MOVEMENTS or Tin: MACK i:i;i:i. SCHOOLS. 289 



When southerly wiuds or calms prevail at that season the Mackerel are carried into the 

 waters of the Gulf of Maine, and in consequence are much plentier off the Now England coast 

 than in the Saint Lawrence Gulf. 



On this theory Captain Joyce bases his actions in cruising for Mackerel, always fishing off 

 the New England shores when southerly wiuds have predominated in the spring, and going to the 

 Saint Lawrence if northerly winds have been exceptionally strong and continuous about the last 

 of May. 



The movements of the fish, as already stated, season by season, are quite uncertain, sometimes 

 being very abundant in one direction and sometimes in another, and occasionally, indeed, they 

 may disappear almost entirely for several years, subsequently reappearing after a considerable 

 absence. In some years the fish are very abundant on the coast of the United States, and at others 

 rare; the same condition applying to the fish of the Bay of Saint Lawrence. It is not certain, of 

 course, that this indicates an entire absence of the fish from the localities referred to, but they 

 may, possibly, for some reason, remain in the depth of the sea, or some change in the character of 

 the animal life in it, which constitutes the food of the fish, may produce the changes referred to. 

 A notable instance of a somewhat permanent change in the migration of the Mackerel is found in 

 the entire failure since 1876 of the mackerel fishery in the Bay of Fundy, which, a few years ago, 

 enabled a merchant of Eastport to employ successfully as many as a dozen vessels, especially in 

 Digby and Saint Mary's Bays, but which is now abandoned. There are indeed faint suggestions, 

 in the early history of the country, of their total absence from the whole coast for several years, 

 as was also the case with the bluefish. 



ABUNDANCE. The wonderful abundance of Mackerel in our waters has always been a 

 subject of remark. Francis Higginson, in his "Journal of his Voyage to New England, 1629," 

 speaks of seeing " many schools of Mackerel, infinite multitudes on every side of our ship," off Cape 

 Ann on the 26th of June; and Richard Mather, in his "journal," 1635, states that the seamen took 

 abundance of Mackerel off Meuhiggin (Mouhegau). In Governor Winthrop's journal, speaking of 

 the year 1639, he remarks: "There was such store of exceeding large and fat Mackerel upon our 

 coast this season as was a great benefit to all our Plantations, since one Boat with three men would 

 take in a week ten hogsheads, which were sold at Connecticut for 3 12*. Qd. per hogshead." 



Their abundance has varied greatly from year to year, and at times their numbers have been 

 so few that grave apprehensions have been felt lest they should soon depart altogether. 



As early as 1670, laws were passed by the colony of Massachusetts forbidding the use of cer- 

 tain instruments of capture, and similar ordinances have been passed from time to time ever since. 

 The first resource of our State governments has always been, in seasons of scarcity, to attempt 

 to restore fish to their former abundance by protective legislation. It seems to us at the present 

 day absurd that the Massachusetts people should have supposed that the use of shore-seines was 

 exterminating the Mackerel on the coast of Massachusetts, but it is a fair question whether their 

 apprehensions were not as well grounded as those of legislators of the present century who have 

 endeavored to apply a similar remedy for a similar evil. In connection with the chapter on THE 

 MACKEREL FISHERY will be shown a diagram, which, by means of curves, exhibits the catch of 

 Mackerel in New England for a period of seventy-five years. 



From a study of this it seems quite evident that the periods of their abundance and scarcity 

 have alternated with each other without reference to overfishing or any other causes which we are 

 prepared to understand. In the year 383,548^ barrels of Mackerel were caught by the citizens of 

 Massachusetts. In 1881 the number of barrels suited was 269,495; to this, however, should be 

 added 125,000 barrels caught and marketed fresh by the Massachusetts fleet, making an aggregate 

 19 p 



