284. NATUEAL HISTORY OP AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



lu my essay upon meuhaden, which has just been referred to, I have attempted to show, in a 

 preliminary way, the relations of the movements of the menhaden schools to the temperature of 

 the water at different stations alonR the coast in accordance with certain crude observations, which 

 at present constitute the only material available as a basis for such generalizations. I have there 

 claimed that menhaden make their appearance near the shore in the spring as soon as the tempera- 

 ture of the water in the harbors has reached a weekly average of 50°, and that they disappear iu 

 the fall soon after the waters have again cooled down to the same average temperature. 



The Mackerel are partial to much colder waters. They range ten to fifteen degrees farther to 

 the north, and their southern limit is proportionally high. They appear earlier in the spring and 

 disappear later in the fall, and their presence is nearly synchronous with the time when the water 

 temperatures of the harbor have reached a weekly average of 45°. It has been remarked that the 

 presence of the menhaden depends upon a weekly average of the harbor temperature of 50° or 

 more. These harbor temperatures are several degrees— it is not known exactly how many— higher 

 than those of the open ocean at the same latitude, and there can be no question that the menhaden 

 thrives in water as cold as 45o. Mackerel will remain active and contented in a temperature of 

 40°, or even less. The normal time of the departure of Mackerel from the coast is, therefore, a 

 month or two later than that of the menhaden. 



There are well recorded instances of the capture of menhaden in Massachusetts Bay as late 

 as December, and there are also many instances where Mackerel have been taken not only on the 

 New England coast, but also in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in midwinter.' 



Mr. John Fletcher Wonsou tells me that at one time he left Gloucester on a halibut trip 

 January 1, and January 3 or 4, on George's Bank, caught a hogshead of herring and seven or eight 

 Mackerel in a gill-net. Schooner " Shooting Star" took a number of Mackerel on George's Bank 

 in March, 1856.2 



The fishermen on George's took Tinkers from the stomachs of codfish in February, 1878, using 

 them for bait. Sometimes five or six were taken from one fish. 



In January, 1868 or 1869, Oapt. Warren Brown, of the schooner "Charles Frederick," of 

 Gloucester, caught thirty Mackerel on a trawl-line set on the Middle Bank. 



The " Yarmouth Herald" (Yarmouth, Nova Scotia), January 2, 1879, states that " two fine, 

 fat, fresh Mackerel were found among the kelp at Green Cove on Friday, December 28, 1878." 



Basing their arguments upon such occurrences as these, Canadian writers have attempted to 

 prove that large bodies of Mackerel hibernate along thfeir shores in the winter months. It is still 

 believed by many fishermen that the Mackerel, at the approach of cold weather, go down into the 

 mud and there remain in a state of torpidity until the approach of warm weather in spring. All 

 that can be said regarding this claim is that, although we do not know enough about the subject 

 to pronounce this impossible, American ichthyologists think they know enough to be of the opinion 

 that it is very decidedly improbable. 



It seems only fair to quote in this connection a letter printed in "Forest and Stream," a leading 

 New York journal devoted to field sports and the fisheries, in criticism of views published at the 



'Twenty Mackerel were caught in a gill-net at Provincetown January 17, 1878. Others were taken late in 

 December. Captain Harding tells me that they sometimes come ashore frozen in' cold weather, and are found iu the 

 ice on the beach. 



Early iu February, 1881, small Mackerel five or six inches in length were found in considerable numbers in the 

 stomachs of hake and cod, taken on the eastern part of George's Bank in fifty fathoms, and on the southeastern part 

 of Le Have In sixty and eighty fathoms of water ; sometimes ten, twelve, or fifteen in the stomach of a single fish. 

 On the 8th and 9th of February, Captain Olsen observed them schooling at the surface on George's. Gloucester 

 fishermen had before seen them in winter on George's, but never so abundant. 



'' "Gloucester Advertiser,'' April, 1856. 



