316 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [226] 



1832. — Failure of mackerel on the western coast of nova 



SCOTIA. — importance OP THE AMERICAN MACKEREL FISHERY. 



So far this fall the mackerel fishery on our western shore has been an 

 entire failure. Some idea may be formed of the extent to which this 

 fishery is carried on from the Uuited States by the circumstance of 360 

 vessels having left the port of Gloucester for that purpose on the night 

 of the 28th ultimo. — Halifax, November 20. — (Gloucester Telegraph, De- 

 cember!, 1832.) 



1833. — Disinclination of mackerel to take the hook. 



These fish [mackerel] are taken in much less quantities this season thus 

 far than usual. The complaint of the fishermen is not so much that 

 they can't find mackerel, but that they " won't bite " when they find 

 them. This again makes the salt manufacturer comi)lain that his com- 

 modity is less wanted, and consequently the price is reduced ; and when 

 our fishermen and salt makers are disappointed and have hard luck 

 makes sorry times on Cape Cod. Some of our shoresmen, however, the 

 onion growers, have good crops and they obtain a fair price for them at 

 market. And the sea-serpent, or something else, has driven on shore 

 upon the cai)e, at several places, a considerable number of black fish, 

 the blubber of which makes very good oil, and some of these fish have 

 a considerable quantity of it. — (Barnstable Patriot, August 28, 1833.) 



1833. — Great abundance of mackerel in Massachusetts bay. 



Mr. S. B. Brown, writing of the early fisheries of Gloucester, says: 

 "The next year [1833] 1 went to Gloucester, hunted up my old skipper, 

 who was still master of the same boat, and went with him that season. 



" I recollect well the great school of mackerel that struck Middle 

 Bank that year. September 22, at 10 o'clock at night, there were some 

 two hundred sail at anchor, 25 miles southeast of Eastern Point light, 

 in a dead calm, when our skipper sang out, 'Here they are, boys,' at 

 the same moment every vessel in the fleet commenced the catch. We 

 fished for three days, and filled everything, even our boat, and struck 

 on deck until we were in fish knee deej). Then, a breeze up, we ran in 

 and packed out 280 barrels, and returned to the bank just as the wind 

 left us. We fished three days more when they struck ofE" as suddenly 

 as they had come." — (Fisherman's Own Book, page 197.) 



1834. — Mackerel fleet in the oulf of saint Lawrence. 



According to Captain Atwood the fleet of American mackerel catch- 

 ers in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in 1834, consisted of six vessels, three 

 of which belonged at Provincetown. They secured full fares, and re- 

 turned in a very short time. 



