282 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Perley says that they are rarely known to visit the coast of Labrador. H. R. Storer, after 

 carefully studying the fauna of Southern Labrador, in 1849, came to the conclusion that they were 

 sometimes found at Little Mecattiua. 



In the various reports of the Canadian inspectors of fisheries on the Labrador coast from 1864 

 to 1870 may be found evidence that Mackerel are rarely taken even on the Labrador coast of the 

 Gulf of Saint Lawrence. 



Professor Verrill, who visited Anticosti and Miugau in 1861, was unable to find any Mackerel 

 in the waters of that region, although the best methods of catching them were often used. 



Some years ago Mackerel were abundant in the Bay of Fundy, as many as twelve vessels from 

 Eastport, besides others, being engaged in their capture, chiefly about Digby and Saint Mary's 

 Bay. They have now so completely disappeared as not to form an item in the commercial record 

 of the catch. 



The species is found throughout the entire length of the Norwegian coast from the Christiania 

 Fjord to the North Cape and Varanger Fjord, latitude 71. It occurs on the south coast of Swe- 

 den, and, entering the Baltic, is found along the shores of Eastern Denmark and Eastern Prussia, 

 and also abundantly in the German Ocean and the English Channel, as well as everywhere in all 

 parts of the British Isles, and southward to the Mediterranean, where it abounds, especially in the 

 Adriatic. There is no record of its capture in Africa, South America, in the West Indies, the 

 Gulf of Mexico, or even about the Bermudas. 



The Mackerel, then, would appear to be a shore-loving fish, not addicted to wide wanderings 

 in the ocean, and with range limited in the Western Atlantic between latitudes 35 and 56; in 

 the Eastern Atlantic between 36 and 71. 



MIGRATIONS. The migrations of the Mackerel, the causes of their appearance and disap- 

 pearance at certain seasons at different points along the coast, the causes of their relative abun- 

 dance and scarcity in different years, have previously been discussed by numerous writers. The 

 subject has received special attention on account of the disputes between our own and the Canadian 

 Government concerning the value to our fishermen of the right to participate in the mackerel 

 fisheries in the Provincial waters. 



Notwithstanding the great amount of paper which has been covered with theories to explain 

 the various mooted questions, it cannot be said that the habits of the Mackerel are understood at 

 all better than those of other fishes which have not attracted so much attention. The most volu- 

 minous writer upon this subject has been Prof. Henry Youle Hind, who devotes many pages of 

 his book, "The Effect of the Fishery Clauses of the Treaty of Washington on the Fisheries and 

 Fishermen of British North America," to the attempt to prove that the Mackerel which have been 

 at certain seasons in the past so abundant in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and on the Atlantic coast 

 of Nova Scotia remain there throughout the year, hibernating in deep waters not very remote from 

 the shore. 1 1 have attempted to show the weakness of his argument in an essay published in the 



'Mr. Barnet Phillips, in the New York Times, December 31, 1880, thus criticises the theory of Mr. Hind, while 

 referring to Mr. William H. Ricleing's essay entitled "First Families of the Atlantic": 



"In an article entitled 'First Families of the Atlantic,' to be found in the January number of Harper's Muga/im . 

 certain assertions are advanced in regard to the habits of the Mackerel which are entirely of an ex parle. charartrr, 

 and might unintentionally act injuriously to our interests in case fntuie disputes arose between the Provinces iiml i he- 

 United States on the fishery question. The writer states that, ' seeking a soft muddy or sandy bed at the approach of 

 winter, it [the Mackerel] buries itself therein, first drawing a scale or film ovi-r r;i<-h r\r.' In a prior paragraph of 

 tlii.s same article the possibility of the hibernation of the Mackerel is advanced. Now, exactly these two arguments 

 were presented by Professor Hind, who wished to prove that the Markm-l was a local fish, in favor of the Provinces, 

 which assertions were entirely refuted by Prof. Spencer F. Baird, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and by 

 Prof. G. Brown Goode. The great argument used by the Provincial iish experts was to show that the Mackerel 

 belonged to their waters, and the ideas of hibernation were therefore represented. If this had been granted, our case 



