THE ESTUARY SENTINEL. 



135 



mackerel kindred ; an individual specimen a yard in length 

 weighs from six to eight pounds only. The cero is of a lead- 

 en color on the back and sides ; belly and belly-fins white ; 

 back and sides sprinkled thickly with black dots nearly the 

 size of peas. The first dorsal is spinous, as are also the first 

 rays of the pectorals and second dorsal ; all the others are 

 rigid, but not spinous. The frame of the tail is spinous, but 

 the tail is translucent ; it has an adipose fin each side on the 

 lateral line at the tail. Its jaws are armed with serrulated 

 teeth which laugh at any cords softer than copper wire. I 

 believe that none have yet been taken with rod and reel, 

 though they are said to be very ravenous biters and ambi- 

 tious vaulters, which can leap much higher than a salmon. 

 They are taken in increased numbers annually by persons 

 while trolling with common Britannia metal squids for blue- 

 fish. This fish has no apparent scales. 



THE HORSE MACKEREL. 



HIS monster mackerel is sup- 

 posed to be a " thynnus" as 

 some members of its family 

 weigh nearly a ton; but I 

 may be in error, and the fish 

 may be the head of the 

 mackerel tribes, whose fam- 

 ily commands the coast from 

 Nantucket to the Straits of 

 Belle Isle. At Quebec and 

 Gaspe it is called "Bluefish." 

 The name may have been de- 

 rived from its leaden color, 

 and having a head like the New York bluefish, though its 

 body discloses a few mackerel marks, and its tail is like that 

 of the bonito. While in Gaspe I sketched the head and tail 

 of a horse mackerel which had just been harpooned in the 

 Bay of Gaspe by Thomas Morland, Esq. The fish weighed 



