42 FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Those packed in 1836, were furnished by the following 

 towns : 



At the prices these fish were worth in November, 1836, the 

 value of the year's fishing amounts to 1,264,012 dollars. 



The whole number of barrels of mackerel inspected in Mas- 

 sachusetts for the five years, from 1832 to 1836 inclusive, are 

 as follows : 



1832,-224,000 barrels ; 1833—225,000 ; 1834,-253,000 ; 

 1835,-197,000 ;■ 1836,-180,616. 



Although it would seem, from the above table, that a 

 smaller quantity of mackerel had been packed in 1836, than 

 the several years immediately preceding it, yet it cannot be 

 inferred from this circumstance that fewer vessels were 

 engaged, or that the business was considered less important 

 than before. In some years, immense shoals of these fishes 

 are readily met with, and the vessels return in a few weeks 

 with full cargoes ; while the same localities may be visited at 

 other seasons, and the efforts of the fisherman prove fruitless, 

 and his fare meagre. 



So peculiar are the habits of this genus, that oftentimes 

 weeks may pass, the fishing smacks be surrounded by millions 



