a 
May 28, 1885] 
ship and telegraph companies have also aided in the 
work of the Commission. 
Up till 1879 the Commission was not in possession of 
any vessel of considerable size: its explorations at sea 
were carried on by means of boats either hired or lent by 
thenavy. In 1879 Congress voted money for the building 
of a steamer to be entirely devoted to the work of the 
organisation. This vessel was designed as a floating 
hatching station capable of being moved from place to 
place according to the season and the opportunities 
afforded, but she was not intended to go to sea in all 
weathers or to any great distance. She was named the 
Fish- Hawk, and was built at Wilmington, Del., from the 
designs of Chas. W. Copeland, consulting engineer of the 
Lighthouse Board. A very complete and interesting 
report is presented in the volume before us on the con- 
struction of the /zs/-Hawk and the work performed by 
her in 1880; and another on her services in 1881. The 
Fish-Hawk is 156 feet long over all, 27 feet in the beam, 
and 7 feet 2 inches in draught at the stern. Her ordinary 
speed is about 9 knots an hour. The hull below the 
main deck is of iron, sheathed with yellow pine ; above 
the main deck she is of wood. The hatching apparatus 
and machinery for working it are placed on the main deck 
immediately abaft the forecastle ; the space thus set apart 
is 47 feet in length. On the after part of the main deck 
is the principal cabin, which contains the Commissioner’s 
office. Above the main deck, extending from stem to 
stern, is a promenade deck, on which are the hoisting and 
reeling engine, the dredging boom, its heel attached to 
the foremast, and at the after end the naturalists’ labora- 
tory. The vessel is rigged as a fore and aft schooner, 
carrying a fore-staysail, a foresail and mainsail; she 
has four boats, the largest of which is a steam-cutter. 
The Fish-Hawk has been found to fulfil admirably the 
purpose for which she was designed, viz. the economical 
and effective hatching of shad. But it had long been 
evident that the Commission required also a sea-going 
steamer to investigate the conditions and extent of the 
known, and to discover new, fishing-grounds, to ascertain 
the complete history of the migrations of food-fishes, to 
add, if possible, to the list of species available as food, and 
to study marine phenomena in general. The reward to 
be expected from this kind of work was indicated by the 
history of the discovery of the tile-fish, an entirely new 
species of which some specimens were brought in by a 
fishing-vessel in 1879. The Fish-Hawk made a trip to 
the place where the tile-fish was found, at the western 
edge of the Gulf Stream, and found that it was as 
abundant over a large extent of ground, as the cod is in 
other places. The area dredged over was found to be 
also in other respects a valuable fishing-ground, and ex- 
tremely rich in all forms of life, many new and interesting 
species being discovered. The tile-fish has been found 
to be of great value as food when fresh, and to be as 
easily salted and preserved as the cod. In consideration 
of these facts Congress voted 103,000 dollars for the 
building of an ocean steamer for the work of the Com- 
mission, to be called the Albatross. 
In1881 the Commission began the publication of another 
annual volume in addition to its Report. It is called the 
Fish Commission Bulletin, and the first issue contained 
a memoir on the development of food-fishes, by John A. 
Ryder; one on the life-history of the eel, by G. Brown 
Goode ; one on the salmon disease in English waters, by 
Prof. Huxley and S. Walpole; and other papers on fish- 
hatching and fisheries. Besides this were published in 
1881 four census bulletins, and a volume of tables con- 
taining statistics of American fisheries, all prepared under 
the supervision of members of the Commission. In the 
latter part of the year a monograph on the oyster industry 
was issued by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll. 
The results of the year’s work in the three several de- 
partments already defined are given in three separate 
NAT ORE 
| 
81 
appendices to the Commissioner’s report. Those belong- 
ing to the first department are contained in Appendix B, 
which consists of six memoirs, only two of which refer to 
American fisheries. The first of these is on the history of 
the mackerel fishery, by Messrs. Brown Goode, Collins, 
Earll, and Clarke, and occupies nearly a third of the 
whole volume. It begins with an account of the natural 
history of the fish, and of its geographical distribution, by 
Mr. Brown Goode. He finds that the species (Scomber 
scombrus) is confined to the North Atlantic. Its southern 
limit on the American coast is Cape Hatteras, lat. 35°; its 
northern limit, the Straits of Belle Isle, lat. 52°, though 
stragglers may occur further north. Its northern limit on 
the European coast is North Cape, lat. 71°; its southern, 
the Mediterranean. The mackerel appears in large shoals 
on the American coast every summer ; as yet it has not 
been ascertained where it passes the winter. Prof. Hind, 
who is a Canadian, believes that the fish hibernates in the 
mud, near shore. Mr. Brown Goode, with much greater 
probability, argues that the shoals move out to the deep 
Ocean in autumn. He distinguishes between the littoral 
and bathic migrations of this and other species, and con- 
cludes that this fish, like others of similar habits, is in- 
fluenced in its movements chiefly by temperature, food, 
and breeding instincts. The mackerel only remains near 
shore while the temperature of the water is above 40° F. 
Off Cape Hatteras mackerel first appear about March 20 ; 
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence they are not abundant till 
June. The shoals disappear in October, though occasion- 
ally some are caught in December. The mackerel spawn 
in water of 15 fathoms and less, and while spawning do 
not take bait, or rise tothesurface. The eggs are pelagic, 
and the young fish grow to 6} or 7 inches in the first 
season, probably reaching full size in four years. The 
mackerel’s food consists chiefly of pelagic forms, but not 
so exclusively as in the case of the herring. A great deal 
of space is given in this account to the evidence of 
fishermen as to the food of the mackerel, but as no 
scientific interpretation is given of their somewhat vague 
descriptions, the reader does not learn much from the 
discussion. We conclude that the food consists largely 
of copepoda, crustacean larvee, schizopoda, and ptero- 
poda. One paragraph dealing with the food question is, 
to an English reader, somewhat amusing. The author 
says that the food of the mackerel is called in England 
the “ mackerel-mint,” and consists of “sand-lants [szc] and 
five other species of fish.” We are not sure, but we think 
“mackerel-mint” is a mistake for “mackerel-midge,” 
which is the young of various species of rockling, but 
especially of Motella tricirrata. In the same paragraph 
it is said that mackerel have been seen to devour the 
swimming larve of tape-worms. ‘The first chapter of the 
essay can only be regarded as a preliminary inquiry to 
serve as a basis for accurate investigation. It seems 
strange that Prof. Brown Goode and Mr. Baird should 
mention a mysterious membrane over the eye of the 
mackerel without giving the anatomical meaning of the 
membrane ; and it is equally unsatisfactory to read an 
account of the dissection of a mackerel, quoted from 
Bernard Gilpin, in which the air-bladder and the aorta 
are mixed up. Next follows a history of the mackerel- 
fishery in the United States, from which we learn that 
since 1880 the purse-seine has come into general use for 
mackerel-catching. The mackerel fleet consists of 468 
vessels, mostly of 60 to 8otons, schooner rigged, and very 
fast sailers. The old method of hook-fishing is described 
fully in a historical chapter. Besides the purse-seine, 
gill-nets are also used in mackerel fishing at the end of 
the season, off the New England coast. The total catch 
of mackerel ir 1881 off the United States coast is estimated 
at 294,667,000 fish. 
Chapter III. of the essay contains an account of the 
legislation affecting the mackerel fishery. Even at the 
time of printing the Report in 1881, on account of the 
