New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-01-31
LITTLE FINTEN.

LITTLE FISHES.
The fifth report of the United States Commissioners
of Fish ard FISHERIES Prof. Spencer T. Baird, has
recently been issued from the Government Printing
'Onice at Washington. Like most Government
ports 1t IL two years behind timo in getting before
the public, owing TO delays in the printing. and
most of its information about the valuable work OF
the Commission has long ago been anticipated by
the newspapers. The volume cOnta.as however, a
great deal of fresh aud interesting matter
in relation TO American and foreign fish
cries. and from this select for brief
review the very thorough and admirably prepared
article on the menhndon, which hlls about five
hundred pages. This little fish IS usod as food to
such limited extent that its commercial import
ancs ia not appreciated 10y people who do not live
upon the Atlantic Coast; yet the catch is nearly
half million Of pounds annually, FAR exceeding in
weight that of any other species, and surpassed in
money value only by that Of the cod, tho mackerel
and the salmon. No other fish is put to such
manifold uses. 1t yields more oil than all
the whales caught by American fisher
men. The refuse Of tho menhaden oil
factories supplies valuable manure, and enters
largely into the composition of most artificial for
tilizers. Tho amoGnt o. ammonia derived from
this source in 1875 vas estimated % We equivalent
10 that contained IN 60 100000 pounds OF guanO
from Peru the value of which would be nearly two
millions of dollars. II is the chief bait used by the
mackerel feets Of the United States and Canada.
4 L" fish meal Is made from (which Is an excellent
food for domestic animals. substance possessing
all the qualities of Liebgs extract Of beef sobAned
from IT, The farmers along the coast ealtt down for
Winter food: and finally the young Ash are put up
IN cotton-seed OIL and sold as American Sardnes."
The menhaden. called by naturalsts Bgro0riid
uranus has many local names. Ia Maine and
Massachusetts, il is generally called the pogy,"
though on Cape Ann this term Is partially replaced
by "hard head" The name menhadon
cusiyely applied IN Vineyard Sound. Buzzard's Bay
and Narragansett Bay. Along the Connecticut
coast east Of the Connecticut River bonY-ish"
predominates but IN the western part Of the State
the species known as the white-ish." In
our New-York waters the term moss
bunkerD has the sanction Of two contu-
ries Of usage, aud a corruption Of the Dutch
word narsbancker. In Delaware and Chesapeake
BAYS and Oh tho Potomac the fish appears under tho
aliases of alewifo" and green-ta"; in Virginia
il in called the bu0-fish.D in North Carolina
tn. " fat-back" and further South the yellow
tailp Its average length is from twelve to fifteen
inches The adult meuhaden ~ a beautiful fish,
It's color is pearly Opaescent like that of tho cypr
mold fishes from which 10 prepared tho liquid pearl
used by artists and in the manufacture of paste
iewelry Each scale has the beauty of fine pearl
and tho reflections from tho mailed sides OF fish
lust taken from the wafer are superb. The schooling
grounds of the fan extend along our Atlantic
Coast from Penobscot Bay clear down 60 Indian
River in Florida. Below Cape Hatteras they
main all Winter. but above that point they dis
sppear in the Fail 10 return in the Spring. In the
Sandy Hook region they arrive In April aud leave
in November. The principal fishing grounds are
IL.
scot; at Cape Ann, Cape Cod, and Buzzard's
Bay IN Massachusetts in NaTagansott Bay. Long
Island Sound and the North Jersey coast at the
trance to Chesapeake Bay. aud in the Moth Caro-
linz Sounds. Numerous factories for tho manufac-
tnre of menhaden oil and fertilizers are
located near all the fishing grounds. those
in Maine. Rhode Island and upon Long Island be-
inc. perhaps the most important. Daring the stay
Of the schools along tho coast tho fish iced upon The
sedrmcnt which gathers upon tho bottom of still.
protected bays, and is largely composed of animal
matter What they eat when out i'll the deep sea Is
not known.
The menhaden seems to be made rather TO be
eaten than to eat. Man, with his instruments for
wholesale destruction. takes six or seven hundred
millions of these fish annually. but he is only one
among its many enemies. Whales follow the
schools and consume great numbers. The great
hone whale sWlinS DtlOW "a SCHOOL, ana sud
denly coming up to the surface in the
thickest OF it swallows hogshcads of men,
baden az gulp A shark Will stow away as
many az a hundred in his capacious stomach The
horned dogish. the funny, the silver hake tae
striped bass the weakfsh, the Rarfish. the sword
fish aud the cod make havoc among them. Their
most redouOtable enemy. however is the buelish,
or swapping mackerel. These corsairs of the sea,
not content with what they cat which is of itself
of enormous quantity, rush rayenously through the
closely crowded schools, cutting and tearing the
living fish as they go. aud leaving in their wake the
rnaneled fragments. Traces of the carnage re-
main for weeks in the great " sticks" of
oil go commonly seen on smooth water
during the Summer season. The terrified
fish fly in every direction, and are often driven
ashore in such numbers that the farmers gather
them up with ptchforlIs and shoyels and carry OF
cart-oads to manure their land. Professor Baird
estimates that ten thousand millions Of menhaden
are daily consumed by bueiish the coast of New
England only, during period of four months in
the Summer and Fall. An estimate of the whole
number destroyed annually in the waters of the