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3428 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. I was misled by your using the word " quotation" ; I thought you 

 meant a verbal quotation. A. I did not mean that. 



Q. You refer to the United States Commission of Fisheries Report 

 when yon say : 



After they spawn in May they rapidly increase in fat, and are taken in great num- 

 bers in the summer aud fall. 



Did you mean to put that in, thinking that it was incorrect or untrue ! 

 A. Certaiuly not. If you refer to the paragraph you will see that I say 

 'Fwfc United States Fishery Report, page 64." 



Q. That is the place from which you cite as an authority! A. Yes. 



Q. And did you not suppos^e it to be true ? A. O, I supposed it to 

 be true to a certain extent ; iu'fact, I believed it to be true. I consider 

 that the statements made in Professor Baird's report are true, as far as 

 his knowledge goes. 



Q. Have you changed your mind at all as to the fact that they do 

 "rapidly increase in fat and are taken in great numbers in the summer 

 and fall ? A. I never formed an opinion touching the fishery on the 

 New England coast. I state here "on the southern part," and I think 

 you will find that this limits the area amazingly. 



Q. You allude to the southern part of New England ? A. Yes; and 

 that limits the area amazingly. I believe that is a spot where th< 

 Arctic current comes up. 



Q. What do you think of the autumn fishery on the New England 

 coast? You have spoken of it in several places in this book. A. I 

 think that the mackerel come in there again in the fall. 



Q. You think that they disappear during the summer ? A. They 

 disappear and go into colder zones of water. 



Q. They sink or go out. A. They sink simply because the cold zones 

 sink ; that is to say, the cold zones retire farther and farther from the 

 warm coastal waters, and the mackerel follow them, and as the fall 

 approaches the fish come nearer and nearer the coast. 



Q. They make another incursion on the New England coast in the 

 autumn ? A. Yes. 



Q. Then perhaps you would say that on the southern coast of New 

 England they increase rapidly in fat and are there caught in great quan- 

 tities in thesummerand autumn, and that on the rest of the New England 

 coast they are caught in the spring, and again as the weather becomes 

 colder in the autumn ? A. I should think that very probable. 



Q. And you do not think that the mackerel appear off Cape Cod, 

 as elsewhere described, very fat and in excellent condition in Octo- 

 ber and November, coming down there from the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence ? A. Certainly not. 



Q. You do not adopt what we call the fishermen's theory in this re- 

 spect, in which they still believe ? A. No; in the paper which at your 

 request I placed in your hands yesterday, I especially enter into a dis- 

 cussion on that subject and point out how it is improbable that the 

 mackerel pass through so many isothermal lines in ascending and de- 

 scending order; this is physically improbable, and in that paper I so 

 point it out. 



Q. 1 suppose that you once held the opinion to which I have referred, 

 and that you did until you examined into the subject, as did most men of 

 science? A. I did so until I read a paper written by Mr. Whitcher; 

 when I had read th.it very excellent paper, I was perfectly satisfied that, 

 it was not the case. 



Q. And you think that this is the present scientific opinion ? A. 

 Yes. 



