216 PEOSE HALIETJTICS. 



maintain till spring, when, on removing their heads out of 

 the ooze, all are more or less affected with a temporary 

 blindness, occasioned by an adipose pellicle, which, veil- 

 ing the eye in winter, becomes atrophied and falls away 

 about the time when their apocryphal voyage is supposed 

 to be undertaken. 



These supposed migrations of mackerel have given rise 

 to wide excursions of the imagination, and to much inge- 

 nious speculation : Anderson describes the yearly march 

 of the great unnumbered army with the confidence of 

 an actual eye-witness. Having, according to that great 

 non-commissioned Scomber-ductor, passed the winter 

 in the icy seas, they wait for the genial time of year, 

 to pour in succession along the coasts of Iceland, Scot- 

 land, and Ireland, in undiminished numbers; thence 

 dividing as they approach the Channel into two columns, 

 one continues its onward course along the west of France, 

 Spain, and Portugal^ and so on into the Mediterranean ; 

 whilst the other comes up the British Channel, visiting 

 the northern part of France and the opposite coast of 

 our own island, Holland, etc. ; when having arrived 

 about July off the shores of Jutland, this first branch 

 of the integral shoal again subdivides, and sends a de- 

 tachment to visit the Baltic Sea, while the remainder 

 passes upwards along the Norway rocks, and returns to 

 the northern point from whence it originally set out. 

 What seems fatal to this theory is, that mackerel are 

 caught abundantly in the south in early spring ; as soon 

 as, or even before, we see them in England, which is sel- 

 dom tin May, while the familiar name for them at 

 Montpelier is pels d'Avril, or April fish. Another fact 

 equally opposed to the supposition of this long northern 

 circuit is that some are often taken in the Channel as 

 late as November and December ; now, as it is not likely 

 that these few have come aU the way back again by 

 themselves, we may presume that the shoal from whence 



