BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 15 



5.— ITlOVfUTIENTS OF MACKEREL IIV WINTER. 



By J. TV. COI^LI^S. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



Capt. Wm. Dempsey told me last uiglit that last January he saw heavy 

 schools of mackerel 70 to 75 miles southeast of the southeast part of 

 George's Bank. He was driven oft" the bank in a gale, and when the 

 weather moderated the fish "showed up." He saw them in the after- 

 noon and at night. A fisherman of Captain Dempsey's experience could 

 scarcely be mistaken as to the kind of fish he saw; more especially as 

 he told me they " rushed" repeatedly, a habit of mackerel, when school- 

 ing, that I think no other fish has. 



Gloucester, Mass., October 8, 1883. 



6.-A L,AROE SQUID. 



By J. TV. COI.LINS. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



Yesterday, while in conversation with Capt. Charles A. Keene, of this 

 jiort, I obtained from him the following statement relative to one of the 

 big squid that was found on the Grand Bank. The squid seen and se- 

 cured by Captain Keene and his crew was much larger than any that I 

 have previously heard of. But his statements are very positive and 

 precise as to its length. The information which he furnishes seems to 

 be of more than ordinary importance, since it enables us to form more 

 accurate estimates of the maximum growth attained by these great 

 "devil fish." 



Captain Keene states that, in September, 1876, when fishing on the 

 Grand Bank, in latitude 44° north, longitude 50° west (approximately), 

 he found floating at the surface near his vessel one of the large squid, 

 the body of which, measured as accurately as it could be from a dory, 

 was 50 feet long, while the tentacles, all of which were intact and unin- 

 jured, were longer than the body, making the entire length more than 

 100 feet. The tentacles were larger around than the body of a stout 

 man. He cut the squid up and boated aboard three dory loads, proba- 

 bly about 3 tons weight, and he estimates that there was at least one 

 to two more boat-loads which he left to drift away. 



I had previously" heard of fishermen finding i:)ieces of tentacles, &c., 

 which might belong to animals nearly or quite as large as the one above 

 mentioned, but I have never before met with any one who has had the 

 fortune to see entire such a king of the mollusks. 



Gloucester, Mass., November 20, 1883. 



