168 
AMERICAN FISHES. 
Capt. Hanson B. Joyce, of Swan’s Island, Me., one of the most expert 
and observing mackerel fishermen of New England, thinks that the move¬ 
ments of the spring schools of Mackerel are very much influenced by the 
direction and force of the prevailing winds while the fish are performing 
their northerly migration. He has generally found, he says, that when 
there has been a continuance of strong northerly winds about the last of 
May and early in June, the season at which the Mackerel are passing the 
shoals of Nantucket and George’s Bank, the schools have taken a southerly 
track, passing to the southward of George’s Shoals and continuing on in 
an easterly direction to the coast of Nova Scotia, and thence to the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence. 
When southerly winds or calms prevail at that season the Mackerel are 
carried into the waters of the Gulf of Maine, and in consequence are much 
plentier off the New England coast than in the St. Lawrence Gulf. 
On this theory Capt. Joyce bases his actions in cruising for Mackerel, 
always fishing off the New England shores when southerly winds have 
predominated in the spring, and going to the St. Lawrence if northerly 
winds have been exceptionally strong and continues about the last of 
May. 
The movements of the fish, as already stated, season by season, are 
quite uncertain, sometimes being very abundant in one direction and 
sometimes in another, and occasionally, indeed, they may disappear 
almost entirely for several years, subsequently reappearing after a con¬ 
siderable absence. In some years the fish are very abundant on the coast 
of the United States, and at others rare ; the same condition applying to 
the fish of the Bay of St. Lawrence. It is not certain, of course, that this 
indicates an entire absence of the fish from the locality referred to, but 
they may, possibly, for some reason, remain in the depth of the sea, or 
some change in the character of the animal life in it, which constitutes 
the food of the fish, may produce the changes referred to. A notable 
instance of a somewhat permanent change in the migration of the Mack¬ 
erel is found in the entire failure since 1876 of the mackerel fishery in 
the Bay of Lundy, which, a few years ago, enabled a merchant of East- 
port to employ successfully as many as a dozen vessels, especially in Bigby 
and St. Mary’s Bay, but which is now abandoned. There are indeed 
faint suggestions, in the early history of the country, of their total absence 
from the whole coast for several years, as was also the case with the 
bluefish. 
