THE MACKEREL AND ITS ALLIES. 175 



years old. It is probable that the fish reaches its full maturity in four 

 years." He continues : " The first Mackerel that come in are very large 

 and spawners, but these do not bite at the hook; and you don't catch 

 them with the seine, because they don't show themselves. You would not 

 know of their presence if you did not set nets for them. When they are 

 taken in nets set anywhere along the coast, at Provincetown, etc., a good 

 many people imagine that they are the remnant of the Mackerel which 

 were there the year before, and which have been imbedded in the mud ; 

 and when they taste these fish they fancy that they taste mud. When the 

 next school arrives there appear Mackerel of different sizes, which take 

 the hook. They are carried to Boston market and are sold fresh in their 

 season. They are not sold by weight, but are culled, and are denominated 

 as follows: Large ones, second size, 'Tinkers,' and 'Blinks.' When 

 the large ones are worth twelve cents, the others may sell, second size, 

 eight cents ; Tinkers, four cents, and Blinks, one and a half cents. These 

 prices may fluctuate when there occurs a large proportion of one or more 

 of the above-named kinds at the same time. Any man who is well ac- 

 quainted with them will make the same culling, as there seems to be a 

 line of demarcation between the different kinds which stands out 

 prominently. 



" Admitting this to be the fact, those that come as Blinks are from the 

 spawn of the year before, while those which are called ' Tinkers ' are 

 from the Blinks of the year previous, being the two-year-old fish ; and 

 those that are called second size are from the Tinkers of the year before ; 

 when they grow up and mix with the bigger ones, I don't know how they 

 live, or much about them. This is my opinion about these matters. You 

 Avill find that fishermen will tell you they think that Mackerel are six or 

 seven years in getting their growth." 



Mackerel, when full grown, are from seventeen to eighteen inches in 

 length; sometimes they attain a larger size. In August, 1880, a school 

 of Mackerel was taken in the vicinity of Plymouth ; they weighed from 

 three to three and a half pounds each, and were from nineteen to nineteen 

 and a half inches long. They were regarded as extraordinary large, and 

 a barrel of them were sent to the Fishery Exhibition at Berlin as an illus- 

 tration of the perfection to which the Mackerel attains in this country. 

 Although the size mentioned is unusual at present, in past years many 

 thousands of barrels have been taken nearly, if not quite, as large. The 



