The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-09-15
September Harper's.)

AocptcHlpol 1aiPNt S'
Middleton was impressed by the singular
procession moving up the Atlantic coast every
year. and speculated about it from High Head
as if from peculiarly advantageous point for
observing pageant passing wholly under his
eye. 1T could be made a fine decorative
frieze Of" he said, full of moral lessons be-
sides" 1t could be kind of natural history
Odyssey or Niebelungen, or hemicycle of i'm
portant submarine deeds, for another Della
roche-the allegory Of the mackerel on his
way through life, his hopes and his fears, his
virtues ard his vices, his friends and his enc
mics, his triumphs and disasters.
The mackerel began their migration, he
learned, or at least the first were taken by the
fleet which went south after them, in deep wa
ter about 60 miles below the capes of Delaware
early in March. They arrived on the Maine
coast about the first of June followed closely
by the vessels, which we're presently strung
along from Cape Ann to Cape Sable. Late in
September they began to work to the south
ward, not schooling on their return, and by
the middle of November hardly one would be
found to the northward of Boston bay. This,
at least, was the habit of our American mack
erel, which were looked upon as distinct ma
tlon with no utilization with that which comes
in over the Great Banks, spawns ON the Mag
dalen islands, and remains in Canadian waters
all winter. They seem to come up along the
coast and strick inshore all about the same
time, and the first notice of their. arrival was
often their appearance in the wiers on the bays
and inlets.
An advance guard preceded the main body
often by week or ten days. mysterious
live seed, of which Middleton could only hear
that it was red, excessively hot like pepper,
and floated on the water, was thought to be
the mackerel's principal inducement to come
into the bays He was passionately fond of it,
and when it was ripe he was there, though it
was a most reckless dissipation, for it was said
that it was so hot it would burn its way out of
fish in few hours, and it burned the hands
of the fishermen in dressing such as had eaten
it.
A multitude of smaller marine creatures
were fond of the red seed also. The tiny pilot
fish, perhaps kind of fugleman for the mack
erel, but more likely his prey, like the rest,
came first; then shoals of herring, shrimp,
squid, menhaden. The round, limpid jelly
fish called the sun-squall, occurring sometimes
almost numerously enough to stop the way of a
boat, sought it. Woe to them all. They can
snatch but a furtive joy; the fierce mackerel
follows them up, devouring them as they fly
The only visible bits of solidity in the organ
ism of the limpid sun squall are the few red
seeds, which it seems not even to have the
pleasure of digesting. The mackerel ruthless
~ tears him in pieces for them, and the sea is
strewn with the remains of unhappy sun
squalls.
"Did the picture stop here how little deserv-
ing would the mackerel be of sympathy"
unused Middleton. "And indeed, after all
this, he il not one to call forth too much SYM
pathy in any event; but the Nemesis that pur-
sues him is terrible. The procession consists
of the mackerel, his prey, and his enemies.
Now here he is, as one might say, wild young
prodigal, in his lace coat OF green and silver,
and blinded by his folly, to the yawnning pit
falls and omens of danger about him. Or he
may be looked upon as BelshaZZar sort of
person, drink with insolent pride, while at
the very moment the Mede and the Persian
are battling at the gate. Meme, meme, tekel
upharsin! Thou art found palatable article
by many tastes, and thou shalt be weighed in
the balance. The sinister shark is on thy
track; the porpoise lunges from the right; dog
fish, blue-fsh, black-fsh, from the left; the
mackerel-gull swoops down from overhead I;
the solemn whale cruises in thy wake, ready to
dive below school and blow it into the air,
and though prevented by unfortunate ar
rangement of the jaws from taking in the
splendid gulps that might be imagined, does
it very liberal justice; and lastly comes the
great schooner of memorable man, the mer-
chant, to whom all the other enemies are as
nothing. and SHARES thee in lots of 500 barrels
In day."
A quaint apparent exception, and the only
one, to the universal rule of rapine in the
great procession was little bird somewhat
larger than a sandpiper-the sea-goose, SO
called. 1t sits over the mackerel school, and
accompanies it in its course, whether out of an
amicable sentiment of companionship, or as
rival for the mysterious peppery seed, is not
quite certain.