1 68 AMERICAN FISHES. 



Capt. Hanson B. Joyce, of Swan's Island, Me., one of the most expert 

 and observing mackerel fishermen of New England, thinks that the move- 

 ments of the spring schools of ISIackerel are very much influenced by the 

 direction and force of the prevailing winds while the fish are performing 

 their northerly migration. He has generally found, he says, that when 

 there has been a continuance of strong northerly winds about the last of 

 May and early in June, the season at which the ISIackerel are passing the 

 shoals of Nantucket and George's Bank, the schools have taken a southerly 

 track, passing to the southward of George's Shoals and continuing on in 

 an easterly direction to the coast of Nova Scotia, and thence to the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence. 



When southerly winds or calms prevail at that season the Mackerel are 

 carried into the waters of the Gulf of Maine, and in consequence are much 

 plentier off the New England coast than in the St. Lawrence Gulf. 



On this theory Capt. Joyce bases his actions in cruising for Mackerel, 

 always fishing oft'' the New England shores when southerly winds have 

 predominated in the spring, and going to the St. Lawrence if northerly 

 ■winds have been exceptionally strong and continues about the last of 

 May. 



The movements of the fish, as already stated, season by season, are 

 quite uncertain, sometimes being very abundant in one direction and 

 sometimes in another, and occasionally, indeed, they may disappear 

 alinost entirely for several years, subsequently reappearing after a con- 

 siderable absence. In some years the fish are very abundant on the coast 

 of the United States, and at others rare ; the same condition applying to 

 the fish of the Bay of St. Lawrence. It is not certain, of course, that this 

 indicates an entire absence of the fish from the locality referred to, but 

 they may, possibly, for some reason, remain in the depth of the sea, or 

 some change in the character of the animal life in it, which constitutes 

 the food of the fish, may produce the changes referred to. A notable 

 instance of a somewhat permanent change in the migration of the Mack- 

 erel is found in the entire failure since 1S76 of the mackerel fishery in 

 the Bay of Fundy, which, a few years ago, enabled a merchant of East- 

 port to employ successfully as many as a dozen vessels, especially in Bigby 

 and St. Mary's Bay, but which is now abandoned. There are indeed 

 faint suggestions, in the early history of the country, of their total absence 

 from the whole coast for several years, as was also the case with the 

 bluefish. 



