AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2477 



said the time of spawning varied at different places along the American 

 coast? A. Yes. 



Q. How do you know that mackerel spawn on George's Shoal ? A. 

 Because there is a certain quantity of them taken there before spawning, 

 and others taken there after spawning. 



Q. How do you know they spawn there? Have you seen young 

 mackerel there ? A. I have seen all-eyes, which we suppose are young 

 mackerel, on the George's. 



Q. Describe them. A. It is a very small fish, probably not more 

 than half an inch in length, and its eyes are more conspicuous than any 

 other part of the body. You notice the eyes of the fish when swimming 

 in the water before you observe the body. 



Q. You call them all eyes for that reason ? A. Yes. 



Q. That is what makes you believe that mackerel spawn on George's- 

 Banks? A. Yes. 



Q. Do I understand you to say that there are two schools of mackerel 

 that come along the United States coast and that a distinct school cornea 

 along the Maine coast? A. The fish do not all come in to the coast at 

 one time. 



Q. At different times ? A. Yes. 



Q. And a little later as you come further north ? A. Yes. The fish 

 do not all strike the coast at one point. Sometimes the mackerel will 

 strike a little to the north of Hatteras, and you will fall in with another 

 school of fish 50 miles north, that will come near the coast, within 50 

 miles, and perhaps less. 



Q. You said you found a body of fish frequenting Xantucket shoals, 

 and you found that body afterwards on George's Banks ? A. We- find 

 them sometimes at George's afterward; sometimes they don't get so far 

 eastward as that. We usually find part of them on the George's, at the 

 southwest part. 



Q. The mackerel that are found off the coast of Maine remain there 

 until they begin to return to their haunts for the winter, wherever those 

 haunts may be ? A. Yes ; the mackerel on the coast of Maine and Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



Q. Do you know whether fishermen ever take mackerel in the winter 

 season in muddy places ? A. I have heard of mackerel being taken out 

 of the mud with a spear in the winter time. 



Q. Whereabouts ? A. In Cape Cod Bay, Bridgehampton Bay, and in 

 the vicinity of Cape Cod. 



Q. Did you ever examine the eye of the mackerel in early spring? 

 A. Yes. 



Q. Can you tell the Commission whether the eye is then in the con- 

 dition in which you find it afterwards, during the mackerel season, or 

 what difference is there? A. When we first find the mackerel in early 

 spring, there is always a sort of scale over probably two-thirds of the 

 eye. As the mackerel work north, the scale comes off, and the last 

 mackerel we find, those in the middle of November, have the scale again, 

 covering a quarter of the eye. 



Q. It would then seem that in the spring the eye has a film over it> 

 and as the season advances, this works off? A. Yes. 



Q. And as the colder season comes on, the film covers the eye again ? 

 A. It appears that something grows over the eye as the weather grows 

 colder. 



Q. Have you heard of mackerel being taken in winter under the 

 ice ? A. I have heard of their being taken when the ice was on the flats, 

 but not when the harbor was frozen. 



