[31] 



HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



preceding spring - , as is the case of the schools on the Atlantic coasts. 

 In these particulars their movements resemble those of different species 

 of fish which feed and move in great schools in directions outlined by 

 circles or ellipses throughout the period during which they are at the 

 surface.* 



* It is ii fact well known to all experienced mackerel fishermen that during the 

 mouth of May and the early part of June large bodies of mackerel pass along the 

 shores of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton from westto east, and while many of these fish 

 move through the waters of Ch^dabucto Bay aud the Straits of Canso to the Gulf of 

 Saint Lawrence, other schools pass in around the east end of Cape Breton Island, their 

 destination being the same as those fish taking the shorter route. No better evidence 

 of this migratory habit can be given than the fact that at this season of the year the 

 fishermen along the Nova Scotian coast and about the Strait of Canso are busily em- 

 ployed in carching mackerel both in gill-nets and in drag-seines. On sonic occasions 

 when the season has been exceptionally favorable the amount of mackerel so taken 

 has often been very great. This movement of the mackerel is so regular and so well- 

 defined that the fishermen rarely fail to tell within a few days, or, perhaps, even a 

 few hoars of the time when they will appear on certain portions of the coast. The 

 fall migrations are 'quite as regular. As the season advances aud the temperature 

 of the water decreases, the mackerel, instead of simply changing their position into 

 deeper water near their summer habitat, as has been stated by Proiessor Hind, move 

 in vast bodies towards the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, frequently 

 striking in a succession of waves, as it were, on the northern shores of Cape Breton 

 Island, where, deflected from their southern course, they divide into two streams or 

 branches, one passing through the Strait of Canso, and the other out round the north 

 cape of the island, by its eastern and southern sides, and so on up along the south 

 coast of Nova Scotia. The mackerel which are found about the Magdalene Islands 

 during the summer and early autumn apparently move in a nearly direct line towards 

 the northeast end of Cape Breton Island when they begin their fall migration. I have 

 often had occasion to uotice, in a practical way, these movements, the knowledge of 

 which is of vital importance to the fishermen and of considerable interest to the nat- 

 uralist. On one occasion in the fall of 1867 an immense body of mackerel was found 

 along the north shore of Cape Breton, and on the last day that the fish were seen the 

 schools came near the surface of the water, and I feel safe in saying, from actual ob- 

 servation, that they moved at a rate of no less than three or four miles per hour in the 

 direction of the north cape of the island. On another occasion, a body of mackei el that 

 was found near Amherst Island (one of the Magdalenesl one day. were met with the 

 following morning about 30 miles distant from the first locality, in the direction of the 

 north cape of Cape Breton Island, towards which they were moving at- the rate of 

 one or two miles au hour. I have myself seeu schools of mackerel off the Nova 

 Scotian coast, in the fall, moving rapidly in a westerly direction, but alt efforts to 

 catch them with a hook failed, since they seemed to pay no regard whatever to toll 

 bait. All of my own observations and those of the Nova Scotian fishermen with whom 

 I have been brought in contact, lead me to believe that mackerel will not bite the 

 hook to any extent during their fall migrations along the southern coasts of Nova 

 Scotia. This is all the more remarkable since they seem to take the hook very eagerly 

 up to the last moment of their stay on their feeding-grounds in the gulf. The spring 

 and fall migrations of the mackerel on our own coast are carried on with equal regu- 

 larity and precision. On more than one occasion, in autumn, I have followed these 

 fish day after day in their progress to the south and west along the shores of Maine 

 and Massachusetts. An instance of this kind occurred in the fall of 1862, when I caught 

 mackerel nearly down to the Fishing Rip on the Nantucket shoals. These tish were 

 moving rapidly southward, and the schools could be kept alongside of the vessel only 

 a short time, and each trial had to be made two or three miles farther south than the 

 drevious one. At another time, in the fall of 1870, the mackerel moved in large schools 



