248 THE VARIATION, RACES AND MIGRATIONS OF THE MACKEREL. 



1886, pp. 65-72). Such an arrangement would be decisive, but expensive, 

 and could not, I believe, be undertaken by the Association under present 

 conditions. An attempt which I made in the Autumn of 1897 to 

 secure the periodic consignment of a small sample from Kinsale fell 

 through owing to the refusal of the fish merchant to undertake the 

 supply of small quantities, the price of which would not repay him for 

 his trouble. 



Nevertheless, in spite of their incompleteness, the following general 

 features of the samples may be advantageously summarised, if only as 

 a means of inviting furtlier attention to the subject : — 



1. Large fish, measuring 14 inches and upwards, preponderate only 

 on the Atlantic coasts of Ireland and Brittany. The sample from 

 Brest is particularly valuable as an index of distribution, because the 

 fish composing it were all caught with hook and line, the sizes in most 

 of the other samples being partially determined by the mesh of the nets 

 with which the fish were captured. The late date (June 20th) at which 

 these large Brest fish were taken close to shore is also worthy of notice. 

 The sample caught at Kinsale some ten days later (July 1st) consisted 

 of distinctly smaller fish. 



2. On the Irish coast the spring fish are much larger than the 

 autumn fish ; but in the Channel and North Sea no such difference 

 is to be recognised. Indeed, in the latter areas the autumn fish appear 

 on the whole to be slightly larger than the early breeding fish, and 

 seem to be the same fish at a later stage of growth. 



3. The sequence of events on the Irish coast, as indicated by 

 table A, appears to be as follows : In March * moderately large fish 

 (13 and 14 inches) arrive; in April the size of the fish attains its 

 maximum (a preponderance of 14 and 15 inch fish); at the end of 

 June (Kinsale, July 1st) the proportion of large fish is greatly reduced, 

 and there is a considerable accession of small fish (11 and 12 inches), 

 the total range of size being now at its maximum ; by the end of July 

 the large fish have all disappeared, and there is a preponderance of 

 1 1 inch fish ; and from now onwards the size gradually but slightly 

 increases, as though by growth rather than by new immigrations of 

 larger fish. In this summary I have assumed that samples of fish 

 caught off the South and West coasts of Ireland {i.e., Kinsale and 

 Kerry) are equally representative of the general size prevailing at the 

 periods of capture, though I have no doubt that the examination of 

 simultaneous samples from the two coasts will reveal slight differences, 

 at any rate, in this respect. This point I hope to elucidate during the 

 present autumn and the next spring seasons. 



* Two large mackerel, one of each sex, were forwarded to me by Mr. Green in Februar}'. 

 They measured IG ins. in length, and were caught off Gariness, Co. Cork, on Feb. 23rd, 1898. 



