THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 181 



Q. Well, these sea scavengers, are they usually at the bottom ? — A. Everywhere, 

 at the bottom and the top. Then there are the dogfish, the small sharks, catfish, 

 goosefish, sculpins, and the codfish themselves, a variety of lobsters, and other in- 

 habitants of the sea, that are at ■work, always ready and eager to seize anything of 

 this kind and consume it. Then when the bones are exposed there are the sea-urchins, 

 that make a specialty of devouring them. Now, I cannot say but that this material, 

 under certain circumstances, may lodge in the crevices of the rocks and remain there 

 and become an offense to the surrounding fish, but I rather suspect that the trouble 

 about the gurry is that it attracts the predatory fish. Where it is thrown overboard 

 it tolls them from a long distance. The dogfish, the shark, and other fish are attracted 

 and come to the place where this offal has been throw overboard, and after they have 

 consumed all that, they turn their attention to the cod and other fish that may be 

 there and drive them off. 



Q. So that even throwing overboard the gurry there is a danger of defeating your 

 own purpose ? — A. Yes; certainly. That is the hypothesis given as to the supposed 

 evil effect of throwing overboard the offal in the European waters. It prevents the 

 fishing there as long as this state of things lasts, but whether there is an actual in- 

 jury otherwise I cannot say. The general presumption is against the idea that these 

 substances can have a lodgment for any length of time to produce any offense. It 

 might do it in fresh water. In the lakes you may have such a condition where those 

 scavengers are not provided. But it hardly seems to me that it can be in the seas, in 

 the northern seas especially. 



Q. What is the geographical distribution of mackerel?— A. The mackerel is a fish 

 that has not so northerly a distribution as the cod, and perhaps extends somewhat 

 further south ; otherwise it is found over, to a very considerable extent, the same 

 range. It is found as far south as the Azores in European waters, and as far as Spitz- 

 bergen and Norway to the north. On our southern coast we find it very rarely, and 

 very few individual specimens have been taken in the vicinity of Charleston. It has 

 never been taken in the West Indies; never in Bermuda, I believe; but it is found 

 as far north as the Strait of Belle Isle, and how much further north I cannot say. 

 The two species (American and European) are believed to be identical, and although 

 they are constantly within a comparatively small number of leagues of each other, 

 yet they do not occur all the way across. 



Q. What is the 8eason for mackerel ? — A. In America the mackerel season is in 

 spring, summer, and autumn. In winter they are not found on our coast, and we 

 don't get them, but we have them on our shores as early as the middle of April and 

 as late as November. 



Q. Now, as to the variation of seasons. What do you say about that? — A. It is 

 very rarely they appear in the same abundance in two successive years, or, at least, 

 it is rarely that the sum total of the experience of tho fishermen gives about the same 

 aggregate. Sometimes they are so scarce that the actual catch of one year will be 

 much below that of other years, but we cannot say there are any fewer fish actually 

 in the water. It may be that they take a different line; they may keep in different 

 waters; they may show themselves less to fishermen ; and may have other modes of 

 variation ; but we only know by the practical results of fishing that the catch in 

 some seasons is much greater than in others. 



Q. What do you think is known or what do you think is the best conjecture as to 

 their migrations ? — A. There have been a great many hypotheses on the subject of 

 the migration of mackerel. At one time mackerel, as was supposed to be the case 

 with cod and sea-herring, was believed to have an extreme range, that a large school 

 traversed the coast of America or Europe, and swept over a range of thousands of 

 miles, making a circuit that occupied one year in its completion. But the evidence 

 at the present time tends to show that the mackerel comes in on the American coast 

 as a great army, broadside, and appears within a reasonable length of time, or very 

 nearly the same time, on all that extent of coast. 



