AMERICAN FISHES. 



in the South Channel in 1848 : "It was a windrow of fish," said he ; "it 

 was about half a mile wide and at least twenty miles long, for vessels not 

 in sight of each other saw it at about the same time. All the vessels out 

 saw this school the same day." He saw a school off Block Island, 1877, 

 which he estimated to contain one million barrels. He could see only 

 one edge of it at a time. 



Upon the abundance of Mackerel depends the welfare of many thousands 

 of the citizens of Massachusetts and Maine. The success of the mackerel 

 fishery is much more uncertain than that of the cod fishery, for instance, 

 for the supply of cod is quite uniform from year to year. The prospects 

 of each season are eagerly discussed from week to week in thousands of 

 little circles along the coast, and are chronicled by the local press. The 

 story of each successful trip is passed from mouth to mouth, and is a 

 matter of general congratulation in each fishing community. A review of 

 the results of the American mackerel fishery, and of the movements of the 

 fish in each part of the season, would be an important contribution to the 

 literature of the American fisheries. 



The food of the Mackerel consists, for the most part, of small species 

 of crustaceans, which abound everywhere in the sea, and which they 

 appear to follow in their migrations. They also feed upon the spawn of 

 other fishes and upon the spawn of lobsters, and prey greedily upon young 

 fish of all kinds. In the stomach of a "Tinker" Mackerel, taken in 

 Fisher's Island Sound, November 7, 1877, Dr. Bean found the remains 

 of six kinds of fishes — of the anchovy, sand-lants, the smelt, the hake, the 

 barracuda and the silver-sides, besides numerous shrimps and other crusta- 

 ceans. Capt. Atwood states that when large enough they devour greedily 

 large numbers of young herring several months old. Specimens taken 

 July 18, 1871, twenty miles south of Noman's Land, contained numerous 

 specimens of the big-eyed shrimps, Thysaiiopoda, larval crabs in the zoea 

 and megalops stages, the young of hermit crabs, the young lady crabs, 

 Platyoiiicliiis ocellatiis, the young of two undetermined Macrura, numer- 

 ous Copepoda and numerous specimens of Spirialis Gonldii, a species of 

 Pteropod. They also feed upon the centers of floating jelly-fishes (dis- 

 cophores). In Gaspe the fishermen call jelly-fishes " mackerel bait." 



The greed with Avhich Mackerel feed upon the chum, or ground men- 

 haden bait, which is thrown out to them by the fishing vessels, shows that 

 they are not at all dainty in their diet, and will swallow without hesitation 

 any kind of floating organic matter. 



