REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [114] 



mouth of the Chesapeake. Sometimes weeks elapse before they find 

 the fish. After the schools have made their appearance they follow 

 them, and when they are not visible, usually allow five to fifteen miles 

 a day for their northern progress, trying to keep among them as they 

 naake their way northward. When among the fish it is a common 

 practice of the vessels to heave to and "jog" all night long in a north- 

 erly direction, to keep pace with the movements of the fish. 



As soon as the first fare of fish is obtained, even if only a small one, the 

 vessels make their way to New York with all possible speed; the ear- 

 liest fish command much higher prices than those brought in later in 

 the season. After mackerel become more plenty the vessels seldom go 

 to market with less than 75 or 100 barrels, and it is not unusual for 250 

 to .300 barrels, the results of one day's catch, to be taken in. The suc- 

 cessful vessels often run into New York two or three times a week, 

 especially when the fish are most abundant off Sandy Hook.* This 

 method of fishing and marketing the fish is kept up until the schools 

 have reached the shoals of Nantucket, and the spawning season in that 

 locality begins. At the close of the spawning season, when the fish 

 again rise to the surface, or when the other schools are found on George's 

 Banks and in the Gulf of Maine, the vessels resort to the ordinary 

 method of salting their fish, only a few continuing the practice through 

 the summer of carrying their fish fresh into the markets of New York 

 and Boston. Occasionally cargoes of fresh mackerel are taken in the 

 spring and summer into Philadelphia, and also, later in the season, to 

 Portland. 



The spring mackerel fishery, as just described, is of comparatively 

 recent origin, not dating back much before 1870. Twenty to thirty 

 years ago New York was supplied with fresh mackerel chiefly by Con- 

 necticut smacks, which caught the fish with hook and line and carried 

 them to New York alive in wells. A peculiarity of this smack fishery 

 was that the men fished with lines fastened to poles, as anglers fish for 

 trout. The object of having poles was to enable the fishermen to drop 

 the captured fish alive, and without injury, into the smack's well. 



Vessels belonging north of Cape Cod at that time rarely if ever sold 

 their fish fresh, although they often went as far south as the capes of 

 Delaware. Their fares were salted and carried to Boston or other ports 

 in the ordinary manner. 



The southern mackerel fishery was undoubtedly first prosecuted by 

 vessels from Cape Ann; at least we have been unable to obtain relia- 



* Dispatches received here yesterday announce the arrival of schooner " J. J. Clark " 

 at New York on Monday, with 1.50 barrels fresh mackerel, which sold at from 6 to 18 

 cents apiece according to size, and later of the arrival at the same port of the schooners 

 "Seth Stockbridge," "A. M. Terry," "'Smuggler," and "T. M. Cromwell," each with 

 200 barrels; "Moses Adams," 300; "Maud and Effie,"250; " Golden Hind," 75; "Fleet- 

 wing," 65 ; " H. A. Duncan," 20 ; and " James A. Stetson," 50 barrels, which were sold 

 at from 8 to 12 cents apiece.— (Cape Ann Bulletin, April 17, 1878.) 



