280 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



As soon as the schools disappeared and could no longer be found in 

 this region, most of the fleet, numbering about eighty sail, went to 

 other grounds. The Wildfire ran to the eastward, and the remainder 

 of her fare, 135 barrels, was taken 25 miles west by south from Bryer 

 Island, N. S. Capt. George M. McClain, master of this schooner, says 

 that before the middle of August he caught no fish in shoal water. It 

 is not possible to say with any degree of certainty why the mackerel, 

 as a rule, exhibited such a disposition to remain off-shore and in deep 

 water. Their presence and long continuance to the eastward of Cashe's 

 may, however, be due to the abundance of food which could be obtained 

 there, though the same reason cannot so positively be assigned for 

 their presence elsewhere. The fishermen during the month of July 

 reported that the mackerel caught in the vicinity of Cashe's were "full 

 of feed," while those taken along the Maine coast and in the Bay of 

 Fundy hail little or no food in their stomachs. It is very probable that 

 the unusual disinclination of the main body of the mackerel to approach 

 close to the coast may be attributed to a remarkable scarcity, along the 

 shore, of the forms of life upon which they feed. The fact that the fish 

 which Avere caught nearest the coast were rarely found gorged with 

 "seed" — indeed, the opposite being generally the case — would indicate 

 that there was little to attract them in-shore, and consequently they 

 remained a long distance from the land, where the chances for obtaining 

 food were better. But even on the off-shore grounds a decrease in the 

 abundance of mackerel "feed" was noticeable about the 1st of August, 

 and this may have influenced the subsequent movements of the fish 

 found thereabout. 



At any rate the mackerel, which were so abundant to the eastward 

 of Cashe's during June and July, apparently left that locality early in 

 August, since by that time they were no longer accessible in large 

 numbers to the fishermen, and during the remainder of the season only 

 a few scattering schools were found in those waters. It is possible that 

 during the period of abundance on Cashe's the schools were in reality 

 on their way to the east coast of Maine, the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, 

 or to Seal Island Ground, passing along slowly in an eastward or north- 

 easterly course. That the fish did move in one of these directions, 

 about the last of July or the 1st of August, there can be but little 

 doubt. Further reference will be made to this matter in a subsequent 

 paragraph. 



Passing, now, to the consideration of the schools of mackerel which 

 were found near the coast of Maine, I will say that with rare exceptions 

 they kept off in deep water at distances from the land varying from 15 

 to 40 or 50 miles; and, according to the statements of the fishermen, 

 their method of schooling differed in some respects from that followed 

 by the mackerel on Cashes. Captain Martin also records, under date 

 of July 24, the following facts relative to this matter : 



"The mackerel, which are in large bodies, when they go across Cashe's 



