224 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ent time of tlie year they are absent from our waters. ]N"orth of Cape 

 Cod, as, for instance, in the southern portion of Barnstable Bay, we find 

 them beginning to appear about the beginning of May, at first a few 

 straggling specimens, and then in a few days a vast abundance. They 

 cannot be taken by hook-fishermen, but by means of a long string of 

 nets, made about eighteen feet deep, which hang yerticallyin the water 

 and drift with the tide. Considerable quanties are thus taken in the 

 nighl-time. 



In 1855 a resolution was passed by the Massachusetts legislature 

 authorizing the governor to appoint three commissioners to inquire into 

 the practicability of the artificial breeding of fish. I was expecting to 

 be appointed on that commission, and, as I had a great desire to know 

 at precisely what time the mackerel deposited their spawn, I devoted 

 considerable attention to the subject. While fishing forthese mackerel, 

 I found that about the 20th of May, and from that time to the 

 od or 4tlj of June, they were spawning. As we took the fish into 

 the boat the spawn was running freely from them. In a few days after 

 that time thej- rei)aired to the feeding-ground, fed voraciously, and soon 

 commenced to be fat. In a few days after this school had disappeared 

 I received my commission, and thirty days after the height of their 

 spawning-season I found immense schools of little mackerel in our bay. 

 1 caught some specimens and put them in alcohol, as I had before put 

 the mature eggs, marking the date. Twenty-five days after that I went 

 , again into the bay, and found that they had grown to be some two 

 inches in length, showing that it required not nearly so much time for 

 the growth and development of this fish as for many other species. I 

 took specimens to Professor Agassiz, who was very much delighted at 

 the discoveries I had made. 



Besides the large full-grown mackerel, there is the smaller kind, that 

 come iu later in the season. . Dr. Mitchell and other writers have con- 

 si(^ered that these are two species, calling them " spring mackerel" and 

 " llock mackerel;*' but I am convinced that they are simply different 

 ages of the same species. When the second school, or Dr. Mitchell's 

 fiock mackerel, arrive they are of very different sizes, and in the Boston 

 market are designated as " full grown," " second size," ''tinkers and 

 blinks." The line of demarkation is so prominently drawn between 

 . these several sizes that people do not differ much in the designations 

 given to them in the markets of different towns. Now, these mackerel 

 that I watched for fifty-five days after they were spawned until they had 

 grown to be three inches in length, before they left us in the fall had 

 grown large enough to be rated as number "four," under the Massachu- 

 setts inspection laws. Those that come the next season are the '• blinks," 

 and, as we believe, were from the spawn of the preceding year. The next 

 size, or the "tinkers," we believe were the "blinks" of the year be- 

 fore, and so on. 



The question is asked, Where do mackerel stay in the winter? I do 

 not think they stop in the Gulf stream, but somewhere short of that, 

 probably in water deep enough to afford a congenial temperature. 



During soirie seasons this fish is very much more plentiful than in 

 others. In 1831 there were ins])ected, in Massachusetts, 383,559 barrels. 

 From that time they began to diminish in numbers, and from 1830 to 

 1844 the number of barrels inspected did not exceed 75, ()()() and a few 

 hundred per year. They continued to decrease for ten years, when the 

 yearly catch was oidy 5(),0()() barrels. They then increased again, and 

 in 18()9 there were 23-1,000 barrels caught, the largest quantity previous 

 to that tinu^ since J831. In 1870 there were caught and inspected 



