58 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



regular apiDearance aucl disappearance of this fish is still unsolved." 

 He then proceeds to contrast with M. le Peley's views those of Duhamel 

 de Mouceau, Anderson and others, who represented that the mackerel 

 pass the winter in the northern seas, and in sj^ring, beginning their 

 migrations, pass southward visiting first Iceland, then Jutland, then 

 Scotland, and Ireland, and the coasts of Continental Europe, in autumn 

 assembling together for a return to the polar regions. Then he quotes 

 Pleville le Peley, and remarks : " This theory associates the mackerel 

 with many other sedentary fishes w^hich pass the winter at the bottom 

 of the sea, stupefied by the cold into a kind of lethargy, and would serve 

 to explain why, in October, young mackerel of 10 and 15 millimeters are 

 taken, why in winter others of larger size are taken, not with a line, 

 but with nets, which entangle those which had not already buried them- 

 selves in the mud or the sand."* 



Another quotation is madet from Shaw's " General Zoology, or Sys- 

 tematic Natural History," published in 1803. Professor Hind says that 

 "the four disputed points in relation to the natural history of this fish 

 are there asserted, namely, its local habits, its torpidity during hiberna- 

 tion, the film over the eye, and the fact of its being partly imbedded in 

 the soft mud or sand during its winter sleep." 



I admit that Shaw asserts the presence of a film over the eye. He 

 does not, however, even give the theory of hibernation his personal in- 

 dorsement, but remarking that the long migration of the mackerel and 

 herring seems at present to be called in question, continues, " It is 

 thought more probable that the shoals which appear in such abundance 

 round the more temperate Euroi^ean coasts, in reality reside during the 

 winter at no very great distance, immersing themselves in the soft bot- 

 tom, and remaining in a state of torpidity, from which they are 

 awakened by the warmth of the returning spring, and gradually recover 

 their former activity." 



Even if Shaw could fairlj- be quoted as a supporter of this theory, 

 his opinion is of little value. He was not a naturalist, but a book- 

 maker, and his compilations are acknowledged to be inaccurate, f 



The opinions of Dr. Bernard Gilpin and the Eev. John Ambrose, 

 two excellent Nova Scotian observers, are quoted, § though with no appar- 

 ent reason, for the latter remarks only that " it is the opinion of some" 

 that the third run of mackerel, which takes place at St. Margaret's Bay 

 about the first of August, are not returning from the Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence, but from sea, and " it may be that a portion of the immense 

 schools passing eastwardly in the spring strike off" to some favorite bank 



*' Nouveau Dictionnaire G6n6ral des Peclies, &c., par H. de la BlancLere. Paris, 186S, 

 p. 183, article Maquercau. 



t Hiad, op. cit., Part II, p. 10. 



t Sec a criticism upon Shaw's General Zoology iu Gill's Arrangement of the Fami- 

 lies of Fishes, &c.,. 1872, pp. 40, 41. 



^ Part I, p. 79. 



