THE MACKEREL AND ITS ALLIES. 281 



L. THE MACKEREL AND ITS ALLIES. 



95 THE MACKEREL SCOMBER SCOMBRUS. 



GEOGKAPHIOAL DISTRIBUTION. The common Mackerel, Scomber scombnts, is an inhabitant 

 of the North Atlantic Ocean. On our coast its southern limit is in the neighborhood of Cape, llat- 

 teras in early spring. The fishing schooners of New England find schools of them in this region 

 at some distance from the shore, but there is no record of their having been taken in any numbers 

 in shoal water south of Long Island. A. \Y. Simpson states that the species has been observed in 

 the sounds about Cape Hatteras in August, September, and October, li. E. Earll finds evidence' 

 that stragglers occasionally enter the Chesapeake. Along the coasts of the Middle States and of 

 New England Mackerel abound throughout the summer mouths, and are also found in great num- 

 bers in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, where, in past years, fishermen of the United States con-re 

 gated in great numbers to participate in their capture. They are also found on the coast of 

 Labrador, though there is no evidence that they ordinarily frequent the waters north of the Straits 

 of Belle Isle. 



Captain Atwood 1 has expressed the opinion that they vis'c Northern Labrador only in seasons 

 remarkable for the prevalence of westerly winds, and that in other seasons they do not go so far 

 north. 



Professor Hind was told by the residents of Aillik and Kypokok, Labrador, one hundred 

 and titty miles northwest of Hamilton Inlet, that Mackerel were abundant there in 1871, and that 

 a few were caught in cod-seines. While at Double Island harbor, some fifteen miles north of 

 Hopedale, a French Canadian resident informed him that there is "a scattering of Mackerel" on 

 that part of the coast. 



They appear also at times to have been abundant on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland, 

 though their appearance there is quite irregular. Mackerel do not occur in Hudson's Bay nor on 

 the coast of Greenland. It seems probable that the natural northern limit of the species in the 

 Western Atlantic is not far from the Straits of Belle Isle. Professor Packard, who visited this 

 region in 18GC, recorded that a few Mackerel are taken in August in Salmon Bay and Ited Bay, but 

 that the Straits of Belle Isle were evidently the northern limils of the genus, while Foitin, one of 

 the best Canadian authorities on fisheries, in his annual report for 180-1, stated that in summer 

 they appear in some places, such as Little Mccattina, on the adjoining coast, latitude 5<U north, 

 and even sometimes enter the Straits of Belle Isle. 3 



1 Proceedings, Boston Society of Natural History, vol. 10, p. 66. 



i lu 1860 Capt. Peter Avery, of thu schooner Alabama, of Provineetow n, took ln() barrels of fat Mackerel at Port- 

 au Port, Newfoundland. Captain Atwood, however, lias seen them at the liny of Islands. He has also Keen 

 schools at Mecattina. 



Capt. J. W. Collins writes: "As early as 1837 or 1838, Capt. Stephen Rich, of Gloucester, spent alums- the entire, 

 mackerel -fishing season ou the coast of Labrador in pursuit of M aekeivl. lie was indueed by the reports brought him 

 by the Labrador cod-fishermen to make- this attempt. They had reported sec-ing Mackerel abundant in the vieiuity of 

 the- Straits of Bello Isle, and Captain Rich, being of an adventurous turn, decided to devote one summer to the investi- 

 gation of the subject, feeling in hopes t' obtaining a large eatdi. My father was one of the crow, and I have often 

 heard him tell that the trip was entirely unsuccessful, notwithstanding tin- fact, that they cruised all the way from 

 Meeattina Islands through the Straits of lielle Isle, and on the northwest coast nf Newfoundland as far down as the 

 I Jay of Islands. Few or no Mackerel were taken until til" vessel returned in the fall to the southern part of the 

 of Saint Lawrence, where a small fare was obtained in a few weeks' lishiug.'' 



