MIGEATIOKS OF THE MACKBEEL SCHOOLS. 283 



Fifth Annual Eeport of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the year 1877, pp. 60-70. 

 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 seems 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 I 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 som« 

 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 inconsisiency, be as great as 

 those which range less. 



Upon this point I cannot do better than to quote from a manuscript letter from Professor 

 Baird 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 swim 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 off 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 had, as far as Mackerel go, little to rest upon. As to hibernation of the Mackerel there are Innumerable 

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

 ■svhich require very loufj research to know anything about. 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 sea-iish. It may happen that a few individuals of the Scomber family have been inclosed in the winter season 

 in the waters of the Newfoundland coast. Such cases have undoubtedly happened, for on page 62 of the late report 

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

 been detained the fish were speared out of the mud. Eeturning to the numbing effects of cold weather on sea-fish, in 

 order to show how unusual it must bo, the American turbot is taken with hooks in the dead of winter under the floe 

 ice of North Greenland at a depth of 300 fathoms. If sea-fish were mummified in the ocean depths by the cold, because 

 at the deeper strata of the 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 

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

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

 schools for forty miles.' The film over the eye of Mackerel Professor Hind placed great stress on, as he supposed it 

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

 to the aeortibers, for many fish, such as the shad, the alewife, the menhaden, the bluefish, the mullet, the lake white- 

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

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

 facts in regard to Mackerel from one side, and has read most superficially the whole of the testimony. 'Public docu- 

 ments' are rarely of an amusing character, but when they happen to be of interest, as were those published as 'The 

 Award of the Fisheries Commission,' it is most unfortunate when false deductions are derived from them." 



