58 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
received, the kind, quantity, and value of bait utilized, and the quantity | 
and value of each grade of mackerel taken with each appliance. 
A special feature of the inquiry was the provision to obtain complete 
figures showing, for fresh mackerel, the quantity and value of each 
standard size of fish taken, and for salt fish the quality and grade of 
the mackerel packed. While satisfactory figures relating to the differ- 
ent grades of salt mackerel inspected in Massachusetts are available, 
no attempts to obtain complete data for the grades of salt mackerel 
packed in other States or for the various sizes of fish sold in a fresh | 
condition were ever before made. 
Owing to the importance of having statistical data for the mackerel 
fishery covering each year of the “close-time” law, which took effect in 
1888 and terminated in 1892, the inquiry was addressed to the years 
1890, 1891, and 1892, information for the two earlier years having been | 
previously obtained. 
Some supplementary inquiries regarding mackerel were also insti- 
tuted by the division, by securing the codperation of fishermen on 
various parts of the coast in recording observations concerning the 
mackerel during the fishing season of 1895. For this purpose blank 
books of convenient size were prepared and distributed. They pro- 
vided for a daily record of the number of extra large, large, medium, | 
small, and tinker mackerel taken each day, a statement as to the nature | 
of the weather, direction of the wind, ete. | 
In the first week in April, 1893, the writer visited New Jersey for the 
purpose of engaging for this inquiry the services of the pound-net 
fishermen on the northern part of the coast of that State. This section | 
is the most southern part of the United States coast on which mackerel 
are regularly taken in considerable numbers with fixed apparatus. | 
The fishermen who during the previous season had operated pound 
nets were personally visited and the object of the inquiry explained to 
them. They entered very heartily into the matter and agreed to record 
the daily catch as requested. 
Record books of a similar character were placed among the pound- 
net and trap-net fishermen of the Massachusetts coast. The distribu- 
tion was accomplished through Mr. F. IF’. Dimick, local agent at Boston, — 
Mass. Fishermen at a number of points on the Maine and Virginia 
coasts were also communicated with by mail and asked to record their 
mackerel catch. 
While it is not probable that all the fishermen receiving the blanks 
will keep the records requested, there seems no reason to doubt that 
some valuable information will thus be obtained. 
In conjunction with his other duties, Mr. E. F. Locke carried on an 
examination of the spawning condition of the mackerel taken in the 
vicinity of Gloucester. His work on this subject continued until the 
temporary withdrawal of the mackerel from that part of the coast and 
the ending of the spawning season brought the work to a close. 
