28. In great abundance in the heads of bays when first spawned, gradually dropping out into deeper water as they attain size. 29. I think not.

30. Don't know of any; think not.

31. Nothing but an insect, which the fishermen call lice, is occasionally found on the outside of fish, eating into the body.

32. To a very great extent, especially bluefish.

33. Never have known any.

34. Set-nets, pounds, haul-nets, and purse-nets.

35. Haul-nets are from 1 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 includes 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., Hawkins Bros.; on shores of Gardiner's Bay, D. Wells & Sons, Sterling Oil Company, Horton & Co., Green & Co., Jonathan Preston & Co., Cartwright & Co., Frank Price & Co.

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, † barrel; Gardiner's Bay, } 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 Gardi 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.

50. Statement of Benjamin H. Sisson, Greenport, R. I., January 29,

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.

1874.

6. In March and April. On the 1st 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 animalculæ, 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, deposit their spawn and milt, then go out again and join the general migration 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.

34. Purse-nets, gill-nets, seines, and pounds.

35. Purse-nets are from 900 to 1,000 feet long and 100 feet deep

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.

42. 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 Bay 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. Eight 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 carried 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 scrap; 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, &c.; 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

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 gallon 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. More 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 them 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 barrells, 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.

19. Somewhere south.

20. Kind of very fine jelly fish; they suck their food, for they have no teeth.

21. At the head of bays generally, at all times of the season:

22. I think they are indiscriminately mixed as to male and female. 23. No.

24. Warm temperature.

25. Near the bottom.

26. They float in the water until hatched.

28. 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.

31. No.

32. They do not suffer any when compared with the quantities of them.

33. No.

34. 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, and 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 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