14 MACKEREL GROWTH. 



is scope and verge enough for real practical work to be carried 

 on. It is the want of precise information about the growth of 

 fish that tells so heavily against our fisheries, for all is fish that 

 comes to the fisherman's net, no matter what size the animals 

 may be, or whether they have been allowed to perpetuate their 

 kind. No person, either naturalist or fisherman, knows how 

 long a period elapses from the date of its birth till a turbot or 

 cod-fish becomes reproductive. It is now well known, in conse- 

 quence of repeated experiments, that salmon grow with immense 

 rapidity, a consequence in some degree of quick digestive power. 

 The cod-fish, again, . reasoning from the analogy of its greatly 

 slower power of digesting its food and from other corroborative 

 circumstances, must be correspondingly slow in growth ; but 

 people must not, in consequence of this slower power of diges- 

 tion, believe all they hear about the misceUaneoua articles often 

 said to be found in stomachs of cod-fish, as a large number of 

 the curiosities found in the intestinal regions of his codship are 

 placed there by fishermen, as a joke, or to increase the weight, 

 and so enhance the price of the animal. 



As regards the natural history of one of our best-known 

 food fishes, I have taken the pains to compile a brief precis of 

 its life from the best account of it that is known. I allude to 

 the mackerel ; and from a perusal of the following facts it will 

 be seen that our knowledge of the growth of this fish is very 

 defective. 1. Mackerel, geographically speaking, are distributed 

 over a wide expanse of water, embracing the whole of the Euro- 

 pean coasts, as well as the coasts of North America, and this 

 fish may be caught as far southward as the Canary Islands. 



2. The mackerel is a wandering unsteady fish, supposed to be 

 migratory, but individuals are always found in the British seas. 



3. This fish appears off the British coasts in quantity early in 

 the year ; that is, in January and February. 4. The male kind 

 are supposed to be more numerous than the female. 5. The 

 early appearance of this fish is not dependent on the weather. 

 6. The mackerel, like the herring, was at one time supposed to 

 be a native of foreign seas. 7. This fish is laden with spawn in 

 May, and it has been known to deposit its eggs upon our shores 

 in the following month. Now, we have no account here of how 

 long it is ere the spawn of the mackerel quickens into life, or 

 at what age that fish becomes reproductive, although ia these 

 two points is unquestionably obtained the key-note to the 

 natural history of all fishes, whether they be salmon or sprats. 



