60 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



(4.) Professor Hind lays much stress upou the presence of a "film" over 

 the eyes of the spring aud autumn mackerel and upon their alleged capt- 

 ure in winter in the waters of the Dominion, and also quotes arguments 

 for hibernation based upon the resemblance of the mackerel to the 

 batrachians (which are known to be capable of hibernation) in color, 

 and upon its resemblance to embryonic forms of other fishes which is 

 supposed to " prove him low in the scale of intelligence."* To the 

 latter it is needless to refer. The so-called "film" on the eye is not 

 peculiar to the mackerel. Many fishes, such as the shad, the ale- 

 wife, the menhaden, the bluefish, the mullet, the lake whitefish, and 

 various cyprinoid fishes have a thick, rough membrane covering the 

 anterior and posterior angles of the orbits narrowing the opening to 

 the form of an ellipse with a vertical major axis. This possibly be- 

 comes somewhat more opaque in seasons of decreased activity. It 



wliich was tbeu ahiiost dry, having only about four inches of water in its center, while 

 its circumference was sufficiently dried to walk upon. The soil was a thick and con- 

 sistent bluish clay, from which, aud not nearer than thirty paces to the water, five live 

 fish were extracted from at least two feet below the surface of the mud. They con- 

 sisted of two of Ophiocephahis imnctatiis and three of the Ehynchobdella aculeata. All 

 were very lively and not in the slightest degree torpid. They were covered over with 

 a thick adherent slime. Among the specimens of fish in the Calcutta museum is one 

 of the Amplupnous aiclda, which was dug up some feet below the surface of the mud 

 when sinking the foundation for a bridge. If when the water failed fish invariaMy 

 died, the tank would be depopulated the succeeding year unless a fresh supply was 

 obtained from some other source, while the distance from other pieces of water at which 

 they reapi)ear excludes, in many instances, the possibility of migration, which must 

 always, to a certain extent, be regulated by distance, time,, and other local circum- 

 stances. Some species, esj^ecially "compound breathers," are unable to live in liquid 

 mud, which they cannot employ for purposes of aquatic respiration. 



" The i>ractical question is, whether, when food and water fail, some fish do not sesti- 

 vate until the return of a more favorable season. Natives of India assert that they 

 do thus become torpid in the mud. As the water in tanks becomes low, the fishes con- 

 gregate together in holes and places in which some ttill remains, where they may be 

 frequently seen in numbers huddled together with only suflicient water to cover their 

 dorsal fins. 



" If disturbed they dive down into the thick mud, so that a net is often found in- 

 effectual to take them. The plan employed to capture them is for the fisherman to 

 leave the net in the water, and to walk about in the surrounding thick mud ; in time 

 they come to the surface to breathe, aud fall an easy prey. 



" As the water gradually evaporates, the fishes become more and more sluggish, and 

 finally there is every reason to believe that some at least bury themselves in the soft 

 mud, aud in a state of torpidity await the return of the yearly rains. In Ceylon, Mr. 

 Whiting, the chief officer of the western province, informed Sir i^merson Tennent that 

 he bad accidentally been twice present when the villagers had been engaged in dig- 

 ging up fish. The ground was firm and hard, and "as the men flung out lumps of it 

 with a spade, they ft-11 to pieces, disclosing fish from 9 to 12 inches long, which were 

 full-grown and healthy, aud jumped on the bank when exposed to light. Many other 

 animals which possess a higher vitality than fish aistivate during the hot months, as 

 BatracUans, the Emi/s, the Lcjndosiren annectens, and some of the crocodiles. Mollusks 

 and land-snails are commonly found in this state during the hot and dry months. 

 (Day's Fresh- water Fish of India, p. 28.) 



* Part I, p. 79. 



