100 KEPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] 



spring as far south as Charleston, and followed them from Cape Henry 

 to the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. 



The very vagueness of the statements just made is evidence to show 

 how little is actually known about the movements of these fish. The 

 subject must be studied long and carefully before it can be understood, 

 and the interests of the American fishermen demand that it should be 

 thus studied. 



" There is," writes Professor Baird, " no very satisfactory evidence 

 of the occurrence of mackerel in the winter or any other season south 

 of Cape Hatteras, and it is not given by Poey and other writers as 

 occurring in the West Indies. A few mackerel are said to be occasion- 

 ally brought into the Charleston market, and Mr. Moses Tarr, of 

 Gloucester, thinks that some years ago he saw in the early part of March, 

 a short distance to the southeast of Key West, a large school of mack- 

 erel. He, however, did not capture any, and it is more likely that the 

 fish observed belonged to some other small species of the mackerel 

 family which occasionally school like the mackerel itself, and might 

 easily be mistaken for it. The skip-jack or leather-back may possibly 

 have been the species referred to. 



" I have been quite surprised to find the extent of belief among Massa- 



their habits it most be assnmod a3 truth that they remain in numbers during Novem- 

 ber, but are found sparingly later on our coasts. Where they are during those dates 

 in any intermediate point from Maine to Virginia, must be left to American observers. 

 When these blanks are filled and a generalization made their history will be more 

 complete, a task we may well leave in the hands of the American Commissioners of 

 Fisheries. 



"In my paper (1865) I speak of their asserted torpidity and the story of their blind- 

 ness as needing more proof before they are asserted as facts. I have had nothing to 

 alter my opinion since. In examining the eyes of many mackerel on May 23 and 27 

 and October 27, in different years, I have found that, as in most fish, the bony orbit is 

 much larger than the base of the eye, and that the space is filled by gelatinous sub- 

 stance, which may be called cellular membrane and adipose deposit to this transpar- 

 ent membrane arising from the outer angle of this orbit spreads half way over tho 

 pupil of the eye. It may easily be raised and defined by passing a pen-knife between 

 it and the eye. At the inner angle there is also a similar, but much smaller, mem- 

 brane, not reaching to the eye. As the mackerel appear on our coasts about the 15tb 

 of May, and these observations were made the 23d, I do not think it can be asserted 

 the eye is closed entirely in spring ; and as the same appearance is found in Septem- 

 ber, we must admit it to be a permanent structure. An analogous membrane is found 

 in the clupide, and doubtless other fish. On asking Thomas Loyd, our roughest and 

 oldest fisherman : 'I don't know anything about the scales of the eyes, but I do know 

 that, curse them, they see too sharp for us, steering clear of our spring nets,' and 

 doubtless old Tom was right. 



"On dissecting a mackerel. May 23, 1 found the heart first presenting the tricomered 

 ventrical with its white aorta and deep red auricle resting upon the fringe of cceca 

 that covered the intestines, sweeping down to the vent. The liver and stomach were 

 both covered by the cceca. The latter was about three inches long, its upper lobe 

 thick and round, but ending in a narrow tail or point. The cardiac end of the stomach 

 was prolonged two and a half inches, ending in a point. The coecae wore attached to 

 the gut about an inch below the pylorus. There was but little difference in appeal"^ 



