THE MACKEREL AND ITS ALLIES. 167 
east as Southern Nova Scotia, while in the Gulf of St. Lawrence they 
appear late in May, and in abundance early in June. 
There appears to be a marked difference between the movements of 
Mackerel and the menhaden, for while the menhaden are much more 
gradual in their approach to the shore, and much more dependent upon 
a small rise of temperature, the Mackerel make their appearance almost 
simultaneously in all the waters from New Jersey to Nova Scotia at about 
the same time. Stragglers, of course, appear much earlier than the dates 
just mentioned; a few Mackerel were observed at Waquoit, Mass., as 
early as April 19, 1871. 
In the fall the Mackerel disappear as suddenly as they came in the 
spring, but they have only in one instance been observed off the Carolina 
coast, except during the spring run. This is very probably because no 
fishing vessels ever visit this region later than June. 
The very vagueness of the statements just made is sufficient to show. 
how little is acfually known about the movements of these fish. The 
subject must be studied long and carefully before it can be understood, 
and the interests of the American fishermen demand that it should be 
thus studied 
The Mackerel belongs to what may technically be termed pelagic or 
wandering fish, as their movements, something like those of the herring, 
are apparently more or less capricious, though probably governed by some 
definite law, which has not yet been worked out. It moves in large schools 
or bands, more or less isolated from each other, which sometimes swim 
near the surface and give distinct evidence of their presence, and at others 
sink down into the depths of the ocean and are entirely withdrawn from 
observation. The army of fish, however, moves along with a very broad 
front, a portion coming so close to the shore as to be taken in the weirs 
and traps along the coast of the Middle States, especially in Vineyard 
Sound and on Cape Cod; while at the same time other schools are met 
with from twenty to fifty miles, or even more, out to sea. It is, however, 
still a question whether the fish that skirt the coast of the United States 
enter the Bay of St. Lawrence, or whether the latter belong to another 
series, coming directly from the deep seas off the Newfoundland and 
Nova Scotia coast. Until lately the former has been the generally 
accepted theory, in view of the alleged fact that the fishermen of the 
Nova Scotia coast always take the fish coming from the west in the spring 
and from the east in the fall. 
