1. At this date— were fed flock No.2. At this date—

Sheep No. 1 weighed..... 55 lbs., a gain of 4 lbs. | Sheep No. 6 weighed. Saeace 62 Ibs., a gain of 0 Ibs. oe 9 ft peteee. 79 a, 24 “a “ 7 “te epee) 87 “ce 2) Se ag fh eae R80 “ 43 “e “ 8 Oa 4 TES) be - “ a 4 rk Pa 65 “ce 4 “ a“ 9 LOI Magi gtr Fe 73 “ 2 “ a 5 Se da eee 82 ae 34 “ “ 10 Oy ee oe 67 “ 2 se

Weight of flock..-..-.-.. 361 - 15“ | Weight of flock --2._=--:.: 364 <i arise

Lecapitulation.—During the sixteen weeks of the experiment—

Sheep, Nojeaimed eres sepa= diem s.0- <0) os0 05 9 lbs. | Sheep No. 6 gained See cee esac tee esinse ae 13 Ibs. “ 2 ac ah 2 oe oe 76 1 “ “a 3 oe 13 “se a 8 “ce “ ue 4 “ 10 “ ac 9 “ “ “ ) “oe 14 “ “ce 10 “ “ce

HMockwNowWuoained #2. 3 ecos. .leceiseceee- AQi fr \ihlock No:)2)cained 222-45 sees eee eee ee 474 “

Fed with corn—weighing, January 15, 313 pounds. On fish—weiehing, January 15, 3164 pounds. Gained 48 pounds, or 153 per cent. Gained 474 pounds, or 15,4, per cent.

That is to say, the corn-fed flock gained 48 pounds, and the fist-fed flock 47$ pounds during the sixteen weeks of the experiment.

Professor Farrington has courteously favored me with some further, buat as yet unpublished, details of his experiments. The fish serap from herring was ungrourd and some of the fragments were rather coarse. It was hard to get the sheep to eat much of the fish, though they gradually learned to like it better. This accounts for the very small quantity consumed.

A second trial similar to the above was made the succeeding winter, and with like results, except that the sheep ate rather more of the fish. In one case a flock of four consumed 28 pounds in four weeks, which is equivalent to 4 ounces per head per day, while in the above series they averaged only about 2 ounces per head per day. The meal was regu- lated by the amount of fish consumed. The quantities of both were thus extremely small. It is to be noted, however, that the sheep had “ all the good hay they would eat.” The fish was distasteful, and they took very little. If they had received a fixed quantity of staw, cornstalks, or poor hay, instead of good hay ad libitum, they could doubtless have been got to eat more fish, and would probably have learned to like it.

Mr. Wilder, of Pembroke, whose statements were quoted above, and who furnished the scrap for Professor Farrington’s experiments, “‘ keeps about one hundred sheep * * * on threshed straw with one-half pound per day to each sheep of dried fish pomace * *, for which the sheep are more eager than they are for grain * * *, and they come out in the spring much better than when fed on good English hay with corn.”

Professor Farrington agrees with me in the opinion, indeed the experi- ence of farmers who have fed fish successfully leaves room for no other, and the European experimenters quoted below say the same thing, that sheep, Swine, and probably neat cattle, can be taught to eat fish, and when once wonted to it will take it with excellent relish.

A dry, well-prepared, and finely-ground product, such as may be made by the Goodale or other processes, would doubtless keep better, be more free from offensive odor and taste, and worth much more for feeding than the ordinary scrap.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 263 European experiments on digestion and nutritive value of fish, meat-scrap, ete.

324, The need and value of nitrogenous foods for food mixtures, ex- plained and attested by science and confirmed by experience in Europe, has led to diligent seeking, careful trial, and rational use of available foods from every source. Of late a great deal of attention has been paid to animal products. The flesh meal left from the preparation of “ Liebig’s Meat Extract” in South America, the dried blood of slaughter-houses, and fish guano have all been tested and found extremely valuable.

The scope of the present article precludes details of the experiments on the digestibility and nutritive value of animal foods for stock; Ll therefore reserve them for a future occasion, and note brieily here some of the main results.

The following are among the experiments of this sort reported in the years 1876 and 187%. The original accounts are in “ Die landwirth- schaftlichen Versuchs-Stationen,” the “ Journal fiir Landwirthschaft,” and the *‘ Landwirthsechaftliche Jahrbiicher” for those years:

Experiment

Experimenters. Ses sayie: Animals. Food. IT. Wolff, and associates ...--.| Hohenheim -..| Swine.-.| South American flesh meal and potatoes. II. Wolff, and associates ......|..-. Ope sna ene ce do ....| Flesh meal, pea meal, potatoes, :.nd starch, TITTY Ch a ee ea Icuschen ...-.. Sheep.. | Blood meal, flesh meal, and barley straw. MVE WNOG, S222 soo e ns sesecese 2: Jeno’ apee se Swine -.| Blood meal, pease, and potatoes. V. Weiske, and associates ....]| Proskau ...... Sheep -.| Fish guano. VL. Kellner, and associates .--.| Hohenheim ...}...do ..-.| Fish guano, Lucern hay, and oatmeal.

The general plan of each of these experiments was to feed the animals during different periods of two or three weeks each with different foods and mixtures, and to note, by careful weighings and analyses of foods and excrements, the amounts digested. The most prominent of the questions has been the comparative digestibility and nutritive value of vegetable and animal albuminoids. As a general result the albuminoids and fats of meat, blood, and fish are found to be as digestible or more so than those of the most concentrated vegetable foods.

In I, Wolff found swine to digest from albuminoids 92 parts and fats 97 parts out of every 100 parts of each in the flesh meal, and concludes that flesh meal is an easily digested and intensely nutritious food.

In I, Wolff found that the albuminoids in pease and fleshmeal had essentially the same effect.

From IiI, Wildt found some difficulty in getting sheep to eat the blood and flesh. He says that potatoes and roots will help to make the flesh and blood palatable, and thinks that these may be used with profit to supply albuminoids to herbivorous animals.

From LV, Wildt concludes that animal albuminoids may serve just as well as vegetable for supplving nitrogen to foods poor in albuminoids.

Irom V and VI, Weiske and Kellner conclude that fish guano, like meat and blood, may be fed with profit to herbivorous animals. In Kell- ner’s experiment two two-year old wethers were fed during the first period with Lucern hay. During the second part the hay was replaced by

264 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES...

oatmeal, and during the third Norwegian fish guano was added to tks ration of the second period. At first the animals did not like the fish, but’ on mixing it well with the oatmeal they accepted it more readily. At the close of the experimeut they had got to liking the guano so much as to eat it greedily with no admixture of other foods. They digested on average of two experiments 90 per cent. of the albuminoids and 76 per cent. of the fat of the guano. Concerning the nitrogenous matter of the bone, Kellner made the same observation as has been previously noted, namely, that it was quite rapidly digestible. It is particularly worthy of remark that the Norwegian fish guano which was used in this experi- ment had 9.44 per cent. nitrogen and no less than 15.77 per cent. phos- phoric acid, and only 2.11 per cent. fat. That is, it had more bone than our fish guano. This is because it is made not of the whole fish, but of the refuse heads, entrails, and bones. The most of the fat had been removed by the steaming process used in preparation of the guano.

General conclusions concerning fish as food for domestic animals.

325. On the whole, then, these experiments bear unanimous and con- vincing testimony in favor of the easy digestibility and high nutritive value of animal foods in general and of fish guano in particular when fed to sheep and swine.

How far they could be made profitable for other herbivorous animals than sheep has not yet been tested. In the nature of the case there is no reason why they should not be as nutritious for neat cattle as for sheep. As Voit has justly observed, all mammals are at one period of their lives, when living upon milk, carnivorous. Lateinvestigations have shown very clearly that even plants are positively nourished by animal foods. The very interesting experiments of Mr. Francis Darwin with the round-leaved sundew demonstrate concluslvely that plants may thrive on a meat diet.

In short, we have every reason, from practical experience, from actual experiment, aud from what we know of the nature of the case, to believe tbat the immense amount of animal waste produced in this country from our slaughter-houses, and especially from our fisheries, can be utilized with the greatest ease and profit to supply the most pressing need of a most important part of our agriculture, nitrogenous food for stock.

We have seen that farmers in New England and in Europe have found fish good for their stock, that occasionally one like Mr. Wilder has hit upon a rational way of using it to piece out and improve the poorer products of their farms, and that patient research has explained why it is useful and how it may be made more so. This is one of the countless cases where practical men have worked their way in the dark by the tortuous path of experience to the same results to which scientific investigation leads. But here as ever the results when found need the light of science to explain the facts and make it possible to apply them most profitably.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 265 53. SUMMARY.

Fish as manure.

_ 326. The following is a brief recapitulation of the main points urged in this article:

1. The value of fish as manure is due mainly to its nitrogen and phos- phorie acid.

2. Taking into account composition, quality, and price, fish manures furnish these ingredients more cheaply than any other class of fertilizers in the market except Peruvian guanos.

3. The crops most benefited by fish manures are those which need considerable nitrogen and phosphoric acid, but are not especially helped by mineral manures alone. Such are grass, grain, and corn. The same is generaily true of potatoes and garden vegetables, and sometimes of roots. Leguminous crops, like clover, beans, and pease, are more bene. fited by mineral manures, and get little good from the nitrogen of the fish.

4, Fish manures are quick and stimulating in their action. Their force is soon spent and they often leave the soil in worse condition than be- fore they were applied. This is, however, no argument against their value. The remedy for such cases is to apply other materials, as ashes, lime, potash salts, dung, muck, ete., with them.

5. The proper soils for fish manures are those which are deficient in nitrogen and phosphoric acid, and in which the stimulating effect of the decomposition of fish may render other materials available for plant food. Soils that have been treated repeatedly with fish, guano, phos- phates, and bone are often overstocked with these ingredients and deficient in potash. Many soils are originally poor in potash. To apply fish on such soils and omit the lacking elements is to lose both fertilizer aud crop. The deficiencies of a given soil are best told by actual trial, with different manures and crops.

6. The general usefulness of fish manures will be increased by adding to them phosphoric acid, in the form of bone or superphosphates, and potash in German potash salts. Fine steamed bone, that can be bought for $52 to $45 per ton, or “ plain” superphosphates, made from South Carolina or Canada phosphates, and sold at $30 to $32 per ton, are economical sources of phosphoric acid. The “50 per cent. muriate,” sold at about $40 per ton, is one of the cheapest grades of potash salts. Of the “ammoniated” superphosphates, a very few of the best brands are sold at cheaper rates than it would cost the farmer to make them. But instead of buying medium and inferior articles, farmers will do better to buy the materials and mix them at home.

7. The best form of fish manures is the dry-ground fish guano freed from oil. The water and oil add weight and bulk without increasing value. The coarse fish-scrap cannot be thoroughly spread, is not easily diffused by the water in the soil, is reached by few roots, and becomes slowly

266 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

available to the roots that find it. But the fine dry fish is easily spread, is diffused by rain, is thus made accessible to a large number of roots, and can be absorbed by them when they reach it.

8. The ingredients of fish may be made more available for plant-food and their value for manure increased by—

a. Fermentation with urine.

b. Composting with muck, earth, ashes, lime, bone, potash salts, and farm-refuse of all sorts.

c. Feeding to stock, thus putting it through a process similar to that by which Peruvian guano has been formed. In this way it can be used to enrich the manure made on the farm, and thus made one of the best aids to successful farming.

Fish as food for stock.

9. The chief defect of our fodder materials as a whole is their lack of nitrogen. From poor manuring our crops are not only small in quantity, but poor in quality. They lack nitrogen. This is true of our forage crops in general, and of poor hay, straw, and corn-stalks in particular. What our farming most wants, to make stock-feeding profitable, manure plenty and rich, and crops large and nutritious, is nitrogen.

10. One of the cheapest, most useful, and best forms in which this can be furnished is in fish products. These have been found very profitable for feeding in Europe. Our fish guanos are better than the European for this purpose, because they have more flesh and less bone.

The loss to our agriculture from waste of fish.—The evil.

11. Millions of pounds of fish not fit for human food are allowed every vear to escape from nets into the sea, which, if saved and rightly uti- lized, would be worth untold sums for fertilizers and feeding materials.

12. Of the fish saved and used for fertilizers, a large portion is ill- prepared.

13. A large part of that which is well made is exported to Europe, where its value is better understood, and its use is more rational and profitable.

14. A great deal of the fish manure that gets into farmers’ hands, be it well or ill prepared, is wasted by wrong application, and by use where it does not fit the needs of crop and soil.

15. A still greater loss comes from the neglect to use fish as food for domestic animals.

16. The total loss to our agriculture from all these sources is not capable of accurate computation, but amounts certainly to hundreds of thousands, and doubtless millions of dollars annually.

The remedy.

17. As the main source of the evil is ignorance, the chief reliance for cure must be in better understanding of the facts and the ways to im- prove.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 267

18. The needed knowledge can be gained from two sources. The re- sults of European experience and experimenting will be one; experi- ments and investigations of our own products in our own laboratories, fields, and stables, another. The knowledge once obtained and set forth in detailed reports will, in the natural course of things, be condensed and diffused through the agricultural press, and applied by manufac- turers and farmers, to the great benefit of all.

19. The compilation of results of foreign work can be made by refer- ence to the numerous German, French, and English scientific and agri- cultural journals through which the original memoirs are scattered.

20. The investigations would be properly divided into those on fish as manure and those on fish as food for animals.

21. The experiments on fish as manures would probably be made—

1. In the laboratory, and consist of: a, analyses of fish products ; b, investigations on their changes in composition and action in the soil.

2. In the field, and consist of rationally planned and carefully conducted trials with different fertilizing materials, including fish manures, on different soils and with different crops, in order to obtain specific answers to specific questions whose solution is important.

22. The experiments on fish as food for stock should be made—

1. On farms, by feeding out fish with ordinary foods in simple ways, aS was done by Professor Farrington at the Maine State College.

2. In stables fitted up for trials with simultaneous laboratory work, on the plan of the Kuropean experiments, above described. The object of these trials would be to determine the digestibility and nutritive effect of the materials employed.

The urgent need of popular instruction.

327. Here is a case where men with the best intentions in the world, fishermen, manufacturers, and farmers, are suffering the waste of thou- sands, and even millions of dollars’ worth of material, bitterly needed to supply the wants of worn-out soils and nake bread and meat for hungry men. The first step toward stopping this must be the getting of in- formation. In Europe, governments, agricultural schools, societies, and experiment stations would, in fact do, grapple the questions, and with the best talent, aided by the best appliances that ingenuity, enthusiasm, and money can procure, work at them until they are solved. But here, we shall not get the needed knowledge until some educational in- stitution, experiment station, or other agency, takes hold of the work with a will and put it throagh.

268 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

APPENDIX A.

CIRCULAR RELATING TO *“*STATISTICS OF THE MENHADEN FISHERY.”

OFFICE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES, Washington, D. C.

Among the most important of the marine fishes of the coast of the United States is the species known as the Mossbunker about Long Island and New Jersey; bony-fish and menhaden on the south coast of New England; and pogy (not porgy) on the eastern coast; elsewhere as the bug fish, yellow-tail, &c., and by naturalists as Brevoortia menhaden. Generally considered unfit for food, it is principally captured for bait or for its oil, aud for the scrap or reuse left after the oil is squeezed out by means of the hydraulic press.

It is considered very desirable to obtain as full an account as possi- ble of the habits, migrations, &c., of this fish, as well as complete sta- tistics of its capture and uses. I therefore beg leave to call attention to the following queries, and to request answers to as many as practi- cable. It is not necessary to repeat the queries, a reference to the num- ber affixed to the question being sufficient. Replies should be made on foolscap paper, if equally convenient, and written on one side only of the page. .

The information thas obtained will be embodied in a report to Con- gress, in which tull credit will be given to all contributors.

SPENCER F. BAIRD, Commissioner. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, December 20, 1873.

A,—NAME. 1. By what name is this species known in your vicinity? B.—ABUNDANCE.

2. How does this fish compare in abundance with others found in your vicinity?

3. Has it diminished or increased in numbers within the last ten years?

4. What was the number of barrels taken in 1873 by any or all estab- lishments in your vicinity—naming them, if possible? Give the same facts for any other year.

5. Does the extensive capture affect their abundance ?

C.—MIGRATION AND MOVEMENTS.

6. When are the fish first seen or known to come near the coast, and when does the main body arrive; are the first the largest; are there more schools or runs than one coming in, and at what intervals?

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 269

7. Do the schools of fish swim high or low, and is their arrival known otherwise than by their capture—that is, do they make a ripple on the water ; do they attract birds, &e. ?

8. By what route do these fish come in to the coast, and what the sub- sequent movements ?

9. Is the appearance of the fish on the coast regular and certain, or do they ever fail for one or more seasons at a time, and then return in greater abundance; if so, to what cause is this assigned ?

10. Does the use of nets, seines, &e., used in catching them, tend to scare them farther from the shore, their usual feeding grounds ?

11. What is the relation of their movements to the ebb and flow of the tide ?

12. What are the favorite localities of these fish ?

13. What depth of water is preferred by these fish, and how low do they swim ?

14. Does the temperature of the water appear to affect them ?

15. Do these fish come on to the breeding grounds before they are mature, and do you find the one or two year old fish with the oldest ?

16. Are young fish ever seen on the coast; if so, when, and of what size ?

17. When do the fish leave the coast, and is this done by degrees or in a body ?

18. By what route do they leave the coast ?

19. Where do they spend the winter season ?

D.—Foop. 20. What is the nature of their food ? E.—REPRODUCTION.

21. Where do these fish spawn and when ?

22. Can you give any account of the process, whether males and females go in pairs, or one female and two males; whether the sexes are mixed indiscriminately, ete. ?

23. Is the water whitened or colored by the milt of the males?

24. What temperature of water is most favorable for spawning ?

25. At what depth of water are the eggs laid, if on or near the bot- tom ?

26. Do the eggs, when spawned, sink to the bottom and become at- tached to stones, grass, &c., or do they float in the water until hatched ?

27. When are the eggs hatched, and in what period of time after being laid?

28. Are the young of this fish found in abundance and in what locali- ties ?

29. Is the spawn ever found to run from the fish when handled after capture ?

270 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. TV’'.—ENEMIES AND FATALITIES.

30. What enemies interfere with or destroy the spawn or the young fish ; do the parent fish devour them ?

31, Are crabs, worms, lampreys, or other living animals found attached to the outside, or on the gills, or in the mouth, especially the roof of the mouth ?

32. To what extent do they suffer from the attacks of other fish or other animals—as sharks, blue-fish, porpoises, &c. ?

33. Has any epidemic or other disease ever been noticed among them, such as to cause their sickness or death in greater or less numbers ?

G.—CAPTURE.

34. What kind of nets are used in the capture of this fish ?

35. What are the dimensions (length and depth) of the nets used ?

36. What kind of vessels are employed and what is the tonnage ?

37. What is the number of men required for the management of ves- sel and nets?

38. What part of each day is employed in fishing ?

39. Are the fish taken more on one tide than another ?

40. Does the wind have an effect on them ?

41. What is the number of vessels employed in your vicinity and what is the aggregate number of their crews ?

H.—ECONOMICAL VALUE AND APPLICATION.

42, What disposition is made of the fish caught; whether used on the spot or sent elsewhere; and, if so, where?

43. What oil factories are there in your neighborhood and by whom owned ?

44, What is the gross quantity of oil manufactured in a year at each factory ?

45. What is the productive capacity for oil-manufacture of each fac- tory in each year?

46. What is the description and cost of machinery used in trying-out oil in each factory ?

47, What prices were paid per barrel for fish in 1873 and what in previous years?

48. What is the average quantity of fish required to produce a gallon of oil?

49. What quantity of oil can be obtained from one ton of scrap?

50. What is the least amount of oil per barrel of fish and when is it least ?

51. What is the greatest amount of oil per barrel and wheu is it greatest ?

52. Do the Northern fish yield more than Southern ?

53. What is the history of the oil-manutacture on this coast?

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. VAR

ou ~

. Where is the principal market for the oil? . Where is the principal market for the scrap ? . What use is made of the oil? . What is the range of prices paid for the oil in 1873 and what in previous years ?

58. Is it probable that the catch of fish (menhaden), however prac- ticed, tends to diminish them ?

59. Name of correspondent.

60. Residence.

61. Date of communication.

og or “1a Cl

APPENDIX B.

LIST OF CORRESPONDENTS FROM WHOM CONTRIBUTIONS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED.

Contributions have been received from the following persons:

J. Matthew Jones, esq., F. L. S., Halifax, N.S.

William H. Sargent, collector of customs, Uastile, Me.

Robert A. Friend, oil manufacturer, Brookliu, Me.

J. C. Condon, oil manufacturer, Belfast, Me.

Charles G. Atkins, Bucksport, Me.

Marshall Davis, deputy collector of customs, Belfast, Me.

John Grant, keeper of Matinicus Rock Light Station, Me.

Mrs. B. Humphrey, keeper of Manhegin Island Light-House, Me.

Alden H. Jordan, keeper of Baker’s Island Light-House, Me.

William 8. Sartell, keeper of Pemaquid Light Station, Me.

James A. Hall, collector of customs, Waldoborcugh, Me.

Benjamin I’. Brightman, Round Pond, Me.

Luther Maddocks, oil manufacturer, Boothbay, Me., secretary Maine Menhaden Oil and Guano Association.

G. B. Kenniston, oil manufacturer, Boothbay, Me.

Thomas Day, keeper of Seguin Light, Parker’s Head, Me.

J. Washburne, jr., collector of customs, Portland, Me.

Hon. 8. L. Goodale, Saco, Me.

Washington Oliver, keeper of Pond Island Light, Me.

Chandler Martin, keeper of Whale’s Back Light, N. H.

Judson Tarr & Co., oil manufacturers, Rockport, Mass.

F. J. Babson, collector of customs, Gloucester, Mass.

Cyrus Story, Gloucester, Mass.

Capt. Robert H. Hurlbut, Gloucester, Mass.

Unknown contributor, Gloucester, Mass.

Simeon Dodge, collector of customs, Marblehead, Mass.

Eben B. Phillips, oil dealer, Boston, Mass.

W. Stowe, American Net and Twine Company, Boston, Mass.

272 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Will:am Atwood, keeper of Duxbury Pier Light-House, Plymouth, Mass.

Thomas Loring, collector of customs, Plymouth, Mass.

Heman §8. Dill, keeper of Billingsgate Island Light-House, Wellfleet, Mass.

David F. Loring, keeper Highland Light-Station, North Truro, Mass.

Capt. N. E. Atwood, Provincetown, Mass.

Capt. Josiah Hardy, 2d, keeper of Chatham Light-House, Mass.

Philip Smith, North meaethan, Mass.

William S. Allen, keeper, Great Point Light, Nantucket, Mass.

Reuben C. Kenney, Nantucket, Mass.

T. C. Defriez, collector of customs, Nantucket, Mass.

Alonzo F. Lothrop, keeper of Hyannus Light-House, Mass.

C. B. Marchant, collector of customs, Edgartown, Mass.

Jason Luce & Co., pound fishermen, North Tisbury, Mass.

Capt. J. B. Edwards, Light-House Buoy Station, Wood’s Holl, Mass.

KE. F. Crowell, Wood’s Hole, Mass.

Capt. Thomas Hinckley, jr., Wood’s Holl, Mass.

Prof. C. A. Goessmann, Amherst, Mass.

Daniel T. Church, oil manufacturer, Tiverton, R. I.

Joseph Whaley, keeper of Point Judith Light, R. I.

K. T. De Blois, Portsmouth, Rk. I.

H. O. Ball, New Shorehan, RB. I.

Joshua T. Dodge, Block Island, R. I.

Henry W. Clark, keeper of South East Light-House, Block Island, R. I.

Capt. Jared 8S. Crandall, keeper of Watch Hill Light, R I.

Gallup, Morgan & Co., Groton, Conn.

Capt. John Washington, fisherman, Mystic River, Conn.

Capt. William H. Potter, fisherman, Mystic River, Conn.

Luce Brothers, East Lyme, Conn.

Capt. Leander Wilcox, fisherman, Mystic Bridge, Conn.

Capt. Samuel G. Beebe, keeper of Cornfield Point Light-Vessel, Say- brook, Conn.

Richard E. Ingham, keeper of Saybrook Light-House, Conn.

Prof. J. Hammond Trumbull, Hartford, Conn.

George W. Burke, M. D., deputy collector of customs, Middletown, Conn.

Capt. J. L. Stokes, oil manufacturer, Westbrook, Conn.

George W. Miles, oil manufacturer, Milford, Conn.

EK. H. Jenkins, New Haven, Conn.

H. L. Dudley, secretary U. S. Menhaden Oil and Guano Assciation, New Haven, Conn.

F. Lillingston, Stratford, Conn.

B. Lillingston, Stratford Point Light-House, Conn.

W.S. Havens, collector of customs, Sag Harbor, N. Y.

Capt. Joseph D. Parsons, Springs, N. Y.

Capt. B. H. Sisson, United States Coast Survey, Greenport, N. Y.

David F. Vail, oil manufacturer, Riverhead, N. Y.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 273

Hawkins Brothers, oil manufacturers, Jamesport, N. Y.

Seaman Jones, New York City.

W. O. Allison, editor Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter, New York City. Jasper Pryer, New York City.

EK. G. Blackford, fish dealer, New York City.

J. Norrison Raynor, agent for Sterling & Co., Greenport, N. Y.

Barnet Phillips, New York Times, New York City.

Louis C. @Homergue, Brooklyn, N. Y.

F. I’. Beals, secretary American Sardine Company, New York City and

Port Monmonth, N. J.

D. KE. Foster, keeper of Cape May Light-House, N. J.

A. G. Wolf, keeper of Absecom Light-House, Atlantic City, N. J. Capt. John D. Sanders, Leedsville, N. J.

Albert Morris, Somers Point, N. J.

A. A. Owens, Philadelphia, Pa.

Joseph B. Benson, Bombay Hook, Del.

James H. Bell, keeper Mispillion River Light-House, Delaware Bay. Benjamin Tice, keeper of Maurice River Light-House.

Isaac D. Robbins, keeper of Hog Island Light.

Hance Lawson, collector of customs, Crisfield, Md.

Dr. H. C. Yarrow, U.S. A., Washington, D. C.

J. L. Anderton, Apateague Island, Accomac County, Va.

G. Henry Selden, Kinsale, Westmoreland County, Va.

Henry Richardson, keeper of Cape Henry Light-House, Va. Charies G. Manning, collector of customs, Edenton, N. C.

A. W. Simpson, jr., assistant keeper Cape Hatteras Light, N. C. Wallace R. Jennett, Cape Hatteras, N. C.

A. C. Davis, collector of customs, Beaufort, N.C.

William I’. Hatsel, keeper of Body’s Island Light-House, N. C. Patrick Conner, keeper of Daufuskie Island, 8S. C., Range Beacons. George Gage, collector of customs, Beaufort, 8. C.

W. A. Ham, keeper of Range Beacons Light-House, Morris Island, S. C. H. W. Reed, keeper of Tyler Light, Savannah River, Ga.

J. F. Hall, Brunswicix, Ga.

Joseph Shepard, collector of customs, Saint Mary’s, Ga.

Francis C. Goode, Arlington Bluffs, Saint John’s River, Fla. Capt. David Kemps, Yellow Bluffs, Saint Jobn’s River, Fla,

Dr. Charles Koch, Jacksonville, Fla.

Charles Dougherty, New Smyrna, Fla.

S. H. Wilkinson, keeper of Cat Island Light-House, Miss.

Silas Stearns, Pensacola, Fla.

D. P. Kane, keeper Matagorda Light-House, Tex.

The communications of Messrs. I’. J. Babson, EH. B. Phillips, Josiah Hardy, David 'T. Church, W.S. Havens, B. H. Sisson, James H. Bell, A. W. Simpson, jr., A. C. Davis, and David Kemps have been particu- larly valuable as furnishing data concerning habits and migrations;

18 F

”

274 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

those of Judson Tarr & Co., J. C. Condon, R. A. Friend, G. B. Ken- niston, G. W. Miles, and Hawkins Brothers in the statistics of manufac- tures; that of Mr. I*. J. Babson in the statistics of the bait fisheries, and that of Mr. F. F. Beals in relation to the sardine manufactures. _ Thanks are due to Melton & Co., of Jacksonville, Fla., for specimens of fish from the Saint John’s River.

APPENDIX C. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LITERATURE RELATING TO THE MENHADEN. BREVOORTIA TYRANNUS (Latrobe) Goode.

Clupea tyrannus, LATROBE, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. v, 1802, p. 77, plate 1 (four figures).

Brevoortia tyrannus, Gooner, Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 1878, p. 5

Olupea dura levi mystaxy (Hard Head), BELKNAP, History of New Hampshire, 2d ed., 1813, vol. iii, p. 133. (Name only.)

Ciupea menhaden, MiTCHILL, Transactions of the Literary and Philo- sophical Society of New York, vol. i, 1815, p. 453, pl. v, fig. 7.

Cook, Geology of the County of Cape.May, State of New Jersey, 1857, p. 113.

GUNTHER, Catalogue of Fishes in the British Museum, vol. vil, 1868, p. 436.

WHITKAV ES: Notes on the Marine Fisheries, and particularly on the Oyster Beds of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Sixth Annual Report Department of Marine and Fisheries, 1874, p. 195.

Alosa menhaden, RICHARDSON, Fauna Boreali Americana, 1836, p. 229.

STORER, Report on the Icthyology and Herpetology of Massa- chusetts, 1839, p. 117; Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, new series, ii, 1846, p. 459; Synopsis of the Fishes of Nerth America, 1846, p. 207 ; Mem. Amer. Acad., new series, vi, 1858, p. 386; History of the ishes of Massachusetts, 1867, p. 158, pl. xxvi, fig. 4, and (?) in Appleton’s New American Cyclo- pedia.

DEKAyY, Zoology of New York, or the New York Fauna, part iv, Fishes, 1842, p. 259, pl. xxi, fig. 60.

AYRES, Enumeration of the Fishes from Brookhaven, Long Island. < Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. iv, 1844, p. 275.

PERLEY, Descriptive Catalogue [in part] of the Fishes of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Reports on the Sea and River Fisheries of New Brunswick (2d ed.), 1852, p. 208.

BAIRD, Report to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on Fishes of the New Jersey Coast, as observed in the Summer

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 275

of 1854. < Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1854, p. 347, and repaged edition, June, 1855, p. 33; Geol- ogy of the County of Cape May, State of New Jersey, 1857, p. 147.

GILL, On the Fishes of New York, in Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1856, p. 266.

Cook, op. cit., 1. ¢.

Alausa menhaden, VALENCIENNES in Cavier and Valenciennes’ Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, vol. xx, 1843, p. 424.

Brevoortia menhaden, GILL, Catalogue of the Fishes of the East Coast of North America, 1861, p. 55; Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1861, p. 37 (diagnosis of genus); Canadian Naturalist, 1867, p. 260, and in Baird’s Report on the Sea Fisheries of the South Coast of New England, 1873, p. 826.

STEINDACHNER, in Sixth Annual Report of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries (Massachusetts), for the year ending January 1, 1872. |

BatrrD, List of Fishes collected at Wood’s Hole, in Report on the Sea Fishes of the South Coast of New England, 1873, p. 826, and elsewhere in same report, p. 136.

VERRILL, On the Food and Habits of some of our Marine Fishes, in American Naturalist, v, 1871, p. 398; Lists of Species found in the Stomachs of Fishes, in Baird’s report sup. cit., 1873, p. 520.

VERRIEL, SMITH and HARGER, Catalogue of the Marine In- vertebrate Animals of the Southern Coast of New England, and Adjacent Waters, in Baird’s report sup. cit., 1873, p. 578 (lernzean parasite).

WHITEAVES, I. ¢.

BOARDMAN and ATKINS, The Menhaden and Herring Fisheries of Maine, 1875.

GooDE, Catalogue of the Collection to- illustrate the Animal Resources of the United States, 1876, p. 63.

UHLER & LUGGER, List of the Fishes of Maryland, in the Re- port of the Comniissioners of Fisheries of Maryland, 1876 (first edition), p. 156; (second edition), p. 133.

Hinp, The Effect of the Fishery Clauses of the Tzeaty of Wash- ington on the Fisheries and Fishermen of British North America, 1877, p. 73.

YARROW, Notes on the Natural History of Fort Macon, N. C., and Vicinity (No. 3), Fishes, in Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1877, p. 215.

Alosa sadina, MITCHELL, op. cit., p. 457.

DEKAY, op. cit., p. 263, pl. xl, fig. 129.

Alausa shadina, VALENCIENNES, op. cit., p. 426.

276 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Clupea neglecta, RAFINESQUE, Second Decade of New North American Fishes, in American Monthly Magazine, vol. ti, 1818, p. 206.

Clupanodon aureus, SPIx, Selecta Genera et Species Piscium, Brazil, 1829, p. 52, tab. xxi.

Alosa aurea, VALENCIENNES, op. cit., p. 427.

Clupea aurea, GUNTHER, op. cit., p. 437.

Clupea Carolinensis, GRONOW, Catalogue of Fish collected and described by Lawrence Theodore Gronow, now in the British Museum (ed. GRAY), 1854, p. 40.

“Wish Guano,” HALLIDAY, S. B., in Country Gentleman, vol. vi, p. 250.

‘SS. W. Jounnson, Ibid. vol. viii, p. 43.

Cook, op. cit.

‘“ Menhaden Fisheries and their Products, A new source of Commercial Industry.”. By Louis C. D’HOMERGUE, <in The Manufacturer and Builder, vol. iii, p. 114, May, 1876.

“The Fish Oil and Scrap Business,” CONNECTICUT, in American Agri- culturist, vol. xxxii, 1873, p. 139.

“ Fish Scrap or Guano,” EDITORIAL, ibid. xxxi, 1872, p. 419.

“The Manufacture of Fish Oil and Guano,” ANONYMOUS, ibid. xxvi, 1867, p. 400 (with wood cut of menhaden).

“ A Fish Oil and Guano Factory,” EDITORIAL, ibid. xxvii, 1868, p. 451 (with wood cuts of factories and fishing scenes).

‘Pound fishing for menhaden.”

LyMAN, On the Possible Exhaustion of Sea Fisheries, in Sixth Annual Report of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries (Mass.), 1872, p. 24. ‘

“ The Sardine Industry ”—

ANONYMOUS in Harpers Weekly, January, 1875, and Scientific American, February 6, 1875 (with wood cuts of fisheries and pro. cess of manufacture). |

MENUADEN USED AS FOOD—

ANONYMOUS in Topography and History of Wareham, 1815, in collections of the Mass. Hist. Society, iv, second series, 1816, p. 284.

STORER, |. c., GILL. Fishes of New York.

'USE OF RAW FISH FOR MANURE—

FIELD, Davin D., in Statistical Account of the County of Mid- dlesex, in Connecticut, 1819, p. 153.

THOMPSON, BENJAMIN F., in his History of Long Island, 1839, p. 44.

DwiGuHt, TIMOTHY, in his Travels in New England, pp. 305, 513.

BOARDMAN, SAMUEL L. and ATKINS, CHARLES G.

The | Menhaden and Herring Fisheries | of Maine | as sources of fertilization | A Report made to the Maine Board of Agricul- ture | By Samuel L. Boardman, Secretary of the Board | and | Charles G. Atkins, formerly Fish Commissioner of Maine | 8vo., 1875, pp. 67.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 218

PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. The | Pacific Guano Company | its History; its Products and

Trade; | its Relation to Agriculture | — | Exhausted Guano Isiands of the Pacific Ocean ; | Howland’s Island, Chincha Islands | ete., ete. |— |The Swan Islands |—]|The May Beds and

Phosphate Rock of South Carolina | Chisolm’s Island Phosphate

| The Menhaden | Cambridge: | Printed for the Pacific Guano

Company | at | The Riverside Press | 1876 | 8vo., pp. 63. Mappocks, L.

The Menhaden fishery of Maine | with statistical and historical details | its | relations to agriculture | and as a | direct source of human food | — | new processes, products, and discoveries | — | Published by the | Association of the Menhaden Oil and Guano Manufacturers of Maine | Press of B. Thurston & Company, Port- land, 1878. Prepared by Mr. Luther Maddocks.

THE MENHADEN AS A BAIT FISH— :

Professor Spencer F. Baird, Testimony before the Halifax Com- mission, 1817, Appendix L, pp. 467, 469.

James Bradley, Testimony, Halifax Commission, 1877, Appen- dix L, p. 5.

Edward Stapleton, ib., p. 11.

Nathaniel E. Atwood, ib., p. 42.

Benjamin Maddocks, ib., p. 138.

Benjamin Ashby, ib., pp. 246-7.

Robert H. Hulbert, 7b., p. 296.

Sylvanus Smith, ib., pp. 334, 341, Appendix M, p. 81. Major David W. Low, ib., pp. 362, 364, 367, 268. James H. Myrick, 7b., p. 428.

Spencer F. Baird, ib., pp. 457, 458, 460.

William Eaton, Appendix M, p. 6.

Li. G. Crane, b., p. 8.

H. E. Willard, Cape Elizabeth, Me., pp. 10, 11. Enoch G. Willard, ib., pp. 15, 16.

George Trefethen, ib., pp. 17, 18.

John Conley, ¢b., p. #1.

O. B. Whitten, ib., p. 23.

S. B. Chase, ib., pp. 25, 26.

M. N. Rich, 1b., pp. 27, 28.

Noah Swett, ib., pp. 30, 31.

C. C. Pettingell, ib., pp. 33, 34.

William H. Nelson, ib., pp. 35, 36.

A. W. Small, ib., pp. 38-39. ’ C. E. Smalley, R. C. Kenney, ib., pp. 40, 41. Elisha Crowell, ib., pp. 42, 43.

Caleb Nickerson, ib., pp. 45, 46.

Horatio Babson, ib., pp. 48, 49.

278 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

F. W. Friend, ib., pp. 51, 52.

George W. Plumer, ib., pp. 54, 55.

H. Knowlton, EH. A. Horton, ib., pp. 57, 58.

Albion K. Pierce, ib., pp. 60, 61.

George Norwood, ib., pp. 63, 64.

Andrew Leighton, ¢b., pp. 66, 67.

W. C. Wonson, ib., pp. 68, 69.

George Friend & Co., ib., pp. 71, 72.

Frederick Gerring, ib., pp. 73, 74.

F. G. Wonson, ib., pp. 76, 77.

Charles H. Pew, ib., pp. 78, 79.

Mauris Whelen, tb., p. 82.

Thomas Grady, ib., p. 82.

James G. Tarr, ib., p. 83.

John EH. Gorman, éb., p. 84.

Henry Hardy, ib., p. 85.

John KE. Saunders, @b., p. 86.

Richard Hannan, ib., p. 86.

James G. McKean, 7b., p. 195.

George Crichet, ib., p. 202.

Christopher Carrigan, ib., p. 202.

Martin Ryan, ib., p. 204.

Philip Ryan, ib., p. 204.

Andrew Laurie, ib., p. 205.

Thomas England, ib., p. 205.

Rufus Carrigan, ib., p. 206.

Charles Lowrie, ib., p. 207.

George Laidlaw, ib., p. 209.

Roderick McDonald, op. cit., p. 210.

Daniel McDonald, ib., p. 211.

Dougald McKinnon, ib., p. 212.

James kh. McLean, Appendix F, pp. 24, 29.

Wm. 8. MeNiell, ib., p. 57.

George Mackenzie, ib., p. 132.

James McKay, ib., p. 190.

John Nicholson, 7b., p. 205.

John Maguire, ib., p. 214.

James W. Bigelow, ib., p. 222.

Michael Wrayton, 72b., p. 231.

James Lord, ib., p. 245.

John FI. Taylor, ib., p. 299.

James A. Tory, ib., p. 323.

James Hickson, 7b., p. 342.

John McLellan, ¢b., p. 404.

Knowles, Charles G. F., Third Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, 1871, p. 341.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 279

TH. W. Johnston, A Special Report on the Distress among the Nova Scotia Fishermen, 1870. Case of Her Majesty’s Government, op. cit., Appendix A, p. 28. Answer on Behalf of the United States cf America to the Case of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government, Appendix B, pp. 18, 19. ¢ Reply on Behalf of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government to the An- swer of the United States of America, Appendix C, pp. 9, 10. Richard H. Dana, jr., Appendix J, p. 78; Appendix F, p. 67.

APPENDIX D.

EXTRACTS FROM WRITINGS OF ICHTUYOLOGISTS RELATING TO THE MENHADEN.

{From Transactiuns of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. V, 1802, pp. 77-81. ]

A DRAWING AND DESCRIPTION OF THE CLUPEA TYRANNUS AND ONIS- CUS PRAGUSTATOR. BY BENJAMIN HENRY LATROBE, F. A. P. S.

The committee, to whom was referred Mr. Latrobe’s paper on a species of Oniscus, called by the author Oniscus pragustator, reports that the same is worthy of publication. .

BENJAMIM SMITH BARTON.

FEBRUARY 17, 1800.

PHILADELPHIA, December 18th, 1799. To THomAs P. SMITH,

One of the Secretaries of the American Philosophical Society :

Str: I beg leave, through your means, to communicate to the Amer- ican Philosophical Society an account of an insect, whose mode of habitation, at least during some part of his life, has appeared to me one of the most singular, not to say whimsical, that can be conceived.

In the month of March, 1797, illness confined me, for several days, at the house of a friend on York River, in Virginia, during his absence. My inability to move farther than the shore of the river gave. me leisure to examine carefully, and in more than an hundred instandary.4 the fact Iam going to mention.

Among the fish that, at this early season of the year, resort to the waters of the York River, the alewife, or old-wife, called the bay-alewife (Clupea nondescripta), arrives in very considerable shoals, and in some seasons their number is almost incredible. They are fully of the size of a large herring, and are principally distinguished from the herring by a bay or red spot above gill-fin. They are, when caught, from March to May, full-roed and fat, and are at least as good a fish for the tabie as the herring. In this season, each of the alewives carries in her mouth an insect, about two inches long, hanging with its back downwards and firmly holding itself by its 14 legs to the palate. The fishermen call this insect “the louse.” It is with difficulty that it can be separated, and

280 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

perhaps: never without injury to the jaws of the fish. The fishermen, therefore, consider the insect as essential to the life of the fish, for when it is taken out, and the fish is thrown again into the water, he is inca- pable of swimming and soon dies. I endeavored in numerous instances to preserve both the insect and the fish from injury, but was always obliged either to destroy the one or to injure the other. I have some- times succeeded in taking out the insect in a brisk and lively state. As soon as he was set free from my grasp, he immediately scrambled nim- bly back into the mouth of the fish and resumed his position. In every instance he was disgustingly corpulent and unpleasant to handle, and it seemed, whether he have obtained his post by force or by favor, whether he be a mere traveler or a constant resident, or what else may be his business where he is found, he certainly has a fat place of it, and fares sumptuously every day.

The drawings annexed to this account were made from the live insect, and from the fish out of whose mouth he was taken. I had no books to refer to then; but examining the Systema Nature of Linneus, I was surprised to find so exact a description of the insect as follows (see Salvii Editio, Holmie, 1763, 1060, also Trattner’s Vienna edition, same page) :

‘Insect, apt. Oniscus, Pedes XIV.

Antenne setacex. Corpus ovale.

““O. physodes, abdomine subtus nudo cauda, ovata; habitat in pelago; corpus preeter caput, et caudam ultimatum, ex septem segmentis trunci, et quinque caude. Antenne utrinque duo, breves. Caude folium ter- minale omino ovatum ; ad latera utrinque subtus auctum duobus pete- olis diphyllis, foliolis lanceolatis, obtusis, cauda brevioribus. Caude articuli subtus obtecti numerosis vesiculis longitudine caudee.”

From the particularity with which the Oniscus physodes is described by Linneus, it is evident that he had the insect before him, or a description by an attentive observer. It appears also from the “ habitat in pelago,” that the O. physodes, if this be the insect, is found detached from his con- ductor. There are a few points in which the O. physodes differs from my insect. I did not observe the antenne, perhaps for want of sufticient attention, or of a microscope. The peteoli of the tail were not, to appearance, two-leaved, and I am certain that the segments of the tail, and the tail itself, were without the vesiculi longitudine caude.

There are many circumstances, to ascertain which is essential to the natural history of this insect. The fish whose mouth he inhabits comes, about the same time with the shad, into the rivers of Virginia from the ocean, and continues to travel upward from the beginning of Mareb to the middle of May; as long as they are caught upon their passage up the river, they are found fat and full of roe. Every fish which I saw had the Oniscus in his mouth, and I was assured, not only by the more ignorant fishermen, but by a very intelligent man who came down now

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 281

and then to divert himself with fishing, that, in forty years’ observation, he had never seen a bay-alewife without the louse. The shad begin to return from the fresh water lean and shotten about the end of May and beginning of June, and continue descending during the remaining sum- mer months. No one attempts then to catch them, for they are unfit for the table. Whether the bay-alewife returns with the shad, I could not learn, but it is certain that after June it is not thought worth the trouble to catch them. No one could tell me positively whether the Oniscus still continues with them, but it was the opinion of my informant, that, like every other parasite, he deserts his protector in his reduced state, for he could not recollect that he had ever seen bim in the mouth of those accidentally caught in the seine in July or August.

I consider, therefore, the natural history of the Oniscus which I now communicate as very imperfect; and it were to-be wished that some lover of natural science would follow up the inquiry, by endeavoring to ascertain whether he continue with, or quit the fish before his return to the ocean, and also whether he be the Oniscus physodes of Linnaeus, qui habitat in pelago.

Should he be an insect hitherto undescribed, I think he might be very aptly named, Oniscus preegustator.

The bay-alewife is not accurately described in any ichthyological work which I have seen; norcan I from my drawiugs, which were made with a very weak hand, venture a description. From his having a reg- ular pregustator, I would suggest that he ought to be named Clupea tyrannus.

The Oniscus resembles the minion of a tyrant in other respects, for he is not without those who suck him. Many of those which I caught had two or three leeches on their bodies, adhering so closely that their removal cost them their heads. Most of the marine Onisci appear to be troublesome to some one or other fish. The Oniscus ceti is well known as the plague of whales, and many of the rest are mentioned in Linnzus and Gmelin as pestes piscium.

BENJA. HENRY LATROBE, Ff. A. P. 8.

P.S—A gentleman well skilled in entomology informs me that he believes that in Block’s History of Fisbes, a work not to be had in Philadelphia, this Oniscus is mentioned. But, from a late examination of Gmelin and Fabricius, I am convinced that the Oniscus preegustator is a species not hitherto accurately described. Gmelin had probably seen the Linnzan insect, having changed the antennae utrinque duo to antennis quaternis, and left out most of the long description given by Linneus. Neither he, Linnzus, nor Fabricius mentions the circum- stance of habitation in the mouth of the fish, and the industrious and copious Fabricius, who having changed the names of the genera, calls him Cymothoa physodes, copies the description of Gmelin, excepting the mention of the 4 antennae, which in his arrangement form a character of the genuS.

282 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

[From “The Fishes of New York, described and arranged,” by Samuel L. Mitchill, in Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, 1815, p. 453.]

BONY-FISH, HARD-HEADS, OR MARSHBANKERS, OF NEW YORK. (Clupea menhaden.)

About fourteen inches long, frequent the New York waters in pro- digious numbers. From the high banks of Montock, I have seen acres of them purpling the water of the Atlantic Ocean. The waters of Long {sland Sound and its bay are often alive with shoals of them. They are eatable; but as they are too abundant for consumption as food, and as there are multitudes of preferable fish, menhaden are often left to putrefy on the shore or are removed to the fields for manure.

The history of this fish has been written by Mr. B. H. Latrobe, and published with a figure, in the Philosophical Transactions of Philadel- phia, Vol. v. And the manner of converting him to an ingredient for fertilizing land has been explained by Ezra L’Hommedieu, esq., in the Agricultural Transactions of New York, Vol. I., p. 65. The aborigines called him menhaden. The whalemen say he is the favorite food of the great bone-whale or Balena mysticetus. This creature, opening itsmouth amidst a shoal of menhaden, receives into its cavity the amount of some hogsheads of menkaden at a gulp. These pass, one by one, head foremost down his narrow gullet; and eye-witnesses have assured me that on cutting up whales after death, great quantities of menhaden had been discovered thus regularly disposed in the stomach and intestines.

Gill-cover very jarge. One blackish spot on the neck near it. Head and back greenish-brown, with a few marks of brighter green on the head. Belly and sides considerably iridescent. Back arched, rounded, and thick; tail forked; belly serrated; mouth and tongue toothless and smooth; gills rising from the back of the tongue on both sides of the wide throat.

Rays olde o, Ve 1, DA 19 AL 1: Cen.

[From ‘The Fishes of New York described and arranged,” by Samuel L. Mitchill, in Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, 1815, p. 457. ]

New YorK SHADINE (Clupea sadina).

An elegant species, with a small smutty spot behind the gill-cover, but with neither spots nor stripes on its back or sides; mouth wide and toothless; tongue small; back delicately variegated with green and blue; lateral line straight; sides silvery white, considerably above that line, and below it quite to the belly; the white reflects vividly green, red, and other splendid hues; head rather elongated; lower jaw pro- jecting; scales very easily deciduous; form neat, taper, and slender; gills rise into the throat on each side of the root of the tongue; eyes pale and large; tail deeply forked; on account of the even connection of the, false ribs, the belly is not at all serrated, but quite smooth; a semi-transparent space in front of the eyes from side to side.

Rays, Brig, P.16, V. 9, D. 18, Avdb CLAS.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 283 [From Storer’s ‘‘ History of the Fishes of Massachusettes,” 1867, p. 158.] ALOSA MENHADEN, Storer. The Menhaden. (Plate XX VI, Fig. 4.)

Clupea menhaden, Bony-fish, Hard-heads, or Marsh-bankers of New York, Mircu., Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of New York, 1, p. 453, pl. 5, fig. 7.

Alosa menhaden, Menhaden, Hard-head, StorER, Report, p. 117.

Alosa menhaden, Moss-bonker, DreKkay, Report, p. 259, pl. 21, fig. 60.

Alosa menhaden, AYERS, Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist., iv, p. 275; SrorEr, Mem. Amer. Acad., new series, 11, p. 459.

Alosa menhaden, STORER, Synopsis, p. 207.

LT’ Alose menhaden, Cuy. & VAu., Hist. Nat. des Pois., xx, p. 424.

Color.—Upper part of body of a greenish-brown, darker upon the top of the head and at the snout; upper part of the sides in the living fish roseous and mottled with indistinct bluish oscillations, which disappear in death; abdomen silvery ; gill-covers cupreous, with a rosy tint; space in front of the eyes translucent; a black spot, more or less distinct, upon the shoulders; whole surface of the fish iridescent.

Description. aaa elongated, compressed; its depth across, at the base of the pectorals, less than one-fifth the length of the fish; length of the head more than one-third the length of the fish; gill-covers very large; opercula, with numerous deeply marked strive, which commence just beneath a large green blotch, situated some distance back of the eye and on a line with it, and pass obliquely backward and downward to its lower edge; subopercula and interopercula smooth; preopercula presenting an arborescent appearance of vessels upon their surface ; eyes circular, moderate in size, furnished with a nictitating membrane ; gape of mouth very large; lower jaw shorter than the upper; the mid- dle of the upper jaw deeply emarginate; back slightly arched in front of the dorsal fin.

The dorsal fin commences upon the anterior half of the body; it is nearly as long again as high, and is emarginated above; at its base is a membranous prolongation or sheath, by which it is almost entirely covered when unexpanded. The first three rays of this fin are simple; the first articulated rays are higher than the remainder, the most posterior higher than the eight or nine preceding.

The pectorals are situated just beneath the posterior inferior angle of the operculum; the first three rays are the longest; the first ray is simple. Outside of this fin is an axillary plate more than two-thirds the length of the fin; a broad scaly shield at the base of the pectorals covers a portion of the inferior edge.

The ventrals are very small and fan-shaped, their rays are Pracieitids on each side of these fins is an axillary plate.

The anal fin is shorter than the dorsal, low and slightly emarginated above; its anterior rays are highest; the first ray is simple; it is sheathed at its base like the dorsal.

284 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

The caudal fin is deeply forked; the depth of the fin at its extremities, when expanded, is equal to the height of the outer rays.

The fin rays are as follows: D. 19; P. 15, 16, or 17; V.6; A. 20, 21, or 22; C. 204.

Length, eight to fourteen inches.

[From Dekay’s “ Zoology of New York,” Part IV., Fishes, 1842, p. 259.] THE MOSSBONKER. Alosa menhaden.

(Plate XXI, Fig. 60.)

=

Bony-fish or Mossbonker. Clupea menhaden. MircuiL1, Report in part, &c., p. 21. Hard-head or Marsbankers. C. menhaden. Id. Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc., vol. 1, p. 453. The Menhaden, Hard-head. Alosa menhaden. Srorer, Massachusetts, Report, p. 117.

Characteristics —Silvery ; no stripes; a humeral spot. A double ac- cessory ray to the ventrals. Abdomen serrated behind the ventrals. Length 10-14 inches.

Description.—Body much compressed ; its height to its length as one to four nearly. Abdomen cultrate, with a fissure along its edge, indis- tinctly serrated before the ventrals, sharply serrate behind. Scales large, elliptical, distinctly and evenly ciliate on the free margins; on the back smaller and more crowded; on the nape the.scales have longer unequal ciliz. No appearance of a lateral line. Head large, com- pressed, one-third of the total length; the opercles with curved and radiating strize. Mouth large, the upper jaw emarginate on the side. The gill membrane on_one side folds over its opposite, with five slender cylindrical, and three larger and flat rays. Branchial arches four, with a small rudimentary one in front, all angular, and with a long minutely fringed filament. Eyes nearly covered by a nictitating membrane. Tongue soft, white, minutely punctate with black. The dorsal fin long, emarginate; the first three rays simple, articulated; the anterior be- ing very short, the remainder branched; first branchial ray highest, the last higher than the four preceding. This fin is concave on its margin, and is placed in a sheath. Pectorals long and pointed on a line with the margin of the opercles; the first ray simple; the accessory plate large'and as long as the fifth ray. Ventrals feeble, short, fan-shaped, lying under the anterior portion of the dorsal, with double accessory plates. Anal long and low, the two first rays simple, the first shortest ; the last ray longer than the fourteen preceding. Scales covering the base of the rays, so as to form a sort of sheath. Caudal forked, much branched, and with numerous accessory rays. Scales extending high

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 285

up on the fin, and very minute ones distributed ulmost to the tip. Ab- domen covered internally with a black pigment. Intestines long and convoluted; cca numerous, attached to a stout muscular stomach, lined | with a white rugose membrane, covered with numerous papillae. Air- bladder simple.

Color.—Summit of the head and back greenish; silvery on the sides. In the plates, more of a yellow hue is given to this fish than belongs to him. A dark brown spot on the shoulders, behind the opereles. Irides yellow. A space anterior to the eyes so translucent as to permit opaque objects to be seen through on the other side.

Length 8.0-14.0.

Fin-rays, D. 20; P. 16; V. 6; A. 22; C. 204.

This fish is known under the various names of bony-fish, hard-head, mossbonkers (or, as it is pronounced by our Dutch inhabitants, morse- bonkers), panhagen, and menhaden; the last being the name given by the Manhattans, and panbagen (pronounced panhangen) the Narragan- sett epithet. At the east end of the island, they are called skippangs, or bunkers. Although seldom eaten, as it is dry, without flavor, and full of bones, yet it is one of the most valuable fish found within our waters. Its use as a manure is well known in the counties of Suffolk, Kings, and Queens, where it is a source of great wealth to the farmer who lives upon the sea-coast. They are used in various ways: for Indian corn, two or three are thrown on a hill; for wheat, they are thrown broadcast on the field, and plowed under; although it is not uncom- mon to put them in layers alternately with common mold, and when decomposed spread it like any other compost. Its effects in renovating old grass-fields, whgn spread over with these fish at the rate of about two thousand to the acre, are very remarkable. Its value, however, as a manure has one drawback in the abominable and unhealthy stench which poisons the whole country, and, according to the testimony of some medical writers, lays the foundation of dysenteries aud autumnal fevers. They appear on the shores of Long Island about the beginning of June, in immense schools; and as they frequently swim with a part of the head above or near the surface of the water, they are readily seen and captured. They are commonly sold on the spot at the rate of $2 the wagon-load, containing about a thousand fish. The largest haul I re- member to have heard of was through the surf at Bridgehampton, at the east end of the island. Highty-four wagon loads, or, in other words, 84,000 of these fish were taken at a single haul. On the coast of Massa- chusetts they are used as bait for mackerel, cod, and halibut; and many are packed away for exportation to the West Indies. According to Dr. Storer, in 1836, 1,488 barrels were thus salted down for exportation. Tam not-aware that its geographical limits pass beyond the coast of New Hampshire on one side, and Chesapeake Bay on the other.

286 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

[From Cuvier and Valenciennes’ “ Histoire Naturelle des Poissons,” vol. xx, p.,424.]

L’ALOSE MENHADEN. ~ (Alausa menhaden, nob.)

Cette clupée, trés abondante aux Etats-Unis, ’un des produits considé- rables des vastes fleuves de cette contrée, est éminemment remarquable par la grosseur de sa téte et par la hauteur de la région pectorale du tronc; elle égale trois fois et demie la hauteur de la queue. La longueur de la téte surpasse en quelque peu cette hauteur, et elle est comprise trois fois dans la distance entre le bout du museau et la naissance de la caudale. Ces proportions moutrent que le corps est extrémement trapu. La machoire supérieure ne dépasse pas V’inférieure. L/’oeil est recouvert @une double paupiére adipeuse trés-épaisse. L’opercule a de fines stries et de jolies tres agréablment ramifiées. De fines stries rayon- nantes couvrent I’ opereule; il y en a aussi vers le bas du préopercule. Le sous-opereule et Vinteropercule sont trés grands. La ceinture humérale est étroite. La dorsale est sur le milieu de la longueur du tronc. Les nombres des rayons de ces nageoires ne different pas de ceux des autres espéces.

D293 ASAD C027 tia Lbs, Vint

Les écailles ennt Aneaivent A longument ciliées. Leur portion libre est petite; la partie radicale a des stries verticales et paralléles au bord. De chaque céoté du dos ou remarque deux rangées d’ écailles beaucoup plus profondément ciliées, et que, en 8’ enchevétrant sur la ligne moyenne, forment une singuliére gouttiére le long de cette ligne. Des écailles membraneuses font une goutticére assez profonde, dans laquelle s’engage la dorsale. Unetache dun bleu foncé existe sur le haut de l’epaule, et se conserve parfaitement sur les individus gardés depuis longtemps dans Valcool. Le dos est verdatre; tout le reste du poisson brille @ un vif éclat argenté. Nous avons recu de nombreux individus de cette espéce. Les plus grands n’ont que treize a quatorze pouces. M.M. Milbert et Lesueur les ont envoyés en abondance des marchés de New York et de Philadel- phie. M. Bose avait rapporté l’espéce de Ja Caroline, et récemment M. Holbroock m’en a envoyé d’ autres exemplaires des marchés de Charles- town. Hnfin, M. le comte de Castélman en a convoyé de l embouchure de ? Hudson.

L’espeéce a paru pour la premiére fois dans le mémoire de M. Mitchill sous le nom que nous lui conservons. Nous la retrouvous dans les ouvrages de MM. Storer et Dekay. Celui-ci en a donné une bell figure, et le premier de ces auteurs a fait connaitre le nombre considérable de barils que ’on exporte chaque aunée. Comme c’est un poisson trés-huil- eux, on s’en sert plut6t comme engrais ou comme amorce, surtout pour Jes grands Flétans (Peuronectes hippoglossus). C’est sous ce rapport qu’il devient objet d’un commerce cousidérable. Au nom de Menhaden, qui est une de ses dénominations vulgaries, il faut ajouter celle de Fanheade et de Mossbonkers ou de Bonyfish, ete.

HISTORY OF ''HE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 287 ’ [From Uhler & Lugger’s List of the Fishes of Maryland, 1876, p. 133.] BREVOORTIA MENHADEN. Ale-wife, or Menhaden.

Body elongated, compressed. Its depth across, at the base of the pee- torals, less than one-fifth the length of the fish; length of the head more than one-third the length of it. Gill-covers very large. Upper part of body greenish-brown, darker upon the top of the head and at the snout ; upper part of the sides in the living fish rose-colored and mottled with blue, which disappear in death; abdomen silvery; a black spot, more or less distinct, upon the shoulders; whole surface of the fish iridescent.

Length 10 to 14 inches.

Fin-rays:-D. 19; P. 15-17; V.6; A. 18-22; C. 20.

B. menhaden, Mircu., Lit. and Phil. Trans. New York, i. p. 453, pl. 5, fig. 7.

Alosa menhaden, Storer, Report Fish. Massach., p.117; DeKay, York Faun., Fish., p. 259, pl. 21, fig.60; AyERS, Boston Jour. Nat. Hist., iv, p.275; SroRER, Mem. Am. Ac., vi. p. 337, pl. 26, fig. 3. F

Brevoortia menhaden, GILu., Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad., 1861, p. 37.

Common on the Atlantic coast of Worcester County and even entering Sinepuxent Bay, also in vast shoals in Chesapeake Bay, particularly about the mouths of the great rivers of both peninsulas. They have been exten- sively used for manure by the farmers living near the coast, where they are caught by untold thousands in the large seines.

Acad. Coll. 8S. I.

[From Perley’s Reports on the Sea and River Fisheries of New Brunswick, 1852, p. 208.]

SPECIES 3.—Alosa menhaden—THE MOSSBONKER.

This fish is known by a variety of popular names, among which are ‘“‘bony-fish,” “ hard-head,” “ pauhagen,” and “ menhaden.” It is seldom eaten, being dry, without flavor, and full of bones. On the coast of the United States it is used as bait for cod, and also extensively as manure for renovating old grass-fields, but not without injury to the health of those who reside in the vicinity. The mossbonker is sometimes caught in the weirs, within the harbor of Saint John, in considerable numbers ; it has occasionally been sold to the ignorant for fali shad, to which it bears some resemblance. The mossbonker is exclusively a sea-fish, neyer entering the fresh water.

[From Gray’s “Catalogue of Fish, collected and described by Lawrence Thecdore Gronow, now in the British Museum,” 1854, p. 140.] CLUPEA CAROLINENSIS—M. G. B. M.

Clupea immaculata argentea abdomine anteriore prominulo dentato: lateribus amplissimis. Habitat gregatim ad Carolinam Meridionalem.

288 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Longitudo tota quinque pollicaris et altitudo maxima paulo ante pin- nam dorsalem est unius polliciseum deinidio.

Dorsum rectum, convexum, capitiparrellelum. Caput cathetoplateum, cranium rectum convexiusculum ; utringue compressum subtus augusta- tum carinatum adscendens a juncturis branchiarum versus os. Oculi magni, ori proximi: mystaces lalissime osee pellucid# inermes Maz- illa inferior augusta, acuminata, oblique sursum spectans, ad superio- rem adductilis. Opercula planiuscula, latissima, splendedissima rotun- datetruncata. Latera planiuscula, obliquata, mox post pinnas pecto- rales latissima, versus caudam gracilescentia. Abdomencarinatum valde prominens, squamis denticulato-serratum. Color argenteus splendens, in dorso cerulescens. Linea lateralis nulla. Squame imbricatim site, late, deciduse. Prima Dorst in medio dorso parva radiis 18. Pecto- rales in imo pectore iadiis 17. Ventrales approximate parve in imo veutre, initio dersalis opposite medio inter ventrales et analem, radiis sex. ‘Analis humilis, medio inter ventrales et caudam, radiis 18, sensim decrescentibus. Cauda profunde bifureata, lobis equalibus acuminatis, radiis contiguis, subramosis. Latitudine laterum preesertim ab Harengo B differre videtur.

[From Giinther’s “ Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum,” vol. vii, p. 436. ] CLUPEA MENHADEN. Mossbanker.

Clipea menhaden, Mitou., Lit. & Phil. Trans., New York, i, p. 453, pl. 5, fig. 7.

Alosa menhaden, STORER, Report ish. Massach., p. 117; DeKay, N. York Faun., p. 259, pl. 21, fig. 60; AyvERS, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist., iv, p.275; Cuv. & VAL., xx, p. 4245 SroreR, Mem. Am. Ac., vi, p. 337, pl. 26, fig. 3.

sadina, DEKAY, l.c., p. 263, pl. 40, fig. 129. MrircHiLy’s Clupea sadina (Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. New York, i, p. 457) was evidently a different fish, which, however cannot be determined at present.

Clupea carolinensis, GRONOYV, Syst., ed. Gray, p. 140.

DBrevoortia menhaden, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad., 1861, p. 37. (Name only.)

Dit9:; tAw 19-2055) 7.

Seales irregularly arranged; their free portion is very narrow and deep, with the margin ciliated. The height of the body is rather less than the length of the head, which is one-third of the total (without caudat). Lower jaw shutting within the upper; maxillary reaching to the verti- cal from the hind margin of the orbit. No teeth on the palate or tongue. Operculum finely striated ; suboperculum large, tapering above. Gill- rakers very fine and exceedingly long; the horizontal branch of the outer branchial arch consists of two portions joined at an obtuse angle. Ventral fins opposite to the anterior third of the dorsal, the origin of which is somewhat nearer to the caudal than to the end of the snout. Basil half of the caudal fin covered with small scales. There are from twelve to thirteen abdominal scutes behind the base of the ventral fins. A blackish blotch in the scapuiary region.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 289

Atlantie coast of the United States.

a, b, Adult New York. Purcliased of Mr. Brandt. c, d, Half-grown and young; skins; New York. Hrom Mr. Parnell’s collection. e, /, Young, North America. Presented by E. Doubleday, esq. g, Young. Old collection (Clupea smaragdina). h, Young; skin. From Gronow’s collection. Type of Clupea carolinensis.

APPENDIX E.

CATALOGUE OF SPECIMENS IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM.

Be | 34 | Sex and ; When col- Nature of 3 E age. Locality. lected Collected by— specimen. Remarks. S =|

16369 | Young..| Wood’s Holl, Mass...|.......--.--.- United States Fish | Alcoholic - -- Commission. feet iceeaer es || Washington, DiCr 22s eos. base. Captain Evans....|.--.d0 --.-.-- ii5569)|c=.dor. =|) Wood's ‘Eolli Mass]: Josscss-2---- United States Fish |....do ...-.--- Comunission. 13356 Ba! Ue eae 32 d100:~ 322525 PSISS IE Gling Aaa AA abe Sac caeecen ical HSA Seer eee (Baap ites eames ee = Sedope=ss2 5 13370 |.. United States Fish |....do ....... Commission. 13301 |<< SEEGER pincseioc ace! Cansei TE Sy Ss Ore ace Tae 2 HiGOisaccsee 13265 LBROONSe Jose ees Jean OO see sk ot 19146 |. -| Vinal N. Edwards.|....do ......- 16378 |.. United States Fish |... do ....... Commission. 13368 SNC OV SRE Lee eee 13359 |.. a ee Os ersten ee 20913 Vinal N. Edwards. S05 |.- SSPyBaird s-eeacee| see: ap 13373 United States Fish |....do ....... Commission. 13363 |.. So. dori Leeecosewcs| toes i iesseas 20630 ‘Vinal N. Edwards.|....do ....-.. 16386 United States Fish |..-.do -.....- Commission. Rete eee Oe asl oe eM Opes eee Seta bereterd cin xb cies call rwicre Gor 2550 ee conn poate GON. cck == PAIS 55) 282 do: 3555) Noank? Conttiasss4o5-|-0 os cc leooacsllsnes Gov. = 2S AF: Gow te a= Hebe) |eG0 45-71) W O00 8 Holl Mags 2[E 52) 2 ees Ne Ss Oi ho seececers ones dO} 2ssee <= 16363 Petes Coneh.c SL PEIES #'d00. 12 2x 13360 Lael (1). o See a Doe eee Seer GO)yscekes 20616 Vinal N. Edwards.|....do .....-. 14136 |.. United States Fish |-...do ..-.-... Commission. isan |e-sdor.=-. (Wood's Holl, Mass. l:l.o--cc-coscecs pes tee Salat tee eg th ete Gi Beeeode BES) [Sea owece ce osama Cong. | - re sense cea. jecee es Be EO Ole ceca a casino Stomach .... iat] |2-00'2---|| WOOd's Holl, Mass) c|".2-- os oes5 o Sond ve ae See ee Alcoholic --.. 13375 |...do ... | Menemsha Bight, | .......- eae “ear Oe concn ne neces pee do|--- == Mass. HARE |2e-Gor-..| \Weod’s. Holl, Mass: -.)...22sc2 2225-2 er OO eataeasececa| (she. dovieesen i soils) GUS seea Aeon Ovaries ...-. G0) Se cn ee Alcoholic ... Vine ul N. Edwards.|. United States Fish |. Poannission; Bis Ze Vinal N. Edwards. E Spe (a (tie ee NN | A RE RO. fe foe eee lee . 10405 | Ad ..... nore ieee ee OEE _ S. F. Baird .....--- -| 709: C. A. S. plaaiewounp-|' West Mlorida .2-...-2|-<ccuasssess-s Kaiser and Martin.

Sie) Ee Brazos Santiago, Tex.|.......-.----- Capt. Van Vliet --|.---

EDL | oc SSE ee eee a eee ge en eee ee New Orleans Acad- emy.

Soiiieee--..--.| Mouth Rio Grande. ..|-.-2ss..-<2--- Emory é& Clarks |-0-d01e--ees- RONG: pean = See = Hein aneRigere seco |e scaee noc = - Wurdemann --....|.--. doysescee UA imine a= + AVIGHEIBSE DDL os notte cook |a- ee = aamni=- BL Co Wrallsjeeee- Pe OOte = och 2

2) Wr had ee Noank, Conn .....-.. Aug. 24, 1874 | United States Fish | Ovaries -.... Commission.

OS 0 |e «oe Mane ese eon caec scas Aug. 20, 1876 | S. L. Goodale ...-..].... il) Geecdce

BuU4AG) |S - << - == -- (pone ee OO) Sas ca tose Septs1 471876 1. 2doyeseseneere elses dorrecse.

290 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Catalogue of specimens in the National Museum—Continued.

Catalogue number

19682 19918 20016 20287 20516

20603 20837 10696

16313 16796

Sex and age.

as When col- Nature of Locality. locked Collected by— specimen. Remarks. Fort Brown, Tex..--. ——- —, 1858 | Major Emory..-.--- Alcoholic - - Wood’s Holl, Mass...) Sept. 26, 1874 United States Fish ESS Cy SR Commission. BA dO see 2e----0~--.| Sapte 4e1874i | Noank, Conn.......-. ——- —, 1874|__. BS SEIN (10 Be goanoebacsan pase PE mis y Cees oan nie Pe) ee Scr ty liee ee Goes Pent eeee BOO isrossince || eee Wood’s Holl, Mass. . -| Suly Peakeyay||o Packs Go. f4. 62305454 | do: se ae Sa CO vaatame caseerea|mnce ao. ee | es Buzzard’s Bay -..-.-. —-_, 1875 er aa Wood’s Holl, Mass -.} June 10, U5}||,-5- Ovaries, &c. ieee <ic dO... 425icc-c20-=5| Ag: 4, isha |S ee Color sketch. B F5st O™: sec 5-ceaetes CAG. OI BioN EGO 6-2 once cecce foes dOr enna Beg 13 GOW. 2 8e ec eee c| se = dO: + Jace e HELO Shoe eke ol eeee seme GOn memes Menemsha Bight,| Aug. 3,1875).--.do.!......---- sedOnseen mere Mass. Boos dO ss-dsscccaieasec| NODE» OMl8 7a) | Sedo meee ccc. css sone GO re meeeee ee catsie 5 eee A ——-—, 1876 |._..do .._-.-..----.|----do -......| Cast No. 567. Saint John’s River, | Apr. 2, 1877 S. F. Baird ....... : a. 2 ao GO 55 5 eee Seis | ieecics ets ees n> 500 Wlorida)-.22-2).coeeaae G. Brown Goode Sapien € GO scss ep -ceseee|s-eeO Baal Hoe: 0: a.dc2seeccoeeh|||252200 .-.do ne: eal weiguaa beTC OE sss =a. 2200 Facial e200) = F525 5c see do wWooa! Holl, “Mass. ..| ——- —, 1876 Vinal N. Edwards.|....do ....... pcaeee do -F- 32 eet i |e a i United States Fish |..-.do -...... Commission. ~eack® dO:.2. aches Se. |4-S2d Ov oces4| ha dow ken a reeked ee GOr wens Sean G0. =the SOF 2 on-call ps0 aan ee tet eal tiga OO feee on. daeios OO Robe Sce semen teed O)- See sce ocd O Sela so scmcen |e sede caenee sence GO seks ccstacsmee|s-eedO\.S5524) 25. dos be. mock selene Ole ene Saxe GOs ea eee el eee Oconee cee a (1 i Ste ee sees Ca eres See Potomac River. ...... “May —, 1875 “Milner and Goode |....do ....--. Eastern Shore of Vir- | ——-—, 1875 | Prof. H. E. Webster|.---do ...... inia. Beanfort IN. ©. Baticee ——- —, 1872 | Dr. H. C. Yarrow. ..|. Wood s Holl, Mass. ..| ——- —, 1876 Vinal N. Edwards. eee 0.22 Behe sano | Pose eet cea 5 ER ae Menemsha Bight, | ——-—, 1875 | United States Fish |....do ......- Mass. Commission. woods HollMass:.4) Octa, (21800) Oorerereecc sce S26 Oieeeek oe Pee Uva ces ceacmsce Nov. 24, 1877 £00 2 bns sede foa|S--c OO ee pee Wood's Holl, Mass.) vache. o-b ocean. United States Fish | Cast ........ Commission. Jceene MO; Ras eee. Ane W875) |e nO bee... canes a= pO OLeetaes EEE 2 Sees weet sel |p ABIO. 5. ececsat Bod OVebiits == oem eei eee cL Op Reese

Photographs.—257, 258, 259, 260, 386, 387.— UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION.

291

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN.

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‘WW XIGNUddV

292 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

ut

BLL | £°69 | 9°89 | GGL | 6°99 | G08 | 9'EL 18 ug | L°¢8 | ges 98 | 9°¢8 9118 6h i * SES eae Lae ‘qso Aq Sox 9°GL | G°SG| LRG |G'9S | S 1S | G°SL | 6°89 |] GGL | 88 | 8°98 | GLB | S388 | G'FB | Lee 9°EL ; Be ane SEAIGE, SNOMED oe ee SH) Sy PAS LE TIA TS) NS Te ee ESA es) 008 ELA Lee B92. | Lvk 6709 8 "6S TIFEEES (209) QVUULBAvg 9°99 6P | G'%S | Ger | L'Sk | 9°69 | 6°09 LO 18 | G'€3 | G ‘FB c8 |} #08 | £9 | G 69 Se Si O'S oot WLS AMS) 679 | 87h | 98h | eb) Ter) 609) Tus | v9 | ze | LBL | G08 | TTs | ee | €76y | e7Te |, L719) $9 |: * ON mousarcarE AL L'8G | G’8E | GSP | O°LE | POS'| BGS | FSS | 8'6S | L°99 | LisL | ELL | E08 | 28k | GLS | FLO | 6 °9S ne tai SS a RES BS ae Rigen BA ‘31[0}.10 a eg [7777 | Le | GPE | SOS | 0S | 82g | GOL | EAL | LoL | SEB | B'9L | BTS | F'e9 | LOS cer eo"soret “P75 da ogee gsbee ee aemae ee SPINE CLOUT ABEL 6'er | 8°08) LSE | L'8a | PGE | GPS | TOF | b'sS | EEO | 6 GY GL | 6'OL | 8°99 | L'OP | GOS | G'6E EAC NGS ELAS AVON GGG | 6'SE | 6 TE ins 6& | LLG | 9°0S | S°2zG | €°S9 89) SPL | 2°89 | €°19 | F'Sh | 90S | Ler TOM EO pu RT MONT PARC Galne LE 6-60 || eee. | b VSaROSEPAeHOg: | Geo (ab OLalnO site| eepe |PGeeO ONC iG: TSelG ich IFCCS |e oe ee Sa es me me eneeee renee SSB ‘OTL §,POOAL G'th | 8°G& €€ | ¢ 0s CE | b'6F | © Fr | 88h | €°SG | 6 LS | 7°09 | # 6S PG | 18S PP LE eae HOTN: AVERER KE COP €€ | GGG its GE | 98h | 6’SF | 8 GP | 10S | SSP GP | 8‘Sh | LIP | 6 FE | GLE | GFE OFT “4a1od4ysviy 3 >) ep yy yy fleets |e lel -e| e |e | hai e fs |e | ee) @ le | BISo8| 8 =| Omigaor| 4 6 + mS 3 a Ie = is 4 zh 5 eo |"so| & =] Beieao| 8 3 8 Ate B a F a oie |e : = p er] oO n _ rs we ar = Sy o 8 Ee o aa] = etn st wo D OH ® eB is t= Bo] 3 a 3 oo! § — fe) ian ~ 3 S| So =) 2 oa aed 5} 3) 3 o8| = a oe 7s @ B : als) is SP as ‘MOTJVALISYO JO QdVI_ Cry ror foal + =} Sy at an paren a <=) s Sig (eet a | Settle: | oP ie | Rey Se “© Sag} 2 SR| 5 3 S39 09 o Ler} i . . . 2 d 5 LOQUT AA umngny IOTIOIUG Suradg Ae ee ee ee SS a a aa

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293

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. @ $

“LLST ‘8% Areniqa,| Sutpue vex

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294 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 295

APPENDIX G.

A TABLE SHOWING COMPARATIVE AMOUNTS OF MENHADEN, MACKEREL, SHAD, ALE- WIVES INSPECTED IN THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

MASSACHUSETTS INSPECTIONS.

Years. Shad. Alewives. | Menhaden. | Mackerel.

Barrels. Barvrels. Barrels. Barrels. 57 4, 5514 3, 6424 7, BUTE 1864 4, 069 3, 416 8, 5334 50 4, 514 4, 9514 8, 2263 22 7, 6324 3, 7863 9, 305 147 1, 085 1, 306 7, 6292 31L 4, 287 3, 024 ~ 8, 825 201 6, 5244 2, 524 12, 5524

1, 443 5, eBUS 7, 148 17, 401 822 4,971 1, 155 5, 831 8224 1, 9023 903 3, 7553 214 673 104 1, 339 526 1, 7704 2, 306 16, 059% 3794 1, 593 3, 945 31, 269 46413 1, 440 4,238 37, 362 244 9924 4,512 46, 348

934 7924 4,6403 | 100, 1U4 593 4764 1, 338 115, 641 Qik 6424 504 111, 0092 41 2, 1554 237 160, 2944 63 3, 9673 365 145, 001 524 4,037 987 191, 6504 364 3, 653 697 254, 3845 313 2, 938 Q24 158, 740 283 1, 864 164 190, 3043 607 2, 731 353 237, 3244 6534 3, 437 226 235, 9774 1523 3, 030 97 308, 4634

1, 0624 3, 036 1,147 3x3, 5485 105 1, 755 200 922), 452 Sek 2, 266 470 222, 9525

3 4, 3153 1, 008 252, + 7194 3094 5, 6x54 1, 443 194, 8004 527 4,979 1, 488 174, 4103 652 1, 182 461 138, 1574 360 604 1, 164 110, 7404 773 2, 769 10, 833 74, 26r4 856 1, 474 1, 427 50, 4014 3,910 | . 2,840 2, 138 55, 537 2, 831 7, 196 566 75, 543 854 64, 451 476 ~ 86, 3314 202, 302¢ 179, 311Z 951, 917% 300, 1303 208, 950 242, 57a 329, 2442 1928, 120 133, 3404 135, 3493 2LL, 9568 214, 312 168, 705% 131, 602.5, 99, 7152 935, 6853 194, 2-38 260, 8647 306, 912.9.

274, 3574 256, 79d 231, 696.7% 210, 3144, 180, 05644 234, 210% 318, 5212 259, 4164 181, 956.45 185, 7484 258, 37915 130, 0622 225, 9491

105, 0972

ONorala

296

APPENDIX H.

REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES

LIST OF MANUFACTURERS OF MENHADEN OIL AND GUANO, 1877.

[The following table was furnished by Mr. Jasper Pryer.]

Name of manufacturer.

Location of factory.

Winter address.

G.S. Allyn & Co OY. H. Almy & Co. (E. J. Corey, agent) Barren Island Manufacturiug Company. -.

