1 9 4 AMERICAN FISHES. 



the vicinity of Newport were found in the summer of 1857. No one knew 

 what they were. 



Mr. Earll writes as follows concerning the history of its increase : 



"About Sandy Hook prior to 1850, almost nothing was known of the 

 fish, as shown by the fact that about this time Mr. Robert Lloyd, a fisher- 

 man at Seabright, was engaged in trolling for bluefish, having a contract 

 with one of the hotels to take his entire catch. He secured a number of 

 Spanish Mackerel (these being the first he had ever seen), which were 

 carried with the bluefish to the hotel ; but the proprietor knew nothing of 

 their value, and buying them. 



" From this date they were taken more frequently, and soon were highly 

 prized. They were caught wholly by trolling, the average catch being 

 from ten to twenty fish to a boat daily. They continued to increase in 

 number, or at least were more generally noticed by the fishermen, until 

 1S66, when they were quite plentiful, becoming most abundant between 

 1S70 and 1S75. During that period it is said that they were often nearly 

 as plenty as the bluefish, though comparatively few were taken, owing to 

 the lack of suitable apparatus. It was not until the introduction of 

 properly arranged gill-nets and pound-nets that the fishermen succeeded 

 in securing considerable quantities. 



"It is claimed that their numbers have, since 1875, gradually decreased 

 on the inshore grounds, though they are said to be as numerous as for- 

 merly, eight to ten miles from land, where they remain beyond the reach 

 of gill-nets and pound-nets. 



"Many of the fishermen of Chesapeake Bay never saw the species 

 before 1875, though there are authentic records showing that individuals 

 were occasionally taken in the haul-seines along the Eastern shores as 

 early as i860, and hauls of one and two hundred are reported by Dr. J. T. 

 Wilkins in 1866.* It is very easy to explain the ignorance of the fisher- 

 men as to the abundance of the species in that region, for, until recently, 

 the fisheries of the Chesapeake appear to have been of small commercial 

 importance, having been prosecuted only during the spring and fall by 

 means of gill-nets and haul-seines. During the summer months, when the 

 Mackerel are most plenty, no fishing of importance was done. Pound- 

 nets were introduced into the Chesapeake region in 1875, and it was 

 through their use that the fishermen came to know of the abundance of 

 the species in these waters. 



"On the North Carolina coast most of the fishermen, and, indeed, a 

 majority of the dealers, are still unacquainted with either the name or the 

 value of the Mackerel, and when, in 1879, several thousand pounds of 

 them were brought to Wilmington, the dealers refused to buy them, sup- 



* Prof. P.aird, as we have seen, referred to extensive captures of this species in the lower Potomac and 

 Chesapeake in 1S54, and called attention to the fact that they were to be had salted in the Washington city 

 fish market. 



