64 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



a barrel of the mackerel fishermen. When sold for oil they bring about 

 thirty cents a barrel. That is less than the former prices. Last year 

 the i)rice was fifty cents a barrel, and otlier prices in proportion. All 

 kinds of fish bronght a low price this year, because there were so many 

 pounds running against each other. Last year we got $2 50 a barrel 

 alongside the fish-pound ; now we get only $2. We sell menhaden for 

 oil to the guano- works here. They grind up about six hundred barrels 

 a day. 



MACKEREL. 



2. We got some stragglers earlier ; but about the 9th of May we cal- 

 culated that the nuiin body struck; that is, that they came in for good. 

 They appeared about the same time in the sound and in the bay. 



11. We caught them in the bay before they were caught at Wood's 

 Hole. They always strike on the east side. All the fish we caught this 

 spring had been up the bay and were coining out. 



2. The mackerel run about ten days. 



4. They were unusually plenty this year ; I think from a half to a 

 third moiH3 this year than before. 



6. I do not know why thej^ were more abundant this year. 



11. In the fall they appear to go more out in the sea channel. They 

 go east in the spring and westward in the fall. Last fall they were very 

 plenty in the mouth of Vineyard Sound ; were caught by the mackerel 

 fishermen about the middle of October — large mackerel. 



8. Those caught this spring were so large that a flour-barrel would 

 hold only 140, without any ice, and laid on the head would go half 

 round. They were not fat, but very poor. Sometimes we get smaller 

 ones. 



17. There was only one general run. 

 13. I do not know. 



18. Both come in together. There is a scale over the eye, so that it 

 looks very dim in the spring, and they will not bite. 



73. It is only caught in nets in the spring ; they will not then bite the 

 hook. 



23. Certainly, any quantity. 



21. Near the surface. 



37. Nothing but small fish. 



34. The blue-fish eat them ; all kinds of fish will eat them. 



46. When we first catch them there is spawn in them, so ripe that it 

 will run out, about the 10th of May. They could not have got far fxom 

 these waters before spawning. 



64. I have seen young mackerel here in the fall ; they are found in 

 the ponds, about five inches long. These, I think, were spawned in the 

 spring. 



52. I have no idea how many. 



72. At sea they are caught in purse-nets. 



71. They are caught with the hook outside by the 1st of May. 



78. Highest price, ten cents a pound, and the lowest, three, by the 

 quantity. It was less than last year. 



86. New York and Boston. 



TAUTOG. 



2. When th<^ winter is moderate I have seen them around all winter. 

 In a hard winter many come ashore dead. They are more plenty in 

 the summer. 



