[245] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY; 



which within a few years have visited our shore and rivers in great 

 abundance. From the movements of the bluefish in our rivers, and their 

 savage treatment of the smaller fish which come in their way, we are 

 Dot surprised that the mackerel should give them a wide berth. 



" Fresh mackerel are not very scarce here, but the amount of fares 

 of salted ones this season have been very small. Yesterday made thir- 

 teen days since we had an arrival of a fishing craft with mackerel of 

 any description, either from our bay or from the Bay Chaleur. We 

 think they cannot be plenty upon any of the usual fishing-grounds. 



"If they are not taken more plentifully in course of the next six or 

 eight weeks, the catch must be very limited and the season an unpro- 

 pitious one for those engaged in the mackerel fishery." 



1850. — Reminiscences of capt. j. w. collins. 



In 1850 I went as one of the schooner " Mercy and Hope " to the 

 Gulf of Saint Lawrence, starting on our trip about the 1st of June. 

 The mackerel were large that year in the Gulf, but not very abundant. 

 The fishing-grounds over which we cruised the most were round Gaspe, 

 Bonaventure, Bay of Chaleur, off Point Miscou, the West Shore, and 

 around the north cape of Prince Edward Island, and on Banks Bradley 

 and Orphan. We were absent from home sixteen weeks, and succeeded 

 • in taking only 175 barrels of mackerel with a crew of eleven men, all told. 



In the fall of the same year I shipped in the schooner "Three Sis- 

 ters," and we fished from Portland to Chatham. An enormous school 

 of mackerel was found by the fleet off Cape Cod, near Chatham, that 

 fall, some time from the 1st to the 15th of November. The fish, which 

 were exceedingly fine and large, took the hook very readily, and large 

 catches were made by most of the vessels, some of them succeeding in 

 obtaining a full fare in three or four days' fishing. 



The fleet was a very large one, and was estimated to be about 700 sail. 

 Sharp vessels were then just coming into use, and the "Mary S. Won- 

 son," " Jennie Lind," and a few others of that class were looked upon 

 as very remarkable for their beauty and speed. We did not reach the 

 fleet until the "spurt" was nearly over, and, in consequence, did rather 

 poorly. Our skipper, feeling rather chagrined at his ill luck, determined 

 to stay on the fishing-ground in hopes that he could catch some fish from 

 a later school. In this, however, he was disappointed, since we caught 

 no mackerel of any importance, though we did not leave the fishing- 

 ground off Chatham, except for a harbor in stormy weather, until the 

 5th day of December. 



1850. — Slim doings of the cape cod fishermen. 



Our mackerel fishermen, we regret to say, are doing a very slim busi- 

 ness this year. A gentleman who has lately made a tour of the Cape 

 informs us that there are not at present 2,000 barrels of mackerel in the 



