AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2807 



a specialty of devouring them. Now, I cannot say but that this mate- 

 rial, under certain circumstances, may lodge in the crevices of the rocks 

 and remain there and become an offense to the surrounding fish, 

 but I rather suspect that the trouble about the gurry is that it attracts 

 the predatory fish. "Where it is thrown overboard it tolls them from a 

 long distance. The dogfish, the shark, and other fish are attracted and 

 come to the place where this offal has been thrown overboard, and after 

 they have consumed all that they turn their attention to the cod and 

 other fish that may be there and drive them off. 



Q. So that even throwing overboard the gurry there is a danger of 

 defeating your own purpose ? A. Yes; certainly. That is the hypoth- 

 esis given as to the supposed evil effect of throwing overboard the offal in 

 the European waters. It prevents the fishing there as long as this state 

 of things lasts, but whether there is an actual injury otherwise I cannot 

 say. The general presumption is against the idea that these substances 

 can have a lodgment for any length of time to produce any offense. It 

 might do it in fresh water. In the lakes you may have such a condition 

 where those scavengers are not provided. But it hardly seems to me 

 that it can be in th seas, in the northern seas especially. 



Q. What is the geographical distribution of mackerel? A. The 

 mackerel is a fish that has not so northerly a distribution as the 

 cod, and perhaps extends somewhat further south ; otherwise it is 

 found over, to a very considerable extent, the same range. It is found 

 as far south as the Azores in European waters, and as far as Spitzber- 

 en and Norway to the north. On our southern coast we find it very 

 rarely, and very few individual specimens have been taken in the vicinity 

 of Charleston. It has never been taken in the West Indies ; never in 

 Bermuda, I believe ; but it is found as far north as the Straits of Belle 

 Isle, and how much further north I cannot say. The two species 

 (American and European) are believed to be identical, and although 

 they are constantly within a comparatively small number of leagues of 

 each other, yet they do occur all the way across. 



Q. What is the season for mackerel ? A. In America the mackerel 

 season is in spring, summer, and autumn. In winter they are not found 

 on our coast, and we don't get them, but we have them on our shores as 

 early as the middle of April and as late as November. 



Q. New, as to the variation of seasons. What do you say about that ? 

 A. It is very- rarely they appear iu the same abundance in two succes- 

 sive years, or, at least, it is rarely that the sum total of the experience 

 of the fishermen gives about the same aggregate. Sometimes they are 

 so scarce that the actual catch of one year will be much below that of 

 other years, but we cannot say there are any fewer fish actually in the 

 water. It may be that they take a different line ; they may keep in dif- 

 ferent waters; they may show themselves less to fishermen; and may 

 have other modes of variation ; but we only know by the practical re- 

 sults of fishing that the catch in some seasons is much greater than in 

 others. 



Q. What do you think is known or what do you think is the best 

 conjecture as to their migrations? A. There have been a great many 

 hypotheses on the subject of the migration of mackerel. At one time 

 mackerel, as was supposed to be the case with cod and sea-herring, was 

 believed to have an extreme range, that a large school traversed the coast 

 of America or Europe, and swept over a range of thousands of miles, 

 making a circuit that occupied one year in its completion. Bat the evi- 

 dence at the present time tends to show that the mackerel comes in on 

 the American coast as a great army, broadside, and appears within a 



