[147] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



quantities of fish are caught in a single haul, sometimes hundreds of 

 barrels. Having such a large quantity, and handling them so much, the 

 iueu cannot dress them before they get soft. When they are dressed 

 and salted they are headed up in barrels and brought into port, and 

 when opened for culling and inspection they are found to be ragged 

 and soft, and do not compare in quality with the jig mackerel of former 

 years. 



"One more fishery I will mention; that is, when the mackerel are 

 passing off the coast late in autumn. A large number of gill nets are 

 then set in our bay and kept there night and day. The fishermen visit 

 them daily, as often as the weather will permit, and take out the fish 

 that may have been caught during the night. The weather is often 

 windy and rugged, so that they cannot go to their nets for several days. 

 The fish are injured by remaining in the nets any considerable length 

 of time after they are caught. Mackerel taken at this season of the 

 year are not of the best quality, for, even if they are taken out of the 

 nets as soon as may be, on the following morning after they have run 

 in, and dressed at once and put in water to soak, the water is cold, and 

 as the blood is already chilled, it will not soak out of the flesh of the 

 fish, so that they will be dark colored. When the water becomes cold 

 the mackerel lose their fat fast, so that those that are caught here as 

 they are passing off late in November and early in December, many of 

 them have little or no fat in them, however large the creases may be 

 that have been made by the fisherman's rimmer to indicate their fat- 

 ness. They are inferior fish, and often fail to give satisfaction to the 

 parties who buy them." 



45. — Inspection laws. 



Statutes regulating the method of packing pickled fish are in force in 

 many of the States, but the only ones governing the manner of prepar- 

 ing salt mackerel are those of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 

 and Rhode Island. Nearly the entire cateh of the mackerel fleet of the 

 United States, with the exception of fish sold fresh, is packed in Mas- 

 sachusetts and Maine, and thence shipped throughout the country. As 

 there is no national law governing the proper preservation and requir- 

 ing uniform grades of mackerel, it often happens that fish packed accord 

 ing to law in New England are repacked in other States and sold under 

 false or misleading brands, much to the injury of the original packer. 



In some of the States outside of New England, as in Pennsylvania, 

 there have been laws requiring fish that have been legally inspected in 

 other States, but repacked in that State, to be reinspected. The Penn- 

 sylvania law was repealed in 1874. The laws of Ohio require the in- 

 spection of all pickled fish except shad, mackerel, and herring. In 

 New York there is a law on the 'statute-book which declares that pickh d 

 fish intended for foreign exportation must be inspected, but this law is 

 entirely inoperative. The laws of Michigan permit the inspection of 