William J. Brightman & Co J. H. Bishop Bristol Oil Works Brown’s Cove Company Isaac Brown & Co Nelson Burnett Cape Cod Oil Works (J. Cook) B. C. Cartwright Joseph Church & Co G. H. Clark Charles Cook Captain C. Doughty W. Y. Fithian & Co Robert A. Friend Ford, Avery & Co Fowler, Foot & Co Gallup & Holmes Gallup, Morgan & Co Albert Gray & Co Thomas F. Gray Wirt GlOvVeter ssesceseereee acess <ceer Green Brotherseae-es -eaer cae = -ee sees Griffin & Vail W. D. Hall F. J. Harker : aH DVeCD Se. = cceice ia 5 cesarean Hawkins Brothers Hawkins Brothers W. 4H. H. Howland Seaman Jones & Co

E. K. Kelsey Kenniston, Cobh & Co Loud’s Island Oil Company Luce Brothers Maddocks’ Oil-Works Manokin Oil-Works Anthony Mauchester B. F. Manchester PaAMeswMNnNGHesbete na aeice ci mclmisinsinie « «1=\siafers Ths George W. Miles Company Morris & Fifield North American Oil-Works James E. Otis Pemaquid Oil-Works Erskine Pierce ¥F. F. Pierce .--- Joseph D. Parsons G. H. Payne Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company (H. L. Dud- ley, agent.) J. Harrison Raynor W.C. Raynor Round Pond Oil-Works Amasa Simmons (Herman Smith, agent) -- Cyrus H. Smith Smith, Green & Co Smith’ & Yarrington South Bay Oil Company South St. George Oil- Works John Southworth Suffolk Oil Company Tuthill, French & Co George F. Tuthill Virginia Oil & Guano Company (O. E. Maltby, president.) Benjamin Waites Waley & Co Wells & Co Isaae G. White Wilcox & Manchester

-| Greenport, N. Y

Mystic River, Conn ......... Tiverton Four Corners, R. Bar.ien Island, N. Y

Scnenaen NFAY? Provincetown, Mass .....-. Shelter Island, N. Y ane Pond, Me

Ea:t Marion, N. Y Tiverton Four Corners, R. I. Somers Point, N. J Amagausett, N.Y Brooklin, Me Tangier Island, Md....-. South Bristol, Me Boothyay, Me

Southold, N.Y -.. Amagansett, N. Y..-.-.--... Port Monmouth, N.J -

Millenbeck, Va Hampton, Va Patchogue, N. Y

Branford, Conn Booth Bay, Me Round Pond, Me Niantic, Conn

3coth Bay, Me Somerset County, Md Tiverton Four Corners, R. I Somers Point, N. J

Somers Point, N. J Wellfleet, Mass Tuckerton, N. J Bristol, Me Dartmouth, Mass -.-.....-2-

Springs, N. Y Deep Hole, Easthampton, N.Y Pine Island, Conn .--.--....-. Greenport, N. Y Westhampton, N. Y..----.-. Round Pond, Me Tiverton Four Corners, R. I. Tuckerton, N. J

Seve Bey)

South ‘Saint Rootes, Me Portsmouth, R. I Boothbay, Me East South Bristol, Me Greenport, N. Y INOTLGIRGAVidieeintisiciecieisiociee ato

Tiverton Four Corners, R. I Poquonnock Bridge, Conn.. South Bristol, Me.

Tiverton Four Corners, R. I

eaeeee See ee ee

Mystic River, Conn.

I.| Tiverton Four Corners, R. I.

58 Broad street, New York City.

Tiverton, R. I.

Madison, Conn.

meskes ee Pond, Me.

Tiverton, Res Southampton, IN Provincetown, Mass. Shelter Island, N. Y. ‘Tiverton, R. I.

East Marion, N. Y. Tiverton Four Corners, R. L Somers Point, SE J. Southold, N. Y

Brooklin, Me

Guilford, Conn.

Groton, Conn. Do.

Tiverton, R. I. Do.

Southold, N. Y. Davisville, R. I. Riverhead, N. Y. Millenbeck, Va. Hampton, Va. Mcriches, N. Y. Tames ery INS

0. Tiverton, R. I. 134 Third avenue, New York City. Clinton, Conn. Boothbay, Me. Round Pond, Me. East Lyme, Conn. Boothbay, Me.

Tiverton Four Corners, R. L. Somers Point, N. J. Tiverton, R. I. Milford, Conn. Somer’s Point, N. J. Wellfleet, Mars. Saybrook, Conn. Bristol, Me. Dartmouth, Mass. Greenport, N. Y. Springs, N. Y.

Sog Harbor, N. Y. New Haven, Conn.

Greenport, N. Y. Westhampton, N. Y. Round Pond, Me. Tiverton Four Corners, R. L Tuckerton, N. J. Sayville, N. Y.

Do

Do. South Saint George, Me. Fall River, Mass. Boston, Mass. Greenport, N. Y.

D

0. Norfolk, Va.

Tiverton Four Corners, R. L

-| Poquonnock Bridge, Conn.

Greenport, N. Y.

Deena Four Corners, R. I. 0.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 297

List of manufacturers of menhaden oil and quano, 1877—Continued.

Name of manufacturer. Location of factory. Winter address. Mead eEAwalGox & CO. <<... .-<acwcnecnsnsac Mystic Bridge, Conn .--..... Mystic Bridge, Conn. MODE MUTI SOU es cee cccistconaccuncceccece oa Rall Riveryitass 2-52. .e-.<-- Fall River, Mass. NC ANIC pies G1 5-2 - re ee eee Good GroundhN. Yi. 35-2... =. Good Ground, N. Y. Henry E. Wells . GreenportyN. Vo. ces ses5: Greenport, N. Y. Westbrook Oil Company Westbrook, Conn ........... Westbrook, Conn.

APPENDIX I.

PARTIAL LIST OF VESSELS EMPLOYED IN THE MENHADEN FISHERY.

STEAMERS. Name. Tonnage. Owner. Port of entry. Where fishing.

Mabel Bird-..<......... : , Boothbay, Me..--...-.-. Maine. Meet sheeeee stent} e-sOUke. [vec 0 G0) 522225 foo acca-\cenees Gok sass ase Do. Grace Darle .. 3 Ob ossagsas cece 4eonsse G0}. 2a ee. Do. JANINE) acke cceeeedoceu OU Rodel] BAR sesoeapcceee liscrscc CO) Bee mes oce Ome Do. SID (GUE ose sooes| |) EU Esseestty REP pooner see bssoce Ot.) Bas eee Do. HIG ENT COM ee seaaniie S20 b os (Petanc Ot ss-2/-eceesn. [Paka ee 0) See este secee Do. Hodgdon’s Mills, Me.. Do.

Gla: Me | Ce: Gil eee oes ee Do.

SGT Wal Sane Joseel eaeecseerr: Round Pond, Me.....-. Do. Leonard Brightman (io) 2B Sane atlacrtec Cot: 222Ssees2e eee Do. LO} Se ae = 4 ees Se eee er RemagqnidiOwiCompiy |hle~- 22. 4--. sasees ee eee Do. seaside sie Tuthill, French & Co..| South Bristol, Me...-.. Do.

> do Do.

do ; Do.

ISRTR 2) Os “eee Jonathan Bowrne, jr - ew Bedford, Mass ---. Do. George H. Bradley. .... do Do. Belle and Hattie. .-..--. do Do. Nellie E. Rawson ..---- do Do. Geo. W. Hunt..-....---. do Do. Wavidsh. Walson..-22-2.).20ss2-225 Job T. Wilson ~....--. Fall Rison Mass.-.---- Do. C@hance-Shot:. .-.-.---- 59 George Devoll ........|...--- Cot eerste Do. otive Wi Merrill 2.20.4 s2c-<s55 W.J. Brightman..-.-.. Tiverton, R. 1 eee Do. AMINA WOR ese aes seees wees oeee doy. 2228s Soe || eRe OVOP eee oat Do. MERNIESS -saecersem scar 10) . »»|atemct CG) Bape Soceeee eg oceans GO. See eae Boot Do. Mane Ashen .eee. 5-550]: oat ose | Seen do Eo ee ae GIO) isSce se aoesenbe Do. A. M. Hathaway .......|.......... Joseph Church & Co..|.-...- GO} 22. sascseisia se Do. OSPR CHUTCH! = =) 352] =-ssenc.|SbL es GO) scasdesceet soe. | eee Ofte csceesescececs Do. OST URE Ny Becck ose Scenes gn go2os4| eo sane) Bone nabwes a0 looeens HO Bare aces eames Do. SLO OOMECT = Se oes-})- soe |s sc cae i) Beeeroe ses coca Gki) Pee oas ose Do. Bessie SiMG 2 -- = soe 2 |= i eeweosllencied Ol 25 acbS SS sctiaa boots Oty BE e aes eee Do. George W. Humphrey -|.....-.--.|------ G9) ESusedbodusaonel|saccac G0) paseo peameeee Do. SAVE DrOunetatas icic|iececseccaleetaer GOpess228e esa sche Rie CO} see Pesoscecwse Do. Charles Cook ......... Tiverton Four Cor- Do.

ners, R. I (BRED Ser 0 eo eodeoso Seee Secor Isaac I. Manchester-..| Newport, R.I .--....-. Do. VERDC BIGGS Ss aacuae- 81,39, | E. T. De Blois. ......--| Portsmouth, R.I.--.--- Do. Albert Brown: -.-.--.---- 78,08; |=--=-- CS pee eee occa Gp) LEsé.cBeapdaaas Do. iWarieAs Wells 25-57 = 51S; |----<- O10) Sepp aoerasesae (sossce Gd Bocécmeneagseds Do. G. Polhemus ...........|.......---| Gallup, Holmes & Co-..| Groton, Conn .--..-.--- Connecticut.

PR EVON AN seed co ctociew fens wane os lene =e ie Aa aS | ae Gl) Bene ep eecopace Do. EPP SISSON Ewe aia nomen ss cits we. .| eee dg Saeco ss cecinee|SSescs dot sts tae Do. RAIS Corll! leet c ow Iotacie fare sone =| sateen Obssaace a= se eeee leecae. (it) paper eeodcone Do. LET Se eee 66 Gaitup, Morgan & Co.| -..-. 0) BReormeeroeaee Do. Jno. A. Morgan ......-- = y ae tte CT) Ae eRe eee aes (Gaeaers GON eee ae eee Do. Gallup & Manchester.|..-.-. Gh) Sere eee tocis Do.

aaos Opes ss set ras cae (eetene O08. 2282s Do.

Huce Bros -2se<5 6<2-c-- 76 MCE BTOS) 2252522 521: < East Lyme, Conn ..--. Do. ASM HOUR te sesh a6. eos 52-5225 Fowler & Foote -.---. Guilford, Comn.....-.. Do. —— George W. Miles Co.-..| Milferd, Conn. Lees Do. ae SS re ee GG) ee Se ees 00) 5.024 eee Do. DSUE DICED. <2. 05 2--=--||lacev~=- = Quinnipiae Fertilizer.| New London, Conn.... Do.

Company. Ree on ean cca: |= d wane oe Frapk Price ...--..--. Greenport, N. ¥ .....- Long Island.

LOG a s es A ae (0) See espe ees seers Gol. eee 0 LAGE pa | (es (6, Cea Gea Seer Sere Oa sseacecnede cee Do. Coll tie’, 2 re eres Seer GIG) Wo aeRO ee eceoal loeacbc do . Soee Do. ey 0 a 60 Hawkins Bros ...-..- -- Jame sport, a eee Do. Bea. FLAVODS .....00-c0s- GOL |e URE AE Re een aneace Coe. sseesececee Do. George T. Morse ....... y(t ae eee GOs setae oo aera oll pees MORE sce ose: Do.

Pin est Jeet oe Sted SSeS Ad Glee ee eee See Greemnory N. Y ee Do

298 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Partial list of vessels employed in the menhaden jishery—Continued.

SAILING-VESSELS. Name. Tonnage. Owner. Port of entry. Where fishing. E. B. Chureh 40 W. J. Brightman aeeaee Riverton, Riko asscese: Maine Dragonet .---.- SOM i tenes UGB secondeseerco|Nooea: (0) Sep sesndoosoac 0. iPenikese eeece serene Say a 1 eee 015.2 see Besos i ee eee Do. Willie E. Brightman. . Pa eee (iC Se Se eeneereea se Mecarc COREE aacnanscn Do. hone dslandysseseeeeeee 11S ee eee G (RSS SeRCerecaeon) Ibecces QO Ponce eneee Do. Gracie sta oie eee HQ) Wesacet Ot eee e Fl eee Onna ase eae Do. Busbeam buaee ete seuss Tp Al eee ilo See Sea eee “fo eS eee Do. OFA. oe See eee cee 9 losses Oiectence mesee can seoace Seececeecee 0. a PAV iAN lee eteteterere elec 32 Garden Syaiyn sees AGIGYA costecese mies = « 14. sls ceased One ate sees sees Elapaie, AcQOCON GSAS 0ERDBe 18) |-e-ce- ae ~ Rees Seeee eral ae acisc Ramble.-.---... 143% |.----- CO eee a eae eels ones Washenesees. = 10:5 8°) | Seeeee dO sree a as 2 C. A. Sounds 1633) lccsaae doin Asse a eecaltesses PAINE OWee= miami cleis aici (=== - Ory eamainin LOR see nancteeee el eee se PIV MIGU GOES 2 cre aces ba oh Luce He ee Jaws ayreoeee NUCCESS@sccaness-<5 cb =. 22: | sbess GOs va ctene cecal eccce RUSH Creo cee aacccc eee 1 eee GG) See ees deel ae Se Mites sae cesea since cs: 190 lees G0. 0265555. = eee WizavAs Tue: =..s.5--- 1G Wee GOe.. = Jo See sweeesaleeeeee Nettie J. Luce..-....--. 16 leteees dO 62. Snes ee ee INGVaAdatacecssss- cscs 1 by (ag serge OOo. ee keleeeeee RACH Gee aens eo eaeaes Qi ee os (0 See eae so (oF. ase SHAG rane cieaiersioieisie ne cin 22) lees sec GON Fee eecdnen eee Col Morgans. ose ae ccti|tiesee mene Creane Brothers .----. IMAEA YG PEON Ge: -cciss/--|ccme eel aoe eee C0 PEO u I ea ees ee aes [MU OEP OR AACEn Emo co aoc merece GO). 32s. cae eee ees EN NIX Osama aol ste soe si | teetee eee eee (PE eee eA sel (oes MOTTA sasaene accel seecice eae dlecaace dO 22 ar eet ees Amma tebibehetnc aeeesers | eeme reece ae aeee (7 Lr ene Ss Perret Rereeha IMiIstonax . <ssspic occa 00 5| nesccie ec oolecheee (3 Popes Spee eee Ko, ree eee eee Sou eed sa peeeoees ce ary H. Sisson ..-..-.- thy |.----- OME Ree a aS Dauntless): ass +-<+-0-- 19375 |.----. GO sosteassoagoous) sodas Bunker! City =.--.<---- O84. [sees eS Sees ees) socmes Rough & ee Seacague 10535 |.----- (eae ees conenn| Posse Sarah J aemiviniseinja Sereee.cie(s 10375 |.----- GO.22 22525 eesees Kate Romer..-.-...--- 9583, |.2--kis CU Enea sate coca) Sedese rien dy 22s) ss = 133; |.----- do ponoo0b dobn Marcyens-sssce- 12y50 |------ do . : ae LOM ANS = sess ss 22 Wn. G. Fithian & Co OTEKA Tossa ecsmes a Q1 WWM DO WNSeeeeecneese 18 Jessie Smith ........... 14), SceresO cee ae eee | eer INIAUVO@ file < stem ss Saree 14 (GAPSHortonjeees sone ce. 14 ante Sere = WhigaManigeeeecessose. CU iy ete as (See eons assed [cee 12 1Qe) Meee HON jceseees eccalteneee Peerless ss scceccceesas 2" lissaenO So sisccmewenecoepatecee SITOCE0O!-- ccactes eee eee 22m “hens /GO.2 24055 Ace eee Starlightics- -scecesens 22 Ty Ase GO) cn oe cauccdeaee eens Simoont.< 2: ssee<sce eee 12'S) Alese aco). sesbic tweeted ieaese Dy phoon.<-a0- oe eae Ai peeiliasiiswiO) -c'nacs ceceesensraseee Young America......-. OR EE SS eC (ISS See eee eso) (oceace Clydemecets csccce.-ecmce TOO || ire Soe 1K ae Re reas [ee om Geo. Nelson.........--. HD atti see OO) csyste cise meee Pelicaneessaamecmccesner OU eee em OOl nanos sceeiss: | teeeer IO NE RO Ga eee eee rcs RobiteMallyeeeeae asec 10 |} Seaman Jones .....-.. Golden Rulese-ss see 15 LOMche center tian.) eee aout Morning Light......... 15 eee Ole sae matches ame. Naeemlere N. M. Preston....-..-.- 15: Abst ed oleeaeesete ts =a] |eeees

acc laue Somasieasceccecye 1500 || Redo meee mercncs a. |lls Sears

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN.

APPENDIX K.

PRICES CURRENT OF MENHADEN OIL.

Date.

AVG VOMIDED 29s aoae scan ee eee access: December 6

wee eee eee eee ee eee eee

PUPGRINNOE 20 ecesecen et heess one ceaecceas MIEGHINDGE, Secs sscesees sallecectccesdces

PUSSY) eS oisicamicce © cm scien ieis\cicisajcinie'sieisic January 10 January 17 January 24

January 31 February 7 February 14 February 21 February 28 March 6

August 14 August 21 August 28 September 4

September 11 September 18 September 25 October 2 1) bieT LY et) Boe Sees eee Cae re October 16 October 23 October 30

PBCUDD CTL Ste. fee ee eee oe November 20 November 27

December 18 December 25

January 1 TA 4 i Serettleny torso wie ye EI ce co

1871-1878. 2d a & = z = = oS a 4 # ; 3 3 g A s = rs E b= 5 a wn oO A ids) v2) Cents per| Cents per| Cents per| Cents per| Cents per gallon. gallon. gatlon. ga.lon. gallon. 41 to 42 | 393 to 404/35 to 38 |20 to25 |.-....... 41 to 414) 394 to 403| 35 to 38 |20 to25 |.......... 403 to 11 | 393 to 40 | 35 to338 | 20 tod |......... 45 to 474| 423 to 45 | 40 to 424/25 to30 |.......... 50 | 474 to £0 | 40 to 45 | 30 to 35 |.......... 52 | 474 to 50 | 45 to 473/30 to 35 |.......- 92% to 55 | 50 to 52 | 474 to 50 | 35 to 40 |.._....__- 523 to 55 | 50 to 524) 474 to 50 | 35 to 40 | 60 to 624 5d 923) 474 to 50 | 35 to 40 | 538 to 60 55 524! 474 to 50 | 35 to 40 |53 to 60 53 to 55 524) 474 to 50 | 30 to 40 | 58 to 60 55 523) 474 to 50 | 30 to 40 | 58 to 65 55 te 574 924) 474 to 50 | 33 to 45 | 58 to 65 99 to 574 924| 475 to 50 | 35 to 45 | 58 to 65 55 523/472 1050 | 35 to 45 | 60 to 65 55 to 56 524/474 10 50 | 35 to 45 |60 to 65 55 to 56 524) 474 to 50 | 35 to 45 | 60 to 65 55 524] 474 to 50 | 35 to 45 |........-. 55 524) 4724 to 50 | 35 to 45 |_.._-..... 54 524] 474 to 50 | 35. to 45 |......... 534 to 55 | 51 to 523/46 to43|35 to 45 |........-. 53 to 54 | 51 to52 | 45 to48)35 to 45 |.......... 52 to 54 ol 145 t048|.35 to 49, |.2-..22 22. 5d to 56 | 53 to 54 | 48 to50]40 to45 |.......... GH: Scars ser AQW toy4ou las saan GOs cece 40) (tobi ileee cc creee 60 to 623/55 to 573 A he ae as 60 to 62/55 to 57 Easel (eee o ae 60 |55 to 573 Apt lee ee 98 t059 | 55 to 57 Ey eee eae 94 to 56 | 50 to 524) 45 to 474]......... 30) Ab0 D2A 45) TOA Te ain nincinielllosacincisiere AS: <tO4(4) 40), 0424) = = ----1---||-c0-ce 0 <4 43 to 44 40 iccacecceae escis COM2E Sle nbOrso | SomUOlose lt seaaee mess ace cece es 40) T0422 (309 60739) |/36" GOVSB) ose ccss.=leseniacecsi= CTW aye gt) ee) CU Ob ray |e eal |e See AdmitOs46) || 4360) 440 bee aci-a.5-|\ssoo-s one AQE Lords. | 40) Co 42a\eees 2-5-2] .2ce56 <0 ADM COIS 2 A0ltO 42) Na ssecics sacl mccierccice AQM COVES: FAQ bOI otto s =e sleie [2 212s «selon Am LOL46n 4 Ole Gordo) | eeom)tcicist ene a mene 43 43 43 to 44 4142 to 43 43 to 44 | 42 to 43 4434 to 45 | 43 to 42 45 to 47 | 43 to 44 47 to 49 50 50 48 to 49 48 to 49 48, to 49 48 to 49 50 | 48 to 49 | 4 54 to55|50 to 524 55 | 53 to 54 56 | 54 to 55 55 | 524 to 55 | 5 55 to 56 | 524 to 55 | 48 to50|45 to 47 |.......... 55. to 56 | 524 to 55 | 48 to50 | 45 to 47 |.......... 55 to 56 | 524 to 55 58 | 56 to 57 58156 to 57

299

Pressed.

Cents per galton.

300 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Prices current of menhaden oil—Continued.

a oS 3 5 S a 5 2 : Date. Bay 2 i 3 23 » 2 xe, bB q oO iS) 2 a & a S S é 5 @ g R S) a o a A Cents per | Cents per | Oents per | Cents per | Cents per | Cents per 1873. gallon. gallon. gallon. gallon. gallon. gallon. SAMUVALYVIS2 pas etecleseeiee eee eco nae ee = ae 08)/06 “bO)ot Hinz) €0l00) 48) tojs0 te seeeesa-|-am 2 sss PANUANY CO j-se seer eeaccee esse cess ce cae - 58 57 59 JOM ene eee eerste eters Ia WEN AY GY Gea ado. cos cabo DOs OeCORO RHEE 58 57 50 Ou Saseteee sei] sc.acs sees ING OTET AY 1G} SSS ee eon ee 60 59 Biot BSeeee NSF cairo col lao Seeeroe HODLMAT yl Ore seete cc cease «wince acc-— «set 60 59 98) \ co seslociee| see Reel tee stogect FG D EUR pe Ober sete n= = cial jae miaisine air ojamrni atte (Dr O04 pSaee Sete essesacccd lbocdecssaells besreeace March 5 59 to 60

> 2 AMOUSTIS! ccc ccacccudeecuecee as ueeteoces 40 to 4l | 39 to 40 Oa sme aielos(ais||\mormeletele sia | Se eee AUPUSHLO so cancn con ee eee eee ecNwnrcecsas S14 60:45) 4 to 2 38) b0.40 8 | eee ae eee eeiemreatsiel | meters VAT ROSH I mere carercin borates cle telenio sialeiminioe 45) (849 C0145 N40. tO 43) ee on al eis setelotero)| eee eee September!S secsics ieee wa caceeen Seeeaee AAY CORSO GO.AS) | on nieareic ll |store eeetelota Meee September 10 5) | 44h i055 | 40) 260,43) |... pena ccial| secreettcral| eee September 17 448 0; 49) |! 40) 0t043 | 5- <inn,<28 illo ce cienteenell eee eats September 24 44 t045)}\40 | t0)43),| omenene on)aanceeeo| asec ener OCEDETAL: <2 saan dee ee cee aieale eee Hee : 40 uC0' 43? nace aciwelie.= .agceiace|mocesee een oeteneeeete QEGOD ORI Miia aia Siam setoerc smiornore Bee te eee Z AO) M042) |). is. \n'e1neree| (bo. eeieineminicil ero aninte onl aeomeetaenet October <2 ccecwaewceweactecse. ous AON se nid cie entre an cieceiaiay.s.of| cco cin semen ere ee eee d 22 oe

# E ag

eb 5 ee “3

Date. : 8 & od

= S oj 2a

a 5 4 R Cents per | Cents per| Oents per | Cents per 1873 gallon gallon. gaiion. | gallon.

October 22 sacs cess Eee seats ete swcee se eee we: 40 to 4l 40 \\e:a'eiat ae eae See eee October 292. ccececs ee ee eso career eee stows bieaes 38 to 40 BY peeaBeOeae Bea bosaso November 5-2.02<.02 5505. See eecee Meee owen on cobs ace DAH DOMCOI Bide |lsrereretaicte ereicll Se mre teeta INoVeMmbOr 12 cess Oe. See see te coe eaten ca aceecblee ie 33 to 5 31 to 32 30/255) ees

November 19 November 26 DOECenIbeL:S sceuiaste ce ee ee ee Se ers eens os a's

December 17

December 24. ......... Sie Rk | De rege” Te cE gcc 40 to 424 40 mMecember Bl---<<5-55 0 A ae es 2 oe 40 ‘to 423 40 1874. ; RNUBLY: Vi. = sac =v sc.a's dee aul dee oe owas Sees oe EE iia 40 to 425 40 OANUSRV 4. oo cc abkwac Soa te ects oes eee eect aciacl loc ansswsten|nawcicccc ee UMMA YON ooo ana a's tee aoe et tet ces ee ee a ne reerecie 45 45 AMIDA NOB aim aio «00 a nin aie loicie « Mnratoebic nies Satee Se ee Bete eee ee 44 to 45 44 INCDIUALY) 4 von onic c= od <idis ants oo sicicisiepctate Se Coreen eleeeee aa 45 to 473 45 Hebruanywilo-.ssse56 ce eicéeis oben no ee ee 45 to 473) 45 to 46 HRODEUABY ALB sas <c\ciha Sele ccs ae gud cose Comite pace en eoee REE eee 26 ee a RODEO DIGS 2D hc aia a5 210: Pin ersie o 15S Sl clejeteiato clabn ew gee ae ee ee ere 45, toraite|teee oo aercts AUT AGING SS 1 Siemens conee Et nena ROR Re oc | ee rs At) COP4Te | Sensei Moreh Wie Sees oo abaeiewe cde ore nas <Mecentecsine eee eee C byl pate ae of el

522 to 55 524 to 55

pT

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN, 301

Prices current of menhaden oil—Continued.

rey | 2 ~ aes E | a st = 5 ene, Date. a Re 5 Paes E bie E ti ir} = mR R 5) fe Cents per | Cents per | Cents per | Cents per 1874. gallon. gallon. gailon. gallon. Soir E Se ate cjeicieiaetm aren as oe aie yelsinrys ep iciomisenie cetera imate 2} to 45 | 524 to 55 40 to 42 LEG Oe oe eee ee ne i sai als s cto van cee 43 to 45 | 524 to 55 40 to 42 POPS om eens e etee nas ators mia om = </—'u ois Sissi aie cinielas ae ing ienatee eee eee 43 to 45 | 524 to 55 | 42 to 43 40 to 42 EN BNL Eiccade. SSS eRM ee ne cSpeo suo seo Sees aae er eBsasceaessscce 41 to 42 | 523 to 55 | 40 to 41 38 to 40

34 to 36

GIMP TS. chee ee Bed Sea EE OI te eee ee ae ey ee 36 34 to 36 Jone O84 - 6. cae pee CeCe St SOS REe POO OG SB CEeCOU Cea AD RMeCe Eman E Bras 39 32 to 34 iwiy 2h) ooo aSehGess6 Sees oan He Se Hobe co DoE cee een eeNanaas = 32 to 34 Wein Si) Bos See Bee sthicor oom copnaet cesSopr onan CSHEnSBEaoaS 32 to 34 2a old) Se SSE eee ESRB OO SERGE Se Ge Ta Bee i ea eae 32 to 34 es helid WE) sae sore pee sete eck costs ost co pe tlods ce babe cene Bee 32 to 34 PSUS ie Omer tesa cia saaaciave taates ane e cacein aise sce deac 2 Tee eer 32 to 34 Sulp sn) WOR Ber oe Bene Se pee e See pcb oe eH Ne Hobs 0c GOCREEOBAe 32 to 34 SED EDEN A ee Seai ee tae. hee ees See aaE ES eee aa 26 32 to 34 Ste nigel ered ete Beebe Meee hee ae Be ie eee eer 36 32 to 34 MSPUCHIDOIs Oi a a crac cts aetaias Se otis atspisivialere minis acieietcis.as doce see see 36 32 to 34 Se igien Nee See ae Seeeee tose a ere CEA nOr eee ae eae em aap 36 32 to 34 ROBO ie aie a eats oe app oer nnicceis aneeiacdas sapeseses cer cones 36 32 to 34 CIDUGIN Peano sa cncdscnasocses a oanewsewiaae oaawie ceeseedes oc ces 39 Ghali 35 to 36 (QR DS Ss ee eee ee et ne ey oe ee eee 40 to 42 | 46 to 48 | 38 to 39 36 to 38 [Tea yes eh Ss A Bae ol SE Ce See | Saree eS eee Poe ee a 42 to43 |48 to50|40 to 42 38 to 40 WoOvemberseees. 26 seh st secs SA Sk es ken 42 to 43 |48 to 50/41 to 42 38 to 40 Navemberdilkests Sh shee 2252 Sata J Boor Se 2s ccewiiiccn 4l to 42/47 to 49/40 to4l 38 to 39 INavembernjaees 2. 4. Cae ee. So sss ot Soho cscs oe 49 to4l | 45 to 46 | 36 to 40 37 to 39 NAV OIMPOR Pb sat as tae cee = occ cd Senet odes sccmiaceen 40 to4l |45 to 46 | 36 to 49 37 to 39 Mecemberi Vie oss. 2 Ose mee - Ses IME SS STB ok. tes 45 to 46 | 39 to 40 37 to 39 WaceMVSL; Oe: is. fe sae coe = ate Sh A SSIS ES 45 to 46/39 to 40 37 to 39 December 16 ae 45 to 46 |39 to 40 37 to 39

December 23 45 to 46 | 38 to 40 35 to 36

December 30 45 to 46 | 38 35 to 36 MAMMA G. coe cee aemidenccce- He docs eR ESs CSsestine coceaoneeee 45 to 46 | 38 35 to 36 “LiL 5 62 e\ a0 3 Bie one OE a my = > Re eae eet ea ee 38 to 40 | 44to46 | 38 to 40 35 to 36 UATE REVS OD Scie Stee an = moo gens om Fo Sespmaacncicmeee aoe 40 | 44 to 46 40 36 to 38 TV ECL ET ee Ae ee ee a ee i ee, en 40 to 42 | 44 to 46 40 36 to 38 LENE TEE C9 AB Je Se eee pci EE IS ty Sone ea yee 40 to 42 | 44 to 46 40 36 to 38 TA ELUTED) 7G ee eh Re les Ma See 6 ono el Eee OE ee Sh ee ete 42 | 44 to 46 41 36 to 38 February 17....- etsy een = abcess a= clasaecte eee soe 42 | 44 to 46 41 36 to 38 READE foes Pe ao ee enna ae a tae mec hoe sea ce eee 43 to 44 | 45 to 46 43 36 to 38 LSE Go Leeds teal aie ei EL Sao ip ere Ae 43 to 44 | 45 to 46 | 42 to 43 36 to 38 Jo Re EL ese ARE ee fle ciel ae A Ree i ati gil, TIN Seen aed 42to 43 | 45to46 | 42 36 to 38 WEIRD c See CAE eS Re ere aie ely ears Se leet 41 to 42 | 45 to 46 | 40 to 41 36 to 38 1s EEE ENTE med miele ea er a eta ei A id | See ele ae 41 to 42 | 45 to 46 | 40 36 to 38 1 UT ST de GPa aS HEM EE ie SEE ED A REIES (Cis ad ied a ee 41 45 to 45 | 46 35 to 38 UTM Pl Ae epee ae ated ee ed eB 4 i BE eed 41 45 to 46 | 40 36 to 38 | TI T Seen Beenie in rs Sg Bl ek oe Bly MO ad 41 45 to 46 | 40 36 to 38 on ML beget Scaeeimm ask these ied iL Be pen eae he 41 to 42 | 45 to 46} 40 36 to 38 2) LLL Ata es omen DS € Saal Stele Mi pe Bites 2 Se aa ‘AAO; 46) oem eer 41 to 42 38 to 4) Lio Gleceede enact aie Eee eee ae te eh fie eh eee 45 to 46 | 49t0 50 | 42 to 43 38 to 40 LOM Dea ee A peel TA A Be at ala Bey te ae lea 44to45 | 49to50 | 41 to 42 33 to 40 Toh Lt ee ne ae Be plead le LEA SSO ee 42 to 44 | 49to50} 41 to 42 25 to 40 La) Uomo heceices SoReH Sh re ceale Sad Ea lia etal le 40 to 41 | 49to 50} 39to40| 25 to 30

OS ae) SaaS ee 0k Se 40 47 to 48 | 37to38| 25 to 30

302 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Prices current of menhaden oil—Continued.

SS a Ra a a

| | Date. | |

PANIONIS G80 era aiajatc i= =isisj=te sia[nie bin te See ae ek ioe cee Meprembena de. 0. setew nb asal doce ncteee enncee SG ]DW@ WE) Te peppase ean sae ag Se Hoseaee Geeeseeaaae See cabes 15 Baise sala tein eleisjaiciainiee eee ee ee eer

Mctoperi 20 tera yo ae ic biocn cea ee som en ee ee MECObERI2 Ye tes css Ee semoce nye te mee se eee NO Vion Ola be oo. see pee eae pac eect one ENO MO MIDOIALOP = 2 cin Sopiate cepgee See ee ae ee nee NOmembetalitinn sa: oem serene cose Mane ak ee ee INO VOIUIDOT OS = ste Sem cope Gece wen ee ke meee eee December 1 ..... San acinfemi is anre lalate oe tee ee meee MécemberiBys snsoces natacee cee eee eee eee Decemberploy.sawoes sac aep eee owe ae bene: DecemberiQee os. peye see Sees eee eee eee HD YSYexs) sal] sy ch O10)” eS ee Reh GLA RV aS 1 eae ae

PANU? Ol Mews ae ee ee ate ee eae newe se eh JANUAny AO we eects cose oe acee can mee cece scents Hammary 19) 3! 255 NS SE VE Se a ee amu any, 2G esas a ie Soe ee OR Te a eee PG ana. ese eS A Om | PE ae Tak ee Rebruary 9) es. eS ee ee A a a

February 16 February 23 Mare Dipl eae he ee SUE SEN ES cn Set oem ee

ane Lg Oe Ss Nee 22S et ee ee eee ene SEs eG QM". Ba Sevens Sate | ee Ue eee a EE ONG! 2S: Ee Pea SNe ee ha ee 8

August LG Pree co s8h: sche see Reese ence a eee eee LATS ES SAR A AIRES PEI 0 JNU a) Sane ee pie ers ee ee ee NGM LOMIDELIG seman cenc ce cee ce ae tee eee WG MLCMIDEE US ses o hae ac cmeric cocee ee etece eer 5 DEP le mee Ole crc aciersacarcie amici eine toe eee Seprembergiey-n-.soe.s ascnuic calaaeeen een caneeen tee October ren. jecacctaecske aces eeee eee eee

Select light.

Select light, strained,

Bleached.

Choice brown.

Cents per gallon.

36 to 37

342 to 35

472 to 50 |

to 39 to 39 to 39 to 37

to 36 to 36 to 36

oy on Ma €

Nn en on et CHdNEYW

Inferior to dark,

Cents per

galion.

25

35

to 30 to 35 to 35 to 33 to 33 to 33 to 33 to 34 to33 to 30 to31 to sl to 30 to 50

Sj-scewcewae D)]- +s ccc een 3 |= eame seule sence ene sete ewe wee

to 36

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 303

Prices current of menhaden oil—Continued.

hd ea ap ince BS ee : iS Se Date. = ee 3 & Pe - 3 SE zg 2 os . a) sa oO ° SS oO v = oqo qa n 7) i=) oO H | Cents per | Cents per | Cents per | Cents per | Cents per October 25 fet Prtods | & toda | toro | toto | 46° to26 Meet cot ac ce sccuce sae setae eet eee eee 2 to 46 t 5 5 to? Lar Were Eo ee ee es oon eed emer oer inrs 42 to43 | 45 to46 | 48-to50 40 36 IST DET UDP Ee Sa CSI SIL 2 Opti rr tre 40 to42 | 45 to46 | 43 to50 | 38 to40 36 Ma erOrs ores © 5,2 +. eke 22eh 1 ees eee wh eee 40 to42 | 45 to46 | 50 to52 |} 38 to40 36 IMATE DON GO a eee Re ae te ea = te 40 to42 | 45 to46 | 50 to52 | 38 to40 36 ys a ope Ses EER RS ee Sone Cae eae 40 to42 | 45 to46 | 50 to52 | 38 to 40 36 LD Ca A ee a Se eee ae 40 to42 | 45 to4t | 50 to52 | 38 to40|} 34 to36 MECH NEL lo aot aes oc te ee codons etacksedecd 41 to42 | 45 to46 | 50 to52 40 | 34 to36 IBIRE EM POT 20. sete See ce veces scene sinsiseeen ees 41 to42 | 49 to46 | 50 tof2 40 | 34 to36 PIGCONTBOL Set wsee seth ees eete soe cesaceseccseen cee 41 to42 | 45 to46.| 50 to52 40 | 34 to36 1877. PAMUAT VG eee mae sens ae saat a euwe ss sancaineicesuiscs 41 to42 | 45 to46 | 50 to52 40 | 34 to 36 DADUAL ol rasa ae See eee eh ecisab ae Sat <niceaace 42 to43 | 45 to46 | 50 to 52 40 | 34 to36 PTA TAT 117 (ee SR GEPo See ee eee a a 42 to45 | 46 to48 52 40 | 34 to36 EUBE Uae tee tecces cccme se da actu me Seles me ececs 42 to45 | 46 to 48 52 40 | 34 to36 PUNTA aS © eee ar ttiscincie eS a cules nice ecnuesies 41 to45 | 46 to 42 52 40 | 34 to36 MEU Yee eect oa ne eet ec cccwes eee cue cus lates 42 todd ; 46 to48 52 40 | 34 tos6 Toy Te ee a a ne 40 to43 | 45 to46 52] 40 to41 | 34 to36 LEE} VTE TE Ge ee ee A as See oe 40 to423' 44 to45 | 50 to52] 40 to41 34 to 36 GINO Oy Shs Se eye a ee ee ae See 40 to 42) 414 to 45 | 50 to52 | 40 to41| 34 to36 Ls pee tae ae Ae le 42 to42 | 423 to 44 | 48 to50 40 | 34 to36 Ueeicripi tener ess eres 2 EER eh PSS. ees: 4l to42 | 42 to43 | 47 to49 | 38 to39 | 34 to35 Jon FEIT OT) Re Sey a Ae OR a ee ee a 41 to42 | 42 1043 | 47 to49 | 38 to39 | 34 to35 IE Eps oe 6 ee ee AOC rere ree reers 4L to42 | 42 to 43 | 47 to49 | 38 tos9 34 to 35 MUTT A ere cy eae ee Bae elisa gn eee ee a 40. to41 | 42 to43 | 47 to 48 | 38 to39 34 to3d BAIS Wye Se agiae es dates swenaee Seacemecwacceeseace: 40 to4l | 42 to43 | 47 to48 | 38 to39 34 to 35 eh 1G) Saba B SSS OR eRee ae eae eee Ee cee reea 374 to 40 | 42 to 43 | 45 to 473) 35 to 36 32 to 34 JSUT DoE Ce Te eT SS a Ee eee 36 to32 | 41 to42 | 42)to 45 | 33 to34] 30 to32 LEROY 222 eu SRO SE ae a eS ome oa ree a er 38 42 | 43 to 46 | 34 to 36 30 to 32

42 | 43 to46 | 36 to37| 32 to34 42 | 45 to46 | 36 to37| 32 to34 42 | 45 to46 | 36 to37| 32 to34

42 | 45 to 46 36 | 32 to34

42 | 45 to 46 34 | 32 to34

42 | 45 to 46 34] 32 to34 PU One eae cee cman. ee se) ISTE EERIE 33 34 to35 | 38 to40 | 45 to 46 34 | 32 to34 TIT) Bes aes Se. ee a eee 34 to35 | 38 to40 | 45 to 46 34] 32 to34 Nl? tesa oe ee ee: * eas a eee 33 to 34 | 38 to40 | 45 to 46 324] 30 to32 REL ORL SRA ata B SANS wins coe wane cecctinencssececs 33 to34 | 38 to4d0 | 45 to 46 324] 30 to32 ene Bene en ce era. eee no soasbacacance ae 33 to34 | 38 to40 | 45 to 46 324) 30 to32 spitluanwerese ae Sabet FURL RR tile Ali 33 to 34 | 38 to40 | 45 to 46 324) 30 to3z JT OTT GLP SE 2 ee ee oe oe Sener eee eee 33 to 34 | 38 to40 | 45 to 46 323} 30 to32 PREP TINT Os fre ce sete A OE 34 | 38 to40 | 45 to 46 333] 30 to32 PASI CIS cnet | ACE Ie oo an sic eae oe. Stee dee = 364/ 38 to40 | 45 to46 | 36 to35 | 34 to35 JTS tp ee ae ee es ets ee ety ae 364| 38 to40 | 45 to46 | 35 to36 | 34 to3o RSE MS GOO: Seta Sook 1). d oo u:wclsAminiece= <esmbsjeide 38 | 40 to 42 | 47 to48 | 35 to36 | 34 to3s Suthep hy tae ae eo Seen st Sa SE Ee 38 | 40 to42 | 47 to48 | 35 to36| 34 todd September 12 42 to45 | 44 to46 | 49 to50 | 38 to40 35 to 38 SEY NT TE eee ee ee SATE ee 45 | 44 to46 | 50 to52 | 42 to4d4 | 40 to42 September 26 45 | 46 to47 | 51 to52 | 42 to44|] 40 to42 SGN CIES i SS ee aie sl ie i a Bete oa 45 | 46 to47 | 52 to53 44 | 40 to42 SICTANELO see ah soe es 28S So ees se eeeamce cot 45 | 46 to47 | 52 to53 44 | 40 to42 UGG Tt GEPe Se Ae es OES cee ae cee temas 45 | 46 to47 | 52 to53 44 | 40 to42 UPL RO hee ae ae oe es ne ee oA ee 45 to46 | 47 to48 | 52 to53 44 | 40 to42 a EST Sy Ed ee See eS a eee eae Y 5 ae 45 todGe| 47 to48 | 52 to53 44 | 40 to42 November 7 .-:...:.:---- REN Bea obs 46 55 ees Ss 45 to46 | 47 to48 | 52 to53 44) 40 to42 PERGOMEN GREAT se ot sce c ceccsaaw okies cotee tion 45 | 47 to48 | 52 to 54 44| 40 to42 MA Eriiber pales a LE. eet is ig ove See 45 | 47 to48 | 52 to54 | 44 to444! 40 to42 LOU SE TOL Gye IES Se eS re ae Sl ie tet alee 45 | 47 to48 | 52 tod4 | 44 to441| 40 to 42 recent Desa ties Seareprh’s ey tel ye. la 45 | 47 to43 | 53 tod4 | 44 tod44d) 40 to 42 PEE TEN SRL 2) eestor nn a Say ee ek ad Src Se 46 | 48 to50 | 53 to54 | 45 to454! 40 to 42 RPO 19 8st oo. tee eek ot et. AME Wey, 46 to47 | 48 to50 | 524t0533) 45 to46 | 40 to42 LL IG nee ee Ce ee eee | 46 to47 | 48 to50 | 524to524) 45 to46 | 40 to42

48 to50 | 524 to 534) 45 to 46 | 40 to42

Dob ibity Gieeet te Se See eS 46 to 47

304 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

CURRENT WEEKLY REPORTS OF THE MENHADEN OIL MARKET FROM 1871-1878. [Compiled from “Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter,” of New York, W. O. Allison, editor. j ES7i. OCTOBER 18.

Menhaden with many small lots arriving during the latter part of last week reacted from the advanced prices, and some sales were made at a decline of fully 1c. per gallon; the close is, we think, rather more steady, with most of the arrivals bought up. Sales are 68 bbls. prime white, at 414e.; 112 bbls., at 41¢.; 90 bbls., at 403c.; 110 bbls., at 40c.; 61 bbls. light, at 41c.; 125 bbis., on p. t.; 150 bbls. fair, at 39¢.; 50 prime, at 405c.; 12 bbls. enon at 30c. 5 30 bbls. Gurry, at 20 @ 20¢.; and 50 bbls. re-pressed choice, at 45 @ 48c.; also 7,000 lbs. foots for export, at 43c., and 300 tons of guano, at $15, delivered.

OCTOBER 25, 1871. Menhaden has been scarce all the week; there has been a demand for more than could be obtained; 250 bbls. sold at the close for export at 41c., and in lots, 300 bbls. oe home use, at 41 @ 413c. for choice light, and 39 @ 40c. for choice brown. NOVEMBER 1. Menhaden has been in rather light demand, and with free receipts of choice new fall made prices lower at the close, with several lots offering on the market. The sales are 280 bbls. on private terms; 50 bbls. selected light last week at 42c.; 101 bbls. choice, at 404c.; 98 do. at 403¢.; 25 bbls. brown, at 39c.; and a mixed lot of 30 bbls., at 39e.

NOVEMBER 8. Menhaden has been in steady, fair demand during the past week, and the close is very much higher and somewhat unsettled; 45c. is bid choice. Thesales during the past week are as follows: 378 bbls. prime, at 40c.; 150 bbls. good, at 394c.; 200 bbls. choice, at 404c.; 100 bbls. to arrive, at 41¢.; 150 bbls. at the factory, at 40c.; 75 bbls. for export, at 41c.; 200 bbls., at 414$c.; and 113 bbls., at 403¢.; and 250 bbls. pressed on private terms. } NOVEMBER 15. Menhaden has been fairly active and more excited than any other kind on our list; prices have advanced, and at the close the tendency is apparently upward, though we hear of one lot of choice offered for sale at 50c. Sales are 150 bbls., at 474c.; 100 bbls., at 50c.; 190 bbls., at 50c.; 25 bbls. on private terms, and 131 bbls. on private terms.

NOVEMBER 22 Menhaden has continued to move freely, and prices have still further advanced. If a party wants to buy, 523c. is the lowest price for a good lot. At the close 100 bbls. on dock were offered at this price, without a

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 305

buyer, and will be put in store—50c. was bid. All the sales, however, of prime lots made this week have been at this price. We notice sales of 25 bbls. inferior at 474c.; 200 bbls. last week, at 50c. or less; 60 bbls. choice, at 524ce.; 100 bbls., at 525c.; 120 bbls., at 523¢.; 50 bbls. - choice, at 524c., and 100 bbls., at 524c. Pressed menhaden meets with a good demand; 50 bbls. sold at 60c. Jobbing lots can be sold easily at this price. 1 NOVEMBER 29.

Menhaden has been more active and rules very strong; at the close 5245c. has been refused, but we hear of no lots from first hands having brought more. The sales of crude are 185 bbls, at 524c.; 200 bbls., at 52c.; 38 bbls., 27 bbls., 22 bbls., and 25 bbls., at 524c.; also, 25 bbls. at higher price, not given. Pressed is generally quoted at 60c., though

some parties are still offering for less. DECEMBER 6.

Menhaden has ruled quiet the past week. We know of no actual sale from first hands at more than 52éc., though an outside party is said to have paid 53c.; some of the largest holders are not offering their stock at the present. The sales are in all 250 bbls. on spot at 523e. and 114 bbls. to arrive at same price. Pressed is held higher, though some parties who had some before the advance are underselling the

regular trade. DECEMBER 13.

Menhaden is very firm. There are few parties willing to sell at less than 55c. A sale was rumored to-day at 54c., but we know of no par- ties willing to pay more than 524c.; 100 bbls. sold here at this price, and in Boston 10,000 gallons, for export, at 524c., and 100 bbls. for home use, at d34c.

DECEMBER 20.

Menhaden has been very quiet during the past week; dealers are taking all lots that are offering cheap, and prices remain steady, though no full lots of choice have reached our highest quotations. The only | sales we hear of are 120 bbls. at 524 @ 53c.,and 77 bbls. on private

terms below the market. DECEMBER 27.

Menhaden has been very quiet; those who hold stock look for full prices, but buyers will not pay the advance for full lots. We hear of no sales. There is a report that some of the menhaden exported is on the way to this market again. We were informed by a party having a large lot in the English market that if it did not improve in price there, he would have his shipped back to this market again; if the oil is on shipboard, this can be done at a smail profit, taking the markets as they are quoted at present.

1872. JANUARY 3.

Menhaden has improved in tone again; buyers have been forced to pay the prices demanded by holders, and the tendency is again upward.

20 F

306 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

We hear of a sale of 108 bbls. prime light at 55c., and 50 bbls. not sweet at 523c. There isa good demand for pressed, and the choicest is held at higher prices, with full sales. We note 75 bbls. sold at 65c., * 20 bbls. brown at 60c., and a small lot at 58ce. JANUARY 10. Menhaden oil meets with very little demand; the ideas of holders are above those of buyers, and we have no business to report; there are ru- mors but no actual sales of full lots that we can learn of. The demand for pressed fish is fair; 25 bbls. brown sold at 60c., and 25 bbls. light at 63c. JANUARY 17. Menhaden rules quiet; to sell freely lower prices would have to be accepted, but to buy full prices would have to be paid. No sales of lots are reported. JANUARY 24. Menhaden rules about steady, though if forced on the market would not command the highest quotation. The feeling is, however, that the stock is small and all will be needed. We hear of the sale of 50 bbls. prime, at 55¢., and 112 bbls. Southern, part dark, at 52c. cash. There is a fair demand for strained and 25 bbls. are reported sold at 63c.

JANUARY 13, Menhaden is steady in prices, the only large lot held, 600 bbls., was at New Bedford, which has been sold to a manufacturer there at a price equal to 55c., delivered in this city, the lot of Southern reported in our last has been rejected; at the close to-day we hear of the sale of 120 bbls. on private terms. Strained sells in a small way, if choice, at 65c., in full lots at 60 @ 624c., and brown 60c. in a small way.

FEBRUARY 7. Menhaden is held confidently, but there is not much doing. We hear

of no full lots having changed hands. FEBRUARY 14.

Menhaden is quiet and there are no sales making; we have only heard during the past week of a few lots, perhaps in all 50 bbls., that changed hands at 55e. The stock is pretty firmly held by a few parties. Pressed oil is in fair demand and firm.

FEBRUARY 21.

Menhaden is dull to buy; the market is firm, but to sell it is weak, though at a decline of 24 @ 5c. the whole market might be cleared of

stock; no sale of lots for a week. i FEBRUARY 28.

Menhaden has ruled quiet during the past week, and as there have been no sales for some time past, the feeling has been hardly so firm; 100 bbls. choice sold at 54c., the other kinds have met with no sales since our last.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 307

MARCH 6. Menhaden has been quiet for along time past, and holders appear more anxious to sell. We hear that sales have been made of 300 bbls. prime, on private terms, though understood to be below 54e.

MARCH 13. Menhaden has been quiet; the dealers are doing very little, and will not buy unless at a decline from former prices. The sales are 120 bbls. light at53c. We note the arrival of the first lot of the oil returned from the other side, some 8,000 galls; there are about 42,000 galls. more on the way. Pressed fish oil meets with a slow sale. MARcH 20. Menhaden has moved a little more freely, but tle sellers have been forced to accept lower prices ; the close is, however, considered more firm, as the Boston combination may have some effect on this market. The only sale we hear of is a lot of 150 bbls. prime, at 52c. cash. There is a little better demand for pressed, and we note 30 bbls. sold at 60$c.,

and 50 bbls. at 60c. MARCH 27.

Menhaden has been bought quite largely during the past week, which has had the effect of advancing prices; the sales are about 550 bbls., at 54 @ 55ce., the latter for choice light, though at the close the highest price is said to have been bid for brown. Pressed meets with a fair sale; 2,500 gallons sold at 59 @ 61c., the lowest price for inferior, and 1,500 gallons choice winter at 64e.

APRIL 3.

Menhaden oil remains firm, and 58c. would be low for nice oil; some lots might be obtained at 55c., but it would be off in color. The com- bination is having some effect, and how long it will last is more than

can be predicted.. APRIL 10.

Menhaden is scarce; there was too much shipped, which has left the

market bare. Handsome is held at 60c. APRIL 17.

Menhaden is firmer, and with the failure of the seal-fishery all grades of fish-oil will be in demand at advanced rates; 60c. for clean, hand- some parcels might be obtained, and some ask an advance on this price.

APRIL 24. Menhaden is quiet but firm; the principal holder asks 65¢., but some others are quoting 62c. There have been no sales, but in New Bedford 400 bbls. sold to go to Boston, at 60c. , Meaty YT. Menhaden remains scarce & firm, 60 @ 62c. for handsome. There was

too much shipped. May 8.

Menhaden, as reported at the date of our last, is weak. We reported the market ‘‘less buoyant” last week and quoted choice at 60 @ 62c. in

308 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

our prices current. We have been acensed “bearing” the market on that occasion, but we think our accuser could not have been posted, for the very choicest lots in market were cfiered the day of our issue at 60c., and not being able to get that price, asked for a bid of 59c. We have heard of no sales. May 15.

Menhaden is quiet, and the feeling is easy; holders do not force sales, but are open for offers; buyers are generally very backward. The Sales reported are 150 bbls. in New Bedford, and 40 bbls. here at 60ce., though other choice lots are offered freely at this price. There have

been sales of pressed at 62c. May 22.

Menhaden is unsettled and lower. No one quotes higher than 57$c., and no one will bid 55c. There is considerable offering. We hear of no Sales of lots since our last. i

May 29.

Menhaden oil of the new catch is arriving more freely, and prices are lower at the close, with buyers holding off. There have been sales of 150 bbls. new at about 50c., but at the close we do not think that more than 474c. could be obtained ; thus far the oil we have seen is of very good quality, and not inferior, as some parties anticipated it would be.

JUNE 5. Menhaden oil is lower; the receipts are quite free, and the tendency of prices have been steadily downward; the quality coming to this mar- ket has been very good for the first part of the season. The sales are 50 bbls. at 47¢. ; 45 bbls. at 45¢., prompt cash ; 60 bbls. at 45c.; 45 bbls. at 444c., and 50 bbls. at 44c., at which the market closes not very strong; inferior was offered and refused at 40c. JUNE 12. Menhaden oil; nothing has been done in Maine as yet. JUNE 19. Menhaden, following our last, was in active request for Boston ac- count, and, to some extent, for shipment, which took about all the sur- plus offerings and checked the downward tendency, and a firm tone now prevails. The fishermen are holding back as much as possible, and toward the close the run of fish is falling off. They also say that at 40c. per gallon, delivered in this market, there is no margin for making oil. The sales are 200 bbls. at 38c.; 600 bbls. at 39 @ 40c.; 200 bbls. at 40c. ; 48 bbls. at 40 @ 404c., and 75 bbls. taken to account at 40c.

JUNE 26.

Menhaden has been less plenty this week than last, and receivers have been able to get an advance on prime lots of 1 cent per gallon, and the close is steady at 41 cents. From Maine we hear that fish are very scarce, and that the Boston trade are Jikely to draw on this market for their supply for some time yet; besides, the fishermen, we believe, entered last fall into an arrangement not to sell below 60ce. till the 15th of July.

HISTORY OF. THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 309

JULY 3. Menhaden has suddenly become scarce, and with some dealers short; the price has advanced as rapidly again as it declined. At the close we hear of one lot, about 45 bbls. light, offering, on which 47e. is said to have been bid and refused; the holder asks 48e. If any lots should be offered, this price could not be obtained, as shippers cannot pay more than 4ic. We learn from Maine that the fish are more abundant, but do not yield largely. JULY 10. The market for menhaden has ruled quite irregular since our last; the arrivals at the close, however, are more free and prices are lower, | but more uniform. There have been some lots taken for shipment, and the low prices’ ruling a short time ago will hardly again be reached. The sales are 142 bbls. prime at 43c.; 200 bbls. at 413¢.; and 450 bbls., part for shipment, on private terms, though some at considerably above the prices obtained for the above lots. There is a fair trade for pressed at 48e. JULY 17. The market for menhaden at the close is firm, owing to light arrivals this week. The trade talk a small catch, and say prices will probably rule higher. Last week there were sales of 200 bbls. at 434c. for prime and 42¢. for inferior, and 70 bbls. prime light at 44 @ 45c. The demand for strained is fair. JULY 24. Menhaden has been in rather moderate supply during the past week, and prices rule firm. At the close the advices from the fishermen are that they are catching more fish, and the yield is good. We note sales of 65 bbls. choice light at 43 ¢., and 50 bbls. brown at 40c.

JULY 31. There has been more activity in menhaden than any other kind of oil on our list. The amount coming forward is small, and barely enough to supply the wants of the trade, causing prices again to advance. Heretofore the yield of the fish has been very small, but at the close to- day we hear that the run has suddenly become fat, and above an ordi- nary yield isnow obtained. The sales are 104 bbls. choice brown at 46c.; 50 bbls. do. at 46c.; 40 bbis. racked at 46c.; 20 bbls. gurry at 25c.; 25 bbls. strictly winter pressed at 55¢c.; and a rumor, which, however, was not confirmed, of a lot of choice crude at 47c. AUGUST 7. Menhaden this week has been in better supply, and is quoted very much lower at the close. The catch is better and the yield fair for this season of the year; receipts since our last have been about 200 bbls., which sold at from 43¢. for nice brown to 46c. for choice light; at the close we hear that a lot of 400 bbls. prime brown was offered, to arrive, at 43c.

310 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

AUGUST 14. The market for menhaden has been quiet, and with dealers less anxious to buy; the close is easy at about 438c. for light brown. The high prices for freights will not allow of any shipping business at present ruling quotations. The sales reported for the week are 417 bbls. at 43 @ 44c., including a resale of 75 bbls. at the outside price; 200 bbls. to arrive at 42c., and a lot of 250 bbls. choice light in New Bedford some time since, not before reported, at 45c. AUGUST 21, Menhaden at the moment is scarce; there are orders here at 43c., ' but there is no stock to fill them; considerable lots are reported on the way, and this keeps prices from advancing materially, though we may quote at least le. better as the outside price. AUGUST 28. Menhaden oil remains as last reported. Prices are above views of buyers, but the manufacturers will not yield, and the result is that the oil will pass into parties’ hands that will make advances on the oil. This locks the oil for the present. SEPTEMBER 4. Mevhaden has not been plenty since our last, and a rather firmer tone is reported at the close. We hear of the arrival of a lot of 275 bbls. and of about 750 bbls. more on the way. The sales are 400 bbls., part to arrive, at 44¢c. for choice light, and 75 bbls., at 43c. for brown, and 40e. for inferior. The fishermen report a fair catch, and we hear that the yield is increasing both here and in Maine. SEPTEMBER 11. Menhaden is firm at the close, with moderate offerings. Last week the receipts were full, but were readily taken at steady prices. This week there have been no arrivals, and the tone firmer; probably 45c. could be obtained for a choice lot The sales reported since our last are 300 bbls., at 44ce.; 75 bbls., at 44c.; 168 bbls., at 434 @ 44¢.; 90 choice and 70 do., at 443ce. SEPTEMBER 18. Menhaden rules firm, with a small amount arriving; sales 250 bbls. fair brown, at 44c.; 115 bbls. on private terms; 36 bbls. choice light, at 47c., and 100 choice tanked, at 48¢.; also a rumor of 1,000 in New Bed- ford, at 50ce. SEPTEMBER 25. Menhaden has advanced since our last about 4c. per gallon, owing to the small supply offering on the market. Sales have been made of 150 bbls., at 49 @ 50e. for light brown and choice; 38 bbls. brown, at 49c.; 30 bbls. and 50 bbls., at 50c., at which the market closes strong, with exporters willing to pay this price. OCTOBER 2. Menhaden oil has not arrived freely, and the price is rather stronger. Since our last, sales have been made of 150 bbls., at 50c., and to-day a

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. Ba lil

cargo arrived, and about 350 bbls. sold, at 50c., as it run, and a lot of 39 bbls. brown, at 50c., which is the price for any kind of good oil.

OCTOBER 9. Menhaden has been quite active, and rules very firm; sales are 80 bbls. prime at 50c.; 82 bbls. at 52c.; 170 bbls. at 503c.; 150 bbls., to arrive, at 50 @ 504c.; and 425 bbls. on private terms. Most of the above

lots were very choice light oils. OCTOBER 16.

Menhaden has not come in so freely, still there is rather more offering, and buyers are holding off, and some report the market lower. There is some Maine offering, but we know of 48c. having been refused for it. We only note the sales during the week of 100 bbls. prime light at 50c., -and 150 bbls. fair brown at 45c. The fall catch is reported better.

OCTOBER 23. Menhaden rules steady for light oil, and all that has come forward has been taken at 50c.; we note sales of 159 bbls. at this price; 100 bbls. Maine oil at 52$c. ; 100 bbls. do. at 533$c.; 100 bbls. pressed at 55e.,

and 30 bbls. do. at 57e. OCTOBER 30.

Menhaden is a little easier, though in good demand; sales are 189 bbls. prime at 49c.; 150 bbls. at 49c. ; 100 bbls. at 50c., thirty days; 100 bbls. at 59¢., cash ; and 55 bbls. at 50c. cash.

NOVEMBER 6.

Menhaden has ruled quiet but firm, with but few lots arriving. The only sales since our last are 100 bbls. at 50c. and 90 bbls at 49e.

NOVEMBER 13. Menhaden is not arriving freely, and the market is very strong, with all the good oil that is offered taken at 49c., though most holders ask

50c. Sales are 278 bbls. at 49e. NOVEMBER 20.

Menhaden is higher, with sales at an advance; the market is, how- ever, somewhat unsettled. The stock in Boston, about 8,000 bbls., was burnt. Sales 280 bbls. and 100 bbls. on p. t., and last week 75 bbls.

at 504c. NOVEMBER 27.

Menhaden oil has been actively dealt in, closing firm at an advance. The sales and resales have been fully 2,000 bbls. from 51c. up to 55e., which latter price is said to have been bid at the close for light oil and

refused. DECEMBER 4.

Menhaden has continued firm and is quiet. The stock is now pretty well out of first hands. Sales of 140 bbls. at 44¢., and 600 bbls. at 55c.

DECEMBER 11. Menhaden is quiet and a little unsettled; the supply in first hands very light, but jobbers report trade very dull, and a@ full supply on band.

312 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

DECEMBER 18. Menhaden has been quiet, owing to small offerings; sales are 30 bbls. prime light at 56c., and 70 bbls. on private terms.

DECEMBER 25. Menhaden quiet but steady, with a small supply.

1873.

JANUARY 1. Menhaden quiet, with only small sales making.

JANUARY 8. Menhaden is firmer, and other oils used by tanners have also ad- vanced.

JANUARY 15. Menhaden oil rules quiet, and with a small stock very firm in price. We note sales of 120 bbls. from store, reported at 56ce.

JANUARY 22. Menhaden is quiet but very firm; no sales making.

JANUARY 29. ‘‘Menhaden oil: some sales have been made at 57 to 58.” (Boston oil-market reports.) FEBRUARY 5. Menhaden rules firm, though somewhat nominal, owing to the very small stock. FEBRUARY 12. Menhaden oil was active last week, and sales were made of 1,750 bbls. Maine oil, all reported at 60c. FEBRUARY 19. Menhaden oil is in small supply in first hands, but dealers hold a pretty fair stock. FEBRUARY 26. Menhaden is held very firmly, as there is a very small stock here. Brown oil will bring about as much as light, owing to the small supply.

MARCH 5. Menhaden is firm, but very quiet; no sales reported. MARCH 12. Menhaden is firm, but not active; 100 bbls. Maine oil sold at 60c.

Marcu 19. Menhaden oil rules quiet; there are some lots offering, to arrive, at 60c., for Maine catch. MARCH 26. Menhaden oil has ruled dull since our last offering at 60c. for Maine. oil. APRIL 2. Menhaden oil rules quiet, but is held higher; no sales making.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. Fa

APRIL 9. Menhaden oil rules dull, and lots are pressing for sale; 60c. is asked, but a full lot could not be placed except at a much lower price; we

have not a single transaction to note. APRIL 16.

Menhaden is held at 60c., and not offered at less; but buyers would

not buy any lots at anywhere near this price. APRIL 23. Menhaden oil nominal; no sales making. APRIL 30.

Menhaden oil is easier, offering at 574c. in lots for Maine catch. Sales are 509 bbls.; closing sale at this price.

MAY 7.

Menhaden oil is lower owing to the near approach of the fishing sea- son, and sales have been made of 155 bbls., at 55e.; 25 bbls., at 56ce. ; and in Boston, 30 bbls., at 56c., and 80 bbls., at 57c.

May 14,

Menhaden oil is somewhat nominal, about all in the market having gone into second hands. Jobbers are said to have a smaller supply than usual at this season of the year, and the-feeling may be considered a little stronger at the close, owing to the backwardness of the catch. There has been one small lot of inferior now in market from Florida, which has been sold at 50c. The Long Island fishermen report fish scarce and yielding only about one gallon per thousand. If the weather continues fine a few small lots may be expected next week, but not in sufficient quantities to supply the demand for some time. Tbe prospect as to future prices is that the market, without any disturbing influences and a usual catch, will rule at about 424c. The sales reported since our last are 500 bbls. prime Maine, at 55c., 50 bbls. ordinary, at 57c., and 11 bbls. inferior new Southern, at 50c.

May 21.

Menhaden oil has been in fair demand ; it is said that the dealers have a small stock on hand. New oil has not yet arrived, but is daily expected. We note sales of 204 bbls. ordinary, at 55c., and 30 bbls. select, at 56c. Irom Boston reports we have:

“Menhaden oil remains quiet. Sales have been made at 55 and some lots of dark oil have sold at 50. As the season is approaching when new oil will soon make its appearance, those holding old oil are anxious to dispose of their stocks, and under such circumstances sales have been

made below market value.” MAy 28.

Menhaden oil rules firm and in small supply. There is said to be no oil in first hands, while usually there is a good deal carried over. New has not made its appearance, but is daily expected. Since our last there has been but one sale, a lot of 110 bbls. at 55ce.

JUNE 4,

New menhaden oil is arriving feebly, and the quality not being very choice, prices are lower. The sales are 25 bbls. at 52c.; 25 bbls. at

314 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

51e.; and 27 bbls.on private terms. The fishermen report plenty fish but a small yield of oil. Boston, June 2d, reports say:

‘* Menhaden oil remaining quiet; most of the old oil has been sold at 52 @ 53. The prospect for this season’s catch can only be judged by the preparations made for doing the business, all of which are being carried forward on an extensive sale.”

JUNE 11.

New menhaden has come to hand very slowly, and the market has not declined materially since our last report. We would quote 51@ 53c., with sales of 50 bbls. choice at 52c., and 50 bbls at 51@ 52¢c. Jobbing

sales at 55ce. JUNE 18.

Menhaden oil comes to hand very slowly, the fish being scarce and yielding only about 14 gallons per thousand; prices remain firm, with sales of 100 bbls. at 5le. for choice brown, and 52e. for select light ; there is but little dark oil coming in and would bring 50e.

JUNE 25.

Menhaden is still in light supply and is consequently held firmly ; the fish yield rather poorly but are more plenty and are growing fatter. Sales are 75 bbls. light, 25 bbls do.; 11 bbls. do., at 51c., and 20 bbls. brown at 50c. Boston reports, June 23, 1873, say:

‘Menhaden oil of this season’s catch has not yet made its appearance, and report says that there are plenty of fish on the coast of Maine, but the yield of oil very small; but with good weather the fish will soon be in good condition. Prospect is that we shall not want for menhaden this season.”

JULY 2.

Menhaden oil is about 1c. lower at the close, though receipts are not large. We note sales of 150 bbls. at 50c., 51¢. for choice, and 20 bbls. inferior at 48e.

JULY 9.

Menhaden is now coming in more freely and has fallen off in value; last week sale was made of 300 bbls. at 50 @ 5le.; but yesterday and to-day 150 bbls. were sold at 45 @ 47e.

JULY 16.

Menhaden oil has up to last week come to hand very sparingly, and the price was held up till toward the close at 45c¢.; but with more lots pressing in, sales were made of 52 bbls. at 45c.; 33 bbls. at 433e., and this week 300 bbls. at 424c., at which price the market closed.

JULY 23. Menhaden oil has not come in freely, but buyers are holding off, as the market for their product is dull, and in consequence the price is easier; last week a lot of 50 bbls. sold at 42, but yesterday 38 bbls. sold at 41, and to-day 50 bbls. at 41c., at which the market ‘seems to be steady, as 40c. has been bid and refused, though should receipts be large a further decline may be looked for.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 315

JULY 30.

Menhaden oil rules steady at 40c., with not much coming in. The in- creased facilities which the fishermen have this season have been of little account thus far, the oil made being less than at the same time last year; still the fish yield fairly, and if they were abundant the pro- duction weuld be very large. Dealers have bought very sparingly, as their trade has been small, and the price has steadily declined since the new oil made its appearance. Exporters could afford to pay the present price if freights were not so unusually high, and with lower freight-rates a good demand may be looked for from this source. How much the large seal catch will interfere with a market for this oil is not known yet, but should the catch of menhaden be large, oil would have to sell at such a price as would be paid by a foreign market. At what price our home dealers would be willing to stock up it is difficult to tell, they having different views as to future prices; but at the present all buy only sufficient to supply their present wants. Sales are 300 bbls. at 40@ 41c., the highest price last week.

AUGUST 6.

Menhaden oil has not come in very freely; all told, perhaps 400 lbs. for the week, 200 of which sold for home use on private terms, and the bal- ance shipped.

The price remains steady at 40 @ 41c., and there is a difference of opinion as to whether the oil is held back or whether the factories are making but little; most of the trade are of the former opinion. Boston reports, Aug. 4, says: ‘“‘ Menhaden oil: some sales have been made at 45e. for small lots, but the Maine manufacturers are firm and intend putting their price at 50c.,and holding. Reports are conflicting in rela- tion to the catch; do not think from all accounts that there will be as much oil as last year.”

AUGUST 13.

Menhaden oil has not arrived freely, and is, consequently, a trifle firmer; the catch of fish is unusually small and the yield is only one and a half gallons per thousand. There have been sales here of 600 bbls. at 40 @ 414c. as to quality, the market closing pretty strong at 41c. for nice oil. The Boston market is higher. Boston reports, Aug. 11, say: * Menhaden oil: there has been a sale of 500 bbls. at 45c., and the manu- facturers have agreed to hold price at 50. Most of the Maine oil is being shipped to New Bedford, and parties make advances, which satisfies the manufacturers. By this means they will keep oil up to 50c.”

AUGUST 20. Menhaden oil is firmer, owing to small arrivals and a light stock in the hands of jobbers. The combination in the Kast also has a tendency to stiffen prices here. The fish are now reported very fat, yielding 10 to 12 gallons per thousand, but the catch is small. Sales 250 bbls. at 4lic. At the close there is none offering on spot, and one lot to arrive

316 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISIERIES.

is held as high as 45c., but this may be considered an extreme price ; probably 423c. is a fair quotation for choice oil. AUGUST 27.

Menhaden has sustained the advance of last week and rules very firm. There is not much coming in, and jobbers carry small stocks, but a better supply may come in at any moment ; and, in consequence, jobbers will not buy more at present rates than they require for immediate wants. Sales are 30 bbls. nice brown at 45c.; 50 bbls. choice light at . 45¢., and 150 bbls. on private terms, supposed to have been about 45c., at which the market closes.

SEPTEMBER 3.

Menhaden oil is very firm, with a small supply coming forward. All lots are taken as fast as they arrive. Sales are 65 barrels at 45c.; 40 barrels inferior on private terms; 31 barrels prime at 45c.; 25 barrels at 45 cents, and 35 bbls. to arrive at 45c. Boston reports, Aug. 25: ‘¢Menhaden oil remains firm, and sales of 300 barrels have been made at 48, and it is doubtful if any can be had now less than combination price, 50 cents. The weather has been very unfavorable for 10 days past, and the catch very light. The amount of oil taken this season only amounts to about 6,500 barrels, and the expense has been much greater this season, as the fish are some twenty miles away. The quality of the oil taken is very choice.” Sep. Ist: ‘Menhaden: a sale of 700 bbls. prime Maine has been made at 48e. To-day a meeting is to be held, and price of manufactures will be put at 50 to 52c., and some say 55c. The catch for the past ten days has been very light. Some manu- facturers are holding at 55c. Should two thousand bbls. be shipped, it would advance oil to 50c. firm. Five hundred bbls. are going this week from here to Liverpool, and I hear of other lots to follow.”

SEPTEMBER 10.

Menhaden has been more plenty the past week, but is taken freely on arrival at firm prices, the jobbers being short supplied and having a good demand for their kinds from consumers. The sales are 495 bbls. at 45¢c. cash from dock, and would probably bring 46c. in shipping order ; but we cannot expect any export demand at present prices for oil, unless freights and exchange should very much favor shippers. There have been two lots sent from this market this season—one of 190 bbls. on order and one of 100 bbls. on account of a factory. The season thus far has been an unsatisfactory one for those who usually supply this market, and should the fall catch not prove better, we will have to look to Maine for a supply for this market. The fall season is, however, often the best, the fish being usually very fat, and if they catch enough fish may make up for all deficiencies ; the fall catch last year was small, however.

Boston reports, Sep. 8: ‘‘Menhaden continues firm. The manufactur- ers hold at 50c., but I do not know of any sales at that price; 48c. is the

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 317

highest that any large lots have been sold for. The catch is reported light for the past week. SEPTEMBER 17.

Menhaden oil is firm and wanted, meeting with a ready sale at 45c. for nice brown or light oil. The fall catch cannot be determined yet, but we hear that the fish are said to be wild and do not school; a few weeks, however, will determine the fall catch. Saleshere: 95 bbls. light oil at 45¢e.; 50 bbls. brown at 45¢.; 35 bbls. light at 45¢.; 40 bbls. at 45e.

SEPTEMBER 24. Menhaden oil has arrived slowly, and is still firm in price; but with the present uncertain state of the money market and foreign exchange a reaction may take place, as anywhere near present, rates there could be nothing done for export. The arrivals and sales have been 30 bbls. at 47c.; 120 bbls. at 45¢.; 25 bbls. at 45c.; and 22 bbls. at 45c., which price is not to be obtained at the close, and 400 bbls. have gone into store. Jobbers of curriers’ oils report rather less doing this week. - Boston re- ports, Sep. 22: ‘* Menhaden oil is held firm at 48 to 50, but no sales have been made over 48. The exportations still continue; 500 bbls. go to Liverpool this week.”

OCTOBER 1. Menhaden oil is dull and nominal; there have been fewer arrivals, all of which bave, however, gone into store, as there are no buyers at more than 42c., while holders still ask 45c., though would probably shade this price fora cash offer. Boston reports, Sep. 29: ‘*‘ Menhaden oil: sales of several lots of 300 to 500 bbls. at 47 to 48c. and holders are now very firm. The catch for the past fifteen days has been better and fish fatter.

OCTOBER 8. Menhaden oil is not coming forward, and the lots in store have not been sold. The market is nominally as quoted in our list. Sales of 21 barrels on private terms and a report of 75 bbls. for export at 42c¢., but

we were not able to verify the report. OCTOBER 15.

Menhaden oil is not coming in very freely, but the continued dull state of the market has caused a decline in prices, and at the close 40e. is the hest price to be obtained. The home trade are not in the market at all. The sales are, 50 bbls. at 42c.; 56 bbls supposed to be at 4145c.; and 300 bbis. at 40 ¢., all prime lots, the latter for export. We learn that the Maine fishermen have closed their factories for the season.

. OCTOBER 22. Menhaden oil is very dull and not coming forward; only 22 bbls. have arrived, which sold at 40c. OCTOBER 29. Menhaden oil has not arrived freely, but with little or no demand the price has fallen off, and sales have been made of 46 bbls. at 38c., with more offering at the close at same price and buyers bidding 35c. This

318 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

evening we hear that 100 bbls. sold at 374c. and 100 bbls. on private

terms. NOVEMBER 5D.

Menhaden oil is very dull, and with none coming in we have no fur- ther sales to report ; a lot on the way is offering at 37e.

NOVEMBER 12. Menhaden oil is lower, but the lots that arrived recently have been generally stored, and there is nothing offering at the close at less than 35¢., though a prime lot was offered at 33c¢. on dock, without finding a buyer. A small lot of Southern oil of inferior yuality sold at 30c.

NOVEMBER 19.

Mendahen oil is not lower than we quoted last week, but there is not much doing ; jobbers are buying very sparingly, and there is not, as yet, much demand for shipment, but while the present demand from jobbers does not warrant stocking up, the unusually low price may induce them to anticipate their wants. There have been sales of 10,000 gallons for export at 32c., and 200 bbls. for home use at 33ce.

Boston reports, Nov. 17: ‘* Menhaden oil is held above the views of buyers. It is difficult to give the quotation in the absence of any sales of importance ; last sale was about 38 for 250 bbls.”

NOVEMBER 26. Menhaden oil is quiet, but with no lots coming in the price is rather more steady, with sales of 100 bbls. light at 33c.; most holders ask 35e. from store. Brwon oil not being plenty this season will bring about as much as light. Boston reports, Nov. 24: Menhaden oil held above the views of buyers. It would be difficult to get an offer of more than 37 to 38¢c., and most of the holders will sell less than 42 to 40c.

DECEMBER 5.

Menhaden oil has become very much firmer, all the lots pressing for sale having been taken; holders ask 40c. The last sale was 150 bbls. prime light at 35c.; previously there was a sale of 100 bbls. at 34$ce., prompt cash. It is difficult to give an exact quotation, but the probability is that no great quantity could be bought under 40c. Any action taken by the Maine fishermen, who meet in Boston to-day, may have some in- fluence. Boston reports, Dec. 1: “ Menhaden oil: the difference between the buyers and sellers still exists, and as curriers are not running on full time, not much oil changeshands. The manufacturers meet in this city Tuesday, December 2. Some agreement may be adopted in relation to prices for oil on hand and also that to be made the coming season.

DECEMBER 10. Menhaden oil has advanced, closing firm at the asking price of last week, with considerable sales making. There are free buyers at prices

har

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 319

a shade below the asking rates, but holders are not shading 40c. on any lot, and most of them ask 45c. The Eastern manufacturers have com- bined at 45c., and this lends strength to our market. While the amount of oil held back by the manufacturers is thought to be considerable, and the demand from dealers been small, still there is a feeling that prices are low and likely to advance. Tbe sales are 310 bbls. on spot, at 40c. Boston reports, Dec. 8th: ‘Menhaden is firmer and sales have been made of about 1,500 bbls. at 40 @ 41¢.; it is now held at 43 @ 45ce. The meeting of the oil manufacturers last Tuesday resuited in holding oil at 45, which they seem determined to carry out. There is to be another meeting next January in New York for the purpose of effecting a union with the Long Island and New Jersey associations, and mak- ing a uniform price among the different cities.”

DECEMBER 17. Menhaden oil has been more active, and 325 bbls. sold on spot here at 40c., and 800 bbis..to arrive on private terms. Boston reports, Dee. 15: ‘¢Menhaden remains firm, and sales have been made at 40c. for several hurdred bbls. which have been floating about the market. When these lots are closed out it will be difficult to buy under 45¢., a price at which itis held. A sale is reported of 500 bbls. at 423c.”

DECEMBER 24. Boston reports, Dec. 22: ‘*Menhaden-oil maintains its firmness, but not many sales have been made. Sellezs are holding at 45c., which is above buyers’ views.” DECEMBER 31. Menhaden oil is not active, but remains firm in price, with not much coming forward. What action the fishermen may take at their meet- ing next week is not known, but the effect is certainly depressing. There have been sales since our last of 200 bbls at 40c., and to-day 80 bbls. at 40c. Boston reports: Dec. 29th, “Menhaden quiet; there does not seem to be any inclination on the part of buyers to pay the prices asked by sellers, and with the close of the year parties have no disposi- tion to increase stocks. Sales have been very limited.”

1874.

JANUARY 7. Menhaden oil is quiet, but steady. Arrivals light. Last sale 140 bbls., at 41e.

JANUARY 14. Menhaden oil is higher since the meeting of the manufacturers last Wednesday, and there are buyers at 424c., and it is rumored that 43c. has been bid. There have been other sales than those we report, but they are for the present kept private; we note 175 bbls. on private terms; 100 bbls., at 425c.; 50 Dbbls., at 423c.; 4,000 gallons in Boston,

and 50 bbls. pressed oil here, on private terms.

