578 COMMON MACKREL. 



bedded in the soft mud, beneath the vast crusts 

 of ice surrounding the polar coasts , being thus 

 sufficiently protected from the effects of frost ; and, 

 on the return of spring, is generally believed to 

 migrate in enormous shoals, of many miles in length 

 and breadth, and to visit the coasts of more tem- 

 perate climates in order to deposit its spawn. Its 

 route has been supposed nearly similar to that of 

 the Herring; passing between Iceland and Nor- 

 way, and proceeding towards the northern part of 

 our own island, where a part throws itself off into 

 the Baltic, while the grand column passes down- 

 wards, and enters the Mediterranean through the 

 straits of Gibraltar. 



This long migration of the Mackrel, as well as 

 of the Herring, seems at present to be greatly called 

 in question : and it is thought more probable that 

 the shoals which appear in such abundance round 

 the more temperate European coasts, in reality re- 

 side during the winter at no very great distance ; im- 

 mersing themselves in the soft bottom, and remain- 

 ing in a state of torpidity *; from which they are 

 awakened by the warmth of the returning spring, 

 and gradually recover their former activity. At 

 their first appearance their eyes are observed to 



* Of this the Count de Cepede adduces the testimony of an 

 eye-witness ; viz. JMonsr. Plei-ille-le-Peley, who, about the coasts 

 of Hudson's bay, observed the mud, at the bottom of the small 

 clear hollows encrusted with ice round those coasts, entirely 

 bristled over by the tails of Mackrels imbedded in it nearly three 

 parts of their length. 



