SCOMBEROID.E. 



619 



extremities, but especially to the tail, and being what 

 may be regarded as the model of a swift fish, just as 

 the form of a falcon is the model of a swift bird. 

 There are no scales on the ventral fins ; the two 

 dorsal fins far apart, the anal under the second one, 

 and the false fins or finlets extending from both to 

 the bases of the caudal, or nearly so. The tail is a 

 little forked, and the two lobes of the fin stand 

 diverging from each other, and are much pointed. 

 The h'n is not very large, but its form remarkably 

 fine ; and though the body tapers toward its 

 base, the thickness from side to side gives it much 

 muscular strength even there. It is indeed quite a 

 study for such as are fond of the very beautiful and 

 instructive science of animal mechanics ; and in it, as 

 in other cases, we find that the maximum of energy 

 depends upon form, not upon mere mass. To de- 

 scribe the colours, or any of the other particulars, 

 would be superfluous ; the adaptation of the mackarel 

 to very rapid motion in the water is the part of its 

 appearance which contains the valuable lesson. 



When the old notion of the migration of fishes 

 over long distances from one part of the world to 

 another was in fashion, the mackarel was included in 

 the catalogue of migratory fishes. It was not then 

 considered that the migrations of animals from lati- 

 tude to latitude were produced by the action of the 

 seasons upon them, and that, as there is very little 

 seasonal action in the sea, there can be no need for 

 such migration on the part of the fishes. The mac- 

 karel is, upon ordinary occasions, a discursive inha- 

 bitant of the deep waters, where the bottom is too 

 remote from the action of the sun and air for being 

 fit for hatching the roe of a fish. Therefore, for the 

 very same reason that the salmon ascends the rivers, 

 and herrings and many other fishes come toward the 

 shores at certain times of the year, the mackarel 

 comes into water more shallow than that in which it 

 finds its food at other times. Then, as we cannot 

 suppose that the water over the deep where the bot- 

 tom is barren of life can furnish such a supply of 

 food as over the shallows where the bottom is fertile, 

 the mackarel and other fishes, which come periodi- 

 cally toward the shores in shoals, must live much 

 more dispersedly in their deep sea haunts. There is 

 something very beautiful in this even in so far as 

 use to man is concerned. Man could not fish the 

 breadth and depth of the great ocean for those fishes 

 which find their food there, and thus a very large por- 

 tion of the waters would be a waste to him, in spite 

 of the utmost exertions of his industry. But the ful- 

 filment of the law of nature brings these fishes toward 

 the shores, one at one season and another at another ; 

 and thus the fishes are, as it were, constrained by the 

 law of nature to fetch the treasures of the deep to 

 those places where man can derive advantage from 

 them ; and the great vigour of action which fits them 

 for their labours in the ocean, enables them to find 

 food upon the more fertile because more shallow 

 places, in shoals far greater than fishes of less energy 

 of action could exist. 



The time at which the mackarel fishing commences, 

 or, at all events, is most productive on the different 

 parts of the British coasts,shows pretty clearly whence 

 the fish come, and of course that is the place to which 

 they retire when they take their departure. The sea 

 on ihe east coast is not deep enough for them at 

 ordinary times, and that on the north is too cold. 

 The Atlantic is therefore the pasture to which they 



retire when the spawning upon the coast is over. 

 When they make their appearance on the shores, it 

 is at first on the south-west ; and they appear there 

 in the greatest number, and the fishing continues 

 longest. From the south-west of Cornwall to the 

 norther.n isles, the time which they take to travel is 

 nearly five months, and comparatively few reach the 

 latter locality. Their appearance is not, however, 

 strictly geographical ; for the character of the bottom 

 in the offing appears to have a considerable influence 

 upon them. The water over the sandy shallows of 

 course gets first warm, and this tends to mature the 

 spawn, and consequently the fish not only first 

 approach the land in such places, but are earlier in 

 the finest condition. 



There is another circumstance worthy of notice in 

 the seasonal economy of these fishes. At the time 

 when they come to the shores, the fry of those fishes 

 which spawn in the winter or early in the spring, is 

 very abundant, literally swarming to a thousand, or, 

 probably, many thousand times the number which 

 could come to maturity with a due balance of the 

 system ; and then the surplus goes to feed the macka- 

 rel, and the other discursive fishes that come from the 

 deep water during the summer. From the difference 

 of time between their appearance on the southern 

 and the northern coasts of Britain, it is of course im- 

 possible to lay down any precise time by the calendar 

 for their spawning, though perhaps about midsummer 

 may be the average time for the British shores. They 

 are not the most prolific of all the fishes certainly, 

 but still they are very prolific, the produce of a single 

 roe amounting to about half a million ; and it will be 

 borne in mind that, in the case of a fish, the bringing 

 of the eggs to maturity is all the labour that devolves 

 on the parent, the hatching of the eggs being pro- 

 duced by the elements, and that generally, if not 

 always, after the parent fishes have retired to other 

 parts of the water. As on all parts of the coast 

 which they frequent, they spawn in the very warmest 

 part of the season, the spawn is very soon hatched ; 

 and in about the period of two months the fry are 

 understood to grow to the length of four inches or 

 thereabouts, and they soon after retire from the land. 

 Mr. Yarrell is of opinion that one principal article of 

 the food of mackarel on the coasts of the channel is 

 the fry of the sprat ; and it is by no means unlikely 

 that this fry, and also that of the pilchard and the 

 herring, are eaten by them in great numbers ; but in 

 the case of all these fishes, there is enough and to spare. 



Mackarel, as being in all probability the most sea- 

 ward and discursive fishes which come regularly and 

 in vast numbers to the shores of Britain, and afford a 

 most valuable fishery, offer many inducements for 

 going into a general inquiry respecting the relative 

 dependence of the sea, and of the fishes of different 

 places, depths and distances from the land, upon each 

 other ; but the subject, though one of great interest, 

 and not only worthy of, but imperatively demanding 

 far more attention than it has hitherto received, is 

 much too extended for our limits, and indeed for being 

 taken up with advantage as a part of the discussion 

 of any other subject. We must therefore confine 

 ourselves to a few notices of the fishing, the substance 

 of which we shall take from Mr. Yarrell, as the latest 

 and best authority upon the subject ; and as drawn 

 from the personal observation of others in all cases 

 which his own observation did not reach, and where 

 he himself has not state I the fact to be otherwise. 



