178 



AMERICAN FISHES. 



the Pacific as S. dicgo. Prof. Jordan considers it to be the S. grcx of vari- 

 ous authors, but writes that he is not yet prepared to accept as final the 

 judgment of Steindachner and Yaillant that it is the young of S. colias. 

 The lower half of its sides is silvery and without any gray spots, such as 

 are conspicuous in S. colias. Jordan has specimens of the unspotted form 

 much larger than his smallest specimens of the true S. colias. 



THE CHUB MACKEREL. 



The history of the Chub Mackerel on our coast is a peculiar one. At 

 the beginning of the present century it was exceedingly abundant all along 

 the coast of New England and New York. Mitchill remarked that 

 it "■ comes occasionally in prodigious numbers to the coast of New York 

 in autumn. This Avas memorably the case in 1781 and 1813, when the 

 bays, creeks and coves were literally alive with them, and the markets 

 full of them." 



DeKay states that in early November, 1S28, they were very abundant, 

 and many persons were poisoned by eating them. 



Capt. Epes W. Merchant, of Gloucester, a veteran fishing skipper, who 

 has been familiar with the fisheries of Massachusetts Bay for the past 

 seventy years, told me that the Thimble-eye Avere so abundant from 181 4 

 to 1820 that with three men and a boy and a small vessel he could catch 

 ten barrels of them, or about three thousand fish, in a day. 



From these testimonies it would appear that between 1S40 and 1S50 

 the species, formerly so abundant, had disappeared along the whole coast 

 line. In an essay by the writer, written in the spring of 1879, this sen- 

 tence occurs: "For ten years past the Smithsonian Institution, with its 

 collectors stationed at various points from Halifax to Galveston, has tried 

 in vain to secure one of them, and it is probable that no museum in the 

 world possesses a species of this fish, once so common." 



