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 2 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 onehalf of a gallon more to the barrel than in Long Island Sound, and one gallon and one-half more than the average in Narragansett Bay.

53. But a few years back there was no such thing known as menhaden oil and guano business; at present there are over $2,000,000 invested, and in my opinion the business has but just begun, for apparently 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 his 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 menhaden, from the vast destruction by bluefish, come out at the end of the campaign far below their correct proportions, and when the bluefish ceased to trouble them they began to gain, and are gaining, 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 two years, and also around the Hen and Chickens.

34. Statement of E. T. De Blois, Portsmouth, R. I., November 26, 1877. We have 3 steamers: E. T. De Blois, 81.30 tons, crew 13; Albert Brown, 78.05 tons, crew 13; Wm. A. Wells, 51.58 tons, crew 13; have caught 26,649 barrels of fish this season; the length of seine 300 fathoms 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.

3. 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. from the middle of May to the 1st of June. "run" and a June "run."

They come in abundance There is generally a May

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.

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, &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.

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.

51. 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.

37. Statement of J. S. 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, and seem to work eastward and westward.

9. There are some seasons not as numerous as others; in '73 they were plentiful; in '74 not so plentiful; in fact their catch was not more than two-thirds as much as in '73.

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 November, 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.

35. 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.

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 9,800,000 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 yield the least oil.

51. In the fall when they are about to leave the coast they yield the greatest quantity of oil.

53. About the same as right whale oil.

54. Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

55. All through the New England and Middle States it is used for fertilizing.

56. For tanneries and adulterating paint-oils.

57. From thirty-eight to forty cents; previous years it has sold as high 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., 1,377 barrels; Quiambog Oil Company, 355. barrels; Gardiner Oil Company, 289 barrels; R. Chapman, 200 barrels; total, 6,506 barrels @ $12.60. In 1872 there were 4,532 barrels. 5. No.

6. April and 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 Fisher's Island Sounds, Block Island Bay, and Providence River.