274 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
engaged in this fishery in 1879~80 was sixty-four, of which twenty-three were from Maine ports and 
the remainder from Massachusetts. These are among the swiftest and best of the fleet, and are 
provided with the fullest amount of canvas for making a quick passage to and from the fishing 
grounds. Nearly all of them have ice-houses arranged in the manner already described. 
The apparatus is in every respect identical with that used in the summer fishery; the vessels, 
however, carry, as has been stated, a much smaller number of barrels than when engaged exclu- 
sively in salting the fish. The manner of fishing is the same as that already described, except 
that the fish being much scarcer and their movements less regular than in summer on the more 
northern fishing grounds, a greater amount of vigilance and perseverance is required on the part 
of the fishermen. This is the season of the migration of the mackerel, and it is necessary that the 
fishermen should understand how to follow the schools of fish as they make their way northward, 
even if they are out of sight for days ata time, They cruise sometimes for weeks off the capes of 
the Delaware and Chesapeake, sometimes venturing farther south to the latitude of Cape Lookout, 
though they rarely find mackerel south of the mouth of the Chesapeake. Sometimes weeks elapse 
before they find the fish. After the schools have made their appearance they follow them, and 
when they are not visible, usually allow 5 to 15 miles a day for their northern progress, trying to 
keep among them as they make their way northward. When among the fish it is a common 
practice of the vessels to heave to and “jog” all night long in a northerly direction, to keep pace 
with the movements of the fish. 
As soon as the first fare of fish is obtained, even if only a small one, the vessels make their 
way to New York with all possible speed, for the earliest fish command much higher prices than those 
brought in later in the season. After mackerel become more plenty the vessels seldom go to 
market with less than 75 or 100 barrels, and it is not unusual for 250 to 300 barreis, the results of 
one day’s catch, to be taken in. The successful vessels often run into New York two or three 
times a week, especially when the fish are most abundant off Sandy Hook.* This method of 
‘fishing and marketing the'fish is kept up until the schools have reached the shoals of Nantucket 
and the spawning season in that locality begins. At the close of the spawning season, when the 
fish again rise to the surface, or when the other schools are found on George’s Bank and in the 
Gulf of Maine, the vessels resort to the ordinary method of salting their fish, only a few con- 
tinuing the practice through the summer of carrying their fish fresh into the markets of New York 
and Boston. Occasionally, cargoes of fresh mackerel are taken in the spring and summer into 
Philadelphia, and also, later in the season, to Portland. , 
The spring mackerel fishery, as just described, is of comparatively recent origin, not dating 
‘back much before 1870. Twenty to thirty years ago New York was supplied with fresh mackerel 
chiefly by Connecticut smacks, which caught the fish with hook and line and carried them to New 
York alive in wells. A peculiarity of this smack fishery was that the men fished with lines fast- 
ened to poles, as anglers fish for trout. The object of having poles was to enable the fishermen to 
drop the captured fish alive, and without injury, into the smack’s well. 
Vessels belonging north of Cape Cod at that time rarely if ever sold their fish fresh, although 
they often went as far south as the capes of Delaware. Their fares were salted and carried to 
Boston or other ports in the ordinary manner. 
* Dispatches received here yesterday announce the arrival of schooner J. J. Clark at New York on Monday with 
150 barrels fresh mackerel, which sold at from 6 to 18 cents apiece according to size, and later of the arrival at the 
same port of the schooners Seth Stockbridge, A. M. Terry, Smuggler, and T. M. Cromwell, each with 200 barrels ; 
Moses Adams, 300; Mand and Effie, 250; Golden Hind, 75; Fleetwing, 65; H. A. Duncan, 20; and James A. Stetson, 
50 barrels, which were sold at from 8 to 12 cents apiece, (Cape Ann Bulletin, April 17, 1878.) 
