I'TSHES. 199 



hundred pounds is considered a very large one and two hundred pounds is about the 

 average. One specimen taken in 1858 off Cape Ann measured, according to Dr. 

 Storer, fifteen feet in length, and weighed one thousand pounds, and in 1878, Capt. 

 Henry Webb, off Milk Island, Gloucester harbor, killed thirty of these monsters, weigh- 

 ing in the aggregate at least thirty thousand pounds. But according to Capt. Atwood 

 the average size is about eight feet in length, and this, on the basis of the ratio 

 of length to weight recorded by Dr. Storer, would give only al)out one hundred 

 and fifty pounds weight or little more. These data of length and weight require 

 revision. 



The tunny ranges in the warm temperate Atlantic zone, and is common to both 

 sides of the ocean. It is especially abundant in the Mediterranean, and ascends along 

 the coast of Europe sparingly to the Lofoden Islands in latitude 69°, while in the west- 

 ern Atlantic, along the shores of America, it may be seen as far north as the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence and Newfoundland in the summer. 



Mr. Goode informs us that, although abundant at some seasons of the year off par- 

 ticular parts of the coast, it is not a familiar form to our writers. It is a summer fish. 



'ray 





J 



Fig. 115. — Orcynus thynnus, tunny, horse-mackerel. 



and makes its first appearance on our shores, about Provincetown, early in June, and 

 remains until October ; of late years it has been increasing in abundance northward, 

 becoming more and more common, during the summer season, .about Newfoundland. 



The tunny, gifted with surju-ising strength and power of swimming, is a formidable 

 foe to other fishes, and has been denounced as an enemy of all kinds. It has been seen 

 to swallow small sharks, such as the dog-fish, weighing about eight jiounds, and when dog- 

 fishes, caught for the liver, have been eviscerated .and thrown back, the tunnies would 

 immediately catch and eat them. It is also the well-known enemy of the dolphin, as 

 well as of the favorite prey of the latter, the flying-fishes. 



The flesh of the tunny is dark, and not .attractive to the eye, aiul yet it is not only 

 wholesome, but is much esteemed in southern Europe, although held in very slight 

 favor, or even in disfavor, in the United States. In America, in fact, it is scarcely ever 

 eaten fresh, and it is only caught for the oil which it furnishes. A large fish may yield 

 as much as twenty-three gallons of oil, although the average is much less. But, 



