260 Percomorphi 
common mackerel, Scomber scombrus, is one of the best known 
of food-fishes. It is probably confined to the Atlantic, where 
on both shores it runs in vast schools, the movements varying 
greatly from season to season, the preference being for cool 
waters. The female mackerel produces about 500,000 eggs 
each year, according to Professor Goode. These are very 
minute and each is provided with an oil-globule, which causes 
it to float on the surface. About 400,000 barrels of mackerel 
are salted yearly by the mackerel fleet of Massachusetts. Single 
schools of mackerel, estimated to contain a million barrels, 
have been recorded. Captain Harding describes such a school 
Fic. 206.—Mackerel, Scomber scombrus L. New York. 
as ‘‘a windrow of fish half a mile wide and twenty miles 
long.” 
Professor Goode writes: 
“Upon the abundance of mackerel depends the welfare of 
many thousands of the citizens of Massachusetts and Maine. 
The success of the mackerel-fishery is much more uncertain 
than that of the cod-fishery, for instance, for the supply of 
cod is quite uniform from year to year. The prospects of 
each season are eagerly discussed from week to week in 
thousands of little circles along the coast, and are chronicled 
by the local press. The story of each successful trip is passed 
from mouth to mouth, and is a matter of general congratulation 
in each fishing community. A review of the results of the 
American mackerel-fishery, and of the movements of the fish 
in each part of the season, would be an important contribution 
to the literature of the American fisheries. 
“The mackerel-fishery is peculiarly American, and its history 
is full of romance. There are no finer vessels afloat than the 
