BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 277 



June 13 one schooner took 140 barrels 30 miles southeast of Cape Ann. 

 On June l."> the schooner Joseph Story arrived at Gloucester with 290 

 barrels of mackerel from the pounds near Pubnico, N. S.,* while on the 

 same day the schooner Charles Tappan came in with a fare of 300 bar- 

 rels, reported to have been taken on George's Bank. 



The Port Mnlgrave correspondent of the Cape Ann Advertiser, writ 

 ing under date of June 9, states that mackerel had made their appear- 

 ance on tin; eastern coast of Nova Scotia, "Captain Rood, of the steamer 

 M. A. Starr, reporting* that he passed through large schools between 

 Halifax and Canso. Captain Harding, of schooner Keetsca, of Lockeport 

 [N. S.], made the same report. What had been caught in nets were of 

 large size." 



From the foregoing it may be seen that early in June mackerel in 

 greater or less abundance were met with all along the coast, from Block 

 Island on the south to Cape Canso on the north, a distance, in a straight 

 line, of about 500 miles. Their abundance off' the New England coast 

 is apparent from the unusually large captures made at this period, to 

 which reference has already been made, and when we consider the enor- 

 mous area which they covered it is difficult to form any accurate esti- 

 mate of the quantity of these fish which swarmed in our waters, and 

 from which our fishermen were gathering a bountiful harvest. 



Before proceeding further in the discussion of the movemepts of the 

 mackerel, I shall pause to consider some facts in connection with their 

 spawning habits. It has generally been supposed by close observers 

 that mackerel spawn on the New England coast soon after the 1st of 

 June; in the summer of 1882, however, this operation took place later 

 than had ever before been recorded. On June 23 1 opened thirteen mack- 

 erel, caught the preceding evening at Rockport, Mass. Their average 

 length was 12 inches. In nine of them (males) the milt was nearly ripe. 

 Jne was a spent male, and the remaining three had been eviscerated, 

 so that no determination as to sex or condition was possible. Accord- 

 ing to some of the most experienced Gloucester fishermen, the mack- 

 erel on the off-shore grounds had not finished spawning until a month 

 or more later than the above date. Captain Thomas says that the 

 height of the spawning season this year (1882) occurred from about the 

 middle of July to August 1. The majority of the fish taken during that 

 interval appeared to be partially spent, the ovaries and spermaries being 

 somewhat shrunken. They contained, however, more or less eggs and 

 milt in a ripe condition, which ran from the fish when they were handled. 

 A portion of the mackerel had finished spawning and were fatter than 

 the half-spent fish taken from the same school. As a rule, in previous 

 years, it had been noticed that the mackerel sank during the season of 

 reproduction, rarely appearing in schools at the surface, and for a space 



* On the following day the schooner J. J. Clark arrived with a full fare from the 

 same locality, and other vessels came in later which had obtained loads of mackerel 

 from the Nova Scotia pounds. 