320 . REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

JANUARY 21, Menhaden oil is higher and in more demand, but the advance checks sales for the moment. There are no lots to be had for less than 45e., » with 444c. bid and refused. There was a sale last Wednesday of 150 bbls. for export at 45c., and since 50 bbls. for home use at 44c., and 10,000 gallons in casks to arrive at 42$¢. JANUARY 28. Menbaden oil has not been so active the past week, buyers and sellers being apart in their views; sales are 300 bbls., at 44ce. There are several lots offering at 45c., and buyers have bid 44e.

FEBRUARY 4. Menhaden oil has been in good demand, and the market is very firm, with an upward tendency. There have been considerable sales during the past week, part said to be for export. We note the following lots sold: 1,500 bbls. Maine oil to come here; 1,500 bbls. to an Eastern man- ufacturer ; 1,542 bbls. and 50 casks other kinds, and 400 bbls. direct from manufacturers are reported at 45c. The market closes at 45c. bid, and 474c. asked. f Boston reports Feb. 2d: “ Menhaden oil nearly all in first hands has been closed out at 424 to 43c.; some are holding at 45c., but it does not

find ready sale at this price.” FEBRUARY 11.

Menhaden oil has ruled quiet but firm, 45c. having been bid and re- fused; 474c. is asked. Sales since our last, 382 bbls. at 45c. Boston reports Feb. 9: ‘* Menhaden oil has been sold at 42 to 44e., and only a small quantity remains in first hands that is held at 45c.”

FEBRUARY 18. Menhaden oil has ruled quiet the past week, but is very firm in price, 46c. having been bid for shipment. The sales are 300 bbls. for home use, at 47$c. Boston reports, Feb. 16th: ‘* Menhaden—a sale of 700 bbls. has been made on private terms; the curriers are not doing much, so the demand for fish-oils is very light, and prices are no higher than last week.” FEBRUARY 25. Menhaden oil quiet and hardly so firm; 100 bbls. reported sold from a dealer’s hands, at 474¢.; 50 bbls. from dock at 45c., and to-day a lot was offered on dock at 46c¢., but was not sold up to a late hour this afternoon. MARcH 4. Menhaden oil is quiet, and with a light jobbing demand, and dealers well stocked up, the tone is not strong. Sales of 50 bbls. for export on private terms, and 60 for home use at 45c., at which price there are other buyers. : MARCH 11. Menhaden oil is dull, and but few sales are making ; some lots arriv- ing have been stored, as holders will not submit to any concession in

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 523

price. Buyers are all supplied for the moment, and wiii not pay 45c. Sales are 50 bbls?on private terms. Boston reports, March 9: ‘+ Men- haden oil is quiet, not much offering ; it is held at 45c., but buyers do not seem to think they can pay it. Curriers remain inactive, hence demand for oil is very light.” Marcu 18. Menhaden oil is lower, as some small lots continue to arrive, and are pressed for saie, the larger dealers being all stocked up for the present, and complain of dall trade. Holders generally look for better prices, and refuse to sell at less than 45c. There has been a sale of 170 bbls. for shipment at 42c., and there are some other lots said to be offering at this price to arrive. Boston reports, March 16th: ‘Menhaden oil is held at 45e. for choice; some lots a little below standard have been shaded; with only about 1,000 bbls. in first hands, if there is any business this spring oil must advance.” ; MARCH 25. Menhaden oil has arrived very sparingly, and we have heard of no sales since our last; 45c. is asked, but buyers would not pay more than 43e. APRIL 1. Menhaden oil is very dull. There have been no arrivals, but it would have been difficult to place any quantity even at our lowest price. The only sale we hear of is 50 bbls. prime from second hands at 45c.

APRIL 8. Menhaden oil dull; no arrivals, but the market is weak, and 41c. will now buy a small lot here. APRIL 15. Menhaden oil has been slow of sale, with some arrivals of Maine lots on this market. There are sales of some considerable lots, reported chiefly on private terms, some of which have been held here for some time. The sales foot up 1,255 bbls., part at 41c. for prime, up to 424c. @ 45c. for Maine, and a resale of same at 44c. About half of these Sales were for export, the advance in gold assisting this trade.

APRIL. 22. Menhaden oil is dull, and can be had at 41c., but there have been no sales of prime from first hands. Maine oil is held at 42c. Boston re- ports April 20: ‘¢ Menhaden oil continues dull, and without any demand it is difficult to fix a price. There is cil going to be exported, and if the surplus should be sent away prices will be firmer and higher.”

APRIL. 29. Menhaden oil is still very quiet, and we have only 250 bbls. to report sold af 4lc. Boston reports, April 27th: ‘‘ Menhaden oul quiet, and, as there has not been any large sales made, we cannot give price, but it looks as though it would be higher.” 21 F

322 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

May 6. Menhaden oil has been more active, holders meeting the views of buy- ers, with the approach of warm weather and the fishing season. Sales are 250 bbls. for export at 41c.; 400 bbls. for home use at 40c.; and 700 bbls. for home use on private terms. Boston reports, May 4th: ‘*‘ Menhaden—a sale of 400 bbls. for export was made at 40c., but it is held higher at close. The news from the seal fishery is of a very dis- couraging nature, and the first news is more than verified. This must advance menhaden and whale oils.” MAy 13. Menhaden oil has been quiet, with small offerings recently. There has been some inquiry at late prices, but the only lots coming forward since our last have been small inferior ones, and sold at irregular prices ; the new catch has been fair for so early in the season.

May 20. Menhaden oil has ruled quiet with small arrivals. Prices have not improved. One lot of 175 bbls. cams in during the week, and sold for shipment at 404c., at which price there are buyers for export. The new catch is reported as very favorable, but none has as yet made its ap- pearance in market. Pressed fish, sold to the extent of 50 bbls. at 44c. Strained choice menhaden oil is in some demand, and 25 bbls. sold at 47¢. MAY 27. Menhaden oil is quiet; there is not much coming forward, but dealers will buy only such lots as they actually need. The new catch has been reported less favorable the past week on account of the cold and stormy weather. Sales are reported of 50 bbls. new oil, the first of the season at 40c., and and 160 bbls. old at 40¢. Boston reports, May 25th: ‘¢ Men- haden oil dull, and not much demand for home consumption ; several lots have been shipped at about 40c.” JUNE 3, Menhaden oil is beginning to come forward more freely; but holders have not as yet offered below 40c., and one lot of 50 bbls. is reported at that price. The new catch is reported as more favorable than any pre- ceding year at this time, but manufacturers say it will not pay to make at much below present prices. JUNE 10. Menhaden has been offering freely, and some lots have been pressed for sale from dock, and low prices have been named on them. Buyers will not tale hold except as they need for actual wants, and prices are low, withcnt much business. Sales, 75 bbls. on private terms, and some small parcels at 37 @ 38c. from dock. There has been some inquiry for pressed fer export, and 125 bbls. sold at 46c. ; JUNE 17. Meohaden oil is coming to uand freely and has to be sold at prices which exporters are willing to pay; there have been sales of 125 bbls.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 323 s

at 38e. and 500 bbls. for export on private terms. The fishing is said to be very favorable and the make large. Boston reports, June 15th: ‘* Menhaden oil, small sales at 40c. The demand is light, as curriers are doing comparitively nothing. The eastern manufacturers are making preparations for doing a large business, and intend commencing in a few days if the fish should arrive.” JUNE 24.

Menhaden has been offered freely and closes easy, though there are buyers for export at better than the lowest price, which was a lot of 140 bbls. prime, at 35c. The market closes, we think, at about 36c. There is a fair demand for pressed oil.

JULY 1.

Menhaden oil has not come to hand quite so freely of late, and buyers begin to think that better prices may rule. There have been sales of 900 bbls. at 35 @ 36¢., part at the latter price was for export, and we would quote the market firm at the close at 56c. and some of the fisher- men asking higher prices. Boston reports, June 22d: “Menhaden oii— Some 400 bbls., all that remains of last season’s catch on the coast of Maine has been shipped to Liverpool during the past week. There have been no sales of new oil; prices asked are 37 @ 38c. The weather has been such as to prevent taking any fish the past week. All are anxiously looking to the Maine fisheries for a supply of oil, which have jailed them from seal fisheries and cotton-seed.” Boston reports, June 29th: **Menhaden oil—The catch of fish has commenced on the coast of Maine, but the quality is such that the yield of oil is small. The expense of manufacturing oil is so great that, unless oil should bring 40¢. or upward, it will be unremunerative to the makers of oil.”

JULY 8. Menhaden oil continued to increase in firmness following the date of our last report, and sales have been made of fully 1,000 barrels chiefly at 5/¢c., and largely for export. Many of the fishermen are asking 40c., and are not offering to sell at less; if the receipts increase this week again the price will probably decline, but should they continue to be

only moderate 40c. would prebably be rcached. JULY 15.

Menhaden oil has come forward a little morefreely, and as the demand is not urgent for either home use or export prices are a trifle easier. There have been sales of 150 bbls. for export at 36c. At the close 36c. is asked and 35c. has been bid, and sales made of 123 bbis. for home use at 35c. Boston, reports July 13th: ‘Menhaden oil—There bas been a sale of 1,000 bbls. at 38 @. 39c. of this year’s catch, but at the close fishermen are asking 40c. The weather has been very unfavorable the past week, and should it continue it will have a tendency to advance the price of oi!. Much depends upon the results of the fishing for the next three weeks. The cost of oil has been increased materially by the introduction of steamers, and 42c¢. is a low price for nice Eastern oii.”

.

324 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

JULY 22. Boston reports, July 20th: Menhaden oil—There are orders to buy at prices which the fishermen will not accept. The catch has not been very large during the past week, and the‘fishermen hold their oil firm at 40c. At the close 1 understand several lots are being exported, and should a large quantity be exported it would make prices firm here.”

JULY 29.

Menhaden oil has been quiet with but little coming forward; the price is steady with 35c. for brown, which is the only kind we are now receiv- ing. The feeling among all parties is that the present is as low as prices will go, and we hear that some of the manufacturers have closed their works on account of the small yield of oil from the fish ; as little as one gallon to the thousand is reported in some localities. The sales are 300 barrels at 35c., and 50 barrels at 354¢. Boston reports July 27th, ‘‘ Men- haden quiet; there are some 700 bbls. being exported, and price remains nominal. Fishermen do not care to sell at anything less than 40c., and buyers will not pay it; all wanting.”

AUGUST 5.

Menhaden oil comes forward very slowly, this being what might be termed ‘“ between runs,” the fish being scarce about the Long Island and Connecticut coasts. Since our Jast report there have been sales of 150 bbls. at 36c. f. 0. b. ; 140 bbls. on dock at 35$c., and 75 bbls. pressed at 40c.

Boston reports, Aug. 3d: ‘ Menbaden Oil—The manufacturers are holding nice oil at 40c., but no sales are made; some 500 bbls. have been sold at 38c. and some reported at 36 @ 37c.; the oil being made now is much better in quality than last year at this time.”

AUGUST 12.

Menhaden oil is not coming to hand very freely and rules firm in price; a choice light oil is particularly wanted and commands readily 36c., while an oil of dark color will hardly bring 55¢c. Exporters are in the market. Sales are 70 bbls. choice at 37c. free on board; 480 bbls. to at arrive 354 @ 36c.; 45 bbls. at 35c. and 20 bbls. at 36c.

Boston reports, August 10th: ‘* Menhaden oil—A sale of 1,000 bbls. has been made at about 35c. The catch has been fair the last week.

Dealers stand back and will not buy at 35c.” AUGUST 19.

Menhaden oil is firm in price, as not much is coming forward. There have been sales of 300 bbls. at 35c. for brown, and 36e. for light; in shipping order, free on board, 37c. would probably have to be paid. Boston reports, August 17th : ‘* Menhaden oil—Sale of 500 bbls. for home use at 40c., and for export a sale of 500 bbls. at about 36c. There has been a large quantity exported, taking all the oil as fast as it is made, and it looks as though a better price would be obtained later in the season,”

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. B25

AUGUST 26.

Menhaden oil has come forward rather more freely, but has been taken at about steady prices for home use and export; at the close some lots are offering, and 353c. will buy nice oil. The sales have been about 800 bbls. at 55c. for brown, up to 37e. for light, freeon board. Boston reports, Augast 26, “ Menhaden oil is being shipped freely, and sales have been made at 35 @ 36c. for export. There does not seem to be much activity, for home consumption as yet. The price agreed upon by the oil association at its last meeting was 40c.”

SEPTEMBER 2. Menhaden has been quiet, with only one lot of fair brown oii sold for shipment, 83 bbls., at 354. The other lots which have arrived have been delivered former contracts. Boston reports, Aug. 51, ‘‘ Menbaden oil is firmly held by manufacturers at 40c., but for export a concession of a few cents would be made. There has been 3,000 bbls. exported this season from here, which has taken all the surplus oil.”

SEPTEMBER 9. Menhaden oil has come in rather more freely the past week, and our advices are that the catch is better of late, and the season’s production promises to be fully up to last. Prices remain without change, as the consumptive demand is rather moderate and the demand for export, of late, has fallen off somewhat. The sales since our last are 600 bbls. brown and light brown for home use at 35 @ 353¢.; 200 bbls., as it runs,

for home use, at 35c. SEPTEMBER 16.

Menhaden oil has not come forward very freely of late; the catch is said to be small at the present time, on account of the fish being wild. The demand has not been large, and sales have been made cf about 250 bbls. brown, at 35c. or 36c. for light; alsosome lots sold at 354c¢ for light and brown mixed. Some parties think that this oil is a good purchase at the present price, and we hear of reports of some large transactions, footing up several thousand bbls. direct with the fishermen.

Boston reports, Sep. 14th: ** Menhaden oil.—The large sale of several thousand barrels which took place some ten days since has had a tend- ency to make the market firm, manufacturers holding at 423c., but dealers are not disposed to pay it, so no sales.”

SEPTEMBER 25.

Menhaden oil has not arrived during the past week, owing tothe storm, and we hear of no sales; the price remains firm, but dealers and ex- porters are not anxious for present wants.

Boston reports, Sept. 21: ‘‘ There is a disposition among the manufac- turers to hold oil at 40 @ 42c¢., but buyers cannot be found at those fig- ures. Curriers are doing but a little, and do not talk as though they would want much oil. Unless there should be a start in trade, prices must rule low.”

326 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

SEPTEMBER 36.

Menhaden oil has not come forward at all freely, and holders ask an advance on lots on the way. We hear of 309 bbls. offering to arrive. Buyers report a quiet market and show no willingness to meet sellers. We hear that fish are abundant but the yield of oil small.

Boston reports, Sep. 28th: ‘‘ Mendaden oil remains without activity. The views of buyers and sellers do not harmonize. Manufacturers are holding at 40c. and dealers will not pay over 36 @ 38ce.”

OCTOBER 7.

Menhaden oil closes firmer, with dealers rather inclined to stock up. We have conflicting reports from the Boston market with reference to Maine oil. Our correspondent does not give us any sales at the ask- ing price of holders, but trustworthy parties here say that 900 bbls. “Gallup” make were sold there to go to Gloucester at 40c. The sales here are 159 bbis., at 35$c. 5 100 bblis., at 353c.; 370 bbls., on spot, at 36c.; 12.000 gallons, to arrive, at 36c., and a report of 70 bbls. very choice, at 37e. ,

Boston reports, Oct. 5th: “ Menbaden.—There is a stand-still, owing to the difference between the views of buyers and sellers, one side huld- ing at 40c. and the other only offering 35 @ 36c. The fishing season is nearly over, and it is about time to get results of the season’s work.”

OCTOBER 14.

Menhaden is very firm and the tendency is upward, with a demand both for export and homeuse. The business the past week has footed up 659 bbls. at 37¢. for brown and 38ce. for light, including 250 bbls. for export. At the close 40c. is asked and 38e. would be paid.

Boston reports, Oct. 12th : *¢ Menhaden oil.—More demand from deal- ers, and prices are 38 @ 40c. Manufacturers are thinking of advancing the price to 45e.; if they should it would be holding it out of the market. There have been sales of several hundred barrels at 40c.

OCTOBER 21.

Menhaden oil is higher; the news of the very light catch of Aretie whale oil was the immediate cause of an advance of about 2c. There are now many buyers and few sellers. There were sales following our last of 100 bbls. brown at 374c.; 350 bbls., for export, at 393c.; and 3500 bbls. Maine oil, at 42c. At the close the market is very much unsettled, 7 but the tendency is upward. Boston reports, Oct. 19th, ‘* Menhaden oil is firmer and is selling at 38 @ 40c., although manufacturers are holding at 40e.”

Soe

OCTOBER 28. Menhaden oil is again firmer, and toward the close there was consider- able excitement, owing to dealers stecking up. The market,closes strong, with many buyers and few sellers. Sales are 78 bbls. ordinary, at 42$c.;5 100 bbls., at 43ce.; 150 bbls., at 43e. ; 90 bbls., at 434¢.; 400 bbls. Maine oil, at New Bedford, at 42c. cash; 600 bbls. do., light cotored, to come

i a Pe

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. B24

here, at 425c. cash; and later we hear that a further sale has been made in New Bedford, to come here, of about 1,000 bbls. more.

Boston reports, Oct. 26th: ** Menhaden oil is decidedly firmer, and held at 425 @ 45c.; sales of 1,000 bbls., at 40c. and 424c., and holders are certain that it will bring 45c. within a short time. The season has closed, and the oil has been placed with the exception of about 2,000 bbls.”

NOVEMBER 4.

Menhaden oil is rather more quiet, and we think the upward tendency checked for the present. The recent large sales supplied those who were short. For the last few days the fish have been very fat and much handsome oil has been made from them, and while we believe the stock to be undoubtedly small, we think that it is generally underestimated.

Boston reports, Nov. 2d: ‘* Menhaden oil firm and scarce. Sales have been made at 42¢., and at close 45c. is asked, and very little oi! in the market. Should a brisk demand spring up this market would soon be

cleared out.” NOVEMBER 11.

Menhaden oil is easier than at the date of our last. The unusually fine weather during the week has been favorable for taking fish, which have been very abundant, but we learn are becoming less plenty toward the close, and that some of the boats’ crews have stopped for the season. Buyers have for the present a full supply, and sellers have been obliged to accept as low as 40c. for brown and 4le. for light oil to-day, though this wouid seem to be bottom, as this price is bid by others, and most holders ask from 43 to 45¢c. When fishing ceases entirely there may be an improvement in prices again. There was a rumor in the market about two weeks ago that most of the menhaden in the English markets had been bought for American account. This proves to be a fact, as we

now learn. NOVEMBER 18.

Menhaden oil has again become easier, and at the close nice light oil cannot be quoted at better than 40c. One party claims to have been bid this price for shipment, while trom an equally reliable source we are informed that a cargo of 400 bbls. was offered at this price, and the best bid being 38c., it was returned to the manufacturers’ factory. Some parties who have oil stored in this city are holding at 45 @ 50c. The close is quiet. The sales during the week have been 500 bbls. Maine oil, in New Bedford, at 423c.; 60 bbls. choice Long Island sold here at 41c., and 150 bbls. at 40 @ 40$e.

Boston reports, Nov. 16th: “ Menhaden oil is selling at 42e.; stocks light, and should business spring up oil will advance.”

NOVEMBER 25. Menhaden has not been pressed for sale the past week, which would, however, have had a bad effect on the market. Receivers are looking about for export orders to relieveour market. Exporters claim that they

328 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

cannot pay 40c., which is the price asked. There have been sales of 400 bbls. very choice Barren Island, at 40c., for home use, and 175 bbls. on private terms.

Boston reports, Nov. 23d: ‘“‘ Menhaden oil is quiet, with a light demand, but prices are firm ; sales have been made of 1,000 bbls., at 423c., in New Bedford, to go to Gloucester and New York. Stock of oil in Boston very light.”

DECEMBER 20.

Menhaden oil is very quiet and the price remains nominally unchanged, sellers not pressing goods for sale, and buyers not anxious to take hold, having sufficient to supply their wants for the present. Sales 2,000 gal- lons, at 40c.

Boston reports, Nov. 30th : “ Menhaden oil is firm, and the price remains at 42 @ 45c., with light stock, and should business start up oil must

advance to 45 @ 50c.” DECEMBER 9.

Menhaden has been quiet, with not so much offering. There is no particular change to report in prices; 47 bbls. sold on private terms. Boston reports, Dec. 7th: ‘“* Menhaden remains as last reported, with a small supply and a smaller demand; oil held at 42 @ 45c. without any

sales.” DECEMBER 16.

Menhaden oil has been very quiet for the past two weeks, and the tone is barely steady. A lot of 300 bbls. sold at a private price ; 40c. is probably the full value of nice light oil. We hear that a cargo is on the way to this market.

Boston reports, Dec. 14th : “‘ Menhaden oil.—A sale has been made at about 42¢. for 200 bbls. made at Narragansett Bay. Maine oil is held firmly at 42 @ 45c., and it looks as though oil would soon be worth more than these prices, as the carriers are more active.”

DECEMBER 23. Menhaden oil has been quiet all week, and we only hear of 70 bbls., at 384c., cash; 80 bbls. were shipped on order. Boston reports, Dec. 21st: ‘‘ Menhaden oil.—No sales to note during

the week, but holders are firm at 42 @ 45c.” . DECEMBER 30.

Menhaden oil is quiet and easy in price; one lot of 200 bbls. and one of 25 bbls. have sold since our last at a private price. We quote the mar- ket about 38c. for good, sound oil.

Boston reports, Dec. 28th: ** Menhaden oil is quiet, and will be so until after the commencement of a new year. No sales; asking 42 @ 45c.”

1875. JANUARY 6. Menhaden oil is dull, and sales are very few; prices nominal. Boston reports, Jan. 5th: “‘ Menhaden oil dull, and not much demand, although oil is held firmly by the few manufacturers that have not sie) their product, at 42 @ 45c.”

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 329

JANUARY 13.

Menhaden oil is in a position rather difficult to report. There are no lots on spot offering, and to arrive 40c. is asked, which buyers as yet are not willing to pay, but 38c. has been bid. There will probably be some- thing done after the manufacturers’ meeting to-morrow. We have not heard of a single sale for a week. The last lot was reported at 39c. by seller and 38c. by buyer. We hear that 130 bbls. of light, pressed, have been sold for shipment at 44c.

Boston reports, Jan. 11th: *‘ Menhaden oil remains quiet, without any

demand, and the price is nominal,” JANUARY 20.

Menhaden oil is firm, but quiet, at 40c., at which price there are sellers. Buyers have not as yet made up their minds to pay this yet, but there seems to be every prospect that a higher price will be reached before long. The sales are100 bbis. prime Western at 40c., and we hear of a lot of inferior having sold in New Bedford to go to Boston, 200 bbls., at about 38c. We also hear that a fisherman has bought 500 bbls. on speculation at 40c., but we were unable to learn when it was to be

delivered. JANUARY 27.

Menhaden oil is very quiet ; neither buyers nor sellers being inclined to make any concessions at the present time. The market, however, may be quoted very strong at 40c., and most holders ask more. Since our last there has been but one sale, from a dealer to a dealer, of about 7,000 gallons in easks, at 42c. from store. Boston reports, Jan. 25th: ‘“ Menhaden oil is held more firmly at 45c. since the meeting of the oil manufacturers held in New York; some sales have been made at 40 @ 41c. by parties that wanted to realize.”

FEBRUARY 3.

Menhaden oil is dull and very slow of sale; in fact, there have been no sales, and prices are hardly more than nominal.

FEBRUARY 10.

Menhaden oil has been in more demand, and we lock for an active business within the next week or two. There have been sales reported since our last of 500 bbls. of Western oil, at 40c., for March delivery, and this afternoon we hear that 511 bbls. sold at 41c., and about 1,000 bbls. more on private terms; the advance in gold caused a firmer feeling.

Boston reports, Feby. 8th: ‘* Menhaden oil.—There seems to be more demand, and we note a sale of 2,000 bbls. Maine, at 45c.,in New Bed- ford, and a sale here of 50 bbls. at 45c. Should an active demand arise from consumers it is thought that oil would go to 50c., as all the oil is in the hands of a few manufacturers, and their views are that prices will be higher.”

FEBRUARY 1%.

Menhaden oil can hardly be quoted higher, though one dealer has re-

330 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

cently taken about 2,500 bbls., part reported in our last. The price ranged from 3dc. for inferior oil up to 403c., and not 41e. as reported in our last. ‘The close is firm, and all the lots at 40c. have, we think, been taken.

FEBRUARY 24,

Menhaden has been quiet since our last, the buyers of last week hav- ing taken all lots offered at about 40c., and holders now ask 43c. for nice light oil. ;

Boston reports, Feby. 22d: ** Menhaden oil.—A sale has been made, to go to Gloucester from New Bedford, of 200 bbls., which will cost 463e. delivered. No stock here in first hands.”

MARCH 3.

Menhaden has been quiet the past week so far as sales go; there has been some inquiry, however, but buyers have not got their ideas up to sellers. Holders ask from 42 to 43c. for ordinary western oil.

Marcu 10. Menhaden oil is not offering on spot, but is not wanted; 42¢. is asked, to arrive, for a lot of 500 bbls. No sales. Boston reports, March 8th: ‘¢ Menhaden oil held at 45c., and some sales reported in New Bedford at that price. Ifa demand should spring up from consumers, oil must advance to 50c.”

MArcH 17. Menhaden is as dull as any article on our list. A cargo came to hand from Barren Island, but had been sold a long time ago. Weexpect a cargo of 5,000 bbls. from that place in about two weeks, which will be sold on this market. The price here is nominal at 40 @ 41e.; the lower price would probably be paid for good oil; the higher price might possibly be paid for very choice. Marcu 24. Menhaden oil has been dull, and up to to-day there has been but one sale of 60 bbls., choice, from second bands, at 42c. To-day a lot of 200 bbls. sold, to arrive, at 40c. for prime, subject to approval. This is about the price lots will bring on this market, and we do not look for any important advance on this price. Marcy 31. Menhaden oil has been more active the past week, and all good lots offering at 40c. or thereabouts have been taken. Sales reported are 500 bbls., choice, to arrive, at 404c. ; 250 do., at 40c. ; 115 do., at40c., and 150 do., part inferior, at 35c., and prime, at 40c. AP REE iis Menhaden oil has ruled quiet, and we have no sales to report since our last; buyers will pay 40 @ 403c. for nice light-colored oil, while hold- ers would ask 41e. APRIL 14. Menhaden oil has ruled quiet since our last, without any particular ehange, and but few sales are making. There have been several arrivals

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. a |

of cod oil recently, which meets with a steady sale. Boston reports, , April 12th: ‘Menhaden oil is very quiet; curriers are doing little; hence the demand is light. The manufacturers ask 43 @ 45c., and dealers offer 40c.” APRIL 21.

Menbaden is strong, and in rather more demand, with a sale of 130 bbls. brown oil at 40c., while light would probably bring 4ic. Boston reports, April 19th: ‘* Menhaden oil is held firmly by manufacturers at 45 @ 45c., but sales are light. “Dealers are willing to pay 40c. Some sales have been made on private terms, probably at about this price.”

APRIL 28. Menhaden oil has taken quite another turn, considerabls lots having been sold for shipment ; and now that most other oils have advanced, the prospects are that the advance in menhaden will be maintained, even though the early fishing should be very good. The sales since our last have been as large as at any previous time, and create considera- ble excitement. The particulars of the transactions have been 1,600 bbls. Maine oil, in New Bedford, for export, on private terms, and 3,300 bbls. do., for home use, at 424c. In this market the sales have been 150 bbls. ordinary, at 40e.; 600 bbis. do., at 41¢e.; 100 bbls. inferior, on private terms, and 50 bbls. Maine, at 44c., with 45c. asked for the same at the close. May 5. Menhaden oil has ruled firm in price, and some of our dealers have been buying quite freely and paying the advance asked by holders. The stock is now reduced to a small amount in first hands. The fisher- men of Long Island, Connecticut, &e., will “ try their luck” on the 15th of this month, and the immediate future of prices depends somewhat on the first catch. Sales here of 159 bbis. Maine oil, at 45c.

MAY 125

Menbaden oil is just between seasons and hard to report. Some of our dealers have good stocks and some very little. The recent large sale in New Bedford, at high prices, it was thought would have ad- vaneed prices here, but we do not notice much improvement. The fishermen, generally, put out their nets yesterday, and expected large hauls if the weather would prove favorable, and the present indications are that there will be a season of warm, bright weather. We hear that some fish bave been taken at Greenport, and oil in small quantities is expected here in ten days or two weeks. The success of the early catch will, without doubt, have a great influence on prices. Of course all the first oil is brown and light colored ; Maine will not be affected by it, but of this kind there seems to be a good supply in the hands of dealers. Since our last two lots were offered, to arrive, both near at hand, and one of 300 bbls. sold at 41 per cent., and 140 bbls., now in, at 42 percent. A nice sweet lot of brown was ofiering at 43¢., but could not be obtained.

332 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

May 19. Menhaden has been a little unsettled. Holders have been anxious to get rid of stocks before the new catch came to hand, and yet were un- willing to make any important concession. The first new oil of the season came in to-day, two lots, one of 37 bbls. and the other of 14 bbls.; the last lot was of very inferior quality, and brought 39c.; the other lot has not been sold as yet. The news from the fishermen is not favora- ble, no fish being caught on several days last week, and the yield small. This may be looked on, however, as interested information, with the worst side shown. The fact of 51 bbls. coming in to-day shows that some fish must have been caught. The sales of old oil are 1,600 bois. Maine oil, in New Bedford, at 42$c.; 150 bbls. dark and brown, here, at 41c.; 105 bbls. dark pressed, at 424c.; 50 bbls. very dark gurry, at 20c.; 40 bbls. shore oil, at 50¢c. Boston reports, May 15th: “ Menhaden.—As the season is approaching when new oil will be coming in, the market is just now a little easier. A few porgy have already been caught in Long Island Sound. We note a sale at New Bedford of 1,000 barrels, comprising about all the stock of Maine oil in first hands. The quota- tions to day are 40 @ 43¢.” MAy 26. In all, the arrivals this season have been about 230 barrels of new Menhaden oil, most of which is now on dock unsold. After our last, two lots, of about 35 bbls. each, brought 40c.; one was unusually hand some for oil caught at,this season. Holders ask this price at the close and future prices depend upon the cateh for the next few weeks. We hear from a reliable and thoroughly-posted fisherman that since last Tuesday there have been hardly any fish taken; previous to that good hauls had been made, but the fish yieided only about two gallons. We hear that exporters can pay about 36c., and some buyers intimate that they will hold off till the export price is reached. ‘ JUNE 2. Menhaden has come to hand to the extent of about 150 barrels since our last. Holders ask 40c. for good new ; buyers’ ideas are not more than 38e., and 30 bbls. were reported at about this price. The other

lots have not been reported as sold. JUNE 9.

Menhaden oil is quiet, with new oil worth about 37c. for prime guality. The catch of fish is small and the yield light. The arrival of oils has been limited, but trade with the dealers bas been dull and their wants small. During the week we hear of the following sales: 125 bbls., 50 bbls., 70 bbls., and 52 bbls., all at 37c.; 100 bbls. on pri- vate terms; and 75 bbls., not sweet, at 36c. We also note a sale of 50 bbls. domestic cod, at 58c., and 13 bbls. strictly pure do., at 65ce.

JUNE 16. Menhaden oil has not been plenty the past week, the cool weather not being favorable for catching. The fish are reported as yielding very

o_o

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. Soo

little oil, which is of only fair quality. The tanners are very dull, and . consequentiy the consumption of such oils is very light; and dealers report a very dull trade in tanners’ oils. Owing to this fact, unless we have an export demand, prices will have to rule very low. Most of the dealers carry a good stock. Sales during the past week that we have reported to us are 46 bbls., at 36c.; 24 bbls., at 36c.; 28 bbls., at 37c.; and 60 bbls., at 374ce. No sales of cod to report.

JUNE 23. Menhaden is quiet; the demand is light, but there is not much coming forward. The fish are uncertain and the yield small. We hear ofa sale for export of 125 bbls., at 36c.; 200 bbls. for home use, at 37¢.; 29 bbls., at 37¢.; 67 bbls., at 38¢e.; and 50 bblis., at 36c. JUNE 30. Menhaden is dull here, as the demand for tanners’ oils is very light. Prices have declined ; and sales have been made of 160 Dbbls., at 35c. and 100 bbls., at 354e., both cash. The fishermen are doing fairly, and unless we have more home trade, we will have to look to foreign mar- kets for an outlet. We hear that some orders are in the market now, and that one party is busy filling quite a large one which has not been

reported. JULY 7.

Menhaden rules quiet and steady at 35c., with some export demand at this price. The lots which come to hand and sold are 90 bbis., 30 bbls., 25 bbls., 50 bbls., 100 bbls. ; part of the last two brought 36 @ 37e. from a consumer and part for export.

JULY 14.

Menhaden has come to hand in fair quantities, and is taken by home and export buyers at 35c. for gocd oil, which seems to be the market price, buyers being unwilling to pay more and sellers refusing to take . less. The shipments of over 1,000 bbls. to Glasgow last week are said to have been pressed Maine oil, and sent on owners’ account. The sales here have been 350 bbls., in lots, for export, and 490 bbls. for home

use, all at or on a basis of 35ce. JULY 21.

Menhaden is quiet at 34@35c. Following our last, there were two lots of oil offering to arrive—one from Maine, of about 500 bbls., and one of about 150 bbls., Western. A bid of 35c. was asked for these and could not be had in this market, and then 344c., cash, would have bought. Indeed, the market was weak, owing to a decline of £2 per ton—the market being now £33—in London, and a falling off in the price of gold here, which caused shipping limits to be reduced to about d4ce. At the same time there were two home buyers ready to take small lots of nice oil at 35. on the spot, but their requirements would be supplied with a very small quantity. On Thursday the Maine oil on the way to this market was disposed of to a New Bedford refiner at 35¢., and since there have been the following sales: 200 bbls., on spot, at d4hc.; 500 bbls., to arrive, at 345c.; 50 bbls., on spot, at 35¢.; 50 bbls.,

334 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

on spot, for export, to complete an order, at 55c.; and a parcel of about 50 bbls., select, on private terms, probably at about Svc.

Our reports from the Western fishermen are that the fishing is poor, and the yield only about 2@ 24 gallons per thousand. From Maine we hear that tie fish are rather scarce, and the yield about 4 gallons per thousand. The Maine fishermen seem to be adopting a different course this season from last. . Last year they carried their stock over into the present cateh, but they are sending forward their new oil as early as possible now.

JULY 28.

Menhaden oil has not arrived so freely, but one lot that we heard of last week coming on the market. The demand has been entirely tor home buyers, and they have not wanted very large pareels. The decline in gold caused shippers to reduce their limits to 33c., but the advance to-day may help matters, though no effect is yet noticed. To-day three lots came to hand; in all, a little more than ©00 bbls. 150 bbls. of this sold at 344e¢.; and 100 bbls., hardly prime, sold at 34c. The other lot is still unsold. Being mostly light-colored, it is held at a higher price. The lot mentioned as having come to hand last week was 130 bbls., and brought 344¢.

AUGUST 4.

Menhaden has not come to hand very freely, as the catch of fish is small and yield of oil light. In consequence, we are informed that some of the fishermen bave closed their works till fall, or such time as the fish yield enough oil to make it pay. While the arrivals have been small, they have been all that the market could bear, and in some instances prices have been shaded a little. There is little or no demand for ex- port, except at 33. c. for light oil. The sales are: 100 bbis. prime light, ‘at d4c.; 66 bbls. do., at 344c.; 70 bbis., at 334c.; 62 bblis., at 33Se.; 37 bbls., at 33¢c.; and 1,600 bbls. Maine oil in New Bedford, at 35c. The Maine make this season, thus far, has been about 5,000 bbls. The yield of oil per thousand fish on Long Island is an average of 13 gallons.

AUGUST 11.

Menhaden oil has come to hand fairly, and several lots of Maine oil have been offered for shipment. There is no difference in price between Maine and Western oil, the former being in comparatively larger sup- ply. Dealers are buying sparingly, as their trade is dull, and the tend- ency of prices is downward, toward the price shippers can afford to pay, which, at the present, is said not to be more than 32c. for the choicest lots. This is very low; but the fishermen, said to be making less than former seasons, seem to be forwarding their oil pretty rapidly. On Wednesday, 500 bbls. of Maine oil sold at 35e¢., and 100 bbls. Western at same price. Thursday a straight lot of 1,060 bbls. Maine was offered at 33c. without finding a buyer. Since then there have been sales of 500 bbls. on private terms. At the cose the market lecks as though 30c. would be a near-future price.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN, 33D

AUGUST 18. Menhaden is steadier, but we hear that fish are more abundant and fatter. Tanners are buying more oils. Exporters cannot pay more than 32c.; some lots could probably be sold at this price. The transactions since our last are 2,900 bbls. Maine oil, 900 to arrive in New Bedford and 2,000 bbls. here, at 53¢.; 58 bbls. western oil to an out-of-town con- sumer, at 34c.; 80 bbls. do., at 32c., and 91 bbls. inferior, at 3le.

AUGUST 25. Menhaden has not changed much in value since our last report. It seems to be about as low as it ought to go, and yet if the catch is large and is forced on the market it may go lower, particularly as there is no export demand of importance, and foreign orders are at very low prices. This is now relatively the cheapest oil in the market. The sales during the week have been as follows: 800 bbls. of Maine, to arrive, at 323c.; 152 bbls. Sound oil for export, at 32c.; 180 bbls. for export, at 314¢.; 30 bbls. do., at 32c.; 20 bbls. dark brown, at 31c.; 50 bbls. do., at 30c., and 25 bbls. poor, at 29c. A lot of 300 bbls. Maine oil came to a dealer direct. SEPTEMBER 1. Menhaden has not arrived in this market very freely the past week. All lots coming to hand have been taken without much urging, mostly for home use. The sales are 70 bbls. Sound oil, at 50c.; 100 bbls. do., at 303c., both lots a little off from prime; 50 bbls. do. prime, at 3le.; 145 bblis., at 3l¢e.; 150 bbls. for export, at 3ldc., and 100 bbls. Maine, to arrive, at 32e. We hear that there are orders in this market for several thousand bbls. for export at 3lc. It would relieve our market very much to place some full parcels in European markets. The oil is the cheapest grease in the market. We have just received a letter from a correspondent in the East, the pith of which we give, as follows: The fish are becoming plenty and yielding well. The stock at Booth Bay is 4,600 bbls.; at Round Pond, 3,400 bbls., and at other points in Maine, $,000 bbls. The hauls of fish on the 25th inst. in Maine were said to have been sufficient to make a thousand bbls. of oil. Another corre- spondent writes that the fish are yielding 6 @ 8 gallons to the thousand, which is large. SEPTEMBER 8. Menhaden oil.— We have a report from Maine dated August 3d which says that the large hauls did not continue beyond the day mentioned in our last and part of another, when the fish fell off, and have since been quite scarce. There have been several shipments, in all amounting to between 2,000 and 3,000 bbls., to New York, Boston, and New Bedtord to fill old contracts at 33c.; but now the larger holders have put up their price to 35c. Our market has been quiet, dealers having a fair supply, and, though arrivals have been moderate, no advance has been obtained till towards the close, when shippers have, we think, advanced

336 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

their limits somewhat. Sales have been made here of 170 bbls. Sound, d04c.; 30 bblis., at 3le.; 50 bbls. brown, at 31l4c.; 50 bbls. gurry and dark, at 20@28c., all for home use; 90 bbls., at 324c.; 62 bbls. brown, at 31se.; 300 bbls. on private terms, and 300 bbls. Connecticut, in Boston, at 334c¢., all for export.

SEPTEMBER 15.

Menhaden has been taken more freely for export by parties in this market, who have slightly increased their limits. This does not seem to have any perceptible effect on prices, and dealers who generally have a supply will not pay any advance. The sales reported us are 156 bbls. Sound, at 32c.; 40 bbls. dark, at 31¢e.; 700 bbls. do., at 32¢.; 175 do., at ove. f. 0. b.; 1,000 bbls. Maine, at 33c., and a cargo cf about 3,000 bbls. f. 0. b., at Round Pond, Me., at 32¢e., all, or nearly all, for export; also 260 bbls. Maine, in Boston, at 323c., for export.

Our correspondent, under date of Sept. 10th, at Round Pond, Me., says: Very few fish have been caught, and the fishermen are much dis- couraged. A good deal of oil has been shipped from here to fill old - contracts, and higher prices are asked.

New London, Conn., September 11.

Fish on the Connecticut shore have been quite plenty during the past ten days, and at Lyme and Mystic, where most of the fish-oil works are, the manufacturers have done well.

From Tiverton and Portsmouth, R. I., we hear that the fishermen have done very poorly for the past three weeks, and one of the largest manufactarers that he has made but little more than 300 bbls. this season.

Our advices are that most of the Long Island fishermen are doing

well. SEPTEMBER 22.

Menhaden oil has not changed in position much since our last. There have been very few arrivals, and none of these came on the market, having been sold previously. Dealers are not anxious buyers, and will pay no advance, as they have sufficient stock to meet all wants for some time to come, yet they would probably take any good lots that were offered at present rates, the season being so far advanced that the catch cannot be of much account on the western fishing coast, where it has been pretty poor all season. The Maine catch has no doubt been a good one. Exporters have taken some lots, but there are not many orders now in market. The sales since our last are 200 bbls. Sound, at 32¢.; 53 bbls. do., fair quality, in two lots, for home use, at 3le.; and 50 bbls. prime, at 35c. Two lots, one of 200 bbls., at 32c., and one of 140 bbis., at 33c., f. 0. b., were delivered to shippers this week. The sales were made some time ago. <A vessel is daily expected with a cargo,

which will come on the market. SEPTEMBER 29.

Menhaden oil has come to hand very sparingly the past week, and our reports from the fishermen continue so unfavorable that the indications

ee ,

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 337

are that higher prices will rule in the near future. A letter of recent date says that there are probably not over 1,000 bbls. on the Con- necticut shore. This may be an underestiirate, but all of our advices are that the amount is very small. The arrivals and sales here have been 100 bbls., at 33¢.; 150 bbls., at 33¢.; both for export; 146 bbls., at 324c., and 100 bbls., at 33c., for home use. The lot reported in our last should have been 250 bbls. instead of 200. OCTOBER 6. Menhaden oil has been scarce the past week, the only arrivals going on former contracts, one for 180 bbls., for export, at 534c., and one of 150 bbls., for home use, at 33c.; also a sale of 17 bbls., brown, at 32c. Reports from the fishermen are that there is very little doing, and the prespects are unfavorable. Some of the Maine manufacturers have sent their vessels to the west, but the roughness of the water will not permit them to haul their nets. The tendency of prices would seem upward, particularly for light-colored, and as high as 35c. might be paid for a nice lot. The late fishing may prove good, as it did last year; but at the present time the chances do not seem favorable. Exporters in this market say they can pay no advance, and the only orders we hear of are at 32¢. OCTOBER 13. Menhaden has been rather scarce of late, and the tendency of the market is upward. A week will decide whether the fall catch will be good or not. At the present time fishing is very poor, but they expect better fish and more of them next week. The arrivals have been about 425 bbls., and 100 sold at 32c., 76 at 33a, 106 at 324c., and 150 for export on private terms. Buyers will take all lots offered them at present rates. Bleached oil has been advanced, sales having been made of 50 bbls., at 47¢., and held at 48c. now. OCTOBER 2). Menhaden oil is higher. The catch has not improved much and can hardly amount to a great deal hereafter. Several of the manufacturers. report considerable losses in their business, and hope for a run of good fat fish yet. There have been no arrivals since our last, but a small cargo is expected. We think the next sales of good sound oil will be about. 36c. Maine oil is now held at 40c. in New Bedford, there having been a cargo sold to arrive there of about 700 bbls., at 59c. Dleached is. higher, and 50 bbls. have sold at 50c., for pressed. OCTOBER 27. Menhaden oil has been very excited, a movement having commenced following our last which ran up the price so that holders in the East asked above 40c., and sales were made here up to that price, while prices have shown no weakness, 40c. having been bid and refused here: for a lot of Long Island oil on spot. The news of a good catch of whale- oil by the Northern whaling-fleet, and letters received to-day from Fall River, where the Maine fishermen are hauling, and also from Barren:

22»

338 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Island, reporting plenty of fish and a large yield of oil, may cause more to be pressed on the market to obtain present rates, and a reaction may take place. The sales reported are 1,400 bbls. in New Bedford, at 37c¢.; 900 bbls., at 39c.; 500 bbls. on private terms, and 100 bbls. reported at 40c.; 1,000 bbls. of Maine oil to arrive here, at 40c.; 160 bbls. Sound oil to arrive here, at 34c.; 100 bbls., at 36c.; 150 bbls., at 374¢., and 142 bbis., at 40c. There has. been much activity in bleached, and we hear of the fullowing sales: 534 bbls., all at 50c¢., small lots now being held as high as 55e. NOVEMBER 3.

Menhaden oil has been quiet the past week, but steady in price, even though the reports are quite favorable from the fishermen, who are said to have had a good run all last week. The season has so far advanced now that the catch from this out cannot be very great, and holders are firm in their ideas asking, and we hear of no lots offering for less than 42¢., with sales of 850 bbls., at 40c. Part of last week large hauls of mackerel were made by the menhaden fishermen. We hear of a vessel being chartered last week and a cargo of menhaden sent to the Hast, the boats which caught them not having time to return with their load.

NOVEMBER 10. Menhaden oil has come to hand more freely of late, as the catch is reported pretty good, but will shortly end. Dealers here take all that vome to hand at 40c., but wedo not hear of their being willing to pay any more. Sales are 45. bbls. on spot at 40c.; 300 bbls. for forward de- livery, and 70 bbls. on spot on private terms, butno doubt at same price. The oil comiug now is very handsome. NOVEMBER 17. Menhaden oil is firm, and there are free buyers. Most of the fisher- men have stopped work. ‘The stock held back is thought te be small, -and prices may advance if trade should improve. We hear that the Maine oil in New Bedford is now held out of market. The sales are re- ported of 400 bbls., spot, at 40c.; 100 bbls. at 41¢.; 220 bbls., to arrive, at 40c.; 31 bbls., dark, on spot, at 40c. ; 50 bblis., light, toa consumer, at 43e. and 1,000 bbls. in New Bedford reported at 45c. NOVEMBER 24. Menhaden oil is high in New Bedford, and we hear that holders there ask 474¢., but our market has not advanced recently. Trade for tan- ners’ oils is light, and dealers will not pay high prices. In New Bed- ford the oil is refined. The sales here are 245 bbls., to arrive, at 40c. for dark and 41e. for light; 25 bbls., dark, at 403c.; 35 bbls., good, at 41c., and 140 bbls., selected, at 42c. In New Bedford a lot of 400 bbls. sold at 46c. DECEMBER 1.

Menhaden oil has been in a hard position to quote. In the Hast —

prices are very high and stock scarce. The few lots coming here have

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. ay)

to be sold at about 42c., at which price dealers stand ready to buy, but as most of them have a good stock they are not willing to pay and ad- vance ou this, and 258 bbls. just to hand were sold at this figure, though we hear that there are some outside buyers willing to pay more. The fishing is all over, and one of the Barren Island makers has failed and is reported as makinga bad showing. In Boston we hear that 100 bbls. Maine oil sold at 45c., and now none offering at less than 47$e.

DECEMBER 8. Menhaden has ruled firm in price witha small supply offering, but jobbers carrying full stocks. All the oil in New Bedford, some 2,500 bbls., has been taken at a private price, and in Boston there remain only 100 bbls. unsold in first hands. The arrivals bere have been about 750 bbls., part of which brought 41c.; also a resale of 200 bbls. at 45c. There are buyers at from 42 @ 43c. at the close for good oil.

DECEMBER 15,

Menhaden is in small stock in first hands, arrivals being light. The 500 bbls. reported in our last are said to have been bought by a Boston house on speculation at an average of about 423c. There has since been an arrival of 75 bbls., which sold at 43c. to a dealer. The dealers of this city are all carrying a pretty fair stock and will probably realize a good profit on the oil they hold if the consuming trade at. all im- proves. | DECEMBER 22.

Menhaden oil has not been received that we hear of since our last, most of the oil having been sent forward before. We have heard of but two transactions; a lot of 75 bbls. having sold to come from the factory when wanted, at a price not yet made, and 160 bbls. to arrive at 43c. We hear of a lot of Maine offering in New Bedford at 47$e.

DECEMBER 29, Menhaden is firm in price, and all other fish-oils are tending upward. We hear that two of the contracts made some time ago for bleached were sold some time this month at a premium of $1 per bbl.

1876. JANUARY 5.

Crude menhaden oil is in small stock, probably not over 750 bbls. in the hands of fishermen, 1,000 bbls. in first hands in New Bedford, and 750 bbls. in first hands here. The holders ask 50c., and will probably get it. There have been sales of 83 bbls. from store here at 47$c., and 50 bbls. rather poor at a private price, less than the other. All the pro- ducts from menhaden are comparatively cheaper than the crude article.

JANUARY 12. Menhaden oil has been taken fairly this week, and the price seems to tend upward, as the supply remaining in the hands of manufacturers

3840 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

is very small. One large manufacturer has failed recently. During the week there have been sales of 350 bbls., part rather inferior, at 45e. as it runs; we also hear of a resale of 200 bbls. at a private price. Extra bleached menhaden is held as high as 60c., though ordinary is to be had at 55c, JANUARY 19. Menhaden oil rules firm in price, but owing to the small supply busi- ness is limited. JANUARY 26. Menhaden oil rules very quiet, but the small stock of crude keeps prices firm, and should there be only a fair trade prices would advance materially. There is scarcely any going into consumption. Holders here ask 50c., and we heard of 50 bbls. selected selling at this price, bat have also a report of 70 bbls. choice having sold within a few days at 45¢., though this is below the market at the present time.

FEBRUARY 2. Menhaden dull but firm, and the manufactured kinds are generally held for more money. FEBRUARY 9. Menhaden is unsettled and nominal. To sell a comparatively low price would have to be taken; but there are no lots to be forced on the market. We hear at the close that one dealer is offering to resell, and that some parties who bought to bleach have stored their stock of crude, and have intimated their intention of selling itrather than manufacture, as the price of bleached is not enough higher to pay for bleaching. We hear of pressed and strained both selling at as low or less than the

nominal price of crude. FEBRUARY 16.

Crude menhaden oil is not moving as yet, but holders are firm while buyers are well stocked up and are indifferent, their trade being very light. There has been more doing in pressed, and we heard of a sale of 70 bbls. on private terms, and 50 bbls. at 50c., with holders ask- ing 52c¢.

FEBRUARY 23.

Menhaden has been quiet, as arule. At the date of our last we were informed that negotiations were pending for export, and on Wednesday a lot of 500 barrels—which had been held by a dealer—was sold, to go to Havre, at 483c. This has the effect of stiffening prices, which before were nominal. The stock in first hands is very small, and if any large orders should come into market they could not be filled, except at a high price; at the same time a lot thrown on the market would have to sell rather low. :

MARCH 1.

Menhaden oil is as quiet as can well be, no stock offering, no buyers wanting. Price nominally firm at 50c. Bleached and strained are very slow of sale.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. ; 341

; MARCH 8. Menhaden oil is in the same position it has been for a long time past, ~ not enough doing to make a market. Dealers have a supply for their dull trade, and no further export orders in market. There are a very few parcels held by first hands, and these are not pressing for sale ; only one do we hear offering at 48c. Dealers are generally inclined to

work off stocks of bank and strails at quoted rates. MARcH 15.

Menhaden has sold in this market since the lot for shipment at 48c., as follows: 50 bbls. at 48c., and 100 bbls. to arrive at 46c. There, has° been a sale in New Bedford of 300 bbls. at 46c. there to come here.

Mancui 22 Menhaden has not sold since our last, notwithstanding some commer- cial journals reported sales of 2,000 bbls. This lot has not been sold, and is now offering. Several weeks ago a bid of 45¢. was made on it delivered in New Bedford, but the holder refused to sell. We heard of 50 bbls. dogfish selling here at 47¢c, Tanners are buying very sparingly.

MaARcH 29. Mehaden is dull, none pressing for sale; no demand except at low

prices. Holders ask 50c.; buyers would pay 45c. APRIL 5.

Menhaden is generally quiet, but there has been a lot of 300 bbls. sold

at a private price, reported at about 46c. in store. APRIL 12.

Menhaden is rather uncertain. Fishing will commence in about a month, if the weather is warm. ‘Trade is dnll. The stock is light. Holders do not want to part with their goods unless at full or an ad- vanced price, while buyers are inclined to cet with great caution, and not take unless at a concession. Since our last, a lot of 160 bbls., said to be Maine rejections, sold on private terms, and to-day we hear a rumor that 1,600 bbls. of Maine sold in New Bedford to a manufacturer at 46c. or better. If this is so, it will leave only. about 1,300 bbls. in first hands, and probably a very ree stock with dealers. We note sales of 75

bbls. bleached, at 52c. APRIL 19.

Menhaden has not sold since our last report, but the feeling is easier, and the choicest lots can now be had at 45c. The first fishing steamer will be started out the 27th of this month, by V. Koon & Son. The stock of oil is small, but probably more than can be sold before the new reaches the market. There was a sale of 100 bbls. bleached, at 50c.

APRIL 26. Crude menhaden is in a peculiar position. Ifa large lot were forced on the market, a low price would have to be taken, and there are one or two large parcels which could be bought at easier prices, but the hold- ers are not willing to accept any decline for small portions of them.

342 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Buyers will not take more than they want from week to week, and, as a rule, prefer paying a little more money for a small lot than UHey could buy a large parcel for.

There is a rumor in the street to-day that 500 bbls. have sold at 46c., but one parcel, at least, can be had at 45¢.; asale of 50 bbls. at 46e.

May 3. Menhaden is dull. We hear of no sales from first hands since the 560 bbls. which we reported last week, which was for export to France, and at a private price. A dealer sold 25 bbls. to a consumer at 48c. for choice. May 10. Menhaden is quiet and easy, prices tending downward. The fishing has not fairly commenced, but we have had two lots cf new oil in; the first, 17 bbls., came last week to Cory & Co., and was refined ; this week 40 bbls. came to T. G. Hunt, but bas not been sold. The quality is good. The only sale we hear of is 150 bbls., good old oil, at 44c.

MAY IT;

Menhaden oil has declined during the past week, and closes at 35¢e. for prime new oil. The arrivals the past week of new have been about 600 bbls., of quality equal or superior to any ever before made. While our dealers carry but small stocks of old, the loss on this is very large, and they have not been in a position to materially lower prices for the manu- factured kinds; but with a pressure to sell, the tendency is downward.

The oil catch promises to be large, the fish being very fat and yield ing well. The probabilities are that as low prices will rule as last year, unless we have a good export demand. The sales are 25 bbls. bleached, at 50c.; 100 bbls. do., at 48c., and less would probably now buy; 100 bbls. old crude oil in New Bedford, to go to Boston, at 44¢.; 825 bbls. old, here, at 41c.; 150 bbls. do., for export, at 373c.; 200 bbls. do., at 35 @ 36c¢., and 17 bbls. at 35c.

May 24,

Menhaden oil has come to hand rather sparingly the past week, and the few lots on the way have nearly all been sold. The price is 35ce. for good oil, and must be regarded firm under the present circumstances ; but should there be any large hauls of fish, or the yield increase, prices must go lower. Our dealers carry a small stock, but are not inclined to buy any quantity at the present time. Should their trade improve, however, and the catch of oil continue light, they would come into market in about two weeks, and probably pay an advance. ‘The latest report from Long Island coast, and the sound, is that the fish are not plenty, small, and yielding two gallons, poor quality. There is consid- erable speculation as to future prices, and it is generally believed with an average catch, such as last year, prices will range from 30 to 35¢e. ; but should there be a catch equal to year before last, considerably less than 30c. would be reached, or a price low enough to induce exporters to

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 343

take large parcels. The sales, since our last issue, have been 260 bbls. to arrive, at 35c., and a resale of 90 bbls., and some selected on private terms. Bleached, pressed, are all easier, and somewhat irregular in prices, tending downward.

May 31.

Menhaden oil is firm under light arrivals, only two or three parcels coming in that had not previously been placed and reported. The news from the fishermen is, that at Barren Island the fishing is fair, but the yield only 3 gallons good quality. The east end of Long Island report few fish and little oil of poor quality. An arrival of 80 bbls. was placed, mostly for export, at 35c., and a parcel of 74 bbls., from New Haven ““Q” brand, as it ran, mostly light colored, at 35c. There has been a small sale of herring oil at 30c.

; JUNE 7.

Crude menhaden has not arrived very freely, and the fishermen re- port few fish, but we are inclined to think that more are caught than reported. At the close we also hear of several parcels at the works offering for sale. Last week there were arrivals of 465 bbls. of fair brown oil, most of which sold to dealers ; one lot of 150 bbls. was placed for export, all at 35c. In New Bedford, 5,000 gallons choice light sold at 36c.

JUNE 14.

We note a decided improvement in our menhaden oil market. Re- ports from the fishing grounds state that the fisb are very scarce, and unless they become more plentiful most of the gangs will haul up as they are not able to pay their expenses, and are going behind every day. Inthe absence of positive sales it is a hard matter to give any reliable quotations ; a prime lot would no doubt bring 36¢. Deal- ers are on the lookout for small parcels of prime, but do not feel dis- posed to bid over the above price; a lot was offered at 37¢., but was not taken that we hear of.

A letter to hand to-day says: “I give you our report for the past two weeks, which is probably identical with all the sound fishing, viz: The catch has been exceedingly small and the fish very poor, not yielding some of the time but. about two quarts to the thousand. They improved slightly the latter part of last week, but are still in small quantity and comparatively poor. The Maine fishermen are just about commencing work, and unless they have better success there will be a scarcity of oil and an advance in prices.”

JUNE 21.

Menhaden oil has continued to advance with small arrivals. The de- mand from dealers is not large, but their stocks became almost entirely exhansted, and were willing to pay higher prices. Until to-day there: have been hardly any lots in, and though the steamer to-day brought several large parcels, most of them had been placed before arrival. The: sales are37 bbls. at254c., 30 bbls. at 36c.,50 bbls. at 374c., 200 bbls. at 38e.,

344 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

and 64 bbls. at 38$ce., all toarrive; on spotto-day 63 bbls. sold at38c.; most of these last were sold as they run, not selected. Fishing advices are as follows: ‘‘Tish are quite plenty and fat, but are very wild and hard to get.” Another report to hand to-day, dated June 19, says: * The catch of menhaden last week was the smallest catch of any week thus far this season in Long Island Sound. The few caught were better quality

than for the preceding fortnight.” JUNE 28.

Menhaden oil has come to hand more freely, and the fishing has also improved ; consequently prices are again lower and tending down. The sales are 42 bbls. at 3Sc., 27 bbls., the first from Barren Island, at 38c., 98 bbls. at 37¢. and 75 bbls. at 35 @ 36e., closing with buyers at these lowest prices. JULY 5.

Menhaden oil has come to hand more freely, and the fishing has also improved ; consequentiy prices are again lower, and tending down. The sales are 42 bbls. at 38e., 27 bbls., the first from Barren Island, at 38c., 98 bbls. at 37c., and 75 bbls. at 35 @ 36c., closing with buyers at these lowest prices.

JULY 12;

Menhaden oil has not come to hand since our last report, except 93 bbls., which sold at 56c. for light and 35c. for brown, and 50 bbls. yes- terday, which sold at 35c. as it run. The market is steady, and there are buyers at 36c. for good oil. We hear that while the fish are quite plenty they are very poor, yielding only one gallon per thousand, and that there is not much oil at the factories. Reports from Maine are that the fishing is not very good, and the stock on hand about 1,000 bbls. They are reported to have made some sales to Boston at 37c., and one parcel of 250 bbls. sold at 38c., delivered in New Bedford.

JULY 19.

Menhaden oil has come to hand pretty freely of late, the Sound fish- ing having improved very much the past two weeks. The Maine fish- ing is also reported better, and their prices have been lowered to make sales. During the latter part of last week there were large arrivals from the Sound catch, in all some 1,200 bbls., and been placed, as nearly as we can trace them, as follows: 130 bbls. at 35¢., 100 bbls. at 35¢, 93 bbls. at 35$c., 60 bbls. at 353c., 80 bbls. at 354c., and 100 bbls. on private terms, all on spot; and to arrive here 200 bbls. at 35c., and in New Bedford 600 Maine, delivered there at 35c., the buyer’s price and 36c. the seller’s price.

JULY 25.

Menhaden oil became weaker following our last, as sellers continued to offer and buyers had a supply, and the market went down to 34c., with a sale at this price; but, though other goods were offered at this, buyers would not take them, and there was a lot placed at 33c., and to- day we hear that 323c. was accepted for good brown oil. The sales made foot up 600 bbls.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 345

AUGUST 2. Menhaden oil has not come to hand in any quantity the past week, but, owing to the fact that most of the dealers are well stocked up, they are not anxious buyers, and the price has not improved. The reports from the fishermen is that there have been but few taken, and they yield a very small quantity of oil. There has been one sale of 100 bbls. at 33e., but lots can be had at 324¢., with no buyers at better than 32c. for ordinary quality. AUGUST 9. Menhaden oil is dull; dealers, being stocked, are not anxious to buy; and, though the fishing is reported as being very poor, 10 advance can be obtained. A choice lot of 290 bbls. sold at 33¢., but an ordinary parcel could have been bought at 32¢., and, not meeting with sale, was put into store. AUGUST 16. Menhaden cil has not come to hand very freely, but the supply is equal to the demand, as dealers have a stock and do not care to buy large lots except at a low price. There has been a shipment of 1,000 bbls. Maine, oil sold at 34c., and 400 bbls. Sound oil, part for shipment, at 32 @ 33¢. AUGUST 23. Menhaden oil has not come to hand to any extent the past week, and the sales are of only two parcels, in all about 400 bbls., for export, at 32c. for Sound make and 33c. for Maine make. The reports frem the Long Island coast is that the fish are quite plenty, but the yield of oil is so small, that there is an actual loss in the business. The Maine fish- ing is very good, the fish being ordinarily fat. There are offers to sell brown oil here at 32 @ 33c., but dealers are not anxious buyers, but want a light-colored oil, for which they are willing to pay the highest figure. There are exporters willing to pay 32¢. for Maine oil, but though there may be a disposition on the part of the Eastern makers to accept this price, there is a good deal of difficulty in obtaining a vessel to take freight direct from a Maine port. Unless there can be some sales made for shipment, there will probably be a surplus on our market all year, with no probability of an advance. AUGUST 30. Menhaden oil has been quiet, with moderate arrivals. Buyers will pay 35¢. @ 34c. for a light-colored lot, but most of them have a supply of dark colored, and are not willing to pay so much. There were sales of 400 bbls. at 33 @ 34c. and 75 bbls. on private terms. -

SEPTEMBER 6. Menhaden oil has not come to hand very freely, and the market is rather stronger for light-colored oil. The trade will pay 34c. for good, light, sweet oil. The sales are, 100 bbls. at 33¢., 80 bbls. at 33c., 200 bbls. at 34c., 49 bbls. at 34¢., and 60 bbls., irregular quality, at 34e. for prime.

346 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

SEPTEMBER 13.

Menhaden oil.—The market continues firm for this article, and holders are asking 34 @ 3oc. for a prime article, but we note sales of 400 bbls., at 33 @ 34c. The Sound catch bas been light, and the prevailing price for this product has been 352 @ 33c. from brown to light, but holders are asking an advance on Sound makes, 34c. for brown and 34 @ 35ce. for light. The Maine catch of fish is mostly over, and the catch has been very fair as to quality and excellent as to quantity, but still not up to former seasons as regards quantity. Dealers and manufacturers, es- pecially in Boston,.have bought more freely of Maine oils than other makes. The present price for Boston, New Bedford, and New York delivery is 35c. The stock at New Bedford is reported small, with a small account held back by fishermen for higher prices. The future of this market is, however, uncertain, as there remains yet two months for fishing from Maine to south side of Long Island, and the conclusion is that prices will depend on this future catch, and it is doubted if export- ers can take any considerable quantity if prices advance too far.

SEPTEMBER 20.

Menhaden oil.—The market remains steady and without change as regards prices since our last. The eastern catch is now about over, yet the fishermen are still hauling up the fish, and the balance of the catch is very uncertain, depending entirely upon the weather; and 33 @ 3oc. is likely to be the ruling prices for at least the balance of September. There is little or no oil in first hands in this market. We note sales of 600 barrels Maine oil at 34e.

SEPTEMBER 27.

Menhaden oil.—The sales for the past week have been only in a job- bing way (ifat all), and prices remain about as last reported. The weather for the past week has been unfavorable for the fishermen, and the main gangs have laid up, while the Long Island fishing is poor. Sales of a parcel of rejections have been made at 30c., but holders seem firm in their views at 34 @ 35c. for prime oil. We note sales of 1,690 bbls. bleached at 445 @ 464c. cash.

OcTOBER 4.

Menhaden oils have been very quiet here, as there have been no arriv- als here of any account, and the market is nominally firm. The only sales are 100 bbls., at 35c. for prime and 30c. for inferior, and 100 bbls. inferior at 30 @ 3le.

Thus far the Sound fishing has been a failure, but they are expecting the fat large fish which have been so plenty in Maine to come to the Sound yet. The fish they are now taking are very small and yield no oil. The Maine fishing has been splendid, and one oil manufacturer is said to have made 10,000 bbls. of oil.

OcTOBER LI.

Menhaden oil is higher, as the fishing in the Sound has not improved.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 347

One fisherman reports having taken only 5 bbls. from 400,000 fish. There are no offerings of any acccunt, and good oil is wanted at 38e., and a choice lot might bring 40c., as the stock in the hands of dealers is small. There have been no sales here this week that we learn of, but last week 100 bbis. brown sold at 35c., 700 bbls. fair at 35¢., and 36 bbls. prime at 37e. OcTOBER 18.

_ Menhaden oil is scarce and higher, as there have been no arrivals. The supply here is mostly in a few dealers’ hands, and there is said to be very little oil left on Long Island Sound, but we also hear that the catch is better in Narragansett than at any time this year, and one maker took 400 bbls. of oil in the last ten days. The price will proba- bly rule firm, however, as the fishing can hardly last long enough to get more than is actually wanted, and should there not be a continuance of the good fishing there may be an actual searcity, which would result in very high prices. At the close, spot oil will bring very high prices, and one party holds good crude at 45c., with a sale of 200 bbls at 42c. The large movement in the East will advance prices there also. The past two days have been too windy for taking fish, and several gangs of fishermen have hauled up. The only sales here are 200 bbls. from sec- ond hand at 38@40c., the latter price paid at the close. We also heard of 250 bbls. Sound oil to arrive, and the make for the balance of the season of the two largest concerns to a dealer at a private price.

OCTOBER 25.

Menhaden oil is firm and active, and advanced prices are likely to be established unless the present fine weather should continue, which will enable the fishermen to make a month’s catch yet, which will likely give a supply sufficient for the wants of the trade, yet the advance in whale- oil may so affect the market as to counteract the coming catch, and thereby cause prices to go still higher. We hear of recent purchases of 300 bbls. of Sound cil which have been put in store at a private price, but probably at 40c.; holders are now asking 45c. here, and we hear of

no sales at less than 42c. for a prime article. NOVEMBER 1.

Menhaden oil is hardly so strong in price as two weeks ago, as the catch in the Sound and Narragansett Bay has improved considerably ; at the former place fish are plenty and fat, vielding a choice oil. There will, however, be no material decline in prices, unless the make should be very large, as the supply in the hands of dealers is not sufiicient to carry them through the season, and there are said to be export orders at 423c. The sales since our last are 350 bblis., Barren Island make, to arrive, at or about 42c. There were arrivals of 400 bbls., which had been sold some ten days or more, at 40c. Pressed oil has been sold in 25-bbl. lots at 45e.

NOVEMBER 8.

Menhaden oil is easier and lower since last week, on account of the

348 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISIIERIES.

larger catch at Barren Island and Narragansett Bay. We hear at the close, however, that the fish are falling off and poorer, yielding only 5 to 6 gallons per thonsand. We hear of sales of 650 bbls., ranging from 38 to 424c., as to quality, with 40c. about the top price that any buyer would pay, and we hear that any bids made for round lots are much

below this figure. NOVEMBER 15.

Menhaden oil is fairly active, with the catch about over. There are only a few fishing gangs and two steamers on the Sound, and the Nar- ragausett fishermen stopped last Saturday. The transactions foot up for the week some 750 bbls. at from 40 to 42c. for prime quality, closing firm, with the large holders asking the higher price. The Maine oil is

held out of market. NOVEMBER 22.

Menhaden oil is steady though not materially changed in price. The fishing season is now about over, and the supply to come forward can- not be great, and many parties look for an advance. The sales are 150 bbls. and 66 bbls., both a little off quality, at 40c. ; 170 bbls. good at 41e., and 200 bbls. choice at 42c. The Maine oil in New Bc dford is held out of market. Bleached is dull at 50c., light strained at 45@46c., bank at

44c., straits at 46c. NOVEMBER 29.

Menhaden oil has ruled firm at an advance for very choice lots; other grades are quiet. The sales are 93 bbls. at 40c., 150 bbls. at 40c., 270 bbls. at 404c., 165 bbls. at 41¢., 100 bbls. at 4245c., and 150 bbis., very choice, at 433ce.

DECEMBER 6.

Menhaden oil is steady, but as trade is moderate the few parcels com- ing to hand will not bring any advance. There are some offerings at the close, but they are not large. The sales reported are 18 bills. ordi- nary, at 40c.; 150 bbls., a mixed lot, light and brown, at 40c.; 160 bbls. choice, at 41¢e.; and 121 do., at 41¢.; also, 180 bbls., at 4Cc. for brown, and 42 for selected.

DECEMBER 13.

Menhaden is quiet, with small sales and few arrivals. The sales re- ported are 240 bbls. prime Sound make, at 404c., and 70 bbis. inferior, dark and strong, at 40c. The business done in pressed and bleached is

rather light at about former prices. DECEMBER 20.

Menhaden oil is very quiet, as arrivals are light, but still dealers would not be inclined to buy until after the new year. Holders ask 40@42c., with buyers wi.ling to pay about 40@41c. Sales, 50 bbls. good Sound make, at 41e. There is areport that a sale was made of 400 bbls. Maine oil in New Bedford, at 44c., but we have not the report verified.

DECEMBER 27. Menhaden oil is very quiet, as arrivals are light, but still dealers would not be inclined to buy until after the new year. Holders ask

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 349

41@42c., with buyers willing to pay about 40@41e. Sales of 50 bbls. prime Sound make, at 41c., and 60 bbls. light colored, a little off in quality, at 40$c. Weare informed that a bid of 44c. from Boston has been refused for a large line of Maine make.

1877. JANUARY 3. Menhaden oil is very quiet, as arrivals are light, but still dealers would not be inclined to buy at any advance. Holders ask 41@435c., with buyers willing to pay about 40@42c. No sales reported. We have noticed that the annual meeting of the Menhaden Association will be held Jan. 10th, at New York. . JANUARY 10. Menhaden oil has been quiet for some time past, and dealers would not take hold except at some concession in price, but this the holders were not inclined to grant, and there were few sales for several weeks past; but within a few days there were sales of 1,000 bbls. Maine make in New Bedford, to go to Boston, said to be off in quality, and we sup- pose the price not to be far off from 40c. In addition to this, 468 bbls. sold to come here, and 590 bbls. Sound make sold here; but we are requested to withhold terms. There was a lot of 150 bbls. offering within the past day or two, but was not sold that we hear of. The above transactions would indicate an easier market, but the advance in cot- ton-seed oils may cause a firmer tone. JANUARY 17. Menhaden oil is not changed, but.is dull. Holders are, however, gen- erally firm, and look for an improvement in price later on in the season.

JANUARY 24. Menhaden oil has been very quiet, and there have been but few sales for several weeks past. Prices are maintained, as the stock is light. The only sales we hear of are 50 bbls. prime, at 42c., and 75 bbls. light

pressed, at 46c. JANUARY 31. Menhaden oil remains nominal, as there are no arrivals, no demand, and no sales. The advance in cotton-seed oil, however, is expected to have an effect on these. . FEBRUARY 7.

Menhaden oil has not moved to any extent since our last, and prices have not improved. The only sale we hear of is a lot of 100 bbls. prime

light at 45e cash. FEBRUARY 14.

Menhaden oil is dull and the price is quite nominal, as there has been no sales in the regular way for some time past. Buyers’ ideas are 40 @ 4\c. for good Sound oil, while sellers hold for 2 @ 3c. higher prices. It is reported that a Boston party has bid 45ce. for a Jot of Maine oil, and this was refused. Pressed and manufactured oils are not changed in price, but a small parcel of the former is said to have been sold low for cash.

350 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

FEBRUARY 21. Menhaden oil still remains quiet, and we do not hear of much offering from first hands. Some of the smaller dealers are in small stock, and we beard that 150 bbls. very handsome late fall catch sold from second

hands at 42c., and 78 bbls. do. at 424c. FEBRUARY 28.

Menhaden oil is a little more active, as the stock in the hands of some dealers is becoming light. Sales are 150 lbs. erude at 42c. on spot, and 180 bbls. to arrive at 414 c., both for home use.

MARCH 7. Menhaden oil tee been offering more freely the past week, those hav- ing stocks being inclined to market them before the new season begins. Dealers are not willing to buy except at low prices, and we heard of sales of 100 bbls. Maine at 41e., and 159 bbls. Sound at 40e. Pressed and manufactured menhaden is easier, and we heard of 100 bbls. sold

for export at 424e.

MARCH 21. Menhaden oil is dull and offering more freely, with buyers holding off and bidding 39c. Most sellers are firm, however, and one of the largest holders asks 45c. for Maine catch. The price is unsettled and nominal, and may advance or decline in the near future. The only transaction we hear of is 125 lbs. Maine at 41e. Pressed oil is offering low from Boston, but a special lot which can be had at 41c. laid down here is

said to be off quality. MARCH 21.

Menhaden oil is still quiet, but the stock is becoming reduced and chiefly in the hands of one party. One parcel of Maine has recently been closed out, though mostly reported by us before. There was in

all some 850 bbls., and brought from 41 to 42e. MARCH 28. Menhaden oil continues quiet, though there is rather more inquiry, some for export, but, as a rule, limits are far below the market price. The only sales we hear of since our last are 70 bbls. for export at 41c., and 50 bbls. for home use at 41c.; both lots were Maine make. We also heard of a sale of 100 bbls. choice pressed at 434e. APRIL 4. Menhaden oil has been very dull for some time past and is lower in price, good quality offering here at 40c. without finding buyers. There have been no sales here, but in New Bedford a sale of 500 bbls. dark- colored is reported sold to go to Boston at a private price. The manu- factured fish-oils are in little better demand, but prices are easy.

APRIL 11. Menhaden oils are easier, as those holding supplies of crude have been anxious to sell, and purchasers could be induced to take stock only ‘by liberal concessions from holders. The trade generally have a suffi-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. oD

cient stock to supply their wants till new oil reaches market, but should the catch be later than usual there might be a week or more of scarcity; but dealers are generally willing to take their chances rather than buy at present. The sales reported are 307 bbls. on private terms. There

was a lot, a little off quality, sold at 38c. APRIL 18.

Menhaden oil has been weak and drooping for some time pas., and to sell low, prices would have to be accepted. There was an export de- mand bunt at a low price which has been accepted for 1,000 bbls. The terms are kept quiet, but a similar lot would probably not bring better than 35 @ 36c. We hear of a small lot of Southern new in market, but no price has yet been named for it.

APRIL 25.

Menhaden oil has been offering freely of late by parties who held stock over from last season in anticipation of higher prices this spring. The consuming trade have taken less than usual and prices were held too high all winter, and until recently, for exporters to make purchases. During the past two weeks, however, holders determined to make sales, and as it would not be taken at home, prices were named that met the views of shippers, and some 3,000 bbls. have been placed for shipment, said to have been at 35 & 38c.; this includes sales reported in last issue, since which we hear of 175 bbls. at 35c., 900 bbls. Maine at 38c., and 500 bbls. on private terms. The first new oil came in last week, a small lot of 11 bbls. Southern, and a little off in flavor ; this was sold at 334¢e., a full price.

MAY 2.

Manhaden oil was easy just previous to our last report and there were sellers at 354c., but the following day buyers for export came into market and paid 37$c., delivered, for 500 bbls. A sale was then made for home use of 300 bbls. at 37c. and since 100 bbls. at same price. At the close there are further negotiations for export, but holders have ad- vanced their views. A Long Island newspaper of last week contains the following item, which shows that fishing has commenced :

“ Bunkers caught in the pounds, but not many yet. Cassidy Bros. at Asshamomoque took 3,000 one night. The purse-net gangs were out early in the week, but got no fish until Wednesday, when Capt. I. Tall- man took 57,000 and Capt. Jas. Downs about 80,000 fish of very good quality, all of them being quite fat for so early in the season. Capt. Mart. Griffing also took 100,000 the same day.”

MAy 9.

Menhaden oil has come to hand freely, and that of the new catch is unusually handsome. During the last week one commission mer- chant sold 1,000 bbls. for export as it arrives at 37 @ 38c. The re- cent sales reported are 100 bbls. new at 36c.; 25 Dbbls., 36c.; 250 bbls. old on private terms, said to be 38c. At the close there is not much offering, and the market is steady at 37c. A Greenport, L. I., journal of the 5th says:

352 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

“The season has opened this year more successfully than ever be- fore. We gave a few figures last week of the first day’s catch by some of the gangs on Gardiner’s and Peconic Bays. On Friday and Saturday Capt. J. 8. Biggs took 247,500, and on Monday he took 250,000. Capt. Mart. Griffing also made large hauls, but we did not get the precise figures; however, up to May 2d he was ‘high hook,” having taken about 670,000, while the next nearest catch was that of Capt. Talman, who had taken 635,000. On the Ist, seven steamers, including two from Connecticut and two from Rhode Island, were fish- ing in the bays.”

May 16.

Menhaden oil is steady, as the export sales for the past few weeks have left no surplus on the market, and dealers are not very well supplied. The arrivals for the past week have not been large, and fishing is said to have fallen off a little. The sales reported are 20 bbls. dark at 36c., 200 bbls. prime at 374c., 60 bbls. at 38¢., and a small lot of Southern at 35c. A Greenport journal says:

‘““The catch of menhaden has been light this week. Unfavorable weather and the departure from the bays of the first ‘run’ of fish, have prevented most of the gangs from getting many. On Tuesday, Capt. Tallman, of stmr. E. F. Price, took 150,000. in the ocean off East- hampton.”

A Sag Harbor journal of the 10th says:

“ During the last two weeks the bunker or menhaden fishery has been very brisk, exceeding that of any previous season of late, both as to the fatness of the first run and as to the time of striking on the coast, the fish coming into our waters some two weeks earlier than usual, and making four to five gallons of oil to the thousand. Duar- ing last week the Sterling Oil-Works at Cedar Point took in 800,009 fish, and in three days of the same week Wells’s factory took 1,000,006.”

MAY 23. Menhaden oil is not coming to hand very freely, as the catch of late has not been very good, and most of the new had been sold be- fore for shipment. The old stock is about closed out. The sales re- ported are 900 bbls. old and 300 bbls. new, for shipment at’37 @ 371e.

50 bbls. new at 36c., and 75 bbls. at 35 @ 37e. MAy 30.

Menhaden oil is rather easier at the close. The catch has been fair, but the export orders had been mostly filled, and the Iccs are now coming on the home markets. The sales reported are 160 bbls. at 37c., 110 bbls. at 36}¢., and 70 bbls. at 36c., with sellers at the close at this price.

JUNE 6.

Menhaden oil has been more plenty and prices have declined as home buyers were getting full supplies and exporters not taking. The market closes quiet. The sales since our last are 70 bbls. at 36$e., 90 bbls. at 36c., 80 bbls. at 35¢., and 250 bbls. at 34e. /

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 303

JUNE 13. Menhaden oil has settled down to 54c., at which price there has been a good trade doing, and the market seems steady with the fol- lowing parcels placed: 400 bbls. at 35c., 150 bbls. at 34c., 75 bbls. at 34c., 50 bbls. at 34c., 94 bbls. at 34e., 62 bbls. at 34c., and 110

bbls. at 34e. JUNE 20.

Menhaden oil has come to hand quite freely, but prime quality has ruled steady at 34c., though some off-grade was offered to-day at 33e. The sales reported for the week are 250 bbls. at 34c., 80 bbls. at 34e., 96 bbls. at 34¢e., and 156 bbls. at 333ce. Light strained oil can

be had at 38c., bank at 39¢., and straits at 40c. JUNE 27.

