182 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. : 
Q. Do you think it strikes the coast a little later to the north and a little earlier to 
the south ?—A. The left wing of the army, as we might call it, strikes the American 
. coast first, and the right wing strikes the Bay of St. Lawrence last; but it comes in 
with a broad sweep, not moving along the coast but coming in broadside. When the 
quickening influence of the spring sun is felt on this great body of fish somewhere 
outside, where I cannot say, they start, and the given temperature is reached sooner ~ 
at Cape Hatteras than at Bay St. Lawrence; but I do not believe that the fish that 
enter the bay always skirt the American coust, nor do I believe that the American 
fish go into the bay. They come in a large number of schools, each school represent- 
ing a family, that is, they spawn together, and they may have a short lateral move- 
ment, and they move a limited number of miles.along the coast till they find a satis- 
factory spawning-ground; but, as a general rule, they aggregate in three large ~ 
bodies; ‘one of those bodies is about Block Island and Nantucket shoals, another is 
in the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy, and another in Bay St. Lawrence. There 
are connections between those three bodies. You find them all along the coast; there 
are a certain number which spawn and are taken all along the coast; they are caught 
in weirs and pounds in spring and fall within one hundred yards of the shore; but 
the mass, as far as I can learn from the testimony presented before the Commission, 
are aggregated in those three great bodies. ; 
Q. Is anything known about their winter quarters?—A. Nothing definite. We 
miss them for several months, from the end of November until March and April, and 
We say, We guess, we suggest they go into the Gulf Stream. That they go somewhere 
where they can find a temperature that suits them and there they remain, is clear; 
but it is a little remarkable that they never have been seen schooling in the Gulf 
Stream, that they never have shown -themselves, that no fisherman, mackereler, or 
steamboat captain has ever reported, so far as my information goes, a school of mack- 
erel in the winter season. If they were free swimmers, one would suppose they would 
show themselves under such circumstances. There is a belief very generally enter- 
tained among fishermen that they go into the mud and hybernate. That is an hy- 
pothesis I have nothing to say against. It seems a little remarkable that so free a 
swimmer as the mackerel should go into mud to spend its winter, but there is abun- 
dance of analogy for it. Plenty of fish bury themselves in mud in the winter time and 
go down two or three feet deep. There are fish that are so ready to bury themselves 
in mud you can dig them out of an almost dry patch as you could potatoes. The 
European tench, the Australian mud-fish, and dozens of species do that. There is 
nothing whatever in the economy of the mackerel or in the economy of fish generally ~ 
against this idea, that it is an inhabitant of the mud. And the fishermen believe 
chat the scale, which grows over the eyes, according to their account, in winter, is 
intended to curb their natural impetuosity and make them more willing to go into 
mud and stay there in winter and not be schooling out on the surface of the water. 
There are well-authenticated cases of fish being taken from the mud between the 
prongs of the jig when spearing for eels. That this has occurred off the Nova Scotia — 
coast, in St. Margaret’s Bay, and Bras @’Or, Cape Breton, and parts of the Bay of St. — 
Lawrence, I am assured is not at all doubtful. 4 
Q. Do not fishermen mainly retain the old theory of the northern set of the whole — 
body ?—A. Very largely, but I think latterly they are changing their views. 
By Hon. Mr. KELLoGeG: 
Q. The fish were mackerel that were brought out of the mud ?—A. When after telas 5 
they brought up mackerel out of the mud, in several instances, in January. 
By Mr. Dana 
Q. What can you tell the Commission about the period of the spawning of mack-_ 
erel?—A. Mackerel spawn almost immediately after they visit our shores. The ear-_ 
liest fish taken in the weirs and pounds in Vineyard Sound and Buzzard’s Bay are— 
full of ripe spawn, so that when the fish are taken out of the pounds and put into” 
boats to bring them to shore there are sometimes quarts and pecks of # e spawn in- 




