136 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [46] 



WAQUOIT, MASSACHUSETTS,* 



1871 April 25 



1872 May 10 



Difference in time — 15 days. 



MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 



1871 ... May 31 



1872 June 20 



Difference in time — 21 days. 



'•At the Waquoit weir tlie earliest mackerel would probably be taken 

 in 1871 . At Amherst Harbor tbe mackerel vessels were actually engaged 

 in fishing (see L. H. LaChance — Report of the marine police schooner 

 Stella Maria, 1871), so that the fish must have been present in small 

 numbers perhaps some days before the fishing began, and we may con- 

 clude that the difference in time between the arrival of the schools at 

 the two places in 1871 and 1872 w^as very nearly the same, and due 

 solely to local variation in marine climate. 



"According to resident Newfoundland fishermen, young mackerel 

 have been seen in great numbers in the Bay of Notre Dame during the 

 montlis of September and October, about three inches in length. 



"They appear on the coasts there generally about the 20th July, and 

 during the period when mackerel were common on the northeast coast, 

 Green Bay, at the extremity of the Bay of Notre Dame, was a noted 

 phice for swarms of mackerel fry." 



To this may be added the following statement from the report for 1871 

 of the captain of the Canadian police scliooner Water Lily: 



"These fish, as a general rule, are to be found close inshore during 

 the month of June and part of July; they then go off into deep water, 

 their favorite resorts being on the Orphan and Bradley Banks, and from 

 Point Miscou to North Cai)e, Prince Edward Island. There are some 

 always to l)e found inshore, but the best fish are in deep water. From 

 the middle of August till the end of September they are to be found 

 more off" the Prince Edward Island ; that is to say, from North Cape to 

 East Point, and in the bay formed Ly Cape George and Cape Jack, on 

 the Nova Scotia shore. In October, at which time the mackerel are at 

 their prime, they again strike inshore and are to be found in great num- 

 bers on the Cape Breton coast from Chetican to the Judique Shoals, but 

 their position depends a great deal on the weather in the fall of the 

 year, as heavy gales of wind drive them oft" into deep waters," 



In this connection I cannot refrain from quoting also an extract from 

 a statement made to the United States House of Representatives by 

 Hon. Caleb Gushing, in 183G, which teaches us that the habits of the 

 mackerel were very well understood nearly half a century ago, and were 

 much the same as at the present day : 



• Report of U. S. Coininissiouer of Fish and Fisheries, 1871-'72. 



