THE MACKEREL. 



THE MACKEREL AND ITS ALLIES. 



A reef of level rock runs out to sea, 

 And you may lie on it and look sheer down 

 Just where the ' Grace of Sunderland ' was lost, 

 And see the elastic banners of the dulse 

 Rock softly, and the orange star-fish creep 

 Across the laver, and the Mackerel shoot 

 Over and under it, like silver boats 

 Turning at will, and plying under water. 



Jean Ingelow, Brothers and a Sermon. 



, T , HE common Mackerel, Scomber scombrus, is an inhabitant of the 

 -^ North Atlantic Ocean. On our coast its southern limit is in the 

 neighborhood of Cape Hatteras 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 num- 

 bers in shoal water south of Long Island. A. W. Simpson states that the 

 species has been observed in the sounds about Cape Hatteras in August, 

 September and October. R. 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 months, 

 and are also found in great numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where 

 in past years fishermen of the United States congregated 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. 



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. 



