[7] THE SPANISH MACKEREL. AQL 
the country. Professor Goode, in his Game Fishes of the United States, 
says: “The early chronicles of the colonists contain no references to the 
Spanish Mackerel under its present name; but it seems quite probable 
that this fish was the Speckled Hound-fish spoken of in that renowned 
work, ‘New England’s Rarities discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, 
Serpents, and Plants, of that Country, etc. By John Josselyn, Gent., 
published in 1672. Josselyn wrote of ‘ blew-fish or hound-fish, two kinds, 
speckled hound-fish and blew hound-fish, called horsefish. The Blue 
Hound-fish can be nothing else than the common Bluefish of our coast, 
Pomatomus saltatriz, and no species in the Western Atlantic, other than 
our Spanish Mackerel, resembles the Bluefish closely enough to warrant 
the use of a similar name.” If this supposition be correct, the Spanish 
mackerel was very abundant during the seventeenth century. But 
the species must certainly have decreased greatly in numbers after 
that date, especially along the New England coast, for though it was 
not entirely absent, as shown by the fact that reference is made to. 
it by various ichthyologists from time to time, yet it was not suffi- 
ciently abundant to be generally known to the fishermen of the country, 
_or to be sent in any quantities to the principal markets. Mr. Scott, in 
writing of the species, in 1875, says it ‘‘is a comparative stranger to 
us, and though never known to venture as far north as the fortieth de- 
gree of latitude until about ten years since, yet his families are now as 
numerous on our coast as are those of most other estuary fishes.” 
The date of its first appearance in the New York market could not 
have been far from 1840; and as late as 1854 Professor Gill reported 
the species as having very little commercial importance. 
Prior to 1850 almost nothing was known of the fish about Sandy 
Hook. About this time, Mr. Robert Lloyd, a fisherman of Seabright, 
while engaged in trolling for blue-fish, secured quite a number of Spanish 
mackerel, these being the first he had ever seen. He carried them 
with the blue-fish to one of the hotels, the proprietor of which had 
entered into an agreement with him to take his entire catch; but that 
gentleman, knowing nothing of the mackerel, refused to buy them at 
any price. ; 
From this date they were taken more frequently, and soon came to be 
highly prized as an article of food. They were caught wholly by troll- 
ing, the average daily catch being from ten to twenty fish to the boat; 
the fishing being best when the water was a little rough. Later they 
continued to increase in number, or at least came to be more generally 
noticed by the fishermen, until 1866, when it is said they were often 
nearly as plenty as the blue-fish, though comparatively few were taken, 
owing to the lack of suitable apparatus, and it was not until the intro- 
duction of properly arranged gill-nets and pound-nets that the fisher- 
men were successful in securing any considerable quantities. 
Since 1875 it is claimed that their numbers have gradually decreased 
on the inshore grounds, though they are said to be as numerous as for- 
S. Mis. 29———26 
