388 report of commissioner of fish and fisheries. [298] 



1867. — Small catch of mackerel by the bay and shore fleets. 



Mackerel still contiuiie very scarce, and the receipts of both shore aud 

 bay are very light. The eastern fleet are doing but little, and the i)ros- 

 pect of a successful fall catch is anything but encouraging. About 

 2,200 barrels have arrived from the bay the past week, which have been 

 quickly taken at advanced prices. Wo quote sales of No. I's at $21.50 

 to $21; IS'o. 2's, $13.50 to $13.25. Shore very scarce with slight ad- 

 vance. Least sales of No. I's at $18.50 ; No. 2, $13.25. The mackerel 

 catch this season will probably be fully one-third less than that of last. — 

 (Oai)e Ann Advertiser, September 27, 1867.) 



BOYS IN the mackerel FISHING. 



James S. McDonald, about fourteen years of age, has caught the 

 present season 36 barrels of mackerel, and James Babson, fifteen years 

 of age, 40 barrels. — (Ibid.) 



1867. — High line of the mackerel fleet. 



The Newbury port Herald states that the schooner "Tanny" takes the 

 palm for this season among the mackerel fleet, having landed 910 bar- 

 rels, which stocked $13,000. — (Cape Ann Advertiser, November 15, 



1867.) 



1867. — Review of the mackerel fisheries. 



The shore mackerel and seining business has been largely engaged in, 

 but has proved far less remunerative than last year. The southern 

 fleet did remarkably well ; but the shore fleet has not done as poorly 

 for many years. 



The bay mackerel fishing has proved rather unprofitable the present 

 season. Less than one-third of the fleet have made two trips, and the 

 catch will fall far short of last year. — (Cape Ann Advertiser, November 

 22, 1867.) 



1867. — Reminiscences by capt. j, w. collins. 



Toward the latter part of May, in 1867, I started on a mackerel trip 

 to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the "Lizzie F. Ohoate." We arrived 

 in the bay about the 1st of June ; but, notwithstanding we cruised over 

 all the fishing-grounds usually resorted to at this season, we failed to 

 catch any mackerel until about the middle of the month, and none were 

 taken by other vessels, so far as we could learn, any earlier. Mackerel 

 that year were all large size, as during the two previous seasons, but 

 were apparently not so plentiful as the year before. We fished on the 

 ground usually resorted to in the early summer, but obtained the best 

 catclies in the deep water between Bank Orphan and Bank Bradley, 

 where, on one occasion, we took, in a single day, 50 or 60 barrels of 



