260 Percomorphi 



common mackerel, Scomber scombrus, is one of the best known 

 of food-fishes. It is probably confined to the Atlantic, where 

 on both shores it runs in vast schools, the movements varying 

 greatly from season to season, the preference being for cool 

 waters. The female mackerel produces about 500,000 eggs 

 each year, according to Professor Goode. These are very 

 minute and each is provided with an oil-globule, which causes 

 it to float on the surface. About 400,000 barrels of mackerel 

 are salted yearly by the mackerel fleet of Massachusetts. Single 

 schools of mackerel, estimated to contain a million barrels, 

 have been recorded. Captain Harding describes such a school 



FIG. 206. Mackerel, Scomber scombrus L. New York. 



as "a windrow of fish half a mile wide and twenty miles 

 long." 



Professor Goode writes: 



"Upon the abundance of mackerel depends the welfare of 

 many thousands of the citizens of Massachusetts and Maine. 

 The success of the mackerel-fishery is much more uncertain 

 than that of the cod-fishery, for instance, for the supply of 

 cod is quite uniform from year to year. The prospects of 

 each season are eagerly discussed from week to week in 

 thousands of little circles along the coast, and are chronicled 

 by the local press. The story of each successful trip is passed 

 from mouth to mouth, and is a matter of general congratulation 

 in each fishing community. A review of the results of the 

 American mackerel-fishery, and of the movements of the fish 

 in each part of the season, would be an important contribution 

 to the literature of the American fisheries. 



"The mackerel-fishery is peculiarly American, and its history 

 is full of romance. There are no finer vessels afloat than the 