Menhaden oil has come to hand quite freely, but a good deal had been sold before, a small part for export. The market is steady, with buyers at 33e., but it would be difficult to get a much higher price for a round lot. The sales reported are 300 bbls. at 35c., 156 bbls. at o0ec., 67 bbls. at 33c., and 50 bbls. at 334c. We also hear of 200 bbls. in New Bedford on private terms. We print an-item below which would show that the catch is large, but we hear since by let- ter that the fish are running poor, and the oil from them dark.

‘“‘For the first time this season some considerable numbers of men- haden were taken in Gardiner’s and Peconic Bays last week. On Mon. day Capt. E. Tallman took 64,000 in the lower bay ; and again on Friday, after taking 150,000 at two dips in the ocean to the southward of Ama- gansett, in coming up to the factory he got 60,000 from them, making his day’s catch 210,000. Capt. Israel Warner also made several good hauls of fish in the upper bay, the first we have heard of in that vicinity. While the quantity of fish in the outer ocean has been practically lim- itless, and every gang who could go outside to get them has been able on every fair day to make good catches, by a remarkable departure from the usual fact heretofore, few or no fish have entered the bays. Indeed, it is asserted that of all those so far rendered into oil and guano at the factories on shore, or in its limits, not one million in all have been caught in the bay. Opinions differ as to the cause or causes of this result, but the general belief is that the presence of food has been the determining element in the question. Food has been and continues abundant in the ocean, hence the fish stay outside. Except for a few days of thick fog the weather has been quite favorable, and many fish continue to be taken.

“Greenport, L. I., June 23.” JULY 4.

Menhaden oil has ruled steady, with no great surplus offering, the arrivals being moderate, and some lots taken for export. The sales re- ported are 250 bbls. at 32$c., 75 bbls. at 323c. for home use, and 200 bbls. at 33c., free on board for export.

“Steamer E. S. Newins, Capt. J. W. Hawkins, was in port on Wednes-

23 F

354 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

day. On Tuesday she took 125,000 menhaden in the ocean off Quogue, and reports immense bodies of the fish at that place. It is alsoreported that the shore seines along the Hamptons have been taking great quan- tities of the fish lately. The advantage of employing steamers is shown strongly in the fact that the Newins on her Tuesday trip out and back traveled about 150 miles, a distance quite out of the question for sailing

vessels.”—Long Island Journal, June 30, 1877. JULY 11,

Menhaden oil is not coming on the market in large lots,as a good deal of the arrivals are going on shipboard. The different sales for home use that we hear of are 78 bbls. at 324c., 60 bbls. at 324c., 80 bbls. at 324c., 46 bbls. at 325¢., and 71 bbls. at 323c.

JULY 18, 1877.

Menhaden oil came to hand sparingly last week, the fishing both in the Sound and on the coast of Maine having been poor for some time past. The reports to-day are, however, more favorable. The market has been steady, but not active; no export orders at the moment. The sales reported are 150 bbls. at 324c., 58 bbls. at 33¢.; and a lot of 100 bbls. good, fair quality was offering to-day at the latter price.

The total exports from the United States, from January to June 30th,

were 11,010 bbls. JULY 25.

Menhaden is in small demand for home use. The arrivals are light, but fully up to the wants of the trade. Prices are steady, with sales of

110 bbls. at 324c., and 64 bbls. at 33c. AUGUST 1.

Menhaden oil has not come to hand since our last, and the receipts during July are probably as small as we ever knew them. The demand here is not large, however, and we do not know that better than 323 @ 30e. would be paid. The catch in the Sound is only fair, and the Maine fishing thus far quite poor. The Boston market is poorly supplied, and are bidding 34e., delivered, with sales of several lots at the Connecticut factories at 324 @ 338¢.

AUGUST 8.

Menhaden oil is very much stronger here, though not much higher on actual business. The Maine catch being light, New Bedford and Boston dealers have had to go direct to the Long Island and Sound factories and buy, and we hear that they have bought at 323 @ 33d4e. at the fac- tory, equal to 35c. delivered. In consequence of these sales we have had very little oil here, and these lots are promptly taken on arrival. The sales reported are 200 bbls. Barren Island at 334c., and two lots of 50

bbls. each at 33e. AvuGUST 15.

Menhaden oil has not come to this market to any extent of late, and the price is higher. There have been few sales for want of stock. We heard that 175 bbls. were placed at 34 @ 344c¢., with 35c. now bid, and possibly 36c. will be paid. Sales are reported in the East as high as 40c. Bleached oil is higher also, as well as all the other gra‘tes.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 355

AUGUST 22. Menhaden oil is not coming in, and the price is very much higher, with one sale of 100 bbls. prime at 36c., with other sales of 250 bbls. reported

at 35c., which price will now be paid. * AUGUST 29.

Menhaden oil scarce and higher, with exceedingly small arrivals, the Maine fishery being very poor, and Eastern dealers drawing their sup- plies from the Sound catch. We are receiving very little here, and our dealers are short of stock. The sales reported since our last are 128 bbls. brown at 36c., and 75 bbls. select light at 38c. Strained and

bleached are higher. SEPTEMBER 5.

Menhaden oil is scarce, and higher prices would be paid for lots, but there are none arriving. It is difficult to say what could be obtained, but probably 38c., though some dealers say they would not pay more than 35c. If the present scarcity continues prices will go above 40c.

very soon. SEPTEMBER 12.

Eastern buyers are visiting the Long Island Sound factories, picking up all the menhaden oil they can find. Makers are, however, generally holding for higher prices, expecting to get 45c. soon. One lot has been

sold equivalent to 42c. delivered. SEPTEMBER 19.

Menhaden oil is scarce here, and there are no sales for want of stock; prices are nominal, but a lot would probably bring somewhere near 45ce. if nice. We hear that 500 bbls. sold in New Bedford at 45c. cash, and 300 bbls. at works on Long Isl’d at 43c. Bleached oils are higher, and 250 bbls. sold at 50c.

SEPTEMBER 26.

Menhaden oil is not to be had, and though a higher price would be paid, we donot know whatit would be. It is hoped that fishing will yet be good before cold weather sets in. There has been a good demand for bleached, which is now higher also; sales were made of 100 bbls. at 51¢.,

and 50 bbls. at 52ce. OCTOBER 3.

Menhaden oil is still very firm, and the lots coming in are readily taken ac high prices. The last catch of fish at Maine was good, but all except two factories were closed, and the make was consequently small. The fishermen are now at Provincetown, awaiting the fish as they go _ down the coast. It is hoped that the catch may yet be good, but it can- not make up the deficiency. The sales reported here are 215 bbls. at 44c., 100 bbls. at 44c., 100 bbls. resold at 44c., and 120 bbls. at 44e. cash; in New Bedford, 300 bbls. Maine at 45c., 250 bbls. at 45¢., and 100 bbls. at 45c. Bleached is firmer and in good demand, with sales of 250

bbls. here at 52e. OCTOBER 10.

Menhaden oil is still in limited supply and firm in price, though we are reported sales by one party of 300 bbls. at 43 @ 44c. We know, how-

356 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 2

ever, of sales of 150 bbls. here at 44c., and hear that there has been some business done in the Hast at 47e.

A letter from New Haven,-dated October 8, 1877, says: ‘“* The stormy weather of a portion of last week reduced what would have been a small catch of menhaden anyway to a very meagre amount. They ran one grade better than previously, and it is hoped a radical change of quality is very near. Fishermen in the usual quality of their ‘devotions’ are

praying for quiet weather.” OCTOBER 17.

Menhaden oil still rules very firm with few lots to be had. There have been some sales of Sound made at 44 @ 45c., with none offering at the close that we hear of. In reference to the catch we have the fol- lowing under date of October 15, 1877:

‘‘There were but two fishing days last week on Long Island Sound, owing to winds. The catch was good as to quantity, but still poor in quality. The season lasts but about a month longer, and impatience is

felt for the appearance of fat fish.” OCTOBER 24.

Menhaden has cometohand more freely the past week than at any time this season, and indirectly we hear that fishing at Provincetown and vicinity is good; that several of the Maine factories are running on the fish their boats catch there, and that there is a possibility of the de- ficiency being yet nearly made up, the fish being very fat. The stocks here in the hands of dealers are very light, but they also report a very moderate demand, tanners using cod, degras, and other greases in place of menhaden. There is a cargo of 600 bbls. of Maine oil in, a part of which is reported sold to a dealer at 46c., and sales are said to have been mede in New Bedford at as high as 47c. There were sales here, however, of prime light Sound make of 100 bbls. on spot at 45c., and 100 bbls. to arrive at 45c., with the close easy. Bleached is easy, and we do not hear of any late sales; holders ask 52 @ 52sec.

From New Haven, October 20, 1877, a correspondent says:

‘“‘ We do not hear that a menhaden has been caught this week any- where west of Massachusetts. It is hoped to be the interval between the change of plays, where the farce ends and the solid piece begins.

Fat fish are now looked for daily.” OCTOBER 31, 1877.

Menhaden has been quiet the past week, the lots coming in having mostly been placed before arrival. We only hear of a lot of 75 bbls. choice, which brought 45c., and other lots are offering at this figure.

NOVEMBER 7. Menhaden oil has been offering more freely, and with buyers’ ideas a little lower. Sales have been made of 500 bbls. at 44 @ 45c. Bleached winter is quoted higher by some parties, but can still be had at 523 @

53c. Banix and Straits are steady. NOVEMBER 14,1877.

Menhaden oil has been in fair request during the past week and par-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 35%

cels have been taken at previous figures, and we hear of sales of 250 bbls. Sound oil at 443 @ 45c., 116 bbls. at 44$c., 500 bbls. at 45e., and 250 bbls. at 44 @ 45c. The close is rather quiet, as but few lots are offer- ing. Bleached is held at 53 @ 54c., with sales of 50 bbls. at 538e. Banks and Straits quiet and steady at 48 @ 50ce.

A correspondent from New Haven, under date of November 12, says: “Fat menhaden were caught the first week in this month, but owing to the strong winds and stormy weather the aggregate was quite small. Last week gave but a small quantity and they were quite poor, about 13 gall. tothethousand. This week willclose most of the fishing unless there is a change in quantity and quality. The fishermen are greatly disap- pointed in the result of their fall work.”

NOVEMBER 21.

Menhaden is strong, as the catch is now said to beabout over. There have been sales of 300 bbls. crude at 444 @ 45c. Bleached is jobbing at 53c., and a lot of 50 bbls. sold at this price, 60 days’ time.

NOVEMBER 28. Menhaden is firm, and prime light oil on spot will bring 45c., at which price we heard of a sale of 100 bbls.; also 228 bbls. to arrive at 44%c., and 78 bbls. brown, on spot, at 443c. Bleached is in fair demand, with prices ruling about steady ; 60 bbls. sold at 53c., 60 days. DECEMRER 5. Menhaden oil has ruled very firm, and there has been a good demand, with stocks in the hands of the dealers not large. The sales reported are 500 bbls. at 45c., 250 bbls. at 45c., and 280 bbls. dark at 44e. Bleached winter is selling fairly, and we note 150 bblis., at 523¢., with

some now asking an advance. iS iseeee D wel ae

Menhaden oil is steady, but very quiet. The offerings are moderate, but buyers are not wanting any, except very choice of the last catch. We do not hear of any sales; prime would bring 45 @ 454c., and choice light-colored 46 @ 464c. Bleached is steady and in demand, with 100 bbls. reported sold at 523c. cash. Bank and Straits are in light de-

mand at former prices. Deum

Menhaden oil is firm, and the lots coming to hand are readily taken. There was a cargo in last week, about 500 bbis., 150 bbls. of which sold at 44 @ 45c., 100 bbls. were delivered on a contract made early last summer at 33c., and the balance went into store. Bleached sold last

week at 523c. DECEMBER 26.

Menhaden oil has been rather quiet, with a few lots coming in. We heard of a sale of 128 bbls. at 44c., but the price generally quoted is 45¢c. Bleached js steady, with a sale of 50 bbls. reported at 525c.

JANUARY 2, 1878. Menhaden oil has not sold since our last report that we hear of. A lot could not have been sold at its real value. Weunderstand that 45ce. is about the price dealers have marked their stock in taking account.

358 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

APPENDIX L.

Annual proceedings of the United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Asso- ciation. ~

FIRST ANNUAL MEETING.

At a meeting of the menhaden oil and fish guano manufacturers of Maine, Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and. New Jersey, held in New York January 7, an association was formed, to be known as “The United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association.” A constitution and articles of association were adopted.

The meeting organized with R. L. Fowler of Guilford, Conn., as chair- man, and Luther Maddocks, of Booth Bay, Me., as secretary. Aftersome discussion a committee on statistics was appointed, with instructions to’ report as soon as possible. The committee was as follows: Mr. L. Mad- docks, Maine; Mr. Church, from Rhode Island; Mr. Price, from Long Island; and Mr. Fairchild, from Connecticut.

Mr. Fairchild, as chairman, reported as follows: Number of factories in operation, 62; amount of capital invested, $2.588,000; number of fishermen employed, 1,197; number of men employed at factories, 1,109; number of sailing-vessels employed, 383; number of steamers employed, 20; total number of fish caught, 1,193,100 barrels (250 fish to barrel) ; total of oil made, 2,214,800 gallons; total amount of guano made, 36,299 tons. Stock in hand of manufacturers, 484,520 gallons oil and 2,700 tons guano. :

The meeting then voted to appoint a committee on permanent organi- zation and to report a constitution and by-laws. This committee con- sisted of Mr. J. G. Nickerson, Boston; Mr. Thomas F. Price, Greenport, Long Island, and Mr. H. L. Dudley, New Haven. Their report was accepted and the constitution adopted, and the following officers chosen for the ensuing year: President, Luther Maddocks, of Booth Bay, Me.; vice-presidents, George I’. Tuthill, Greenport, Long Island, and R. L. Fowler, Guilford, Conn.; secretary and treasurer, H. L. Dudley, New Haven; executive committee, Luther Maddocks, Booth Bay, Me., David KF. Vail, River-head, Long Island, B. F. Brightman, Round Pond, Me.

Constitution and by-laws of the United States Menhaden Oil and Guano Association.

NEw YorK, January 7, 1874.

Whereas the manufacture of menhaden oil and fish guano has become identified as one of the important industries of this country; therefore

Resolved, That we, the manufacturers, with the view of rendering to each other mutual aid and assistance, do hereby form ourselves into an association for this purpose, and to be governed by the following con- stitution:

ARTICLE 1. This association shall be called the ‘‘ United States Men- haden Oil and Guano Association.”

HISTORY OF FHE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 359

t

ART. 2. The officers shall be a president, two vice-presidents, secre- tary and treasurer, and executive committee.

ART. 3. the president shall preside at all meetings of the association. In the absence of the president either of the vice-presidents may preside. In the absence of all these officers a president shall be chosen pro tem.

ArT. 4. The secretary shall keep a faithful record of all buisness transacted at each meeting of the society, and shall notify members of all meetings by written or printed notice.

Art. 5. The treasurer shall have charge of all funds belonging to the association, and shall pay them out only by order of the executive com- mittee,

ART. 6. The executive committee shall consist of three, of which the - president shall be one. They shall have power to raise money to meet the expenses of the association by an equitable assessment of each mem- ber, and shall have a general supervision of all the affairs and business of the association not otherwise provided for.

Art. 7. The annual meeting of this association shall be held on the 2d Wednesday of January annually. The place of meeting shall be determined by a majority of the executive committee, and a notice shall be mailed by the secretary to each member of the association fifteen days previous to the time of meeting.

ART. 8. Special meetings of the association may be called at any time by the executive committee, aud upon a written request signed by five members addressed to the president. Notice of all such meetings shall be mailed by the secretary to each member ten days previous to the time of meeting.

ART. 9. Any person, or any member of any company, engaged in the manufacture of menhaden oil and fish guano in the United States may become a member of the association by subscribing to this constitution and these articles of association.

ART. 10. Each firm or company shall be entitled to but one vote at meetings of the association.

ART. 11. The officers of this association shall be chosen annually by ballot, and shall hold their office for one year or until others are chosen.

ART. 12. This constitution may be amended at any annual meeting, or special meeting called for that purpose, by a two-thirds vote of the members present.

ART, 15. Nine members shall constitute a quorum, but a less number may adjourn.

SECOND ANNUAL MEETING—1874.

The report of the statistical committee was as follows:

memper of factories in Operation -..-.. 006 ene ecce wore 64 Number of men employed atvfactories.........--.-..... é 871 ERE ATV CBRE IS ioe) x ia'o0 6, =. «ic. wai ainiche buslermeeieeeelemelw 0 « 283

360 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Number of men employed in fishing .......-...2..-.2.-6 ‘ 1, 567 Amount of capital invested os. |i. Ws. hae eee ete ss $2, 500, OVO Number of fish eaug@hiems hs. .'.\. 00a. Ue See ee eer 492, 878, 000 Hstiinated: im tbarnelis7aii.2.. 2:2. Abe ei. che Bee a 1, 478, 634 Tons of suanomames ye -.... Reale ees Jae eee eye 50, 946 Gallons.0f /oilemadene's 2.5 12 ule eed ee jeepey 3, 372, 857 Guano on hand January 13, 1875 .,2<..53 2.2. o2ec8) tons.. 5, 200 Oil onshand January 13, 1875 e260 Sesleri gallons... * 648, 000

THIRD ANNUAL MEETING—1875.

The third annual meeting of this association was held at the Aldrich House, Providence, R. I., January 12,1876. The following-named man- ufacturers were present: R. L. Fowler, Connecticut; L. Maddocks, Maine; F. E. Colburn, Connecticut; E. T. Dublois, Rhode Island ; George W. Miles, Connecticut; B. F. Brightman, Maine; Daniel T. Church, Rhode Island; William J. Brightman, Rhode Island; Isaac Brown, Rhode Island; John Southworth, Rhode Island; Frederick Galiup, Connecticut; B. F. Gallup, Connecticut ; S. Jones, New York; V. Koon & Son, New York; J. H. Bishop, Connecticut, William Holmes, Connecticut ; Job T. Wilson, Massachusetts; H. L. Dudley, Connec- ticut.

The president, R. L. Fowler, being in the chair, the minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.

The treasurer’s report was read, examined, and accepted.

The committee on statistics reported as follows:

Number of factories in operation in 1874 ..........65 22 ce08 ee 64 Number of factories in operation in 1875 ........... obi SHWE 60 Meerease we. 2... 02 sb) Oe eee ee eee Poae 4 Number of men employed in 1874 _......-. ihc ee ois She oe 2,438 Number of men employed in 1875 i.26.o3 ee atiee eee ete 2, 633 HNCHeASee cus cw sheesh elie. .b'sls eet aT hte eee 195 Number of sailing-vessels employed in 1874............._-.--- 2838 Number of sailing-vessels employed in 1875.........-.-. ..-.. 04 Inerease--...-- dA aieecavettorete GRRE Nee 26 w each sia ole bo ciate eee 21 Number of steam-vessels employed iho hoy (: SO ae anne Aes ee 4.3, 3 25 Number.of steam-vessels employed in 1875........... ..--2.--. 39 TRCTCASE o.oo 6 oo ciel ate se ete om = cin Cie ee ee eee 14

* The full records of this meeting were not to be obtained.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. O61

Number of fish caught in 1874.....- 492, 878, 000, or 1, 642, 927 barrels. Number of fish caught in 1875...... 063, 327, 000, or 1,877, 767 barrels. Increase....... a ane te ees 70, 449, 000, or 734,840 barrels. Number of gallons of oil made in 1874................... 3, 912, 847 Number of gallons of oil made in 1875.................-. 2, 681, 487 MBEENEASE. we lawn wanes oa tte aan elas ene cn oo oe 691, 360 Number of tons of guano made in 1874 .................. 50, 976 Wamber of tons of guano made 187d -..-..-- 2.2... 2... 53, 625 MACHCASO see ee an sos sss e's Seéboe or Spa etn een \.0 2, 649 monGuayaer capital invested In 1875.0... 0.02.25 ode 5c sees $2, 500, 000 Amount of capital invested in 1876.............. oa oe eee ey O50, 000 ESS Dd ce BAe ages aa a BRS neob acide 150, 009

Number of gallons of oil held by manufacturers January

SM eri ict has a cle Se. wc vices ics actos nee 648, 000 Number of gallons of oil held by manufacturers January ROO O ons nt acces ys teste Bean eae nie sin oe Gs enegre 125, 000

Number of gallons in manfacturers’ hands less than at an- nual meeting in 1875 ......... Sree pec om tee iaa nie sereys 525, 000

Number of tons guano held by manufacturers January 12,

eRe ae ratte et ste Ree ee oP, uate Be AE acta! Go sn ee 5, 200 Number of tons guano held by manufacturers January 12, ETO ga case's Ss RIE Le cat ESB ae gee tl eee toss Ae 2 1, 850

Number of tons guano held by manufacturers, less than in old vse | BARS UE OR sec) ic Gee Ae are 3, 350

The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Rh. L. Fowler, Guilford, Conn.; first vice-president, B. Frank Gallup, Groton, Conn.; second vice-president, Daniel T. Church, Tiverton, R. I.; secretary and treasurer, H. L. Dudley, New Haven, Conn.; executive committee, RK. L. Fowler, Connecticut, V. Koon, New York, Isaac Brown, Rhode Island.

A letter from the Hon. S. L. Goodale, of Saco, Me., was presented to the association by Mr. Maddocks, and read by the secretary. It was listened to with much pleasure and interest, and the secretary was di- rected to incorporate the substance of the letter in bis report. It stated that the writer had discovered a process for making, from the juices of

362 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

the menhaden, an extract similar to the article now so extensively man- ufactured and sold as * extract of beef,” and that the juices of the men- haden were better for this purpose than those of any other fish yet tested. Mr. Goodale is confident that “ now, for the first time, is the true function of this fish in the economy of nature recognized,” and that the time is not far distant when the principal product sought for from it will be its concentrated juices, while the quantity of oil and scrap obtained will not be noticeably diminished, as this process util- izes that portion of the fish which has formerly been, and by the present mode of manufacture is still, allowed to go to waste. In support of his discovery, Mr. Goodale quotes from a letter received from that emi- nent and reliable chemist, Prof. Samuel W. Johnson, of Yale College, as follows: ‘I cannot doubt that the fish extract is entirely new, and, «8 food, is equal to beef extract in all respects (except, possibly, in the matter of iron), and, if put into the market in proper shape, would shortly share the patronage now so largely bestowed on beef extract.” It is hoped that some practical test of this discovery will soon be made.

Some interesting facts and figures were presented by Messrs. Mad- docks, Brightman, and Church, upon the shrinkage of fish during the process of manufacture, and in the difference in yield of scrap from the . same number of fish at different factories.

An article was read from the New York Commercial Bulletin giving some facts concerning the foreign and domestic trade in fish serap. Some four thousand tons of scrap were stated to have been recently shipped to Liverpool and Queenstown, as the result of some experi- mental shipments made last year. There is also a growing demand in the West Indies. It is evident that both the foreign and domestie de- mand for fish scrap is rapidly increasing.

The following resolution was freely discussed and unanimously passed:

“ Resolved, That all guano or scrap manufactured by members of this association shall be sold at the weight taken at the factory of the seller.”

Particular attention is called to the above resolution, as it is a matter of no little importance whether the scrap is weighed at the place of - shipment or place of delivery, and there is no doubt the buyers of scrap will see the justice of this resolution and readily accede to it. All present pledged themselves to rigidly adhere to the resolution.

An adjourned meeting of the association will be held at the Aldrich House, Providence, R. I, on Wednesday, April 5, 1876, at 10 o’clock

a.m. H. L. DUDLEY, Secretary. NEw HAVEN, January 15, 1876.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 363 FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING.

The fourth annual meeting of this association was held at the United States Hotel, New York, January 10, 1877, the president, R. L. Fowler, in the chair... The minutes of the last meeting were read and accepted ; the treasurer’s report was read and accepted ; the committee on statis- tics reported as follows:

Number of factories in operation in 1876 ...........---... 64 Number of factories in operation in 1875 ........ rhs bio #50 60 RMN Sit w(statata inate u tee wire OS Ses be: 4. Number of sail-vessels employed in 1876 ..........--.-.- 320 Number of sail-vessels employed in 1875 .......-..-....-. 304 LI CoRR a ee eer mercer Sie OL ee 16 Number of steam-vessels employed in 1876 .............-. 46 Number of steam-vessels employed in 1875 ...... eee 3 RateBeer e ne fet eat Sen ao wt Sie ha oO Ee 7 Number of men employed in 1876 ..........-........ 004- gona iays) MmniperoL men emp oyed 1m 1875-0. 0.2.2 2.55) ae 2, 633 RN la aera ian A al ayes ogg Sinan 6 Seba aisles =o: s/behe 125 mINouNt Of Capital invested mr1876...... 0. 2-256 se2 2 eee 2, 758, 080 PMOL OF Capital INVESLEG 1 TSO. . os ovecne = cine a= oe aoe 2, 659, 090 Gale cain et. «nin Dg ghar SEA ese Cel See 100, 000 SMber or fish caucht M1876. 05. 4... nccc6 ene --0- ++ = 512, 450, 000 Met Ob. 1151 CAN OING ITO Dein nm, a5 o.-1 05) <1 tas 9 - «pe = oe 563, 327, 000 LIS Re APR eee So Ue re 50, 877, 000 Estimated by barrels in 1876........- EE ee es ~-25 Jos DseSo TLC DV) WAUECIS I 1S( Ol oon 225 o- 10 5 oc eos a0 50 cine 1, 877, 767 1 0:0) eee AA SEL EER OPP Oe. S84 o41, 882 Number of gallons of oil made in 1876..........-.....-. 2, 992, 6CO Number of gallons of oil made in 1875.................- 2, 681, 487

364 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH: AND FISHERIES.

Number of tons of guano made in 1876 .....-........... 51, 245 Number of tons of guano made in 1875........../..-.... 53, 625 TOSS. SE Nate cle chen ain. eee mle fats ie ine ete ate 2, 380 Number of gallons of oil held by manufacturers January 10 USTs oct one ee .. + = <2 -ir ie elaine Bi oe er 264, 000 Number of gallons of oil held by manufacturers January 1 VST O Soe ee patos 9% 20: wininvesne See DEORE EEE ald eee *125, 000 In excess of amount held January, 1876........... 139, 090

LOW Ti See RRR eee ey fae a eae cya ea 7, 275

Number of tons of guano held by manufacturers jane, 12, HOUD iste See. Arh 28525 EIS Aa, Somer arieeysepciy ranges ris a3 5, 200 In excess of amount held January 12,1876........ 2, 075

The report of the committee on statistics was accepted. ‘This report is believed to be the most accurate and full of any yet obtained ky the association, and the committee are much indebted to Mr. Jasper Pryer for information received and assistance rendered. The officers were chosen for the ensuing year by ballott, and were as follows: President, hk. L. Fowler, Guilford, Conn.; first vice-president, Daniel T. Church, Tiverton, R. I.; second vice-president, B. Frank Gallup, Groton, Conn. ; secretary and treasurer, H. L. Dudley, New Haven, Conn.; executive committee, R. L. Fowler, Guilford, Conn., George I’. Tuthill, Green- port, N. Y., B. F. Brightman, Round Pond, Me.

epiation for admission aS members was made by persons not man- ufacturers of, but dealers in, oil and guano. After some discussion it was decided to postpone any action upon the matter until the next annual meeting, notice of which is to be given to the applicants by the secretary. Hon. 8. L. Goodale, of Saco, Me., made an address upon the food properties of the menhaden, and produced samples of an extract obtained from menhaden, which has been pronounced by the most emi- nent scientific authorities quite equal in nutritious properties to the well-known beef extract. The menhaden extract was sampled by the association, and not unfavorably compared with the beef extract, a sample of which was also on trial. It is hoped that the successful development of this new branch of the menhaden industry is not far distant. A vote of thanks was given Mr. Goodale for his address.

*N. B.—In the estimate of oil held by manufacturers, January 12, 1876, oil at New Bedford was not included, therefore the stock held January, 1877, by manufacturers, is about the same as that of January, 1876; but it was deemed best to include in this and future reports all oil held by manufacturers, or for their account, and thus present a full report of all the oil unsold, or to be put into market, by manufacturers.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 365

Encouraging statements in regard to foreign demand for fish guano weremade by Mr. Pryer, representing Messrs. Jed. Frye & Co., shipments having been made to Europe by this firm during the past season. More attention is being given to the drying of the fish scrap, as in that form all of our product may be exported at fair prices. A communication from a gentleman engaged in foreign trade was read by Mr. George F. Tuthill, stating that 30,000 tons of the dried fish scrap could be sold annually in Italy, and parties were ready to make contracts for full cargoes. It is probable that a large quantity will be sent abroad the coming season.

After some discussion upon fixing a time and place for the next meet- ing, a vote was passed amending article 7 of the constitution. As amended the article reads as follows: ‘‘Article 7. The annual meeting of this association shall be held in January, annually, and the time and place of meeting shall be determined by a majority of the executive committee, and a notice shall be mailed by the secretary to each mem- ber of this association fifteen days previous to the time of meeting.” As the meeting of the Maine association was held in Boston the day before our meeting, our attendance was small. Another year, probably, the time and place of meeting of this association will be arranged to suit the convenience of a large number of its members.

H. L. DUDLEY, Secretary.

FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING.

The fifth annual meeting of this association was held at the City Hotel, Providence, R. I., January 9, 1878, the president, R. L. Fowler, in the chair. In the absence of the secretary, Luther Maddocks, esq., was appointed secretary pro tempore. —

The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Treasurer’s report read and accepted. The officers elected for the ensuing year were: President, Rt. L. Fowler, Guilford, Conn.; first vice-president, Dan- iel T. Church, Tiverton, R. I.; second vice president, B. Frank Gallup, Groton, Conn.; secretary and treasurer, H. L. Dudley, New Haven, Conn.; executive committee, R. L. Fowler, Guilford, Conn., Isaac Brown, Tiverton, R. I., George W. Miles, Milford, Conn.

Voted, To assess each member one dollar, the same to be collected by the treasurer.

Isaac Brown, The Narragansett Oil Company, and J. G. White were admitted to membership in the association.

Yoted, That the next annual meeting of the association be held in New York City. _ Voted, That any firm or company belonging to the association may be represented at its meetings by proxy.

366 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

The committee on statistics reported as follows:

Number of factories in operation in 1876 .............. G4 Number of factories in operation in 1877........ ......: 56 DOssiP esereesics ccc. .oebhe Heroes i “ S Number of sail-vessels employed in 1876......--....... 320 Number of sail-vessels employed in 1877......-....-... 270 HOSS) (5345 5: siete tabepotieieeioeno ies eae Sloresbjolenenelstatee 50 Number of steam-vessels employed in 1876...-...... ae : 46 Number of steam-vessels employed in 1877............- 63 Gate 2: ws ieee bid ciiicietain fans CRIA Se wa) Scalvalike lye 17 Number of men employed in 1876.............. on ee 2, 758 Number of meniemployed wny 187i <- cmv ae toe fe Se 2,651 TGOSS: aie inininyeiole ma oie sa'e aco cetera eee ei ctatoke gi als 127 Amount of. capital invested in 1876.05... 0... - 2356 - sce 2, 750, 000 Amount-o1 capital Invested in STi. cc.us sees e~e © ace ee 2, 047, 612 HUOSS.#. + «ae Be ieis ct Meio ae eee aA nae *$702, 388 mMumber.of ssh cauchtin 1816). 2-..0 222.65 tose ee ees 512, 450, 009 Mumberiofl fishicanght im1877 . 223.0 S22 BE 587, 624, 125 AAMT 2 Be oi 0ii3 op Rca tanh nepiake cn oid ial ory pee eee 70, 174, 125 Number of fish caught, estimated by barrels, in 1876...... 1, 708, 166 Number of fish caught, estimated by barrels, in 1877...-- 1, 958, 747 EPI Ais deka NINES aa i OE SP os clerehats as 250, 581

,

Number ot..gatlons; oilamadesin A876... /. 2c = eee es 992, 000

Number of gallons oil made in 1877........ aie 2,426,589 TiOSS.Ushe A Sic he GRR eae aes Pe ae 566, 589 Number of tons guano made in 1876... ....2..0...0.--% bl, 245 Number of tons cuano made inpiSiHees yt oe 55, 444 REAM os aliases, ain ae ee EUS Bi ioe EM sigan i eit 4,199

* The difference in capital reported in 1877 from 1876, is mainly represented by fac- tories not in operation, and is more properly idle capital than ‘“loss.”—SECRETARY

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. Sue

In 1877, 5,700 tons of dried scrap were made by the oil and guano manufacturers. aie

Number of gallons oil held by manufacturers January 10,

eo) ee ee Sos. ole 264, 000 Number of gallons oil held by manufacturers January 9,

ee ea cress = - Be tere noce Si eeot ) CoE ee 86, 000

Amount less:tham in ST Te. s4 ae sa eee ele eis Shawne Me 178, 000

Number of tons guano held by manufacturers January 10,

LS To ERE er tig 0 SP Aer Nc oi 1, 275 Number of tons guano held by manufacturers January 9,

Merge taiates stearepe ele] 53/61 ce 3 = Sao ola =, ooo aR renee ose 1, 640

Amount less than in 1877... . <2... <dsceneet 5, 635

After the report had been accepted and committee discharged, the secretary pro tempore read a paper from Dr. Maylert on the subject of scrap-drying. Remarks upon the same subject were also made by Pro- fessor D’Homergue.

Prof. 8. L. Goodale then addressed the association upon his method of extracting or liberating the oil from fish scrap. A general discussion then took place upon the subject of scrap-drying, and the several new methods proposed to accomplish the object. Much attention is being given to this important matter, and the amount of scrap dried the past season was probably double that of any former year, and as the demand is increasing each year, and the saving in ammonia in the dried mate- rial is so large an item, it is hoped that some simple, inexpensive method will soon be found for accomplishing the desired results. The meeting of the association was quite fully attended, and the most interesting yet held.

The statistics gathered are believed to be the most accurate of any yet obtained. The stocks on hand, of both oil and guano, are very small. The outlook for the coming season is quite favorable, and better prices will doubtless be obtained than for the past few years. Ammo- niacal matter is scarce, and in demand at good prices.

H. L. DUDLEY, Secretary.

368 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

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369

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REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

310

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371

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REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

312

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. ote

APPENDIX N. STATEMENTS OF CORRESPONDENTS.

These statements are given in the words of the correspondents, being answers to the circular reproduced in Appendix A. The numbers of the answers correspond to those of the questions in the civeular. All the statements included in this appendix have been reviewed in the main report. The commission does not necessarily indorse them.

1. Statement of W. H. Sargent, Castine, Me., January 26 and December 28, 1874.

1, Menhaden and pogy, interchangeably.

2. Most abundant.

3. Not so numerous in creeks, coves, inlets, &c., but on the coast, out- side of small bodies, it is not decreased.

4, Friend & Co., 25,000 barrels; Allen & Co., 15,000; others, 85,000. In the years from 1803 to 1868, some years 500,000 barrels were taken.

5. It does; especially around and near shores.

6. About the 25th of May. Main body arrives about the middle of June. The last are largest and fattest, usually. Usually two principal schools; the first large school, June 15; the last, September 1 to 10.

7. Swim high. Always make their arrival known by their ripple.

8. Come from the south, between Cape Cod and Cape Sable. Usually first seen just outside of headlands; and as they come into bays, rivers, &e., the main body breaks up.

9. Their appearance is certain. More abundant some seasons. Some seasons they are abundant on the coast of Massachusetts and searce on the coast of Maine. No two give reasons alike.

10. Undoubtedly catching by any method tends to frighten them; but running refuse water and other refuse from the fish does more harm.

11. They foliow the tide in and out creeks, coves, &e.

12. They seem to prefer the still waters of our bays, coves, &ce.

13. They are a surface fish, but are sometimes caught thirty feet below.

14. I judge that it does, as they go south on the approach of cold weather.

15. The fish of the same school are uniform in size; some schools larger than others.

16. I have never seen them or Se of them.

17. They usually leave in October. I have known them plenty in November, but not often. I think they leave mostly together; some schools linger.

18, Outside route. General course south.

19. Have no established opinion.

374 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

20. They seldom take bait ; very small fish are found in them.

22. Cannot; I think they are mixed indiscriminately.

32. Large quantities are devoured by sharks, horse-mackerel, whales, porpoises, and other fish of prey.

34 and 35. Gill-nets and seipes. Gill-nets are from 30 to 80 feet long, and from 7 to 10 feet deep; seines are from 50 to 160 fathoms in length, and 5 to 15 fathoms deep.

36. All kinds and sizes. Seine-boats are uniform in size and build; they have no deck. About 35 feet long and 15 feet beam.

37. Two men can manage nets; a seine requires from 10 to 15.

38. When fish are plenty, nothing but darkness interrupts.

39. They are not, except in shoal-water places, where they are taken at high tide.

40. They ‘* school” best in calm weather; consequently more easily taken.

41. I should judge there were 75 vessels of all sizes employed, and from four to five hundred men and boys. Very many who live on the shores fish with nets, tending their nets with small boats, hardly going out of sight of their.homes for the season.

42, Nearly all are pressed for the oil; many are used for fish-bait; mostly shipped to Boston.

43. There are two or three factories owned by Rhode Island and New York parties, not worked so much now as formerly. R. A. Friend & Co., of Brooklin, are the largest resident manufacturers, but there are about one hundred smaller or private concerns who carry ou the busi- ness in connection with other business.

44, The aggregate, 1,625 barrels. Friend, about 700 barrels; Chatto, 350 barrels. —

46. Large factories, steam; smaller ones, the common bed-screw.

47. Slivered, they are worth, put up, about $6 per barrel; in 1863 they were worth $4; prices vary with the quantity.

48. When poor, July, 200; very poor, 1st June, 250; fat, August, 150; very fat, October, 100.

49, About one ton of scrap is obtained in making three barrels of oil.

50. Three quarts is the least I ever knew; from the first school.

51. Six gallons is the most I ever knew; from the last school.

52. Yes.

53. The first oil made in this region was made by a man named Bart- lett, residing on an island in the town of Bluehill, Hancock County, Maine. About the year 1837 he sent a small phial-full to Boston to have it tested. Meeting with encouragement, he commenced in a small way to manufacture by setting a common iron kettle over a fire, filling the ~ kettle with fish, and with a strong cover under a heavy beam, *cider- press” fashion, pressing the oil into a vat. IT'rom that time the manu- facture increased fast in this section. For about twenty years gill-nets were used exclusively for taking the fish.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 375

54, Boston. ;

55. Much is used by farmers in the vicinity of its manufacture, but a larger quantity is shipped to Boston, New York, and Baltimore.

56. Generally, I think, for lubricating purposes.

57. In 1873 and four previous vears, from 35 to 46 cents a gallon. In 1862, $1.40 a gallon.

58. It is certain that they have diminished on this coast.

2. Statement of J. C. Condon, Belfust, Me. Communicated by Marshall Davis, deputy collector, Belfast, Me.

Your circular, addressed to this office, making inquiries relative to a species of fish found here and called by us pogy, was duly received, and I have the honor to return to you the following answers to your ques- tions, the most of which I will here state were obtained from Mr. J. C. Condon, of this place, who for some years has been engaged to some extent in catching the fish and manufacturing the pogy oil.

1. Your first question I have already answered. We call them pogy. . The fish are quite abundant here.

. Their numbers have diminished. . Two thousand barrels of fish in this (Castine) district. . It does not appear to, here.

6. The first of June are first seen; most abundant the last of June and into July; come in schools. The second school usually comes ten days later than the first, and the fish are larger, the first being the younger fish.

7. They swim near the surface and make a ripple on the water.

8. They follow the coast from the south.

9. They come every year, but some years later than others.

10. Much fishing with nets would frighten them farther from the shore.

11. Will school out with the ebb, and in with flood.

12. Inside schools come up into the bays near the shore and outside schools play from Portland to Mount Desert. Inside schools are younger and smaller fish.

13. The depth of water makes no difference, as they swim near the surface.

14. They seek warmer water in fall and winter.

15. They breed south and do not reach here until two or three years

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16. No fish are found here younger than two or three years. 17. They leave in October and November in a body.

18. Follow the coast southerly.

19. On the southern coast.

376 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

20. The most that is found in them that seems to be their food, is a small seedlike-looking substance called by fisherman brit. . They spawn in southern waters, it is supposed. . They go in schools, and not in pairs. . We cannot answer that here. . We presume warmer than the water here. . In shallow water it is supposed. . A sort of spider is found on the back of the fish, near the fin, the spider having a tail that looks like moss. 32. Whales live on them and sharks and bluefish devour them.

33. Never have known anything like disease appear among them.

34, They are caught with seines and nets. .

35. The seines are 150 fathoms long and 20 fathoms deep. Nets 20 fathoms long and 4 deep.

36. The vessels used in taking them are sail-vessels of 50 tons burden, and small steamboats of 100 tons.

37. Ten men are wanted for one vessel, and one seine.

38. They fish all day.

39. They are taken equally well on flood or ebb tide. '

40. The wind has no perceivable effect upon them.

41. There are, in this district, about 25 vessels, with 5 men to each. 2. The fish are caught here for oil and mackerel bait.

43. There are two small oil-factories here, one owned by J. ©. Condon (of whom I get this information) and one by J. C. Mayo.

44, Condon makes 50 barrels and Mayo 25 per year.

45 and 46. Their factories could produce much more.

47. Sixty cents per barrel of 200 pounds of fish.

48. Cne barrel fish will make (ordinarily) three gallons of oil.

49. One ton of scrap will make 30 gallons oil.

50. The first fish that come in the spring will produce but one gallon oil to a barrel of fish.

51. In October a barrel of fish will produce from 4 to 5 gallons oil.

52. The northern fish yield four times as much oil as southern.

53. About twenty years ago, a woman living at Buck’s Harbor, in Brooksville, was frying some of the fish to eat, and observing how very full of oil they were, suggested to her husband that it would pay to try them out for the oil, and he having an eye to interest, tried the experi- ment, by using their washboiler to try them and their tub for a press. In this way they made one barrel of oil, carried it to Boston and sold it to a Mr. Eben Philips, an old oil-dealer, who at once saw money in the enterprise, and so furnished these people with nets, kettles, and a press for their next year’s business, the product of which was eight barrels of oil. After that, others seeing their prosperity, went into the business, which from that has grown to its present amount.

54, The oil is marketed mostly in Boston.

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. STE

. The scrap is mostly sold here to farmers for dressing their land. . The oil is mostly used for currier purposes in dressing leather.

The oil has sold at prices varying from 40 to 50 cents per gallon.

. We presume it does somewhat.

——_———

3. Statement of IR. A. Friend, Brooklin, Me.

. Pogy.

. Greatly in excess.

. Apparently as plenty as in past years. . About 14,000 in 1873; 23,000 in 1874.

It does not.

. Main body arrives from first to middle of June; usually three

. High; ripple on water; attract birds. . By south channel.

. Regular and certain.

. It does not.

. They go with the tide.

. In large bays.

. No special depth ; unknown.

. It does.

. Never.

From the middle of September to the middle of October; by

degrees.

18. 19. 20. mk, bl. 32. 33. 34, 30.

Following the coast.

South.

I should think vegetable nature.

Mostly south of Cape Cod.

Frequently have jiggers attached.

To a great extent.

Not here.

Seines and mash-nets.

Seines 8,000 meshes long, 650 deep; gill-nets 3 to 5 fathoms deep,

20 fathoms long.

30. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41,

42, 43.

Small schooners and steamers, with luggers; from 5 to 100 tons. Seine, 12 men ; gill-nets, 3 to 5.

Seines, all times of day ; nets, morning and evening.

Most on ebb-tide.

It seems to.

Five; fifty-five.

Manufactured for oil and scrap; sent away to factories.

Robert A. Friend, P. Kane, Harriman Point Company, Job T.

Wilson & Co.

44,

Averaged 14,000 gallons the past two years.

378 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

45. R. A. Friend 50,000 gallons; Job T. Wilson 50,000 gallons; P. Kane 15,000 gallons; Harriman Point Company 20,000 gallons.

46. Job T. Wilson, steam; KR. A. French, steam and pot works; others, pot-works.

47. Sixty-five cents (1873).

50. Two quarts; in June.

51. Four gallons; last of August.

53. First made by William Romer; oil taken from pots where fish were cooked for fowls.

54. Boston.

55. Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

56. Painting and currying.

57. Forty-five cents; from 30 cents to $1.27.

58. It is not.

4, Statement of John Grant, Matinicus Light Station, Matinicus Rock, . Maine, March 31, 1874.

. Menhaden or pogy.

. More abundant than any fish except herring.

. Diminished.

. No regular establishment or factory is run in this vicinity. . I think it does.

6. About the Ist of June. The larger body come about the middle or last of June. The last schools are the largest and fattest. There are commonly several schools at irregular intervals.

7. They swim high, making a ripple, and frequently showing their fins and attracting sea-gulls and other birds in great numbers.

8. They come from the south, and when driven into bays and rivers by large fish they inhabit one locality for several weeks at a time.

9. Regular.

10. Yes.

12. Between Seguin and Matinicus Rock and the bays and mouths of rivers between these points.

13. Usually on or near the surface of the water, but sometimes at the depth of 20 or 50 fathoms.

15. Yes.

16. No very young ones.

17. About the middle of October, in a body.

13. By the same, as they came rather working westward.

19. South of Cape Hatteras, near the Gulf Stream.

20. Some floating substance on or near the surface of the water.

21. Probably near the edge of the stream, south of Hatteras, during the winter season.

28. I have found them in Hampton Roads in early spring, when they were not more than two inches.

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 379

29. Nd.

31. No.

32. Considerably. The whale, I think, is their greatest enemy. Ris- ing beneath the schools, as they play upon the water, with extended jaws, he forces himself up through them with such speed as to project his body half out of water, closing his jaws over large quantities of fish as he falls heavily back.

33. No.

34. Seines from 150 to 300 fathoms in length and 20 fathoms in depth, and nets about 30 fathoms in length and from 2 to 3 fathoms in depth.

35. Answered above.

36. Small schooners. Recently fifteen to twenty small steamers have been employed, the tonnage of which amounts to 1,500 tons.

37. About 500 men.

38. The fish are taken by some fishermen with set nets whenever they come to the surface.

39. No.

40. They “school” or come to the surface best in moderate winds and calms.

41. No vessels are fitted out for this business in this immediate vicinity, but large quantities of fish are taken between this station and Monhegan by vessels from other parts of the coast.

48, About 250.

50. One and a half gallons, when the first fish appear on the coast.

51. Three gallons. About the 1st of October.

52. Yes.

53. Can give no definite history.

54. Boston and Portland.

56. Painting and tanning.

58. Undoubtedly.

——

5. Statement of Benjamin F. Brightman, Waldoborough, Me., March 18, 1874.

: Pogy.

. The most abundant, to all appearances, as we see these and do not see Pie other kinds.

3. About the same, I think.

4, There were taken in the mine about 350,000 barrels by all the fac- tories, viz: Bristol, Bremen, Joseph Church & Co., Round Pond, Loud’s Island, L. Brightman & Sons, Judson Tarr & Co., Union, Wells Deblois & Brown, Kenniston, Cobb & Co., Gallup & Manchester, Gallup & Holmes, J. G. Nickerson, L. Maddocks, factories the present year, and about the same in previous years.

5. See no difference.

6. About the 1st of June the first fish make their appearance, usually scattering ; commence taking in seines about the 15th. They are poor

380 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

then, and rather smaller than the fish caught in August and September, when we go off shore from 5 to 30 miles and get larger and fatter fish. We commence about the 15th of June, and fish uutil the 15th of

October. ;

7. High and low both. When they are up and we can see them we get them, and when down we cannot fish, so that scme days there will be good fishing and others none at all. On the seine-ground, cannot tell how deep they swim when they are down. We usually catch them here by seeing them play. Sometimes they ripple the water.

8. From southeast to the southwest, and generally lay along the coast; they are seen from Cape Sable to Cape Ann, off and on shore around Cape Cod, in the season of them—that is, an outside fish and an inside fish. Fish in the bays and rivers are called inside, and onthe ocean called outside. In Maine, the fishing is done outside nearly alto- gether.

9. About the same for the last ten years. The fish go where the feed is.

10. See no difference.

11. Has no effect here.

12. Usually deep water.

13. We fish in deep and shoal water. Do not know how deep they swim.

14. In a sunshiny day we see them most.

15. Never saw any fish here that looked as though they came here to breed; there is some difference in the size, but could not define their age. The smaller fish go into the rivers.

16. Never saw a young fish north of Cape Cod, or old fish that looked like spawning.

17. The fish start to go west from here about the middle of September, and go by degrees up to the last of October.

18. They seem to run along the coast southwesterly.

20. It is asubstanee in the water which is sometimes seen; J never examined it particularly. Something like a seed or a very small lobster, or rather has this appearance; it is about one-fourth of an inch long; do not see as much of that here as in Narragansett Bay.

21. From the south side of Cape Cod to the Albemarle Sound, in all the inland waters and rivers, mostly in the southern waters, com- mencing south about the Ist of March and in Narragansett Bay in May.

22. Think the spawning fish leave the main body and scatter about in pairs or small schools and in shoal water.

23. Never saw the operation, but have noticed in the smoother waters in the night that the fish came close in to the shore in shoal waiter, and the supposition was that they were spawning. I have seen a hauling- seine haul on shore the spawns all ready to hatch.

24, The water is rather cold in the spawning season.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 381

25. Any depth, but usually in shoai water, on the bottom.

26. Lay on the bottom.

27. In about six weeks after being laid.

28. They are in great abundance; saw more young fish in Narragan- sett Bay last season than ever before, but their usual spawning-grounds are south as far as Cape Lookout, mostly about the Potomac and Dela- ware Bay and joining shores.

29. Never saw the spawn running from the fish. We never catch them with the purse-seine for the reason that they leave the body of fish and scatter about. The spawning fish are among the first to arrive.

30. Do not know as I ever saw menhaden spawn in any other fish. The parent fish do not devour them.

31. Have seen a small crab in the fish, just under the scales, with an appendage about an inch long; never saw anything in or around the mouth.

32. They suffer to a great extent from bluefish, horse-mackerel, por- poise, Sharks, whales, dog-fish, &c.

33. Never saw any diseases about them.

34. There are a great many caught in gill-nets in the first part of the season, but not so many here as formerly. . The netsare made of fine cotton twine, about 4 inches mesh, and all set or anchored; the fish run into them and put their heads through the mesh, They are about 20 fathoms long and 12 feet deep.

35. The purse-seines here are made from 200 to 225 fathoms long and 100 feet deep in the middle and 70 at the ends nade of fine cotton twine.

36. A small schooner of about 30 tons, with two or three open boats carrying about 200 barrels each, two men in each boat. The crew live on board the tender and lay on the fishing-grounds and the boats carry the fish to the works. The most of the fish here are caught in steamers of about 60 tons, from 50 to 50 horse-puwer. The steamers work better than sail gangs, on account of running in calm weather; there are 17 in the eastern fleet; they carry from 500 to 1,200 barrels each.

o7. From 10 to 12 men to each gang.

38. Usually in the morning, from daylight to ten o’clock, or just at night. In calm weather all day.

39. Rather: better on the rising tide.

40. We cannot keep run of the fish as well when the wind blows. :

41. Fifty-four gangs, of from 10 to 12 men each. This comprises the section between the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers. There is nothing done in Maine outside of this section except One or two gangs in Blue Hill Bay, and the next fishing-grounds are at Narragansett Bay, west, and around Long Island.

42. Carried to the factories in this vicinity.

43. The most are stock companies, but some are owned by individuals. This question is answered in question 4.

382 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

44, From 25,000 to 225,000 gallons, according to capacity. There isa great difference in the capacity ; three factories here made one-quarter of the oil and one-sixth of the scrap made in the whole country.

45. From 40,000 to 500,000 eins if they could get fish and they were fat enough.

46. The cost of factories, inioldeine machinery, varies from $10,000 to $70,000, not including fish-gear and gangs.

47, Sixty-five cents were paid the last two years, but they have been as high as $1 when oil was higher.

48. Our eastern fish average about 25 gallons to the barrel.

49. From 30 to 40 barrels.

50. Our first fish make about three quarts to the barrel; only a few of these caught.

51. Four gallons in August and September, when we go to sea after the fish.

52. The average is greater north, although the fattest fish caught last year, Southold Bay, Long Island, 7 gallons to the barrel.

53. The factories in Maine were built ten years ago. Since then there have been some twenty built; there are fourteen in operation now, or will be in the season of fishing.

54, Boston and New York.

55. The manufacturers of superphosphate use principal part of it, although the farmers use it as it comes from the factory ; it is too strong of ammonia to use raw, varying from 7 to 12 per cent.

56. Mostly used for tanners’ oil.

57. Forty to sixty cents per gallon. Have known it to be sold for $1.35 per gallon.

58. Do not see any variation for the last ten years.

6. Statement of L. Maddocks, Booth Bay, Me., December 25, 1877.

The names and tonnage of my steamers are as follows: Steamer Mabel Bird, 80 tons; steamer M. M. Fish, 80 tons; steamer Grace Dar- ling, 75 tons; steamer Phebe, 70 tons; steamer S. L. Goodale, 70 tons; steamer H. M. Price, 20 tons.

. Statement of G. B. Kenniston, Booth Bay, Me., February 14, 1874.

Known about equally as pogy and menhaden. . It is found in numbers almost incomparably greater than any other. . Increased.

4, In this town (Booth Bay), in 1873, were taken 152,000 barrels, as follows: Kenniston, Cobb & Co., 17,000; Gallup and Holmes, 17,000;

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 383

Gallup and Manchester, 25,000; Suffolk Oil Works, 48,000; Atlantic Oil Works, 45,000. In 1872 the aggregate reached about 110,000 barrels. In 1871, with six factories instead of five, were taken about 95,000 barreis.. In 1870 less than 75,000 barrels were taken, while in 1866, the. first year of work here, not more than 35,000 barrels were taken. The great difference in these results may be ascribed to three causes: (1.) The fishermen have acquired skill in the business. (2.) Much better apparatus for the capture of these fish is now in use. (3.) The fish are more abundant than formerly.

5. Not perceptibly.

6. First seen about May 20 in occasional schcols. Main body arrives about June 20, which, passing eastward, is followed by others contin- ually for about thirty days longer. There is considerable difference in the size of fish caught. At times, mixed sizes are taken at the same set; usually, these arriving at different periods of time, differ in size. Larger may come sooner or later. Nothing certain is known as regards this.

7. Probably near the surface. Their arrival is known only by their “play,” @. e., flipping, or striking the water with their tails.

8. After rounding Cape Cod, some touch the coast in the vicinity of Gloucester, Mass., but the larger portion, by far, it appears, keep off shore, and near it anywhere from Cape Elizabeth to Monbegan. Tbe main body of these fish continue to pass toward the east till about the 20th of July, when that impetus seems to be checked, and for thirty or forty days their movements are seemingly local. Then they begin their return to the west, and continue to repass, until in October the last bodies are urgent in the westward course.

9. Very regular. Never fail to come.

10. Yes. They are farther off shore, but not, it is believed, from their feeding-ground.

11. No relation discoverable.

12. In this vicinity, from five to thirty miles from land.

13. Depth not material.

14. No. Temperature of air does. They will not ‘“ show” or come to the surface when cold north or east winds prevail.

15. No.

16. No.

17. In September and October, as described in No. 8.

18. By the same as that by which they arrive; described in No. 8.

19. About the Bahama Banks and Florida Keys.

20. Animaleule.

21. Where they pass the winter (No. 19) in January and February.

22. The writer has reason to believe them to be indiscriminately mixed.

23. Yes.

24, Am unable to give the temperature of Bahama waters.

384 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

28. Yes. About the sounds of Carolina and Chesapeake Bay.

29. Never in Maine. It will appear in late southern fishing, Novem- ber and December.

30. Am unable to say. Parent fish does not devour them.

31. Worms occasionally found in the head.

32. Immensely.

33. Never.

34. Seines.

35. Length, 500 yards; depth, 60 yards.

36. Steamers, schooners, and sloops varying from 20 to 70 tons, new measurement.

37. Ten usually make a crew.

38. While they can see. From daylight till dark.

ag. INO.

40. Prevents their capture by “raising a sea.” Cold winds cause them not to “ show.”

41. In Booth Bay, 21 crews, 210 men.

42, Sent at once to the works to which the catching crew belong. Each gang fishes for the.factory which provides the apparatus for fish- ing.

43. They number six: <A. Suffolk Oil & Guano Works, J. G. Nicker- son. B. Atlantic Oil & Guano Works, Luther Maddocks. ©. Works of Gallup & Holmes. D. Works of Gallup & Manchester. E. Works of Kenniston, Cobb & Co. F. White Wine Brook Company’s Works, G. B. Kenniston and others.

44, Depends wholly on the number of barrels of fish secured and their fatness, both of which vary each year. Tor 1873 the following is about the result, using letters as above to designate the figures: A. 120,000 gallons. B. 112,000 gallons. C. 42,500 gallons. D. 62,500 gallons. K. 42,500 gallons. F. Not run.

45, Fifty per cent. in addition to the amount usually made.

46. Factories vary in cost from $10,000 to $60,000.

47, In 1873, 75 cents per barrel. In previous years, from 50 cents to $1.25 per barrel.

48. Barrel averages 24 gallons usually.

49. Varies with the time of the season, whether it be in June or October.

50. Three pints. May.

51. Six and one-half gallons in October.

52. Yes, average; though Southern fish late (December) are very fat.

53. Began in Maine in 1865. Grew rapidly for four years. Not aug- mented any since 1870, except in method and means of taking the fish.

54. Boston, New York, and export.

55. Massachusetts and the Southern States.

56. Sold largely for curriers’ use, and to adulterate higher-priced oils.

57. From 35 to 48 cents. Previous years, from 33 cents to $1.05.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 385

58. Not sensibly.

The inception and growth of this business in the adjoining town of Bristol is contemporaneous with Booth Bay. In 1873, the works of that town probably pressed 250,000 barrels of fish, yielding 625,000 gallons of oil. There are about eight works.

8. Statement of Judson Tarr & Co., Rockport, Mass., and Booth Bay, Me., January 23, 1874.

. Menhaden. . Are most numerous of any fish on our coast. . Have increased in the last ten years. . Number of barrels caught in Maine during 1873 was about 400,000, of which we caught 60,000. A

5. The extensive capture does not lessen their abundance. Should say they have increased within five years, but not so abundant inshore.

6. Menhaden are first heard from in March as far south as Cape Henry. They come on the coast of Maine about June 1, but the main body does not get along until June 20; they are then constantly coming along until July.

7. They come in schools and make a ripple on the surface of the water. °

8. They usually follow the shore in coming and going.

9. They never fail.

16. Never see any small fish on the coast of Maine.

17. They leave our coast about October 1. Cold weather drives them south.

19. Think they go as far south as Florida.

20. A sort of red seed, floating on the surface.

21. They spawn South.

30. The larger fish, such as the whale and shark, are their greatest enemy. The blue-fish destroy great quantities.

34. They are caught with seines.

30. One thousand to 1,500 feet long and 100 feet deep. They are called purse-seines, and cost $1,000 each.

36. Vessels and steamers of from 40 to 100 tons are used in catching them. ©

41. Whole number of vessels, 33; 17 of which are steamers. There are about 500 fishermen.

44, Number of gallons of oil produced by all, 1,000,000; tons of scrap, 12,000. .

50. Yield less than one gallon to the barrel.

51. They yield most oil in September.

56. It is used principally for eurrying purposes.

57. Average price of oil, 45 cents per gallon; scrap, $15 per ton.

The phosphate that is made from the scrap is used mostly in the South-

25 F

H CO bo eS

386 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

ern States for raising cotton. Considerable is also used for raising tobaceo. Used to a certain extent in every State in the Union. This business is prosecuted quite extensively in Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Com- menees one month earlier, and lasts one to two months later in season. The whole number of factories in that vicinity is about 50, but many of them are small. The amount of capital invested is $1,500,000. The number of barrels of fish caught is 793,100; amount of oil, 1,200,000 gallons; amount of scrap, 24,000 tons.

Size of our factory: Main building, 130 by 40 feet, 16 feet post, having two stories. The upper one is used for cooking and pressing fish; the lower story for oil-room and fish-scrap. The engine-house adjoining the factory is 20 by 30, 10 feet post, containing three horizontal boilers, 65 horse-powereach. Inthe upper part of factory there are eleven cooking- tanks made of wood, round, 12 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep, with steam-pipes in the bottom, having several small holes in them to let steam into these tanks. There are also three hydraulic presses, 150 tons pressure each, and one engine of 10 horse-power. In connection with factory are two wharves, one 150 by 50, and one 40 by 80. On the largest wharf is a tank set up on posts 10 feet high. This tank has a capacity of 4,000 barrels, which we sometimes have full at night after discharging all of our steamers with their day’s catch. We have a 12- horse engine on the wharf used for hoisting fish out of steamers; have three drums connected with engine so as to run all at one time or either one we wish. We can unload one thousand barrels an hour when in full blast. The fish are discharged same as coal is unloaded, and are dumped into tanks on the wharf. In connection with the factory is another building for the main scrap-house, 60 by 100, 15 feet post; also biack- smith-shop, cooper-shop, carpenter-shop, boarding: house, stable, &c., all on the premises and used in connection with the business. These cost from $75,000 to $80,000, and the steamers and fishing-gear, such as seinesy small-boats, &e., not less than $60,000 more. There are but two pogy factories in the United States of this capacity, and are both in the town of Bristol, respectively owned by Joseph Church & Co., Tiverton, R. L., and L. Brightman Sons, Round Pond, Me., or Fall River, Mass. Next largest are those of L. Maddocks and J. G. Nickerson, in Booth Bay, adjoining town, about half as extensive as the above. The others are smaller. Perhaps they may average one-fourth capacity of first three.

General process of manufacturing.—Tirst, the fish are landed on the wharf or in tanks; then they are conveyed to the upper story of the factory in cars holding about 20 barrels, on wooden rails set upon wooden horses; then they are emptied into the cooking-tanks. Put in first 6 inches of salt water, then 50 to 75 barrels of fish, in each tank, and open steam from main pipe and boil them one hour. In that way two-thirds of the oil comes out of the fish. We then draw this oil and water off below into drawing-off tanks for this purpose, and run it

|

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 387

through from one to another until it is run through several, keeping it hot all the while. After doing this the oil comes to the surface and the water separates and goes to the bottom. Then the oil is run off into a tank holding 4,000 or 5,000 gallons, called a settling-tank. After remaining there a few hours itis pumped up and run off into bleaching or drawing-off tanks, of which we have five, holding 4,000 gallons each. There it remains one to two weeks. Then it is put into kerosene-oil barrels and shipped to New Bedford, New York, and Boston, and sold to dealers in fish oil. In regard to pressing: After the fish are cooked or steamed and drained, then they are put into round curbs holding 10 barrels each, made of iron one-half an ineh thick, perforated with holes one-eighth of an inch in diameter. These curbs are then put under a steam hydraulic press of 150 tons pressure, when the water and oil all come out together and are separated as before. Our capacity is 2,000 barrels per day, but we do not always get that amount; sometimes more and sometimes less. Oftentimes we do not have any fish for a week. We average about four fish days in a week. They are employed in Maine about sixteen weeks. First oil extracted from menhaden is said to have been done by a woman in Frenchman’s Bay, near Mount Desert, Me. It was manufactured in the house on the cook-stove or fire-place, tried out in a common wash-boiler. This oil was put up in bottles and forwarded to EH. B. Phillips, of Boston, and he gave the manufacturer encouragement and furnished nets and try-kettles, set up outdoors in brick, holding, say, 50 gallons. The fish were boiled and the oil skimmed off the top, and the balance was thrown away. In this way they could not get over two-thirds of the oil, and it was thought best to press the refuse, but no one knew how to doit. The first process of pressing was in tubs and barrels by making holes in them and putting rocks on top. The scrap was thrown away. This was twenty-five to thirty years ago. I do not tbink the porgie business will be increased any at present, as there could be an overproduction of oil. The fish are not likely to di- minish.- We employ at the factory about thirty-five men.

9. Statement of Mrs. B. Humphrey, keeper of Monhegan Island Light, Mon- hegan Island, Me., February 4, 1874.

1. Pogy.

2. They are more numerous than other kinds of fish.

3. Diminished.

5. It does.

6. The firstof June. The first are the smallest.

7. The fish swim high and make a ripple on the water.

8. They follow the shore along from the southwest to the northeast.

i=)

. The appearance of the fish on the coast is regular. 10. It does. 11. The fish play with the tide.

888 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

12. Harbors and bays.

13. They swim near the surface.

14, It does.

16. They are seen at half size.

17. They leave the coast in October and November.

18. They leave the coast by the same route that they came.

19. They winter at the South.

20. They eat the grasses and seeds on the water.

21. The fish spawn at the South.

27. They spawn south of Cape Hatteras.

28. During the winter months.

31. There is nothing attached to the mouth of the pogy.

34 and 35. Seines measuring 200 fathoms in length.

36. Steamers and sail-vessels.

37. Requires ten men to manage one vessel and seine.

38. From sunrise to sunset.

40. The wind does affect them.

41. There were no less than 111 vessels, of which 17 were steamers.

2. They are made into oil and guano at different places.

43. The nearest oil-factories are situated in Bristol, 15 miles from this place.

47. Price paid per barrel for fish is 75 cents.

48. Sixty-five fish will produce one gallon of oil.

52. The northern (Maine) fish produce more oil than southern fish (Long Island).

54. New York and Boston.

56. It is used principally for paint.

58. It does tend to diminish the. fish.

10. Statement of J. Washburne, jr., Portland, Me., February, 1874.

1. Pogy.

2. Is of greater abundance than any other, except the “ mackerel,” and possibly the ‘ herring ” fish.

3. Has increased.

4, 440,000 barrels taken by all establishments in this State in 1873; in 1874, 632,261 barrels.

5. The extensive capture here does not appear to affect the abun- dance.

6. The first come about June 15; there are two schools; the first, which are small, usually come about ten days before the second school.

7. The first swim high; their arrival is first known by capture; they make aripple and attract birds.

8. Come from the south, move north, and again to the south.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 389

9. The appearance is quite regular, and they do not come in greater abundance one year more than another.

10. The use of nets, seines, &e., does not Ha to scare them from their usual feeding grounds.

11. Does not appear to affect their movements.

12. On the coast of Maine, between Cape Elizabeth and Matinicus Islands.

15. Twenty fathoms.

15. Do not come on to breeding-grounds before maturity. Two-year- old fish are the oldest.

16. Never seen.

17. About October 1, in a body.

18. Southerly.

19. South of Cape Hatteras.

20. A. seed.

21. During the winter in southern waters.

26. Spawn are never seen in these waters.

27. Eggs are never seen in this vicinity.

28. None are ever seen in these waters.

29. No.

530. Whales, sharks, blue-fish, seals, &c.; don’t know that the parent fish destroy their young.

ol. No.

32. Greatiy.

303. Never hereabouts.

34, Pass seines.

do. Two hundred to 275 fathoms long.

36. Both steam and sailing vessels,. from 40 to 150 tons chiefly ; some small boats. ;

37. Aboat ten men for the usual class employed.

38. Ten hours.

o9. No.

40. The catch is better with a southerly wind.

41. One hundred and ten vessels, carrying an aggregate of five hun- dred men.

42. The fish, as soon as caught, are sent to the oil factories on shore.

43. There are thirteen oil factories on this coast owned by various individuals.

44. The quantity produced in 1873 was 1,000,000 gallons.

45. Thirteen factories, employing 446 men, caught 440,000 barrels of fish, yielding 1,600,000 gallons of oil, 13,000 tons of guano, and 2,337 barrels of bait, salned at $352,550.

46 and 47. About one dollar per barrel. During the war, prices were much higher.

52. Yes; one-third more.

54. Boston and New York.

390 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

55. Boston.

56. Used for painting and for currying leather. 57. Forty and fifty cents per gallon in 1873. 58. Does not appear to.

11. Statement of Chandler Martin, keeper of Whales-Back Light, Whales Back, N. H.— February 23, 1874, and January 9, 1875.

. Pogy. . Most numerous, excepting herring. . More abundant in 1874 than for ten years previous. . Does not on this coast.

6. From the first of May until the middle of July. The first are gen- erally the smallest.

7. High; they make a ripple and attract birds.

8. Along the shore from the coast of Massachusetts to the coast of Maine.

9. Regular, but more numerous some seasons than others.

10. Nets and seines keep them out of the harbors.

11. Go with the tide.

12. Bays and barbors with strong tides.

13. Shallow. From 4 to 10 fathoms.

14. It does.

15. They are full grown when they visit this coast.

16. They are not.

17. They leave in a body from the first to the middle of fOetobel.

18. As they came, along the shore.

29. No:

34, Gill-nets and seines.

35. Gill or float nets are six yards deep and forty vards long. Seines are of different lengths.

ow be

12. Statement of Thomas Day, keeper of Seguim Light, Parker’s Head, Me.

1. Pogy.

3. In my opinion they are diminishing.

6. The first school gets on the coast of Maine about the middle of May; the second about the middle of June.

8. These first go and come the same way as the mackerel.

10. Yes, seines tend to drive them from off the coast. There is a fine of $50 for throwing a seine within three miles of the shore; but this is willingly paid when they can take 1,000 barrels of fish in a few hours.

o4, Gill-nets and seines and in weirs.

35, Seines are 1,500 feet long and 80 feet deep.

36. There are at present about 75 small steamers besides many sail- ing-vessels.

37. 42, 47.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 391

Each steamer and sailing-vessel will average eight men each. Boiled for oil; the chum is sold for manure. The pogy is worth, on an average, $1.25 per barrel.

57. Oil is worth about 50 cents per gallon.

13. Statement of William 8S. Sartell, Pemaquid Light-Station, Bristol,

DW HH HANA owe

Me.—February 1, 1874.

. Menhaden or pogy. . Diminished.

Yes.

. May 20.

. They swim near the top.

. From the South.

. It does, for they were not seen from this station last summer. . September. It is done in a body.

. They go South.

. It is a small red seed that floats in the water.

. South of this place.

. Seines.

. Twelve hundred feet long by 360 feet deep.

. Steamers and schooners.

7. Ten men.

. All day.

. It does.

41, 42, 43.

Sixteeen steamers and 30 schooners and sloops. Fried out for the oil. Seven factories. In 1873, J. Tar, Bingham & Co., L. Nickols &

Co., Union Factory, and three others.

44.” In 1873, J. Tarr used 85,000 barrels fish, Bingham & Co. 1,000,000

barrels, L. Nichols & Co. 50,000 barrels, Union Factory 25,000 barrels, and three others 25,000 barrels each.

47. 48.

52

2. 54. Do. 57. 58.

Sixty cents (1874).

From three gallons to one barrel. Yes, in the summer.

New York and Boston.

All over the country.

Forty-five cents (1874).

Yes.

ee oe

14. Statement of Alden H. Jordan, keeper of Baker’s Island Light, Cran-

1

berry Isles, Me., December 29, 1873, and February 9, 1874.

. Pogy.

2. About 100 per cent. more. 3. Diminished.

392 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

4, There was none of any account; in 1861 there was quite a catch _in this vicinity, mostly in small boats; since that time the fish have di- minished to a great extent.

5. It does.

6. About the 15th of June, and then, about six or eight days after, the main body arrives, the first fish that come being as large as any. They come in schools, one after the other.

7. Swim high in moderate and calm weather; they make a ripple and attract birds.

8. From the west, following the coast.

9. Regular.

10. Yes.

11. They play in on the flood and out on the ebb.

12. They play in the tide about one-half mile from the shore.

13. About 18 fathoms. From 2 to 4 fathoms.

14. It does not.

15. The ground in this vicinity appears to be their feeding-ground. They are all of one size.

16. Not any.

17. About the 20th of September.

18. West.

19. South.

20. Shrimp.

29. No.

31. Never saw any.

o2. To a great extent.

30. Not any.

34, Nets are knit of twire; 34-inch mesh.

25. Length, 25 fathoms; depth, 2 fathoms.

36. Steamers and schooners, from 20 to 30 tons.

37. Four to twenty. .

38. Two-thirds.

39. Yes; on the flood.

40. Yes; it makes them swim deep.

41, None.

42, On the spot, or sent to Brooklin, Me.

43. None.

47. Those that catch the fish keep them for bait, or for their vil, in this vicinity.

48. About 55,

49, About all the scrap in this vicinity is put on the ground for dress- ing.

50. About 3 gallons when the fish are first caught.

51. About 54 gallons in September.

52. Yes. I think the first fish were caught in 1858.

54. Boston, Mass.

5d. 56. 57. 58.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 395

Boston, Mass.

It has been used for paint for the past thirteen years.

Price per gallon, 45 cents. In 1861 it averaged $1.38 per gallon. It does to a great extent.

15. Statement of Washington Olin, keeper of Pond Island Light, near

Boothbay, Me., February 18, 1874.

. Menhaden or pogy.

. More abundant than any other fish.

. Diminished.

. It does.

. In May; the main body arrives in July. The July fish are the

largest.

Fi

8. 10. 12, 13. 16. le 18. 3 So. 34. 35. 36, ot. 38. 42. 43. 47. 48. 5v. 51. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58.

They swim at the top of the water and make ripples. They come from the south.

Tends to scare them.

Very near the sea-shore. -

Generally at the surface.

They are not.

They leave the coast in the fall.

Go south.

Worms are sometimes found in them.

No disease of any kind.

Purse-nets or seines.

Length from 200 to 225 fathoms; depth from 15 to 25 fathoms. Steamers, from 75 to 100 tons.

From 10 to 15 men.

All day, if the weather is fine.

Steamed and pressed for oil at Boothbay.

Not any nearer than Boothbay ; owned by Luther Maddocks. From 40 cents to $1.25 per barrel.

Four hundred in May; 100 in August or September. One gallon in May.

Four gallons in August or September.

Boston and New York.

The Southern States.

For painting.

About 50 cents.

Very much, and drives them from the land.

16. Statement of an unknown correspondent, Gloucester, Mass., March 28,

1874.

1. Menhaden, hardhead, or pogy. 2. About the largest (if not the largest} school of fish that yisits our

coast.

394 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

3. Have not seen much of them for the past eight years, but should think that they had diminished a small per cent. during that time.

4. There are no establishments here engaged in the manufacture of menhaden oil.

5. Do not think it does.

6. About the 15th of May, and are the most plentiful about the 1st of June. The first are generally the largest. Generally two, about one week apart. }

7. Sometimes at the surface, and oftentimes they pass along without any show. I should think, from an experience of twenty-five years, that they never go below 5 fathoms from the surface of the water. Their general habit when on or near the surface is to slap—that is, to raise the tail and strike it down on the water. This produces a sound dif- ferent from any other kind of fish. They, as a general thing, make a small ripple on the water, and oftentimes they can be told by the color of the water which covers them. It presents a yellowish color, as a general thing. Do not attract birds.

8. They come from the south, and, as a general thing, follow along the coast, sometimes near the land, but of late at the distance of from three to twenty miles from land, along the coast of Massachusetts to the coast of Maine. I never heard tell but once of their crossing the Bay of Fundy.

9. Regular and certain; they do not.

10. I think it has a tendency to do so.

11. As arule, more apt to come to the surface in deep water ; in shal- low water they go in and out with the ebb and flow of the tide.

13. If not disturbed they would stay near to the shore, but about 5 fathoms when out of sight.

14. It does. Cold easterly winds tend to keep them beneath the sur- face; warm southwest winds and clear sky appear to put them ina playful mood.

15. Could not say, but should not think they came until the second year; should think not.

16. Never saw any but once in the month of August; about 3 inches in length.

17. In the month of November, by degrees; that is, they pass along day by day until all are gone.

18. They go southward.

19. Could not say, but have heard of them in the month of February on the coast of Florida.

. Suction, or on the small particles to be found in the water. . Never knew, but think where they spend the winter.

. Never knew it to be.

. Should think on the bottom.

26. Do not know, but think they remain at the bottom.

. Not around this coast.

b bo Ww b& b& bt

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 395

29. Not around these parts.

30. Cod, pollock, and various other kinds; the parent fish does not.

31. Never saw any such.

32. The bluefish is the only deadly enemy.

33. About eighteen years ago they died in large quantities, and were piled along the coast of Maine for miles.

34. Seines and gill-nets.

35. Seines are from 150 to 240 fathoms long and from 10 to 30 fath- oms deep. The nets are about 20 fathoms long and 5 fathoms deep.

36. Fore and aft vessels, from 30 to 80 tens.

37. From 5 to 12 to each vessel.

38. Depends on the weather and the fish.

39. Generally more taken on the flood than on the ebb tide.

40. Easterly winds do.

41. About 45 sail for 1873, and about 500 men.

42. In Gloucester, the greatest fishing port of Massachusetts, they are used for bait; but some are carried in ice to George’s Bank, and the remainder are slivered; that is, the sides are taken off and bead and backbone thrown away, and salted for the mackerel and Grand Bank fishing.

43, None. i

47. From $1 to $2.50 for fresh, and from $6 to $9 for slivers, per barrel.

48. Spring of the year about 2 quarts to 1 barrel; when in good order, last of August, 3 gallons to. 100 fish.

50. See question 50,

51. See question 50.

52. Think they do, as a general thing.

_ 54. Boston, Salem, Danvers, and other places.

55. Sold from factories and carried to different places in Maine and Massachusetts.

56. Sometimes used for leather, but more often to mix with linseed- oil to cheat the consumer.

57. About 40 cents per gallon.

58. In pressing out the oil some gets overboard and makes a calm streak on the water; this the menhaden will not cross, so that I think this, if it does not diminish, at least drives them farther from shore.

17. Statement of Capt. F. J. Babson, Collector of Customs, Glorcester, Mass.

1. The name usually employed by fishermen to designate these fish in the waters of Massachusetts and Maine are hardheads, pogies, menba- den.

2. They are found in great abundance in this vicinity, and apparently exceed in quantity all other fish except mackerel and herring, between which the (disparity is not noticeable.

396 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

3. They have doubtless decreased within the last ten years.

4. During the past year about 60,000 barrels of round fish were caught by vessels from this district, all of which were used for bait for mackerel and codfish. The side of the fish is cut longitudinally from the head downward, on either side of the bone, while the head and vertebre are thrown away; the pieces cut off, called slivers, are salted and packed in barrels for bait. Three barrels of round fish will make one barrel of slivers. Nearly ali the pogies caught in this district are used in this manner for bait. There are about 800,000 barrels caught off the coast of Maine, all of which are used in making oil, The refuse, or chum, be- ing used for manure.

5. Their numbers doubtless decrease from their extensive capture.

6. The first appearance of these fish in Massachusetts Bay is about the 15th of May, alternating in quantity, and culminating about the 15th of June. The first arrivals are the largest. For a few days they are seen, then disappear, then reappearing in about three days in large quantities.

7. They swim near the surface, and are often seen with their heads out of water going in one direction. Their arrival is known by obser- vation, as they always show themselves, and in moderate or calm weather they can be seen for miles schooling, or breaking water as it is called.

8. They come along the coast from the south, that is, taking Cape Cod as the southern boundary of our vessels’ operations, and from thevce follow the coast of Massachusetts and Maine as far north as the south- ern limit of the British possessions, but they are not taken on the Brit- ish coast. (Under the Treaty of Washington this extensive fishery is now thrown open to British fishermen, when formerly they were obliged to buy pogy bait from our fishermen.)

9. They have not failed to make their appearance regularly for the past thirty years, and always in large quantities.

10. Since they have been taken in large quantities for their oil they have gradually avoided the bays, creeks, harbors, and rivers, where they once resorted in immense nambers, and are now principally taken from one to ten miles from the shore. Some of the fishermen maintain that since the advent of the bluefish (the most destructive fish in our waters) some twenty years ago, the pogies have sought deeper water for their own safety, while others maintain that the bluefish drive the pogies into shoal water; doubtless both statements are at times true.

11. When in deep water, subject to but little action by the tide, they are not apparently affected, but when in close proximity to the shore they will go up rivers and creeks with the tide and come out with it. They naturally tend inshore mornings and go off evenings.

12. Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, and along the coast of New England, are their most favorite resorts.

13. They are found in all depths of water, and usually swim low during easterly winds.

a ee

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 397

14. In pleasant and warm weather they frequent the surface when the water is warm.

15. They do not breed upon the coast or waters of Massachusetts or Maine, and we have no evidence at what age they become mature. It is rare to see any but the full-size fish, or very nearly so. Usually the fish caught are of equal size, and apparently being of the same age.

16. Young fish have been seen, but at rare intervals, in schools by themselves, in size about half grown. ;

17. They leave our waters by degrees, beginning about the Ist of October, and by the 30th they are all gone.

18. They follow the coast apparently in the same manner as they come, to the south.

19. They are found in the winter in the vicinity of Cape Henry and Cape Charles, but doubtless they are mostly in the Gulf-stream. They have also been seen in winter on the southwest edge of George’s Bank.

