THE SPANISH MACKEREL AND THE CEROES. 19 



J 



to the species in 1S15, in a manner which seems to indicate that it was 

 not of rare occurrence, but from his day to 1870, it seems to have attracted 

 but little attention. 



Even Mitchill's published description does not seem to have satisfied, 

 contemporary ichthyologists of the existence of such a fish, for some of 

 them did not hesitate to express the opinion that Dr. Mitchill had been 

 deceived by accidental differences of color at different seasons of the year, 

 and that there were not so many varieties of Mackerel as he imagined.* 



In an essay on the fishes of New York market, published in 1854, Prof. 

 Gill referred to the Spanish Mackerel as a species of slight importance. 



The quantity taken with hook and line is quite insignificant ; they are 

 caught almost entirely in traps and weirs, and these contrivances were not 

 employed in Narragansett Bay before 1845, and did not come into 

 general use elsewhere on the coast until many years later. Many experi- 

 enced fishermen are, however, of the opinion that they have been rapidly 

 increasing of late, and this is strikingly confirmed by the marketmen. 



DeKay in his " New York Fauna," 1842, mentioned that he had seen 

 this fish in New York market, in August and September, but that it was 

 not common. 



Prof. Baird, who was one of the first to speak of the abundance of this 

 species and to testify to its excellent qualities, wrote in 1854: "But two 

 specimens were taken during my stay at Beesley's Point, and the species is 

 scarcely known to the fishermen. It was more abundant at Greenport, 

 L. I.; in the Peconic Bay, towards Riverhead, four hundred were caught 

 at one haul of the seine. The fish bring a high price in the New York 

 market, where it has been but recently sold at from fifty cents to one dol- 

 lar a pound, the prices varying with the season. It has been more abund- 

 ant off our coast than ever before, and in the lower part of the Potomac 

 numbers have been taken." 



The Gloucester "Telegraph" of August 17, 1870, stated that the New- 

 port epicures were in ecstasies over the fact that Spanish Mackerel, the 

 most delicious fish caught in the sea, were taken there in seines, and 

 remarked that it was only by southerly winds that they were tempted so 

 far north. 



Mr. J. M. K. Southwick states that the first Spaniih Mackerel taken in 



* Smith, J. V. C: Natural Histor>- of th.c Fishes of Massachusetts, 28,3, . 295. 

 13 



