THE SPANISH MACKEREL AND THE CEROES. 193 
to the species in 1815, in a manner which seems to indicate that it was 
not of rare occurrence, but from his day to 1870, it seems to have attracted 
but little attention. 
Even Mitchill’s published description does not seem to have satisfied 
contemporary ichthyologists of the existence of such a fish, for some of 
them did not hesitate to express the opinion that Dr. Mitchill had been 
deceived by accidental differences of color at different seasons of the year, 
and that there were not so many varieties of Mackerel as he imagined.* 
In an essay on the fishes of New York market, published in 1857, Prof. 
Gill referred to the Spanish Mackerel as a species of slight importance. 
The quantity taken with hook and line is quite insignificant ; they are 
caught almost entirely in traps and weirs, and these contrivances were not 
employed in Narragansett Bay before 1845, and did not come into 
general use clsewhere on the coast until many years later. Many experi- 
enced fishermen are, however, of the opinion that they have been rapidly 
increasing of late, and this is strikingly confirmed by the marketmen. 
DeKay in his ‘‘ New Vork Fauna,’’ 1842, mentioned that he Had seen 
this fish in New York market, in August and September, but that it was 
not common. 
Prof. Baird, who was one of the first to speak of the abundance of this 
species and to testify to its excellent qualities, wrote in 1854: ‘‘ But two 
specimens were taken during my stay at Beesley’s Point, and the species is 
scarcely known to the fishermen. It was more abundant at Greenport, 
L. I.; in the Peconic Bay, towards Riverhead, four hundred were caught 
at one haul of the seine. The fish bring a high price in the New York 
market, where it has been but recently sold at from fifty cents to one dol- 
lar a pound, the prices varying with the season. It has been more abund- 
ant off our coast than ever before, and in the lower part of the Potomac 
numbers have been taken.’’ 
The Gloucester ‘‘ Telegraph’’ of August 17, 1870, stated that the New- 
port epicures were in ecstasies over the fact that Spanish Mackerel, the 
most delicious fish caught in the sea, were taken there in seines, and 
remarked that it was only by southerly winds that they were tempted so 
far north. 
Mr. J. M. K. Southwick states that the first Spanish Mackerel taken in 
*Smitn, J. V. C.: Natural History of the Fishes of Massachusetts, 1833, p- 295. 
13 