20. They feed while in northern waters upon a red bug, or animalcu- le, that floats on the surface of the water. This they imbibe by suc- tion, for they have no teeth.

21. The spawning-ground of these fish, so far as the observation of the fishermen extends, is in Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, and the waters adjoining. No indication of their spawning exists in our waters, and in a catch of many thousands there is seldom seen a single fish with spawn in them.

22. There are no indications of the sexes observed while in our water.

26, 28. The young of these fish are seen in the vicinity mentioned as their spawning-ground.

30. Sharks, blue-dogs, porpoises, but the most destructive is the blue- fish. Have never heard of the parent fish devouring the young. Whales have been seen in active pursuit of them.

31. No animals are found attached to them while north.

32. There has been no ratio determined.

33. There has never been any sickness or epidemic while in Northern waters.

34. Seines and gill-nets are used in their capture. These fish never take the hook nor pay any attention to bait thrown as for mackerel.

25. The average seines used are 200 fathoms long, 18 fathoms deep, some longer, some shorter. The gill-nets are 25 fathoms long, 6 fathoms deep, 33-inch mesh.

36. The vessels employed in this district are schooners and steamers. The schooners are wholly engaged in taking them for bait. The steamers are connected with oil-facteries in Maine. Schooners are from 20 to 70 tons; steamers 65 tons.

37. About 10 men are required to each vessel.

38. The fish are taken at all times during the day.

39. As most-of the fish are taken off the shore, the tide has no effect.

40. When it blows hard the seines cannot be set, as the fish do not show themselves as in moderate weather.

398 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES,

41. The number of vessels in this district is 40, employing 400 men. Capital, $200,000; value of bait taken, $80,000.

42. Those that are used as bait are slivered and salted in barrels ; those taken for oil are taken asbore to the factories, where they are placed in immense tanks and subjected to the direct action of steam ; they are then put into hydraulic presses, operated by steam and water.

43. There are no factories in this vicinity for making pogie-oil. Other fish-oils are extracted at two factories, owned by A. W. Dodd & Co., and George J. Tarr, both of which are at Gloucester. There are 14 pogie-oil factories in Maine; most of them are in Bristol.

44, The amount of oil manufactured each year at these factories is 1,000,000 gallons ; an average of 71,000 gallons each.

45. During the fishing-season, in case they have the fish, these factories could use 100,000 barrels of fish, or at the rate of 700 or 1,000 barrels per day.

47. The companies owning the factories usually own their fishing vessels.

48. Seventy-five fish, when fat, will produce a gallon of oil, that is, in August and September. When they first come on the coast it will take 300 fish to a gallon.

49, The scrap or pumice is the refuse after the oil is extracted from the fish. This is sold for manure, at $15 per ton.

50. About a gallon per barrel is obtained when they first come, say in May.

51. Four gallons to the barrel of fish in September is the average yield.

52. They do.

54, It is sold all over the country: at Boston, Danvers, New Bedford, and most of the large cities.

55. Scrap is used mostly in the South as a fertilizer for cotton and tobacco, and farmers everywhere use some of it.

56. It is mostly used in currying leather, some for painting and for machinery.

57. Average price, 44 cents per gallon.

58. Reports differ; some think there are as many one year as another, but that they keep off shore more ; others think they diminish.

I herewith propose to add a few facts and a detailed description of the business, that may be of some value and whicb are not covered by the questions. The pogie business in this vicinity has ever been con- ducted on a small scale, as the fish have been taken entirely for bait. There was no large amount of capital invested until they were taken for their oil and manure. Vessels are fitted from this port on the same basis as the other fisheries: The owners of the vessels finding the vessel, outfits, seine, and boats; the crew going at the halves (as it is called), that is, having the proceeds of one-half of the entire catch for their services, the other half going to the vessel. A good vessel with boats

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 399

and seine costs about $6,000; the seine alone is worth $1,000, and will last with fair usage two years. They are made from cotton twine, and are preserved by salt and tar. The seine is carried on a small deck on the stern of the seine-boat; this boat is about 36 feet long and 8 feet wide, and is built similar to the old-style whale-boats ; they are always towed astern of the schoover, and when a school is seen the boat is rowed outside of them and the seine is thrown over; one end being taken by the wherry or dory in attendance, while each describes a circle around the school of fish until the seine is all overboard and the ends of the seine are joined. As the pogies do not sink as mackerel do, they are thus inclosed in a wall of netting 18 fathoms deep, and then, by means of a small rope rove through consecutive rings on the lower edge of the seine, the bottom is drawn together like a purse, and the fish are thus confined in a basket-shaped net. The surplus folds of the net are then gathered up until the fish are left in a small space like drawing a basket gradually from the water. The vessel is then brought alongside the seine and small dip-nets are used to bail the fish from the seine to the deck of the vessel. Often such large quantities are taken in the seine that the vessel is filled and many of the fish are killed by the close confinement and weight of the others ; and when the seine is opened for their release they are mostly dead. This difficulty is obviated if there are other vessels near, who usually take the surplus fish, giving the value of one-half to the successful vessel. After the fish are taken, when they are to be used for bait, they are slivered into barrels and salted ; sometimes they are sold fresh; and as the vessels bound to George’s Bank use ice to preserve their fish, the bait is placed on ice and thus kept fresh. But by far the principal part is salted and used by mackerel- catchers ; this bait is ground into a fine consistency, and is thrown along the side of the mackerel-catcher to toll the mackerel to the surface and keep them alongside the vessel. There are about 60,000 barrels of pogies taken by the bait-catchers from this district, and these produce 20,000 barrels of slivers, worth to the producers $4 per barrel. It is ob- servable that these fish are much fatter while on the coast of Massachu- setts and Maine than when on the more southern coasts,

18. Statement of Simeon Dodge, Marblehead, Mass.

JANUARY 9, 1875.

Sm: Your circular of December 20, with letter inclosed, is at hand. In reply thereto, I can see no reason at present to change the general conclusions in my previous communications, although, of course, the sta- tistical portion is undergoing aconstant change. I herewith present such additional facts as come within my knowledge.

1, They are known here as hardhead or menhaden.

2 and 3. Greatly diminished. Less abundant than other fish.

400 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

4. All that were taken were sold fresh for bait, and would probably not exceed 50 barrels.

5. Probably.

6. About the 9th of May; the main body or smaller-sized ones about July.

7. They swim deepest when they first arrive, although usually with their noses at the surface, so as to be plainly seen by birds, &c.

8. When first seen they move along the coast from the south toward the north; subsequently return toward the south across the bay.

9. Their appearance is regular, but the number constantly decreasing; have never known them to fail for a season.

10. Seining tends to destroy the shoals, and large numbers are killed that are not secured. And this fact will apply to all shoal as well as other fish, which, together with trawls, are fast destroying all our fishing busi- : ness. ji

11. They move upward with the flow and back with the ebb tide.

12, At the mouth of fresh-water streams.

13. Shoal water, though they have been caught 4 fathoms below the surface.

14. They are usually found deeper when the water is cold, when they first appear.

15. The first shoal are, apparently, mother fish, as the shoals that follow are smaller and younger.

16. The young fish are found in inlets and coves the latter part of August.

17. They leave the coast the latter part of October in a body.

18. Across the bay to the south.

19. Unknown. -

20. A reddish substance resembling ground cayenne pepper.

28. They are not. Very few are found in coves, &c.

29, M0;

30. The parent fish do not destroy them.

31. Worms are sometimes found in their gills.

2. They are destroyed to some extent by sharks and blue-fish.

33. No.

34, 34-inch mesh, formerly 43 inch, showing that the size of the fish has diminished.

35. Seines 150 fathoms long by 12 fathoms in depth are usually the dimensions.

36. Small boats are used here generally, although larger craft from other ports fish within our waters.

37. In larger vessels 10 to 13 hands.

38. At any time during the day.

39. No.

40. No.

41. None employed.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. AOL

42. Bait for codfish, and tollings for mackerel.

43, 44, 45, and 46. None.

47. $1 per barrel for fresh; $6 for salted.

58. It certainly seems to, although there may be other causes unknown at present. There is one fact which cannot be denied, and that is that these fish, once so plevty, have become almost extinct in these waters.

19. Statement of Eben B. Phillips, Swampscott, Mass., January 21, 1874.

Menhaden ; sometimes as pogies.

It is the most abundant, except, perhaps, mackerel.

It has neither diminished nor increased.

There are no establishments in this vicinity.

No.

In April they appear on the coast of New Jersey; in May they reach Rhode Island and Connecticut; by the middle of May or Ist of June they come here, and early in June reach Maine, the body of them arriving on the coast of Maine early in July. They leave by the middle of September, or first of October, and go south, no one knows how far. The first are not larger than the others. Many schools come in at same time. They are coming for a month, and going for a month, in streams 309 or 400 miles long.

7. They swim high when they come. In the fall they swim deeper, 6 to 50 ieet down. They make aripple. They do attract birds, viz, fish- hawks—not gulls, nor any other bird.

8. They come along shore, as stated in No. 6.

9. Their appearance on the coast is regular and certain; they never fail, except that they do not come close to the shore, and up the rivers, as much as before; they lie off.

10. Yes. And they can be caught better off shore. We dow’t want the seine to touch bottom.

11. None.

12. In summer irom Portland to Mt. Desert they frequent the mouths of rivers—not very shoal waters. They are also found in abundance on George’s Bank.

13. Auswered above.

14. No, except when the weather is frosty, when they leave. Some- times, when it is warm and sunny, they come to the surface.

15. We do not find immature fish with mature ones on the breeding- ground. In this they differ widely from mackerel, of which all sizes are found together. I think they get their growth in a year.

16. We never see small fish.

17. The fish leave as above stated, and leave by degrees, moving two or three miles per hour, and at twice that rate when the wind is north- east.

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402 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

18. They stick to the coast, sometimes following the bend of Cape Cod. Barnstable Bay was full of them last fall on their way south.

19. At the south somewhere ; it is not known where.

20. They feed on a sort of slime. They come north very poor and return from Maine very fat. The fish has no teeth. It has a gizzard, and the contents only equal the size of a small shot. They do not eat fish nor any vegetable. .

21. They spawn here in August and September.

22. Cannot answer. We always see them in great bodies—not in pairs, or in small numbers. I think their being in great bodies, is some protection against whales, sharks, &e.

23. No, not whitened or colored.

24, Warm water in August and September.

25. At any depth, I think.

26. I suppose the spawn sinks, as all spawn tends to sink.

28. No.

29. Yes, often.

_ 30. Almostall fish eat spawn and young fish. The parents menhaden donot. They feed as above stated. Their spawning further out at sea than formerly, must save the spawn. It used to be cast on shore more than it now is, when we had a high wind.

31. No.

32. Extensively from sharks, horse-mackerel, blue-fish, fin-back and hump-back whaies, which always appear in our waters when the men- haden come. The codfish eats them night and day.

33. No.

D4, Seines.

35. Two hundred fathoms long, and 10 deep

36. Sail and steam vessels.

37. Hight or 9 men in sailing-vessels—it needs that number to handle aseine ; more in steamers.

38. From morning to night.

39. No.

40. I do not know that wind affects the fish, but in a high wind it is impossible to seine. You cannot purse up a seine in a heavy sea.

41. None in this immediate vicinity.

42. The fish are sent to the factories to be cooked by steam and pressed.

43. Joseph Church, Bristol, Me., made, in 1874, 400,000 gallons oil and 4,000 tous of guano; Judson Tarr & Co., Pemaquid, 235,000 gallons oil and 2,500 tonsof guano; B. F. Brightman, Bristol, 280,000 gallons oil and 2,800 tons of guano; Round Pond, Bristol, 60,000 gallons oil and 1,000 tons of guano; Muscongus Oil Works, Bristol, 60,000 gallons oil and 1,090 tons of guano; Wells & Co., Bristol, 80,000 gallons oil and 1,200 tons of guano; Union, Bristol, 60,000 gallons oil and 1,000 tons of guano; J. G. Nickerson, Booth Bay, 100,000 gallons oil and 2,000 tons of guano;

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 403

Gallup & Holmes, Booth Bay, 60,000 gallons oil and 1,000 tons of guano; Gallup & Morgan, Booth Bay, 60,000 gallons oil and 1,000 tons of guano; Luther Maddocks, Booth Bay, 200,000 gallons oil and 3,500 tons of guano. There are also a number of small catchers along the coast of Maine who make oil in amounts ranging from 50 to 75 gallons.

46. Steam for cooking and steam for pressing cost all complete with seine, boats, and fixtures from thirty to two hundred thousand dollars.

47. In 1873, 60 cents. In former years not so much except at some times during the war.

48. One barrel of good fish makes 3 or 4 gallons oil.

50. One or 2 quarts when they first come. They should not be caught until they are fat.

51. Five gallons. It is greatest toward the close of the season.

52. Yes; a great deal more.

53. In about 1850; I was then in the fish-oil business. An elderly lady by the name of Bartlett, from Bluehill, came to my store with a sample of oil which she had skimmed from a kettle in boiling menha- den for her hens. She told me the fish were abundant all summer near the shore. I told her I would give her $11 per barrel for all she would produce. The husband and sons made 13 barrels the first year. The fish then were caught in gill-nets. The following year they caught 100 barrels. From that time and from that circumstance has grown a busi- ness as extensive as I have represented.

54. Boston and New York. The whole country buys it for currying. It is exported to London and Liverpool, and thence to all parts of the world for currying, for soap, and for smearing sheep.

55. South, for cotton and tobacco lands.

56. Currying. It is not used for lubricating.

57. Thirty-eight to 45 cents in 1873, 50 cents in 1872; $1.40 was the - highest, a war price.

58. No.

20. Statement of Thomas Loring, collector, Plymouth, Mass., January 24, 1874, and March 20, 1875.

. Pogy. . Average.

. Diminished. Very few. It does not. About the 1st of June.

High.

. Never fail.

. I think it does.

. Yes; in September, about 4 inches long. - In November. I think by degrees.

. We think south.

SHANAKOTR WN

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404 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

23. The water is whitened. 34, Gill-nets. 05. 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. 2, For bait only.

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

1. Menhaden or pogy.

6. Formerly about the lst of May. The first are the largest.

7. They swim high and make aripple on the surface of the water, but do not attract the birds to any considerable extent. . From the south. They work into the sand in bays and coves.

10. Yes.

11. They come ieioatl 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.

3l. No.

32. Very much.

33. Not on this coast.

o4, 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 manufactcries 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.

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 405

22. Statement of Heman 8. Dill, Wellfleet, Mass., January 9, 1875.

1. Pogy or hard-head.

2. They are sometimes very scarce.

3. Diminished.

4, In 1873, Ido 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 vever 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.

dl. I never saw anything of the kind.

52. 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 Barn- stable Bay ; now they stay but three or five weeks, in May and in the first part of June.

406 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

30. 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.

. Three gallons, I believe, is the least.

. Yes.

. Boston.

. Sometimes it is used here and sometimes it is sent to Boston. . 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. Ihave 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 adamage to all fishing.

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 407

23. Statement of David I. Loring, Highland Light-Station, North Truro, Dass., 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 catch- ing 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 fcr 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

4038 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

have seen the surface of the water literally covered with schools on tha flood-tide, while on the ebb there was 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 on the surface of the water, and are quicker in their movements. I have seen them in the fall of the year, when not school- ing; 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 wien 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 shere, but presume they strike in on the coast farther south.

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

21. I think, from observation, they spawn where there is plenty of eel- grass, 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, press- ing against each other as they swim. Isuppose 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.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 409

29. I never noticed it to be so.

30. I cannot say positively whether the parent fish devour their young or not, but think not; there are, however, many of their eggs destroyed by fish that live on or near the bottom of the sea, such as flounders, scul- pins, perch. Sharks and bluefish destroy many of the young fish.

31. Have never seen anything of the kind.

32. Probably the sharks and porpoises destroy many of them, but bluefish are their worst enemy; they destroy an immense number of them every year.

33. Never knew or heard of any disease among them. I have seen them in the mouth of the Merrimac River in immense quantities, school- ing; they are probably destroyed in immense numbers along the coast every year by the fresh water coming down the river.

34, Set-nets and seines.

33. The nets are from fifty to eighty yards in length, and from fifty to a hundred meshes in depth; the meshes are from four to four and a half inches in length.

21. Statement of David F. Loring, Cape Cod Light-Station, North Truro, Mass., February 23, 1875.

1. Pogy.

4. Do not know the number of barrels taken during the year 1873, probably not over a thousand in this vicinity ; but during the fall of the year 1574 there was some thirty thousand barrels taken by small steam- ers with seines. These steamers belong to a company in Fall River, Mass. This company has a large establishment or oil-factory at Booth Bay, Me., where they carry on the business very extensively during the summer season. After the pogies leave the coast of Maine and start south the steam seiners follow them. After leaving their establishment in Maine in November, 1874, and while crossing Massachusetts Bay, the steamers took a fresh breeze and came into Provincetown Harbor; and in going out of the harbor to go around Cape Cod, after the storm, they fell in with pogies in the bay, and took 30,000 barrels in four or five weeks. I believe the fishermen in this vicinity have an idea of going into the business quite extensively the coming season; it will probably be the beginning of a large business.

10. It is doubtless a fact that these fish are driven away from the Shore by the use of seines, especially in localities where the seining business is carried on extensively ; as, for instance, the coast of Maine, where, a few years ago, the seiners could get all they wanted close in along the shore; now they have to go from thirty to fifty miles off-shore to get the fish. I am informed by old fishermen, who have been en- gaged in different kinds of fishing on the coast of Maine for the last fifteen or twenty years, that while these fish do not go in along the shore as they used to, they are very plentiful off-shore, but not as plentiful as they were ten years ago; and they agree with me that it is the seiners

410 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

_ that scare them away from the shore, and that they are fast diminish- ing in number.

21. I have seen them while spawning in the harbor at Provincetown. They get where there is plenty of eel-grass, in from one to three fath- oms of water.

22. They get together in bunches or small schools, a barrel or two, more or less, in a school, and swim in a circle pressing against each other.

23. It is not.

50. When they first make their appearance on the coast in the spring of the year they are very poor. I think they will not average more than two quarts of oil per barrel of fish as they are taken from the seine.

51. About four gallons oil to a barrel of fish in November.

58. If it is a fact that these fish are scared away from the shore by the use of seines, and also that these fish do deposit, and if it is natural for them to deposit their spawn on seaweeds and rockweeds along the shore, and from my own observation I think they do, it then follows that they are driven away from their spawning as well as their old feeding grounds, and, as in regard to salmon and other fish that have been driven away from their natural spawning-grounds, they naturally will diminish.

25, Statement of Josiah Hardy, 2d, Chatham Mass., February 17, 1874, and January 9, 1875.

1. Menhaden or pogy.

2. They are more numerous than any other fish.

3. As to their diminishing within the last ten years there have been various opinions; but my opinion is, nor do any now deny it that they are less than they were in years previous to this period. These fish used to enter our bay and line the shores and fill up our inland bays and ponds in immense quantities even to their own suffocation. About the year 1832 they were so numerous on and about this coast, and filled our harbors and the mill and oyster ponds so full they suffo- cated, and thousands of barrels of them drifted on shore. So many were they, that the inhabitants of this town were summoned to bury them lest a pestilence might arise. The same thing occurred a few years later; then there was no use for them, but they were used for dressing ae the land. Since that time, as well as then, any saa could be had for this purpose.

4. For the last five years about 3,000 barrels each year.

5. Between 1835 and 1840 the mackerel fishermen began using fish for bait, and large quantities were seined for this purpose. Since that time they have diminished to such a degree that very few have entered our harbors and ponds during the last few years. The most of those

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. A411

which do enter remain through the season. These menhaden are only on their way to the eastern shores, coming from the west when they strike this bay. They come in large schools, and are followed by numer- ous sea-birds.

6. They have been caught in our bay as early as the 15th of April, _ but they generally come about tlie 1st of May.

7. It depends upon the wind. They are generally seen in schools, and they attract sea-fowl.

8. They come from the westward through Vineyard Sound and around Nantucket Island. They come in shore at high water; at low water they keep in the channel, which is from three to seven fathoms deep. I do not think the depth of water affects them very much. They areas regular in their course and movements as a flock of sea-fowl. When one is frightened, they all start ; if one turns, all turn; if one goes down, all follow. They have one peculiarity for which we cannot account. Sometimes for hours not a fish can be seen, and then suddenly they rise to the surface and the water is full of schools, sometimes swimining in a circle and sometimes headed in the same direction.

9. I never knew them to fail.

10. Yes. ;

11. At high water they enter the rivers and follow up into shoal water; on the ebb, they go off into deep water.

12. Rhode Island, Chatham Bay, and the eastern shore of Maine.

13. They school in any depth, and generally near the surface, unless attacked by some enemy.

14, Yes; during northerly or cold winds they swim deep, while dur- ing southerly or warm winds they come to the surface.

15. They do evidently mix with fish partly grown.

16. They are in July and August. When some schools get into our inland ponds and stop through the summer, we see the young ores about two inches long and shorter.

17. The fish pass here from south in the latter part of September and first of October. All move about the same time.

18. They follow the shores of Cape Cod.

19. On the southern coast.

20. They apparently live by filtering the water through their gills.

22. They go in large schools, bnt are never known to pair.

23. No. ;

29. The oldest pogy fishermen say they never saw any spawn in them, but have seen what they called young pogies.

30. They are a prey to sharks, dogfish, squid, codfish, bluefish, hali- but, and porpoises.

31. Nothing of the kind was ever seen on them here.

32. The bluefish are their great enemy, and they leave when this enemy comes.

33. I cannot find a man who ever saw a diseased menhaden.

412 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

34. Weirs and gill-nets.

35. Twenty-five feet deep and of different lengths, with pounds or traps at the ends. Gill-nets are 115 feet deep. Sweep-nets are 150 fathoms long and 25 deep.

36. There are no vessels in the business.

7. Ten men to a seine or weir.

35. Four hours each day.

39. More on the ebb than on the flood.

40. It does. The warm southwest winds are the most favorable.

41. There are none.

42. They are sold to the Gloucester codfish fleet and to spring-mack- erel fishermen for bait. °

43. There is no oil establishment here.

47. About $1.50 in 1873.

48. The season makes a difference. In the spring they are very poor and in the summer and fall very fat.

55. A guano factory on Vineyard Sound.

58. It does not diminish them perceptibly. We have in our bay (1875) thirteen fish-weirs within twelve miles, which are set from the 15th of April until the Ist of June. These weirs are set in from two to five fathoms of water. We catch all kinds of fish, for if the leader of a school falls into our traps the rest follow, and thus tons of fish of all kinds are taken.

26. Statement of Alonzo Y. Lothrop, Hyannis, Mass., February 18, 1874, and January 1, 1875. LOSy. Favorably. . Greatly diminished. . Not many in the immediate vicinity ; large numbers east and west. . It does, apparently, in this section. . In May and September. . They swim high and make aripple; attract sea-gulls and other birds. 8. From the Gulf Stream. They follow up rivers and bays. Have caught them in * dip-net” two miles up Shoal River in two feet of water. 9, Regular and certain. #0) No: © 11. All fish more abundant in this section on “ flood.” 12. From New York to Maine, near shore, rivers, bays, and bends. 13. Shoal water. 14. Leave the coast in cold weather. 15. Yes. 16. Never noticed. Have seen resemblance in smaller fish. 17. In September or October. Should say in a body. 18. Southern.

oP whe

a1

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 413

19. In warm water; probably in the Gulf Stream.

20. Friars, shrimp, and minnows.

22. Think they mix indiscriminately.

23. I never saw the water colored.

26. I think they float in the water until hatched.

28. Not abundant in this section.

29. Yes.

30. Sea-gulls and other birds; besides sharks, dogfish and bluefish.

31. Have noticed quantities of crabs in same seine with pogies.

32. They suffer fearfully...

33. Have noticed them lying dead on the shore. I suppose they were carried up by shoal water or by sea-weed.

34, Purse-net with small mesh.

35. Various. Some 1,000 yards long and 6 fathoms deep.

36. Steamers, schooners, and sloops.

37. Ten to thirty.

38. Morning.

39. Flood.

41. None in immediate vicinity.

42. Mostly to oil factories.

43. None; one at Wood’s Holl.

47. From 30 to 50 cents per barrel.

48. One barrel, about.

50. One gallon.

55. Until within a few years pogies were used by mackerel catchers for bait, ground in bait-mill on board of vessel, and fed out to this class of fish (mackerel) to raise them to surface of water. They are then caught by hook and line. Within a few years oil factories have been established, taking in a large territory, and carried on on a large scale at the present time.

54. Cities.

56. Painting purposes.

58. I should say they had not diminished.

Menhaden, or pogies, as they are commonly called in the Eastern States, were found in unusually large quantities during the year 1874, apparently an increase in their numbers. One steamer alone carried into Linniken’s Bay (near Booth Bay, Maine) nearly 25,000 barrels. Taking into consideration the large number of vessels of various kinds connected with the business, immense quantities of these fish must be used up yearly, but still they come.

27. Statement of William S. Allen, Nantucket, Mass., January, 1875.

1, Menhaden. 2. Comparison s:all. 3. No observabie change.

414 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

4, About 12 barrels; by lobstermen for bait; none previously taken.

6. October; all arrive nearly at the same time, dividing into, say, four schools, all seen at once.

7. Mostly high; make a ripple; attract birds.

9, Since first noticing them their appearance has been nearly regular in time and numbers.

10. Their capture is not pursued here.

11. Seen mostly on the flood.

13. Unknown; both high and low.

14. Yes.

17. At the first change to coldness—in a body.

20. Animal.

23. Sleaked, or greased.

26. Probabiy float.

30. Bluefish.

40. Yes.

41. None.

42, All use baiting purposes.

43. None.

56. A quantity is used in paints.

58. Probably.

61. January 3, 1875.

28. Statement of R. OC. Kenney, Nantucket, Mass., January 21, 1874.

I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your communication of the 20th ultimo, relative to “Statistics of the Menhaden Fisheries, &c.,” and herewith transmit such information as I have been able to obtain on the subject.

1. Pogy.

2. More numerous than any other kind of fish.

3. They vary from year to year, but as a whole, for the past ten years’ remain about the same.

5. It does not.

6. They appear about the Ist of May, or if the season is early, a little sooner. Are most abundant in June and July; the last run are the larg- est and fattest.

6. They gradually increase in abundance from the first.

7. Swim on the surface, causing a ripple, and do not appear to attract birds as other fish do.

8. When they appear in our vicinity it is from the direction of Sandy Hook and the Jersey shore. By our vicinity, I mean from the entrance to the Vineyard Sound, around Cape Cod.

9. Their appearance in large numbers is not regular or certain. When they fail to appear for a season the next year is usually a good one;

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 415

above the average. I think the prevalence of strong southerly winds favorable to their return.

10. It does not.

11. The tide has no apparent effect upon them.

12. Cannot name any definite locality.

13. Have seen them in deep and in shoal water. They usually track the shore.

14. They appear to prefer warm weather. A cold turn will drive them off.

15. When taken in any quantity there appears to be a mixture of old and young.

16. We frequently see them in the fall of the year, from 3 to 4 inches - in length.

17. They commence leaving the coast about the 1st of October, and disappear altogether in November.

18. They return by the same route that they came.

19. I am not certain but think they go to the edge of the Gulf Stream.

21. Judging from the number of small fish seen I should say they spawned around our shores in June and July.

26. I think they sink to. the bottom and become atiached™ to stones, &e., like other spawn.

929, Yes.

31. Have sometimes seen lamprey eels attached to the outside.

32. Sharks, sword-fish, porpoise, and bluefish are very destructive to them.

303. 1 know of none.

34, Purse-nets, gill-nets, generally ; sometimes by sweep-nets and fish- wears.

35. Purse-nets are from two hundred to three hundred fathoms in length and from fifteen to thirty fathoms in depth. Gill-nets are about seventy-five fathoms in length and from two and a half to three fathoms in depth.

36. In this vicinity sail-boats of about 5 tons’ burden are used for setting the nets.

37. For a purse-net about eight men are required; for a gill-net one man with a dory; for a fish-wear from seven to eight men.

38. The gill-nets are set nights; the others through the day.

39. No difference.

40. I think not.

42, About one-half are put on board our fishing-vessels to be used as bait in the cod and mackerel fisheries. The balance are sent to the factory at Woods Holl, Mass.

43, The nearest factory is at Woods Holl, Mass. The owners are un- known to me.

47. The price per barrel, for some years past, has been from fifty to seventy-five cents, as taken from the nets.

416 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

2. They do.

6. Used for tanning purposes.

7. From forty to fifty cents per gallon.

8. I cannot see that they diminish under any circumstances.

————e

29. Statement of C. B. Marchant, collector of customs, Edgartown, Mass., January 13, 1875.

1. This species is known in this locality by the name of menhaden.

2. They are more abundant here than any other species of fish.

3. Their numbers have not materially decreased or diminished during the last ten years.

4, There were about 5,000 barrels taken here in 1873; in 1872, 10,000 barrels. The following companies and persons are engaged in their capture: Jason Luce & Co., Richard Flanders & Co., Prince Stewart & Co., Edwin A. Luce, Thomas Norton, Edmund Cottle, and John Look.

5. Their capture does not affect their abundance.

6. They come on the coast the Ist of May; other schools at intervals to the middle of June. The first caught are not the largest taken during the season.

7. They swim near the surface, ripple the water, and attract birds.

8. They enter these waters from the southwest.

9. They frequently fail for one or more seasons, but return again in usual numbers.

10. Pounds used for their capture appear to scare them.

11. More fish are caught on the first of an ebb-tide than at other times.

12. Their favorite locality in this vicinity is the Vineyard Sound.

13. They are found in greatest numbers in deep water near the shore, and on the surface of the water.

14, They seek water of the highest temperature.

15. All fish seen are of full growth, or nearly so.

16. Young fish are not often seen on this coast.

17. They leave this vicinity about the middle of July, and return in small numbers in November.

18. They are moving to the eastward.

19. Unknown.

20. Unknown.

29. The spawn is often found to escape when captured.

30. The bluefish destroy the spawn; the parent fish is not known to devour them.

31. Crabs, worms, &c., not observed attached to gills or mouths of these fish.

32. The enemies of these fish do not perceptibly diminish their num- bers in this locality.

oo.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. AIT

No fatal epidemic or disease has been observed among these fish.

34, The method of their capture in this locality is in pounds.

35.

The dimensions of these pounds are about 1,200 feet long by 28

feet wide.

36. 37. was. 39. 40. 42. 43. 47. cents. 58.

No vessels are employed in their capture.

Forty men are engaged in their capture.

These men are employed all the time during the season of fishing. The fish are taken principally on an ebb-tide.

A southwest wind the most favorable for their catch.

The fish are sold to vessels on the spot for bait.

None. *

The price per barrel, in 1873 and previous years, averages 50

The catch of these fish does not appear to diminish their number.

30. Statement of Jason Luce & Co., North Tisbury, Mass., January 6, 1875.

ADT Whe

OoMn

. Menhaden.

. They exceed others.

. Diminished.

. Five thousand.

No.

. About the 1st of May, and the first are the largest. . They swim high, make a ripple and attract birds.

. They come from the south and go west.

.-They are sure to come.

10. . South.

. Suction.

. South, in the winter.

. Bluefish. No.

. I never saw anything of the kind.

. Bluefish make great havoc with them. . Purse-nets.

. Pacific Guano Company.

. Least in June.

. Greatest in November.

. Used for paint.

. No.

I think not.

31. Statement of Gallup, Morgan & Co., Groton, Conn., December 28, 1877.

We have two steamers; the Daisy and the John A. Morgan; ton- nage respectively, 66, 87; 14 men each crew. Length of seine, about 230 fathoms; depth, 25 fathoms. Number of barrels of fish taken, 24,000.

27 F

418 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 32. Statement of Luce Brothers, Hast Lyme, December 4, 1877.

We have one steamer, 76 tons burden; 9 sloops, 19 tons burden ; 4 crews of 12 men each. We employ 40 men in our mill. Seine, 150 fath- oms long, 18 fathoms deep. We have taken 23,890,000 fish ; made 2,400 barrels of oil, or 103,200 gallons.

33. Statement of Daniel T. Church, Tiverton, R. I., March 23, 1874.

1. Menhaden.

2. There is no fish so plenty in Narragansett Bay as menhaden if we take several years as the standard ; but if we should take years as they come, and name each year separately, it would be different. For in- stance, during 1871, 1872, and 1873 scup appeared in Narragansett Bay in immense quantities, and there is no doubt in my mind but that there has been during the years named more of them than menhaden; but for a number of years preceding scup were scarce.

3. Menhaden has, on an average, been plenty in Narragansett Bay for the last ten years. But for about ten years they were so scarce that some of the fishermen left the business. It is my opinion that when bluefish were plenty they destroyed such large quantities that there was a vast diminution, and it was seriously feared that they were to disappear; but since the bluefish have grown scarce menhaden have grown plenty, and 1871, 1872, and 1873 have been great years in the business for bluefish. Sharks and a large fish called horse-mackerel ‘have been for some unknown reason scarce. The horse-mackerel spoken of does not frequent the waters of Narragansett Bay, but are found east of Cape Cod.

4. Taking for a basis of estimate that there are eight menhaden fac- tories on Narragansett Bay that used 20,000 barrels each, it would make the number of barrels caught during year 1873 about 160,000, and I think the above estimate about right.

5. We do not think that fishermen have any perceptible effect on men- haden, for it is a fact well known that a few years back they were scarce and it was generally conceded that the business was a failure, and some left the business because of the scarcity, and fish-gear, such as boats and seines, were sold for less than fifty cents on the dollar. But since then they have been plenty, and the year 1873 has been a year of surprise to all, for the sea has been one blanket of menhaden from the Chesapeake to the Bay of Fundy.

Menhaden strike the coast not far from the first of May, and there is not many days’ difference between their arrival on the coast of Virginia or Maine. It is the opinion of those best intormed that menhaden go to sea in winter and come in during the spring, I once had a brother in

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 419

Virginia fishing, and at the same time I was at Seconnet fishing, and there was not three days’ difference between their arrival in the Chesa- peake and the Narragansett Bays. The strongest proof of the ccrrect- ness of the above theory is that there is a body of menhaden from one end of the coast to the other during the whole season ?

7. It depends upon the weather. Fish make a ripple in the water. When it is warm they generally are near the surface and when it is cool they swim deep.

8. It is my opinion that the fish go square ont to sea from one end of the coast to the other, although their general course when first seen is toward the east. But if they all went east, how is it that so many are from one end of the coast to the other during the whole season.

9. I have never known a season that they have failed to make their appearance. Their time of arrival varies as the season is warm or cold. I have been at Seconnet for seventeen years in succession, and every season they have come sooner or later, but in different quantities, for some seasons they are much more plentiful than they are others.

10. The nets and seines do not scare them from the shore, for Nar- ragansett Bay has been the theater of their greatest capture for forty years or more, and they have been more plentiful than ever before for the last few years. I have seen a school of fish set ont ten times in sue- cession in deep water and they would dive under the seiue each time, but when they came to the surface they would not be ten feet from the seine, and they would lie still until we got ready to set; when the seine was around them they would dive again.

Fish will drive menhaden but man never does, except by use of pow- der ; they are sensitive to a jar, such as hitting the deck of a vessel with an ax; even so slight a jar as the dropping of an oar or the careless slat of a rung on the gunwale has sent a school of fish off at fall speed.

11. They drift with the tide sometimes, and then again they swim against it. I have seen them in Dutch Island Passage, which is the western entrance to Narragansett Bay, drift in and out with the tides as regular as it ebbed and flowed. At the first of the flood they would come in and work up as far as Rocky Point, and when it made ebb they would drift down near Narragansett Pier.

12. I know of no favorite places. We hear of them on George’s Banks, on Nantucket Shoals, off the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia. I have seen immense schools of them off the coast of South Carolina, and we all know they are in all the rivers, bays, and creeks from South Carolina to the Bay of Fundy during the summer months.

13. I think they care nothing about depth of water, for they are found in large quantities in deep and shoal waters. We catch large quan- tities on the coast of Maine in 50 fathoms, and even in 160 fathoms; and at the same time there are large amounts of them in the rivers and bays in shoal water.

14, The temperature of the water does seem to affect them; they do

420 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

not seem to like cold water. When it gets to be cold weather they leave, and I reason from this that the air makes the water cold, and then they start. But they go onto the coast of Maine, and keep in the cool, deep water, when, if they liked, they could soon be ‘in warm and shoal water. Why they do so'is more than I know; but there seems to be difference of habit, for some stop in the deep and cool water while others go into the shoal and warm water.

15, I know nothing of their habits or laws of breeding, but I do know that we rarely see any of them with spawn in them, and when so found it generally is in the fall. But we have abundant evidence that they do spawn in this bay, from the fact that often we take in our nets bush- els of their spawn, and also during some seasons there are large quan- tities of small fish about the size of sardines. They are always seen in the fall. We know nothing of one or two year old fish; they are either full grown with us or small. But there are different sizes of fish, as we find by our nets, for we use a mesh 34 inches large, and sometimes we catch a school that “ gill” in them, although not often. We take schools of fish that are large and overgrown, but we generally think it to be due to the difference in their feeding grounds.

16. Now and then there are plenty of small menhaden in Narragan- sett Bay, but it is the exception instead of the rule. I never saw any young menhaden east of Cape Cod, and I have asked a man that has fished constantly for menhaden east of Cape Cod for about ten years, and he says he never saw any. Ihave seen plenty of them south of Narragansett Bay.

17. It is hard to tell when the fish leave the coast, for we can fish with our purse-seines and have good fishing if it is good, warm weather, but if it comes on cold, the fish vanish, and to all appearances they are gone, for they do not show on the surface of the water; but the gill- nets will take them long after, and they have been so taken as late as New Year's, when they are quite plenty; this shows that they are not gone at that time. Who knows but what they are close by all winter?

19. We don’t know where they spend their winters, although I have seen large quantities off the coast of South Carolina and North Caro- lina during the winter months.

20. I don’t know the nature of their food, except we think it is a small live something in the water, for they go about with their mouths open, as if sifting or straining the water for food. Wecallit brit. It must be something of great fattening properties, for they fat rapidly when they arrive on the beds of it that lie off the coast of Maine.

2L. I know they spawn on Narragansett Bay.

28. They are abundant some seasons in this bay, but not always. I have seen millions of barrels, about the size of sardines; and on the coast of North Carolina I have seen them for miles square so plen- titul, about the size of sardines, that you could hardly move a boat through them, and an oar among them would fall down about as fast as

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 421

a stick would in thick molasses. The havoc that gulls and fish make among them is fearful when they are together in such bodies.

32. They are the bait or food of most every fish in the sea. Bluefish is the menhaden’s great enemy, for when they attack in large quantities, and they used to come apparently about as plenty as the menhaden, they annihilated vast schools of them. Instances are known when they came into this bay in such force that they drove them on shore in large quantities, and in a short time most there was in the bay would be de- stroyed. The record here is the same from one end of the coast to the other. Cape Cod Bay was cleaned out, as were the rivers and bays on the coast of Maine, and the destruction was so large in some parts of Maine, that the people had to bury them from the fear of a pestilence. The same story is told at Long Island, and also on the Connecticut shore. The sharks destroy them. I once saw a body of them destroyed or scattered in less than one hour. This wasoffSeconnet. They were lying there apparently undisturbed, when suddenly a large school of sharks appeared among them, and the havoc was fearful. One gang of fisher- men had their seine in the water, and the sharks destroyed it; they were so ugly, that they would grab an oar in the water as quick as they would a fish. Porpoises are fond of them, and they can do as much destruction as any fisa, but they are not often seen around here. Cod- fish also catch them.

33. I know of no epidemics, but I have heard often from old people how that years ago most all the menhaden in the sea and in the bays died, and for a year or two they were scarce.

34. Purse-nets at present are used mostly to capture them.

35. About 180 fathoms long and 80 feet deep, although some are 250 fathoms long and over 100 feet deep; while others, on the other hand, are not over 75 fathoms long and 50 feet deep. The length and depth of seines depends on the depth of water and the kind of fishing.

36. Steamers and sailing-vessels. The largest steamers are 70 tons; the smallest, 25 tons. The sail-vessels usually are about thirty tons, new measurement, and are used generally to live in. They have tenders to take the fish to market ; said tenders are of an average capacity of two hundred and fifty barrels, but latterly they are built larger, and there are some in use that will carry six hundred barrels. Besides the tenders and vessels, there are the purse and mate boats, which carry the seine and men. These boats are about twenty-four feet long and six feet wide, and take one-half of the seine each ; they are then started from a central point and row around the fish.

37. The sailing-vessel has a captain, who manages the vessel when the men are absent taking the fish. The purse-crew, which man the purse and mate boats, consists of six or eight men. The purse-boat con- tains the captain of the gang, and the mate-boat has the first mate. Each boat has a seine-setter and two men to row around the fish. In addition to the above men, most of the gangs have a fish-driver in a

422 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

small boat, who keeps close to the school and guides the gang in setting for them. The fish-driver makes the seventh man. Some gangs have a man they call a striker. Generally, he is an apprentice, who goes for small wages to learn the business. -He makes the eighth man. To recapitulate: A purse-gang, for either steamer oc sail-vessel, consists of from six to eight men, and the different make-up of gangs arises in dif- ferent ideas of different gangs. Hach boat has to have a seine-setter and two men to row. Steamers have the same crew as vessels, except they have no tenders, thereby saving that expense. To illus- trate: Suppose a sail-vessel has a purse-gang of seven men and three wen to run tenders; that makes ten men in all as sharesmen. Ina steamer the three extra men are dispensed with, and the steamer takes their part for the extra expense of coal and machinery, but the men’s shares are the same on an equal amount of fish. The captains of the steamers manage them when the crew are absent catching the fish.

38. All parts of the day are used in taking them, but the moderate part is preferred.

39. The tide is watched in catching fish. Generally, slack water is the time when they can be taken the best, for at that time the seiue is not scraped over the bottom, thereby escaping the chances of catching against obstructions and tearing. Cases have happened where seines have been totally lost, and hardly a day goes by when one or more are, in fishing language, ripped up; and sometimes it takes a week’s steady work to mend them. When the water is still, the seine hangs better in the water. It is just the same as hanging clothes out to dry on a windy day—-the stronger the wind, the more they shake; so with seines; if they are put into the water with it in swift motion, they are capsized or pulled out of shape; for when they are in the water and swing one hundred feet deep, they are in more than one kind of tide, for often the tide on the surface is not of the same velocity as it is deeper down. Cases have been known when the tide on the surface and the tide sev- eral fathoms down were opposite. I have often heard the fishermen say when they came in after a hard day’s work, that ‘‘ we have done noth- ing to-day; strong tide, and our seine capsized every time we placed it.’

40. All the effect we know is that the wind makes the water rough, and we cannot catch them; but I do not think the wind has much ettect on them as to their habits or to drive them away, for after the hardest storms we have ever known on our Coast, the fish are found where they were when the storm came on.

41. There were about ten gangs employed in Narragansett Bay for the whole season, and there were not far from one hundred men em- ployed in working them. I leave out of this estimate those gangs that fit here in the spring, and go east and fish the whole season. My business is mostly in Maine, and in my vicinity there were fifty-five gangs, which employed over six hundred men. More than one-half of these men came from Rhode Island. Most of them fish there a short

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 423

time in the spring and fall, but the main part of their season is off the coast of Maine.

42. Most of the fish caught by the above gangs are manufactured into oil and fish guano; some are used for bait and some are used for manure just as they are taken from the water. But during the year 1873 there was but few of those caught in Narragansett Bay used for bait, because the Gloucester and Provincetown fishermen catch them with their own seines.

43. Job T. Wilson, Leonard Brightman & Son, Wm. J. Brightman & Co., Narragansett Oil and Guano Co., Thomas Dunovan, Thomas Durfee, Benjamin H. Gray, Otis Almy & Co., Chas. Cook & Co., Chas. O. Wilcox, Atlantic Oil and Guano Co. are the principal manufacturers on Narragansett Bay. The above list comprises all there are in the bay. Job 'T. Wilson owns three and Leonard Brightman owns two factories.

44, If my estimate is correct under question four, 160,000 barrels, at the usual estimate of 3 tons to ibe one hundred barrels, would give the amount of guano 4,800 tons, and the oil, at the rate of 13 gallons of oil to the barrel, would give the product of oil for this bay at 240,000 gallons.

45. I should think the average productive capacity of our oil factories to be about six hundred barrels each; as I figure it some will manufac- ture one thousand barrels each day, and some will not manufacture more than two hundred barrels per day. The productive capacity for each year is immense, but the amount of fish limits it to what the figures be- fore given will give. If all the factories had all the fish day by day that they wished, and could run from one end of the season to the other, their product would flood the world, but there are so many set-backs, such as bad weather, sharks, bluetish, that these fishermen get discouraged and go at other work. Take it all in all, there is no business on earth more uncertain than menhaden oil business.

46. Hydraulic power is mostly used in pressing oil and water from fish. Steain is used mostly in preparing the fish for the press, and also the oil is prepared by steam for market by a process not generally known. A hydraulic press costs about $12. <A factory, complete, ready for busi- ness, including buildings, tanks, boilers, oil run, &c., of a capacity to take and press 800 barrels in one day, costs not far from $14,000.

47, Fish per barrel on Narragansett Bay was, during the year 1873, about 40 cents ; in 1863, during the summer, $1 per barrel; and once within ten years they were $2.50 per barrel. On the coast of Maine the price paid for fish during the year 1873 was about 72 cents; the old price used to be $1, but the low price of oil and guano for the last few years has caused them to fall, and the year 18735 has been disastrous for most of the manufacturers on the coast of Maine.

48. In 1871 fish averaged on the coast of Maine 34 gallons per barrel ; in 1872 they averaged 23 per barrel; in 1873 they averaged about 3 gal- lons ; the average is more uniform in Maine than on Narragansett Bay or in Long Island Sound.

424 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

49, There is no oil extracted from scrap; the oil is extracted from the fish and the water is extracted at the same time, and what is left is scrap, or, as we call it, fish-guano.

50. Fish are generally poorest in the spring when they first appear next to. the shore; after cold winters they are much poorer than after warm winters, which shows that during warm winters they feed more than they do in cold winters. I have seen them so poor in this bay in = the summer season that out of one hundred barrels we could not get one pint of oil; then, again, I have seen them so fat that the average would be over two and one-half gallons to the barrel.

51. The fish are fattest generally in the fall, but I have known them after a-warm winter to make 24 gallons to the barrel. But the first 18,000 barrels caught by us in Maine during the year 1873 did not make over 14,000 gallons of oil.

52. During the year 1873 the average to the barrel in Maine was one- half of a gallon more to the barrel than in Long Istand Sound, and one gallon and one-half more than the average in Narragansett Bay.

53. But afew years back there was no such thing known as men- haden oil and guano business; at present there are over $2,000,000 invested, and in my opinion the business has but just begun, for ap- parently there are thousands of square miles of the fish, I think, and the business only wants to be known to be embraced.

54. The manufacturers sell most of their oil in New Bedford, Boston, and New York, and they sometimes export it to Liverpool and Havre.

55. The phosphate manufacturers buy most of it, and what they do not buy is used by the farmers in the pure state. It is considered to be a first-class fertilizer.

56. It is used mostly on leather.

57. Oil fluctuated from 65 cents to 32 cents during the year 1873; for the last five years I should think the average price had been 50 cents per gallon. ;

58. I do not think that what man does can have any effect in diminish- ing them, for he has increased bis powers of capture for the last few years, and the menhaden have apparently increased in’ greater propor- tion than ever before. I explain the increase in this way: The men- haden, from the vast destruction by bluefish, come out at the end of the campaign far below their correct proportions, and when the blue- fish ceased to trouble them they began to gain, and are gain.ng, and will continue to gain until they arrive. at nature’s high-water mark, and then they will stop. Buzzard’s Bay, Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, and Cape Cod Bay used to be the home of the menhaden, but when the bluefish made those waters his home the menhaden were destroyed or driven away, probably most of them were destroyed, and now that the bluefish are about the same as gone, the menhaden begin to show themselves. This is especially true of Buzzard’s and Cape Cod Bays. There have been large quantities of them in New Bedford Harbor for the last tvo years, and also around the Hen and Chickens.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 495 34. Statement of E. T. De Blois, Portsmouth, R. I., November 26, 1877.

We have 3 steamers: E. T. De Blois, $1.50 tons, crew 13; Albert Brown, 78.05 tons, crew 13; Wm. A. Wells, 51.58 tons, crew 13; have eaught 26,649 barrels of fish this season; the length of seine 300 fath- oms or 1,800 feet; depth, 17 fathoms or 102 feet.

35. Statement of H. D. Ball, New Shoreham, R. I., January 11, 1875.

1. Menhaden.

6. They make their first appearance about the 1st of May in large schools.

23. They seem to color the water red.

34. Gill-nets and pounds.

41. No vessels are engaged in the business.

42. For cod bait.

43. None.

58. No.

36. Statement of Henry W. Clark, keeper of Southeast Light-House, Block _ Island, R. 1., February 6, 1875.

1. Menhaden. ;

2. Menhaden are the most abundant.

3. There seem to be as many now as ever; but some seasons they are more plentiful than at others.

4, In 1873 some gangs of fishermen caught 25,000 barrels of them.

5. No; but the first are more wild, and there are more fishermen than there were ten years ago.

6. We first see them about the 1st of May. They come in abundance from thé middle of May to the 1st of June. There is generally a May “run” and a June “ run.”

7. They swim close to the surface of the water.

8. They generally strike in on the coast of Virginia.

9. They come every season.

10. I think nets and seines scare them, and they are not so easily caught as they were before these were used.

11. They generally work in and out with the tide; but when they are making a passage tide does not affect them.

12. The rivers seem to be their favorite resorts.

13. In the summer we find them in shoal water, but in deeper water when cold weather approaches.

14. When the water is cold they swim low.

15. They leave their spawn in the rivers and shoal places.

16. We see schools of young fish about the 1st of September. The fish then are about 2 inches long.

426 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

17. They commence to leave about the middle of October, and keep leaving in schools until the middle of November.

18. They follow the coast from Maine to Cape Hatteras.

20. Their principal food is a sort of jelly-fish, I think, for where we find the most of them we find the most fish.

21. In the rivers, in June and July.

23. The spawn is generally found in large clots and appears white.

24. A warm temperature.

25. The spawn is generally found about twenty or thirty feet below the surface.

26. The eggs sink to the bottom, but do not seem to become attached to anything.

28. We see the young fish in September. They are in schools.

30. I never saw anything attached to the fish or in their mouths.

31. Most all larger fish, such as bluefish, sharks, porpoises, W&c., are enemies of the menhaden.

32. They always seem healthy.

35. The nets used are about 400 yards long and 90 feet deep. They are made of cotton twine.

36. Sloop yachts are mostly employed; they are from twelve to twenty-five tons burden. There are also eight or ten steamers now in use.

37. From eight to ten.

38. The morning and afternoon are the best times.

39. Slack-water is the best time, because the tide does not tangle the net.

40. The best time to catch fish is while the wind is southeast.

41. There are about one hundred vessels employed, averaging, I think, about nine men for a crew.

42, The fish are boiled and the oil extracted; the refuse is used for manure. é

43. There are several factories in Providence River.

45, It depends upon the quantity and fatness of the fish.

46. The machinery costs from ten to fifty thousand dollars.

47. From 40 to 75 cents a barrel.

48. From one to four barrels.

49, In the summer about sixty gallons,

50. One quart.

1. Five gallons. 52. Yes.

54. New York and Boston.

55. All over the country. I think, however, in New England the most is used in the Connecticut Valley for tobacco raising.

56. For tanning.

57. From thirty-five to sixty cents.

58. Yes.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 427

37. Statement of J. 8. Crandall, Watch Hill, R. I, February 20, 1874,

and January 1, 1875. 1. Bony fish.

2. More numerous than any other kind.

3. Diminished.

Captain Wilcox works two fish gangs. He took in 1873 9,800,000 ; in 1872, 9,450,000; in 1871, 4,500,000, Another factory has three fish gangs and took in 1873 2,500,000.

5. It does.

6. About the 15th of May, and seems.to come on to all parts of the coast about one time; the first are the smallest and poorest.

7. Swim high and are seen by color and ripple.

8. They come on to our coast from the southward by the east end of Long Island, aud seem to work eastward and westward.

9. There are some seasons not as numerous as others; in 773 they were plentiful ; in’74 not so plentiful ; in fact their catch was not more than two-thirds as much as in 773.

10. It does; for last season, in the latter parts-of the summer and fall, fish were taken outside of Block Island.

11. When the tide runs strong they usually go with the tide,

12. All along the New England coast.

13. No difference, as they are in all depths of water.

14. It does, as they are not as spry in cold water as in warm.

15. They do, but are all of one size.

16. Are seen in great quantities in September, October, and Novem- ber, from 2 to 6 inches long.

17. November and December, gradually.

18. They work westward when leaving the coast.

20. They live on suction, and their food looks like very fine britt.

21. They spawn in July and August.

28. They are found in great quantities all along the New England coast.

29. They do.

30. The parent fish do not feed on their young.

31. Lampreys and worms are found, but are not very numerous.

32. Man seems to be their worst enemy along our coast, but they have others, as bluefish, sharks, codfish, bass, seal, porpoises, and other fish ; but bluefish seem to kill them for sport, as they kill a great many more than they can eat.

33. Never knew of any.

34, Purse-seines mostly.

30. From one hundred to one hundred and fifty fathoms long and eighty to ninety feet deep.

36. Sloops and schooners mostly ; some steamers are from twenty to fifty tons burden.

37. From eight to ten compose a gang.

428 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

38. All parts of the day.

39. No difference.

40. It does not.

41, About fifty; and will average from eight to ten men each.

42. They are taken to the try-works at different points along the coast.

43. Green, Wilcox, Chapman, Allen, and others.

44. Green’s factory in 1873, 35,000 gals.; Captain Wilcox said he took 9,£09,000 that averaged 7 gals. to the thousand. Fish have been very fat for a few past years.

46. Steam-works cost from five to fifty thousand dollars.

47. About two dollars per thousand.

50. When they first come on to the coast in the spring they phish the least oil.

Ol. In the fall when they are about to leave the coast they yield the oak quantity of oil.

. About the same as right whale oil.

54 Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

. All through the New England and Middle States it is used for fertilizing:

we For tanneries and adulterating paint-oils.

. From thirty-eight to forty cents; previous years it has sold as ie as sixty-two cents.

58. It does.

38. Statement of William H. Potter, Mystic River, Conn., January 27, 1874.

1. Bony-fish. 2. More plentiful. 3. Increased.

4, Quinnipiac Oil Company, 2,174 barrels; J. Green & Co., 2,111 barrels; G. S. Allyn & Co., 1,577 barrels; Quiambog Oil Company, 355. barrels; Gardiner Oil Company, 289 barrels; R. Chapman, 200 barrels; total, 6,505 barrels @ $12.60. In 1872 there were 4,532 barrels.

5. No.

6. Apriland May. Not generally. Yes.

7. High. Yes. Yes.

8. From the south. Pass out east and west.

9. Not more than two weeks’ difference. They fail in port.

10. Probably not, as they have increased in numbers yearly.

11. They come at the turn of the tide.

12. Long Island and Fishev’s Island Sounds, Block Island Bay, and Providence River.

13. From three to twenty fathoms.

14. Yes.

15. Yes, but not always.

16. Yes. Three inches in the fall.

HISTORY OF ''HE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 429

17. October 15 to November 15. By degrees.

18. Southerly.

19. South of Hatteras.

20. Vegetable sea-weed and a sort of white jelly which determine their distance from the surface. They follow it.

21. Here in the spring and south in the winter. They spawn in and near rivers.

22. They mix premiscuously.

24. Before and after the warmest weather ; in June, July, and October.

25. At the bottom in river-grass.

26. Float near the bottom. 7. Soon atter laid. 8. Yes, in shoals, generally by themselves. Near the shore in the

29, ‘Yes. 30. Alllarger fish. No. 31. No. 2. Greatly. 33. No. 34, Purse-nets, pounds, and seines. 35. Average, 100 feet deep, 800 to 2,000 feet long. 36. Boats of from 40 to 75 tons burden. 37. Nine. 38. All day and into the night. 39. No great difference. 40. Sometimes. 41, Sixty boats, in all employing 240 men. 42. Used for their oil; the refuse is used for guano. They are also used for bait. The oil is made at the factories along the coast. 43. See No. 4. 45. Probably twice or thrice the actual catch (see No. 4). 46. Hydraulic presses, tanks, boilers, steam or hand power and run- ning-gear. Costly. 48. One barrel. 49. Forty gallons. 50. A quart to the barrel. 51. Four gallons. In the autumn. 52. Yes. 53. Commenced here on a small scale thirty-five years ago; it is con- stantly increasing. 54. New York and Boston. 55. South. 56. Painting and to adulterate other oils. 57. Forty cents per gallon at wholesale. Two years ago it was over 50 cents per gallon. 58. No.

430 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

39. Statement of John Washington, Mystic, Conn., December 30, 1874.

{

bat

. Bony-fish.

2. The most numerous.

3. Not changed.

5. Not late years.

6. The stragglers arrive here about the fore part of April, the schools the last of the month, and continue coming in the first half of the sum- mer.

7. When traveling they swim low; when feeding at the surface they show aripple. They do not attract birds.

8. They come from the south along the coast; we hear of their passing the Jersey coast eight or ten days sooner than they pass Montauk. After passing in past the outer islands, the large schools separate into smaller ones, and the farther they go from the sea the smaller they get until they arrive at the rivers and coves.

9. Their arrival each year varies buta few days. Never fail. Some seasons not as plenty as others.

10. The large schools do not come as near as formerly.

11. They travel with tides.

12. The entrance of rivers and bays when not disturbed.

13. Any depth suits them, but they swim near the surface.

14. They remain in the warm waters of the rivers and coves through the heat of summer. We also find some stragglers here in the river as late as freezing weather in the fall.

15. We find all ages, from one year up, in the large schools.

16. The young fish of ? to 14 inches long are found here passing out of all the rivers and coves which have brackish water in them. In the months of October and November.

17. Old and young begin to go in October, and by the last of Novem- ber are all gone.

18. They go to southwest along the coast, and faster than they come in the spring.

19. They pass to the south of Cape Hatteras and remain through the winter on the coast and in the sounds and bays of North and South Carolina. This is the winter resort of most kinds of the summer fish of this coast. :

20. When in the rivers they feed on fine moss that grows on the weeds, and a scum that floats on the surface. At sea and in the open waters their principal feed are minute jellies and brit, a minute crab that at times is So numerous as to color the water.

21. In the brackish water of all the riversand coves into which brooks ~ empty their waters. In the months of May, June, and July.

22. My impression is that when the fish start in the spring to migrate north along the coast, those with the ripe spawn (which are earlier with some than others, for we find full-grown spawn all the season) leave the

HISTORY OF THE AMERIUAN MENHADEN. 431

main school ard goto the nearest suitable water and deposit their spawn, anywhere from Carolina to Maine. The fish that come in this river to spawn come in May as stragglers when the schools are outside ; at that time the spawn will run and the fish are soon spent; at this time they are worthless for bait or oil, and do not get in good condition until they pass out.

23. No.

24, Forty degrees to sixty degrees.

25. On flats that are nearly dry at low water.

30. Eels and frost-fish gathered in the vicinity of the spawning- grounds.

31. Very free from them.

32. To a great extent, as all other fish feed on them.

33. Have never seen any symptoms of any.

I cannot answer the others as to catch, profits, &c., as Iam not en- gaged in extracting oil from them.

40, Statement of Leander Wilcox, Mystic Bridge, Conn., January 15, 1875.

1. Bony fish.

2. Most plentiful.

3. Probably increased.

4, One hundred and nine thousand six hundred barrels. Mint Head Company or Noyes Neck Oil Company, 4,200 barrels; G.S. Allyn & Co., 38,000 barrels ; Quinippiac Company, 36,090 barrels; Rt. Chapman, 9,000 barrels ; Quiambog Company, 7,200 barrels; Garduer & Co., 11,200 barrels ; Andrews Island Company, 8,000 barrels. ©

6. May 1. No. At four different times.

7. High. They make aripple. Yes.

8. South. They pass both east and west in this region.

9. Quite regular. They never fail for more than one season; even then only partially ; they return in greater abundance.

11. More are apt to come to the top at the turn of the tide. 12. Differ at different times. 13. From 10 to 100 feet, and they sometimes lie on the bottom. 14, Yes. 15. No. No. 16. Yes, in midsummer. They are from 2 to 3 inches long. 17. In December, or before, in a body or in schools. 18. As they came. In warm climates, always keeping in water of a uniform tempera-

= =

20. A fine white jelly. 21. Here in the spring and south in the winter. 22. There are a dozen or more females to one male.

432 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

23. No.

24. The water must be measurably cold, never warm.

25. Shoal.

26. Float.

28. Yes; everywhere; but they do not mix with adults; they school by themselves and are often mistaken for large fish.

29: INO:

30. Eels, toad fish, and other inshore fish.

Sil. Noun .

32. Largely from sharks, blucfish, and porpoises.

30. No.

34. Purse-seines, pounds, and gill-nets.

30. From 500 to 1,000 yards long and from 80 to 150 feet deep.

36. Small lighters, from 2 to 75 tous burden, and steamers of the lat- ter size.

ov. Ten men.

38. All hours.

39. No. See 11.

40. Not much effect.

41. About 55 altogether. They employ, say, 500 hands, beside 250 landsmen to handle and manufacture into oil.

2. Brought to their factories.

43. Quiambog Oil Company, Mint Head or Noyes Neck Oil Com- ’ pany, G.S. Allyn & Co., R. Chapman & Co., and Quinippiac Company.

44, On an average, one gallon to each barrel of fish. See No. 4.

45. Twice the actual manufacture.

46. Cost from $5,000 to $75,000.

47. In 1874 about 35 cents.

48. Differs very much; from 2,500 to 3,000.

53. Commenced twenty years ago.

54. New York and Boston.

55. North and south.

56. To adulterate other oils and for painting and tanning; it takes the place of whale-oil.

57. In 1874, 40 cents.

58. No. See No. 3.

41. Statement of Samuel C. Beebe, Cornfield Point Light- Vessel, No. 12,

Saybrook, Conn., January 6, 1845. 1. Bony fish.

2. More abundant.

o- Increased.

4, Fish are measured by the thousand in cars. Luce Brothers took in 1873, with three seines, 9,000,000. In 1872, with four seines, 13,000,000. In 1871, 17,000,000.

d. It does not seem to.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 435

6. In April; but these are not the largest. There are twe runs, called the spring and eastern run.

7. High. They make ripples on the water.

8. By Watch Hill and Montauk. They work towards the bays and rivers, along the sound and at its head.

9. They have never altogether failed, but are more plentiful at some seasons than at others.

10. mv. 12. 16. 17. -. Montauk Point.

. Southern bays and rivers.

. Suction of scum, it is supposed.

. In bays and rivers. During May, June, July, and August. . They are mixed indiscriminately.

pe Oo 6

bo bo bo bo NO =

Se

No.

In bays, &ce., they move in at the flow and out at the ebb.

Bays.

They are, from June to November, at different times. Very small. About the middle of Nov ember, 1 in a body.

No.

. They are, in bays, rivers, and creeks.

= No.

= NO:

2. Very much.

;, INO:

. Mostly purse-nets.

5). From 100 to 150 fathoms long, and 11 to 18 deep. . Sloops, mostly averaging 20 tons.

7. From 8 to 12.

. The greater part.

. L have never noticed any difference.

. Not much, but they generally work to cianriied. . About 150 vessels ; an average of 10 men each.

2. They are used for the oil.

43. 47,

Luce Brothers. In 1873, from $2 to $2.50 per thousand. In previous years from

$1.25 to $2.

48. 50. 56. 58.

Eight gallons to the thousand:

It is least in summer, and most in the fall. Used for painting.

No.

42. Statement of R. E. Ingham, Saybrook Light-House, Saybrook, Cont.

March 17, 1874.

1. Whitefish and bony-fish. 2. More abundant. o. No.

28 F

434 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

d. No.

6. First seen in May. Main body arrives in June. First are scatter- ing, and generally largest. There are more runs than one; intervals not 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. Doubtiul; said to be infusoria.

23. No.

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

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.

55. 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.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 435

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

. Whitefish.

. Most numerous.

. Salt Island Oil Company, 6,400 barrels. . About the middle of May.

Swim low at first.

. Around Montauk Point. . Quite regular and certain, though more ee some years than

others.

1 12. 13. 15. 16. ee 18. . In a southern climate.

. Live on suction; we always find mud inside. . In large bays and sounds.

. Yes; they are some seasons abundant.

30. ol.

Come in on the flood tide and go out on ebb tide. Bays and rivers.

About 15 feet. Swim all depths.

Mature in one year.

Young fish are seen in October, about 6 inches long. Leave in November in continuous schools.

Around Montauk, bound south.

Eels ; parent fish cannot swallow them. A a ing species is sometimes found on poor — near the gills, and

are called by fishermen lousy.

82.

Bluefish destroy more than all other fish. Sharks and porpoises

seatter and break the schools.

30. 36. 37. 38. 40. Al, 42. 45. 46, 47. . Four gallons to 1,000 fish.

. Nine thousand fish make one ton of scrap. . They yield double.

. New York and Boston.

. At patent manure manufactures,

. Used by tanners and rope-makers.

. Fifty cents per gallon.

ie 2.

From 15 to 75 feet deep and from 40 to 100 rods long. Sloop, steamers, and lighters.

Twelve men to a gang.

All times of the day.

They drift to the leeward in hard winds.

Five vessels ; thirty men.

Used by farmers and on the spot for oil.

Salt Island Oil Company; J. L. Stokes, manager. A hydraulic press costs $1,000 cash.

Thirty-seven cents per barrel in 1873.

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

Whitefish, generally. One thousand to one.

436 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND TDISHERIES.

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

4. About 5,000 barrels each year.

. Not appreciably, according to old fishermen. . Seen near shore May 20. First largest, August. . 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 attacked 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.

o¢. 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.

“1 0) O1

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 437

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 Anecust aud 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, &e.

36. Vessels of light tonnage.

38. Whole day.

39. Flood tide.

40. Does not.

2. 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, Mitford, 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 asa person can judge, but have rather increased. We count by the thousand; it takes 34 barrels for one thousand.

4, 1875, 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

>

438 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

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.

8. 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. é

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 scat- tered more on the surface.

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

16. The young fish ave seen during the months of August and Septem- ber, from 3 to 4 inches in length.

17. They begin to leave the sound aboat the, Ist 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.

. Scum, or minute insect, on the surface.

. Along the shores and rivers in May and June.

. Sexes are mixed indiscriminately.

. They sink to the bottom.

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.

i) =)

dS tb wy b& Dab

4

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 439

33. Never have seen any that have died from sickness or disease.

34. The nets are made of cotton twine, and purse up at the bottom.

35. Nets are from 120 to 140 fathoms long, and from 10 to 15 fathoms deep, according to the depth of water where they are used.

36. Fast sailing sloops and sloop-yachts, of from 20 to 25 tons bur- den, for the men who find and capture the fish, and sloops (lighters) of from 15 to 30 tons burden to carry the fish away. On the coast of Maine steamers are used in place of the yachts and lighters.

37. Eleven men and two boys to each net. The boys assist on the lighters.

38. All day, from daylight to dark.

39. The tide makes no difference with them.

40. Sometimes it does; usually they are moving to the windward when on the surface.

41. We have 12 sloops, and 50 men employed on them; also from 15 to 25 men employed in each factory. If the fish come in plentifully, we increase our working forces.

42, The fish are taken directly after being caught to the factory, and placed immediately in large tanks, and boiled by steam until thoroughly cooked and the flesh will separate from the bones when taken out of the water. Some are made into sardines, which are pronounced the best in the market.

43. The George W. Miles Company have the two largest factories ; these are in Connecticut or New York State. One is a floating factory, and is moved to the locality where the fish are most plentiful: the Welche’s Point Oil Company, with one net and three sloops; Fowler and Colburn, of Guilford, two nets and 6 sloops.

44, The largest quantity of oil we ever made at one factory in any one year was in 1871; we then made 100,000 gallons in about 50 work- ing days. The largest quantity in the shortest time was 21,000 gallons of oil in 72 hours, or 7,000 gallons per day of 24 hours. This unusual quantity of oil was owing to the fatness.of the fish, We made in 1872 60,000 gallons of oil; in 1873, 105,000 gallons at the two factories, one factory not being in operation the whole season on account. of the delay caused by lawsuits brought by some malicious and designing persons for purposes of gain. A part of the season was thus lost, and the quan- tity of oil was less than what it should be.

45. The capacity for oil is limited by the facilities for capturing the fish; the nets and vessels engaged must be the best, and the men with large experience are required to make the business successful.

46. Boilers cost from $2,000 to $4,000; two hydraulic presses, with curbs and fixtures, cost $2,000 each; engines, pumps, shafting, pulleys, &c., range from $10,000 to $50,000.

47. In 1873 the price for fish ranged from $1 to $2.50 per thousand, according to the yield of oil.

48. We have worked fish when they would not make over one gallon

Aa

440 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

per thousand and from that all the way to 18 gallons. The average yield is from 4 to 6 gallons per thousand. Some seasons the fish are so poor we can barely pay expenses. We then are obliged to pay low prices for fish—say from $1.25 to $1.50 per thousand. The fishermen at those prices cannot make day wages unless the fish are very plenty. The consequence is, when the fish are scarce the men leave the business, and the vessels have to lay up until other men can be found. This is one great drawback to the business, and many factories have been obliged to give up the business on account of it.

49, This all depends on the quality of the fish, whether fat or poor, and will vary from 10 to 150 gallons, and in some rare cases as high as 250 gallons to one ton.

50. This all depends on the quality of the fish. Some aaigss a net will take fish that will make 15 gallons, and perhaps the next haul the fish taken might not make 5 gallons; but these extremes are rare, except late in the fall, when the fish are moving south and come together from different localities; then we are as liable to get poor fish as fat ones.

51. In this vicinity, during July, August, and September, we get the fish only that come into the sound for their feeding-ground, and which fat after they get here. If they are poor, we have the largest cateh in June and July. If they are increasing in fatness or yield of oil, we can- not capture them sucessfully until August and September. The fat fish in the sound are usually wile and hard to take until late; this may be owing somewhat to. the fact that the feed is plentiful and low in the water. When we have an unusual dry season, so very dry that cress are almost a failure, then we are pretty sure of fat fish and an unusual quantity of jelly-fish floating on the water, which perhaps may be one source of supply of feed. On the other hand, in very wet seasons we find them below the average in yield of oil.

52. The northern fish always yield more than the southern. The fish appear here and farther north nine seasons out of ten ‘ spring poor,” as the farmer terms his cattle that have been exposed to the inclement weather and fed on coarse fodder; but after they get here, if their feed is plenty, they fatten very fast. This can be proved by the past season. During the months of May and June one million of fish would make only eight hundred gallons of oil; in August, the yield was from eight to ten gallops per JARUSE DL and in eunteniber ten to twelve gallons per thousand.

54. The market for oil is principally in New York and Boston. The dealers in those cities have a very extensive trade all over this country, and large quantities are shipped te Europe.

50. The scrap is used very extensively in a raw state by the farmers and tobacco-growers of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Long Island, and New York State. It is a standard manure and fertilizer when used judiciously by those who understand how to use it. The principal market is with the superphosphate manufacturers. When

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 441

manufactured it is in a much better condition for use, and can be applied more evenly to the land and in much smaller quantities to the crops without danger of burning. This is the greatest source of supply this eountry affords for a manure rich in ammonia, and it is worth more to this country than the islands that furnish us with Peruvian guano. In the season of 1873 tbere were landed in the cities of Charleston, S. C., and Savannah, Ga., alone 85,000 tons of superphosphate, nearly all of it having fish-scrap as its base.

56. The oil is used mostly by tanners and curriers; it is also used for outside painting.

57. Prices ranged in 1873 from 60 cents in April to 40 cents in Au- gust; then to 46 and 48 cents in September; then the panic burst upon the country and brought business to a stand-still. . Prices for a few past years have ranged from 45 to 60 cents.

58. It is not possible nor in the power of man, with all the modern improvements at his command, to materially diminish their numbers.

On the shores of Connecticut 88,200,000 fish, producing 8,820 tons of scrap, valued at $16 per ton in bulk at the factory, were caught, and 309,900 gallons of oil were made, bringing 45 cents per gallon. On the shores of Long Island 82,700,000 fish, producing 8,270 tons scrap, at $16 per ton, were caught, and 291,200 gallons of oil were made, bringing 45 cents per gallon.

The above is a correct statement, as near as possible, of all the fish caught on the shores of Connecticut and Long Island during the sea- son of 1872. Comparison with the previcus year shows a decrease in the catch of fish of some 70,000,000, which would make, at the average yield of oil this vear, 245,000 gallons, and about 7,000 tons of scrap. The decrease in the catch is readily explained: there were some six or eight manufacturers less than in 1871, some having stopped business on account of threats of lawsuits by malicious persons, who attempted to break up every honorable and profitable business.

Notwithstanding the decrease in catch of fish there were more seen in the waters, and those who persisted in catching from the beginning to the end of the season caught more than they did the previous year; in fact, fish were never more plentiful. It would seem, from the great quantity caught from year to year, that whitefish would soon be ex- tinct; but it is a surprising fact that for the past few years they have been steadily increasing in numbers.

47. Statement of W. S. Havens, Collector of Customs, Sag Harbor, N. Y., January 1, 1875.

Menhaden.

More than all other kinds together.

No apparent change.

. Not perceptibly.

99 bo

442 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISE AND FISHERIES.

6. April; come in schools; largest in the fall. 7. Generally near the surface. 8. Come and go, south. 9. Some years they are a partial failure, but I do not know the cause, OS eS: 11. None perceptible. 12. In this district ; Gardiner’s Bay. 13. Swim near the surface. 14. Yes, they leave soon after cold weather. 15. Generally find them of the same size. 17. Leave in a body. ° 18. For the south. 20. On a mossy substance called bunker-feed. 21. In creeks, inlets, and rivers. 22. All go together. 23. Not discovered. 24, Moderately warm. 25. Various depths. 26. Think they settle to the bottom. 28. Rarely seen at all. 29. Believe not. 30. Sharks and bluefish devour them. 31. They are not found there. 2. To a great extent. 34. Purse-nets. 35. Length, 150 fathoms; depth, 100 feet. 36. Sloops, and schooners of from 15 to 20 tons burden. 37. Nine men. 38. About three-fourths of the day. 39. No. 40, East winds break them up. 41, Sixty vessels and 540 men. 42. Used near by. 43. About 20. Wells, Parsons, Vail, Tuthill, and others. 44, Five hundred barrels to each factory. 45. From 1,000 to 1,500 barrels. 46. Steam and try-pots; from $5,000 to $10,000. 47, Say 30 cents. 48. 200 fish. 49. Some more, and some less. 50. One quart. 51. Four gallons to one barrel. 53. Say twenty years. 54. New York. 55. Southern States. 56. Painting and adulterating.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN, 443

57. Fifty cents to $1. 58. No; if it does we do not notice it.

48. Staiement of J. Morrison Raynor, Agent for Sterling Company, Green- port, December 20, 1877.

The number of gears and sail employed by usthe past season was three, consisting of three yachts, six lighters or carry-away boats. The Swan, 24.64 tons; the Mary H. Sisson, 20.95 tons; the Dauntless, 19.70 tons ; Titus, Bunker City, 8.64 tons; Rough and Ready, 10.24 tons; sloop Sarah, 10.39 tons; sloop Kate Romer, 9.83 tons; sloop Friendly, 13.37 tons; sloop John Marcy, 12.50 tons. Each gang consists of 8 men, 2 boys, 1 cook—making 9 men and 2 boys; total, 27 men and 8 boys. The men fish for a share and not for wages, except cook and boys hired by them. Use purse-seines ; are about 125 to 150 fathoms long, 80 to 100 feet deep. The number of fish taken by them was 14,449,000.

49, Statement of Hawkins Brothers, Jamesport, N. Y., February 25, 1875.

1. Mossbunker or menhaden.

2. Much more numerous.

3. Cannot perceive any difference.

5. Cannot perceive that it does.

6. About the lst of May, on the coast of Long Island. The first are usually the largest. The schools come in at intervals from the 1st of May to the last of August.

7. They swim both high and low, but usually the former, and make a ripple on the water, attracting fish-hawks only.

8. Come from the south, following the coast and stopping in the bays and sounds.

9. They are not regular but are certain, and are more plentiful in some localities and af some seasons than others.

10. From experience we think not.

11. Think they move toward the shore more on the flood than on the ebb tide. ;

12. In bays, sounds, and their entrances.

13. In all depths on the coast and in the bays.

14. It does.

15. Think not; we find no small fish in the spring of the year. I believe these fish get their growth in one year.

16. Yes; from July to November, from one to six inches long.

17. Commence to leave in October by degrees.

18. Following the coast south.

21. In heads of bays in the spring.

444 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

28. In great abundance in the heads of bays when first spawned, gradually dropping out into deeper water as they attain size.

29. J think not.

30. Don’t know of any; think not.

31. Nothing but an insect, which the fishermen call lice, is occasion- ally found on the outside of fish, eating into the body.

32. To a very great extent, eapecrmlty bluefish.

33. Never have known any.

34. Set-nets, pounds, haul-nets, and purse-nets.

35. Haul-nets are from 4 to 1 mile long, depth according to depth of water where the fishing is done; purse-nets are from 600 to 1,000 feet long, and from 70 to 90 feet deep.

36. For purse-nets, sloops, schooners, and steamers, of from 10 to 50 tons burden.

37. 'To man a purse-net, 11 men.

38. All parts.

39. Think more on the flood tide.

40. It does.

41. Number of vessels, 191; whole number of men, 715. This in- cludes purse-nets only.

42. Sometimes they are used in the raw state for manure, but are principally carried to the factories, where they are manufactured into oil and scrap.

43. On Barren Island, Jones & Co., V. Koon, Goodkind Bros., Haw- kins Bros. ; on shores of Gardiner’s Bay, D. Wells & Sons, Sterling Oil Company, Horton & Co., Green & Co., Jonathan Preston & Co., Cart- wright & Co., Frank Price & Co.

44, About 25,000 gallons.

45. According to the fatness of the fish; say, 30,000 gallons.

46. Engines, boilers, steam-pumps, hydraulic power, and piping, from $15,000 to $25,000.

47. 1873, Barren Island, 50 cents; Gardiner’s Bay, 60 cents.

48. Barren Island, 4 barrel; Gardiner’s Bay, 4 of barrel.

49. Barren Island, 57 gallons; Gardiner’s Bay, 85 gallons.

50. One gallon; in midsummer.

51. Four and one-half gallons in October and November.

52. Northern fish yield most oil.

53. The manufacture of oil was commenced on the shores of Gani ner’s Bay about 1850, when the oil was extracted by fermentation.

54. New York, Boston, and New Bedford.

55. New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia.

56. Painting, tanning, rope-making, and soap-making.

57. Forty-five cents per gallon; previous years from 45 cents to $1 per gallon.

58. It does not.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 445

50. Statement of Benjumin H. Sisson, Greenport, R. I., January 29, 1874.

1. Moss-bunkers.

2. They are most numerous.

3. No apparent difference.

4, In 1873, 50,000,000; 10,000,000 additional for shore fisheries.

5." No.

6. In March and April. On the Ist of May. The first are the larg- est. There are different runs coming in, and at intervals of six weeks.

7. The first run are known by their capture; all others by sight and by birds. .

8. From the south.

9. The fish never fail, but some years they are scarce.

10. Yes.

11. In certain localities a flood tide is considered the most favorable for a catch.

12. Shoal-water.

13. From 10 to 12 feet.

14. Yes.

15. Yes. Sometimes they are mixed.

16. Yes. From July to November. From 1 to 6 inches long.

17. From September to January. By degrees.

18. Ocean routes.

19. I hear nothing from them south of Cape Hatteras.

20. Marine animalcul, with small strong fiber.

21. There seems to be much difference of opinion about this among the fishermen; my own impression is that of the first that come in the spring, the old fish go stealthily into all the shoal and water bays, de- posit their spawn and milt, then go out again and join the general mi- gration east. These spawn hatch by the last of June or first of July, as the small fish are first seen in these localities about this time. No doubt there is another spawning time in the fall, outside, in deep water.

22. They are mixed indiscriminately.

23. Yes, in deep water.

24. Cool water.

25. Near the surface.

26. I think they float.

27. In June and July. From one month to six weeks.

28. Everywhere in abundance.

29. Not unless handled roughly.

30. Eels and bluefish. No.

31. Worms, crabs, and lampreys are found on the outside, but not within.

32. Very much. I have seen 100 moss-bunkers taken from one shark.

33. We have not noticed any in this district.

54. Purse-nets, gill-nets, seines, and pounds.

35. Purse-nets are from 900 to 1,000 feet long and 100 feetdeep Gill-

446 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

nets are smaller; from 60 to 500 feet long, by 10 feet deep. Shore seines are from $ to ? of a mile long and from 20 to 30 feet deep.

