72 AMBROSE — ON ST. MARGARET's BAY FISHIiSTG GROUNtJ^; 



as there are exceptions to all rules, and as there are many indi- 

 viduals among migratory birds which separate from the main 

 flocks and remain here for the winter, so it may be with their 

 cousins* the fishes. There is yet much to be learned by careful 

 observation, — and a record of apparently trifling circumstances, 

 such as is often found in the transactions of Natural Plisto'ry 

 Societies, may in the end lead to discoveries of great value to 

 commerce. 



Many mackerel in August are found to have a strong coppery 

 taste, and to produce symptoms of poisoning in those who eat 

 them. Our fishermen attempt to account for this by the suppo- 

 sition, that somewhere off at sea the fish have been feeding on the 

 sides of submarine hills containing copper ore. This reminds 

 me of an anecdote in the London Guardian of January 17^ 

 1866. " In the aquarium of the Liverpool Museum are several 

 live soles. The bottom is covered with an abundance of the 

 pretty little variously coloured pebbles found in the Isle of 

 Wight, the forms and parti-colours of which those soles have so 

 completely adopted, that when one is lying quite flat and still upon 

 the surface, it is with the utmost difficulty the mere looker-on can 

 distinguish the back of the creature from the strata on which he 

 is reposing. He is, in fact, spotted all over with the colour and 

 form of the pebbles." So far the Guardian. Cod and many 

 other fish are also well known to be dark, light, or parti-coloured 

 according to the deep, shoal, or rock and sand bottom to which 

 they resort. It is not, therefore, altogether improbable that 

 either from their situation or their food, mackerel at times obtain 

 this peculiar coppery taste. They are at any time unwholesome 

 for pigs if eaten raw, and in this they difier from the common 

 sort of fish. Fishermen attribute this unwholesome quality when 

 eaten raw to the blood of the fish. 



The third run of mackerel are mostly No. 2 fat, with some 

 No. I's among them. They trim close to the shore when the 

 wind is north-west or north, and sometimes run up as far as 

 Mill Cove, thence running out along the west side of the Bay. 



About the first of October the large, fat No. 1 mackerel 

 begin to arrive, heading westwardly, coming from the Gulf of 



* Gen. i. 20. 



