HABITS OF THE HOESB MACKEREL. 321 



become entangled in them and to do much injury in their efforts to escape. They are pursued by 

 the killer whales, before which they flee in great terror. 



Strange to say, although highly prized in the Old World from the time of the ancient Romans 

 to the present day, they are seldom, if ever, used for food in this country. Although occurring 

 in large numbers and of remarkable size, no effort is made toward their capture; and though 

 not unfrequently taken in weirs and pounds along the coast, they are always allowed to rot on 

 the shore. Occasionally a portion of the flesh may be used as food for chickens, but seldom, if ever, 

 for human consumption. 



In the Mediterranean the Tunny is taken in large nets, known as madragues similar in many 

 respects to the so called " traps" of Seconnet River in Rhode Island. The fish are used partly fresh 

 and loartly salted, and they are put up in oil to a considerable extent and largely consumed in all 

 the Latin countries of Europe. Considerable quantities are salted and canned, and canned Tunny 

 of European manufacture is imported to New York in small quantities. The flesh is dark and not 

 usually attractive, although wholesome. They appears to attain a greater size in America 

 than in Europe, one of five hundred pounds in the Mediterranean being considered rather a 

 monster, while in America their weight is not unfrequently given at from twelve to fifteen hundred 

 pounds. 



Nothing definite is known in regard to their mode of reproduction. The eggs are said to be 

 deposited early in June, and the young at hatching, according to Yarrell, weigh an ounce and a 

 half, reaching a weight of four ounces by August, and thirty ounces by October.^ 



Mr. Matthew Jones, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, writes : " The Tunny is very common on the eastern 

 coast of Nova Scotia in summer, and is known to fishermen and others as the ' Albicore.' The Rev. 

 J. Ambrose informs me that it regularly visits St. Margaret's Bay every summer, several specimens 

 being taken and rendered down for oil. They were particularly abundant in 1876. They are 

 never seen in the Basin of Minas." 



Captain Atwood contributes the following note on Horse-Mackerel in Cape Cod Bay : 



" They don't come till the weather gets warm. We don't see them at first when we begin 

 setting mackerel nets, but about June they are liable to appear, and we find holes in the nets. 

 Sometimes in September they gill them for the sake of their oil. My brother had forty-seven holes 

 through one eighty- yard net in one night. When they strike a net they go right through it, and 

 when they go through it the hole immediately becomes round. It looks as if you could put a half 

 bushel through it. I said in my Lowell Institute lectures that a shark in going through a net 

 would roll himself up in it, but the Horse-Mackerel get right through, and the hole that they cut 

 could be mended in five minutes. The fishermen don't dread them much because they do the 

 nets so little injury. They remain with us through the summer and early autumn, when they are 

 killed for the oil. When they are here they feed upon any small fish, aud when menhaden were 

 here I have seen them drive the harbor full of them. I have seen the Horse-Mackerel swallow 

 dogfish whole weighing eight pounds. As fast as we got out the livers of the dogfish they would 

 catch them and eat them. There was a great deal of whiting here at that time. They have 

 almost totally disappeared. The Horse-Mackerel seems to be the enemy of all kinds of fish. Tliere 



' Orcynus thynnus. — According to Dr. Forlin, tlie Horse-Mackerel is quite abundant in tlie Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence, especially in the bay of Chaleur aud of Gasp6, and also in the Straits of Belle Isle and Blancs Sablon Bay. It 

 is taken in increasing numbers in the Gulf, partly by spearing and partly by baiting. For this latter purpose strong 

 steel liooks are used tied to solid lines and baited with herring. This fishing is prosecuted more particularly in the 

 Bay of Chaleur and off Oaraquette, where in 1863 over one hundred were captured. The fishing is quite exciting, 

 although tiresome and requiring a good deal of skill, as in the efforts of the fishes to escape they pull with such violence 

 as to endanger the lives of the fishermen by dragging them overboard. — Canadian Fishery Report for 1803, 02. 



21 F 



