HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 57 



hibernate. Ilis arguments naturally tall into two categories — those 

 against migration and those in favor of hibernation. Those in favor of 

 hibernation may bo summed upas (1) the testimony of fishermen and 

 travelers ; (2) the quoted opinions of theorizers ; (3) the alleged hiberna- 

 tions of other fishes ; and (4) peculiarities in early and late fish. 



(1.) The statements of one M. Plevillo le Peley, " an eye-witness," are 

 quoted both from Lacepede and H. do la Blanchere. M. le Peley 

 gravely states that he had observed about the coasts of Hudson's Bay 

 " the mud at the bottom of the small clear hollows incrusted with ice 

 round their coasts, entirely bristled over by the tails of mackerel im- 

 bedded in it nearly three parts of their length,"* and again "affirms 

 having seen in the middle of winter, in deep muddy bottoms, myriads 

 of mackerel, packed close one against the other, with one-half of the 

 body plunged in the mud, where they remained during the winter. As 

 soon as spring came they aroused themselves from their torpor, and 

 appeared always on the same day on the same coast at the surface of 

 the sea, and repaired to favorable spots to spawn ."t The absurdity of 

 these statements renders it unnecessary to criticise them. The other 

 testimony is less definite. A Newfoundland fisherman remembers to 

 have heard his father say that forty years before "he had often seen 

 mackerel in White Bay come on shore like squid, with scales on their 

 eyes and blind, about Christmas."} And, again, a statement quoted from 

 the Rev. John Ambrose, that "mackerel have been brought up from the 

 muddy bottoms of some of our outer coves by persons spearing for eels 

 through the ice,"§ which statement is not supported by the personal evi- 

 dence of Mr. Ambrose, being merely a hearsay story. And this is all. 



Professor Hind, in Part II of the same work|| remarks confidently : 

 "That the mackerel spends the winter months in a torpid condition near 

 to the locality where the schools first show themselves on the coast 

 has already been adverted to," and again refers to " the fact, already 

 noticed, that it is taken in winter from muddy bottoms." I submit that 

 no such fact has been established and that Professor Hind's general- 

 izations are without foundation. There is much better evidence to prove 

 that swallows hibernate in the mud of ponds, a theory which has had 

 numerous advocates since the time of Gilbert White, of Selborne. 



(2.) Professor Hind first quotes from "La Peche et Les Poissons" of 

 M. H. de la Blanchere. The statement, printed as it is in a single para- 

 graph instead of two and not given in full, conveys the impression that 

 M. de la Blanchere indorses the view^s of Pleville le Peley, already quoted. 

 On the contrary, he states explicitly : " The question of the annual and 



* Hiufl, op. cit., Part II, p. 10, note. 



t Part I, p. 78. 



i Part I, p. 78. 



$ Observations on the Fishing Grounds and Fish of St. Margaret's Bay, N. S., by Rev. 

 John Ambrose. <Proceedings and Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Nat- 

 ural Sciences, 1866-'67, quoted by Hind, op. cit., Part I, p. 79. 



II P. 10. 



