Fishes. 1613 



capture is the fish starting into the air with the line, and then beating 

 itself about on the surface to get rid of the hook, and in doing this it 

 always emits a very strong and peculiar smell. When the fish has 

 been common, as it was last year in Mount's Bay, I frequently fished 

 for it with a float-line, but in no instance was the float pulled under 

 before the fish had risen to the surface. Its digestion is very rapid ; I 

 have seen it pass through a shoal of small lauhce and devour them, 

 and yet when caught, very little else than mucous has been found in 

 the stomach ; but in the effort to escape, it invariably voids whatever 

 it has taken, even if only a few minutes before. It also feeds on small 

 Crustacea, but its appetite is voracious and constant, and but few 

 small things with life come amiss. It breeds about May, when it 

 first approaches the shore. In the autumn it again retires into deeper 

 water till the following year. It varies in length to twenty-nine 

 inches. 



Skipper, Mackerel Garrick. Scomberesox saurus. The Cornish 

 name of mackerel garrick, shows the same discrimination as the ge- 

 neric name of Scomberesox, and is descriptive of the finlets anterior to 

 the caudal fin. This is a very much smaller species than the last, 

 more migratory, and its migrations extend over a greater extent of 

 water. It is frequently caught by thousands in the drift-nets, when 

 they are used about June and July, at a few leagues from the shore. 

 They are exceedingly rapid in their speed, and frequently start by 

 scores into the air, especially if pursued by any other fish. During 

 the summer, when our beautiful bay seems teeming with fish of every 

 kind, the scene, especially in the evenings, is frequently enlivened by 

 a piscatory hunt, — a shoal of skippers will start into the air, and im- 

 mediately after, up springs a huge bonito after them, all going at the 

 rate of eight or ten miles an hour. In a few seconds they again 

 fall into the water, and again renew their attempts to escape, till, ap- 

 parently tired, they cannot mount above the surface, when they be- 

 come an easy prey to the tunny and bonito and their other persecutors. 

 I have seen eight thousand enclosed in one pilchard seine. In the 

 summer time it is a high swimmer, but during the autumn it leaves 

 for the west and south-west to go into deep water, and the autumnal 

 mackerel fishermen tell me they see them in September, about eight 

 and ten leagues to the south-west of the Cornish shores. They mi- 

 grate towards the shores in June and July, but their movements are 

 rapid, and they rarely remain in one spot long, hence it is difficult 

 accurately to watch all their movements. 



