MIGRATIONS OF TIIE MACKEREL SCHOOLS. 283 



Fifth Annual Report of the United States Commissioner 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 seeniH to rest 

 with those who believe that the Mackerel 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 1 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 ale- 

 wife, 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 

 Haiid 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 exception to this rule. While the alewife and 

 shad generally switn 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 readily 

 followed. The North American species consist of fish which as certainly, for the most part at 

 least, have a migration along our coast northward in spring and southward in autumn, as do the 

 throngs of pleasure-seekers, and their habit of schooling on the surface of the water enables us 

 to determine this fact with great precision. Whatever may be the theories of others on the sub- 

 ject, the American mackerel-fisher knows perfectly well that in the spring he may find the schools 

 of .Mackerel oft' Cape Henry, and that he can follow them northward day by day as they move in 

 countless myriads on to the coasts of Maine and Nova Scotia." 



The movements of the mackerel schools, like those of the menhaden, appear to be regulated 

 solely by the temperature of the ocean. 



would have liuil. .MS far as Mackerel go, little to rest npou. As to hibernation of tbe Mackerel there are innii 

 reasons to suppose that nothing of tbe kind exists. In fact, hibernation is one of those ichthyological questions 

 which require very long research to know anything aboat. It does seem that sturgeon in Russian waters, and carp 

 in cold temperatures, take to the mud, and may, perhaps, do something like hibernation, but this habit has no prece- 

 dent in si-.-i-iisli. It may happen that a few individuals of tbe Scomber family have been inclosed in the winter season 

 in i In- waters of the Newfoundland coast. Such coses have undoubtedly happened, for on page G2 of the late report 

 "i tin- United States Commission the statement is made that in a river of Nova Scotia where a school of Mackerel had 

 been detained the fish \M-IV speared out of the mud. Returning to the numbing effecta of cold weather on sea-fish, in 

 in del- in show how unusual it must be, the American turbot is taken with hooks in the dead of winter under the floe 

 ii-r of North Green laud at a depth of 300 fathoms. If sea-fish were mummified in the ocean depths by the cold, because 

 m the deeper strata of tbe 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 character of the Mackerel than to cite a paragraph from 

 tho 'Cape Ann Advertiser, ' published this week, where the fact is announced that the mackerel fleet havu gone off 

 llaiiera.s in hopes of securing Mackerel, and that some time ago 'vessels reported having sailed through immense 

 M-hools for forty miles.' The film over the eye of Mackerel Professor Hind placed great stress on, as ho supposed it 

 was u preparatory step to the liiliernatiii^ process. Now, this film over the eye, as Mr. Goodo shows, is not peculiar 

 lo the Ki-ombrn, for many lish, such as the shad, the alewife, the menhaden, the bluefish, the mullet, the lake white- 

 lish. and various eyprinoid fishes, have this membrane, though it never does cover the whole eye. The fact remains 

 I be proved that a skin forms over the eye in winter only. The writer of this article, has apparently culled his 

 t'.-ii'ts ill regard to Mackerel from one side, and h:\s read most superficially the whole of the testimony. 1'iiblic docu- 

 ;:> -nt-,' are rarely of an amusing ehurueter, l>nt when they happen to be of inten >t. as \\.n- those published as 'The 

 Award of tbe Fisheries Commission.' it is most unfortunate when false deductions are derived from tin-in." 



