282 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Perley says that tliey arc rarely known to visit the coast of Labrador. H. R. Storer, after 

 carefully studying the fauna of Southern Labrador, in 1849, came to the conclusion that they were 

 sometimes found at Little Mecattina. 



In the various reports of the Canadian inspectors of fisheries on the Labrador coast from 1864 

 to 1870 may be found evidence that Mackerel are rarely taken even on the Labrador coast of the 

 Gulf of Saint Lawrence. 



Professor Verrill, who visited Anticosti and Mingan in 1861, was unable to find any Mackerel 

 in the waters of that region, although the best methods of catching them were often used. 



Some years ago Mackerel were abundant in the Bay of Fnndy, as many as twelve vessels from 

 Eastport, besides others, being engaged in their capture, chiefly about Digby and Saint Mary's 

 Bay. They have now so completely disappeared as not to form an item in the commercial record 

 of the catch. 



The species is found throughout the entire length of the Norwegian coast from the Christiania 

 Fjord to the North Cape and Varanger Fjord, latitude 71. It occurs on the south coast of Swe- 

 den, and, entering the Baltic, is found along the shores of Eastern Denmark and Eastern Prussia, 

 and also abundantly in the German Ocean and the English Channel, as well as everywhere in all 

 parts of the British Isles, and southward to the Mediterranean, where it abounds, especially in the 

 Adriatic. There is no record of its capture in Africa, South America, in the West Indies, the 

 Gulf of Mexico, or even about the Bermudas. 



The Mackerel, then, would appear to be a shore-loving fish, not addicted to wide wanderings 

 in the ocean, and with range limited in the Western Atlantic between latitudes 35 and 50; in 

 the Eastern Atlantic between 3(J and 71. 



MIGRATIONS. The migrations of the Mackerel, the causes of their appearance and disap- 

 pearance at certain seasons at different points along the coast, the causes of their relative abun- 

 dance and scarcity in different years, have previously been discussed by numerous writers. The 

 subject has received special attention on account of the disputes between our own and the Canadian 

 (Government concerning the value to our fishermen of the right to participate in the mackerel 

 fisheries in the Provi cial waters. 



Notwithstanding the great amount of paper which has been covered with theories to explain 

 the various mooted questions, it cannot be said that the habits of the Mackerel are understood at 

 all better than those of other fishes which have not attracted so much attention. The most volu- 

 minous writer upo:i this subject has been Prof. Henry Youle Hind, who devotes many pages of 

 his book, "The Effect of the Fishery Clauses of the Treaty of Washington on the Fisheries and 

 Fishermen of British North Ameiica," to the attempt to prove that the Mackerel which have been 

 ;ii certain seasons in the past so abundant in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and on the Atlantic coast 

 of Nova Scotia remain there throughout the year, hibernating in deep waters not very remote from 

 the shore. 1 1 have attempted to show the weakness of his argument in an essay published in the 



'Ah-. Barnet Phillips, in tho New York Times, Doc-ember 111, 1880, thus criticises 1ho theory of Mr. Hind, wbilo 

 referring lo Mr. Wi Ilium II. Uideing's essay entitled ''First Families of the Atlantic": 



'In MI article* entitled 'First Families ol' the Atlantic,' to be found in the January number of Harper's Magazine, 



certain assertions are advanced in regard to the habits of the Mackerel which are entirely of an ex parti' character, 

 and might unintentionally act injuriously loom- interests in cast) fntnie disputes arose between the Provinces and the 

 United Slates on the iishery question. The, writer states that, 'seeking a soft nmddy or sandy bed at the approach of 

 winter, it [the Mackerel] buries itself therein, first drawing a scale or lilm over each eye.' In a prior paragraph of 

 this same article- tho possibility of the hibernal ion of the Mackerel is advanced. Now, exactly these two argument a 

 were presented by Professor Hind, who wished lo prove, that the Mackerel was a local h'sh, in favor of the Pioviuct-8, 

 which assertions were entirely refuted by Prof. Silencer I' 1 , Bainl, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and by 

 Prof. G. Brown Goode. The great argument used by tho Provincial fish exports was lo show that the Mackerel 

 blouged to their waters, and tho ideas of hibernation were therefore represented. If this had been granted, our case 