36. Steamers, schooners, sloops, and cat-rigged boats, from 5 to 50 tons.

37. Nine.

38. All day.

39. This depends on the locality.

40. They often leave during high winds.

41. One hundred and five vessels and 400 men.

49. It is principally turned to oil and guano.

.43. D. D. Wells & Sons, Sterling County; Hawkins Brothers; H. Corwin & Co.; G. P. Horton & Co.; Vail & Benjamin; Benjamin Buy Payn; Green & Co.; B.C. Cartwright; Floating fish-factory ‘‘ Falcon,” of 2,500 tons, Capt. George Tuthill; Floating fish-factory ‘* Ranger,” of 1,500 tons, Capt. Frank Price.

44, From 10,000 to 60,000 gallons.

45. From 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 per week.

46. Boilers and engines, costing from ten to twenty thousand dollars each.

48. Some fish will make half a gallon per thousand ; some 22 gallons.

49. Hight thousand fish will make one ton of green scrap.

50. One gallon per thousand in the spring and fall.

51. Twenty-two gallons per thousand. In September and October.

52. Yes.

53. The moss-bunker business previous to 1850 had been earried on for a long time—certainly as far back as 1800. The seines used were very long, and were handled from the shore. They frequently caught 1,000,000 fish at a haul. These fish were used by farmers in a raw state for top-dressing. Some portion of them were buried, however, and -used as a compost. In the year 1850, D. D. Wells & Son started the first factory in this vicinity, using steam for making oil and scrap. At the same time there were other parties using a few pots (whalers’ try pots), boiling the fish in water and making a very indifferent oil and serap; these, however, were not successful, and were soon abandoned. The first oil made by D. D. Wells & Son was of a very dark color, and contained much fleshy matter, which made it very offensive to the smell. It did not come into much use for some time, and for a long time the profits were small; but by persistent effort on their part, in perfecting machinery, the quality of the oil was so much improved as to come into general use for certain purposes: for painting, tanning, in the manufacture of rope, and for the adulteration of other oils; the scrap was also very much improved by drying, grinding, pulverizing, &e.; thus the business continued so prosperously that during the war the business had come to be quite remunerative. At that time, under the impulse of high prices and plenty of money, quite a number of fac- tories were put up, and for two or three years the business was some-

| ; q } 4 1 j

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 4AT

what overdone. Since that time many have gone out of the business altogether; others have consolidated, and at the present writing there are ten establishments in operation and are doing a fair business, giving employment to a large number of people and bringing up a hardy race of boatmen and sailors. There is about $500,000 invested in the business in this vicinity.

54. New York, Boston, and Europe.

55. The Connecticut Valley and the Southern States.

56. For painting, tanning, manufacture of rope, lubricating, and adul- teration.

57. Thirty-two to 47 cents per gallon in 1873; 40 to 50 cents per gal- lon in previous years.

58. The general opinion is that there is no diminution.

51. Statement of David G. Vail, River Head, Long Island, March 20, 1875

1. Menhaden.

2. Mere abundant than any other.

3. Has not diminished.

4, Fifty millions of fish in 1873, and as many in 1874; in this vicinity we measure them and pay for ener by the thousand, calling each fish 21 inches, or taking up that amount of space. When they are fat they are larger, and then by measure we would get perhaps only 800 fish for 1,000; then sometimes they come small, and poor, and we would get, perhaps, 1,200 fish for the 1,000. In Maine they measure them in bar- rells, calling 300 fish to each barrel.

5. Not any, judging from my experience for the last ten years.

6. From the 1st to the 10th of May.

7. They swim low when they first come, if the weather is cool, but soon come to the top of the water, and are known as top-water fish.

8. They come from the south, following the coast generally.

9. Their appearance is regular and certain; I never knew them to fail; but they are sometimes more plentiful on some grounds than on others.

10. I think it does tend to change their ground.

11. Generally they go with the tide.

12. Bays and sounds.

13. We find them in any depth of water, but generally they swim on the top of the water.

14. They like warm temperature.

15. We find one and two year old fish all mixed together.

16. Yes; they are spawned at the head of the bays, and stay all sum- mer, until they are half grown.

17. They leave about the 1st of November, generally in a body.

18. By the same route as they came, following the coast south.

448 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

19. Somewhere south. 20. Kind of very fine jelly fish; they suck their food, for they have no

b —_

. At the head of bays generally, at all times of the season.

. I think they are indiscriminately mixed as to male and female. No.

. Warm temperature.

. Near the bottom.

. They float in the water until hatched.

. Are in abundance in the locality where they are hatched.

29. Yes, when nearly matured.

30. All kinds of fish destroy them, except the parent.

ol. No.

32. They do not suffer any when compared with the quantities of

(<a 5 ot @ ~ >

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bo bt bo bs OU

ie)

33. No.

o4. Purse-nets.

35. From 600 to 1,200 feet long, and 80 feet deep.

36. Steamers, sloops, and schooners, from 10 to 100 tons each.

37. About 12 men to each net, with 3 boats or sloops.

38. All day, unless they load their boats sooner.

39. No.

40. Do not think it does.

41. Fifty vessels, aud 175 men.

42. They are sent directly to the factories by the boats that follow the net for that purpose. They are sometimes used as food, and are very sweet, but bony.

43. There are 10, owned by George F. Tuthill & Co., F. Price & Co., D. Wells & Son., J. Preston & Co., Vail, Benjamin & Co., Hawkins Bros., H. P. Green, B. C. Cartwright & Co., G. H. Payne, and Fithian & Horton.

44, Six hundred barrels of 40 gallons each.

45. They could manufacture large quantities if they could get the fish and have them fat.

46. Boiler and engine, hydraulic presses, large tanks for cooking and packing cost from $10,000 to $50,000.

47. From $1 to $2 per barrel; say $1.50 for the season.

48. Two hundred fish are about an average for the season.

49. Depends on fatness of fish; it takes from 8,000 to 10,000 fish to make 1 ton of scrap.

50. Sometimes when very poor we cannot get over 4 gallon of oil, that is in the spring and summer.

51. When very fat 6 gallons can be taken from 1 barrel.

52. Yes. ;

53. The manufacture of oil from menhaden was started in this vicinity about thirty years ago by Daniel D. Wells, who boiled them in large

a

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 449

kettles and skimmed the oil from the kettle; then there was only about one-half of the oil saved. Since then the business has increased until now an enormous business is carried on.

54. New York.

55. Phosphated for the Southern States.

56. Used as a lubricating oil and by leather manufacturers; also for paint.

57. Price in 1873 was about 45 cents a gallon; from 75 cents to $1.10 in previous years.

58. No; not by any mode that has been practiced.

52. Statement of Joseph Whaley, Point Judith Light, Point Judith, R. L., December 28, 1874. Mr. BArrD: Sir: I have received a circular in regard to the fish known in this vicinity as menhaden. I will answer all questions I can. I did not re- ceive any blank, so I put it on this.

1. Menhaden.

2. More plentiful than any other kind.

3. I think I saw more pass here last June than any time since 1862. 4. Five hundred barrels.

5. I do not think that it does, as they are as plenty now as ten years

6. The first fish are seen about the 20th of May; the main body get along about the middle of June. They pass here to the east from the 20th of May to the Ist of July.

7. They, as a general thing, near the top of the water, and make a ripple or a slick. They do not attract birds, as they do not drive up any small bait or other fish.

8. From the south and bound north and east.

9. Very regular sometimes; if the weather is cold and easterly winds prevail it puts them back ten to fifteen days.

10. I do not think it does.

11. They go or move with the tide, or the way the tide is setting.

12. Rivers and bays.

13. Sometimes high, and sometimes about half way to the bottom. I think they prefer water from 10 to 20 feet deep.

14. They leave here when the water gets too cold.

15. I do not think they do. I cannot tel] the young from the old, as they get their growth in a year. I have seen them shut up for nine months; they have then nearly their length.

16. They are seen in large quantities in November ; they are about 2 inches long.

17. They begin to leave in October, and continue to the 15th of De- cember by degrees.

29 F

450 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

18. Southwest.

19. Some place where the water is warmer than it is here.

21. In rivers and bays.

28. ‘They are, in river and bay, and all along shore.

29. Yes; they suffer most from bluefish and striped bass when they are young. Ido not know to what extent.

3d4, Purse-seines and gill-nets.

30. The length varies from 200 to 300 yards; the depth from 20 to 60 feet.

06. Sail and steamers.

58. I do not think that it does.

I will here state that there is a great many fish taken near this point, but as there is no harbor near they are carried away to market. This is a passing point for most all kinds of fish to pass from the south to the north, from the east to the west.

53. Statement of A. G. Wolf, Absecom Light, Atlantic City, N. J., March ‘ 6, 1874.

. Mossbunker.

. More numerous than any other fish.

. No difference.

. Two hundred and fifteen barrels by Adams & Co. About same last

year. ~

5. No.

6. In April; main body in July. No. Yes. Depending on tide.

7. Very high; fins out of water ; come in a solid body, as deep as you can see in the water. They make a ripple and can be seen on calm days for half a mile. Attract birds, such as fish-hawks and sea-gulls.

8. Come from the south; shift into and ont of inlets with the tide.

9. Have never failed to come in regularly.

10. Has no effect.

11. Drift with the tide.

12. No favorite feeding grounds.

13. Swim high, and are seen in both shoal and deep water.

14. No.

15. Come in all sizes; cannot tell their age.

16. In the fall you can see millions of little fish not over two inches

Ow ht

Te

17. Leave by degrees, beginning in September.

18 Go south.

19. South.

20. Can’t tell; they take no bait.

21. Up in the bays and inlets in spring.

24. Seem to prefer warm water, for they go up the bays as far as pos- sible.

.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 451

26. Settle and become attached toshells and stones.

28. Yes ; in fresh-water creeks.

29... Yes:

30. Bluefish catch the fish. Parents do not eat the spawn.

31. Bug or fish-louse on outside; a worm is attached to the outside and bores into them, and sometimes a bug is found in the roof of the mouth.

ae

On.

33. 34, 35. 36.

Suffer from all fish ; bluefish are their worst enemy.

Not here. .

Gill and purse nets.

One hundred to three hundred fathoms long, 12 feet deep.

Boats from four to five tons for gill-nets; schooners, sloops, and

one steamer of from ten to twenty tons for purse-nets.

37.

5d. 56. N7. 58.

Eleven men to a net.

. All day, if good weather.

. No.

. East wind affects them.

. Ten vessels; forty men.

. Tried out near Little and Great Egg Harbors.

. None in the neighborhood.

. Two hundred and fifteen barrels.

. Not known.

. Five thousand dollars in one factory.

. One dollar and twenty-five cents per thousand fish. . Four gallons of oil per thousand fish.

. Forty gailons.

. Least in August.

. Greatest in November, eleven gallons per thousand. . Northern fish yield most.

. New York City.

The South.

For tanning and adulterating paint-oils. Forty-five ceuts per gallon.

Does not seem to diminish them.

Questions were answered by Messrs. Bowen, Strickland, and Conover, of Atlantic City, and Capt. John D. Sanders, of Leedsville, N. J.

or

bo

Oo wo

. Statement of Albert Morris, Somers Point, N. J., January 12, 1875,

. Mossbunker.

. There are a thousand times as many.

No.

. 7,200; 1874, 12,000.

. Think not.

. About Istof May. The main body arrive about 20th June. There

are sometimes three or four runs a week.

452 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

7. High, so that they can be seen. ’ 8. Mostly follow the coast.

9. It always has been regular.

10. It does not, for sometimes they are caught in 2 feet of water.

11. Go with the tide.

12. From the beach to about five or six miles from shore, and some- times more.

13. From 1 to 10 fathoms.

14. It does.

15. They do both.

16. They are in great abundance, and are from 3 to 5 inches in length.

17. About the middle of September, but the eastern run comes along about the last of October.

18. They follow the coast.

19. From Chesapeake Bay to Cape Hatteras.

20. A very small substance, scarcely seen by the naked eye when the sun shines.

21. Along the coast.

28. They are, along ti}.e coast.

29. They are. .

31. Crabs are found in the gills. ‘

32. To quite an extent.

33. Yes; in October, 1873, they floated ashore by tons.

34. Purse-nets.

35. Two hundred fathoms long, 500 meshes deep.

36. Sloops of about 20 tons.

37. Seven.

38. All day.

39. Most of our fishing is done out at sea, where the tide does not make any difference.

40. It does, especially easterly winds.

41. Three vessels; 9 men.

42. For manure (guano); part is used in the vicinity, and part shipped to Wilmington and Philadelphia.

43. Somers Point Oil Works, John D. Sanders, J. S. Adams, and others.

44. About 300 barrels.

45, Two thousand barrels.

46. Pot work. Costs $8,000.

47. Thirty-one cents per barrel.

48. One barrel.

49, Forty-five gallons.

50. One quart; in the summer, July and August.

51. Four gallons, in October and November,

52. They do.

54, New York.

ee

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 453

55. Wilmington. 56. Painting.

’ 57. Forty to 50 cents per gailon. 58. I think not.

55. Statement of D. H. Foster, Cape May Light-House, N. J., February 15, 1875.

1. Bony fish.

2. They are more numerous than any other fish visiting our coast.

6. They come from the south; the first arrival is about April; these fish are larger but not so fat as those which come about July.

7. They generally swim in schools near the surface.:

17. They leave about November, heading to the north.

30. They are preyed upon by sharks, porpoises, fish-hawks, &c.

33. I have not known of any disease to prevail among the fish here.

42, They are used mostly for manure. There is no oil manufactured here.

56. Statement of A. A. Owens, Philadelphia, Pa., March 31, 1875.

1. Oldwives and mossbunkers.

3. Cannot perceive either way.

4, None.

5. No; there are very few captured.

6. They are first seen in June and July. The last are the largest. 7. They swim high and make a ripple.

8. From the northeast in large schools.

9. They seldom fail.

10. L think not.

11. They come in on the fiood and pass out on the ebb tide. 12. Along the coast and in the inlets.

13. They generally prefer deep water.

14. They become somewhat torpid when sudden cold weather comes, 15. Sometimes both together.

16. There are no very small ones seen.

17. They leave by degrees in the fall.

18. Northward and eastward.

22. They seem to mix indiscriminately in schools.

29. I think not.

30. The bluefish is their greatest enemy.

2. They are destroyed in great numbers by fish on the coast. 33. Very seldom in this vicinity.

34. Pocket nets and seines.

43. None.

51. Greatest in the fall.

54. New York and Philadelphia.

454 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

55. New York and Philadelphia. 57. Fifty cents per gallon. 58. We cannot see that it does diminish them.

57. Statement of James H. Bell, Mispillion River, Delaware Bay, January 23, 1875.

1, Oldwife, a corruption of alewife, is the name universally applied to the fish in this vicinity, and all along the western shore of Delaware Bay.

2. They rank equal to if not more abundant than the sea trout, and far exceed the number of any other fish; a thousand bushels of trout are sometimes taken at a haul; but the main fishing season does not last over a month, while menhaden are caught more or less during six months of the year.

3. No diminution is noticeable; the number seems to be about the same one year with another.

4, These fish are not sought in this vicinity for any purpose whatever; and when caught in seines laid for other fish by fishermen, are left on the beach to rot, or taken home and fed directly to hogs, or composted for fertilizing the soil, for which they are only valuable.

5. Quantity taken from the water never seems to affect the supply.

6. They are first seen here early in March, and continue to increase in number till about the 15th April, when the sea-troat frightens them off. They soon return in increasing numbers, however, till the middle or last of May, after which they begin to disappear in large schools until about the 1st August, when they again appear numerous, and continue so, if the weather is mild, until the latter part of September, when they begin to disappear.

7. High; by their capture at first, windy weather generally prevail- ing in March, renders the bay too rough for the ripple to be seen ;_be- Sides, they are not inclined: to show themselves about the surface till the water becomes warm, as in August and September; the fish-hawk and trout-gull follow closely in their wake, and destroy a great many.

8. The opinion prevails, that after entering the bay they follow the main channel, spreading toward the shore on either side as they advance, until arrested by brackish water. The western shore of this bay is very shallow, the tide near the beach seldom rising above six or seven feet. When the tide is three-quarters flood, the fish run in close to land, and are caught within twenty yards of the beach ; as none are seen on the surface at such times, it is probable that they are then in pursuit of food; at slack-water to first quarter ebb, if it is calm, the water is spotted with the break or ripple; and as the tide recedes they float out with it to deep water.

9. Their appearance is as regular as the shad; an old fisherman re- marked to me that he never knew it to fail, or a diminution in their

UISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. A55

abundance for a single season; hence, no cause is assignable for a de- crease when none is known.

* 10. No gill or haul seines frighten them if they are out of sight; but when sunning on the surface, any noise close by sends the school out of sight in an instant, to reappear not far off ; if the object was to cateh them, this is the most favorable time, and the purse-net is most likely to accomplish it.

11. In-shore on the young flood to feed, and out to deep water again when the ebb is not lower than four feet.

12. Sandy bottom predominates on this coast, and there is where most fish are found, although they are caught in numbers where the bottom is muddy. Some few fish are found considerable distances up the creeks at high water.

13. Most fish are found in 10 to 15 feet of water, or deeper; they are also caught in large numbers in water as shallow as 6 feet; sometimes when it is nct deeper than 4 feet. }

14. Not known, but am inclined to think they prefer warm water un- til arriving at full size. |

15. Medium and small fish are found together, not probably in the same schools, but close enough together for the seine to catch fish rang- ing in size from 9 inches down to 3 inches.

16. Yes; immense quantities of them from about the 10th September to Ist October, in size from 3 inches up, and smaller ones, probably, but i have not seen any.

17. Toward the latter part of September they gradually disappear.

18. Run out to the main bay-channel; beyond that I have no knowl- edge. .

19. It is impossible for me to say with certainty, but I think near the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean, from the fact that this fish appears so partial to warm water.

20. I have not the least doubt that their food is something similar to that of shad, such as minute animalcula found in muddy bottoms; their digestion is evidently very rapid, as the contents of the stomach bear a nearer resemblance to black mud than to anything else.

21. But for what took place about: the 7th of last November on this coast I should hesitate to give any opinion in reply to this query. After the last menhaden had disappeared from these waters, and as late as the 7th November, all at once from Cape May to Cape Henlopen, and up the bay 18 miles, to and above this station, the water was crowded with the largest size of this fish ever seen by any person on the coast, the largest being quite as big as medium-sized shad, extremely fat, and full three- fourths of them pregnant with large and nearly matured roe; the shores of the bay from Lewes up this far were lined with dead fish, bitten to death by bluefish. Some of the latter weighed 25 pounds. Numbers of dead fish were without tails, and all were more or less mutilated by the teeth of the bluefish, or snapping mackerel as it is called at Cape May.

456 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Whether they were exterminated by their enemy or driven back to the ocean is not known, but not one of them could be caught on the coast sixty hours after their arrival, and none have been seen since; nor were they ever known here before so late in the season, or of such large size, or containing the fully-developed roe, or, in fact, any roe at all. Such fish are entirely new to these waters. I am of the opinion that the ocean is their spawning element, and being attacked while spawning by immense numbers of very large bluefish, they flee before it till reaching shallow water, then, if all were not killed, turn and escape to sea. These fish were remarkable for uniformity in size, being over a foot long and about one inch and a quarter thick through the back. <A gentleman remarked to me that he thought none of us had ever seen any full-grown ‘“‘oldwives” before. Ordinarily this fish is not marketable, but so anx- ious were the people after these large ones that $14 per barrel was offered for them salt. It seems to me that if spawning was the object of these fish they would have remained longer than two days and a half, and that some would have been caught in former years. From a critical ex- amination and comparison of these with those common to the coast I can find no difference except in size. Finally, as the spawn cf these fish appeared matured, | am of the opinion that they spawn in the ocean, and in the month of November. (Since the visit of bluefish, rock and perch, usually quite plenty, have entirely disappeared.)

22. Sexes are mixed.

23. No.

28. Yes, in thousands, near the shore from Cape Henlopen to above this river. It is a peculiarity of the young fish in a strong current to spring from the water, causing persons unacquainted with the habit to remark that “ the water is alive with fish.” So it is to a certain extent, but it is difficult at such times to find any other kind of fish in it.

29. I saw a great many of the large fish handled, but in no instance did I see the spawn escape, nor do I think it ever occurs with this fish.

30. I have no knowledge of the destruction of spawn, and do not believe the parent fish capable of devouring either spawn or young fish, but instead obtain their food from the mud. The worst enemy of young fish, by all odds, is the sea-trout. -From one to three may be found in the stomach of almost every trout, and as trout remain here, more or less plentiful, till September, an immense number of young fish are de- stroyed. Bluefish is the next most destructive enemy. Other kinds of fish trouble them very little compared with the two above named.

31. I have never examined the roof of the mouth, but have frequently noticed a little bug-like crab attached to the gills of medium sized fish. During August and September it is common to see a slender red worm or leech fast to the fishes’ sides. The worm is largest at each end, is about one inch and a half long, and bears some resemblance to the angle-worm. As many as a dozen are found on some of the fish. Al-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 457

though the worm seems as frail as a strand of blood, it is strong enough not to break when its head is pulled away from the fish.

32. The larger fish appear to suffer most from bluefish, although por- poise, shark, and the fish-hawk destroy a great many.

33. None that I am aware of.

34, Mostly in haul-seines, many in gill-seines, but in neither seine is menhaden the object.

35. Seines are from 15 to 100 fathoms long, from 6 to 9 feet deep, and have 1-inch meshes.

36. None. Four-oared boats are generally employed to lay out and draw the seine ashore.

37. From eight to ten men are necessary to manage a boat and large seine.

38. Flood and high tide; sometimes on the ebb, but never at low water. ,

39. Flood and high water are the most favorable times.

40. The fish usually works against the wind if there is much of it.

42. Some leave the fish on shore, others feed them to hogs, or compost them to enrich their land.

58. I am confident, from observation, that catching large numbers of any kind of fish in the spawning season will diminish them, but owing to this fish not spawning on this coast, I regard it next to impossible to decrease their numbers by any method of capture known to fishermen.

58. Statement of Benjamin Tice, Maurice River Light, January 11, 1875.

1. Known by the name of mossbunker or aldwives.

2. They are more abundant than any other kind.

3. Increased in numbers, I believe.

5. No establishment in this vicinity. .

6. They come on early in the spring, and are thickest in August. 7. They swim high and make a ripple on the water.

16. Young fish are seen in the months of August and September. 17. Leave the coast late in the fall and by degrees.

31. I have seen worms attached to the outside.

32, They suffer from the attacks of sharks, porpoises, Wc.

59. Statement of Joseph B. Benson, Bombay Hook, Del., January 18, 1875.

1. Mossbunker, old-wives, bug-fish, and green tails.

2. They are more plentiful than any other fish during July and August. 3. It has not.

4, There is no establishment on the west side of the bay.

5. It does not.

458

REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

6. The last of April, July, and August they are about the same size. There are no certain intervals in the schools.

7. At times the surface of the water is covered for long distances, and at other times they swim deep. They attract fishing-hawks, which live on them.

8. They come on in the spring and leave in the fall.

9. They are certain to come, but if the season is very wet they are

later. 10. oe 12. 14. 15. 16, ay. 18. 20. 21. 28.

It does not.

It does not make any difference.

Near shore.

They like it warm.

They are all alike.

In August and September there are large schools of them. In October, by degrees.

By the capes.

It is not known.

Where the water is brackish.

Some seasons they are abundant near the shore and at other sea-

sons there are none.

20.

ol.

229) —

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J. od, 30. 36. 38. 39. 40. 41, 42. 43. 44. 58.

Rock. Taylor fish. There is a bug found in the roof of the mouth.

. They suffer to a very great extent.

I have not noticed any. Gill-seines.

One hundred to 150 fathoms. They are only caught for bait. Whenever convenient.

No.

No.

There are none.

They are often taken for manure. There are none.

There is none made.

It does not.

a

60. Statement of Hance Lawson, Crisfield, Md., January 22, 1874.

Not a report with reference to Atlantic coast.

1. Alewife.

2. Most abundant.

3. Diminished.

4, At Manokin factory 800 barrels of oil were made last year. At Tangier Island about the same or less.

5. Yes.

6. They are first seen about May 1.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 459

7. They swim both high and low; when high, with their heads out.

8. They come from the south, moving along slowly with the tides; up in the spring and down in the fall.

9. There is sometimes a scarcity, but never a failure.

10. They do scare them badly.

11. They come into creeks with the flood and go out with the ebb ; sometimes, however, they come in at night.

12. Generally deep water; however, they sometimes work in-shore on the flood tide.

13. A depth of 10 or 12 feet is preferred. They swim on the top of the water.

14. Cold weather makes them torpid.

15. Seldom, and the sizes go in separate schools.

16. They are never seen on the coast, but are in the sounds, rivers, creeks, and bays. |

17. They begin to leave during the latter part of August, and the first to leave are the best; some remain until the middle of October.

18. By a southern route.

20. They feed ona slimy substance which comes from the bottom ; it looks like a discoloration of the water, but is composed of vegetable or animal matter; the large bodies break into small ones at night and go near shore; in the morning they gather again and go out.

“1. At the heads of rivers and creeks, and near fresh water. They spawn in June and July. ;

24. The water must be warm.

26. 1 think they float.

28. They are found in abundance in shoal water, where the fresh and salt water mingle.

29. No.

30. Bluefish and porpoises destroy them, but the parent fish do not.

31. Crab-lice are found in the gills, and there is a five-pronged insect, which makes a sore, seen in the tail; we call these insects graplings.

32. They suffer greatly, but are very active; the bluefish is their worst enemy.

33. Never knew of it.

34. Haul-seines, purse-nets, gill-nets, and weirs.

35. Haul-seines are 100 fathoms long and 8 feet deep; nets are 200 fathoms long, and from 18 to 20 feet deep.

36. Barges are mostly employed, and vessels of from 10 to 20 tons burden.

37. Twelve men for purse-nets and 25 for haul-seines; one man for gill-nets.

38. All hours of the day and night. Gilling is done at night.

39. No.

40. Yes; it scatters and sends them down deep.

41. Five vessels averaging about 15 tons, and 5 barges.

460 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

42, They are made into oil and manure, and sold to farmers.

43. Tangier belongs to Crockett & Co., Manokinto Ford, Avery & Co.

44, About 800 barrels at Ford’s, and 500 at Tangier.

46. The fish are boiled in large kettles at Tangier, but are crushed at Manokin. The Tangier and Manokin factory cost each $2,500.

47. Fifteen cents per bushel.

48. About 1,000 fish, or from 4 to 43 bushels.

50. One quart, and is least in July.

51. One and one-half gallons, and is greatest in August and Septem-

52. Yes, as much again.

54, Philadelphia and other cities. 55. Home.

56. Used for lubricating purposes. 57. From 40 to 60 cents.

58. Yes.

61. Statement of Isaac D. Robbins, Hog Island, February 21, 1874.

No efforts are made here to catch the mossbunker. We have them dur- ing the largest part of the year, from April to September, and sometimes in winter. I once saw many of these fish in Swangut Creek which had died from the effects of hot weather; they were then about 2 inches long. In the fall we see them from 3 to 5 inches long. We make no use of these fish, but I have an impression that there are enough of them to mage our land very rich if they were made into manure.

On the Chesapeake side of the peninsula I have known large quanti- ties of these fish caught, and a few years ago some gentlemen under- took to convert them into oil and manure, but to what extent they were successful I cannot say.

The grown mossbunker is from 9 to 12 inches long, and generally very fat.

62. Statement of J. L. Anderton, Apateague Island, Virginia, January 12, 1875. . Alewives. . They are more abundant than any others found in this vicinity. . Increased. . There is no establishment in this vicinity. . It does not in this vicinity. . First seem to come near the coastin April. The main body appear in June. The first are the smallest. 7. They swim high, make a ripple on the water, and attract birds. 8. They come from a southward direction. 9. Their appearance is regular and certain.

oF onW

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 461

10. No.

11. They come nearer the shore on the flow of the tide and move off on the ebb.

12. On bars and in coves.

13. Four and a half to five feet. They swim nearly to the top of the water.

14. It does.

15. They come before they are mature, and we find the one and two year old fish with the oldest.

16, They are seen on the coast from April till June, from 4 to 10 inches in length.

17. They leave in November by degrees.

18. They go southward.

19. Somewhere south, I think.

26. I think they float.

29. Yes.

30. Don’t think the parent fish devours them ; birds eat them.

31. Lampreys are sometimes found attached on the outside.

32. Quite considerable.

33. I have not noticed any.

34, None in this vicinity, except small gill-nets.

42. There are but few caught in this vicinity. They are used on the spot.

63. Statement of G. Henry Seldon, Kinsale, Westmoreland County, Vir- ginia, August, 1874.

1. Alewives.

2. More abundant than any other fish.

3. Diminished very much within the last ten years, particularly in the small rivers.

4, From 5,600 to 6,000 barrels taken in 1873 by one establishment in this vicinity. This is about the average number of barrels taken each year.

5. The capture has a tendency to affect their abundance.

6. They appear in Chesapeake Bay about the 10th of March. The main body arrives about the 15th of April. The first fish are the largest. They come in quick succession.

7. They appear in schools, but swim low. There is therefore no ripple seen, and their arrival is known only by their capture, and the attraction of birds.

8. They come up the coast from the south; their movements are very swift, passing to the headwaters of the bays and rivers, where they are seen to linger a short time to spawn; then returning, they leave our coast and go to the coast of New England.

9. They are never known to fail.

462 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISIIERIES.

10. They do not appear to be scared by seines or nets any longer than they are in sight of them.

11. Their migration is more on the ebb tide, as they stop on the flood tide to feed.

2. In large bays and rivers where the bottom is soft.

13. From three to eight fathoms of water. When the weather is coal they swim deep, but come near the surface at times; these times can be ascertained by the birds striking them. When the weather is warm these fish are seen to swim with the tops of their heads out of the water.

14. As the mercury sinks they swim deeper in the water.

15. They seldom appear on their breeding grounds before matured. The one and two year old fish are not found among the oldest.

16. The young fish are seen on the coast sone the Ist of June, at which time they are about 4 inches long.

17. They leave the coast generally in the latter part of October in a body.

18. They leave the coast by the southern route going south of course.

19. It is thought that they spend the winter in or beyond the Gulf Stream, where the water is warm.

20. There is a sediment upon which they feed; this they purify by straining it through their gills.

21. They spawn in the headwaters cf our bays and rivers, generally in the month of April.

22. In their migration movements they are mixed indiscriminately, as may be seen from the manner in which they are caught in the gill-nets; but when coming upon the breeding grounds, they are not huddled in schools, as may be seen afterwards.

23. The milt of this fish does color the water.

24, Cannot tell the exact temperature of water which is most favor- able for spawning, but I think when it is from 45° to 65°; when the water is cold they spawn in the deep where the cold winds cannot chill the spawn; when the weather*’is moderately cold, it does not destroy the spawn, but the young fish will not hatch as soon as when the water is of the right temperature. Where the water becomes heated by the burning rays of the sun the spawn is instantly destroyed.

25. In from 4 to 10 feet of water; the eggs lay on the bottom. Where it is soft, and produces a little grass, it is all the better for the spawn.

26. When the eggs are spawned they sink to the bottom, but become attached neither to stones, grass, nor any thing of the kind; neither do they float until hatched, but lay on the bottom.

27. In four or six days’ time after the eggs are laid they begin to hatch out. It has been said that they hatch out in two days after they have been laid, but this is very seldom; however it is not impossible, but my own experience teaches me that to hatch them out in two days would require the tide, locality, and temperature of the water to be very favor- able.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 463

28. The young of this fish are found in great abundance in the head- waters of our bays and rivers, generally near the shore.

29. The spawn is never known to run from this fish while being han- dled after they are captured.

30. The parent fish does not destroy the spawn, but other fish, such as the rock-bass and the pickerel destroy the spawn of this fish.

31. The lampreys are often found attached to the outside of this fish. In their gills and roof of the mouth is found an insect as large as the end of a man’s small finger and three-quarters of an inch long. This is the small size of this insect. I have seen them an inch and a quarter long. Itis transparent and has a tail resembling that of a lobster; and so great is the adhesive power of this insect, that you might attach one of them to your finger while it is alive and you could not throw it off. This insect is known to us as the fish-louse, because it attaches to the inside of the head of this fish; they are known in many localities as the buggy-head fish.

32, The bass, trout, bluefish, sharks, and the porpoises all feed upon this species of fish.

33. No disease of any description has ever occurred among them, caus- ing death in any numbers worthy of rotice in the past thirty years.

34, Purse seines, gill-seines, haul-seines, fike-nets, and hedge-nets are all used in captaring these fish, and are generally used with great suc- cess.

35. Seines for capturing this fish are from 50 to 400 fathoms long, from 2 to 5 fathoms deep, and of a 2 or 24 inch mesh. The seines used at the oil factories are called purse-seines; they are about 100 fathoms long and 500 deep.

36. Small-size schooners and sloops, being from 6 to 20 tons burden.

37. Two men to each vessel, except the tug, which has 5 men.

38. Toward midday is the most successful period for catching these

39. They are taken in greater numbers on the ebb tide.

40. They do not appear upon the surface of the water in windy as they do in moderate weather.

41. Seven vessels are employed in this vicinity having crews of 15 or 18 men, but the aggregate number of men at the factory and on board of the vessels is 45 or 50.

42. The fish thus caught are taken to the factory and there boiled up for oil.

43. The only factory in this neighborhood is the one at New Point Comfort, owned by Nickleson & Co., of Norfolk, Va.

44, The average quantity of good Gil produced by this one factory is ead 500 barrels a year.

. One bushel. bi. Probably 10 gallons. 50. Probably 24 gallons in the spring and summer.

464 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

51. Probably 3 gallons. The greatest quantity of oil is obtained in and after the month of September.

52. Yes.

54. New York.

55. Virginia and North Carolina.

56. For tanning leather, painting, machines, &c.

58. Yes.

64. Statement of Henry Richardson, Cape Henry, February 9, 1874.

1. The “ alewife,” termed by some ‘bony fish.”

2. These fish are more numerous than any other fish that inhabit these waters.

3. During the last four years (the length of time I have been in charge of this station) there seems to be no diminution in the numbers of these fish.

6. These fish are caught as early as March, but the main body arrives about June and July. During these two months these fish are con- stantly passing the Virginia capes, entering the Chesapeake Bay. I have seen schools of these fish on calm days-in the summer season, I should judge, about two miles long and perhaps one-fourth of a mile wide.

7. These fish swim high, or near the surface of the water, and their approach can easily be seen by the commotion they make. They ripple the water and also attract the attention of birds.

8. They work in the spring of the year from south to north. I donot know their subsequent movements after their entrance into the Chesa- peake Bay. ;

9. I have never known these fish to fail to enter these capes during any season.

11. During the summer season they work in and out of the capes, working out with the ebb tide and working in again on the flood.

13. They swim in shoal as well as in deep water, and create a con- stant flipping on the surface.

14. In unusually cold weather they get benumbed, and sometimes wash on shore in great quantities.

16. The young fish commence coming about June, and average, I should think, about five inches long.

18. They follow the Atlantic coast and work south.

19. I have been informed that they winter around the Bahama Banks and the West India Islands.

20. Their flesh is very sweet early in spring and late in the fall of the year, but they are objectionable as food on account of the quantity of bones they possess.

31. In the summer season they become wormy. These worms have the appearance of a fine piece of red string about one inch long. Ihave pulled them out of the side of the fish, and the root or end of the worm in the flesh has the appearance of an eagle’s claw.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 465

34. A purse-net ; although they are caught in large quantities fre- quently in the summer season with long seines. These seines are used for catching the more edible species of fish, and when “alewives” are caught by these seines they are left to rot on the shore.

42. These fish are caught about the entrance of the capes or in Ches- apeake Bay, put on board of the small schooners employed in this busi- ness, and thence taken to the factories, where the oil of the fish is ex- tracted and the refuse manufactured into fish guano or fertilizer.

43. At the present time there are no factories for the manufacture of fish-oil in this neighborhood. A factory for this purpose was in opera- tion some two years ago, but it has since been consumed by fire.

58. There does not seem to be any diminution in the quantity of these fish, and thousands of bushels are annually destroyed on this coast by the seines used in catching the more edible fish that supply our markets. They might be used to good advantage in manuring the land in the surrounding country, but the difficulty of transporting them to lands used for agricultural purposes is so great that they are left on the beach to rot.

65. Statement of C. G. Manning, Edenton, N. C., January 6, 1875.

I have the honor to acknowiedge the receipt of your circular-letter under date of December 23, 1874, making inquiries relative to the fish known in our vicinity as fat-back or bug-fish, and in reply thereto IL would state I have conversed with several of the leading fishermen on the Albemarle Sound and its tributaries, and they report very few of that class of fish caught during fishing season. Those which are caught are disposed of by being thrown in with the offal or refuse fish, after- ward used upon their lands in a raw state as fertilizers.

The fishermen attribute the scarcity of that species of fish in the upper part of the sound to the freshness of the water. I have been unable to obtain any information from the lower part of the sound, where the water is brackish or salt.

1. Bug-fish.

2. They are very scarce.

3. Diminished.

66. Statement of A. W. Simpson, jr., Cape Hatteras, N. C., April 15, 1874.*

1. Fatback.

2. It is not found throughout the year. It makes its appearance in June and leaves in December.

3. It is not resident.

*The numbers of this communication refer to the general circular published in the first volume of the report of the Commissioner.

30 F

466 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

4. It is more abundant than any other fish that frequent the waters of North Carolina, say 5 to 3.

5. They have increased in abundance within the last ten years.

6. The supposed cause is that their enemies are not so numerous.

7. The amount or extent of the change in abundance cannot be ascer- tained.

8. The greatest length to which this fish attains is about 16 inches.

9. The rate of growth per annum, &e., is not known by any one in the commubity, no attention being paid to it.

10. The sexes differ somewhat in shape and size; the male is as long but not so large as the female. j

11. These fish generally come in to the shore on the northern coast, and run along the beach south, running into the different inlets. In the first of the season they may be seen, in moderate weather, five or six miles at sea in large schools, half a mile long and all along the coast, lying apparently at ease floating upon the surface of the water. This habit they indulge in until the latter part of October, when the bluefish or taylor arrives; then they seek protection in the surf near the beach, and are washed ashore by thousands. I might be safe in saying hun- dreds of thousands are washed ashore in one night or during one flood- tide.

12. They continue to run south, or rather are driven by the taylors until December, after which only a very few are seen in the sound.

13. It is unknown to any one here where they spend the winter season.

14, The fish come near the shore upon their first arrival on the coast, but the main body does not come in until driven in by the taylors and dogfish about the first of November. The first are generally the small- est. I think they are continually on the coast from the time of their arrival to the time of their depariure; but sometimes they are seen in larger quantities than others, say once to twice a week.

15. In some seasons the fish leave the shore in a body, and at differ- ent times during the season; but when they leave the coast for the south they go by degrees, commencing about the first of December.

16. The appearance of these fish in the sound, and at sea off the coast, is certain every season; but they only come near the seabeach when @riven in by the taylor and dogfish.

17. The runs do not differ, except in quantity. Some seasons the runs are very large in October; but in November they are not so plentiful, and vice versa.

18. As far as my knowledge extends, both sexes come in together. The spawn is about two-thirds developed when they first arrive.

19. These fish never take the hook.

20. These fish never take the hook.

21. The schools of fish swim high in moderate weather, but in high winds and rough seas they run in deep water. Their arrival is some- times known by the schools which are seen at sea, lying at ease appa-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 467

rently, with a continual flipping motion with the tail above water; this attracts thousands of birds.

22. They generally come on the beach on flood and drop off on ebb tide ; they also run into inlets on the flood.

25. Spawn is sometimes seen when the fish are handled to any great extent.

24. The spawn is also seen around set-nets, when the fish force them- Selves through the meshes.

25. The fish are anadromous; they run up the fresh-water rivers for the purpose of spawning, Hee to “suck” ae) the scum generally brought down by freshets.

26. They sometimes make several trips up the rivers, and returns in the sound, before going up to spawn; this is attributed to the num- ber of freshets during a season. Some seasons they make no stay in the sounds, but go right up the rivers on their first arrival, and con- tinue these visits until December.

27. See answer to question 26.

28. There is no difference in this respect as to sex or age known to me.

29. The young fish are generally mixed up with the old ones when in large bodies or schools ; but, as a general rule, the young are seen along the shores of rivers and sounds.

30. The favorite localities of these fish are varied as in other cases. In moderate weather they float high, in fact upon the very surface of the water, and feed upon the scum or mud which are afloat. They then select some place near a lead or tide way, but often shelter them- selves behind a shoal or breaker where the current eddies; but in windy and rough weather they are constantly running.

31. They generally prefer the deepest water to school, as stated in answer 21.

32. There has been no difference observed, by me at least, as to the favorite temperature of the water, but they are more abundant when inside the sound in thick, milky-colored water.

33. These fish are not seen in schools after they are done spawning ; but the general opinion is they are in schools when leaving the sounds and rivers, judging from the quantity taken or caught in set nets of a night. They are not seen at all in moderate weather, as described in answer 21.

34. They have no special friends; but the porpoise, the shark, the dogfish, and the taylor are special enemies of the old, and the crab, the eel, the perch, trout, and several other species of fish, of the young fish.

35. The fatback do not prey upon or eat any other speciés of fish during their stay in this section.

36. They suffer to a great extent from the attacks of other fish, but the amount is not exactly known. I think, however, I would be per- fectly safe in saying that at least half are destroyed.

468 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

. 37. The nature of their food is mud from the fresh-water rivers, scum, &e., afloat on the water, and marine insects, which are found along shore and on the reefs in the sounds and rivers.

38. There are no special peculiarities in the manner of feeding these fish known, no attention having been paid to that particular.

39. Noris it known what amount of food they consume. When taken, the stomach or pouch is generally full of mud, and they are very fat until they have spawned.

40. The sexes differ somewhat in color and shape during the breeding season, the male being of a pale-yellow and the female a bright-yellow color in respect to their fins and tails. The male is equally as long, but of a more straight shape. The edges of the females are generally tinted with bright-yellow specks.

41. There are no special or unusual habits of these fish during the spawning season known to me.

2. Lines and nets interfere somewhat with their progress up the rivers, but aside from this spawning is not interfered with to any great extent by lines and nets.

46. According to my views, from their movements and not from act- ual knowledge, these fish deposit their spawn in the beds of the princi- pal rivers—the Neuse, Tar, and Roanoke—about the last of November.

47. I ean give no account of their process, &e.

48. The water is sometimes whitened by the milt and spawn.

49, They generally select the warmest places for spawning, but the exact temperature is not known; it varies from one to ten degrees, owing to the weather.

50. The eggs are laid in two to three fathoms of water, and supposed to lie on the bottom.

51. The spawn is of the size of a mustard-seed, and of a light-red color.

52. The number for each fish has not been ascertained.

53. Either for one season or for lifetime.

54. The eggs when spawned sink to the bottom, but whether they become attached to stones, grass, &c., I do not know.

55. It is unknown whether the fish heap up or construct any kind of nests of sand, gravel, or grass.

57. It is not known by any one on the coast when the eggs are hatched or in what period after they are laid.

62. They are never seen carrying them in their moutbs or otherwise.

63. The crab, eel, perch, trout, and several other species of fish de- stroy the spawn and the young fish. The parent fish never interferes with either.

64. The young of this fish are found in great abundance on the shores of rivers and sounds.

65. They appear to feed the same as the old ones, as described in an- swer 37,

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 469

66. No steps have been taken to increase the abundance of this fish by artificial culture.

67. These fish have no protection from any source.

68. No epidemic or other disease has ever been noticed among them on the coast.

69. If such has ever taken place, the time and cause are unknown.

70. Worms and lampreys are found in the gills and about the fins of these fish.

71. The fish are caught in nets.

72. For ordinary purposes in set-nets of from 50 to 60 yards long, 14 to 13 inch mesh, and from 20 to 30 meshes deep. These nets are gen- erally set at night with both ends made fast, and remain in the water during the entire night, so the fish are caught in the night-time. But when they are caught for the purpose of manufacturing into oil and manure, they are hauled ashore at the inlet and on the sea-beach with large seines, or taken with purse-nets. This latter performance can be done more effectually in moderate weather when the fish are in schools.

73, 74. It may be taken in nets from the 1st of October to the Ist of December. They are never taken with hook.

75. One good seine, of proper size to suit the depth of water, might haul ashore in a day at least 100 barrels of fish along the beach. This is only at times when the tailors drive them in to the beach. In some seasons we might get ten, in others not more than two, good days’ fish- ing.

76. A purse-net will take of a good day 15 to 20 barrels, while a set net only 4 to 5in a night.

77. It is caught more on flocd-tide than on ebb, for they go off shore on ebb-tide.

78. The fish caught are used on the apot, except occasionally some are taken at sea in purse-nets by vessels connected with some oil-factory on the northern coast.

79. It is an excellent food, fresh or canned and smoked.

80. It sustains its excellence as a fresh fish only a short time, owing to the temperature of the weather.

81. It is eaten to a great extent by the fishermen and others along the coast.

82. It is salted down in quantities only to save from one season to another.

83. It has been used for oil and manure to some extent, but there is no establishment of this kind on the coast at present.

84. These fish are not carried to market in any abundance, but when any are sold they are worth from $8 to $10 per thousand. The prices vary according to the quantity of fish in market.

85. These fish have never been exported from North Carolina.

86. The principal market of the fatback is in country places among farmers and freedmen.

47() REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

67. Statement of A. W. Simpson, jr., Cape Hatteras, N. C.. January 20, 1875.

During the past season the fishermen provided themselves with seines and boats in time to meet the first run of the bluefish. The seines were made of cotton marlin, and were about 100 yards long, 24-inch mesh, and from 40 to 50 meshes deep. The bluefish made their first appearance on the coast from the north. The menhaden passed about three days in advance of the bluefish. I do not think I ever saw so many of this species at any one other time or in any one other season. From the balcony of the light-house at least twenty-five schools might have been seen lying along the coast, both north and south of the cape. Each school seemed to cover many hundred yards of surface and to be moving south at the rate of from four to five miles an hour. This continued, and school after school followed, for ten days before the appearance of the hlue-fish, aud when the blue-fish did appear there seemed to be more of the menhaden with them than had passed the station during the three previous days. Hundreds of barrels, I think, were washed ashore, and were driven so close by the bluefish that they had not the power to resist the surf, which was quite rough and heavy, and they were consequently thrown ashore upon tlie beach. Only a very small quantity of these fish were saved, as the fishermen gave their attention more particularly to the bluefish ; but some of them were saved and salted down, when they were sold toa good advantage. Some sold as high, in trade, as to bring ten bushels of corn, equal to $7 in currency, for one common fish-barrel of the menhaden. It has been generally thought by old, experienced fishermen here that the bluefish drive the fatback south in winter; but I have learned differently during the past season from personal observation, which the following fact strongly attests. The menhaden came three days in advance of the bluefish, and entered the sound at all the principal inlets, and made their way directly for the fresh-water rivers. They could be seen as numerous in the sound, head- ing north, as they were in the sea heading south. Furthermore, by a letter from a gentleman of Plymouth, N.C., I hear that they passed that place, eight miles above the mouth of the Roanoke, in five days after passing this station, and by another letter, from Windsor, 38 to 40 miles above the entrance, I hear that they arrived there as early as the 18th of December. Thus it may be readily seen that the bluefish are not the cause of the fatback coming south. I would sooner think that, the fatback caused the bluefish to come south in winter, as they generally follow in the run and among the last of the run of the fatback.

Last year there were not so many of the menhaden, but there were millions of young spat—about two years old ; however, this winter there was not a spat to be seen, but the gray trout came instead. These, too, were washed ashore'in great numbers. I feel safe in saying that if

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 471

the fishermen had provided themselves with material for saving menha- den and trout, there might have been double the sum realized that there was by bluefish, although there were very many bluefish caught. There were engaged on the coast of Dare County twenty-five to thirty boats, each boat containing one seine and three men; these were scattered promiscuously along the coast, and, I think, from a rough calculation made since I wrote you last upon the subject, that the catch for the season averaged about two thousand to each boat and crew; making in all over fifty thousand bluefish. These fish sold for from fifteen to as high as fifty cents each. I have not heard of any being sold for less than fifteen cents cash. Many of them were traded off for corn, flour, and such other articles as this place does not produce. I think that there will be very extensive preparation made for this business next winter, and also for the menhaden. There is no needs of making any preparation for catching the menhaden; more will be driven ashore than can be saved.

68. Statement of A. W. Simpson, jr., Cape Hatteras, N. C., January 25, 1875.

1. Fat-back.

2. Heretofore only about one-third more abundant than any other species, but I have seen twice as many fat-back during the fishing sea- son of 1873 as [ ever saw of any other species on our coast.

3. It has increased.

4, Only about fifty barrels.

' 5. Neither capture nor the destruction of the fish on the coast by the bluefish seem to affect their abundance.

6. There are generally two runs; in other words, the fat-back comes south in spring, and some are seen in the sounds and rivers all the year; but when they come south for the purpose of spawning, they come some- times in November and at others in December. In 1873, they were first seen on the coast about the 6th of December, and the main body arrived about the 10th of December. I did not notice any difference in the size of the fish in the different runs. There are generally more schools than one; many schools may be seen at one time. They seldom come near the coast in high winds and rough seas, but when they do, they swim so low that they are not seen from land.

7. The schools of fish swim high in moderate weather, and low in high winds and rough seas. Their arrival is generally known by the birds and by the ripple they make on the water. They are a great attraction for birds.

8. I do not know by what route they come into the coast north of this place; they come down along the coast from the north, enter the sounds at the principal inlets, and go up the rivers at once; they generally go from four to five miles an hour.

9. The appearance of this fish on our coast is certain, and they are

472 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

about the same as to abundance every year, when the spring run comes in; but the fall and winter run varies somewhat; some seasons not half so many are seen as at others. I do not know of any real cause for this difference.

10. Ouly for a short time; they will return to their feeding-ground in less than two hours after having been scared away by a net.

11. In winter I do not think the ebb and flow of the tide affect their movements any more than they choose to run against the tide. More of them enter the sounds from sea on ebb than flood tide. In spring and summer they frequent deep water on the ebb and shallow water on the flood tide.

12. During spring and summer they feed in muddy slues and chan- nels on the ebb and grassy reefs and shoals on flood tide; in moderate weather, during the day and at night, they seem to drift up and down the channels and sounds with the tide, either ebb or flow, and in high winds they are continually running.

13. They do not seem to be particular about the depth of water, as some at their feeding-ground are in deep channels and others are in Shallow slues. They swim on the top of the water in moderate and near the bottom in stormy weather.

14. They prefer the warmest water.

15. From what I have been able to learn they do not come on the breeding-ground before they are mature. Some small fish are seen in large schools, but not as a rule; the one and two years old school are by themselves.

16. The young fish are seen in the sounds, creeks, and rivers all the summer, from one to three inches long. I remember, one day during last August, twenty-five miles above New Berne, I could see 50 schools at once, from one to three inches long, and I noticed they were more numerous nearer the mouth of the river; these come down on the coast, and feed along the shores of the sounds and in the creeks until they are large enough to go to sea.

17. I think they have various ways for leaving the coast; some sea- sons they may be seen going to sea in large schools, and at other times they go off gradually. They leave vy two runs; those that come in November or December leave about the ali of January, and the spring run leaves in October.

18. They return north by the same route they came south.

19. They spend a part of the winter in our principal fresh-water rivers, and in the sounds and creeks; where they go after going to sea I do not know.

20. Mud and scum from the surface of the water and insects which they find among the sea weed or grass is their principal food.

21. These fish spawn in the Neuse, Pamlico, and Roanoke Rivers some time during the month of January.

22. From what I can learn they are mixed indiscriminately.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 473

23. The water is colored to some extent; it being already of a milky color, it is hard to ascertain; but it is colored some by the milt of the male.

24. I do not know the exact temperature.

25. The eggs are laid on the margin of the river, generally in from 6 inches to 2 feet depth of water.

26. The eggs float about the river; some of them are even seen to drift ashore, when the water falls away, leaving them dry; this destroys them.

28. The young are found is great abundance in the rivers, sounds, and creeks.

29. Fishermen on the rivers say that the spawn runs from the fish when handled after having been in fresh water two to three days; but it never happens while they are in salt water.

31. Lampreys are sometimes found attached to the gills, and a kind of a bug in the roof of the mouth; but I never heard of crabs being attached to them.

32. They must suffer toa great extent from the attacks of the bluefish, shark, and porpoise. I noticed that each bluefish caught on the coast this season had from one to three fatbacks in the stomach, showing that many thousands, and I might say millions, are destroyed by the bluefish alone.

33. I have never known of any epidemic among the fatback.

34. Drag-nets at the sounds, and set-nets at the rivers. These are made of gill-twine, No. 25 or 30, and cotton warp spun into cord.

do. The drag-net is from 75 to 100 yards long, having a mesh of from 1} to 2 inches, and from 25 to 35 meshes deep. The lower or lead line is kept on the bottom by sinkers made of lead for the purpose ; and the upper or cork line is kept on the surface of the water by floats made of dry gum-root made for the purpose. The set-net is made of gill twine, of from 35 to 45 yards long, and from 18 to 20 meshes deep, the mesh being from 13 to 2 inches. A coarse selvage made of cotton twine, dipped in tar and then dragged or rolled in coarse pebbly sand, answers the purpose of lead sinkers. A cork line buoyed with gum-root corks keeps the net off the bottom. These are called fly-tale nets. They are placed in the water on the feeding ground in the evening, and allowed to remain all night.

36. Canoes (not tonnaged) are used ; some of them are only 16 feet long by 34 feet wide, while others are 30 by 7.

37. Two men are sufficient to manage the small canoe, and three the larger ones.

38. Both day and night flowing water is preferred.

39. They are taken more plentifually in the flood-tide.

40. Moderate weather is preferred for fishing with the drag-net, and high winds for the set-net; as they are feeding in moderate and running in windy weather.

474 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

41. There are no particular number employed in catching the fatback, as that is not made a specialty. The fishermen in this vicinity have nets to suit, and look after all kinds of fish. About 200 boats are employed in the two townships adjacent to this station, with an aggregate num- ber of men amounting to about 500.

42. Some of the fish caught during winter are used on the spot, and some are carried to the country towns, villages, and farming districts and sold, while those caught in summer are used for manure,

43. There are no oil-factories here.

47. Seven dollars per barrel was paid for menhaden in 1573. I have no account of previous years.

58. The catch does not appear to diminish them.

69. Statement of Wallace RK. Jennett, Cape Hatteras, N., OC. February 26, 1874.

1. Menhaden and Fatback.

2. They are more abundant and less eared for than any of the finny tribe.

3. They are not so abundant as ten years previous.

6. They arrive in October and November principally, and may be found to be larger at the time of their departure.

“7. The fish generally are seen upon the surface of the water so as to

attract birds.

8. They come from the north, caused by the prevailing winds at that season of the year.

9. Yes.

10. They seem nowise sly, and are very regularly driven from the regular course.

11. On the ebb and flood alike; they are seen to float without any material difference, having no particular favorite locality.

13. They prefer deep water, and are, so far as we can see, not affected by the temperature.

15. The fish on their arrival seem to be of the same age and size, no young fish are seen at all.

17. They leave in the early spring and go south.

20. Sediment and mud from the water and fine grasses.

22. The fish seem to mix indiscriminately ; the sex is hardly to be observed at any time; it is not likely that they spawn on this coast at any time.

23. The water very rarely changes its color among the fish, con-

sequently no milt is discharged.

28. There are no young fish found in this locality.

29. The spawn is never seen to run from the fish as from the shad, rock, perch, and others.

ee

ee

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 475

31. Crabs, lice, and other living animals are found attached to them at times in the gills and on the backs.

32. They fail an easy prey to sharks, bluefish, and porpoises; thou- sands are thus destroyed, furnishing food for other fishes that may fol- low in their track, such as drums, trout, &e.

33. Epidemics and distempers are very rare, but are sometimes prev- alent; at which time they have drifted ashore in such abundance that the stench has been fearful. ‘

34. They are caught and taken with immense purse-nets, made of cotton twine, 200 fathoms long by 25 to 30 feet deep.

36. Sloops or eat-boats are used to carry seines and men, at least 3 or 4 in number, with an aggregate of 25 men.

38. The entire day is often used in catching these fish.

40. The wind at all times seems to affect them, as they are seen fre- quently running before it, and in quick motion.

41. At the present time there are no arrangements made to capture the fatback. The business has not seemed to pay, for want of trans- portation,

.42, The fish when caught were used on the spot. The oil was pressed from them by hydraulic press, and the refuse was used as fertilizer.

58. It is probable that the fish caught does tend to diminish their num- bers and quantity.

70. Statement of A. C. Davis, Beaufort, N. C., February 14, 1874, and

January 27, 1875. . Fatback.

. More abundant than any other species.

. Increased.

. No establishment in 1873; cannot state for other years.

. Does not.

. In June; main body arrives in July; increase in size after arrival, and are largest in October. Schools are constantly coming in (in the season) at short intervals.

7. Swim on the surface except when disturbed; they then sink, and in a short time reappear. Arrival is known only by their appearance in schools on the surface of the water. This latter, perhaps, may arise from the fact that about the time of their first appearance no fishing is carried on by nets ; it is, however, generally considered that their arrival is first known as stated. They make a distinct ripple on the water, and are easily known from other fish. They attract birds, &e.

8. Southward, ascend the rivers, drift in schools up and down with the ebb and flood tides.

9. Regular and certain; they have never failed; seem to return in greater abundance; perhaps this is due to the fact that only a small quantity have been captured yearly in this locality.

10. Are taken by nets, &c., inside the inlets; are easily taken. The

a

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476 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

use of nets does not scare them further from the shore, but the rivers aré not very wide.

11. Always swim or drift with the tide.

12, In the channels of the rivers.

13. The deepest; when attacked they swim near the bottom.

14, Are not seen after October, or, say, early in November.

15. Do not breed here; they arrive here one-fourth to one-half grown; neither two-year old fish nor the oldest arrive at their first appearance.

16. Not less in size than named in 15.

17. Main bodies in October and early in November, by degrees.

18. Proceed south.

19. Southward.

20. Having no teeth, they feed off the slime, scum, &c., on the surface of the river.

21. Further south; cannot say where. I have given this matter some attention, and from what I consider the best information they spawn at sea, not in the rivers, early in the spring.

22. No. On their appearance in the rivers the sexes are mixed indis- criminately. :

23. Is colored late in the season, but is only noticed at the time of the “ catch” or “ take.”

28. Not in this locality.

29. Has been found to run in a late catch.

31. Not.

32. Severely from sharks, slightly from porpoises, late in the season ; when at the inlets they are attacked by bluefish.

33. Never has. ;

34. Cotton and gill twine nets, after being partially worn in taking other fish, are unfit for further use aiter the first season; slime, &c., rot them.

3d. Generally 50 fathoms in length ; 50 to GO meshes, of 14 inches to 12 inches per mesh, deep.

36. Open boats and canoes only, carrying from 10 to 25 barrels, are used in this locality.

37. Two (2) men to each canoe and net. In making what is called a drop or haul, 4 to 6 nets are used. The school is surrounded, the fish are meshed in the net, shaken from the nets into the boat or taken out of the meshes by hand. The fish are never hauled to the beach.

38. One haul generally loads the canoe; two loads can be made in one day ; the time occupied for each load is from 2 to 4 hours.

39. More on the ebb.

40, Are more numerous in moderate weather with southerly winds.

41. Only boats and canoes, as named in 36. Very few were engaged in the business, though enormous quantities of the fish were present in the rivers, during this last season.

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN, AUT

42. At this time only, for agricultural purposes on the spot. None are sent abroad.

43, None.

47. Fifty (50) per barrel of 5$ bushels. In previous years, 60 to 65.

50. Three-fourths gallon to 1 gallon at the first run in June.

51. Four gallons to 5 gallons in October and early in November.

52. Are one-fourth larger and yield more.

53. Three manufactories have been established (several years since); but all have suspended operations.

55. Scrap was sold principally at Baltimore and other northern points.

56. Is excellent for mixing with tar, ochre, &c., for painting roofs of houses, also water craft. It is also valuable in applying to cattle, hogs, &c., for the extermination of vermin.

57. In previous years 75 cents per gallon.

58. Does not.

71. Statement of W. T. Hatsel, Body’s Island N., C., March 4, 1874, and February 23, 1875.

1. Fatback.

2. There are three times as many.

3. Neither diminished nor increased (diminished 1875).

4, Fifty thousand barrels in 1868; Excelsior Works at Ocracoke Inlet; Adams & Co,, Beaufort, N. C.; and Church & Co.

5. No.

6. There are two main bodies; one in the spring (April), another in the autumn (October).

7. They swim high and make a ripple, which attracts birds.

8. North and south.

9. Sometimes they fail for a season.

10. No.

11. They scatter at the flood.

12. Around inlets near the shore.

16. Yes, between first and last; approach 3 inches long.

17. In very cold weather.

18. Southward.

19. Somewhere south.

20. They live by suction. - 21. In the sounds.

23. Yes, it is colored white.

26. They are supposed to sink.

29. Sometimes.

30. Sharks, porpoises, and bluefish. If the parent devours them it must be done when quite young, or at spawn-time.

51. Worms are found in the gills and outside ; lampreys are also found outside.

32. They suffer very much.

478 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

33. What the nature of the epidemic is, I cannot say; I have known them to die to some extent.

34. Purse-seines.

35. Five hundred yards long and 50 deep.

36. Cat-boats of 6 tons.

37. Seven men.

40. They move against the wind.

41. I believe there are none in the State.

42, Used for oil and scrap; the oil is sent to New York, the scrap to Baltimore.

43. There are now none.

46. The Excelsior Company’s cost $30,000; Church & Company’s cost $5,000; Adams & Company’s cost $5,000.

47. ae nty. five cents.

48. One barrel of fish produces 13 satinik of oil.

49. Seventy-five gallons.

52. Yes.

54. New York.

55. Baltimore, Md.

56. For tanning purposes.

58. Does not perceptibly (1874). Yes (1875).

72, Statement of W. A. Harn, Morris Island, 8. C., January 21, 1875.

In reply to circular dated December 20, 1873, requesting information of fisheries and the habits of fish on iba coast, I would say that there are no fisheries near this station, and the only fish that are caught here are the whiting, trout, and sheephead, and those in very small num- bers.

—_—

73. Statement of Patrick Conner, Daufuskie Island Light, 8S. C., March 15, 1875.

. Mossbunker, or bony shad. . There are five hundred thousand per cent. more than any other. . It has increased. None. There is no capture of them to have any effect. . In May. The main body come in June; they are; there are. They swim high, make a ripple, and attract birds. I know not their route; they come into the sound and go out with the tide.

9. It is. I never knew them to fail.

10. I cannot say. I never saw them canght.

11. They come in with the flood and go out with the ebb.

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HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. A479

12. The bayous along the coast.

13. Ido not know. I have seen them in all depths, from 3 feet to 6 fathoms.

14. It does. They never come before it gets warm in May.

15. They do; yes, but generally they go in schools according to size.

16. They are, in July and August, about 14 inches long.

17. They leave in September; in schools and by degrees.

20. Some sort of insects, or it may be their own eggs; they are con- stantly sucking in the tide.

28. They are in all the bayous along the southern coast.

20. I cannot say what enemies the spawn has; but shark and _ blue- fish destroy the young.

31. There is a bug, with several feet or Jegs, found outside on the cheek.

32. They suffer heavily ; but, on account of their very great numbers, are scarcely perceptibly diminished.

33. I do not know of any.

34, No kind. These fish are never captured.

35. There are none used.

36. No vessels employed of any tonnage.

40. High winds do; the small ones are cast. ashore in rough weather.

41. None.

44, None.

45. None.

47. None bought or sold.

53. It has no history. There is none manufactured.

54. There is no market, for there is no oil.

55. There is no market; there is no scrap.

58. I cannot say ; they are never caught.

74. Statement of George Gage, Beaufort, 8. C., January 20, 1874.

Referring to your circular of December 20, 1873, relative to the “ men- haden fisheries,” &c., I have to report that I have no evidence of the existence in this district of either of the species of fish therein referred to. There is no fishing here in a commercial or statistical sense.

75. Statements of Joseph Shepard, Saint Mary’s, Ga., March 30, 1874, and January 28, 1875.

e I have the honor to state, relative to the species of fish known as the mossbunker, that after making inquiries of men who have made a busi- ness of fishing on the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, and who have fished for the mossbunker farther north, that none of that species

480. REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

are found south of Cape Hatteras. I may mention that only one in- stance of the mossbunker being taken bere has come under my observa- tion.

2. Other fish are abundant here, but have diminished in numbers within the past twenty years, and I desire to respectfully call your attention to the probable cause. I is a well-known fact that brook trout will not remain in creeks below lumber-mills if the sawdust is thrown into them, for the sawdust, it is supposed, gets into their gills. The same reason would account for fish of all kinds being less plentiful now along the coast of Georgia than heretofore, as there is au immense amount of lumber sawed; and in most cases the sawdust is put in the water.

17. In November, north of Hatteras, in a body.

18. Supposed to go east to the Gulf Stream.

19. Possibly along the edge of the Gulf Stream.

20. Probably animalcule, as theic mouth seems formed for straining water.

34. For other fish, cast-nets are used.

35. Length, 6 feet; spread, 12 feet.

I beg to be allowed to add that a species of shell-fish called prawn (or shrimp of large growth) is very aLundant on this coast during the months of March, April, and May. The length of body, after the out- side shell is taken off, is from 4 to 6 inches. They are considered a great delicacy, and may be canned by a very simple process and made an article of commerce. .

There is also a small fish found here in great abundance at all seasons of the year, called jfinger-mullet, a very sweet fish. There is reason to believe that this fish would rival the sardine if canned in the same or a similar manner. Its length is from 5 to 6 inches.

Saint MARy’s, GA., January 28, 1875.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your circular of the 23d ultimo, relative to statistics of fisheries, and to reply that since my last communication I have learned from one of the Saint Andrew’s, Ga., bar pilots that schools of fish called menhaden come into that sound with the flood-tide and go out with the ebb from the month of April un- til October, but not in as great numbers as found at the North. The same fish are also seen in calm weather during the winter months out- side the sea islands in about seven fathoms of water in large schools from 3 to 4 feet below the surface. My informant says he has caught them at such times with snatch-hooks.

Very respectfully, JOSEPH SHEPARD. Hon. SPENCER F. BAIRD,

Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, Washington, D. ©

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 481 76. Statement of J. F. Hall, Brunswick, Ga., April 11, 1876.

First. They do not frequent the ccast in this latitude.

Second. There have been a few schools seen off this coast. One was in Saint Andrew’s Sound, latitude 31° 3/, in the spring of 1871. I saw one myself on May 30, 1872, latitude 31° 15’, in about eight fathoms of water. One school was reported off the coast by pilots in the summer of 1874,

—

77. Statement of Capt. David Kemps, New Berlin, Fla., February 10, 1875.

1. Bony fish.

2. Greater.

3. Increased very much.

6. Come in the river about December in large schools. about the full of the moon; more numerous at that time than any other, and continue until May.

7. Swim high and low at times, and make a ripple and attract sea- gulls.

8. Not known. No one has made it a study.

9. Regular, and seem to increase both in size and number.

11. More numerous on the flow of the tide.

12. Near the mouth of the river.

13. Alldepths; they have been caught as low as 17 feet.

14, Not in the least.

16. The young fish leave the river from July to October, and then in solid bodies mix with young shad.

19. In the river, within 30 miles of its mouth.

20. Supposed to live on small animal-matter in the water,

21. They certainly spawn within the limit of 30 miles from the bar, as they are never seen higher up. They are supposed to spawn in the creeks and coves of the river, as they are alive with the young in the summer and fall of the year.

292. They are mixed indiscriminately

23. Has never been noticed.

24. No particular temperature.

28. Yes; in the creeks and coves of tbe river.

29 Yes; late in the season, say about April,

30. Catfish, garfish, crabs, eels, trout, and other fish.

31. At times we find a few fish with fish-lice in their mouth.

32. Sharks, jew-fish, porpoise, bass, and catfish are their greatest enemies, to both old and young, and they destroy a great many.

33. Yes; about four years ago they died in great numbers and were washed upon the shore of the river.

34. No particular nets are used. What are caught are in shad-nets having a 5inch mesh. They are about 17 feet deep and ali lengths.

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482 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

There are about fifty nets on the river. I suppose during the season they will catch about five hundred bushels. They are a nuisance to the shad fishermen.

36. None employed.

39. Yes, more, in shad-nets, on flood-tide toward high water.

40. More numerous with northeast wind.

41. None.

42, What few are caught are used for manure. .

43. None.

I will here state that these fish have steadily increased in size and numbers for the past five years. They are supposed to be much more plentiful on the coast outside of the bar.

78. Statement of Charles Koch, Jacksonville, Fla., January 15, 1874.

1. Yellow-tail.

2. In the waters of the Saint Mary’s, Amelia, Bell River, and Cumber- Jand Sound in greater numbers than other fish.

3. Increased.

5. No.

6. In February the yellow-tail appear in large schools.

7. They swim high in water only about 2 or 3 feet deep, and are only known by their capture and by the movements of sea-birds.

8. From the Atlantic Ocean, and they return by the ebb to the ocean.

9. Regular.

10. No nets are used; they are caught by hundreds with hook and line.

11. They come with the tide, and return to the ocean with the ebb.

12. Oysterbanks and sandy ground, in clear water.

13. From 3 to 5 feet; as much as 12 feet from the surface.

14. In water from 60 degrees and upward the fish are more solid and fat...”

15. Appear on the breeding,grounds in companies, and are of every size and age.

16. Young fish are seen and caught from 4 to 9 inches long.

17. Leave the coast in September by degrees.

20. Small shrimp, sandbiire, and barnacles.

21. In the small creeks from March to the end of April.

22. I find that these fish go in pairs.

23. Yes.

24. Sixty to 75 degrees.

25. One to 2 feet near the bottom.

26. The eggs sink to the bottom, and become attached to oysterbeds, stones, grass, &c.

28. The young fish are found in abundance in the small creeks.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 483

29. Yes.

30. Wild ducks, crabs, and barnacles destroy spawn and young fish.

31. Worms and lampreys are often found attached to the outside and on the gills; in few cases in the mouth.

32. Sharks and salt-water catfish attack these fish.

33. No.

34. They have been captured in nets by accident, but the fishermen here only fish for finer kinds of fish.

35. Nets for catching other fish are from 100 to 200 yards long and 10 feet deep.

36. None,

39. Yes; on the morning tide.

40. Yes; north and west wind have effect on them.

42. These fish are used as bait and as food for hogs and chickens, or as manure.

43. None.

79. Statement of D. P. Kane, Matagorda, Tex., March 1, 1874.

Capt. William Nichols, a pilot residing at Saluria, Tex., informs me that in September, 1872, great quantities of pogies drifted upon the beach at Saluria, and that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Mata- gorda Bay were full of them; he did not observe whether they were fat or not.

I have been engaged in pogy fishing in Maine for eight years; have fished from Florida to Mexico, but have never seen or heard of men- haden ever being south of Cape Hatteras, with the above exception.

APPENDIX O. MISCELLANOUS ITEMS REGARDING THE USE OF FISH FOR MANURE.

1, The earliest printed account of the use of menhaden for a fertilizer, being an extract from an article by Ezra L’Hommedieu, 1801.

Experiments made by using the fish called menhaden, or mossbunkers, as a manure have succeeded beyond expectation, and will likely become a source of wealth to farmers living on such parts of the sea-eoasts where they can be taken with ease and in great abundance. These fish abound with oil and blood more than any other kind of their size. They are not used for food, except by negroes, in the English West India [slands; and the price is so low that it will not answer to cure them for market. They are easily taken in the month of June, when they come near the shores in large and numerous schools. These fish have been used as a manure in divers ways and on different soils.

A484 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

Ist. In dunging corn in the holes, put two in a hill in any kind of soil where corn will grow, and you will have a good crop. The Indians on the sea-coasts used to dung their corn with wilks and other shell-fish, and with fish if they could get it.

2d. By spreading those fish on the ground for grass a good crop is produced; put them on a piece of poor leamy land, at the distance of 15 inches from each other on the tarf, exposed to the sun and air. and by their putrefaction they so enrich the land that you may mow about two tons per acre. How long this manure will last experience has not yet determined.

3d. An experiment was made the last summer by one of my near neighbors, Mr. Jonathan Tuthill, in raising vegetables with this fish- manure. About the first of June he carted near half an ox-cart load of those fish on 20 fect square of pcor light land, being loam mixed with sand. ‘The fish he spread as equally as he could by throwing them out of the cart. Being exposed to the weather they were soon consnmed. He then raked off the bones to prevent their hurting the feet of the children who might go into the garden, and plowed up the piece and planted it with cucumbers and a few cabbages. The season was extremely dry, and but very few cucumbers were raised in the neighborhood except what grew on this small piece of ground, and here the production ex- ceeded anything that had been known. By his own computation, and that of his neighbors, this 20 feet square of ground produced more than forty bushels of cucumbers, besides some fine cabbages. I measured the ground myself, and make no doubt of the quantity adjudged to have grown on the same.

By putting these fish on the land for manure, exposed to the air until they are consumed, there can be no doubt that a considerable part of the manure is lost by the efiluvia which passes off the putrefied sub- Stance, as is evident from the next experiment.

4th. Mr. Joseph Glover, a farmer in Suffolk County, having a small poor farm, for a few years past has gone into the practice of making manure with these fish for the purpose of enriching his land, which is a loamy soil, dry, and in parts light. He first carts earth and makes a bed of such circumference as will admit of being nine inches thick; he then puts on one load of fish, then covers this load with four loads of common earth; but if he can get rich dirt he then covers it with six loads, and in that manner makes of fish and earth a heap of about thirty loads. The whole mass soon becomes impregnated and turns black. By ex- perience he finds that fifteen ox-cart loads of this manure is a sufficient dressing for one acre of his poor land, which produces him thirty bushels of the best wheat by the acre, and the next year from the same land sown with clover-seed he has cut four tons of hay, which he computes at two loads and a half by theacre. The expense of making this ma- nure where the fish are plenty cannot exceed three shillings per ton, and is the cheapest manure, considering its quality, of any yet known,

iw >

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN, A85

provided it is durable, which cannot yet bedetermined. On some parts of Long Island those fish are taken in seines, and carted six and seven miles for the purpose of manure, and is found to be very profitable business.

Mr. Glover relates a circumstance which is curious, and confirms some experiments made by Dr. Priestly, and at the same time shows that you derive less benefit from those fish when exposed to the air than when covered with earth. He madea heap composed of those fish and earth in the manner above related, near a fence where a field of wheat was growing on the opposite side. The wheat near the heap soon changed its color and grew luxuriant ; and at harvest yielded nearly double the quantity of the other part of the field. He is confident that the wheat could derive no nourishment from the heap or compost by its being washed by rains to the ground on the other side of the fence where the wheat grew, and could be affected only by the effluvia arising from the putrefaction of the fish and absorbed by the leaves of the wheat.*

2. Letters from Prof. C. A. Goessmann, on the agricultural value of men- haden fertilizers.

_ AMHERST, MAss., October 6, 1877.

DEAR Sir: In answer to your favor of the 2d inst., requesting me to state whether my views regarding the character and the agricultural value of the menhaden fish-fertilizers are fully expressed in my official reports, I take pleasure to reply that my third annual report, which is published in the twenty-third annual report of the secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture (1875 to 1876), contains the most detailed exposition of my opinions regarding that subject. Well-prepared fish- refuse from our menhaden fish-rendering works are justly considered equal to the best branch of our home manufactured nitrogenous phos- phates in commercial and agricaltural value. Fish-fertilizers repair to some extent the injury which agriculture suffers from the customary wasteful sewage system of our large cities; to secure an increased sup- ply is worthy of the most careful consideration from an economical stand-point. The due appreciation of our fish-fertilizers suffers still from their variable composition ; they differ quite frequently largely in moist- ure, and are, as a general rule, too coarse to secure speedy action. A more uniform mode of rendering and a more satisfactory mode of dry- ing and grinding are very desirable for obvicus reasons. To separate the rendering business from the manufacture of the fertilizers promises | better chances for the removal of the present difficulties. I am in- formed that a patent has been secured to abstract the fat more thor- oughly by some chemical process—I presume by means of bisulphide of

* Commcnications made to the society, relative to mantres, by Ezra L’Hommedieu, esq. ~ Transactions of the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Man- ufactures, instituted in the State of New York. Vol. I, 1801, pp. 65-07. :

486 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

carbon or benzine—yet I cannot vouch for the correctness of that state- ment; to render but slightly the fish mass and to abstract the remainder of the fat subsequently with some suitable liquid, benzine, &c., would be a step in the right direction. I found 18 per cent. of fat in cried fish- scraps; a good Norwegian fish-guano contains frequently but from 2.5 to3 per cent. of fat, and is ground to a fine powder. The entire re- moval of the fat favors the drying of the fish mass and increases its per- centage of nitrogen and phosphoric acid, which in turn raises the com- mercial value of the resulting material. The feeding of the fish-guano us a rich article of food to our domesticated herbivorous animals, as sheep, &c., has engaged of later years considerable attention on the part of scientific investigators as a more economical mode of using fish for fertilizing purposes. The German experiment stations at Proskau and at Hohenheim have published of late interesting confirmatory results. I take the liberty to inclose a page of printed matter, which contains a fair statement of present values of fertilizing substances ; it is taken out of my fourth annual report on “ commercial fertilizers,” and may prove of interest to you. Offering my services most cheerfully in case my opinion on any particular point should be desirable, I remain

Very respectfully, yours, C. A. GOESSMANN. Prof. G. BRown GOODE,

Washington, D. C.

AMHERST, MAss., November 24, 1877.

DEAR Sir: I sent to day by mail such of my reports as are still on hand. I regret that I have no copy of my third report, which contains the most detailed discussion on fish and fish fertilizers. I presume by writing to Hon. Charles L. Flint, secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, Boston, for his annual report of 1875 to 1876, which contains my third report, you may be able to secure a copy. A carefully dried and finely ground fish is considered to be one of our best substitutes for the Peruvian guano, which is formed from the excretions of fish-eating animals, as sea-birds, &c. To secure a similar speedy influ- ence on the growth of plants, it is customary to compost fish with soil in the usual manner a month or two previous to the designed use. The flesh of fish coming from the rendering vats is in an excellent condition for rapid disintegration ; the same may be said regarding the fish-bones. An addition of sulphuric acid to fresh fish-refuse from the oil-press exerts a beneficial influence on the gradual disintegration of the organic mat- ter and the bones, securing at the same time the entire amount of nitro- gen by rendering the ammonia formed non-volatile. Larger quantities | of sulphuric acid produce an increased amount of soluble phosphoric acid. A good fish-guano belongs to our richest nitrogenous materials for manuring purposes. An addition of soluble phosphates in many in-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 487

stances aids in economizing its nitrogen, and thereby lessens the expenses for the production of many of our farm crops. Potash compounds added to fish-guano tend to produce a more complete fertilizer, and therefore renders its use safer wherever larger proportions of potash compounds are essential for the crops under cultivation. Fish-guano, like Peru- vian guano, is very deficient in potassa. To render the fish before work- ing them into fertilizers is not only good economy as far as the gain of the oil is concerned, it favors also a more rapid disintegration of the organic matter by aliens the moisture freely to permeate the entire mass. The more the fat has been removed previous to their incopora- tion into the soil, the more speedy will be their disintegration and sub- sequent diffusion in the soil. Oil appears also to be indifferent to plant-growth.

Wishing that these short discussions of your special inquiries may be not without interest to you, I remain

Respectfully, yours, C. A. GOESSMANN. Prof. G. B. GOopDE, Middletown, Conn.

3. A al a of the factory of the Pacific Guano Company, at Wood’s Holl, Mass.

Menhaden scrap is used to a considerable extent for the purpose of securing the desired proportion of nitrogen (ammonia) in the manu- facture of those commercial fertilizers known as superpnosphates. By imany manufacturers it is used only incidentally, their chief reliance being bird-guanoor the dried refuse of the slaughter-houses. The Pacific Guano Company of Boston, however, make it their base for ammonia, and use it as a principal ingredient of their manufactured guano. This com- pany was established in 1861 by a number of ship-owners in search of business for their unemployed vessels. Having purchased Howland’s Island in the Southern Pacific, where there was a rich deposit of bird- guano, they established their business on Spectacle Island, in Boston Harbor, and here they carried their guano, and, having dried it in the vats of the deserted salt-works, put it up in bags for the market. After a time it was suggested that the guano might be improved by the admix- ture of refuse fish, and that the ammonia lost by exposure to the weather might thus be replaced. In this way the use of menhaden chum, already well known as a manure, was introduced into the manu- facture.

