MAKE QUEER CATCHES AT CAPE COD.
Many strange fish come to the nets of the weirsmen of Cape Cod. Thecollection of the amateur photographer who summered at Provincetown aseason would not be complete without a plate of some of them to showwondering friends on winter evenings.
Most striking, perhaps, would be the giant horse-mackerel, which wereoften seen.
"Four-hundred-pounders each" they were, according to the offhandestimate of the local old salt who named them for the summer folksedification. They were indeed a handsome couple, although onlymedium-sized representatives of a marine clan--_orcynus thynnus_--ofwhich hundreds are annually taken at Provincetown in the big"catchalls," commonly termed weirs.
In a small way, the horse-mackerel is a gladiator. Prior to his advent,the sand-lance, the mackerel, the herring, pollock, and dogfish makeregular visitation in Cape Cod Bay.
When the breaching "sea-tiger," or horse-mackerel, with great goggleeyes staring stonily and lemon-hued, rearanal fins glittering goldlikein the shadow of its under body, comes rushing upon the scene, allminor species hurriedly decamp.
The horse-mackerel, or its familiar, is common in the Mediterranean,where it is known as the tuna, or tunny. For centuries the flesh of thetuna has been highly esteemed by the Latin races. Packed in oil, orsalted, it has, since the days of the Phoenicians, been a very widelyknown commodity in the Mediterranean trade.
The horse-mackerel occurs in the west Atlantic as far north as the Gulfof St. Lawrence. It puts in an appearance at Provincetown early in Junecustomarily, remaining in the vicinity until about October.
When much of the fishing-work there was performed by means of nets,the horse-mackerel was both a source of revenue and a pest to the smallboatman; but the oil taken from it more than compensates for the lossresulting from its ravages upon nets.
One would suppose that the fishermen's nets would speedily be ruinedby the creatures, but such is not the case. Upon striking a floatingnet, the horse-mackerel goes, bulletlike, straight through it--unlikethe shark, which, rolling itself in the netting, tears the sameenormously--making a clean, round hole, easy to repair.
Individuals weighing as much as 1,500 pounds have, it is said, beentaken. Specimens of that weight are not taken off Provincetown,however, the average specimens weighing from 400 to 500 pounds, with anoccasional 900 or 1,000-pounder.
The average length is about eight feet.
Horse-mackerel were seldom, if ever, used for food in this countryuntil within a few years. At present quite all specimens taken in weirsare sent to city markets, where a ready sale at a good price is assuredamong immigrants from the south of Europe.
No horse-mackerel need now be set adrift as worthless, as was formerlythe custom.
Usually the capture of a weir-imprisoned horse-mackerel is not amatter of great difficulty. Once in a while, however, the greatstrength of an individual nearly prevails over the efforts of itsjailers. For instance: In July, 1897, Captain Henry J. Lewis, a skilfulweir-manipulator, found in his harbor trap a big horse-mackerel,exhausted and apparently dead upon the dried-in "lint" when the crewgathered in the netting.
The disengaged end of the main throat-halyards was made fast to thetail of the supposedly dead fish, the bight was loosely attached to themain-sheet traveler, and Skipper Lewis and his helper straightway beganto bail in herring.
All at once the stern of the boat settled. Down it went, suddenly, andwater began to pour into the standing-room. The horse-mackerel hadregained consciousness and was making the fact known.
Mate James hurriedly unloosed the halyards, and the immense fishdisappeared below the surface and renewed its fight for freedom.
As the fish scurried away, the halyards tautened. The main-gaff startedaloft, drawn by the hoisting-gear. The gaff-end caught, held securelyfor a moment, then broke, and up in a trice went the bellying sail,with broken spar dangling.
For a moment all was confusion on the boat. The fish, a 900-pounder, inone of its rushes approached the boat's quarter. One of the crew, ax inhand, delivered a swinging blow at him, but the agile horse-mackereleasily avoided it.
An instant later the strong wind struck full upon the bagging canvasand laid the boat over, well upon her side. A capsize seemed imminent.Correctly sizing up the situation, Mate Manuel James seized a sharpknife and with one stroke severed the halyards.
Immediately the horse-mackerel, with all but a small portion of themain-halyards tied to its tail, vanished like a flash through thebroadside netting of the weir, vanished for good. Lewis, owner thereof,gave vent to sundry explosive ejaculations.
Cape Cod weirs scoop in many unexpected water-creatures. Recently aforty-foot-long--estimated--right-whale entered O'Neil's head of harborProvincetown floating traps. Annoyed a half-hour later by would-becaptors, this huge animal, bearing within its mouth baleen worthprobably $2,000, with one rush burst through the heavy netting and wentaway to sea, leaving a badly torn weir behind.
In August, 1908, a baby finback whale, just out of leading-strings,evidently, it being only fifteen feet long, entered Blatchford's weirand was slain. The creature was exhibited under a tent upon the mainbeach.
The Lewis-James weir captured, October 9 of the same year, a boneshark seventeen feet long. The skin of that rare creature was removedintact, and is now being tanned for mounting by the purchaser, David C.Stull, known as the Ambergris King.
This species--_cetophinus maximus_--a native of Arctic seas, is oneof the largest of sharks. Sluggish in movement, the bone shark swimslazily at the surface, apparently indifferent to the approach of boats.Food found in its stomach comprises a red, pulpy mass, probably theroe of sea-urchins. The teeth are small--the Stull specimen hadn'tthe vestige of a tooth, being very young--and the gill-rakers--a sortof Galway whisker worn inside, instead of outside, the throat--wouldindicate that it feeds at the surface, straining its food, as does thebaleen-bearing whale.
A half-dozen years ago a West Indian sea-turtle, with a plumpremora--sucking fish--adhering to its under shell, was taken from the"Jim" Lewis weir.
Very recently the largest lobster known to have been captured inProvincetown Harbor was taken from the Eastern weir. Its weight wastwenty-three pounds, and its length, tail end to outer end of forwardextended claws, was forty-two inches. This giant crustacean, carefullymounted, now graces Mr. Stull's museum of marine curios.
Recent sizable lot arrivals of fishes once deemed worthless atProvincetown, include the shadine, scientifically known as _etrumeussadinia_, a species which occurs as far south as the Gulf of Mexico,but is most commonly found in Florida and Carolina waters, and thespecies variously called saury, billfish, skipper, and skipjack, thelatter because of its surface-bounding habit when pursued by thehorse-mackerel and bonito.
The shadine appeared at Provincetown for the first time, and in largenumbers, in October, 1908. They are very valuable.
The saury, or billfish--_scomberesox sauris_--is found in all parts ofthe North Atlantic. Cod feed voraciously upon them. This long-beaked,slender-bodied species feeds upon soft, pelagic animals, its teethbeing very minute.
This species, formerly considered worthless in Provincetown, hassuddenly leaped into favor. All caught there are eagerly sought by NewYork and Boston commission men.