SCOMBRID^. 89 



glistening substance will attract them, as a pearl button, or Hearder's silver spinner 

 which is an imitation fish fastened on to a silvered plate of copper, and mounted 

 so as to spin freply on a piece of wire. A slip of white kid or a piece of red 

 cloth have likewise been used with good efi'ect ; or stranger still, Ball found about 

 two inches of the stem of a tobacco pipe, put on the line down to the hook, a 

 novel and most saccessful bait. Fishermen also believe they can entice mackerel 

 from the bottom by various eatable substances used when the boat is at anchor, 

 as salted pilchards which, having become rancid, are beaten to a pulp and hung 

 over the side of the boat in a basket from which little bits drop. 



French mackerel vessels are of a larger capacity than those employed by 

 British fishermen, carry a greater number of hands, and are frequently aided 

 by steam power. The French seek the large shoals of spawning fish, and it is 

 said not to be uncommon for one vessel to obtain upwards of £1000 worth of fish 

 in a single season (while but few English boats are upwards of 40 tons burden, 

 and Mr. Dunn estimates that £'260 would be a very good return for the best of 

 them). They takefish for salting, and consequently do not require to repair 

 so rapidly to port. The captures are preserved on board and packed in the 

 hold, and when the latter is full they return to France.* 



Having now described the modes employed for capturing these fish, a few 

 details are desirable to show their value when brought to market. Yarrell 

 furnishes some interesting figures respecting what obtained during the first 

 quarter of the present century. In May, 1807, the first Brighton boat-load sold 

 at Billingsgate at forty guineas a hundred, or seven shillings each, computing six 

 score to a hundred : this was the highest price ever reached in that market. 

 The next boat-load produced but thirteen guineas a hundred. In 1808 mackerel 

 became so plentiful in Dover that they were disposed of at sixty for a shilling : 

 while in June the same year at Brighton, a net was so completely filled by them, 

 that it was impossible to drag it ashore : the fish and net in the end sank together. 

 In 1821, the value of the catches of sixteen Lowestoft boats on the 30th of June,' 

 amounted to £5252. In 1823, 1,420,000 of these fishes were taken at Yarmouth. 

 In 1844, during October, the Mount's Bay fishermen took 1,400,000, which 

 sold for about £4000. In May, 1868, 300,000 were netted one morning near the 

 Scilly Isles. June, 1869, lOjOOO a fortnight were secured at Weymouth, an event 

 which had not occurred for thirty years. Couch gives the average price of 

 mackerel for seven years as from £6 to £9 per thousand : and the numbers 

 taken in a boat of rather less than the average size with drift nets, from 15,000 

 to 24,000. But it sometimes occurs that more than these may be taken in a 

 single night ; in fact, at Penzance drift nets have frequently brought 100 tons in 

 a single night in May. 



Breeding. — In the spring of the year the roe of the mackerel may be observed 

 to be growing very fast, and in the south coast of Britain it seems to be shed 

 about May or June. Sars remarks that it is deposited at some leagues from the 

 shore and at the very surface of the waves, where a great quantity of these fishes 

 may often be met with, engaged in spawning. The ova of these fishes shed in 

 the Brighton Aquarium, has likewise been observed to float. A low temperature 

 exercises great influence in postponing breeding, and fish in roe are occasionally 

 seen even in winter. Harmer found 546,681 ova in a female 18 oz. weight, 

 430,800 in a second of 20 oz. weight, and 454,961 in a third of similar size, all 

 having been captured in the month of June : while Bloch counted 540,000 in one 

 he examined. Mackerel quickly recover from the effects of spawning. 



Although this fish is generally a very rapid grower, such must greatly depend 

 on whether suitable food abounds, or the reverse. At Mevagissey, where spawning 

 occurs in May or June, young about three inches long, are plentiful in the bays 

 about August and September, leaving for the deep sea in November, when they 

 are from 6 to 7 inches in length, and reappearing the following June about 8 or 9 



* Large quantities of mackerel are now imported in ice from Norway, commencing in the 

 spring and continuing until the end of July. 



