138 SCOMBEIUD.E. 



certain periodical migrations, and making long voyages from 

 north to south at one season of the year, and the reverse at 

 another. It does not appear to have been sufficiently consi- 

 dered, that, inhabiting a medium which varied but little 

 cither in its temperature or productions, locally, fishes are 

 removed beyond the influence of the two principal causes 

 which make a temporary change of situation necessary. In- 

 dependently of the difficulty of tracing the course pursued 

 through so vast an expanse of water, the order of the appear- 

 ance of the fish at different places on the shores of the tem- 

 perate and southern parts of Europe is the reverse of that 

 which, according to their theory, ought to have happened. 

 It is known that this fish is now taken, even on some parts of 

 our own coast, in every month of the year. It is probable 

 that the Mackerel inhabits almost the whole of the European 

 seas ; and the law of nature, which obliges them and many 

 others to visit the shallower water of the shores at a particu- 

 lar season, appears to be one of those wise and bountiful pro- 

 visions of the Creator, by which not only is the species per- 

 petuated with the greatest certainty, but a large portion of 

 the parent animals are thus brought within the reach of man ; 

 who, but for the action of this law, would be deprived of 

 many of those species most valuable to him as food. For the 

 Mackerel, dispersed over the immense surface of the deep, no 

 effective fishery could be carried on ; but, approaching the 

 shore as they do from all directions, and roving along the 

 coast collected in immense shoals, millions are caught, which 

 yet form but a very small portion compared with the myriads 

 that escape. 



This subject receives farther illustration from a fresh-water 

 fish, as stated in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. vii. 

 p. 637. " When the Char spawn, they are seen in the 

 shallow parts of the rocky lakes (in which only they are 

 found), and some of the streams that run into them : they are 



