MOVEMEI5TS OP THE SPANISH MACKEEEL. 309 



Mr. E. E. Earll, who has studied the history of the species on the coast of New Jersey and the 

 Southern States, writes as follows : 



" Prior to 1850 almost nothing was known of the fish about Sandy Hook. This is shown by 

 the fact that about this time Mr. Eobert Lloyd, a fisherman of Seabright, was engaged in trolling 

 for bluefish, having a contract with one of the hotels to take his entire catch. He secured quite 

 a number of Spanish Mackerel (these being the first he had ever seen), which were carried with 

 the bluefish to the hotel; but the proprietor knew nothing of their value, and even objected to 

 taking them at the nominal price of twenty-five cents each. 



"From this date they were taken more frequently, and soon came to be highly prized as an 

 article of food. They were caught wholly by trolling, the average daily catch being from ten to 

 twenty fish to a boat ; the fishing being best when the water was a little rough. They continued 

 to increase in number, or at least came to be more generally noticed by the fishermen, until 1866, 

 when they were quite plentiful, becoming most abundant between 1870 and 1875. During that 

 period it is said that they were often nearly as plenty as the bluefish, though comparatively few 

 were taken, owing to the lack of suitable apparatus, and it was not until the introduction of 

 properly arranged gill-nets and pound-nets that the fishermen were successful in securing any 

 considerable quantities. 



" Since 1875 it is claimed that their numbers have gradually decreased on the inshore grounds, 

 though they are said to be as numerous as formerly eight to ten miles from land, where they 

 remain beyond the reach of gill-nets and pound-nets. 



"Many of the fishermen of Chesapeake Bay never saw the species prior to 1875, though there 

 are authentic records showing that individuals were occasionally taken in the haul-seines along 

 the Eastern Shore as early as 1860, and hauls of between one and two hundred are reported by 

 Dr. J. T, Wilkins in 1866. It is, however, very easy to explain the ignorance of the fishermen as , 

 to the abundance of the species in that region, for, until recently, the fisheries of the Chesapeake 

 appear to have been of small commercial importance, having been prosecuted only during the 

 spring and fall by means of gill-nets and haul-seines. During the summer months, when the 

 Mackerel are most plenty, no fishing of importance was done. Pound-nets were introduced into 

 the Chesapeake region in 1875, and it was through their use that the fishermen came to know of 

 the abundance of the species in these waters. 



"On the North Carolina coast most of the fishermen, and, indeed, a majority of the dealers, 

 are still unacquainted with either the name or the value of the Mackerel, and when, in 1879, several 

 thousand pounds of them were brought to Wilmington the dealers refused to buy them, supposing 

 them to be a species of horse-mackerel (Orcynus), which they understood had no value as a food- 

 fish. As no purchasers could be found for them, they were finally thrown away. Farther south 

 few have been taken, owiug to the lack of suitable apparatus, as well as to the fact that the fisher- 

 men seldom fish beyond the inlets. The smack fishermen of Charleston catch a few on troll-lines 

 during the pleasant weather of the spring and early summer, but they fish only occasionally in 

 this way. 



"Though the fishing is at present limited to certain localities, there is no reason to believe that 

 the fish are absent from other places; on the contrary, it seems probable that, should proper appa- 

 ratus be employed, the species could be taken at almost any point along the outer shore where the 

 menhaden are abundant. 



"In the Chesapeake region there seems to be no diminution in the catch; on the contrary, it 

 has increased rapidly from year to year, until in 1879 it amounted to fully 1,000,000 pounds, and 

 in 1880 the quantity was increased to 1,609,663 pounds. The average daily catch for the pound- 



