[11] HISTOEY OF THE MACKEEEL FISHEEY. 



chusetts fishermen that the mackerel goes into the mud in the winter 

 time. I have, indeed, been assured by trustworthy parties that they 

 have known mackerel caught on eel spears when fishing for eels in the 

 mud of Provincetown harbor. 



"A similar belief is referred to by Dr. Gilpin in his paper on the 

 mackerel in the transactions of the Nova Scotia Scientific Association, 

 •and it is difficult to refuse assent to the testimony of otherwise credible 

 observers. There is nothing apparently in the economy of the mackerel 

 to prevent its following the example of the sand lance, the eel, and 

 other fish. We know tbat the melanora, the tench, and many other 

 fresh-water fish have the burrowing habit, some of them being imbedded 

 very deep in the mud at the bottom of a dried-up pond, to emerge again 

 when the water is restored. 



" The entire disappearance of mackerel during the winter season is a 

 noteworthy fact, as we can hardly suppose that if it schooled on the 

 surface in the Gulf Stream during that season it would not be noticed 

 by the experienced eyes of sea captains, and we can hardly imagine 

 that the fish would remain in the depths without an occasional rise. 



ance and size between stomach and gut. This we may roughly sum up : Stomach and 

 gut very simple ; coeca usually large and complicated ; liver small, all noteworthy 

 facts in the study of comparative life. The fish being a male one, lobe on either side 

 of ivory-white; milt reached from gills to vent, slightly adhering to the sides by 

 thin nit mbraue, and covered by a similar one. They were divided in lobes by shallow 

 lines, the upper lobes .slightly fimbriated. On removiug both entrails and milt a dark- 

 purple space about an inch wide extended from gills to vent beneath the back bone. 

 This, when opened, seemed filled with coagulated blood. It had in some respects the 

 appearance of the air bladder in the salmonidse, though wanting in the direct com- 

 municatiou they have with the oesophagus. But this communication is also wanting 

 in the gadidae, where, especially in the hake, the air bladder assumes its highest form 

 of organization. I have often found coagulation and reticulated plexi in air bladders 

 of other tish. 



"It has been asserted the European mackerel have no air bladders, and a new genus 

 proposed, but with more probability they have the same organization as our own, and 

 the difference lies in the opinion whether or not it is an air bladder. 



"The mackerel appear on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, and almost simulta- 

 neously on the Bay of Fundy, about the 15th of May. Nearly all spawners, male and 

 female, perform a somewhat easterly and northerly route, disappear from the surface 

 in a few weeks and reappear again in September without spawn, and fat, remain in 

 numbers during November, and very sparingly during December, coming from the 

 eastward and then disappear. It may be asserted generalizing from observation ex- 

 tending over a series of 8 or 10 years, that they are irregular in their movements as 

 regards localities, though probably not as regards ocean surfaces. 



"The very great difficulty of accounting how these enormous masses of surface 

 feeders find food after disappearing from the surface has caused many ingenious theo- 

 ries, as to the question in what state and where they pass that time. These are all 

 pleasant reading, but valuable more or less as regards the ingenuity and scientific 

 standing of the writers. In this paper and the one I inclose (1865) I have stated what 

 I think are facts, and which must be accepted in the future history of American mack- 

 erel, which I hope soon to see written by that commission which has already done so 

 much in Atlantic waters. 



"BEENAED GILPIN." 



