AMERICAN FISHES. 
170 
in the South Channel in 1848 : “ It was a windrow of fish,” said he ; “ it 
was about half a mile wide and at least twenty miles long, for vessels not 
in sight of each other saw it at about the same time. All the vessels out 
saw this school the same day.” He saw a school off Block Island, 1877, 
which he estimated to contain one million barrels. He could see only 
one edge of it at a time. 
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 food of the Mackerel consists, for the most part, of small species 
of crustaceans, which abound everywhere in the sea, and which they 
appear to follow in their migrations. They also feed upon the spawn of 
other fishes and upon the spawn of lobsters, and prey greedily upon young 
fish of all kinds. In the stomach of a “ Tinker” Mackerel, taken in 
Fisher’s Island Sound, November 7, 1877, Dr. Bean found the remains 
of six kinds of fishes—of the anchovy, sand-lants, the smelt, the hake, the 
barracuda and the silver-sides, besides numerous shrimps and other crusta¬ 
ceans. Capt. Atwood states that when large enough they devour greedily 
large numbers of young herring several months old. Specimens taken 
July 18, 1871, twenty miles south of Noman’s Land, contained numerous 
specimens of the big-eyed shrimps, Thysanopoda , larval crabs in the zoea 
and megalops stages, the young of hermit crabs, the young lady crabs, 
Platyoniclius ocellatus , the young of two undetermined Macrura, numer¬ 
ous Copepoda and numerous specimens of Spiricilis Gouldii , a species of 
Pteropod. They also feed upon the centers of floating jelly-fishes (dis- 
cophores). In Gaspe the fishermen call jelly-fishes “mackerel bait.” 
The greed with which Mackerel feed upon the chum, or ground men¬ 
haden bait, which is thrown out to them by the fishing vessels, shows that 
they are not at all dainty in their diet, and will swallow without hesitation 
any kind of floating organic matter. 