In 1865 the works were removed to Wood’s Holl, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, with the intention of capturing the fish needed, and after extracting the oil, applying the pumice to the manufacture of guano.

488 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

To this end an extensive outfit of vessels and nets was obtained and a force of men employed. The location, however, proved to be unfavor- able, and after five years’ trial the fishery project was abandoned. At this point, however, there was little difficulty in procuring the necessary supply of fish-scrap {rom the oil-works on Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound.

About 1866 the supply of guano on Howland’s Island having become nearly exhausted, its place was gradually supplied by the phosphate of lime brought from Swan Island, and two years later by the South Caro- lina phosphates.

The use of the bird-guano, from which the company originally took its name, has been entirely discontinued, though for some years it was the custom to add a small percentage of that substance. The mineral phosphates are found to supply its place very satisfactorily.

The company has two factories: that at Wood’s Holl and another near Charleston, 8. C. The capacity of the latter is about two-thirds of the former, although the working force is about the same. ‘That at Woods Hole, which may be considered a representative establishment, is situated on Long Neck, about half a mile northwest of the village. The factory buildings are very extensive, covering nearly two acres of Jand, and are used exclusively in the manufacture of the guano, and Sulphuric acid used in its development, and for storing the raw mate- rials.

A gang of about 85 men is employed, one-third of whom are engaged in loading and unloading whart-work, one-third in manufacture, and one-third in packing for shipment. At one time as many as 125 men were employed, but the introduction of labor-saving machinery has ren- dered a considerable reduction of the force practicable, while at the Same time the working capacity of the factory has been largely increased.

A steam-engine of 120 horse-power is used; also two small hoisting- engines for loading and discharging cargoes. The ingredients of manu- facture are few and simple, viz: fish-scrap, mineral phosphate of lime, sulphuric acid, and incidentally kaiuit, and sometimes common salt.

The average annual purchase of scrap amounts to not far from 10,000 tons. It is stored in bulk in great wooden sheds, and is sometimes retained a long time before it can be used. At the time of writing, August 16, 1875, a large quantity remains over from the previous year. The store-houses cover an area of 16,640 square feet, and the scrap is stowed to the depth of 15 feet, giving a storage space of 159,600 cubic feet.*

The mineral phosphate is obtained chiefly from South Carolina, from

*In a letter of October 8, 1877, Mr. A. F. Crowell states: ‘‘In our business here we consumed for the year 1875~76, 708 tous dry scrap (menhaden), value $29,164 ; 2,553 tons crude scrap, value $31,682; producing 13,010 tous soluble Pacitic guano; 1376—77, 2,176 tons dry scrap, value $57,784; 5,188 tons crude scrap, value $62,248; producing 11,398 tons soluble Pacific guano. Our works at Charleston usually consume one-third less than here.” ‘

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. A489

the Ashley and Cooper Rivers and from Chisholm’s Island in Bull River, near Saint Helena Sound. The company owns Swan Island, sit- uated in the Caribbean Sea, about 290 miles off Jamaica, and the pbos- phate of lime was obtained from that point until 1866 or 1867, when the reopening of the south gave access to the Charleston beds. The company of late bas used a considerable quantity of the rock from Navassa, a small island lying between Cuba and Santo Domingo, a red- dish deposit, rich in phosphate of lime. This deposit is estimated to contain on the average 72 per cent. of phosphate of lime, while the brown deposit from Saint Heiena Sound, technically known as “ marsh- rock,” contains 60 per cent., and the yellow “land-rock,” from the vicinity of Charleston, only 50. About 12,000 tons of this rock is used annually in the Woods Holl establishment. Great piles of rock are to be seen lying out of doors and under sheds, and at the time of my Visit it was estimated that there were seven or eight hundred tons on hand. The only damage to which it is liable from exposure is that it collects moisture and becomes more difficult to grind. In such cases it is piled in great heaps upon a brick floor, and roughly kiln- dried by a fire of soft coal kindled under it.

The sulphuric acid used is manufactured on the spot from Sicily sul- phur, which is brought in vessels from Boston and direct from the Medi- terranean. About 1,200 tons of sulphur are used annually, and not far from 3,000 tons of sulphuric acid. The sulphuric acid used in manufac- ture is brought up to a standard density indicated by 66 on the Baumé hydrometer, a specific gravity of 1.7674.

The buildings used in this branch of the business are nearly as exten- sive as all the others. The three leaden tanks have a capacity ot 185,000 cubic feet, the smaller containing 48,000 the others 2,000 and 6,500 respectively.

In the early days of the business the sulphuric acid was brought from Waltham, Mass., and New Haven, Conn., in carboys, but since 1866 it has been manufactured in Woods Holl at a large saving of ex- pense. The Leopoldshall kainit, which averages about 123 per cent. potash, comes from the mines at Leopoldshall, in the Duchy of Anhalt, near Stassfurt, in Germany. Its use is comparatively recent, until this year it having been impracticable to obtain it in any considerable quantity. At the time of my visit a Hamburg brig was discharging a cargo at the wharf. Not far from 500 tons are used annually. It takes the place of the coarse salt formerly used, a refuse product from the gunpowder works at New Haven, Conn.

The process of manufacture is sufficiently simple. The fish-scrap, on its reception, is stored, after being mixed with about 3 per cent. of its weight of kainite. This is a precaution necessary to prevent fermenta- tion and putrefaction. Experiments are now in progress to test the effect of a large mixture of kainite, which it is hoped will do away entirely with this trouble. Common salt, as has been stated, was for- merly used for this purpose.

490 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

The phosphate, as needed, is crushed in a stone-crushing machine, and ground between millstones to the consistency of fine flour. A con- venient arrangement of hoppers and elevators greatly facilitates this part of the work.

The scrap having been stored in one wing of the factory, the ground phosphate in another, the sulphuric acid having been forced into a reservoir near by, by pneumatic pressure, the process of mixing is easily carried on. For this work, two of Poole & Hunt’s patent mixers are employed. These are larger basins of iron, each of which contains about a ton of the mixed material. In these the ingredients are placed in the proportion of 1,000 pounds of phosphate, 900 of scrap, and from 300 to 450 pounds of sulphuric acid. The basins then revolve rapidly, while a series of plows on one side, also revolving, thoroughly stir the mass which passes under them. Fifteen minutes suffices for a thorough mixture, and the guano is removed to a storage-shed, where it remains for six weeks or more to allow the ingredients to thoroughly combine. It is then thrown into hoppers, passed throngh rapidly-re- volving wire screens, and after it has been packed in 200-pound sacks is ready for the market. About 600 bags can be filled in a day.

Before the invention of the Poole & Hunt mixing machine the guano was mixed with hoes in large wooden or stone tubs. This process was laborious and very expensive, and various machines were devised, but they proved failures because the materials caked, clogging the wheels and knives in a very short time.

The guano often contains hard lumps such as cannot be pulverized by the wire screen. Residue of this kind is subjected to the action of the Carr disintegrator, which consists of two wheels revolving in opposite directions at the rate of 600 revolutions to the minute.*

The offensive odor of the factories renders them disagreeable to per- sons residing in the neighborhood, and legal measures have been taken in one or two instances to prevent the manufacturers from carrying on their business, May 5, 1871, at the session of the United States circuit court in New Haven, Judge Woodruff, Connecticut vs. Kuoch Coe, of Brooklyn, N. Y., granting an injunction to restrain the defendant from manufacturing manure from fish at his works in Norwalk Harbor, on the ground that the same created a nuisance. In 1872 the Shelter Island Camp-meeting Association made an effert to have the factories on Shel- ter Island closed, on the same grounds. Peop‘e interested in building up Woods Holl as a watering place once agitated legal measures to compel a removal of the works, but the general sentiment of the town of Falmouth, in which the company pays heavy taxes, and specially of the many villagers of Woods Holl who earn their living in the works, prevented any results.

*The above description was written up in 1874 from facts contributed by Messrs. Crowell and Shiverick, of the Pacific Guano Company, and short-hand notes taken by Mr. H. A. Gill.—G. B. G.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 491 4. The Cumberland Bone Company’s works.

The following account of a similar establishment in Maine is taken bodily from the report of Boardman & Atkins. The facts appear to have been compiled from an article in the Lewiston Evening Journal, for August 17, 1874.

‘The Cumberland Bone Company, whose works are located in Booth Bay, is more largely engaged in the use of fish-scrap in the manufacture of commercial fertilizers than any other company operating in this State. The works of this company, formerly located in Cumberland

Jounty, were removed to Booth Bay in 1873-74, and altogether occupy six buildings for the various purposes connected with their business. They use South Carolina phosphatic rock, Nevassa, ground bones, fish, scrap, sulphuric acid, salt cake, and a slight amount of deodorizing compound. The phosphatic rock is heavy and solid, of a grayish color, in lumps of all sizes, and is bought by the cargo. The Nevassa is red- dish brown in color, quite fine, a little lumpy, but not at all solid, and is a sort of guano from an island of the same name in tke West Indies. These two are ground together in the proportion of two parts of the former to one of the latter; being ground to a fine powder which is of a grayish cinnamon-brown color. The fish-scrap used by the company is furnished by the Atlantic Oil Works, whose establishment is situated very near the works of the former company. Before being used it is treated with the deodorizing mixture—a substance of a very faint yel- low color, of which, judging from its appearance, one would say that gypsum might be thefoundation. This mixture is made in oneof the build- ings of the company provided with a furnace and the necessary tanks or retorts, and its preparation is a secret process, understood to have been invented by the president of the company. It is said to have been thoroughly tested and to work well, and it is thought will come iuto use generally among the companies that handle fish-scrap. At present a good many of them are troubled with injunctions because of the stench arising from the accumulated scrap, which is constantly giving off its ammonia. After being treated with this deodorizer the scrap is placed jn barrels, and is quite inoffensive, a slight odor of ammonia being ob- servable. Bones are ground raw; to get them fine enough they go rough several mills, but they are not reduced near so fine as the phos- phatic reck or Nevassa. The company sell large quantities of this bone meal as feed. One of the buildings of the company is used for the man- ufacture of sulphuric acid, of which sulphur and niter are the principal ingredients. Salt cake is a residue from tbe distillation of niter as car- ried on in the acid works. The mixing of the ingredients into super- phosphate is performed in the mixing-room, an apartment of the main manufacturing building. Over a circular floor, about eight feet in diam- eter, revolve horizontally several arins with breaks and scoops attached. Ingredients are poured upon the floor, the arms revolve, dense fumes

492 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

arise from the chemical action, and in a very short space of time the process is complete. The arms stir the mixture together perfectly and collect it in the middle of the table, whence it is dumped into the base- ment. Here it is piled up, and as soon as convenient it is passed through a long cylinder, where it is dried by hot air. It is then passed through a long series of revolving sieves, and all the coarser particles, which consist altogether of pieces of fish, are dried and ground over again. The superphosphate is then barreled. It isa very dark gray, almost black in some specimens, bat drying off to a light gray. In some lots there is a brownish tinge. In mechanical texture the superphosphate in the barrels is not perfectly fine—a great quantity of bits of fish re- maining unchanged in it. The proportion of the different ingredients used in the manufacture of superphosphate at these works cannot be stated, and is probably one of the secrets of the business. <A gentle- man who has furnished much information for this paper says that ‘‘one ton of fish scrap furnished the ammonia for three tons of super- phosphate; the larger portion of the other ingredients being Nevassa, which costs about $14 per ton, and gypsum, which costs 75 cents per ton.” The capital stock of this company is $200,000, and it gives em- ployment to about fifty men. It made in 1874, 10,000 tons of commer- cial fertilizer, valued at $450,000. The works are regarded as the most complete of the kind in the country, are provided with a seventy-five- horse-power engine, and with extensive fixtures for the manufacture of sulphurie acid, which when in operation will make six tons of acid per day. The entire cost of the buildings and machinery was $110,000. It is obvious that these works were located bere with good reason. One sees a car moved by steam ascending from the pogy-oil factory loaded with chum. It passes upon scales, is weighed and then moves on over an immense bin into which it is dumped. A chemical mixture is added to the heap to prevent the escape of ammonia and to kill the offensive effluvia.”—| Boardman & Atkins, op. cit., pp. 38-40.

5. The Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company’s Works.

The Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company of New Haven was established in 1852, by William D. Hall, of Wallingford, Conn.; and is the oldest es- tablishment of its kind in the United States. It was founded under Mr. Hall’s patent for drying fish scrap by solar heat. Scrap was purchased from the oil manufacturers of Maine and Long Island, and, having been prepared for agricultural purposes, was sold to the Connecticut farmers jor thirty cents a bushel. This fertilizer was not essentially different from that now sold by the same company as “dry-ground serap.” In 1854 the manufactory was removed from Wallingfcrd to the banks of the Poquannock River, in Groton, and the company began buying fish and making oil. In 1857 it was again removed to Pine Island, where

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. A938

the buildings now occupied by the company were put up. From that time their business has steadily increased. In 1871 the company began, in connection with their other enterprises, the manufacture of super- phosphates; this was done for the purpose of using the fish scrap im- mediately after the oil had been expressed, thus avoiding that loss of ammonia which takes place when the pomace is allowed to ferment. They still continue the process of solar drying on platforms, finding that it is more profitable to prepare in large quantities in this manner, at the same time using what is necessary in the manufacture of superphos- phates. They have tried several machines for artificial drying, but have not found avy which are sufliciently capacious to be profitably employed.

Ta the manufacture of their superphosphate they use dried and fresh fish-secrap, Nevassa phosphates, pulverized bone, kainit, and sulphuric acid.

They produce annually about 2,060 tons of superphosphates and 3,000 to 4,000 tons of other fertilizers, which are widely distributed through the New England and Southern States, and are also sent to the Wese Iudies, Santa Cruz, Porto Rico, Cuba, and the Bermudas.

Their manufactured products are classed by four grades: (1) Pine Island Superphosphate, containing from 4 to 5 per cent. of ammonia, 7 to 9 per cent. of phosphoric acid (average), and 2 per cent. of potash; (2) Pine Island Guano, containing 7 per cent. of ammonia and 7 of phos- phorie acid, which is intended chiefly for tobacco farmers and market- gardners; (3) Quinnipiac dry ground fish guano, which is sun-dried scrap thoroughly ground; and (4) crude or half-dried scrap.*

6. The Crowell Chemical Manufacturing Company.

A NEw Inpustry.—The Crowell Chemical Manufacturing Company, at Woods Holl, are now building a large factory that is nearly com- pleted for the purpose of making fish flour for the European markets, this flour being a dry, inodorous poudrette for agricultural purposes.

As soon as the building is completed a large amount of machinery that is ready for the purpose will be placed in order immediately, and then the company will be ready to commence operations.

They will require twenty tons of fish each day to supply their needs, and as the whole fish is utilized by their precess they desire large ones for their business, the bodies being valued in the following order: Black- fish, porpoises, sharks, dog-fish, porgies, and skates, the fish being bought entirely by weight.

Sharks will be purchased at about the same rates as porgies, as will dog-fish. The company will employ from one to three steamers to con-

* These facts were given us by Mr. H. L. Dudley, president of the company, during a visit to Pine Island in October, 1877.—G, B. G.

494 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

stantly cruise for their supplies, making trips from Block Island to the coast of Maine, touching at Noman’s Land, Martha’s Vineyard, Nan- tucket, Cape Cod, and other intermediate points, to see the fishermen and purchase their catches.

Dr. Sims, the head of this business, was the medical director of the Third Army Corps at the close of the rebellion, to which he was ap- pointed after serving a year as surgeon on the staff of General Hooker, and is a gentleman of great business capacity and superior intelli gence.—| Island Review.

‘“PacrFIC GUANO COMPANY, “ Woods Holl, Mass., October 8, 1877.

“DEAR Sir: Yours 2d at hand. An improved process for the treat- ment of fish is now being tested by myself and others. Experiments reveal to us that the fish can be preserved, and that we are able to get a scrap from them of higher grade in ammonia and a dry powder. The fish are treated with bisulphide of carbon and of hydrocarbons as benzine. The process removes all the oil and leaves the product in a dry powder. The by-product of oil is about eighty per cent. more than by kettle and press, and goes far towards paying expenses.

“The dry scrap as now obtained from menhaden yields on an average, 10.50 per cent. ammonia (NH); by the new process 14 per cent. ammonia (NH;).

“We are erecting a building 85 by 40 feet, 34 feet high, to fully test the process, and expect to be in working order in December. I inclose an article taken from the Nantucket paper. You can no doubt give us valuable information in regard to the habits of the shark, their breeding- ground, &c. The fishermen represent a supply off Nantucket that can be taken with hook and line.

‘‘Tn our business here we consumed for the year 187576 708 tons dry scrap (menhaden), value $20,164; 2,338 tons crude scrap, value $31,682; producing 13,010 tons soluble Pacific guano; 1876~77, 2,176 tons dry scrap, value $57,784; 5,188 tons crude scrap, value $62,248; producing 11,398 tons soluble Pacific guano. Our works at Charleston usually consume one-third less than here.

‘‘ The menhaden serap is now dried more extensively than ever. The solar heat and hard platforms found to be the cheapest and most satis- factory process. We purchase what dry scrap we can in place of erude scrap. I send you the only document published bearing on the history of this company.

‘¢ Yours, truly, “A, F, CROWELL.

‘¢ Prof. G. BROWN GOODE.”

HISTORY OF TH& AMERICAN MENHADEN. 495 7. Methods of calculating costs of valuable ingredients of fertilizers.*

The method referred to on page 235 consists in comparing different fertilizers by the costs per pound of the valuable ingredients at the prices at which the articles are sold.

The way in which these computations are made here may be explained as follows:

Take first a simple case, a sulphate of ammonia containing 20 per cent. of nitrogen, and sold at $100 per ton. Twenty per cent. is equivalent to 400 pounds in a ton of 2,000 pounds, These 400 pounds of nitrogen cost $100. One pound will therefore cost $100 ~ 400 = 25 cents.

Now, a more complicated case. Suppose a superphosphate to contain valuable ingredients (and that, for convenience, we indicate the latter by abbreviations), as below :

Soluble phosphoric acid, (Sol.).......10 per cent.=200 pounds in ton,

Insoluble phosphoric acid (Ins.) .-.-. 2.0 Per Cenc. tou or Se ek BMEEEOMeMN(ING) Wess RSE oo 6ak es de J. Per Conus "On ere csem ce “6

that it be sold at $40 per ton, and that the values of the ingredients are in the ratios of Sol. 15, Ins. 6, and N. 25 cents per pound. The problem will be to find a series of values in the ratios 15: 6: 25, which, multiplied by the respective numbers of pounds of Sol., Ins., and N. in a ton, will give three products, whose sum will be $40. The method employed here for solving the problem is as follows: The assumed rate for Ins. was 6 cents, that for Sol., 15 cents, or 24 times as much, and that for N. 25 cents, or 41 times as much. Multiply the number of pounds of Sol. in a ton by 23, and that of N. by 43, and add the products to the number of pounds of Ins.,and the sum will be the number of pounds of Ins. which would have the same value as the Sol., Ins., and N. actually present taken together. Divide the whole cost by this sum and the quotient will be the cost of one pound of Ins. This multiplied by 24 will give the cost of one pound of Sol., and by 42 will give the cost of one pound of N. The calculations for the above case will be:

eee Sat ea SNS eames. 200 pounds x 25=500 pounds Ins.

Ag mits amie coms SOARS sroclaehskis% - BO) a) ijux Diao 0aie &

ee ead tie oon kets Rs 3 oe a GOK: “yyy 06} SREP OO rere Soe 800 66 6é

The price per ton, $40, divided by 800, gives 5 cents, the cost of one pound of Ins.; 5 x 24=124 cents cost, of one pound of Sol.; and 5 x 41— 202, cost of one pound of N.

*From report of Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 1876, W. O. Atwater, director.

A°6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

The proof of the correctness of these figures is plain:

Soluble phos. acid, 200 lbs., @ 124 cents, would cost..... Jee. 20 UB 25200 Insoluble ‘“ by DO MDS! <5 1) 18 6 i pipe ee Bee. 2 50 Nitrogent 60 pe @ 20% & os (.: 2a et 12 50

Total valuable ingredients in ton would cost .....-- ---. $40 00

Another method for calcuiating the costs of ingredients, which con- sists in estimating the value of one at an assumed rate per pound, sub- tracting its total value, as thus computed, from the svhole cost, and divid- ing the remainder by the number of pounds of the other ingredients to get the cost of the latter, is too simple to require further explanation here.

In valuations current in this country, nitrogen in these substances has been reckoned as worth all the way from two to five times as much as phosphoric acid, pound for pound. Considering the fact that the nitro- gen is generally in quite readily, and the phosphoric acid often in very slowly available forms, there is ground for varying ratios. <A full dis- cussion of this subject would require more space than either the know!l- edge at our disposal or the necessary limits of this article would per- mit. In brief, however, I do not find it easy to see why, if nitrogen is worth only about twice as much as phosphoric acid, pound for pound, when both are in their most available forms, it should be worth three or four times as much, as is sometimes assumed, in bone, in which both occur in much less available forms. Too little is known at present of the effect of decomposing nitrogenous matter in bone, fish, castor-pom- ace, and the like, in dissolving, diffusing, and otherwise rendering avail- able the phosphates with which it is so intimately connected, to enzble us to form any accurate estimate of its value on this account. I con- fess that in the light of the little knowledge that we do have it seems to me more just to preserve ratios of valuation of nifrogen and phos- phoric acid in bone the same, or nearly the same, as in the most avail- able forms. In fish, animal refuse, and other materials which contain considerable nitrogenous matter other than that so intimately mingled with the phosphate, and in a form probably more ready to decompose, it seems reasonable to give the higher relative value to nitrogen.

In view of such considerations as these, the costs of nitrogen and phosphoric acid in the tables in this report have been calculated on the basis of ratios as follows:

In fish, slaughter-house refuse, and castor-pomace—Nitrogen ; Phos- phorie acid :: 23 : 1.

In bone—Nitrogen ; Phosphoric acid::2 : 1.

In superphosphates the costs of the ingredients are calculated on a basis of ratios as per the valuations used in the last report of the sta- tion, to wit: Nitrogen, 25; phosphoric acid, soluble in water, 15; solu- ble in ammonium citrate, 10; insoluble, 6.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. . AQT

In Peruvian guanos the same rates are adopted as for the superphos- phates, the additional ingredient potash being rated at 8.

The prices are those at which the articles have been sold, or offered to farmers during the year at the places of sale; the lower rates in large quantities, lots of a ton or more, for cash; the higher one for smaller lots, or on time.

In addition to the analyses and valuations given in the text of the report, the following are presented as indications of the actual condi- tion of the fertilizer market in respect to three most important classes of commercial fertilizers—nitrogenous superphosphates, Peruvian gua- nos, and fish manures. The prices given are those which prevailed in 1875-76, and are in some cases a trifle higher than now rule.

32 F

498 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

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502 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 8. Improved methods of drying fish scrap.

The Hogle patent drying machine, manufactured at the works of H. B. Bigelow, New Haven, Conn., consists of a boiler containing sev- eral iron cylinders, in which the scrap is placed after it has been taken from the press, and where it is quickly dried by steam-heat. One of these machines is said to convert a ton of scrap into dry guano in an hour’s time. The guano prepared in this way brings a much higher price than the ordinary scrap. An item in the New York Herald of July 22, 1872, stated that the former would command the price of $35 - per ton, while ordinary scrap is worth $14. Ordinary, scrap contains from 5.06 to 10 per cent. of ammonia, while this contains 15.

Mr. Maddocks remarks:

‘With reference to drying by artificial means, which is obviously important, no doubt is felt that the apparatus now in operation will effect the work as thoroughly as may be desired, and cheaply and quickly also, provided only the oil in the scrap be reduced as above described.

“Two companies belonging to the association have succeeded in dry- ing the serap in considerable quantities, notwithstanding the obstacles referred to. The scrap is passed through a slightly-inelined heated iron cylinder, 30 feet long and 4 feet in diameter, and on the passage is agi- tated by paddles attached to a revolving shaft, and comes out at the lower end dried to about 25 per cent. of moisture. The process will be greatly promoted in dispatch and efficiency by the application of the new oil-saving method, and the whole manufacture will then be under full control. The scrap can at once, upon withdrawal from the press, be subjected to the drying process by furnace heat, irrespective of the state of the weather, and thus the loss of oil by leakage, mentioned above, and of ammonia by decomposition, be forestalled. 1f the con- tained moisture is reduced to a per cent. no lower even than 20 or 25, the scrap can be kept on the spot at convenience, and without offense to the senses, or transported as required.”

In early days the fish-scrap was not dried, but was allowed to ferment in great heaps, sometimes not even protected from the weather At the old-fashioned oil-works may still be seen these heaps of foul decaying fish, filled with maggots and flies. Salt is sometimes added; also kainit, or sulphuric acid. These arrest decay for a time, though nothing is soe effective as a thorough drying process.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. °503

APPENDIX P.

EXPORTS OF MENHADEN OIL FROM THE PORT OF NEW YORK, FROM JANUARY, 1875, TO JULY, L878."

Quantity Date. in bar- Vessel. Destination. » rels. 1875. Jan. 9 G5 | Steamship WO pis 6S. eee ewes eae nig ieeieinniaia a /awnin oe Glasgow. 14 100 | Steamship’ Staterof. Nevada: ---- ssmeaseeeeeeene a are ance. ea Do. 27 40) |) Steamship state of Indiana: 2.---esseseseemaccse= sao oes ec. Do. Feb. 16 14) | Steamship stateof Georgia s--.-6 ce. seen eee ee inicio Do. 26 LOGE | PBarkelints. Routh. (i 22k6 2655 oe. .< a vice sceicteemeeee estes cian e'cles London. Apr. 3 64 Steamship Great Western... 2 <= .<c< as. c caeeeedeae sees ee ni Bristol. 9 25 | Steamship State of Louisiana Glasgow 9 on SveaMa nip Olivia. 5. .-cccaeaccuceiss Do. 10 50 | Steamship Celtic Liverpool. 15 50 | Steamship Italy London. May 1 20 PSLemmship Cornwall ee. e jcic asain sc ocee oe cane es emma seers Bristol. al DAs MS COMUIN DAP PA TAN CO ace cals scam cc see es cece sense aan eee Havre. 4 aol ocams hi pivban hate e. 2 Ll2. Soc a6 sou oeas cet e eee ere Liverpool. 6 90) poteamship state ol Georgia. = --.--s<cs- ssa comes aaa Glasgow. 21 2h) PSteamshipi state Of WOuiSian a ccc cece <= nsec soe sees Do. 22 UU 18 (SUD Sha a DO) ne ba eee eee hana eCeRREEeE Coenae- Amorim aScneec Do. 26 Tb SUN | SEY ete (bed OOF yes 8 ae aa Sem ee aes epee rc ees AE Havre. 29]. SURI Sheanis Mi peDriCaniG oe ane ses seen acon Sis ce emia ote asec micas Liverpool. June 5 BOY moseamabipeAmrur Ont setae cesece cescc cs cot seceseeceeeecos === =~) ristol 12 Pas OCEAINNIN PUL GNGING se es cava oes ais eons cee eae a tains ote Havre. 16 SUNP Steanishipistatelot GeUrpia) s<-- +o. 262+ eee ee eee oe ease Glasgow. 19 So. steamship Cormwallent tee See Seek es ees Nenaee janes: Bristol. July 2 Sr PObOAINSOLp tL bal Tae. te Rescues aoc Sanne erates wer eerem oe teeters Glasgow. 2 BZ. |:Steamship Stateof Louisiatlla) - 022. 6... Seiccccescccessccicccmce Do. 3 1G) | POLEAINSHIP TE GIO Pla tae Selc ascites code ccc de sinienseneccmcteee Do. 8 iS ESLeaMShip SOMOLseb). =) cee seis o Coe so aSeiese ne wawsaasccemane Bristol. 9 A008) Steamship valle devParis iss. s.occaeceoneeass osc S-e cess escent Ifavre. 10 40) Steamship’ Phe @ use! -3. sobs ooo ee sac ease waicaceesene aoe Liverpool. 15 35 | Steamship State of Indiana Glasgow. 17 182) Steamship Mlysiae <2 2 sciseescececesicascenisen Do. 23 62 | steamship ANeriquel =. 2sss-a2ss=-+5 50sec cesses sscssccnce< ms Havre. 24 169) Steamship) Califoriai< csc =s2 ces see soc het ies ae mise cisicacmeeniess Glasgow. 29 265 } Steamship State of Georvia ......:-...--.--002-s--22--+-----2- Do. 31 AAD fe mkeaMShip! VAChOMIa = seks sce ac ese eceoss sacces coes cece scene Do. Aug. 3 70. }, Steamship*Nevada.....%s\--ess--sececesscnce= Saees senso Liverpool. & 10 | Steamship Pereire.-............. Se SRO Rea ae See stacaicdece cae. Havre. 6 420) Steamship 'Cornwallimcs 22 2-0-5 soeacesecesa sees ss acsnen ess: Bristol. 12 100 | Steamship State of Pennsylvania ....-. ....-.--------.------- Glasgow. 14 432) steamship) Greab Western =: -s--c<<--2<s-a05cs-nses-ne5222 225. | Bristol. 19 isceamship) Gellert! 22225 ssecoec ccs Cescee wise aa sees iss cieinisieciorcte Hamburg. 20 PN steamship PLanGep.oeG.-- ose facie voce ececneee soos s wacnisece Havre. 21 Ares teamsbip) Bolivia .=-> =. secsscccetecs cece ce caesesecseces cae Glasgow. 21 Dil | Steamship! SOMOrseCh aos. = o- += occas cess ceeasirccc see ccs sconce. Bristol. 26 Ji Steamship sbateot MuGMn aes ea ee esas ese esc sconce ococemcces Glasgow. 28 HOOPS veamMshipebily Sia oe = wee” Sees. calces ceeecea coe canis as as</c 50 cin5 Do. 31 DOP ScOaAMSh Pa GahOe cases oaneas cen eccemeae iccesiscceeaciaeecue Liverpool. Sept. 2 165) | Steamshipistatevol Wirciniaie =): os.s-c-------- 2--2-5 2-20. Glasgow. 3 POL SbOanIs Dip Valle Game wtintere ssc seed ae Geer co.cc cc sowie e mae Havre. 4 HOZAMSLCAIMIRNLD PANSY Eanes eat cece cares cc namcdet once aa telecine Glasgow. 4 700 | Steamship California ......... Do. 4 185 | Steamship Arragon..-........- Bristol. 6 nOW DS teamnnnpavrontanmemeeeesnccr ass uese soo 8. lool eno lc Liverpool 6 Dol Steamishiprprivanin cesctce as ect ccc cctecc « cieezccov se ccse eens Do. 15 BOO Steamship Olymipiaeesesens secs oe cease cseee ces ceccceecnes Glasgow. 17 Sle POLeaMship Wieop tee eeee otets «oc oa sete cc ac eecocee emmlaaeet Do. 22 916 | Steamship State of Pennsylvania ....-...---.-.--------------- Do. 22 OOS bark VIGK Are tee escent tenes ccs ccec cesses cee cwascccdccccessseetle London. 25 TSM SteauIshipy Olivas os als,s sacs scss cccieccanessaccsseuesesent sac-| Glaseowes Geis isa} Steamship) Pranceelecs sucess. + sas castencaencmecsces si essere Havre. 2 olay SLAMS hip? HuMO PED eases ss =o 25 .sce eseccate once sae Ses oeicem Glasgow. yi 277 | Steamship State of Virginia 15 SPAN SLE AMBS Hip SDIMGESObes 25 25 o5-c<1- oles ccemscscescme es 21 HO eLeaMship Sonte OL GOORCIS ::5--.----26.-q-<-9s-s-snenseeaens 30 TGs barks elon Ae 1s2 2s si ee {oscanceseoosssscsensncomseedeseceeee Nov. 3 SOs PoucameniprArracron!.- 05 - o cc = omens aos weneaesosesioanee 18 PD) | SiGaMSAIp PbALOOL VILTINIG. 0-20-5020 ac0emaciaen-meseceneee Glasgow. Dec. 3 1007 Steamship State of mdiana .-. 226. s2 sen. cmns.cecseseeeeees= 0. 4 Ga POtCAMIBDIPPAMCHOTIA: cc we 2's 2 = 0.50 os oc pac v cnc aaceneeetenee= Do. 10 60) |) Steamahip Glenarinoy 2s. 22-- 2-2. sees soance an eesee seen - London. 21 BO) [USI p Revista eee o>. sl oboe re cae as cemeaciieeeeeetens.cne Do.

*Compiled by Jasper Pryer, with William Warden, commission and shipping merchant, 88 Walk street, New York.

504

Date.

*1876. June 1 9

14 15 5 11 15 27 29 Aug. 1

July

Sept. 6

Oct.

Mar.

May 1

June 2

REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES,

Exports of menhaden oil from the port of New York, §:c.—Continued.

Quantity in bar- Vessel. Destination. rels. 206 | Steamship State of Pennsylvania.............--.------------- Glasgow. SiO) | Siernenslnnt ey Jie ee oneeeoeesoos cesooo sosacecsepeeosbosdasooce Havre. TS) TSioultss dinoy Bkerehe WW seeere sh. sano coum eorpoSSUsacassncraSanecats London. |

60 | Steamship State of Virginia. --.- 2... .-- 22. cocee anc e-n- ne en> Glasgow. W140 Steams bia ry OTN O° Se mere miata mie tele Liverpool.

SoMlSteamship COL Wallac cmesteine = eine sell tetas eee ee Bristol. 141") Steamship Bolivia... - 22... oo Se nem ween arene sss seme ninele Glasgow. 140s iteamship! Statelof Virginia -5- ssn osees soe sees eee eee Do.

508M oteamMship Bri bani C ese ea ce seelseme metalation ere ae etait Liverpool. TM) |) Tsyiadke 2ST OS Se Secs coosedoS posh dene oseueesebetoedecsecasce London. OHoniSteamship Greece Sse. os nsconcce = aceactone ease meee ae Do. 1400 Steamship ATTA CON eenccis aa «niteneinel=—serere =e =e eee eee Bristol. 100 | Steamship Germain 184 | Steamship Ethiopia 500 | Steamship Labrador 1O00n| Steamship Canad ai eecc sete me ceeraeresmiseeses n74)| Steamship Bolivia se: sosssse- ese eseese ee aee seem elene eee ene 500 | Bark Joshua Loring

IO) | telabte) dab eS ts See desasependeousaneoboonmisogassebsESwedinc Hamburg. 210 | Steamship Somerset Bristol. 105 | Steamship Anchoria Glasgow. 106 | Steamship State of Nevada Do. O49) Steamship Calitormia ~--4-5.cscee-somacesesteeeece pees seeemeeet Do. , LOT |i Steamshipsbrance: ans. hen seseeneesee =e Havre.

60 | Steamship State of Indiana Glasgow.

TOU SteameshipiAgsynates..- =: -enanenasaaceee= sees haa see eee Bristol.

4G) | Steamship Victoria cesese= saree eee see ee eee ee E epee a eee Glasgow. 200) | Steamship Wyoming! 2202-2222 2--- o-oo see enseeeeenaer Liverpool.

87 | Steamship State of Pennsylvania............---.---.-----.--- Glasgow.

5 | (Steamship Bolindas o-- = aes se eceee sens eee ae eee enema ena Do.

41 | Steamship State of Virginia.....-...-..-..--.2-----s-------=- Do.

OS aipsteamship Auracon en esa aes eee eee ee eee eee Bristol. 102 | SteamshiprConniwall eee cea e-tee nieces ieee elt arte Slate ree Do.

99) Steamship Am Chora nesssmee eee eer eee sae eemae eeae sae eat Glasgow. 1000 bark WiCenu ZOE LOUbOssemese ae saaee see eeaEe ene asec eee Bristol. 139 | Steamship Cornwall......-...-..--.- sia deme siceisteromiaea mea tareee ee Do.

(ay |) Wyyelle Spotl nas sos se soeerpe seu dae sede seme dsacaseeodebocse cin Do. 176i} SbOAM SNP SOMOENSCte. -ccmice seen ne ce ae one = laela cin ee eer Do.

39) | SteanishiprAnchoria ss - ace. sae eee e- eloce = miomee ate se Sena eer Glasgow. isn psceatishiprAvlac Ones enact er ssemeecan senses nannies ee eee Bristol.

io) |PSLeaMIShip CaltOnuas on = metenclamestee tate ste eee seater Glasgow. OOP parksJ Ohana WilNGlin: -o2-mepeehee cesses moa se eee aaa ae Havre. A47. |p barksPrin7z ep rederick Carl -osecc-sacse= se seeseseesiesae= seaer London.

OG. soteamship) Corns vall. -oeeee eae essa eee a eee eee eee Bristol. TBP) || Sieben one shee by Sepp ocepaos coo see toss sescaormassekceeo cise Glasgow. S00) | Steamsbipiuabrador..-- een se-cs eee eee eee See eee Havre.

70 | Steamship Bolivia Glasgow. 150 | Steamship Dakota Liverpool.

Ra) SLOAMAS Mp SOMCLSCb= «= «6 -qean sie nicine sansa eee ate eee eeet Bristol. 150) || Steamship Stateof Nevada: 7... oc ce cen aceee eer eee eeeee Glasgow.

65) |"SteanishipiCalitorniay .2 52 oc-can- sence asco see eeeie eens m eee Do.

70) ||| SbeamIShIp I GOIO NAS <= a. oe a emciciceinincte Seite te eisiee te eae eae tae Do. TOO SUeAMSHID WML IUC BTS see penieeme amo 2 elle a ee Havre. BN Stee herslohja JOM yews Bas secon os sasaeseeo on ocohesenasoskossas Do. 200 | Steamship State of Pennsylvania........-...-.-----.--------- Glasgow. FE ESUGrh er Gleb neo hihe la.-seen coerae Sones seoeeE SooSseo ses SHoseosos : Do. 350 | Steamship Caledonia ...-....-------- nan csitelsesceena ssp emecieee Do. 350) Steamship! Canddaeenssstencesteare asics seca cee fa cae eee Havre. d750 || Steamship Scythia eees.-eeeemesee== case =n eae aces eee eee iverpool. 45) Steamship Au Sat aee eles m eee eel a— = a= eee eee lasgow.

71) Steamship SOMeLSCbes os ecleeteaieeiste ea ela = = ee Bristol. 100 | Steamship stan cCOtsece op a-seer eres =n =a eae ee eee Havre.

80 | Steamship State of Nevada-..--------.........--..-2.5------. Glasgow. 794 |soteamship AnCHOra ene sesee eres re =e= eae eee aera eae Do. 100!) Steamship Pereire! sss acne mer eae a= ea eet are Havre. AUT) |) Sloth Sin iG Sea tease se 55 sodseSseasooesesesoseasesbeasas Londen.

45)| Steamship Alex and tias = cease er eee nema meaner eee ace lasgow. T(O7é lasiveeneets|avy oe DONG) (Ey see Hoosen coden6 Ses aeeenedeSbcaceseasao= Do.

FO! JAS GSATIS HID AT OTN ee etme ole eee eel ae Bristol.

35 | Steamship Victoria... oo ces ema men nes aoe nen e een neni Glasgow. 200) | Steamship Wabradones-peeecee ee eeern ee ae nar on = ernie cr en elate. 239 | Steamship State of Pennsylvania.........-.....----------.--- Glasgow. 204 s|esteamshigy olive melee eset eter ee a alana lotta Do. KOON Ship CSE: Somthard | Seamer eee ee eee emt ee ete eee London.

=There were none exported from January 1 to June 1, during 1876.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 505

Exports of menhaden oil from the port of New York, §c.—Continued.

Quantity Date. in bar- Vessel, Destination. rels. 1877. June 18 IR) asthe Ve IEG aes eget icesecocrende tigen soqemepeEeeenes Havre. 21 147) Steamship State oh Nevag denen emtse see e aan lammimon sae male = Glasgow. 23 e192) Se Steamiship Onan en assen ete eee eanneaisemecnasmanne <6 sa2 once Bristol. 25 40 | Steamship Devonia.-..-----.-- Glasgow. 25 555 | Ship Empire of Peace Liverpool. 26 200) |) Steamship OLeiress- =. <a ecm eeaeineeemmemem as facacls aoc sais Havre. 28 TRsGy | SST in OG ai aE A eRe ee mseaccob: oooeecdooSsee a SuUeeeEee Bristol. July 9 68)| Steamship: Guillormo. ss-5225 ser one see eee oros ine ice ooo Do. 9 DOOM Sept 2 VOW ROOD = a= a ctee aa ctaeyacte se ate ete eeiemisamisiaiaa—)</10 = Havre. 9 SO Steamship WOVONAs.c<ccse siateciee es aeeemaeieeeaicises = in\nio Glasgow. 11 TVs SLeaINB HIN: SOMECTSOt ens oa soccen se cneiseceeee eee seeearcinceisa-- Bristol. 13 Este obip Lew kKespury) «sec cess 1. ance ter i neeseeeasiaemaae cine ia. Liverpool, 14 Q2w Steamship MGMOpla oa amc cen cee on oa meee see seetisiemie t= Glasgow. 26 70 |) Rr NIST Eee eeeee eames neoaneus pyoopedonceucosononeee: Hamburg. 36 201 | Steamship Devonia Glasgow. Aug. 3 25 | Steamship Peloia. . Brisiol. 4 MoM MbeaTOS NCD SOO DER a oi ce pies oS cee on see cies rice ieee einstein ees London. 6 aae| Hbeamship Caledonia. ..425--22laeccecs eee = steele Soe ceee cee sae Bristol. 18 Gail stearoship Scandinavian sq.) .0-<<s-ceo= esac eee eae eee Do. 21 5a |EStesanship Sivan rent oo se sneae eee eee eee comes sere Havre. Sept. 5 MOM Socanishipsuabragor. ac t-8e- coese cece ws ae tenae sateen es Do. il 70 | Steamship Alexandria....-.....-.-.- Seabscebccee cs Seek oe teens Bristol. 14 BN IS) Dib en CSE Gl a A en SOC BEO SIA RCAO CU CREE EO GCOS Saab OSR One Havre. Oct. 9 75 | Steamship Amerique 9 spe | ceamsbipr Corn walle <- 2 so-/cc seen sen = Dec. 29 Pai! || Uoeid ed Saver eee ee seoboseeomoSceceeres IE DO se GSAC oa an oS" 1878. Jan. 18 SOON Banks GY GA easn an oeeess onesies edoeemiscaeicclemsisielsarcciesse <simieicic Do. Mar. 16 BODE SRD eb anlinG ices cece secs cm cos sucecasekaecWlsiseeenee afasannee Do. 21 BOOK Ship PM ULOP aia eted.« ssi 2 = sepia weinine sincsepinss sie isieee aisle e\aias reine Do. 28 HOM Sheams Ni prAM Olas ~ kK oae cocina ea acsacdeeeacas) op sepesene Do. 29 BOs steamMehiprAnras Onis =<. )ac cee cs oseecaniccusencar doses cadee Bristol. 30 ae Sreamship ANGES. - <2 3225 ons ais os sale alesse peewee sie eclancen Port au Prince. Apr. 4 (i Steamshipeh ina ssa cs = 3+ sects see tem ene elemiteine fone ecls cute ates Savaniillia. 17 150 | Steamship Scandanavian Bristol. 18 91 | Steamship Somerset ---.----- Do. 25 90 | Ship S. E. Messinger.......- Havre. 25 TOS ERS DASHA tA He foo oe aie Same clos ane cls aele ols cms sale iem teleisjare Kingston. 30 OH bar kMAM Sar eee anne eis aeae cassie cece cscs ce scores s econ sn Savanillia. May 1 150) lp SHIpEMANOLItG eae a ean sae clecas Sach oe eeinc aces Ssaeceeane London. 8 TOla|} Shean shipwAm righ cs. cersasesc seeacieciselcce ccc pence decent Wom 13 SHON E SDI MN TAS etre estate) cieialmeicleiela cysiw inl sieintin stiatece air wie wlelnie’s Havre. 13 ANE StoAMenip uy OVOMIBeecer cast cee ccce ceri te seem ssicins ecicefe 0 Glasgow. 16 S5-|4Steamshipy Baltic? 2sc2.2 o<0cc--sno< 02 eae ew sme ee ino koe Liverpool. 18 75 | Steamship Anchoria Glasgow. 25 60 | Steamship Adriatic Liverpool. 28 OUT mS eeaIn SM ee OL GILG ee area [aseie esas cis ctacters ale elatesteste cial ea wie = isini-'> Havre. 28 DA Nits Lik od ste O10! See cose cet eC CEE ETO BECO SCOR TOCe BOCES aoe SE Rear Do. 29 Die ESOP ASAI UM OnG Orns seems seetalleee aise isnin ssid seis) sew cimiviersicis Hamburg. June 1 60 Poresmshig biitanniG acess <s-ae oes ose eee I toss 5 seaming Liverpool. 1 SON sybeams hip Castaic = alas semanas win wen weer \esio cima = =is< oa ea ni Glasgow. 1 QUOV Sip els MeSUOL Ces fer emcee ols else Mo cids SoU Sea ee ees London. 1 17 || ts rernee tl ey id Habe ae ee Ce oa pe eener eeee ape ec Glasgow. 1 OAT sane (1) Ss GOES IC MOO Ce CCS DUC OSE E rs 56 COUR Oa EE Ese ese Do. 5 RES as eG Oe ee ean ta lea fe telat micicteinte ainiaic @\eip'm ionic nmin a aainiae Falmouth. 5 252 | Ship J. A. Stamler Havre 5 248 |...--- Uae = a Sen ee eines aicias - wis oinlc Sata ona Seemaleas Do. 5 GTS gs O52 tered eaeeece teen noe ben ose Do. 7 2 | Steamship Atlas Kingston, 12 139 | Steamship St. Laurent Havre. 12 aK eeere Oe ae eee ee eee ee ete wie j= Soe sepiae cise soasiee sisaieee Do. 12 69)" Steamship Santiago'de Cuba. --.---.2---5---<0---scsccnene == Havana. 15 Vises dares UM tid 342 ar eae See SR Ee eaDEr SOOCOOREE OS chCae aces: Glasgow. 15 Lbs Sieh wits (S52 aR os eee sooeeere coco SuoneEecasadeoonE Liverpool. 15 ies DSUCa SLD LUO R AN TO wees se ones ac we see idten sine noe a ter sinaela spats Hull. 17 2.0 || SiR eeSharpy Wayne 0 See Se epeaeboos sumecodsoaerescsorbdeccr Liverpool. 18 Sata SLEARIS HUD) Mot LRMOM as ee aso coidn aialeim cciate eimeremmie eae = =e mateo ian Havre. 25 ee erat ok EOOROSS AN see ei cee ss <<c = a o\-cle to socen ene ce cnicna eae Do. 27 ail | Sieh ihre) | oe Se een OnBe a seeoocrpoo occas secre sec London. 27 Seon SHtp es aC HE OSNOl nN IL seme sons clea oa ee tare le ale nie lela ne eile Liverpool.

Note.—From other ports in United States, 2,600 barrels.

506 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

APPENDIX Q.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.

NOTE.—NSince sending the manuscript of this report to press, several valuable contributions. to the knowledge of the menhaden. and the menhaden industry have been received. In order to bring the discus- sion of the subject up to date these have been included in an appendix, with references prefixed, which show their proper connection in the body of the report.

GLOUCESTER, MASS., September 22, 1878

1. An early allusion to the fat-back on the Southern coast. (Paragraph 28, p. 14.)

Catesby, in his Natural History of the Carolinas, Florida, and the Bahamas, 1731-1742, Vol. IJ, p. xxxiii, makes the following allusions to the “ fat-back” or menhaden:

“ Herrings in March leave the salt Waters and run up the Rivers and shallow Streams of fresh Water in such prodigious Sholes that people cast them on Shore with Shovels. A Horse passing these waters una- voidably tramples them under his Feet; their Plenty is of great Benefit to the inhabitants of many Parts of Virginia and Carolina. But the most extraordinary Inundation of Fish happens annually a little within the northern Cape of Chesapick Bay in Virginia, where there are cast on Shore usually in March, such incredible Numbers of Fish, that the Shore is covered with them a considerable Depth, and three Miles in length along the Shore. At these Times the Inhabitants from far within Land come down with their Carts and carry away what they want of the Fish; there remaining to rot on the Shore many Times more than sufiiced them: From the Putrefaction that this causes the place has attained the Name of Maggoty Bay. é

‘These Fish are of various Kinds and Sizes, and are drove on Shore by the Pursuit of Porperses and other voracious Fish, at the general Time of Spawning; amongst the Fish that are thus drove on Shore is a small fish called a Fat-back; it is thick and round, resembling a Mul- let but Smaller. It is an excellent Sweet Fish, and so excessive fat that Butter is never used in frying, or any other Preparation of them. At certain Seasons and Places there are infinite Numbers of these Fish caught, and are much esteemed by the Inhabitants for their Delicacy ”

2. Departure of the schools in the fall. (Section 12, p. 38.)

Mr. Charles G. Atkins, in a letter to Professor Baird, March 9, 1878 (Bucksport, Me.), states that young menhaden were more abundant than

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 507

ever in the fall of 1877. Sometimes at a single tide each net-fisher- man would catch at his “berth” thirty or forty individuals. They con- tinued to take them until January.

Mr. H. L. Dudley, of Pine Island, states that the season in Hastern Long Island Sound has usually opened May 1 to May 10, and closed about November 15. In 1877 some fish were caught after December 1, and in 1878 his steamer caught 125,000, April 15, the earliest catch ever. known.

3. The spawning-grounds of the menhaden. (Paragraph 133, p. 99.)

Evidence now tends to show that some of the schools, at least, defer spawning until the season of their approach to the coast in April. Like the mackerel, they seem to come into the shoal water along the shores of the Middle States and Southern New England laden with ripe ova, which they may deposit either on the sandy bottoms at a distance from Jand or in the entrance to the broad bays. With this new light I am prepared to believe that certain sehools spawn in the rivers and sounds of the Southern States from Florida to North Carolina, as is confideutly stated by several of our correspondents; indeed, I have had several stroug testimonies from persons in Florida since writing paragraph 133. Although the facts are not sufficient to determine whether menhaden spawn on a falling temperature, like the herring, or on a rising temper- ature, like the shad, the latter view appears to be gaining in weight.

Capt. Robert H. Hurlbert, of Gloucester, a close observer, whose statements about the mackerel and cod I have often had occasion te test and never found inaccurate, assures me that in 1875, when with the mackerel fleet on the southern coast, he saw a number of menhaden, full of spawn, taken in the seine with a school of mackerel, twelve miles south of the Five-Fathom Bank light-ship, off Delaware Bay. This was late in April.

In late April, 1877, again, he seined ten barrels of fat, large fish off Chincoteague Shoals, on the eastern shore of Virginia. Their abdo- mens were much extended, and all which were examined proved to be full of spawn. Captain Hurlbert has caught them and examined num- bers of them later in the season after fishing began in Block Island Sound, but has never seen spawn in them.

Capt. Henry E. Webb, of Milk Island, Rockport, Mass., states that twenty years ago he was in the habit of catching menhaden in the neighborhood of Cape Ann. He caught a few large ones every year before the great schools came in. These he cut up for bait, and occa- sionally found them full of spawn. He has never seen spawn in them after the middle of May. When a boy, as early as 1848, he lived at Riverhead, N. Y., near the eastern entrance of Long Island Sound. He says that he was accustomed to catch multitudes of young menhaden in 2 musquito-net seine toward the end of summer. These little fish

508 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

when they first came into the creeks were transparent and about half an inch long, but increased rapidly in size toward the end of the season, and in the fall measured four or five inches.

The parallelism between these facts and those connected with the spawning of the mackerel is very apparent. I regret that I must send this paper to press with the question of the spawning habits of the . menhaden in such an unsatisfactory condition.

4. Menhaden fishing on a Long Island steamer.

[From advance sheets of an article entitled ‘‘Around the Peconics,”’ by ERNEST INGERSOLL, in Har- per’s New Monthly Magazine for October 1, 1872, pp. 719-723. ]

(Paragraph 174, p. 124.)

Loitering in comfortable indecision, I was fortunate enough to get an invitation from Captain ‘“‘ Jed” Hawkins to take a fishing cruise in his ‘“bunker” steamer. The start was to be made at earliest dawn—an ungracious hour—and I was glad to leave the hotel in the evening, and avail myself of a sofa in the captain’s snug state-room behind the pilot- house, so as to avoid the annoyance of getting up in the miadle of the night. It was Sunday, and the little wharf was utterly deserted as I picked my way among the rubbish and piles of merchandise down to the steamer. Standing on the high deck, a picture of serene beauty spread before me. The air was perfectly still, the moon just fairly risen, and no sound was to be heard save the ticking of that mighty time-piece the tide, as its wavelets swung gently back and forth under the weedy piers or divided against the sharp prows of the smacks. It was light enough to show the spars and ropes of every craft, and all lay as motionless as though fixed in rock rather than floating in liquid, save the tremulous blue pennons on the topmasts. Then I turned in; and when I emerged, after an hour’s pounding on my door (as it seemed) by the chuggety-chugging engines, we were far down Gardiner’s Bay.

Last night the unrufiled water was like bronze; now, under the soft silvery haze of the morning, the dancing surface became frosted silver, opaque and white save where the early sunbeams, striking through the mist, were reflected from the crests of the ripples in glancing ribbons of light. Shelter Island was an indistinguishable mass far astern ; Long Beach light had ceased to twinkle; Orient Point was hidden in haze; Plumb Island, where eagles used to make their metropolis, and many fish-hawks now live, nesting on the ground with the gulls, was only a low bank of blue; Gull Islands could not be seen at all; and I only knew that Little Gull with its copper-bolted wall was there from the dot in the horizon made by its lonely light-house, and an occasional gleam imagined to be the surf breaking on the reefs at the Race. All this was northward. Southward the wooded bluffs of Gardiner’s Island, with its natural breakwater and light-house, like a long arm reaching out between the outer and the inner waters, limiting the view. But this was soon left behind, and as the deep indentation of Napeague

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 009

came into view, the steamer’s head was turned southeastward, toward Montauk, which, in the growing light, now stood out plain in every bleak feature of sandy dune and treeless moor. Now avery sharp look- out must be kept for fish, and after the substantial breakfast in the forecastle, I took my pipe and a place in the shrouds. Even then I could not look across Montauk, but could easily see two great ponds of fresh water, which nearly served to make an island of the Point. One of them, Fort Pond, was once a scene of sanguinary warfare between the Montauks and Narragansetts, the latter being beaten only by help from the Shelter Island Indians, who drove the invaders to their canoes.

Off Culloden Point the lookout excitedly announced, ‘ Fish off the port bow!” The captain seized his glass, and scanned the water. So did I. “ There’s a big bunch,” he shouts. ‘ Watch’em flirt their tails! Good color! See how red the water is!”

“QO, yes; to be sure,” Lery. ‘ By Jove, that’s a good color!”

My vacant face must have belied my words, but he didn’t notice it. He was shouting, “‘ Lower away the boats! Stand by toship the nets!” furiously ringing signals to the engineer; giving hasty orders to the wheelsman; enscorcing himself in a pair of oil skin trousers, so capa- cious I half expected he would disappear altogether; and so, amid the roar of escaping steam, the creaking of davit tackle, the laughing ex- citement of the crews, and the rattle of rowlocks, I tumble head-fore- most into a boat, and the steamer was left behind. Now the flirting of tiny tails was plainly visible, but I must confess that I did not learn to distinguish the reddish hue which indicates a school of these fish until much later in the day. The two large boats side by side were sculled rapidly toward the shore where the fish were seen, the forward part of each boat piled full of the brown seine, which extended in a great fes- toon from one to the other. There were four men in each boat, all standing up, and in our red shirts and shiny yellow oil-skin overalls we must have made a pretty picture on that sunny morning. Close by was a pound-net, where a porpoise was rolling gaily, notwithstanding his captivity ; but by maneuvering we got the “ bunch” turned away from it and well inshore, where the water was not too deep. At last we were close to them, and now came a scene of excitement.

“ Heave it!” yelled the captain, and in each boat a sailor whose place it was, worked like a steam-engine throwing the net overboard, while the crews pulled with all their muscles in opposite directions around a circle perhaps a hundred yards in diameter, and defined by the line of cork buoys left behind, which should inclose the fish. In three minutes the boats were together again; the net was all paid out; an enormous weight of lead had been thrown overboard, drawing after it a line rove throngh the rings along the bottom of the seine. The effect, of course, was instantly to pucker the bottom of the net into a purse, and thus,

510 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

before the poor bunkers had fairly apprehended their danger, they were caught in a bag whose invisible folds held a cubic acre or two of water.

This was sport! I had not bargained for the hard work to come, to the unsportive character of which my blistered palms soon testified.

None of the fish were to be seen. Every fin of them had sunk to the bottom. Whether we had caught ten or ten thousand remained to be proved. Now, lifting the net is no easy job. The weight of nearly ten thousand square yards of seine is alone immense, but when it is wet with cold sea-water, and held back by the pushing of thousands of en- ergetic little noses, to pull it into a rocking boat implies hard work. However, little by little it came over the gunwales, the first thing being to bring up the great sinker and ascertain that the closing of the purse at the bottom had been properly executed. Yard by yard the cork line was contracted, and one after another the frightened captives began to appear, some folded into a wrinkle or caught by the gills in a torn mesh (and such were thrown back), until at last the bag was reduced to only a few feet in diameter, and the menhaden were seen, a sheeny, gray, struggling mass, which bellied out the net under the cork lines and under the boats, in vain anxiety to pass the curious barrier which on every side hemmed them in, and in leaping efforts to escape the crowd- ing of their thronging fellows. How they gleamed, like fish of jewels and gold! The sunshine, finding its way down through the clear green water, seemed not to reflect from their iridescent scales, but to penetrate them all, and illumine their bodies from within with a wonderfal chang- ing flame. Gleaming, shifting, lambent waves of color flashed and paled before my entranced eyes; gray as the fishes turned their backs, sweep- ing brightly back with a thousand brilliant tints as they showed their sides ; soft, undefined, and mutable, down there under the green glass of the sea; while, to show them the better, myriads of minute medusze hurried hither and thither, glittering like phosphorescent lanterns in gossamer frames and transparent globes.

All possible slack having now been taken in, the steamer approaches, and towing us away to deeper water, for we are drifting toward a lee shore, comes to a stand-still, and the work of loading begins. The cork line is lifted up and made fast to the steamer’s bulwarks, to which the boats have already attached themselves at one end, holding together at the other. This crowds all the bunkers together in a mass between the two boats and the steamer’s side, where the water boils with the churn- ing of thousands of active fins. A twenty-foot oar is plunged into the mass, but will not suffice to sound its living depths. Then a great dip- per of strong netting on an iron hoop is let down by tackle from the yard-arm, dipped into the mass under the guidance of a man on deck’ who holds the handle, the pony-engine puffs and shakes, and away aloft for an instant swings a mass of bunkers, only to be upset and fall like so much sparkling water into the resounding hold.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 511

“Tow many does that dipper hold?”

‘About a thousand.”

“Very well, I will count how many times it goes after a load.”

But I didn’t. I forgot it in looking down the hatchway. The floor of the shallow hold was paved with animated silver, and every new addition falling in a lovely cataract from far overhead, seemed to shatter a million rainbows as it struck the yielding mass below, and slid away on every side to glitter in a new iridescence till another myriad of diamonds rained down. If you take it in your hand, the mossbunker is an ordinary-looking fish, like a small shad, and you do not admire it; but every gleaming fiery tint that ever burned in a sun- set, or tinged a crystal, or painted the petals of a flower, was cast in lovely confusion into that rough hold. There lay the raw material of beauty, the gorgeous elements out of which dyes are resolved—abstract bits of lustrous azure and purple, crimson and gold, and those indefina- ble greenish and pearly tints that make the luminous background of all celestial sun-painting. As the steamer rolled on the billows, and the sun struck the wet aud tremulous mass at this and that angle, or the whole was in the half-shadow of the deck, now a cerulean tint, now a hot brazen glow, would spread over all for an instant, until the wrig- gling mixture of olive backs and pearly bellies and nacreous sides, with scarlet blood-spots where the ae twine had wounded, was buried beneath a new stratum.

‘“*How many?” I asked when all were in.

“Hundred and ten thousand,” replied Captain Hawkins. ‘ Pretty fair, but I took three times as many at one haul last week.”

“What are they worth ?”

“Oh, something over a hundred dollars.—Hard a-starboard! go ahead slow.”

And the labor of the engines drowned the spat, spat, spat of the myriads of restless little tails struggling to swim out of their strange prison, while I climbed to the mast-head to talk with the grizzly old lookout, who had been round Cape Horn thirteen times, yet did not think himself much of a traveler.

The ery of, “Color off the port bow!” brought us quickly down the ratlines and again into the boats.

That day we caught 250,000 fish, and made a round trip of a hundred miles, going away outside of Montauk Point, where it was frightfully rough after a two days’ easterly gale. Great mountains of water, green as liquid malachite, rolled in hot haste to magnificent destruction on the beach, where the snowy clouds of spray were floating dense and high, and the roar of the surf came grandly to our ears wherever we went. Yet the difficulties were none too great for these hardy fisher- men, who balanced themselves in their cockle-shells, and rose and sank with the huge billows, without losing their hold upon the seines or per- mitting a single wretched bunker to escape.

512 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

5. The manufacture of sardines from menhaden. (Paragraph 189, p. 137.)

The New York Times, April 12, 1874, has the following account of the Port Monmouth factory :

‘‘The scene at the fishing grounds off Sandy Hook at the height of the season is picturesque in the extreme. The day is usually a bright one, with just enough breeze to render the heat bearable and toss up the small white caps of the waves for the sunlight to sparkle on. The fishermen in their jaunty little ten-ton sloops have been lying off the ‘orounds’ since midnight. In the dim light of the early dawn the ‘school’ is descried approaching against the wind. The menhaden Swims on the surface, and the serried ripples of myriads of fins cover the broad expanse for thousands of feet in every direction. The small boats are lowered, the long net, over 7,000 feet in length, and reaching 12 or 13 into the water, is carried out on both sides until the hapless fish are inclosed in a vast semicircle, through the meshy walls of which there is no escape, and from which they are ladled in thousands by the fishermen armed with small nets or ‘scoops,’ holding a peck apiece. The silly victims never think of escaping by swimming beneath the lower edge of the net, a few feet below the surface. The victims are then loaded on the sloops, which make sail as rapidly as possible for the factory dock at Port Monmouth. During rough or unusually breezy weather the general effect is greatly heightened. The flapping sails, careening boats, and spray-drenched fishermen, hauling on the seine with redoubled exertions in order to get in their catch before the wind freshens into a gale, forms a picture exhilarating even to old hands at the business. At the landing the fleet are greeted by the 180 employés in the factory, and the entire catch, often reaching a thousand bushels, is rapidly transferred to the shore. Then begins the more prosaic part of the process. The fish to be cured are selected from the catch, the medium-sized ones being preferred, their heads ?tails, and entrails re- moved by a new machine, the exclusive property of the company, and their bodies transferred to the ‘scalers.’ Only from a half to a fifth of the original haul is used, two hundred bushels being the ordinary amount handled daily. These the ‘scalers’ seize and submit to the scraping- machine, a series of revolving curry-combs arranged on four lines of shafting 50 feet long, which frees each fish of its scales in the space of about a second and a half. As seventy or eighty men are at work, straining every nerve to get the ‘catch’ into the salt before the heat of the day, the rapidity with which the finny game are put through the various details is something startling. The ‘cleaners’ are long oval troughs of running water, over which revolves a series of brushes, something after the pattern of the ‘scaler,’ and which does all that its name implies in an almost equally short space of time. From this the fish go into the salting barrels, a stage of the work at which the men

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 513

take breath for the first time. In these the fish are allowed to remain for two or three hours, at the end of which they are thoroughly cared, and are transferred to the zine-covered tables, 8 feet by 6, with raised edges. In this position water is poured on them, and afterwards drained off in tubes connecting with the corners. The cooking cans, tin boxes a little larger than the ordinary packing cans, next receive them, and are then placed in steam tanks, seven in number, of a capacity of a ton each. Here they are left for two hours, during which they are thoroughly cooked. After being taken out and packed in the regular market-cans, the fish are conveyed to other tables, on which the process of oiling is gone through. Olive-oil is poured on them until the cans can hold no more, and the latter then passed to the tinners, of whom the company employ thirty-five, to go through the process of soldering. From this department they are taken back into another set of steam-tanks to be heated for venting. When the tin is at a proper temperature the can is taken out and a small hole opened at one end, through which the hot air is suffered to escape, and the aperture is then hermetically sealed. In the room adjoining the cans are packed in wooden cases for shipping, two dozen to the case. The retail price per full sized can, containing from seven to nine fish, is fifty cents; that of the same size of the French imported goods, $1.10 in gold. The buildings of the company inelude a large factory, 360 feet long by 120 broad, and from four to five stories in height, and a boarding-house for their employés. The tormer contains the necessary rooms for the various departments of the work already described, together with the machinery and equipments, most of which are original with the present enterprise. The engine used is of fifty horse-power, amply suflicient for all ordinary purposes. The company board and ledge all their hands, make all the tin-work, cans, &e., and keep their own teams and carts for hauling their goods to the dock at Port Monmouth. The pay-roll of the establishment, excluding the board and lodging of all the workmen, is about $3,000 a month, reach- ing during the busiest part of the season as high as $1,000 per week. The boarding-house contains accommodations for 180 men, including dining rooms, sleeping rooms, &c. Everything is kept clean and in order, and the health and comfort of the inmates sedulously cared for. A long dock has been constructed near the entrance to the main build- ing, in 15 feet of water, where the sloops and boats unload their cargoes. Several hundred thousand dollars have been invested in the business, the facilities of which are being enlarged annually. Besides the home business, done with every State in the Union, the company ship large consignments to foreign ports, including Liverpool, Hamburg, and other places. At the Vienna Exposition of last year their contributions at- tracted much attention, and were unanimously awarded the gold medal of honor and the grand diploma of merit. An agency was also estab- lishea in that city for Austria and Russia, which has since acquired a fine business. At home they have received flattering indorsements and 03 F

514 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.

congratulations from the first business houses of New York, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, and the other great cities, all speaking in high terms of the flavor and. delicacy of the American sardine, and reporting large sales of the article. So great has been the demand that up to the time of the panic they were unable to fill the orders pouring in from various parts of this country and Europe. The fishing season this year com- mences late, having been materially delayed by the cold weather. The ‘schools,’ however, are expected in the vicinity of Sandy Hook by the Ist of May, after which the work will be prosecuted night and day to the close of the season.”

6. Small oil-trying works in Maine, 1860. (Paragraph 229, p. 165.)

The Gloucester Telegraph of February 22, 1860, states that the inhab- itants of Brooklin, Me., manufacture annually from 500 to 1,000 barrels of pogy oil, worth from $15 to $20 a barrel.

7. The use of fish for manure by the early colonists of Massachusetts. (Paragraph 268, p. 195.)

The following order from the records of the town of Ipswich, Mass., May 11, 1644, illustrates, in a comical way, the custom of using fish for manure in those early days:

‘‘It is ordered that all doggs, for the space of three weeks after the publishing hereof, shall have one legg tyed up, and if such a dogg shall break loose and be found doing any harm, the owner of the dogg shall pay damage. If a man refuse to tye up his dogg’s legg, and hee bee found scrapeing up fishin a cornefield, the owner thereof shall pay twelve pence damages beside whatever damage the dogg doth. But if any fish their house lotts and receive damage by doggs, the owners of those house lotts shall bear the damage themselves.”*

8. A jish-fertilizer company in Boston, 1860. (Paragraph 282, p. 210.)

‘A company was established in Boston in 1860, prepared to grant licenses for treating fish under the patent of Messrs. De Molon and Thurneyssen, dated March 6, 1855.”t

* Coffin’s History of Newbury, &c. Boston, 1845, p. 42. t Cape Ann Advertiser, 1860.

EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

PLATE L

Figure 1. Brevoortia tyrannus (p. 19), adult, 12 inches long, from Wood’s Holl, Mass. Drawn by H.L. Todd, PLATE II, :

Figure 2. Brevoortia tyrannus (p. 19), young, 8 inches long, from Wood's Holl (No. 20,666 c). Drawn by H. L. Todd. PuLatTeE IIT.

Figure 3. Brevoortia tyrannus, subsp. aurea (p. 21). Drawn by H. L, Todd, from a specimen in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Brazil.

PLATE IV.

Outlines showing the variations of Brevoortia tyrannus (p. 21): Figure 4. Brevoortia tyrannus, subsp. menhaden, Wood's Holl. Figure 5. Brevoortia tyrannus, subsp. brevicaudata, Noank, Conn. Figure 6. Brevoortia tyrannus, subsp. menhaden, Saint John’s River, Fla. Figure 7. Brevoortia tyrannus, subsp. aurea, Brazil.

PLATE V.

Figure & Brevoortia patronus (p. 26), young? 8 inches long, from Brazos Santiago, Texas (892a). Drawn by H. L. Toda. PLATE VI.

Figure 9. Brevoortia pectinata (p.30). Drawn by H. L. Todd, from a specimen in the Museum of Com- parative Zoology, Rio Grande, Brazil. PLATE VII.

Figure 10, Brevoortiu dorsalis (p. 37), west coast of Africa. Outline from Bleeker’s Plate, PLATE VII.

Figure 11, Fac-simile of plate accompanying Latrobe’s description of Clupea tyrannus and Oniscus pregustator, (p. 15), from Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. V, 1802, Plate I.

PLATE IX. Figure 12. Map showing geographical distribution of the North American menhaden, the annual movements of the schools, and the locations of the fishing-grounds and the oil-factories.

PLATE X.

Parasites of the menhaden. Drawn by J. H. Emerton: Figure 13. Head of fish showing the position of the crustacean parasite (p. 102), Figure 14. Oymothoa pregustator (p. 101). Figure 15. Lemonema radiata (p. 104).

PLATE XI. Figure 16. Map of the menhaden fishing-grounds of Maine (from Maddocks’ Report). PLATE XII.

Figure 17. Diagram of temperature strata in the Atlantic Ocean between New York and the Ber- mudas, April 24 to May 8, 1873 (p. 66). Copied from the “ Reports of Capt. G.S. Nares, R. N. (H. M.S. Challenger), with abstract of soundings and diagrams of ocean temperatures in the North and South Atlantic Oceans, 1873.”

PLATE XIII.

Figure 18. Diagram of temperature strata in the Atlantic Ocean between Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Bermudas, (p. 66). From Captain Nares’s Report, 515

516 EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

PLATE XIV.

Diagrams illustrating the use of a purse-seine (p. 117): Figure 19. Section of seine showing cork-line and lead-line with bridle for pursing. Figure 20. Lower part of purse-seine showing tho arrangement of the pursing weight. Figure 21. Diagram showing boat and method of pursing the seine.

PLATE XY.

Cape Ann seine-boat, with gear (p. 120). Drawn by J. H. Emerton:

Figure 22. Seine-boat, 88 feet long, showing seine in position, ready to be set; pump, and other fittings, Figure 23. Section of stem of seine-boat, showing towing-links and gear.

Figure 24. Pursing-blocks, showing method of attachment to thwart of seine-boat.

Figure 25. Oar-rest and fastenings (new model).

Figure 26. Oar-rest (old model).

Figure 27. Purse-weight and pursing blocks.

PLATE XVI.

Figure 28. Cape Ann dory, with details of construction (p. 122). Figure 29. Side of seining schooner, with seine-rollers.

PLATE XVII.

Figure 30. A menhaden seining steamer (p. 123). (From Maddocks’ ‘‘'The Menhaden Fishery of Maine.”’) PLATE XVIII.

Figure 31. Diagram of the seining steamer ‘‘ Leonard Brightman.” 1. Pilot-house.

. Gangway to forecastle.

. Main hatch for stowage of fish.

. Engine-house.

. Towing-chocks.

or Bm 20

PLATE XTX. Figure 32. Seining menhaden at Cape Ann (p. 125). (From a sketch by Mr. P. Center.) PLATE XX. Figure 33, Seining menhaden in Peconic Bay (p. 124). From the ‘‘ American Agriculturist.”” PLATE XXI. Figure 34. Maine steamers seining menhaden (p. 126). From a sketch by Henry W. Elliott. PLATE XXII.

The preparation of menhaden for bait (p. 147). Drawn by J. H. Emerton: Figure 35. Slivering menhaden. Figure 36. Bait-mill, perspective view. Figure 37. Bait-mill seen from above, showing knives. Figure 38. Roller of bait-mill. Figure 39. Bait or churn box, which, when in use, is fixed in the rigging, as shown in Plate XVI, Fig. 29. Figure 40. Bait-dipper.

PLATE XXIII.

Figure 41. Knives for slivering menhaden (p. 147). Drawn by H. L. Todd. 1. Slivering knife, old style. 2. Slivering knife. 3. Slivering knife, modern style. 4, Slivering knife, old style.

PLATE XXIV.

Figure 42. Factory of AMERICAN SARDINE Company at Port Monmouth, N. J., (p. 187). Cut lent by Mr. F. F. Beals.

PLATE XXV,

Figure 43, Factory of THE GEORGE W. Mites Company on Charles Island, Milford, Conn., with floating factory “Alabama,” (p.171). Cut lent by Mr. Miles,

EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 517

PLATE XXVIL Figure 44. Factory at Napeague, N. Y. (p.173). Cut lent by the “American Agriculturist.” PLATE XXVII.

Interior views of the factory at Napeague (p. 173): Cut lent by the ‘‘ American Agriculturist.” Figure 45. Interior of the pot-works (old style). Figure 46. Press-room (old style).

Cuts lent by the ‘‘American Agriculturist.”

Puatr XXVIIT. Figure 47. Factory of Luther Maddocks at Booth Bay, Me. From “The Menhaden Fishery of Maine.” PLATE XXIX.

Figure 48. Factory of Joseph Church & Co. at Round Pond, Me. (p.172). From ‘ The Menhaden Fish: ery of Maine.” PLATE XXX.

Figure 49. The ship “Alabama’’ used by the George W. Miles Company for a floating factory (p. 171). From an India-ink drawing by H. L. Todd, copied by one of the photographic processes of Penning- ton & Co.

PLATE XXXI.

Figure 50, Factory of the Pacific Guano Company at Wood’s Holl, Mass. Cut lent by the Company.

2) Poy ere bite fin att unas tf oa ae Leena cs B

i +a)

i Sane pe Set Sate Be i

: rr ls aie : i 7 es ’ : en are atk aah le fe etek ee te Menta’ get

V2 a ; MEE ; ; ? au a: i

F page: aE HF glock 1 ieeartat AO WS Dies eee ee | eS Sate

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

Page. AS

Abbe, W. A.....- Seatac accede ascacueeee se 81 EE DUGLU, DMGIOY sre ss sissseca te seees occ 96 Abundance of menhaden, future......... - 93 Abundance, pasts 2.2<26522-5.62se005205 78 ADUMUANGe Presont 20 2.2. shee SIS 79 Acidulated fish, manufacture of .......... 226 PAT Rene de ect easccsscedocdeeescles 154 AMams 65 Oe'ssccsccoss cose chek 90, 169, 477, 478 PRMANNIR AS32525 52258 2s ssesse5hssssesc2e 2. 452 Adams, Capt. Nathaniel.....-...-.....-.. 118 Adamson’s process ......---.-- ees 225 Adulteration, menhaden oil used for...... 191 UVES STT 2 1 Rye OG il ee pat ie are 17, 33 Agriculture, loss to, from waste of fish... 266 Agriculture, relation of fish products to-. 194 “Alabama,” fishing steamer...........-.. 171 JSST 14, 69 220 DSRS (ee eer a 255 PROMOTING ates Se ASAE HR ENE CL a wea 4 Q11 llewifeet esses eee eet 7, 13, 14, 15, 70, 60, 90, 287 Alien or outside fishes...-.............-.. 68 Alimentary canal of menhaden........... 34 PEMD IM ORGUE set he esa ohn <cawsac cose ce. cote 80 HTT CCHS C8 COU ae ans es i ree Ree RR aE ey 165 PMler AG GOLr eth ee es aS 50, 106 Peer VWINIATN Stoo e es ores keene 272, 413 PRUINOMENVs Olsen cme toe. te ote oar 4, 192, 273 wo 2d Sh Se ie NEE eR ee ee disses s 15 Allyn, Gurdon S., & Co....86, 120, 166, 175, 183, 188,

296, 298, 428, 432 iia ObigeHe So CO). 2226 occ eke 166, 296, 423 RIOR S POCLMNAGA ass ons one ee celea alae 13 GSA RADIUISS I o> chs ~casectoe veah seks 14, 69 ATMIPLOSE?, HOV. d OH. == ss. 5d 555-- 57, 58, 61, 64 American Apriculturist-...-..........-.. 173 no MCAn CMI Ash)... ..6. chan. -6- oes 138 Ammodytes lanceolatus ...............--- 70 vA CUTTS E y Ap se ead i Ree amen tlm BS 2 234 Ammonisoted superphosphate, manufac-

[EER IST Ua ,8 ah a ae RR es A 227 Analyses of menhaden and whale ....-..- 228 Hr ho le 3 (ae Sa 41, 90, 273, 460 Animals, menhaden as food for ........-.- 140 Animal nutrition, principles of ..........- 250 Annual destruction of menhaden.......-. 109 Archosargus probatocephalus .........--. EO Argyrosomns clupeiformis ............... 14 fanithy: Heniamin <2 ere eet 151, 152, 277 Ashore, menhaden driven ....-......-.... 107 Associations of manufacturers.........-.- 191 eC CHEPIN ff. /-- 2° |e ee 70 Atkins, Charles G...-. 5, 49, 70, 72, 76, 96, 97, 99, 106,

127, 129, 170, 172, 199, 200, 205, 259, 271, 275, 275, 506

Page. Atlantic Oil and Guano Company. -80, 166, 185, 186, 187, 368, 369, 370, 371, 383, 334, 423

Wiiwater: Lote WiaOle nos =-< oss. nydoosas 4,194, 237

Atwood, Capt. Nathaniel E. ..32, 97, 99, 142, 272, 277

Atwood, William......-. SCR be SOC PODEE ee 272, 404

AUUMSU0f foie aca csseeenseemine Sclsiso ence 11

Axillary appendages of menhaden........ 33 B.

