76 FISHING-GEOUNDS OP NOETH AMEEICA. 



Ap-il 14.— Latitude 38o 08' nortli, longitude 73° 57' west; soliooner Charles Haskell, of Glou- 

 cester. 



April 19.— Latitude 37° 50' north, longitude 74° 03' west; schooner Alice, of Swan Island, Maine. 



EAELY CATCHES OF MACKEREL IN 1880. 



April 1.— Latitude 35° 30' north, longitude 74° 15' west; schooner Edward E. Webster, of 

 Gloucester. 



EARLY CATCHES OF MACKEREL IN 1881. 



March 20.— Latitude 37° 10' north, longitude 74° 05' west; schooner Edward E. Webster, of 

 Gloucester. 



April 18. — Latitude 38° 38' north, longitude 74° west; same schooner. 



May 16.^-0ff Block Island; schooner Alice, of Swan Island, Maine. 



As the season advances the mackerel move northward, the vessels following their migrations 

 so far as possible. After a short period, however, the schools a]>pear to strike the coast in a suc- 

 cession of waves, if that term may be allowed, and it generally results that, within a few weeks at 

 most after the first captures have been made in the spring, numerous schools are to be met with 

 along a considerable extent of coast, and, not unfrequently, from near the laud to a distance of 

 sixty to seventy miles oft". It is often difflcult for the fishermen to determine positively whether 

 the mackerel that suddenly appear off Sandy Hook or Long Island belong to schools met with ■ 

 south of the Delaware a day or two previously, or whether they have just approached the coast 

 for the first time, having come in directly froai the Gulf Stream. However that may be, it fre- 

 quently happens that they are taken at the same time at numerous places all along the coast from 

 near Montauk Point, Long Island (and possibly near Block Island), to the mouth of the Delaware 

 Eiver, and even farther southward. It is also not unusual for catches to be made on the same 

 day both at Cape Cod and off New York, with reports of fish in greater or less abundance at inter- 

 vening localities, as off Montauk Point, Block Island, No Man's Land, and the south shoal of Nan- 

 tucket, and in the south channel between George's Bank and Nantucket Shoals. 



During the early part of the season, while the spring or southern mackerel fishery is in prog- 

 ress (usually from March 20 to June 1), a large percentage of the catch is marketed fresh, chiefl^y 

 in New York. The vessels frequently meet in port, and the fishermen are thus affoi;^ed an o]")por- 

 tunity of comparing notes, which, in consequence of the broad areas traversed in the passage to 

 and from market, enables them at this season to correctly estimate the area covered by the mack- 

 erel as well as their abundance. 



After the beginning of June, the Gulf of Maine becomes the great mackerel ground. As the 

 schools of fish pass in the South Channel they appear to separate, a portion moving up' by Cape 

 Cod, usually not far from the land, while other- schools take a more easterly course, sweeping off 

 toward Cashe's Ledge, or even across toward Cape Sable. These various schools, which seldom 

 have precisely the same movements two years in succession, are followed by different sections of 

 the mackerel fleet, and at this season the vessels are scattered from Block Island and No Man's 

 Land to Cashe's Ledge and Cape Sable. The vicinity of Block Islaiud has frequently remained a 

 favorite fishing-ground throughout the summer, mackerel of extraordinary size and superior quality 

 having been taken there during this entire period. George's Bank has also been a more or less 

 favorite locality at the same season, and, like Block Island, has been quite celebrated for the excel- 

 lent quality of its fish. Owing, however, to the prevalence of exceedingly strong tides on this 

 bank, and to the fact that stormy weather is usually of frequent occurrence in the fall, mackerel 

 fishing is not generally carried on there after the middle of September. As the loss of seine boats, 



