114 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [24] 



Niue-tentlis of those first seen are males, and they are all large but poor, 

 weighing from one pound to one pound and a half. At their first ap- 

 pearance they will not take the hook, and are therefore captured in 

 seines." 



The contrast between the statements of Storer and Captain Webb 

 should be carefully noted. The former states that the early fish taken 

 near the end of Cape Cod are mostly males. This would naturally be 

 the case, as the females at this time are either engaged in spawning or 

 are perhaj)s so weak that they would not be likely to come to the sur- 

 face. At Milk Island, however, which seems to be in the middle of the 

 spawning region, the majority of the fish are females. 



We are indebted to Capt. N. E. Atwood for the most complete series 

 of observations upon the spawning of the mackerel which has ever 

 been made, and what he has seen he shall be allowed to tell in his own 

 words : 



"I have many seasons been engaged in fishing for mackerel in our 

 bay with gill-nets. I watched the mackerel more particularly in regard 

 to their time for spawning. In 1856, owing to the fact that a measure 

 had passed the Massachusetts legislature authorizing the appointment 

 of three commissioners to make investigations with regard to the arti- 

 ficial propagation of the fish, and that I expected to be named one of 

 the commissioners, I went to the upper part of Massachusetts Bay, 

 where it is about twenty miles broad, and I found these spawning 

 mackerel there near the bottom. This year the mackerel came in about 

 the middle of May; few at first. On the 20th I went out for the first 

 time with my drifting-nets all night in the bay ; I caught 2,250 mack- 

 erel; on the following night I caught 3,520. When I first began to 

 catch them I observed that the spawn had come to its full size, though 

 it was not free to run from them, not being yet fuUy matured. On or 

 about the 1st of June we found that some of them were depositing 

 spawn, and as I took them from the nets the spawn ran freely. On the 

 5th of June I took the mature eggs as they came from the fish and put 

 them in alcohol, marking the date, as I considered this time the middle 

 of the spawning season. (By the 10th of June the fish had all depos- 

 ited their spawn, and they then proceeded to the grounds where they 

 expected to meet with better food in order to fatten and recruit. The 

 spawning takes place at a depth of from five to fifteen fathoms.) Thirty 

 days after I went out in the bay and found any quantity of schools of 

 little mackerel which were, I should think, about two inches long, 

 though their length might have been a little less. I took a number of 

 specimens and put them in alcoliol, marking the date. Twenty-five 

 days later I procured another lot of them which had grown to double 

 that size. I don't mean to imply that they were twice as long, but 

 twice as heavy. I put them also in alcohol, marking the date. The 

 first time I subsequently went to Boston I called on Professor Agassiz 

 and gave him the specimens. He said that he had never before been 