Babson, Capt. F. J . ..48, 75, 81, 98, 115, 124, 125, 136,

148, 180, 271, 273, 274, 395

Babson; HoratiOs-sc-.2a2se>=seieee se eee 82, 277

Baird, Professor --.1, 3, 41, 51, 62, 79, 100, 108, 109, 152,

160, 163, 172, 268, 274, 275, 277, 2=9, 290, 449

Bairdiella punctatiay-ses.-22-—4- seen ses 14

Bait, consumption of menhaden for....... 149 Bait, annual sale of, by Maine manufac-

HUTOIB 5 <ose wsnisseisannsn sem ese seca 151 Bait, export of, to Dominion............-- 156 Bait fish, menhaden as a .............=-.- 141 Bait fishermen and others, conflicts be-

CWOEN ooo son ces ce menlocecemisbemeen iad 155 Bait-fishery, extent of, in New England .. 148 Bait-fishery in Merrimac River and Salem

MarbOr ons aac dese ~csccs.acnaeswesease 148 Bait, menhaden for mackerel..........--. 142 /Baitanewhagen fOnicod. .25 24-2 -42-1s< <2 141 Bea em Ae ee ee eas eee ea os are 148 Bait, menhaden, in the coast fisheries - -.. 148 Bait, value of menhaden for, affected by

POO MS apt eel oe ha ccecascecsmcaetes smc 95 Balxna mysticetus .-..-.-------.----.---- 105 A ascliy T8 (pO Sy: ae ee ie eee a 272, 425 Ban Rersiper ssel= ios =e sinite =< ames ica 142 IBANTAGHORE 2 342/235 (= Ss 2j- che ease mages 69, 88 Barren Island Manufacturing Company... 168, 175,

183, 189, 296 Bartlett. iMG 022. oscnccecsenccemeceaee 374, 403 Bar letic Mrs) Johny sa. ee ececcce am aeete 162, 169 IEA deb st Be paemseee poor cockeedenorencens 94 Batnta, Mbt. <2 ss 2 5oc5s acess ce censesneeee 258 Bay alewile ...saccscce ne asics nce -picimeene 16 BAY ONE tefiSlite alae enter 106 Beals; WoW 25. ce setsas eoceae seen 137, 138, 273, 274 Bean, DricT. Hl ic...c.50ccc cae soe eee 4,97 Beebe, Captain. -...--. 43, 76, 85, 116, 179, 182, 272, 432 Beesley, Mrs iui. .os2tm ces sccemenee een cas 210 Bell James Ht 222242223. 41, 90, 97, 107, 273, 454 Benson: J. Bio... eae sceetw teres toes 2s 90, 273, 457 ‘Ben zilie\ process)--]-- seem ee sae ~~ ns 17 Bermuda aslandssesse-eeeare -saces-- 52556 14, 36 Bessels, Or simi eseee esses ces ~ ssn. occ aee 94 Bigelow, James W ---....--....--+--+-0s0 278 Binehani ds Comes ree sees so acase cecas—e J 391

520

Page. sirds attracted by the schools............- Ail BISHOP is HE <2 ese sees 167, 175, 183, 188, 296, 360 3isulphide of carbon process. -..--...--.-. 178 Blackford) VEN Gie - os sccs cee see eee eee ee 4,155, 273 Bleaehine-tankkss <= cnn--<2- Seopa ee 170 Block Island Sound ........- S434 Sh Aes 43 iBlue-back herrings sees eseeereeee esas esas 142 Blnee shoes eens 1, 12, 60, 70, 84, 91, 92, 106, 107, 109 Bluefish, Captain Spindel on the ravages (ES Jasenacennorunonsasecce qu deenecneeeee 108 Bluefish, Professor Baird on the destruct- IVENESS Ol soos smeereee etc re ls sascneenes 108 Bluefish fishery, Statistics of -.....-...... 2 ibparduiamy Gayatri elec. oeleeeeaceneeseae 36 Boardman, Samuel L -..-..5, 49, 70, 76, 77, 96, 99, 106, 127, 160, 170, 172, 199, 200, 205, 259, 275, 276 Body, shape of, in menhaden..-.......---- 20 IBO Nhe Ha SOS essere ees Sba. 2, 51, 69, 106 HS OTN MEL SMe eiere faints ninic-ao;sicloletateloe mer eke aiatetoiciee 12, 79, 114 B0GuheBAYy TEFION, ~-/)-.- .\-55 esis eesnemceiela 113 EGS CAEN Der acoso entation ER Rto meee 286 BObKOM HISHOS: clo -i2-2- ee eee oe Sect ees 68 Bourne, Jonathan) jes co. --ca-scieciem orien 297 Istendeitlhy MURR Sa semnacinosOsastooCOsaaabesa 451 BO WANE WOUND 22h ios s/c sacicec agg @ meee ccee 178 iBOvd. TWhomas*sosee -ce cee ee Seeddcodeds 141 IBTACTOTONGOVELAUL -eceeeses seat ee aero eee 195 Bradley. SamMesrn 1-1 cce ce cacaeemem cece 277 Issn eS thy 1 GAs SaaS Ses SqoosSeasesosooosece 289 Brazil; menhaden Ot... -=-.cs2 see ater eee 17 Bremen factory se sceeiescocsecsseosteee eee 79 BrevoarinA@arsones pores eee ee eee eee 18,95 Brevoortia Gorsalis; fotecccecccseeeeseesee 37 Brevoortiamenhaden-.--25322-c2e<eecs=6 18 BreVvaorhapawronus: “secs. cesses vceccra 26 Brevoontianpectinawa oc-ccssssassee=hs emiae 30 Breyvoontia hy LadNUS cic s- sconce => ese Ai 19, 70 Brightman, Penjamin F..... 49, 75, 80, 114, 179, 128, 180, 271, 358, 360, 362, 364, 379, 402 Brightman, L., & Sons. ...164, 165, 195, 186, 187, 369, 370, 371, 372, 379, 386, 423 Brightman, William J., & Co.-... 166, 175, 182, 188,

296, 297, 298, 360, 423 Bristol Oil Works....164, 165, 175, 185, 186, 187, 188, 296, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 379

Brown’s Cove Works..... 164, 165, 175, 185, 186, 187,

296, 371, 372 Brewn, Isaac. ----- 166, 175, 182, 188, 296, 360, 361, 365 Bruce, Wuncan:~.t cae ce coe eee ee ee eee 210 IBugelisheerreetceraceeae sent ee ee ee eee aet 7, 102 Bugey-head | st iost wee occeebeasecioce eee 13 IBV SS NER Gl Se So seocssessesosoddecnco once 13 Burnett, Nelson=as-c cco: cose esses enceee 168, 296 Burning-oil, menhaden oil for ..........-. 191 Burke; George W! ccmcse coheracecechecseee 272

C.

Canada, manufacture of fish-manure in -. 210 Canadian officers, the testimony of..-.-.. 146 CSN CCMNC Re rericewen no voce seberioe SeERee 210 Cape Annidorye-s----.---00cccseetanee tee 122 Cape Ann, menhaden fishing about.....-. 125 Cape Ann method of icing bait........... 152 CapeAnnime sioner snp ee eeemmeeee bazar 113

Cape Ann, movementsof menhaden about. 48

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

Page.

Cape Cod Bay, movements of menhaden in. 47 Cape Cod.Oil Works eeeeete] -.5- 2. e2ee 165, 296 Cape: Cod regionis=2-peepeereenera=a=~- 225 113 Cape Cod, movements of menhaden on

South shoreg0 teense eee eee ess ae. 46 Cape Hatteras, movements of menhaden

ADOUb Sass). sscee ee ROSE OCU OS A Stine 37, 91, 470 Capelin 3. .22=20jeseneste ee eee 70, 142 Capital employed by manufacturers of

Mainev Association 2 7--c4-- eee eeeeeenee 185 Capture; apparatus) of: 2.52. eeeee near 117 Caranx trachurus|=-----e6s—o-eee eee eere 13 Garbohy@rates\-.. 54-55-5554. 45e anne eee 255 Carrigan, ‘Christopher:-----2s-ss. -seneeen 144, 278 Carrigan Rotise. seeceet see eee eee 144, 278 Cartwright, B.C., & Co....... 167, 296, 444, 446, 448 Casts of menhaden.....-- Seo a-eaeee 5e 2920 Catalogue of specimens in the National

MMISCUINE c\2 too aae cote meen es ener ae 289, 290 Jatesby’s Natural History.-.....:....25:- 500 @atefishes). . Ueto ce n-ccecee nee eee eee 106 Causes influencing arrival and departure .- 38 G@entropristis, atrarins: --->----aseeeeerare 70 @BLOGS ei obscene s- Cat eee eee PERE 69 Chadwick, Capt. Frank A 2222-22222 eee £0 Chenopsetta, ocellaris.----=--cosen-ceseee 151 Chapman. -Riay&i Come eee see eens 167, 181, 428, 432 Chasei@apt, Remark soon es. scaseeeieees 83 @hase; (SAB: coscacscecasecen eeee cee 277 Chatto; HC.) & Cols. ase ose seo eee eee 165 CHEDO Saag wees oi jejesis sists cla ee eee 15 Chemical methods of extracting oil ...... 17 Chemical terms in fertilizer analysis ..... 234 Chesapeake Bay, factories on....-..-..... 168 Chesapeake region)-<-s2-- sa-ese-4- 5a 113 Chirostoma notatum 5 222---- aces eeeeeee 70 Chogeet..c ke. sot sec cc.s ose ane eae 69 Chum smenhad ents. ce sees se eee eee 148 ChurehgRev-7Al Wo.cs-2nco eee eee eee 135

Church, Daniel T. -..4, 40, 44, 75, 84, 88, 105, 107, 115, 124, 126, 165, 166, 174, 179, 181, 272,

273, 358, 360, 361, 362, 364, 365, 418

Church, Joseph, & Co.......5, 88, 123, 164, 165, 169, 172, 174, 175, 181, 182, 185, 186, 187, 188, 296,

297, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 379, 386, 402, 477, 478

Cireulariof inguirys 2 ssc seen ee ee eeere 4, 268 Clark, Gweieeecasseeecee caer 168, 175, 183, 189, 296 Clark, (enty Wi. eases coe eee eee 425 Clift, Rev. jWalliam:.--peceee eee eee 201, 203 ClubfishAmerican=<c=-e-eeaseeen eeee eee 138 Clupanodon aureus .....--.-..---«- 17, 21, 33, 34, 35 Clupea ‘carolinensis -s-4-2-+.-seessee nee 17, 287 Clupea dura laevi mystax ................ 17 (Clopea clon gatate-secece ce ec. antoe ae 142 Clnpea haren Gus yeceee en ec sneer eee 70 @lupea mens da cecsees- eens cee eceeeeee 17, 18 Clnpea menhadeni: 22-25-25 -\eeeeseeee 16, 18, 228 Oinpeaineglectat nm ne n= -\c nee Eee eee 16 Glopensadin a a 5-- <i se cice se ceeS eee neeeee 17 Clopeantvrannis .- (cscs oe eeeeePeeee 15, 18 Coast or ranging fishes..._..........----- 68, 69 Codfishiere. cose. sstee ce eeeeeeens 51, 61, 69, 92, 105 Codishery q- 252 cj 22 cicaceareene eee eee 2 Codi] Bee sis s te arene cen eee eee eee eee eee 193 Cole Mit so. canis soto seek cere eee eee eee cee 204 Colburn, GH sah lrcsnacioecec-icc ee se eeeeeeee 360, 439

ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 521

; Page. Page. Collections of the National Museum...... 51 ill Delaware: Bay. ooseeecessvas cease ee ak eee 41 C€cllins, Mr..--..-.. Sie tk oy.cta eaeeeee 205, 207 | D9 Molon process, the. ........2U8, 209, 212, 213, 514 Colors of northern and southern fish ...-. son WSVvOlls GeOree .c..ctscexeee esseece eeeese 81, 123, 297 Comparative value of herring and menha- D’Homergue, L. C........----- 191, 192, 273, 276, 367

den fortoll bait :.=.55.2. 2 OR os HAS Dabble: Davids. sscanstccececceececamennane 198 Composting fish fertilizers ..-...-.--..--. 247 | Dill, Capt. HemanS......... 48, 82, 115, 179, 272, 405 Compound-breathing fish..........-...--. 67 Dinnel; Capt.Solomon: 2c.ce-¢52-ce ecu . 82 @onany 62' Co... --ece ence etter. ose 165 | Diseases of menhaden .-...............2.06 101 Condon, J.C ....49, 80,165, 179, 180, 271, 274, 375, 376 | Dodd, A. W., & Co.......220.--.ce--ceeces 398 Conflicts between bait fishermen and Wod ce; osha 2s: 25 5, ee See 272

WHNENS. - 22 oes c aa kee sce ecneeabascsceceecs 155, 156 | Dodge, Simeon -...-.--- 48, 75, 82, 85, 98, 115, 271, 399 @onley; Johus sc... see se es wee econ cece es 277 | Domestie animals, fish as food for ...-.--. 250, 264 Connecticut, abundance of menhaden on Dominion, export of bait to ..--......---. 156

COBSUOL s eeeee eee ees tascccccee des 85 | Dorosoma Cepedianum .....-............- 14 Connecticut, claims of, to first manufac- Doubledaiy. Mr sssserece nc ssccnee secure 239

GUTLOOLP Olea seas cae steaas Soe ees 162 | Dougherty, Charles -..-....---.+-5-.-----.- 36, 273 Connecticut, factories in ...........-..... 166 | Doughty, Capts@--- eee een ata 52-3 168, 296 Connecticut, fisheries of ...--..-.---.----. TG" O0" |) DWrae- nether ete tee cette mise ieee 131 Connecticut method of icing bait .---...- 152 |) Dried fishyanalysis: of cere osc a -° 228 Connecticut smacks, consumption of bait Drying fishiserap <e-=<--e--- Be oo 502

Pee ensas ts: SIREE Thr Yo Aesth 151 | Dudley, H.L......-. 4, 32, 42, 44, 72, 74, 75, 85, 86, 90, Gonnerveatrick: se ese seee a 273, 478 105, 124, 168, 174, 175, 176, 189, 181, 183, 219, Conoveriiice. oom? PoP tot x 451 272, 358, 360, 361, 362, 364, 365, 367, 493, 506 Cook, Charles & Co . ..166, 175, 182, 188, 296, 297, 423 | Dunovan, Thomas..........-..----------- 423 Cook, Prof. George H..-...-.- 795200) 205; 21052281074 || Durfee, homas:ssassacssaesssss5ee es sees 423 Woks donne Werrnsaoncccrcsssac states secee 83! || Dwight; President). 225.52. 2ssscesa24~ 12, 198, 276 AGRIC LamnS estes ot Seto Sse eee nae 170, 171 WoombsrOaptaimes soso sssssc2s5secsi22e< 80 E.

Correspondents, list of........----.----.-- 271 | Qarly writers, the testimony of......-...- 78, 507 Corwin, H., & Co!2:- 2522-2252 -----------= 167, 446 MALOL Willan sacoe seen oeerces cer eenetcee Q77 Conilenmdmund 222 cosas.scsse.s-2e ose 416 | Tayrs, Winslow P ....--.-.--------- "he ea 81 Coues, Dr. Elliott.....---.-.+------..----- zuno24l Mdwands Captede is.) ae. eee ee 45, 53, 272 Crandell, Capt. Jared S......- 43, 75, 85, 179, 272, 427 | awards, Vinal N..--....-----.------ 4, 45, 289, 290 RIUM MEN CAE aA aa Acre hoes share es senGes Q17 MewAGWE ete e eee ae ee 15 CriGheinG Gore eeanasa-otaansssces= nae ee MAB S2T BM Mal ewitoies rent eee ee ee ee ee 15 OGLE (C0). cee moceosobons ccossueeis ROD AOU CMirior ton tt cee ee ee 4 Crowell, Alexander ssbEnpccaoapesochsicnbs 83 | Tnemies cf the menhaden..----.-- aes 104 Crowell, Elisha. .-..----+.-++-00+++ +--+-- 201 | "Wngland, Thomas :...2...222<2-2.---002. 144, 278 Crowell, A. B.........2-2+-2--+---- --- 72, 488, 493 English Government, claims of.--....---.. 157 Crustacean, parasitic-.-..-..........-..-. W015) Miymolocies | ofen c.f ee 10 Cumberland Bone Company .........---.- 227,491 | Wucinostomus gula........--202-2--s0--+- 14 Cybium ..-..- 2.2.2. 20-0. see eee eee eee 69 | Bucinostomus OG Ci Ieee esas eecone oséc 14 Cyclopterus lumpus...-...-.--- settee sees 69 | Jurope, success of fish guano asa fertil- A pragustator --.--++--+--++----+ CONT) Ea oS ee a 218 Cynoscion carolinensis Ca aie mata da eee ote 70, 106 Hiccelsion Works’... 0ee eee 169, 477, 478 Cynoscion regalis -.........+.-----+ +--+ 70,106 | %xhaustion cf soil by various crops ..---. Q31 EXPOLUS OL Oly soe ceve ose wieleceste] ssimoce esate 503 D. Extracts from writings of ichthyologists Dana, Richard H., jr ...-...-.0000%<00-s 145,161,279 | Telating to the menhaden.......-....... 279 PETS VIPER) 55 oa sinc 5 Gsm 259 Dankersiand Slnyter........00<scces, <a: 11, 12, 78 5 War wi Chanlese 2 <2 2 sas see odaeeeecuet 18,37 | Factories, advantages claimed for floating. 176 WaT WIN PERN GIN oc oan oe ac os <asc a2 saencie 3 264 | Factories in Connecticut ..-....--.....--- 166 Darwin’smenliaden,..-.........sssscc-ec. 18) | Hactoriesiin Maine: 2a. 9-5 o4eeeeaeneeene 165 Dates of appearance and disappearance of Factories in Maine, erection of ........--. 164

BGHUOMS\ se cawaseemeiascesice + os2- 55 an edneac 53,506 | Factories in Massachusetts....-..-----..- 165 Davis, Marahall esas oscs sso. osc sa nteaoane 114, 271 | Factories in New Jersey.----..-----.---. : 168 SVS) AG ee eee 40, 91, 131, 183, 184, 273, 475 | Factories in New York.........-.....---- 167 DAWIS: Haul osc eon nee teenie eat alte 78 | Factories in Rhode Island.-.-.......-.-.--. 166 WerBloig, WH. Te- os. oc cene 81, 120, 272, 297, 360, 425 | Factories on Chesapeake Bay ..-..--.---- 168 Decrease, the probability of future. ...... 93 | Factories, description of ..--.-...-...-..- 171-173 einen iD. C': Wha cicoccsccs seen eee 272 | Factories on the southern coast .---..---. 169 De kay; Dr... .scs2--.-2..8, 36,719,199, 274, 275, 286 | Factory model in the National Museum.. 174 De la Blanchere, M. H........... 2 ym elaine bids Wireman a. «oc as0ch erase aa 358

Delaware, abundance ..................- 4 90 | Fanshawe, Vice-Admiral .-..........---- : 147

522

Page. Farrington, Professor, experiments of, on fish-scrap vs. corn-meal as food for sheep.260, 261

262, 267

Fatalities of menhaden........-----.----- 270

Ta DA OK oss aia w wnie mine (ale alninl olay lee ote 7,14

Feeding, what is essential to economy in . 255

Fermentation of fish scrap....--.--------- 247 Fertilizer, success of fish guano in Europe

DS Maser morecoooneoet 255207555 54 554ongoo 218

Fertilizers made from fish refuse-..--..-.- 219 Fertilizers, manufacture of fish, in the

Wmnited States neceseise-me-feae- a9) secte st07- 218 Fertilizers, menhaden and other fish ina fresh state used as...-... eee os eS eet en 195, 483 Fertilizers, valuations of commercial..... 235 Heuds of Ashermen-se-.-- 2. =~ nena ene 155 Rela avaGUD pert recs a+ oe sen cee tea 199, 276 Film over the eyes of fishes .-.---..------ 60 MIPGT- PLES er oa cnc on oo cna oncn nnn epmmia= 178 Hin-baGka whales <<.25<<-s-<<=+,- swammcent 105 nso PMenvaAdeN .c% ce ase ok sleooe sees =F 20, 26 OHV NEGEEVOL \) & tes tiara heitee see eee ieee == 126 BUSH PUANO-- Je aol = qeeinn ce eee a= =ie ease 236 ashton: Mami tOM cen en 2 = esata ee ee 51, 62 USN -OUSC eeneien = epee Ra eeen eerie seemeece 102 sh-meall pescwesereeccerc oho -e ee eee 2 Fish refuse, fertilizers made from ......-. 219 Fisheries, alleged destruction of.....-.-.. 110 Fisheries, destructive influence of ......-- 110 Fisheries, menhaden ..........--....-..-- 113, 508 Fisheries of great lakes, statistics..-..--.. 2 Fishermen, estimates of number....-----. 114 Fishes, coast or ranging ..---.------------ 69 Fishes, local or bottom ......------------- 69 Fishes, wandering or surface .......------ 69 Fishing gangs, organization of........-.-- 176,508 Fishing grounds, location of ....-..------- 113 SHIN OAV CSSOIS soe cieatee sarelaleim ie = 114, 185, 297, 298 Fishing with shore seines .-...----------- 134 Fithian, William Y., & Co...-. 87, 120, 167, 175, 183, 189, 296, 298, 448 Fitzgerald, Mr ....... ee eaeisieiai= = /enisio cole 169 Flanders, Richard, & Co........-.-+----.- 416 MIAtSNGS eases eet et eeme ee eeereeac cess 69 Florida, abundance of menhaden ......--- 92 Florida, movements of schools on coast of 39 MIOUNUCLSS: bene eesee scesasce sec eaee 2, 51, 69, 151 i y-tarl seme pe oa.r esa sense eaten see e 131 Foes, predaceous ..-.. 2.006 ssscneence=ans = 104 Food of the menhaden.........---.------- 93 Food materials, composition and valua- tions OL VanlOUS cesses cess = esos ase ecien> 256 Food for animals, menhaden as.-.----..--- 140 Food, preparations derived from menhaden 137 Mord vAvery & CO. -ne-ee sae ses ee steae 169, 296, 460 HO“LINEIOLLO Ls jcaceneacesacee=asiaseee eet 64 SHOSbOE VS 2.2 soak saeaee seme eatea cee 42, 90, 273, 453 Foster, Lon. Dwight Go... 22 oe. 146, 158 "Mowlouee Colburn. ...:-csesceeee se 167, 175, 183, 189

Fowler, Foote & Co ..164, 165, 175, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 296, 297, 370, 371, 372 Fowler, B. L -.208, 210, 439, 358, 360, 361, 363, 364, 365

Foyn, Capt. Svend .........-.....--.------ 216 Fresh fish, analysis of the.....---.. pawen ae 228 riend) HoaWise cette sateen een = -lo=en ls 277

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

Friend, George, & Co.-....--..--. eee Friend, Robert A....49, 79, 80, 165, 175, 180, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 271, 274, 296, 369, 377, 378

Frye, Jedi, & Covescitiraree cee actos ode cte 365 Future increase or decrease .............. 110 G.

Gadus!morrhua) osacccsa2s ess ess eee eee eee 69 Gage; Georgete-nasces d= ecto seek ee eee 273, 479 Galeocerdo tigrinus .......-.--.... ieee ais 69 Gallup} B. MW) 2252 22 ss-sescecsescee 360, 361, 364, 365

Gallup & Holmes. ..80, 81, 120, 164, 165, 175, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 296, 297, 368, 369,

370, 371, 372, 379, 382, 384, 403

Gallup & Manchester ......-.--.... 80, 297, 379, 383 Gallup, Morgan & Co....- 164, 165, 175, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 272, 296, 297, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 403, 417

GardinerOil Works... <<. = $h-<cee-ce See eee 167, 428 Gardiner’s Bay, eleven factories in ....--.- 189 Gar-fish 2f22-8.<2 asst ess saecees saben eens 106 Generic relations of menhaden ....-...-.- is Geographical range of menhaden..--..-.-. 35 George’s Banks fleet, consumption by .--. 150 George W. Miles Company, factory of.... 171 Georgia, movements of schools on coast of 39 Georgiamen =2-- oe sess eo eres ae 150 Gorring) Hrederick.-22- sees ee eeepc 278 Gifford, Miris.3 22.2 toss tensetcen apes 121 Gifford, Capt. John W.--..---.----------- 83 Gifford) WiarrensAl: 2222222225 2-s03=a- cites 83 Gul) Capt. Bldad --: 2. --.<2-0.5- 5 seeereee 83 GillelerbertcAt 22- seen es sees 4, 490 Gill, Professor Theodore .....-...--..--- 18, 20, 185 Gill-sprainers - sence cece mesa se eeiee emer 34 Gilles si. (P 5-2 tpcs- ene aa eee eee 78 Gilpin; Dr: Bernard 35. 2..----- ssi 58, 59, 61 Gizzard-shad 252.0222<<.--< 2+ oveeeieceee 14 Glover, Joseph).2so.-cseceter- se eaeee ees 197 Glover! WetH Es2 Sec Scaee - ee sce 168, 296 Goessman, Prof. GC. A 222s ceeese 4, 220, 237, 272, 485

Goodale, Hon. S. L .2, 4, 37, 96, 129, 139, 140, 177, 210, 213, 218, 220, 224, 25%, 262, 271, 289, 361, 362, 364, 367

Goodale’s “Extract of fish” .....-........ 139 Goodale’s press process. ..---..----.------ 177, 224 Goode; Francis ©"... 2. <= -eeeee-eene nee 103, 273 Goodkind Brothers: -<=---------ebse=: 414 Goosetishie2 s-eneere se ecisce sseeee eee ee 69 Gorman; John) ..-2sesee- scan seeeeeeaae 278 Grady. _Dhomas! saan Semester eere see 78 Graham, Capt. Hanson ----'-..--------... 82 Grand Banks fleet, consumption of bait by 150 Grant Ohi teste eee 49, 80, 104, 271, 378 SIG TAD DUN Cece eee aeons 104

Gray, Albert, & Co...164, 165, 175, 183, 185, 186, 187 188, 296, 368, 369, 370, 371, 37%

Gray, benjamin Hes esce sc. ae. e eee 423 Gray, Uhomas Hs. ses ccs ss 22 een eee 166, 296 Green Brownersic ccs. ase sso = <(alaeeleel 167, 296, 298 Green pov meee css se eecls case see eters 448 Greennnneo CO ana cee senior rica 428, 444, 446 Greentallceeccs ccc csc cetosesee rere mec. 7,14 (Gittings WaMlbesaaseoseocsssce 168, 175, 183, 189, 296 Gronow,Cheodore ..---4-ese-eeeenens 276, 287, 289 Ground-sharks = 2.005 cose eee ee enee 69 Grouvers DL occ coe ne sem atee ae er nieelateate 5 345

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

j Page. Growth) Tate Of <.- 02. cesgecccensmncn-ses 31 Gnanrecensesceee een ve cena Seccbonocence 191, 244 Guano, statistics .of..........s.snescscces 187 Guano, Norwegian fish........----------- 214 Guano, table amount produced by manu-

factures of Maine Association ..-..-.-. 185 Guano, statistics of manufacture ..-....-. 190 Gulf menhaden.........-.sccce scenes. 17, 26, 36 Giinther, Dr.C. A.G@..---.. Ganeeeesmed 17, 274, 276 Gurnards ........-... Ssoceececcscas wudsde 69

H.

Habit, alleged changes of, in menhaden .. 74 (abits\Of NEVA sececeaaele <0 ----mnm = 63 Haddock. «=< noc cnanccnncnnceccnncnncenne 69 Bakess.-.5..- =a OSOOCODOS ASHODESROHOBAS s 69 PIMIDWU) tc cee ccie «maine cricias= Seema -5 sen elh yaDl oo Halibut fishery statistics....-......------ Q Hall, James A............--22--0--------55 Q71 TL a ee eee 273, 481 Hall, William D. ..163, 164, 168, 169, 203, 218, 296, 492 ETRE yes else terse ete oteete anime mime 276 IPE Wit enn cneln cree see oan \e stun =la<=ne 273 emi Ons ete btc.onmnineinn= soe eeee= =m = 199 Hannan, Richard. .....2...- 0. .s.0------+-- 143, 278 TEE EMO S oS epcoeeceoneeSsauSSonenac 215 imide Tel eee see caso ooe scene naeaine 7,12 Paro nGg SHA Cee see ctcseieie kanes == 7, 135 Hardy, Henry - ..........--.------------- 278 Hardy, Joseph ..-...--.--=--------------- 107 Hardy, 2d, Capt. Josiah ..... 46, 82, 115, 272, 273, 410 Lledeae., 1d | Seb psee cee See OCneUe DES he eOce 169, 296 lifininy, Waa caseeseeasscsensosooocosasocd 478 Harriman Point Company...--..--------- 377, 378 Floshinew POW: 624- oon -<-ce=2-cas 185, 186, 187, 370 Hatch, Capt. Henry H..-.......---....... 82 TT Pb 1 (OE ee a aS 169 Tie Ever Ze Als sasac sae sosocoeseos essere 83 TERMI Wu et ae 183, 272, 477 Hatteras TOCION ... 66 ooo. cee eee n ec en=no= 113 TST ntdp Wibe oe apes oceecesoSensenee 42, 75, 93, 116 Havens, J.S-.-............ Seer SOSSHS See Toe 168, 296 TEE) \WVoecenoseecssoebeeEs 179, 182, 272, 273, 441 Hawkins Brothers ..-.-... 42, 76, 87, 116, 120, 167, 168,

182, 273, 274, 296, 297, 298, 443, 444, 446, 448 IBA UH MAE PIRO Ms dele ecre wie oi aisicicicionslels/slefera'e 96 Henneberg, Professor ....- ud eenioataent sis 254, 255 TETHER ee eee ee ee aoe, Bones aes. 102 HGTTICKie BSVAlGs >. oo sc yes <eceean ass anis 80 Herring. .....- .2, 7, 11, 14, 16, 70, 92, 138, 142, 157, 506 Herring family, conflict of names in...... 14 Herring, movements of,as influenced by

WOdN OMe arte nie sae aciaiaic wala canes 72 PICK OFY-SHAQ occ. cco rao -ancane celeee etal 14 FHCKSOM: oO G@INOB eae a se)s ce x cms nin nm teemon ale 278 AOS) Or CON e re nmin maa oe pin 5, 120, 122 Hinckley, jr., Capt. Thomas .........--..- 45, 272 Hind, Prof. H. Y....... 36, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 97,

100, 112, 147, 275 unkley, Hons ds, T <<scs0-ccee Ee Sseaee. s 205 Hippoglossoides dentatus ............... 2 51 Hippoglossus vulgaris..............-...-- 69 Hogle drying machine.............-..---. 502 PIGHTIGA VW TLIO Jon ssaiseenjpeemmel emai 361

Page. Homans, F. W....- 2 8a0000 TOrCR SOD SpOEGoe 5 136 Hoope & Coit ......... jdodoconbesetneeben 138 Horse-mackerel .......-.--+ Seeeeneeeinnisisie 13, 84 Horton & Co........... Ripe rianetee sees 444, 446 Morton; B.A. ...<.2anjenne te eoeeeeneeren eee. 278 Howland) W..H..Hi ances eeeeee 166, 175, 182, 188, 296 Humprey; Mrs. Bi J.. Set see ee ee eee 80,271, 387 Hurlbert, Capt. Robert H...... 103, 152, 271, 277, 507 Eyrtlvbrot dioseph\.....s-c-eeeeeeeeeeeens 34, 35 I. Icing fish, methods of .................-.. 152 Inaccuracies of observation and state- IDOL ese sete erates ecieialoicie,<)>,u S/S oleae aera 6 Indians and early colonists, the use of fer- RUIZOXSTAM OR Comme semesisielataisia.s -\c lm sale se 195 Information; SOULCES Ol secece cecaces cancun 3 INP SrSoO]L WH TNES bens nateasetceris= so - 515 508

Ingham, R. E ....43, 76, 85, 116, 179, 182, 210, 272, 433

DN SPEOMOM POCALNS cas) -mieeenieleeasiaa =e 136 AMPErNsl OL Gans) sac sels saleae ccs ouaetiels ese 34 IMGestinagwOLrmiss,coacices=<cles a sacencse= 104 Introduction of the use of menhaden bait. 142 Tren@usy Patterson: sonoma mam siae esi 94 Irregularities of movements of menhaden. 46 Usothermaliinessenacescee sees sae eae dese 64 J.

PaACkKSOn;ELOls Co Laces aasiaelcie aoee aa hecetate 209 Jameson, Willianasaeaesecee seuss eeeeced 4 OMY AIShOS 5 \ccracttate Ghewse cells sactoeiste ciate 95 JenkinsDrabeHi-teskesecsseeacd acters 4,272 Jennett, Wallace R ..........-.---- 91, 107, 273, 474 Jenyns, Rev. Leonard. ...2...0.02020000056 18, 30 Johnsonvhdiward-2. sset .geianeseusoeee ase 196 SOBNSONREGDWisassarccasaonscssasoecocse 64, 146, 279 Johnson, Prof. S. W .. 140, 155, 177, 212, 225, 229, 237, 256, 276, 362

Jones; JeMatthew--.- foes 5-322 ek eee 36, 271 Jones, Seaman & Co. .168, 175, 183, 189, 273, 296, 298, 360, 444

Jordan, Alden H ..... bs Sodas saleeadawsene 271, 391 JOSsely nN; JOHNS. .c.ccscteese nace des aiceee 15

K.

Ran en Capt. Ie Bec cacis sists «nisin somone cietets 37, 273, 482 Bea as eit as nl ke 377, 378 Usa iser: Goi Miartiny te cies (sie <isis's.aicisieisiniseitoe 289 Tees Wie oo eecemecpecmosaeesssoe st 249, 263, 264 Kelsey Ree bese cccucs opus asenan 167, 175, 189, 296 Kemps, Capt. David .... -...-.. 39, 100, 108, 273, 481 KennedywAn dre wie. 4 = sein ste ae tae ee 5

Kenniston, Cobb & Co....80, 164, 165, 172, 175, 185, 186, 187, 296, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 379, 382, 384 Kenniston, G. B - -48, 75, 80, 97, 114, 179, 180, 183, 271,

274, 382, 384 Kenniston) William). .onteeasemepisccdcso-< 206 Kenny, Capt. Reuben C...... 46, 82, 115, 179, 272, 414 Key West, no menhaden at.......-..----- 36 Knowles, Capt. Charles G. F .....--..----+ 147, 278 now tOn ese teats cals snc oni cancels 278 Koch wDraChavleseecses. oma<.0ssccu re tae © 273, 482

Koon, V., & Son...... peed waited weber 360, 361, 444

524

Page. L. Wadyalisheeescc-enesceee apaasaaandansos 69 TeaidlawyGeOrcen ccc nsemcamesreee ome eene 144, 278 Tanman, Capt. Zephaniah P......---.--<. 82 athrop; PACh ee oe ekiseeckes =p e-aee ee eee 46, 83, 115 Latrobe, Benjamin H. ..15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 102, 274, 281 JEG) 25 55 SseSeeiog sae so soso oSooTeasdenS 70 ANGeS!ddB. a 2s aenecscecceeceesemeemscrinKc 258 Wawler SOSep Wee. cee eens. =< <= 5 Lawson, Hance...-.---. 41, 90, 93, 104, 117, 180, 273, 458 I ANTIG SAM OLE Wier seeetniieiam sss = einys'a cre 144, 278 MGCCHES PATASItlO mesese sees ene ccseccc cca 104 Legislation, protective .-------.---.+-.--- 132 Legislative interference...........--.---- 112 TIC yepOrOt OSSD Meee iis sto o.- x a\sicinieinlele/sinie 102 Mel eh ton yAMGALGW eee nein seco scinelenen ce 278 Length of menhaden .............---.--=. 31 MerPeleyaMayelevalle o..- en inislap ee einen 57 Lepidosteus osseus.....---.-seeeseeee--ae 106 bE hS, (Ching Ek Rese aeencoonerocamcassacc 40, 169 WGesnenryNh 7. .)- <i See ee ee neace ee eeeee 286 SONA ONE eietnix re s'e:c ope lcie cia sieinloiswinictalsin we mieiale toto 217 MO WAS IMT = a sjaje saat eis see sicieenaieise wean 208, 218 L’Hommedieu, Hon. Ezra ..-.... 12, 78, 196, 197, 483 MAO RCELIDOAUS mecca secee cee menscrceeissrcee 125 PAINE SON; TS eisiece<smeeiele re = 42, 75, 76, 107, 272, 437 Talline ston yheeeee eee 7, 107, 116, 179, 272, 435 Limits of geographical range of menhaden UNL Bil eearetelnserepainyata minim fisleleieiesicl= ee ote -ctelaete 35 Limits, maximum of temperature .....--. 55 Limits, minimum of temperature.-...---. 53 Line-fisherman, consumption of bait by MACKETOL Jet cele acca tcccan osteo eeee ee 150 IOi IW eo aso Ade aa ooSbOR Gaeo Oo er one qua IOS 69 Literature, bibliography of, relating to mon Waden pees maceHcieecasicnere ccc sess A 74 Local names and usages.---...----------< 6 ThocaliorsOLtom fishestnccc ce. ----<c~c--6 69 Locomotive powers of the young men- Ihadeny 22s oa. Jo 8) p Sate cles ale aocitee 98 Long Island, movement of schools on east- ermien dole to. a. -a<tim=necimadsscs weeots 42, 507 Long Island Sound region .........--.---. 42, 113 Look tJOhnGscctoccocecacteewecmeeteeceeane 416 Mophiusipiscatorius <=. ee acess ae 69 ord AMES! mac seewicae crise sesscee Stsfepeisicie 36, 278 Loring, David F........ a cnesses 47, 82, 93, 107, 115, 148, 272, 407, 409 Morin cw Bhontassaesee seers teeeaeee 82, 115, 272, 403 MothropyAlonzo sce sas sseenepeccesseeeee 272, 412 Loud’s Island Oil Works ......--: 164, 165, 175, 183, 185, 186, 187, 296, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 379 Mmoveland, Mir: 2 sisesssssssesescoceeseceee 204 Mow, Mia}. David Wee ceteetcencs—cee es 150, 151, 277 owe Charles 2 2uee oes eect eine 144, 278 Lubricating, menhaden oil for.........--- 191 TMCowBrowhers: .. 1.0 ose cee =. 43, 85, 86, 120, 167, 175, 183, 188, 272, 296, 297, 298, 418, 432, 433 TUCO SHO WAN PA Nes ac. 15528. Yano eee 416 Luce, Jason &Co.-....... 45, 83, 148, 179, 272, 416, 417 Li over-Doats teneeectn~ cc ccoesscepeeeeee Q75 Mp =f Sh eeeerestreee ee sae cele ee eee 69 Lyman, Col.Uheodoreses-a-+=-+-=-s2see 68, 129, 276 Lyon, Governor Caleb ..........-..- cascec 200

ALPHABETICAL INDEX,

Page. M.

Mackenzie, George.......-c-..-s---- Seeks 145, 278 Mackere ere ee ccennn= phate eR ereener = 70, 65, 64, 92 Mackerel. bait, preparation of..........-.. 147 Mackerel fishery |. sss eons See ee eee isin 2 Mackerel, growth of¢csn-s---e ear eeeeeee 32 Mackerel, swimming habits of........... . 71 Mackerel, winter sojourn of............--. 56 Maclean, James JR). ie<ime.cie= mice meinerseereee 144 Maddocks, Luther........ 5, 50, 77, 112, 131, 132, 141,

156, 164, 165, 177, 178, 181, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 223, 227, 271, 277, 296, 297, 358, 360, 361, 362, 365, 372, 379, 382, 384, 386, 396, 403

WiEystniyet ICM Koboscoqooog senso sosonood 278 Maine, abundance of menhaden on the

(AY) OibScemebosanobboonD weobobapeeagse> 79 Maine Oil and Guano Association ........ 165, 178 Maine Association, men employed in fac-

TOMBS) Ol Gomsocoasutaoy Sadie stools 187 Maine Association, men employed in fish-

GOIN tars Sate omgdonn toocadaoessa62aoc6 187 Maine Association, capital employed by

Manufacturers wN ss Jase 185 Maine Association, average number of

barrels of fish taken by fleet belonging

WD) o6 coaouocoaduo nasoeboobobsosEobooadasS 186 Maine Association, average number of

gallons of oil produced by manufacturers

Oh cases ResHEm SedekoepEncbobbe see soce, 186 Maine Association, average number of |

steamers employed in fisheries of....-.. 186 Maine Association, average number of tons

of crude guano produced by manufact-

ROR pssapeeseeodanEobocktdoseoootos 185 Maine Association, average pumber of :

vessels employed in fisheries of..-...-. ° 185 Maine, erection of factories in ..-..--..--. 164 Maine, experience in use of fertilizers . --. 200 Maine farmers, success of, in feeding fish

ORNS) NA SSS se SSS scosbodSsdncododssoosL 259 Maine: fisheries Obs: osf2-ssceecs meee 4 114 Maine, Gulf of, menhaden .......-......-. 48, 50 Maine Naws OL. J2csecemc ecoecces sneer ees 112, 132 Maine, manufacture of guano in..-.......- 210, 223 Maine manufacturers, annual sale of bait

DY ee cec eee ene cars Seatac ean cet stem an 151 Maine, menhaden fishing in -............. 126, 507 Maine, conflict of fishermen in...-..--.--- 156 Maine, the claims of, to the discovery of

monhaden'oil. =e. pees ean seeeee 161 - Mallotusvillosus:-caseeceseesee eres sees 70, 142 WNW NAO Be ohecceaquansooudadanasdoe 45 168 iManiand fisheries -cscsesee > scececen sem 110 Manchester, Antony ..........-..-..--.-- 166, 296 Manchester; Benjamin: == .:5s...ce.c-ee sem 166 ManchesterBihies test occccctessceeecces 296 Manchester isaac) = os. ..2s5ceeeee eee 297 Manchester, James........---- 166, 175, 182, 188, 296 Manning (Charles: G =..\</<0vjexuieeeere =e 90, 273, 465 ManokimiOil Works =-226Shees se cte eee 169, 296 Manufacture of fertilizers, early attempt

Gh soddag osonagasnoacosoote dsdDeDASsanoet 208 Mannfacture of fish manure ....-....-... 208 Manufacture, processes employed in...... 170

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

Page Manufacture, statistics of ................ 190 Manufacturers, menhaden oil and gaano.. 296, 297 IMIR TITGR SHAS mn coe ce cece coe 200, 248, 265, 514 Manure, manufacture of fish ............. 208 Marchant; Captain: .........00cecssus 45, 83, 105, 118 MBTOHAN TO Ds: ~ sa oSacasasdeeemsanaccoa 272, 416 Markets, reviews of the oil............--. 193 MATEDANGKOLS: <<< << cccncanscesaasayse 11, 12, 13, 78 Marsa Danker =. . so.aceee een ates <= era ceres 13 INET an DUN KO: vacestaacdamaseaescaicescoe 13 MALS all Wi WV saenasciesaaciewcisnecaeowct 81 Martha’s Vineyard Sound, menhaden in .. 45 Eh Ohi el Gi ase eee eee ae ema ee 271, 390 Maryland and Virginia, abundance of men- Ad envOniCoash Of 2a. 2a a <5 = neem cmc e 90 Massachusetts, abundance of menhaden on THOGOSS Ole sc ess sce cocw eek esccseasace 81 Massachusetts, factories in--.-....-.-.... 165 Massachusetts fisheries .............----. 115 Massachusetts inspections of pickled fish. 295 Magsacnusetts) laws Of .-2..2.ksssssceceue 133 VISITA ACOA = ora S Sac tap aceias co nemate sada 14, 70 Mavlert DY joc s2nwcvacaasis csaeatscectsa-oc9 367 TNL SG GT LES eee 165, 376 MGHMONANG DANO asa 5ccehacc cacaann csi 144, 278 Mag Mouald sin Wola, -c.o<ces<ne5<oaec<an<4 158 Me Dona OMA WIS se = ana ek nan eeedcanacaas 80 McDonald) Roderick «5.2 sas 00.6 sess -an020 144, 278 MeDonald, Samuel, esq .--..--....-s00-00: 723 Moka PAMNOS, -s-s2cc nese scnaaneeaes ae 4G 278 MGINcenv RIMES) Ge ccs cesens clenccmmacncd 143, 278 Mekannon; Dourald)<.--sssssceecsasca-- 278 1s Pal DOTY, 3 ip nec Cie ee eee 78 Mehelan Onn sso ccc cas aaadcecnecacms 278 MG NIGAM Sis 25 cdc ccneccencsecece 278 Measurements, table of. ...22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31 Mechanical methods of oil-extraction .... 178 Moegalops thrissoides.......-..---.-+-..- 69, 106 Moment, Drs Ax 2. . -fse< adencseseeceas 215, 216, 217 Melanogrammus eglefinus ............--- 69 Men employed in fisheries........-...--.. 187 Menhaden, origin of name ..-...-.--.---. fat Morehant, Horace IM -. 2: s\ss=se55, 05 nee oe 82 Merlucius bilinearis.....:02.....-2000.-0006 106 Merrimac River, laws for. .......---..---+ 133 Merrimac River and Salem Harbor, bait ANONYM c oocetn sacs hate oss an ewes oem 148 Merrimac River, mortality in. ............ 101 Methods of capture of menhaden ........ 113 Methods of handling the net ...........-- 123 Methods of oil and guano manufacture. .. 220 Micropterus nigricans. .......- 2-42 scec=- 106 MN EAAOMS a — AS an be nbn mm nn eme sneer 50, 62, 268 Migrations of menhaden, arguments against, extended.........-.-2-scesseccense 65 Wa Perinn Mey Mewes. sa ostadsaascesesa 286 Miles Brothers..... SSRI. Cine cee ae 86 Miles, George W .......... 32, 33, 43, 65, 86, 116, 168, 174, 179, 182, 272, 274, 437 Miles, George W., Company ...... 4, 87, 88, 165, 167, 171, 175, 181, 182, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 296, 297, 370, 371, 372, 436, 439 Milner, Mr. James W .......0ccccas sens 97, 167, 290 Pint Tend Company ts. s5cilseseeese. sous 431, 432 Mississippi Sound..... silat oo a im dada ia's ¢ 36

525

Page, Mitchill) Profe Sila eseneecer 3, 16, 17, 18, 63, 78, 101, 105, 274, 275, 286 Wieder ha PME Se oceans acceocneaoenGsenae 162 Morris, Albert ...--. 42,90, 107, 116, 180, 182, 273, 451 Morris: dined <2. .csece ee 168, 175, 183, 189, 296 Morse-bonker -. <2 ss205 sesaeaeeesiecnses 13 Morton, Thomas)... s.s2--sseeseeneneeiae 15, 195 MOSS=baNKel =. 2 cesce os aaccns comets 288 MIGSHSVOMKOP: the... scoa0 csc. aeedeseeae 13, 284, 287 Moss-bunker ......-.----- 7, 9, 11, 12, 90, 111, 138, 163 MO nny G COI EO nm an 2 </<aas inde damn oes eens 196 MOUSE DWRKON Se ~ o- a5 nnd siamese ssaes 13 Movements of menhaden..............--- 268 Movements of herring as influenced by APRS EMS ecloe COCCL OC EE REC E EEOAE BER BE EE ES 72 Mud, bottom, Professor Verrill on.....--. 94 Mud-minnow ....-.-------. OCOD ARETE oe ee 67 Miu d-shad) fee eon cesameiicies sae ae aise s clasts 14 Mia eth. <5 sic sjere's asset ae tele tam wien cleie, 3 a) ate 60, 70 Munnawhatteatg - <2 aaes2 -eramitnis- <3 - 11 MVinscone ns: Onli WiOrks. sae sees ate = 172, 402 Miustel ass] cevis.s sx .\-\=0. cate -(seaeeaaetee tate 41 Ni WAotel iy CUbhle)t) 8 lpescosoce ocececc “ore ne 277 N. Name preterable for adoption ..-..-...... 10 Napeague; N. ¥., factory at). <2--7. 22-222. 173 Waphtharprocess! sss-ses25=a2seense se seeee 178 Narragansett Bay region :.--..--...-..-.- 44,113 Narragansett Oil and Guano Company..-.. 166, 423 Nature, place of menbaden in............ 109 WNelson>; Walliamelssss-accassee Sadcio sot 277 New England menhaden fishing. .--....-. 124 New Hampshire, abundance. .-.-.......--. 81 New Jersey, abundance ---.-:..:..:-.---- 90 New Jersey, abundance..-..:..-.....-.-- 90 New Jersey, factories: .::222:2s/.5-..--c- 168 New Jersey, movi ments of schools ......-. 42 New York, abundance: ---..-...-:.--.---- 87 New York, early oil works in..........--. 162 ING we VOLK TACTORICS IN =< esses sana een nt 167 News Wonks fi SHeriesiOf ~=- =. s=-5-sesce ae 116 New York, helibut-fleet ...............--- 151 NGe@KOLS. '6c/CO- a5 o7a5a2 4s bas eeas econ 391 INiChols; RHOMasS! s. 40025542005 4aececacteas 297 Nichols; Capt. William: <2 .35.s2:2-:sssses5 37 Nicholson, John, + 222-s5acsece esa cecle reece 278 Nicxerson; ;Calebis2545490 s544e00 sa eee ene Q77 Nickerson sis Gases ote teed 185, 186, 187, 358, 402 Nickerson, J. G., & Co...-.-- BER CECE 370, 379, 384, 386 Nickerson, JoSicoseasdssaaceseeh esate eee 297 Nitrogen from Guano, comparison of yield OfMish Scrap. sasc~ sevse5aesssfaaceee eee 191 North American Oil Works........... -.. 165, 296 North Carolina, abundance on the coast of 91 North Carolina, fat-back fishing in ....... 131 North Carolina, movements of schools on Coast Off 2. s.asscotoseswaeteeeeeine ~ ke oe 40 Northern waters, a claim that menhaden may be acclimated ima. geass o-c. 2s. < 5 100 INOLEOM Cen seer iaeatectsete cae cecaias 178 INGILON WE rolessOiecessasee seco sds decete 208 INOrtan AED OM as aeseeeice taverns ccs dutiedeeee 416 INGrton), Fa Dee osteo sceeds ewes 49 Norwegian fish guano ..........ceseces-e0 214

526 ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

Page. Norwood, George........---- sasebehnone -» 82,278 Number of eggs in immature ovaries .... 96 O. Object of the memoir ..........------..--- 1 Ocean temperatures ...-...--.------------ 52 (OfaSthay UU poem fombopaanod ocotbadanceaos 10, 138 Oceanic sharks smear sess ae al elae se seine 69 OceanicisojOURM teases seer eee aeeee a= === 66 Oil,a comparison of the yield of, of the whale and other fisheries..........-.--. 190 Oil business in Maine, inception of. -..---- 164 ONMexporisloteseeaseeeeeeme sees =.= =e 503 Oil factories, locations of the ......---.--- 165 Oil factory, cost of an ........-.-.---..--. 174 Oilvorpdestof saspeee sees as eee aac li== 192 Oil, the claims of Maine to discovery of Tesebeeyieiel 555 555559 seSsouS ESE a Sous se5Se 161 Oilmenhadensuseltof: <2 22-52... see c nnn 191 Oil yield in different localities........-.- : 183 Oil yield of northern fish...-...------.--- 180 Oil yield of southern fish ......---.-----.- 183 Oil manufacture, history of ..--....--..--.- 161, 513 Oil manufacture;methods of ...--..-.----- 169 Oil manufacture, principles involved in. -. 169 Oil manufacture, statistics of...--..------ 190 Oil, number of gallons produced in Maine 186 Qe abt san cempcsenoseanoodcocac son cases 15 Olin; Washington <5. .< once. ceccee con == 393 Oliver, Washington .........---.------..- 80, 271 Olmstead, Frederick Law......--..--.---.- 140 Oniscus pregustator ............-..-..--- 17, 102 Orcynus alliteratus......-..-------------- 69 OxrcyMus thy NUS. = sere cceeewic ae el =a 69 Oslemisamucl eens eeesee elec eceee eateries 213 OSMOLUS MOLdaK aaa esse eee eee ae 70 OPis Psa OS BE on = mieten aril i= 168, 175, 183, 189, 296 Ovarotimenhaden cs. -6-assseere ace nee 97 OIWGHSIPAL PAGea arc ctloaremeteic semicesisisins Seaee 273, 453 (On SEH) CoHecoeeeoaee Gaonenedgou soup=Cooa 2,95 186 Pacific coast, menhaden on ....-.......--. 37 Pacific Guano Company ......--.-- 166, 169, 227, 487 lenveG)( Ohhh tle sosmoopoccode cencg- Se chesoe 18 JeG¥ers | De Soo anp eee cee eadaconsHconnooope 247 Parasites of the menhaden .............-. 101 ‘Parnell! Mires sj, caem anc acesioaseoeeeeee es 289 Parsons, Joseph D ......---. 87, 97, 116, 272, 296, 442 Panhae ent eee eiqqnecclsnnemcieta sea eiae cee 11 Payne, Benjamin; &) Co... -.-..c--cnes' see 167, 446 Payne, GiB. ts peeteeeeseadceeese sce 167, 296, 448 Pelaniys sarda..-2--cs--)2 Sereddicaronissosos 69, 106 Pemaquid Oil Works..... 164, 165, 185, 186, 187, 188, 296, 297, 371, 372, 402 Perley NLAH \.,. sos eesees cesarean eee cee 64, 274 PerrinvWawin:A:... bosseeemeeeese-sceeees = 84 BeptingelinONC o.oo ls ecmteeseneeieeclenne Q77 Pettingell, Capt. Charles C ...-..---..--.. 82 Pettingell, Capt. Moses....-.-------.-- 101, 136, 149 PSE tit Wie ao iccaicek ceakeeeenen 212, 213, 226 Pew Char] Os pelareericisvemiai=oniciamm cerneisttsele 278 Phillips eBbarMeOheerserice == 2 —~ so 4, 15, 135, 138, 273

Phillips, Eben B . .104, 108, 115, 162, 165, 179, 181, 271, 273, 376, 387, 401

Page. Phosphate:oflimerescseeserecctecc scccence 191 Phy cis|Chussisas-=--eeReeeeeneas eas ce -a'> = 69 Pierce; Albion Ke. :2-.s=seeeeeeeeeeesee ces 278 Pierce, Erskine ......--..-...- 166, 175, 181, 188, 296 Pierce, Hee semeietiatie sale sige ee eeeiinnehemrtere 296, 358 Plant-food, essential ingredients of....... 231 Plant nutrition, chemistry of............. 230 Plumer Georkes Wise. esses =sseeeeeeeee - 82.278 Jefe) Gogasi9 cooSOn He DonaDonN soos 95+ don Wiis LEGA soeccid pogsrinsaooncnssesetanor 7, 10, 37, 49, 159 Poissonblancteeese-eeeeesae = eee eee 68 Polssonydewtond | sos sse see cee caer eee 68 POISSON deyroChO ms neon eiaeioeecawaelaeas 2 68 IPOIssontoOralaee see aea eee nasser ie 68 POISSON) 11 OMIA Cl Ota eerie ae oleae erie etete = 68 Pollachinsicarbonanius} ec. cece s eee eee 69, 106 Pollock he tee ee eos sek ote camera 69, 106 Pomatomus saltatrix’.-...-22 2. .-cce- 1, 41, 70, 106 Pomolobus mediocris.-.....---..-------.- 70 Pomolobus pseudoharengus ..... jasassoo6 13, 14, 70 IW ORV Deco cc eeisaacenCOnOSSooanosanoanhe 70 iehitil dial Crsegacsdescsscgssodonanaed Bee tetetaie 82 LRU CREAN pee pecoeioonn CeOCOdICOOCWOSS IACSoS 11 Popularinamese- ee sscemeseee se ateee tees 16 IRONS yee eee eee neste ee eae eee eee nett 11 Pore yichumber esse oee sees seer eat 141 Possibilities of future oil manufacture. --. 226 Potter, Capt. William Hl -......- 76, 85, 116, 272, 428 Pound-fishermien eer eee eae seesnesr eee eee 110 Practical conclusions. ---. 2. ce oe nen cc ane 249 Prejudices and superstitions .........-.-- 6 Preston, Jonathan, & Co ..........-.----. 444, 448 Price, Capt. F. Frank..... 167, 168, 297, 444, 446, 448 Prices current of menhaden oil ....-..- 193, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303 Prices of menhaden, different seasons .... 178 Prices proportionate to amount of oil con- tained in Sh eeen ence see eo ae eraaeeeta 180 Proctor, Joseph Oe oo os ooo ennincesleen <== == 150 Pryer, Jasper . 165, 167, 168, 175, 187, 273, 296, 364, 503 IPuUrse-DOduieeeeeeee ee nese eae eee eee eeee 126 IPNTSE-BElNO ees eeee cee ee oes enie aera 117, 118, 124 Q.

Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company. . .166, 169, 175, 176, 183, 188, 227, 296, 297, 428, 432, 492

Quiambog Oil Company .....--...----- 167, 428, 432 R. Race) Hdward rece ce -cseecmeeeise nina 81 78 G CEN (ls eeine mp eaaesEdosciaosScenotasnoc 2 217 Rafinesque, C.'S..2 72. - cee eee e ne rene 276 Range of menhaden, oceanic limits of .... 36 Range of allied species.....------..------« 37 Range, preferred, of temperature ..--...-. 55 Range, southern limits of...--.------.---- 36 Raynor, J. Norrison ......-----.0-- 168, 273, 296, 443 Raynor, W.C ....------------eeeeeee eens 168, 296 DR iS) a crsoacn ac Sobu Dea eSeepe eo assocmesc 30° 69 Rease, Captain ......-..2---.-2-00------- c 83 1REEG ISH Wi eaqoecponoooreoacreccomagocenod 273 Refining, processes employed in ...--.---. 170 Relation of the menhaden fishery to the fishermen and maritime villages.-....-- ; 131 Relative values of different fertilizers .... 244

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

Page. Page. enioras .<--.----..- See aie eee eee 69 | Seine-setter ..........- Riese ete eeene : 126 Reports, menhaden oil...........--.----+ Y 304 | Seining, best time for .........-..-------- 194 Reproduction of menhaden.........-..... 269) || Selden; G..,. Henry .cwccus cose soleseneaces ass 273, 461 Revision of the American species ..... ake GS Seriola Zonatak wsceweeseweteeestees ces sss 69 Rhode Island, abundance of menphaden in 4") Setthar-tanks: -2.2. o..cctcenteemesoeccees 170 Rhode Island, early manufacture in ...-.. ROO Seymour, Horatio..ceeec teas -eeseeaees 110 Rhode Island, factories in ..---..........- IGGp SHAS coon csc cece cues wecemereees 2, 14, 15, 16, 32, 69 TSG d CNEL Age eoeer Se aocdeSesosoosee sec GIS PSHAdING soc ewe awevscecceaceseesseeeeeeee 10, 138 PRICHAIWGEIN <> ict >< mca Seeeaee aes see iS | NEI GS See eee eee ee Ce SCE OASoOnSS 84,105 Richardson, Sir JONM.<a--c6cse-nssces056 SAU SHAW OOM s Wats seu awecscacecceseustese 58 Richardson, Henry.-.<....-......... 41.90; 273;4640)| Sheepshead. ..0 3. -6scssss0s seceacmaeseae 70 Rimbaud’s classification criticised........ 68) | Shepard! Josephes2- ; ....2.:ceconsamaee 39, 273, 479 OD PINSAUSRAG ec aen oe awicse cae cme s 107; Sta AGO einen sae csceecoeeae oe ab lasecbes oemeeene q icons Tinestth) po ecrccccccceccconsucs lee MOVMOG WP SHIVORICK PNIM sts cei cos.- ~~ = sascdece saeco 490 BN ALG ei eeomee etnias o<2<'o—alaicweeineael Qin SOM Ps. e~s hoes ea Walciciee'ekw ad eee ee 94 ROME WHE non cccecememmcincaccas SUB lp alan eae ccc eeaeee Wek Soenacec Sere 106 IRDOSOVEli, BODOG Dcncas~codaderackhee as = THOU i rmmonsy Aum assaeenecraseeic ares cose eeues 266, 296 Rose-tishes ......------ aot ep es 69 | Simpson, jr., A. W -.40, 41, 73, 76, 91, 94, 100, 106, 117, ROSE ANTON a2 3-2-5560 cnces Secacasieus 141 131, 273, 465, 470, 471 TOG Ca 22) eee eee ie Pe ee 179) | Sanclair:Peterz.-3-..<stsaceseeseeesees-s @ 62

Round Pond Company. .--.164, 165, 175, 185, 186, 187, 188, 296, 368, 369, 370, 372, 379, 402

UOC ASHES). ceaewcchst cbecesesuae Sadan 69 Tyan S MATIN osama onto ele inioniaae oeiaarare 144, 278 NU MNME HP tese scan chlo ceawecsceeecneeee 144, 278 Ss. BaHIN-VOSSOIS oecce case wee seoeceaescecics 122, 298 Salem Harbor, bait fishery in...........-. 148 PTH Seer acta ce mtalaesici(oyrawaia's aameels 69 Salmon fishery of Columbia River.-...-.-. 2 Salmonid@ .......-.- Reece Pesiscee eee eee 138 PLT SAAT eno 2 ara jasseeienacidatecies ala sle 69 Salt Island Oil Company ........-.-.-.--. 167 Salt’ mackerel replaced by menhaden..... 136 Balt. drawback On). =... -ssceesssscscccene 136 Salta Moimisne 5.) sae anenicdinesse ces sasecm 269 Sanders, Capt. John D...........-....-. 273, 451, 452 Sandy, Hook region. ..- -.---5--i--vs<se0se5- 113 Sardine American) ---2--\-<-..-s<sc0ness 10, 148 Sardines, manufacture of.........-...---- 137 Sardines, qualities of American ..-..-.... 138, 512 Sargent, W. H.50, 75, 79, 80, 114, 128, 179, 180, 271, 373 Sartell Capt. We Suss<c05% 25 a35. 75, 76, 80, 271, 391 HaHMGGrs SONI Hoc nach an elmosaes esses 143, 278 GAG sae Roe once acer aie eee ee coue seu oe 13 DORIeS OL NEN UANDI o- ma sone ta oct coe 20, 34 HOLE) ee 0) cae i eee er See = ee ee 215 HEMMML ETOLOSSOL.poessencaec-aosccees a 214 Schooling menhaden, habits of............ 70 Schools, arrival and departure of ......... 38 Schools, birds attracted by ............-.. 71 Sehools, evolutions of. ......-.-cce.sennenes 95 Schools, movements of the.............-.. 70 Sehweier hy C ee eco ce ecaccs aaa aa 215 SeOmNerACOMDINA: -o2 0555 o.0c-aeaeaeens - 70 Beohion Cap ikea es. = dn ee 147 SOUT ee ie a 51, 69 POUND ec -seepetn + aero eoene - Saat sa sust 1, 2, 57, 70 SORDABS es oon. tac came ete aan oe SE 51, 67, 70 SOA DEMING coo. oc onan Pe ae ue 51 Seal-oil, annual production of............ 4 190 Men-SHad 2 .- 2 sae sone ose Secor or - ee 14 SEC SU REL Se crec Dee BE SOOCBOEr enc mene ae aaaee 106 Secretary of Treasury............. Snoneen 3 Seine-boats...... -ORCCOR ROLE SSqRoCococnE 120

Sisson, Capt. B. H..-..42, 75, 87, 105, 116, 162, 167, 174, 179, 182, 272, 273, 445

SHOKSs 3. 25255.4. 205 scecebe eatewnbeeseene 95 Slivering menhaden...........--v..------ 147 Slivierssceeacee ae oe oat «se acrs 142, 147, 148, 150 Slayter, Dankers and ..-........--.--..<-- 11, 12, 78 Small VAG; 23: <sotsee sete sec sees esscl oss. 277 SCIEN OPI U oe Ae ccacsaeeeecodacsDooaeCe. 217 Smelt sues- as cass coon seca kee see 70 Smith Mrs s2seaceoase Gace ce semee see 205, 207, 275 Shitty Chmints saecceposoconaocoe 168, 176, 183, 189, 296 Smith Wdward Ml s2522. csceeclen aeieeseenes 110 Simi Green & Coz. ee = sae reeeatenceceate 168, 296 Smith Wi VeC. 2 sos we sscnsoe aceraacitae sete il Smith, Capt. Nathanael. __..-.-.---.--s<-.< 79 SmithyvPhilipes s3o-c<sscse.sssicesnces acne 272 SMI VerOl SION ys bos moma acs seeeeee 3, 102, 103 Smith sylvantsee- oo. 4-asa= el eeee 143, 151, 277 Sri ah UNAS Gaaeesebeeccocasortocade 279 Smith & Yarrington.......-... 168, 175, 183, 189, 296 Soil, exhaustion of, by various crops .-.--. 231 Soil, materials removed from, by various CNODS ese sae ees sas oats an noeleneee eee 232 Sth in) OY) Cle =o emo CBee cle CAREC ON EEESOr Oso. 111 Somers Point Oil Works..............--.. 452 Sources of error in investigation ......... 5 South Bay Oil Company .-.---....-.-..--.- 168, 296 South, menhaden fisheries in .........---. 117 South Saint George Oil Works. ..164, 165, 175, 185, 186, 187, 296, 372 Southern coast, factories on.........-.---- 169 Siti atete U6 GIS Sete sssoonosnecrooste 148, 200 Sopthworth, John... -- 2-252. occa 166, 296, 360 Spanish mackerel --. 2.5... 26. oceans 51 Spawning of menhaden ...............--- 99, 507 Spear-fish 2-0. <--sesesseweie oaeeeereeteto = 69 Sphyrina borealis: <->. <2 on seaeeee= a 69 Spicer, Capt. William H-...............-.- 37 Spices, menhaden preserved in .-.-....--- 138 Spindel, Capt. Isaiah........-..........-- 45, 108 Spix & Mantin=.22-2--e ep oae =. 17, 18, 21, 34, 276 Sprague, William P.................---- 5. 80 Squeteague -.-- 2 onic cece ween nn seen =- 2, 70, 84 Stannard, George, & Co.......------------ 86 Stapleton, Edward..........-..---.------- 277

Steamers, menhaden ........--.--.122, 186, 297, 508

528

Page.

SLEMENS SUAS ese celeosee nlp emcee ene ee a eeee 273 Steendam) Jacob... .-.~ ---. steels eae Tle 12) Steindachner, Prof. Wranz) oo: ..---4-e-hece 275 Stenotomus argyrops.----.--2--<2-2-) == 1, 12, 70 Sterling Company..----.s-s-2-sseeseee 167, 298, 444 Steveus, Lieutenant-Governor ............ 85 Stesart. erincer Co. -asssessesseeeesee 416 Stockstish:as foodifor.-o- ss ceeeerer eens ar 266 Stoddard: Walterte =~ 2. cseererreee cers. 4 Stoéckhardt, Professor ........ 213, 215, 218, 229, 259 Stohmany Mr oe soe eeeeseeee secs occ 255 Stokes, Capt. J. L....---.-.--43, 86, 182, 272, 434, 435 Stomach contents, examination of ......-- 94 SLoOreLwO rT, 2 sc sees eee 3, 18, 274, 276, 283, 285, 286 SLOryAO y Rus ren eet ese rece ce ccascEbeeeee 271 SUGSlisees eee Neer ete nc oscssekesereceer 148 SLOW Om Wercseemecne cc aa ceccem beeen 271 StricklandtNiresscs. 4-0 tb sbenecie soe one 451 Stmipedibasseesese f. 2 =. ~<iscaciscet terse ate 70, 106 PkIGIeS Ofsyoune fSh. -.. - pees enncmee nina 98 Sm ee eee re a: me alaise see aaiscem ewe emmitcieyectoe 126 MDE BOCLOSE ona Hoteles slams re cemisios ase 20, 21 Suffolk Oil and Guano Works.......--. 80, 164, 165,

175, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 296,

368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 373, 384 Sa AceMISheSi«.exectacctteec emcee ee 69 Surface, movements of menhaden to and

from the. <<.x.~cstecmenccuateceectoses val Surface temperatures ........-------.---- 291 Swett, Noah .<<2..<cccreeeneteseceseee ee os 277 Swift; Prams deci ccee swear letersi eee 168 Swimming habits of menhaden and mack-

OLE Roctecncaetescencenscockaeneeeree OD tl: SNvOrgsfishiy crc ces cmr-eeterceeeee eeemee 2, 69, 106 a Table-fish, menhaden as.-...----.---.---. 185 Tallman MBAYY aM << -nyccesceeneeee see ce 45 allman, Capt. Lorenzo 1+. sscs +2 sooc.- 83 Tanneries, menhaden oilin.........-.--.. 191 WarpoM2ctece see eee secee eae cece oee es 69, 106 Dury \GeOreewd* sscc sees cse bere cece eee 398 Parr, James(G inci etciccaccecssst cts cen 143, 278 Tarr, Judson & Co....-- 48, 81, 115, 170, 171, 180, 185,

186, 187, 271, 274, 368, 369, 379, 385, 391, 402 (ED ys A oo seo ddeneramcecopracerosaccnege 51, 67, 69 Wautogaonitis: 24. .--22.tte se esee eee eee 69 Day lor CH wjercewetrae neces sees eee eee 105 RAV LOT, (OO MANAE are foci oe ate anette estate tater 278 Temperature, maximum limits of......--. 55 Temperature, range of, preferred by men-

HAG ON eerie ees es we eeeant ns salecelalas 55 Temperature; tables of..--.-.-------------« 294 Testimony aud aflidavits, references in.... 160 Letrapturus albidus:-.---i...20+---22--26 69, 106 Theory of extended migration.........-.. 62 Theory of hibernution-.......--6.-------s6 56 Thompson, Benjamin-E.....2..--.--:--<--- 276 TireshershaRks: } 22 Fe sees eecaas cece 105 ThurstonwB 6c\ CO...) eantetes se ee ce scan Q277 Mhiysanopodalecs-ces~...2.2ceenceeneeceee 94 ice VBen! amuMer er te.) (27. -'-Ta tars ae eeeisl= are 278, 457 Tides, influence of, on menhaden.-...-.--. 74 AUN ENS dialejoosboosoobsopopaosossconseddas 61

“ith A Bee maot hanpbooooabsbonoecad naabaC 4

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

Page. Toll bait. <.s0=-sseecenen ceaoracecenoencos 142, 148 Tory,diames, Ay... aasseeee ees shee sa sect 278 Tower, IN. Baa. eos - eee eee be 83 Trachynotus carolinus). seeeeesee ess. cs 70 Trade-names of menhaden ............... 10 Treat, U.S.,.ciSon cee eases eee eee ses Qi1 Trefethen, George... .. sees seeemeeeee Q77 PRrOuUb: soe. cceelsceoese cous cee ee eee Bees 106 Trumbull, Prof. J. Hammond ....10, 11, 12, 195, 272 Tamnies:s -- 5252.5: Jes dase see eee 51 Mannie er sess see one 69 Tuthill, Capt. George. .--. 167, 179, 196, 197, 296, 358, 364, 365, 442, 446 Muthilie: Co. 5.2. ceaceseeaeesed 370, 371, 372, 448 Tuthill, French & Co......-. 164, 165, 175, 185, 186, 187, 188, 296, 297 M@weddale, Marquis\of---- oem seem eeeanl 73 U. : Wher Prot. Pwkse-ssee fone e eee e eee 75 Union hactony. 32:0 sa-cene a eence eee 379, 391, 402 United States, reply of agent of..-...-..-. 158 United States menhaden statistics ....-.. 187 United States Menhaden Oil and Guano PAISSOCLAGION emia =i = ea ose ae eee ee 191, 358 avec Wailea Benj amine ose aa ooleee eee 446 Wail) Benjamin’ & (Cost sesseec. are eee ae 167, 448 Ven (DAS ee amones Soopopscos 272, 358 Wail Dawid (Gy. ee ste-seaceee tec cee aeeeeee 442, 447 Valenciennes gMl <2. oe ecriiscee eee er eset 275, 276 Valuation of fertilizers --.-s.<2- 05... cen. 235, 495 Value of fish for manufacturers’ use --.--. 178 Vian ‘Conléar; PAgtoniye sno. seem eee 12 Variations of menhaden....-............. 30 Variations in the schools. ......---------- 31 Wiktlety 2. deny soadoote socom te teste alee 20, 21 Verrill, Professor-A. E ... ..-.------ 3, 94, 102, 275 Vessels, number Of. ...22s.52--.)5-.-.---- 114, 185 Wessels, list of :. 2-2: 222 ts see nmle arterials 297, 293 Virginia, movements of schools ..----.--. 41 Varginia, fisheries*of £¢.los.5 452 eee 117 Virginia Oil and Guano Company .--.---- 168, 296 Vliet, Captain. Van.........--...-------=- 289 Vioeleker: Mp .-.t=ee~ sce sees cece n ae seme 213 Wohl) Mrscci-ccnestccesseeeeeoce ne tesa 217 von Freedon, Herr :--=::--.--..-20------- 72 Ww. Wrails, Babi zs see basse esters steer 229 Waites, Benjamin......-..-.-.--..------- 296 Wraloy 6(Corn.s22sansseeseusees 166, 176, 183, 188, 296 Wandering fishes:--.-.2--.---.---------- 68, 69 Warner,: W.. W- <<22s22-25000-2-------anne 168, 297 Warren, Captaine<-¢.2:-222--------5-->=1 130 Washbumni.di<s2-tecte=c-t20.cetemee ee 179 Washburne, jr., J -..-220-------: 48, 75, 114, 271, 388 Washington, Capt. John......... 43, 75, 85, 272, 430 Wasson, Mrsc---2----.eccten~eene eee = 140, 141 Wasson; Hon. Samuel ........-....-..--0- 260 Waste of fish fertilizers)... .2.-.......---- 230 Watson, Capt. Nathaniel..........--.---- 118 Way, Professor ~:~ =).).c22<sseeeem= === s° 213 Weakfish ...... Bpodacec iat sion selali=r= piece 106.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

Webb, Capt. Henry E....... seecare were 507 Wi DOI NED Hetosicns cnsscecs nacceeeeooncs 262 WODSLOReErOl FH. ). ccececasewaceue esas 290 Weekes, Capt. Darius F..... snsceawtedssan &3 Weight of menhaden .........-.......... 31 Weir fishing at Waquoit ................. 129 Weir fishing for menhaden............--- 129 WOIGK OPINED. —- oc ocCnaus osaccsneaseeroreTe 263 Welch’s Point Oil Company.......-...--. 167, 439 Wells & Co...164, 165, 175, 185, 186, 187, 188, 296, 402 WellsyDaniel ID eseseeee aeee: 162, 163, 164, 442, 448 Wells, Deblois & Brown ..........-...--- 379 NVIGIS! DD Pid SORSe cs wssssccceses 167, 444, 446, 448 RWrelleweiennyils. 222 Pselo ot 2c sscaeke 163, 167, 297 IWiellsWralteries-cesseccecs ks tnd asaeoeas 97 Wells, W.A., & Co ........... 368, 369, 370, 371, 372 Westbrook Oil Company ..-....--.....- 176, 189, 297 Whale, analysis of flesh and bones of .-.. 228 Whale fisheries, statistics of ...........-. 2 iwahsles Hes of thes ccc.< c<ccec nce cases 229 WWHAIE-NCGr =o on cicts ace tescsscdccccaseees 102 NVI RIG- Olli sea secmeoeilasteccccce cases eeeae 192 Whale, steamed bones of the...-..-...--- 229 Wh eS) = eee e = aaanrc ce Secwawcen-conesces 104 WihaleyOSsephis. 2. cscs chasm canes 44, 76, 272, 449 WihGlen Marist: saee ape eee se eam cea 278 VVRI OC HEM Wis ie eseamay tec ccc es aiclocsas 63, 64 Wrihite. Prot, CharlesrAc 2-2. 22.22 ssc cas 141 RWihitofhiphies sess se onto 7, 12, 60, 68, 84, 164 iWihite: (Gilbert).225.<s0Sececcocccssecosse- 57 WWI GOVISARC sec oe eh acce sac ceem aetna nis scctce 296 White, Isaac, & Co ......-....---- 166, 176, 182, 188 Wahler dn Gere ano sascesse con sacececccne he 365 Wrihite-shadts Ss iscscesncc sess seesee: oxic 14 White Wine Brook Company ......--- 164, 165, 384 BWihiteaves Vbq Ries 2 econo eee 36, 100, 274, 275 Whiting or silver bake......-....--.--.--- 106 Witton. Ov bee. et eeten sce ceseeccesecte 277 34 F

Page Wilol as: cctectdocecssctesceecas aoeeeaeues 15 Wilcox, Charles O:. 2ccsceccccecssssss2s55 423 Waleox: és: Critiend ont ass. -seeeeeee acy 5, 121 Wilcox, Capt. Leander..--.- 76, 85, 272, 427, 428, 431 Wilcox, Leander, & Co...-..-. 166, 176, 182, 188, 297 Wilcox & Manchester............--...... 166, 296 Wilders Moses Ui..2:s<c-snssseeescenee 78, 260, 264 BWA ois oad oe eee ee ee ee 249, 263 Malzimson, Sa Eb - 2s -25'csacecececneeeeee 36, 273 Wallandiebmooh\G..-<scscncccees oeecsccae Q77 VWitinis 12135. 3 re eimeeeeeses ae 5 = QT7 WATTS ROP ETE YS oc sec ce canes onan eeme 1L SWalkonvsobplweetan son 2-226 ceseees 297, 361, 370, 423 Wilson, Job T., & Co........ 166, 175, 182, 185, 186, 187, 188, 377, 378 Wind and weather, influence of .....-. -- 72 Winter sojourns of fishes ..-..-.......--.. 56 Winslow, Capt.S. Hi --.-.-......-.-..-... 82 SWiolly Ay Gene nara 42, 90, 103, 116, 180, 182, 273, 450 Ahey, JOE ID awh pepe ee esse odeso mo CooUES 256, 263 Wronson HredericiGeascer ass estemiesie se 126, 27, AMOR Mol O 2 Bossenecempoonoooootacsaep 278 Wrayton, Michael.............-.----.-... 278 Wiardemann)) Gib eo seacecnaa cnet ear 36, 289 xX. Naphiag| pladwseescese. cesses sce sees 69, 106 WG Varrell Williamis22 .sscsseeescessosesns ee 64 WATrO WsaP lr fils Osean eee ae 20, 92, 278, 275, 290 Yellow: ballesase sete se ese cee aeteeeeaae Ae) Mellow-tailedishadieycec e-te= sees alee ao 14 Yield, possible, of extract of fish .... .--. 140 Z. Zoological names of menhaden.....-.---- 15 Zostera Marina.....- Secuescisnoenscenscans 93 ‘

vi a oe ues } ae r eal ree ees \ t¥, sis it:

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Plate I.

= -_*

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Plate IT. J “

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Plate III.

RE Aaey

\ \ NN \ i ni |

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Plate IV.

i i x

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. Plate V.

ee Sa

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6 “314

Plate VI. a

Plate VII.

SO or ee oe

Plate VIII.

The Insect, as et puuces elself in the mcuth of the C lifiea j ANUS, as Se:

Leuches frend “Jeon the Lasect

Outline of the Clujrea Lyrannus correctly drawn lo tls natural size.

Facstuile of jlate accompanying Latrobe's descriplion of

Clu Ca lyrann us and Onescus foacqustalor. Ripe att,

,

; : i

tee —- . i a

MAP Sustealing Seographiial Diitub MENHADEN

pttle Aacdliond pf The FISHING GROUNDS and O10 and Guano Puclories

of, + E ne. Ms ahrive late in Moy 77 * Leave fate Oct 2" e, p 2, ; 23 aniive in Mey ‘a ot Me 7% October ¢ Nov

e Sait 2ve in November.

Ss H nt at Chools arrive ‘late in April.. Leave in iNovember-

"Five i] an ater, taares : te in April, Leave in Nov.

tT. \. H : pece™ : early April; } Leave 1"

Che. Be 1, March "i

@ Bermudas.

Peppy. - * in Wy; * Hey

Schooling grounds of Menhaden.

Principal Fishing grounds.

Deserted Schooling grounds.

1 q : er Le v * im ced F \ — are entree a ae ae } echalial i

Plate X.

eae

a

Qt “By

“NOLONIHEYM Wows # 1SV3 30NLIONOT

Plate XI.

a ae 08

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Plate XII.

°

SWNORLEV St 0S SVOS. wy oye

402

HORIZONTAL SCALE OF NAUTICAL MILES.

——

—-<

= : ons

rae

an

Write RMiHONeD a

- A.

is ©

— 7 ——

agin =

sain atria ae aC

Plate XIII.

HALIFAX TO BERMUDA

+ Sambra Lt Nova Scatia. -

FROM 35°ta 40°

HORIZONTAL SCALE OF NAUTICAL MILES

VERTICAL SCALE OF FATHOMS

pevaeyeaa

Nee.’ ie 1

eer) ae i j

gpl ph he st cl heh : ene ‘ tT ar era ] Pt ae s ae 7 Ay i '

Plate XIV.

SI I I OK KO IIS KKR RAK xX rc x XS fe eeeetets SRKRAKKREK ISN coreteatacaten esesenee ~ KORO O renee aactatetstatctaletate XS Soret SRK BRR RRO ROC OR WEVVAN XKNGXD ‘ CRLNIN, 3™ . { 4 4 . Cs / 2A. LXSDSAX KA SANA RK AA RSE XLAKKAIOERS SOS, eX a n> 5 , ma 4 ‘ HOOKERS SRNL SON NK SON NO HB, H SKIT RN OOOH HO) QR SAN MMR OY SOO ee OO QNOOD SOR RO OKO? o ~ 1% SRR SSSR RI SNS SKK RIG OHI OER REN RRR oa SALAS aS = ODA LI EAE 39S re IS a —a Se wie Saree =i

tr en “EEET

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Plate XV.

Fig 20.

ac ea AU ___U ——\) __ =

7 Ma 7 7 /

Plate XVI.

rll ‘Maen (i

Plate XVII.

Dee ——

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Plate XVIII.

a:

Al?

Pilot House

2, Gangway

Fig. 31.

3 Main Hatch for stowage of fish

5S. Towing Chocks.

4, Engine House

‘

a

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Plate XIX.

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Plate XXI.

he e a _ a i p ; ae ey ie Pele Wa ‘ te

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Plate XXII.

Plate XXXITI.

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ee

fi

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Plate XXIV.

Plate XXV.

Plate XXXVI.

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Plate XXVILI.

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Plate XXVIII.

"IOMSINa ‘AMOLOVA 8(0O0 ¥ HOUND *L£

Plate XXIX.

=

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Plate XXX. |

‘da TIMONVO

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rn

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oS *31yy

Plate XXXI.

:

a

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

LIBRARY

WOODS HOLE, MASS. W. H. 0. 1.

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