MACKAREL. C9 



Ijiit further examination tended to shew that this apparent 

 exception tended strongly to establish the rule. The whole 

 of the school thus taken were confidently pronounced by the 

 fishermen to be other than the "right" sort; that in fact, 

 they were the old fish of a former year, that had not sought 

 the retreat of deep water, or were pursuing an irregular course 

 of action. It may here be proper to remark that instances 

 have been noticed Avhere both sexes have been united in 

 one individual. A lobe of roe has been found lying between 

 the usual pair of lobes of milt; and in many sorts of fishes it 

 is probable that similar instances are not uncommon. 



It does not depend on the weather only that sometimes 

 these early Mackarel appear within the reach of the fishery in 

 the first few days of February, for they have abounded when 

 the weather was cold and stormy, and even when a brisk east 

 wind — the most ungenial for all kinds of fishing — has been 

 blowing; but a particular temperature, or the direction of the 

 wind, will have an effect of causing them to swim higher or 

 lower in the water; in which case they may pass along the 

 accustomed districts without their presence being discovered, to 

 the great loss of the fishermen, who, in this, as in many other 

 instances, must be condemned to labour most when they find 

 the lowest amount of reward. It is on those occasions that 

 they have been found first in the eastward portion of the 

 British Channel, where otherwise they would not have been 

 met with until towards the latter part of April or May; and 

 the great body of them in this case may be expected to 

 return to the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, as if the 

 passage had been in its origin from the German Ocean. 

 It may be owing to casual deviations like this from their 

 usual course, that some naturalists have been led to believe 

 that the Mackarel was more particularly a native of the 

 little-known regions of the Frozen Ocean, where they have 

 been represented as revelling on an abundance of food, 

 amidst an intensity of congenial cold and storm; and from 

 whence, at a time when we should have judged that, if at 

 all, the northern sea was best fitted to their nature, they have 

 been said to depart in immense multitudes to supply an 

 esteemed article of food to nations further to the south. The 

 same account was formerly accepted as regards the Herring, 



