THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 181 
Q. Well, these sea scavengers, are they usually at the bottom?—A. Everywhere, 
at the bottom andthe top. Then there are the dogfish, the small sharks, catfish, 
goosefish, sculpins, and the codfish themselves, a variety of lobsters, and other in- 
habitants of the sea, that are at work, always ready and eager to seize anything of 
this kind and consume it. Then when the bones are exposed there are the sea-urchins, 
that make a specialty of devouring them. Now,I cannot say but that this material, 
under certain circumstances, may lodge in the crevices of the rocks and remain thepe 
and becomé an offense to the surrounding fish, but I rather suspect that the trouble 
about the gurry is that it attracts the predatory fish. Where it is thrown overboard . 
it tolls them froma long distance. The dogfish, the shark, and other fish areattracted 
and come to the place where this offal has been throw overboard, and after they have 
consumed all that, they turn their attention to the cod and other fish that may be 
there and drive them off. 
Q. So that even throwing overboard the gurry there is a danger of defeating your 
own purpose ?7—A. Yes; certainly. That is the hypothesis given as to the supposed 
evil effect of throwing overboard the offal in the European waters. It prevents the 
fishing there as long as this state of things lasts, but whether there is an actual in- 
jury otherwise I cannot say. The general presumption is against the idea that these 
- substances can have a lodgment for any length of time to produce any offense. It 
might do itin fresh water. In the lakes you may have such a condition where those 
scavengers are not provided. But it hardly seems to me that it can be in the seas, in 
the northern seas especially. 
Q. What is the geographical distribution of mackerel?—A. The mackerel is a fish 
that has not so northerly a distribution as the cod, and perhaps extends somewhat 
further south; otherwise it is found over, to a very considerable extent, the same 
range. It is found as far south as the Azores in European waters, and as far as Spitz- 
bergen and Norway to the north. On our southern coast we find it very rarely, and 
very few individual specimens have been taken in the vicinity of Charleston. It has 
never been taken in the West Indies; never in Bermuda, I believe; but it is found 
as far north as the Strait of Belle Isle, and how much further north I cannot say. 
The two species (American and European) are believed to be identical, and although 
they are constantly within a comparatively small number of leagues of each other, 
yet they do not occur all the way across. 
Q. What is the season for mackerel ?—A. In America the mackerel season is in 
spring, summer, and autumn. In winter they are not found on our coast, and we 
don’t get them, but we have them on our shores as early as the middle of April and 
as late as November. 
Q. Now, as to the variation of seasons. What do you say about that?—A. It is 
very rarely they appear in the same abundance in two successive years, or, at least, 
it is rarely that the sum total of the experience of the fishermen gives about the same 
aggregate. Sometimes they are so scarce that the actual catch of one year will be 
much below that of other years, but we cannot say there are any fewer fish actually 
in the water. It may be that they take a different line; they may keep in different 
waters; they may show themselves less to fishermen; and may have other modes of 
variation ; but we only know by the practical results of fishing that the catch in 
some seasons is much greater than in others. 
Q. What do you think is known or what do you think is the best conjecture as to 
their migrations?—A. There have been a great many hypotheses on the subject of 
the migration of mackerel. At one time mackerel, as was supposed to be the case 
with cod and sea-herring, was believed to have an extreme range, that a large school 
traversed the coast of America or Europe, and swept over a range of thousands of 
miles, making a circuit that occupied one year in its completion. But the evidence 
at the present time tends to show that the mackerel comes in on the American coast 
as a great army, broadside, and appears within a reasonable length of time, or very 
nearly the same time, on all that extent of coast. 
