BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 163 



supposed to be a school of pollock, but it proved to be a school of horse- 

 mackerel ; 50 of these tore the seiue all to pieces. The fish weighed 35 

 pounds apiece, aud were what the fishermen call bonitoes. 1 think the 

 school of mackerel that was on Brown's Bank has gone over to George's 

 Bank. Some mackerel have been caught on the shore of Nova Scotia. 

 The cod fishermen report mackerel on the southeast part of George's. 

 Large herring are abundant on the eastern shore. I think the mackerel 

 caught on the eastern shore came from the Bay of Fundy. Mackerel 

 sold to-day at $2 a barrel, with the barrel. No codfish are on the shore 

 grounds. The small vessels are doing well catching hake all along the 

 eastern shore ; 85,000 pounds were landed to-day from 4 vessels which 

 had been gone 10 days. Hake sell out of the vessel for $2.30 per 

 hundred pounds. The sounds and livers make them $3 25 per hundred 

 pounds. George's cod sold to-day for $5 a hundred, green out of the 

 vessel; dried George's cod sold for $7 a quintal; dried Grand Banks 

 cod sold for $G.25 a quintal. All kinds of dried fish are high. 

 Gloucester, Mass., September G, 1882. 



The weather for the past four days has been too windy for catching 

 mackerel ; but yesterday afternoon, after the wind died away, the mack- 

 erel were seen schooling close to the sho^e from Thatcher's Island to 

 Eastern Point. There were mackerel, alewives, and herring, so mixed 

 together that to get 20 barrels of mackerel one must also catch 20 bar- 

 rels of alewives and 20 barrels of herring. The alewives and herring 

 are found in unusual numbers near the shore from Gloucester to Booth 

 Bay. The fishermen do not know what keeps the mackerel so near the 

 shore. Mackerel are selling at higher prices to day — $10 a barrel, with 

 the barrel. The vessels with large seines do not get raucb chance to get 

 mackerel, while the market boats with shoal seines do very well. The 

 shoal seines are 7 fathoms deep, the large ones 25 fathoms deep, and so 

 the 7-fathom seine has all the advantage in shoal water. Swordfish are 

 numerous on Jeffrie's Bank. They are higher to-day than ever I knew 

 them to be before, selling at $10 a barrel, salted. The vessels at George's 

 Bank, Western Bank, and the Grand Banks are doing well. The schooner 

 Hattie L. Newman arrived from Greenland with 150,000 pounds Hitched 

 halibut and with 100,000 pounds salt cod caught on Flemish Cap before 

 going to Greenland. The Greenland vessels will make big stocks of salt 

 halibut, which will bring about 7f cents a pound. 



Gloucester, Mass., September 18, 1882. 



There has been but little mackerel fishing during the past week ; the 

 wind has been northeast and the sea was too rough for seining. On the 

 20th instant five barrels of large herring, full of spawn, were caught. 

 The spawn was ripe and running out of the fish. This is the earliest 

 that spawning herring have been caught in the harbor for fifteen years; 

 but fifteen years ago some were caught here on September 15. For the 

 past three years they have come from October 5 to 15, and in these three 



