SCOMBER, the mackerel, in natural history, a genus of fishes of the order Thoracici. Generic character : head compressed, smooth ; gill membrane with seven rays; body smooth, oblong ; lateral line carinate behind ; small fins, generally, both above and below, near the tail. There are twenty-one spe cies, of which we shall notice the fol lowing : S. scomber, or the common mackareL This is one of the most beautiful of fishes, and inhabits both the European and Ame rican seas. It is said by many to reside in winter near the North Pole, and, as the spring advances, to move in immense shoals in a southerly direction, traversing a vast space in a short period, and pro ceeding nearly in a similar line of move ment with that attributed to the herring, from the same extremities of the north. Some of the most eminent naturalists, ho w ever, have entertained doubts of these extensive voyages in both cases, and it is imagined by such that these fishes take up their residence, during the rigour of win ter, in the muddy or gravelly bottoms near the coasts, where they abound so numerously in the spring. Shaw relates, that M. Pleville de Peley saw the bottoms near the coasts of Hudson's Bay, for a long space together, bristled with the tails of mackerel, all their other parts be ing imbedded in the gravel or mud. The mackerel is a fish highly admired, both for its beauty and excellence, and has in every age attracted particular notice and partiality from both these circumstances. The Romans prepared from it a condi ment or essence for the table, which was in the highest estimation. The general
length of this fish is fifteen inches, but specimens far larger have been occasion ally met with.
S. thynnus, or the tunny, is sometimes ten feet long, and on the Scotch coast one was taken which weighed four hundred and sixty pounds. In the Indian ocean it is said to exceed even this enormous size. It is recorded by Pliny, who was sufficiently attached to the marvellous, that the fleet of Alexander met with no slight obstruction from a host of tunnies, which it required considerable manceu vring to break through: These fishes are not particularly admired for food in this country, in which, indeed, they are rarely seen, approaching the British coast only in straggling parties, or rather as solitary individuals. By the ancients, fisheries were established for taking and preserv ing them on the coasts of the Mediterra nean, in which sea they particularly abound, and there are at present on the same coasts very extensive establishments for this purpose. Indeed, by the inhabi tants on those shores the movements of tunny are watched and expected with as much eagerness as those of the herring or mackerel in the north. The small fishes are generally carried fresh to mar ket, and the large ones are cut up into pieces of a particular size, and preserved in salt in barrels. The tunny is a very voracious fish, and a great persecutor of the common mackerel.