REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



essay published in the Fifth Annual Report of the United States Com- 

 missioner of Fisheries for the year 1877, pp. 50-70. It is by no means 

 demonstrated that certain schools of mackerel do not remain throughout 

 the year in waters adjacent to the coast of Canada, but the weight of 

 evidence at present seems to rest with those who believe that the maek- 

 erel'are given to extensive migrations north and south along our coasts. 

 These migrations are believed to be carried on in connection with another 

 kind of migration which I have called "bathic migration," and which 

 consists in a movement, at the approach of cold weather, into the deeper 

 waters of the ocean. The menhaden and many other fishes have these 

 two kinds of migrations, littoral and bathic. The sea-herring, on the 

 other hand, has extensive littoral migrations and probably very slight 

 movements of a bathic nature. In some the latter is most extended, in 

 others the former. Anadromous fishes, like the shad and the alewife, very 

 probably strike directly out to sea without ranging to any great degree 

 northward or southward, while others, of which the mackerel is a fair 

 type, undoubtedly make great coastwise migrations, though their bathic 

 migrations may, without any great inconsistency, be as great as those 

 which range less. 



Upon this point I cannot do better than to quote from a manuscript 

 letter from Professor Baird to the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of 

 State, dated July 21, 1873. Having expressed certain views concerning 

 the well known phenomenon of the migration of the herring and shad, 

 he continues : 



"The fish of the mackerel family form a marked excerption to this 

 rule. While the alewife and shad generally swim low in the water, their 

 presence not being indicated at the surface, the mackerel swim near 

 the surface, sometimes far out to sea, and their movements can be read- 

 ily followed. The North American species consist of fish which as cer- 

 tainly, for the most part at least, have a migration along our coast north- 



thedead of winter under the lioe ice of North Greenland at a. depth of 300 fathoms. 

 If sea-fish were mummified in the ocean depths hy the cold, because at the deeper 

 strata of the ocean temperatures are fairly uniform, once a fish had hibernated, his 

 sleep might continue on forever. There can be no better proof of the migratory char- 

 acter of the mackerel than to cite a paragraph from the Cape Ann Advertiser, pub- 

 lished this week, where the fact is announced that the mackerel fleet have gone off 

 Hatteras in hopes of securing mackerel, and that some time ago ' vessels reported 

 having sailed through immense schools for forty miles.' The film over the eye of 

 mackerel Professor Hind placed great stress on, as he supposed it was a preparatory 

 step to the hibernating process. Now, this film over the eye, as Mr. Goode shows, is 

 not peculiar to the Scombers, for many fish, such as the shad, the alewife, the men- 

 haden, the blue-fish, the mullet, the lake white-fish, and various cypriuoid fishes, have 

 this membrane, though it never does cover the whole eye. The fact remains also to 

 be proved that a skin forms over the eye in winter only. The writer of this article 

 has apparently culled his facts in regard to mackerel from one side, and has read most 

 superficially the whole of the testimony. ' Public documents ' are rarely of au amusing 

 character, but when they happen to be of interest, as were those published as 'The 

 Award of the Fisheries Commission,' it is most unfortunate wheu false deductions are 

 derived from them." 



