MIGRATIONS OF TIIE MACKEREL SCHOOLS. 283 



Fifth Annual Report of the Uniteil States Commissioner of Fisheries for the year 1877, pp. 50-70. 

 It is by no means demonstrated that certain schools of Mackerel do not remain throughout the 

 year in waters adjacent to the coast of Canada, but the weight of evidence at present seems to rest 

 with those who believe that the Mackerel are given to extensive migrations north and south along 

 our coasts. These migrations are believed to be carried on in connectioti with another kind of 

 migration which I have culled "bat hie migration," and which consists in a movement, at the 

 approach of cold weather, into the deeper waters of the ocean. The menhaden and many other 

 fishes have these two kinds of migrations, littoral and bathic. The sea-herring, on the other hand, 

 has extensive littoral migrations and probably very slight movements of a bathie nature. In some 

 the latter is most extended, in others the former. Anadromous fishes, like the shad and the ale- 

 wife, very probably strike directly out to sea without ranging to any great degree northward or 

 outhward, while others, of which the Mackerel is a fair type, undoubtedly make great coastwise 

 migrations, though their bathic migrations may, without any great inconsistency, be as great as 

 those which range less. 



Upon this point I cannot do better than to quote from a manuscript letter from. Professor 

 Baird to the lion. Hamilton Fi.sh, Secretary of State, dated July 21, 1873. Having expressed 

 certain views concerning the well-known phenomenon of the migration of the herring and shad, 

 he continues: 



" The fish 6f the Mackerel family form a marked exception to this rule. While the alewife and 

 shad generally swim low in the water, their presence not being indicated at the surface, the 

 Mackerel swim near the surface, sometimes far out to sea, and their movements can be readily 

 followed. The North American species consist of fish which as certainly, for the most part at 

 least, have a migration along our coast northward in spring and southward in autumn, as do the 

 throngs of pleasure-seekers, and their habit of schooling on the surface of the water enables us 

 to determine this fact wifh great precision. "Whatever may be the theories of others on the sub- 

 ject, the American mackerel-fisher knows perfectly well that in the spring he may find the schools 

 of Mackerel off Cape Henry, and that he can follow them northward day by day as they move in 

 countless myriads on to the coasts of Maine and Nova Scotia." 



The movements of the mackerel schools, like those of the menhaden, appear to be regulated 

 olely by the temperature of the ocean. 



would liavo had. as far as Mackerel go, little to rest upon. As to hibernation of the Mackerel there are innumerable 

 reasons to suppose that nothing of the kind exists. In fact, hibernation is one of those ichthyological questions 

 which require very long research to know anything about. It does seem that sturgeon in Russian waters, and carp 

 in roM temperature s, take to the mud, and may, perh.ips, do something like hibernal inn, but this habit haH no prece- 

 dent in Kca-lish. It may happen that a few individuals of the Scomber family have been inclosed in the winter season 

 in tin- waters nf the Newfoundland coast. Such cases have undoubtedly happened, for on page GJ of the late report 

 of fin' United States Commission tlm statement is made, that in a river of Nova Scotia where a school nf Mackerel had 

 been doiaiiied the lisb wero speared out- ot'tlie mud. Re I urniirj; to the numbing elVccts of cold weather on sea-fish, in 

 order o slum 1 how unusual it must be, the. American turliot is taken with hooks in the dead of winter under the floe 

 led of North (Jrcc.idand at a depth of :!00 fathoms. If sea- fish were mil mini lied in the ocean depths by the cold, because 

 at the deeper strata of the, ocean temperatures arc. laiily uniform, once a li.sh bail hibernated his sleep might continue 

 on forever. There nail bo no better proof of tbe migratory character of the Mackerel than to cite a paragraph from 

 the. 'Cape Ann Advertiser,' pnb'islicd this week, where the fact is announced that the mackerel licet have gone off 

 H at r eras in hopes of securing Mackerel, and that some time ago 'vissels reported having sailed through immense 

 Schools for fifty mi lus.' The film over the eye of Mackerel I'rol'essor Hind plavcd great stress on, as ho supposed it 

 was a preparatory step to the hibernating process. Now, this film over the eye, as Mr. Goodo shows, is not. peculiar 

 to the miiimbem, for many lisfi, such as the. shad, the alcwiie, the menhaden, the blnelish, the mullet, (he: lake white- 

 fish, and various cyprinoi'l lish"s, IKI.VC t.'iis membrane, though it never iloes cover the wlmlo eye. The fact remain* 

 also to be. proved that a skin furius over the eye in wintdPonly. The, writer of this article has apparently culled his 

 facts in regard to Mackerel from one side, and has read m"st superficially the whole of t he testimony. ' Public docu- 

 ments' are rarely of an amusing character, but \< hen they happen to be of interest, as were those published as 'Th 

 Award of the. Fisheries Commission,' it is most unibrtnuatuynrkou false deductions are derived from them." 



