CHAPTER XXIII 



THE APACHES OF THE SEA 



WIFTEST of all fishes, wandering far and wide, 

 and hunting in packs, the mackerel tribe are 

 the Apaches of the sea. You may call them 

 freebooters or Bedouins, or any other name 

 which will indicate strength, speed, voracity and inde- 

 pendence. All of them are shaped like a clipper ship. All 

 of them have small sleek scales, and fins that lie flat in 

 a groove. All of them have slim tails, worked by strong 

 red muscles, and ending in a broad, forked, fan-shaped 

 caudal fin, which is their means of propulsion in the water. 

 The true mackerel is one of the smallest of the tribe, but 

 in the Atlantic, on both shores, it exists in countless mil- 

 lions, and from the economic point of view outweighs all 

 the rest. The chub mackerel, a little smaller, much less 

 valuable, but looking very much like the true mackerel, is 

 found in all warm seas. Curiously enough, it was first 

 named from a Japanese specimen before ever it was noticed 

 as a separate fish. This fish is common in California, 

 Hawaii and Japan, as well as in the West Indies, up the 

 Gulf Stream and in Europe. 



The frigate mackerel ranges widely in schools through the 

 open sea, and sometimes may be found anywhere where the 

 water is not too cold. Larger than these are the striped 

 bonitos or skipjacks, in the Atlantic and in the Pacific. 

 Still larger are the two species of oceanic bonito, ranging 

 everywhere — the striped and the spotted and mottled forms. 

 All of these are game fishes, with red and oily meat, some 

 coarser and some finer. 



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