Daily National Intelligencer

MACKAREL FISHERY.

FROM THE DELAWARE WATCHMAN

The more we consider the subject, the more reason we have to admire the bountiful provision made by the Divine hand, for the necessities and pleasures of his Creatures. "Fields, rivers, woods, resound his praise." But it is not only the surface of the earth that produces continual evidence of his attention to the wants of his children. Many blessings lie hid beneath the soil on which we tread; many are extracted from the depths of the ocean where He performs his wonders in silence, satisfied with self approbation. "But chiefly thee, Oman, he has endowed beyond all his creatures"—by enabling thee to appropriate to thine own use, whatsoever is hid in the bowels of the earth, or the unfathomable depth of the sea—by endowing thee with the necessary intelligence, he has made thee lord of His creation, and taught thee how to appropriate all His benefits to thine own particular advantage. Such were the ideas that accompanied a reflection on the vast benefits we derive from the products of the ocean, in consequence of conversing with a person who had been engaged, for a part of the present summer, in the Mackarel fishery, on the coast of New Jersey. It is now pretty generally admitted, I apprehend, that the Herring, that fills our rivers at a certain season of the year, are but a portion of that immense living river that circulates through the whole body of the Atlantic ocean, and fills the arteries and veins of that portion of the earth that bounds its waters. The Mackarel and Cod may, and probably do, migrate; but where, or to what extent, has, I believe, not been particularly noticed. Until within a few years, it has generally been understood, that fisheries for these species have been confined (on our coast) to the shores of New England and Newfoundland But within these few years, both Mackarel and Cod have been taken in considerable quantities along the shores of New Jersey. What has this arisen from? Were fishermen mistaken in their haunts, in supposing them confined exclusively to a higher northern latitude than ours? Have they by accident (as we are in the habit of saying) discovered that they were to be found on our own shores, as well as those of our brethren of New-England? Or has it arisen from other circumstances? Have those fishes always migrated along our coast from South to North, or from North to South; and were they to be found, at the proper season, from Newfoundland to Florida—or has the number so increased of late, in consequence of the more general cultivation of the shores of our rivers, and the consequent greater depositions of soil and of seeds on the fields of the ocean, which have fructified the pastures of the great deep, and procured food where before barren sands alone offered no provision for those migratory tribes? From whatever cause it has proceeded, it now seems that both the mackarel and the Cod are to be found in our waters; and consequently offer a new branch of business to those of our sea faring men who may choose to undertake it. The person before alluded to had been engaged in the business some weeks before he became master of the art of taking the Mackarel. He had kept his vessel under way while fishing, but was not successful, In two days, while he lay at anchor, he took 22 barrels. This is good business, and if it be a fact that those fish frequent our shores, in such numbers as this circumstance supposes, there will be room for many to engage in a traffic, that may in a degree, supply that deficiency of business that our river traders complain of.