284 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



in remarkable contrast to their abundance in the early part of the 

 year. It is true that a few of the vessels — the "lucky ones" — suc- 

 ceeded in making many good catches during the late summer and fall, 

 but the majority of the fleet averaged small fares. I am, indeed, as- 

 sured that some vessels took less than 100 barrels each from the first of 

 August until November. The mackerel which still remained near the 

 coast, appearing in somewhat scattered schools — and for the most part 

 of small size — began their fall migration at about the usual time, that 

 is, late in September or early in October. About this date the vessels, 

 many of which had been fishing on the off-shore grounds, having lost 

 trace of the fish there, collected near the coast and pursued the mack- 

 erel as they moved in a westerly course from the shores of Maine to- 

 wards Massachusetts Bay and contiguous waters. The fall catch ot 

 mackerel, which, even with favorable weather, would probably not have 

 been very large, was seriously affected by the prevalence of strong 

 easterly winds, and no doubt the departure of the fish from the coast 

 was somewhat hastened by the same cause. 



An interesting and somewhat remarkable feature of the mackerel fish- 

 ery during the fall should be mentioned. When the mackerel reached 

 the waters about Cape Ann and Massachusetts Bay, comparatively few 

 catches were made in the daytime ; the phosphorescence exhibited at 

 night, however, aided the work of the seiners. The fish rarely schooled 

 by daylight, and even when they did they were, according to the state- 

 ments of several parties, so shy as to render their capture very difficult 

 and often impossible. Most of the fish taken were caught at night, and, 

 as I was assured by some of the fishermen, so small was the probability of 

 seining mackerel in the daytime that on many of the vessels no one 

 was kept on the lookout for schools. Dark, moonless nights are, under 

 such circumstances, best for the capture of mackerel, since at such 

 times the movements of the fish may be known and traced by the phos- 

 phorescence thrown out from the schools. Notwithstanding, however, 

 that every effort was made both night and day, the vessels, as a rule, 

 did so poorly that the majority of the mackerel fleet had "hauled up" 

 before the 1st day of November. A lew very fair catches were, how- 

 ever, made in Barnstable Bay and about Cape Cod on subsequent dates. 



Before closing these remarks it may be well to refer again to the 

 schools of mackerel which, detained beyond their usual period of migra- 

 tion along the Nova Scotia shore, eventually found their way into the 

 Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Whether any of the fish, which under other 

 conditions might have gone to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, were hin- 

 dered from doing so by the accumulation of ice about the eastern part 

 of Nova Scotia, can only be conjectured. According to the reports of 

 the Boston Fish Bureau, mackerel have never within the memory of man 

 been so scarce in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as during this season. 

 The catch <>!' the boat-fishermen at Prince Edward Island has been 

 unusually small, while not a single fare, so far as can be learned, was 

 taken by either American or Canadian vessels, if we except a small trip 



