670 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



As far as the mackerel is concerned I do not doubt for a moment that 

 it is a genuine pelagian fish. Its whole build and its looks indicate this, 

 its slender form, its compressed, wedge-shaped head, its small fius, its 

 powerful muscles, its shining sides, glittering like silver and gold, and 

 the beautiful sea-blue and sea-green shading of the back. All genuine 

 iDottom-fish have a plump and compressed body, a flat head, large fins, 

 and generally gray, white, or black colors, or a mixture of the three, but 

 very rarely any brilliant colors. Any one who is acquainted with the 

 sea on our southern and western coasts knows the playful nature of the 

 mackerel when near the land, how they gambol about on the surface of 

 the water, so it resembles a seething caldron ; how, in a stiff breeze, 

 it races with the swiftest sail-boat. All this is by no means in keeping 

 with the character of a bottom-fish. It seems improbable in the highest 

 degree that during the rest of the year the mackerel should suddenly 

 change its nature and lead a melancholy life down at the bottom of the 

 ocean. The mackerel has got its elegant and well-proportioned body, in 

 order to move quickly about in the water, and there are very few fish 

 which excel it in this. It is therefore also well adapted for long jour- 

 neys, and, although I do not approve of Andersson's migration theory, I 

 incline to the opinion that the mackerel which every summer come to 

 our southern and western coasts in large schools, come from a great dis- 

 tance. If we examine the geographical distribution of the mackerel on 

 the coasts of Europe, we find that it is very different from that of the 

 herring. While the herring is only found on the northern coasts from 

 the Channel to the northernmost boundaries of our continent, the mack- 

 erel is found much farther south. It is not found in any very large 

 numbers on the heights of Sondmore, while farther south it is found 

 more frequently. Besides our southern and western coasts, it is found 

 on all the other coasts of the North Sea, viz, in Denmark, Germany, 

 Holland, and England, also on the Atlantic coast of Scotland and Eng- 

 land, near Ireland, in the Channel, on the coasts of France, Spain, and 

 Portugal, and in the Mediterranean as far as the Black Sea ; and it is 

 even said to have been found as far south as the Canary Islands. It is 

 also found on the eastern coast of North America. 



We see from this that it is a much more southern fish than the herring. 

 Its proper home is, in my opinion, the Atlantic Ocean along the whole 

 western coast of Europe from the Orkney Islands and the north coast 

 of Scotland to the Mediterranean, while the home of the herring is chiefly 

 the Atlantic Ocean north of Scotland, and the Polar Sea. Its mode of 

 life while out in the open sea is unfortunately but little known. I have 

 been told, however, that grown mackerel are at different seasons of the 

 year occasionally caught by sailors oft" the coast of France and Portugal. 

 In all probability they live more scattered here than when they are near 

 the coast, perhaps, also, at different depths under the surface, but never 

 on the bottom. It is not improbable that some of those mackerel which 

 come to our coasts do not leave the North Sea. I incline, however, to 



