CHAP, i.] MACKEEEL GROWTH. 21 



its liie from the best account of it that is known, keeping in 

 the background at present any knowledge or speculation of 

 my own regarding it. I allude to the mackerel ; and the fol- 

 lowing facts are from an evidently well-studied chapter of 

 Mr. Jonathan Couch's Fishes of the British Islands, by which 

 it will be at once seen that our knowledge of the growing 

 power of this well-known fish is very defective. 



1. Mackerel, geographically speaking, are distributed over 

 a wide expanse of water, embracing the whole of the Euro- 

 pean coasts, as well as the coasts of North America, and this 

 fish may be caught as far southward as the Canary Islands. 

 2. The mackerel is a wandering unsteady fish, supposed to be 

 migratory, but individuals are always found in the British 

 seas. This fish appears off the British coasts in quantity 

 early in the year ; that is, in January and February. 4. 

 The male kind are supposed to be more numerous than the 

 female. 5. The early appearance of this fish is not dependent 

 on the weather. 6. The mackerel, like the herring, was at 

 one time supposed to be a native of foreign seas. 7. This fish 

 is laden with spawn in May, and it has been known to deposit 

 its eggs upon our shores in the following month. 



Such is a brief resume of Mr. Couch's chapter on the 

 mackerel. 



Now, we have no account here of how long it is ere the 

 spawn of the mackerel quickens into life, or at what age that 

 fish becomes reproductive, although in these two points is un- 

 questionably obtained the key-note to the natural history of 

 all fishes, whether they be salmon or sprats. In fact and it 

 is no particular demerit of Mr. Couch more than of every other 

 naturalist we have no precise information whatever on this 

 point of growth power. We have at best only a few guesses 

 and general deductions, and we would like to know as regards 

 all fish 1st, When they spawn ; 2d, How long it is ere the 

 spawn quickens into life ; and 3d, At what period the young 



