MACKEKKI,. 



illotlg the 



whole west coast of Scandinavia, as far 

 as the most northern parts of Norway", thougli it is 

 rare north of 62°, and has im equally wide range 

 in the west of the Atlantic*. It is in the Skager Rack 

 and the north of the Cattegat, as far as the neigh- 

 bourhood of Kongsbacka and LiessO, and off the south 

 coast of Norway, that the Mackei'el is most common in 

 Scandinavian waters. As far south as the Bay of La- 

 iiohn ^lackerel-fry are sometimes found in great num- 

 bers. Off the fishing- village of Kullen in Scania it is 

 only occasionally found, though some few shoals appear 

 yearly in the south of the Cattegat or even force their 

 way through the Sound and the Belts into the Baltic, 

 where both Cederstrom and Lindstrom declare it is 

 known to the iishermen of Gothland. It is said to oc- 

 cur even in the Gulf of Finland, and though it is usu- 

 ally ]'are in the Baltic, MoBius and Heincke state that 

 in August, 1851, it was seen in lai-ge shoals and caught 

 in thousands in Kiel Bay. Off the coasts of Ireland 

 and England and the west coast of France the Mackerel- 

 fishery is one of the most lucrative of all. It is most 

 valuable in the English Channel, which may in all pro- 

 bability be regarded as the central point of the range 

 of the Mackerel in the east of the Atlantic. Farther 

 south, where the Mackerel is found as far as the Canary 

 Islands, as well as in the MediteiTanean and the Black 

 Sea, it is, hoAvever, less highly esteemed. According 

 to Andeusson's theory, which, however, was overthrown 

 by Bloch'', the Mackerel, like the Herring, was sup- 

 posed yearly to make distant journeys from its winter- 

 quarters in the Arctic Ocean. A French admiral'' was 

 told by his sailors that at the beginning of spring, in the 

 bays of Greenland, they had seen thousands of Mackerel 

 standing with their heads bored into the mud; and he 

 added that the Mackerel first caught were blind and 

 were taken without difiicult)' in a net, but that after- 

 wards they were compelled to use hooks to catch them, 

 as they then shunned the nets. Greenland's first natura- 

 list, Fabhicius, however, knew nothing of the occurrence 

 of the Mackerel there; nor did Faber or any of his 

 successors meet with it in Iceland. Again, these annual 



journeys lose all appearance of truth when we know 

 that the Mackei'el is caught as early in the year in the 

 Mediterranean as in the North. After the experience 

 Ekstrom gained in Bohuslan, his opinion, too, was that 

 these journej^s did not extend farther than from the 

 deep water where the Mackerel spends the Avinter, to 

 the island-belt where it spawns. The same opinion was 

 maintained by Hind on behalf of the Canadians, in the 

 dispute between Canada and the United States as to 

 the right of the latter to take part in the fisheries in 

 Canadian waters. But in his attempts to prove that 

 the Mackerel hibernates in a state of lethargy at the 

 bottom of the sea — we have similar stories of the 

 hibernation of the swalloAvs at the bottom of the lakes — 

 he was met by Baird and Brown-Goode* on the part of 

 the United States. They proved that within its range 

 on the east coast of North America the Mackerel first 

 appears in spring in the south and is gradually taken 

 in increasing numbers farther and farther north. This 

 circumstance, however, does not fully enable us to de- 

 cide whether it is due to annual migrations from the 

 south to the north and later in the year in the opposite 

 direction, or whether it is only in the latter part of 

 spring that the Mackerel ascends from the deep water 

 off the northern parts of the coast. 



In spring, while the shoals are pressing into the 

 island-belt, the Mackerel keeps to the surface, always 

 chooses places where there is a current, and is most 

 restless in stormy weather, always swimming against 

 wind and tide. Thus it happens tliat in certain years 

 it aiTives or departs earlier oi- later, according to the 

 state of the weather-^. Its wanderings begin early. It 

 has been seen in spring as early as the beginning of 

 May, off the southernmost point of Norway (Lindesniis), 

 and a few days after it appears on the inside of the 

 island-belt of Bohuslan, where it seeks the shalloAver 

 inlets. These shoals, however, are comparativel)' small, 

 and the large ones do not enter the island-belt before 

 the beginning of June. When the latter arrive, they 

 may be seen at a long distance, as they always keep 

 to the surface and cause such a disturbance in the 



" Kroyeb (1. c. p. 595), S. LoviiN (Ekstk6m, 1. c), Malmgren (1. c), Esmarce (1. c), Collett (1. c). 



' "The Mackerel tlien," says Brown-Goode (1. c, p. 282), "would appear to be a shore-loving fish, not addicted to wide wanderings 

 in the ocean, and wilh range limited in the Western Atlantic between latitudes 35° and 56°, in the Eastern Atlantic between 36° and 71°."' 



"■ Fiache DeutscliL, pt. 2, p. 90. 



'' Cuv., Val., 1. c., p. 18. 



' Rep. Commiss. Fish a. Fisher., 1877, pp. 56 etc. and Fisher, a. Fisher., Indttstv., U. S., sect. I, p. 282. 



•'' In the west of the Atlantic, according to Brown-Goode, the Mackerel approaches the surface when the temperature of the water is 

 about 45° Fahr. 



Scandinavian Fisltes. 



15 



