B ONI TOES AND TUNNIES. 



215 



Riggs, that there are a thousand barrels in one of the schools, shows how 

 exceedingly abundant they must be. 



Capt. N. E. Atwood, of Provincetown, Mass., the veteran fisherman- 

 ichthyologist, has examined the specimens, and is satisfied that they 

 belong to the same species with a fish which he found abundant in the 

 Azores in 1840, when, led by the reports of Cape Cod whalers, he went to 

 these islands in search of the Mackerel, the mackerel fishing being poor at 

 home. No Mackerel were found except the Frigate Mackerel. Reports 

 in 1887, concerning this occurrence of Mackerel in the Eastern Atlantic 

 are very probably insi)ired by the presence of this fish. 



The Horse Mackerel, so-called, Orcyniis thynnus, is the most important 

 of the Tunnies, the " Ton " or " Tuna" of the Mediterranean, and the 

 " Tunny" of English-speaking people. 



The distribution of this fish corresponds more closely with that of the 

 ordinary species of the Atlantic, since it occurs not only in the Mediter- 

 ranean and the Western Atlantic north to the Gulf of St. Eawrence, but 

 also on the coast of Europe to the Loffoden Islands, latitude 69°. 



Of this fish, as found in American waters, our naturalists have not much 

 to say, the species, although abundant at certain seasons of the year off 

 particular parts of the coast, being not a very familiar one to our writers. 

 They seem to be rather a northern fish, and are said by Storer to make 

 their first appearance on our shores about Provincetown early in June, 

 remaining until October. Of late years they seem to be increasing in 

 abundance northward, becoming more and more common during the 

 summer season at Newfoundland. 



In 1878 Capt. Henry Webb, of Milk Island, near Gloucester, harpooned 

 and killed thirty of these monsters, weighing in the aggregate at least 

 thirty thousand pounds. They had entered his pound in pursuit of small 

 fish, cutting without difficulty through the netting. One had his stomach 

 full of small mackerel. 



According to Capt. Atwood, on their first appearance in Massachusetts 

 Bay they are very poor, but by the beginning of September become quite 

 fat and are very much hunted for the oil, the head and belly especially 

 furnishing sometimes as many as twenty gallons. They are harpooned 

 on the surface of the water, much like the Sword-fish. 



The early traditions of this fish in Massachusetts Bay speak of them as 

 being sometimes so tame as to take food from the hand ; but they have 



