THE MACKEREL AND ITS ALLIES. 175 
years old. It is probable that the fish reaches its full maturity in four 
years.’’? He continues: ‘‘ The first Mackerel that come in are very large 
and spawners, but these do not bite at the hook; and you don’t catch 
them with the seine, because they don’t show themselves. You would not 
know of their presence if you did not set nets for them. When they are 
taken in nets set anywhere along the coast, at Provincetown, etc., a good 
many people imagine that they are the remnant of the Mackerel which 
were there the year before, and which have been imbedded in the mud ; 
and when they taste these fish they fancy that they taste mud. When the 
next school arrives there appear Mackerel of different sizes, which take 
the hook. They are carried to Boston market and are sold fresh in their 
season. They are not sold by weight, but are culled, and are denominated 
as follows: Large ones, second size, ‘Tinkers,’ and ‘Blinks.’ When 
the large ones are worth twelve cents, the others may sell, second size, 
eight cents; Tinkers, four cents, and Blinks, one and a half cents. These 
prices may fluctuate when there occurs a large proportion of one or more 
of the above-named kinds at the same time. Any man who is well ac- 
quainted with them will make the same culling, as there seems to be a 
line of demarcation between the different kinds which stands out 
prominently. 
«« Admitting this to be the fact, those that come as Blinks are from the 
spawn of the year before, while those which are called ‘Tinkers’ are 
from the Blinks of the year previous, being the two-year-old fish ; and 
those that are called second size are from the Tinkers of the year before ; 
when they grow up and mix with the bigger ones, I don’t know how they 
live, or much about them. This is my opinion about these matters. You 
will find that fishermen will tell you they think that Mackerel are six or 
seven years in getting their growth.”’ 
Mackerel, when full grown, are from seventeen to eighteen inches in 
length ; sometimes they attain a larger size. In August, 1880, a school 
of Mackerel was taken in the vicinity of Plymouth ; they weighed from 
three to three and a half pounds each, and were from nineteen to nineteen 
and a half inches long. ‘They were regarded as extraordinary large, and 
a barrel of them were sent to the Fishery Exhibition at Berlin as an illus- 
tration of the perfection to which the Mackerel attains in this country. 
Although the size mentioned is unusual at present, in past years many 
thousands of barrels have been taken nearly, if not quite, as large. The 
