THE MACKEREL AND ITS ALLIES. 281 



L.— THE MAOKEEEL AND ITS ALLIES. 



95, THE MACKEREL— SCOMBER SCOMBRUS. 



Geogeaphioal distribution. — The common Mackerel, Soomber scombrus, is au inhabitaut 

 of the North Atlantic Ocean. On our coast its southern limit is in the neighborhood of Cape Hat- 

 teras in early spring. The fishing schooners of New England flud schools of them in this region 

 at some distance from the shore, but there is no record of tht-ir having been taken in any miiubers 

 in shoal water south of Long Island. A. W. Simpson states that the species, has been observed in 

 the sounds about Cape Hatteras in August, September, and October. E. E. Earll tinds evidence 

 that stragglers occasionally enter the Chesapeake. Along the coasts of the Middle States and of 

 New England Mackerel abound throughout the summer months, and are also found iu great num- 

 bers in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, where, in past years, fishermen of the United States congre- 

 gated in great numbers to participate in their capture. They are also found on the coast of 

 Labrador, though there is no evidence that they ordinarily frequent the waters north of the Straits 

 of Belle Isle. 



Captain Atwood* has expressed the opinion that they vis c Northern Labrador only in seasons 

 remarkable for the prevalence of westerly winds, and that in other seasons they do not go so far 

 north. 



Professor Hind was told by the residents of Aillik and Kypokok, Labrador, one hundred 

 and fifty miles northwest of Hamilton Inlet, that Mackerel were abundant there in 1871, and that 

 a few were caught in cod-seines. While at Double Island harbor, some fifteen miles north of 

 HoiJedale, a French Canadian resident informed him that there is "a scattering of Mackerel" on 

 that part of the coast. 



They appear also at times to have been abundant on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland, 

 though their appearance there is quite ir^gular. Mackerel do not occur in Hudson's Bay nor on 

 the coast of Greenland. It seems probable that the natural northern limit of the species in the 

 Western Atlantic is not far from the Straits of Belle Isle. Professor Packard, who visited tliis 

 region in 1866, recorded that a few Mackerel are taken in August in Salmon Bay and Red Bay, but 

 that the Straits of Belle Isle were evidently the northern limits of the genus, while Fortin, one of 

 the best Canadian authorities on fisheries, in his annual report for 1864, stated that in summer 

 they appear in some places, such as Little Mecattina, on the adjoining coast, latitude 50^° north, 

 and even sometimes enter the Straits of Belle Isle.^ 



' Proceedings, Boston Society of Natural History, vol. 10, p. 66. 



*In 1860 Capt. Peier Avery, of the schooner Alabama, of Provincetown, took 100 barrels of fat Mackerel at Port 

 au Port, Newfoundland. Captain Atwood, however, has seen them at the Bay of Islands. He has also seen large 

 schools at Mecattina. 



Capt. J. W. Collins writes: "As early as 1837 or 1838, Capt. Stephen Etch, of Gloucester, spent almost, the entire 

 mackerel-fishing season on the coast of Labrador in pursuit of M ackerel. He was induced by the reports brought him 

 by the Labrador cod-fishermen to make this attempt. They had reported seeing Mackerel abundant in the vicinity of 

 the Straits of Belle Isle, and Captain Rich, being of an adventurous turn, decided to devote one summer to the investi- 

 gation of the subject, feeling in hopes of obtaining a large catch. My father was one of the crew, and I have often 

 heard him tell that the trip was entirely uusnccessful, notwithstanding the fact that they cruised all the way from 

 Mecattina Islands through the Straits of Belle Isle, and on the northwest coast of Newfoundland as far down as the 

 Bay of Islands. Few or no Mackerel were taken until the vessel returned in the fall to the southern part of the Gulf 

 of Saint Lawrence, where a small fare was obtained in a few weeks' fishina;." 



