308 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQATIC ANIMALS. 



tnries. The early chronicles of the colonies do not refer to it under its present name, but it is 

 possible that this was the "Speckled Hound-fish" mentioned by Josselyn in his "New England's 

 Rarities Discovered," published in 1673. Josselyn wrote: "Of Blew-fish, or Hound-fish, two kinds, 

 Speckled Honnd-fish and Blew Hound-fish, called Horse-fish." 



The "Blew Hound-fish" can have been nothing other than the common bluefish of our coast, 

 and it is hard to imagine what fish, except the Spanish Mackerel, can have been described under 

 the other name. No other allusion to the fish is found in literature before 1815, when the fish was 

 described by Mitchill in his work on the fishes of New York, under the name Scomber macnlahm. 

 The biographical portion of his notice consisted of two sentences: "A fine and beautiful fish. 

 Comes in July." 



Even the publication of this description does not seem to have satisfied contemporary ichthy- 

 ologists of the existence of such a fish, for some of them did not hesitate to express the opinion 

 that Dr. Mitchill had been deceived by accidental differences of color at different seasons of the 

 year, and that there were not so many varieties of Mackerel as he imagined. 1 



1 i an essay on the fishes of New York mark< t, published in 1854, Prcfi-ssor Gill referred to 

 Jhe Spanish Mackerel as a species of slight importance. 



In 1878 the quantity sold in the New York market cannot have fallen much below 300,000 

 pounds, with a retail value of $225,000, while large numi ers were sent away to Baltimoie and 

 other cities. There is, however, need of caution in drawing inferences fiom marke reports with- 

 out at the same time keeping in mind the true history < f the fisheries. It is possible that Spanish 

 Mackerel abounded in our waters long before they began to appear in the markets. Even now the 

 number taken by the use of hook and line is very small. They are caught chiefly in traps and 

 weirs, which have come into use since 1845, and many fishermen have expressed their belief that 

 of late they have been rapidly increasing. 



Genio C. Scott wrote, in 1875: "My experience in trolling for Spanish Mackerel off the inlets 

 of Fire Island has convinced me that the fish is as numerous as the bluefish, and more so than 

 the striped bass, at certain seasons, and is found a little farther seaward than either of those 

 flshes. Every year the shoals of Spanish Mackerel become more and more numerous, and more 

 flre taken, but never in sufficient numbers to reduce the average price below sixty cents per pound. 

 The shoals which I saw when last trolling for them woukl have formed an area nearly five miles 

 square, and still the most successful boat did not take more than a dozen in three days. They 

 will not bite freely at any artificial lure, and though numbers came near leaping on the deck of 

 our yacht, they treated our lures with an indifference which savored of perverseness." 



Mr. J. M. K. Southwick states that the first Spanish Mackerel taken in the vicinity of New- 

 port were found in the summer of 1857. No one knew what they were. 



The Gloucester "Telegraph" of August 17, 1870, contains the following item: "At Newport 

 the epicures are in ecstasies over the fact that Spanish Mackerel, the most delicious fish caught in 

 the sea, are taken there now in seines. It is only by southerly winds that they are tempted so 

 far north."' 



1 SMITH, J. V. C. : Natural History of the Fishes of Massachusetts, 1843, p. 295. 



'The Newport "Daily News," August 19, 1872, has this item: 



" LARGE HAUL OF SPANISH MACKEREL. Saturday, Arnold James & Co., of this city, caught 208 Spanish Mack- 

 -erel, weighing 495 pounds. This is the largest haul of this kind of fish that has ever been taken at any one time by 

 any of our Newport fishermen. They were caught in the West Bay, and subsequently cold to Messrs. Carry Brothers, 

 of this city." 



And two days later, August 21, the Providence " Press" chronicled a still more remarkable catch: 



" Another haul of Spanish Mackerel was made yesterday. This time it was over four hundred fish, averaging 

 about two and a half pounds each. They were sold to a dealer at twenty-five cents a pound." 



