1410 Fishes. 



that there are two great divisions of the same fish which migrate and 

 spawn at different seasons, the confusion is removed. It has already 

 been observed that the quantities in which the schulls appear are very 

 irregular. That they are liable to fluctuations there can be no doubt, 

 but that it is so extensive as it appears to be, is not so certain. The 

 irregularity is more observable in the spring and autumn, than in the 

 summer fishery. Some of the oldest and most intelligent of our men, 

 entertain an opinion that if from any cause the eastward migrations 

 pass up mid-channel, the spring fish first appear on the eastern fishing 

 grounds about Brighton, and spawn before they get so far west as the 

 Cornish or Devonshire coasts ; hence the eastern fishery is profitable, 

 while the western is a failure. If on the contrary, they pass up at 

 short distances from the shore, the eastern fishery is a failure, and 

 their boats come westward to take the fish. How far this is strictly 

 correct I am unable to say from actual observation, but it is an 

 opinion believed by many of the fishermen. The failure of the fish- 

 ery, therefore, frequently depends on our men looking for them in a 

 wrong direction, and thus the fish pass unnoticed. As they do not 

 rise to the surface during the spring and autumn as they do in sum- 

 mer, the fishermen are obliged to fish before they can detect their 

 presence, hence much valuable time is frequently lost, though the fish 

 may have been passing for many days. It frequently happens when 

 the fishery has been a complete failure near the shore, it has been re- 

 markably successful in deep water, and vice versa. The fishery is, 

 therefore, very irregular, sometimes a few thousands are all that are 

 taken per boat through a season, at others they are caught in abun- 

 dance. The largest quantity I ever saw taken was in October, 1844, 

 when the boats of Mount's Bay brought on shore in three nights, one 

 million, six hundred thousand ; but great as this was, they all seemed 

 to think the finest year ever witnessed was in 1806, but the quantities 

 then caught I cannot ascertain This account of their movements is 

 somewhat different from that given by Mr. Yarrell in his ' British 

 Fishes,' but is founded on the observations made in this western ex- 

 tremity of our Island. The quantity actually taken cannot be ascer- 

 tained, since the largest quantities are carried to distant markets, with- 

 out being brought on shore. The mackerel, though a voracious 

 feeder, always prefers a living bait, and always strikes it backward, 

 i. e. if it pursues a bait on a hook, hung from a boat under sail, going 

 six or eight miles an hour, it pursues, and advances beyond it, turns 

 and takes it as it advances, either sideways or directly backwards. It 

 has been frequently observed by writers, that some fish are liable to 



