140 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Occasionally this fish visits the very harbors along both shores of Massachusetts Bay, 

 and is taken in great numl)ers. When they first enter the Bay, immense quantities are 

 captured in the harbor of Provincetown. By the following extract from the Boston 

 Atlas of July 12, 1845, copied from the Gloucester Telegraph, it appears that that 

 place had received a visit from this species : — " For a few days past our harbor has been 

 filled with mackerel ; and on Monday about four hundred barrels, it is estimated, were 

 taken in seines, vessels, boats, and from the wharves. Upwards of a hundred barrels were 

 taken in a seine at one haul." The following, which I extract from a " Statement pre- 

 sented to the Members of the House of Representatives, by Mr. Caleb Gushing," in ref- 

 erence to a " Bill in Addition to an Act to authorize the Licensing of Vessels to be em- 

 ployed in the Mackerel Fishery," exhibits the peculiarities of this fish in an interesting 

 manner : — " Their movements and haunts are very precarious, and their habits are more 

 versatile than those of almost any other fish of commercial importance. So true is this, 

 that fishermen who have pursued the business for a long period have but little advantage 

 over those recently engaged in it, in judging, with any degree of certainty, which may 

 be the best spot of fishing-ground at any particular season of the year. It is oftentimes 

 the case, that vessels in extreme parts of the Bay, and in nearly all intermediate stations, 

 will have good fishing for a few days, and for many succeeding days no mackerel will be 

 visible ; after which they will appear to rise simultaneously in nearly all parts of the Bay ; 

 and in moderate weather large tracts of the surface of the sea will seem to be covered 

 with shoals of the fish, swimming with one side of the gill out of water. At times, the 

 fishermen can take only a few from a shoal, as it passes directly in contact with their 

 vessel, without being induced to stop by bait, or altering its course in the least degree. 

 It occasionally happens, that late in the year the fishermen will reap a rich harvest, when 

 the whole previous season had been comparatively unproductive. Thus it was in the 

 autumn of 1831. In October of that year the mackerel struck in very near to Cape 

 Ann. Large fleets of vessels collected in such close order as to be continually coming in 

 contact. The sea being smooth, and great quantities of bait thrown out, the fish col- 

 lected in such quantities that some vessels took nearly one hundred barrels in a single 

 day. At the same time they were very abundant off Cape Cod and on Jeffries' Ledge ; 

 and it was computed that more than 70,000 barrels were taken in a single week." 



Several of our most intelligent fishermen inform me that the difficulty of taking mack- 

 erel is yearly increasing, from the barbarous custom prevailing of " gaffing " them ; that 

 is, of collecting them around vessels by throwing out bait, and then suddenly drawing 

 up an instrument armed with numerous sharp iron points, by which many are captured, 

 and greater numbers are cruelly maimed without being taken. 



