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ABOUT THE MACKEREL. 



Here we may close our narrative, and dismissing this 

 coarse and ill-flavoured fish,* pass on to a consideration 

 of that daintiest and most appetizing of scombers, the 

 MACKEREL. 



A smooth, elongated body, covered with excessively 

 small scales ; the back of a fine metallic blue, streaked 

 with black ; the upper part of the head also blue and 



THE MACKEREL. 



black ; the rest of the body of a pearly or silvery white ; 

 and the dorsal fins separate, by these signs may the 

 reader recognize a fish which is truly one of the " trea- 

 sures of the deep." 



Geographically speaking, the mackerel extends over a 

 very wide range of sea, embracing the whole of the 

 European and American waters, and stretching as far 

 southward even as the Canary Islands. It appears off 



* There is an American tunny (Thynnus secundo-dor sails], found on the 

 New York coast and off Nova Scotia, whose flesh is of a much better quality. 

 It also yields a large quantity of oil. The Albacore (Thynnus albacorus), a 

 native of the West Indian seas, and the Bonito (Thynnus pelamys), the 

 Tropical enemy of the flying-fish, belong to the tunny genus. The Medi- 

 terranean owns two species of bonito, Pelamys Sarda and Auxis vulgaris. 



