122 SCOMBERID.E. 



at another. It does not appear to have been sufficiently 

 considered, that, inhabiting a medium which varied but 

 little either in its temperature or productions, locally, fishes 

 are removed beyond the influence of the two principal 

 causes which make a temporary change of situation neces- 

 sary. Independently of the difficulty of tracing the course 

 pursued through so vast an expanse of water, the order of 

 the appearance of the fish at different places on the shores 

 of the temperate and southern parts of Europe is the 

 reverse of that which, according to their theory, ought to 

 have happened. It is known that this fish is now taken, 

 even on some parts of our own coast, in every month of 

 the year. It is probable that the Mackerel inhabits almost 

 the whole of the European seas ; and the law of nature, 

 which obliges them and many others to visit the shallower 

 water of the shores at a particular season, appears to be one 

 of those Avise and bountiful provisions of the Creator, by 

 which not only is the species perpetuated with the greatest 

 certainty, but a large portion of the parent animals are thus 

 brought within the reach of man ; who, but for the action 

 of this law, would be deprived of many of those species 

 most valuable to him as food. For the Mackerel dispersed 

 over the immense surface of the deep, no eflTective fishery 

 could be carried on ; but, approaching the shore as they do 

 from all directions, and roving along the coast collected in 

 immense shoals, millions are caught, which yet form but a 

 very small portion compared with the myriads that escape. 



This subject receives farther illustration from a fresh- 

 water fish, as stated in the Magazine of Natural History, 

 vol. vii. p. 637. " When the char spawn, they are seen in 

 the shallow parts of the rocky lakes (in which only they are 

 found), and some of the streams that run into them : they 

 are then taken in abundance ; but so soon as the spawning 



