36 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



For a number of years large-sized iLiackerel, that would inspect as No. 

 1, have been scarce both in American and Provincial waters. The catch 

 of this season will inspect mostly as No. 2, a very small proportion of 

 large-sized or No. 1 fish being taken. Some years large-sized mackerel 

 have been found in immense numbers early in the season before passing 

 Long Island Sound, after which only a small proportion of large fish 

 were seen during the entire season. Where the large mackerel wont to 

 has been a mystery, and a subject of much conjecture. If this question 

 is not partially solved, it is certainly of much interest, and may lead to 

 valuable results in the near future to know that during this season large 

 bodies of extra-large mackerel were seen off the Labrador coast. Captain 

 Johnson, of the Marguerite, reports that on September 5 and 6, Temi:)l6 

 Bay, at the northern end of the Strait of Belle Isle, was full of large- 

 sized mackerel. They were also found abundant as far north as St. 

 Lewis Sound, longitude 55° 45', latitude 52° 30'. xVt these points the na- 

 tive fishermen were seining codfish, and would take large quantities of 

 mackerel in their nets, but would not save them. The natives reported 

 that for several years, of late, duripg August and September, mackerel 

 have been plentiful. No small mackerel, or any, except large fish, were 

 seen in that section. This season, at the date mentioned, the fish were 

 fat. Captain Johnson says that those which he saw would more than 

 reach across a barrel, not over one hundred fish being required to fill a 

 packed barrel. Vessels that were trading along the coast iDacked a few 

 barrels. 



Capt. Valentine Doane, of Harwichport, Mass., being on a business 

 trip along the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts, writes, under date 

 of July 28, that mackerel of large size were abundant at Chateau Har- 

 bor, Labrador. As the letter has much of interest in connection with 

 the fisheries of that section, some extracts from it are here given : 



Labrador and Newfoundland Fisheries. — There are several 

 other harbors near by — Henly, Antelope, Granville, Pitts Arm, &c. — all 

 small, but each with its own peculiar features, and all with the one busi- 

 ness and the sole and only thought — fishing. The men catch the fish, the 

 women dress and cure them. The homes of these people are miserable 

 huts and shanties, and yet all are happy and contented, and apparently 

 without a thought of ever having anything better or that there is any- 

 thing better in the world. I should judge by observation, after visiting 

 all the inlets and coves hereabouts, that there might be 300 persons 

 about here now. It is the most desolate and forlorn looking land I 

 ever saw. The people are sober, honest, industrious, moral, tidy in 

 their appearance, and keep the Sabbath in the strictest sense. We 

 are waited upon regularly by btats that bring us fresh salmon, cod,, 

 herring (equal to our No. 1 mackerel), trout, and I have had, to my sur- 

 prise, twenty-five or thirty fresh mackerel. We also find good clams- 

 here, and I am surjirised to see the natives stare at us as we dig clams- 

 They never use them, even for bait, and mackerel they not only will 



