158 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
permost before it got stranded, which is not its manner of com- 
ing ashore, as I shall presently show. And, granting that death 
results from the rupture of the air-bladder after spawning, then 
I should expect that the specific gravity of the fish would thereby 
become more than before spawning, and its body sink and decay 
rather than come ashore fresh as it always does. 
Now, as to the known facts. In Professor Hutton’s “Cata- 
logue of New Zealand Fishes,” p. 109, Dr. Hector remarks :——“It 
is most commonly found cast up after cold frosty nights on sandy 
beaches that are exposed to the long roll of ocean swell, and is 
not in this country obtained by any kind of fishing.” Mr. C. H. 
Robson, in the Trans. of N.Z. Institute, Vol. VIL. , Pp. 218, says 
that he has repeatedly found Frost-fish deliberately swimming 
on shore. That he has turned their heads seawards again, but 
they nevertheless have come back and swam up high and dry on 
the beach. And enquiries I have instituted among the fisher- 
men who live at Purakanui have elicited the following observa- 
tions :—These fish not only come on shore during frosts, but 
they are cast ashore during heavy tides when there is no frost ; 
also on the termination of frost when the thaw commences. They 
have also come or been washed on to the rocks during the sum- 
mer at Purakanui, as in December. When seen tocome first on 
the beach they try to bite their tails! A frost-fish was netted on 
the Groper Reef in February, 1882, and several others have been 
so netted during the summer seasons, but the precise dates were 
not noted. The fish from the Groper Reef was found in the net 
when it was drawn ashore, but the net had been cast in three or 
four fathoms of water. No information was in possession of 
these fishermen as to the time or locality of spawning, and they 
had never seen roe in any fish ; neither could they tell the ordi- 
nary depth of water frequented by Frost-fish. But as to the 
young, they had seen several ranging from three to fifteen inches 
in length ; while the adult fish feeds greatly on sprats, which it 
follows close in shore, even among the surf. 
Giving equal value to the evidence of the different authorities 
I have quoted, leaves the question of the stranding of Frost-fish 
still very much in obscurity as to its reason or cause. More 
continued observations and examinations are necessary before 
the mystery can be explained. There seem, however, to the 
writer to be reasons enough for believing that this fish is always 
on the coast or following in the wake of the shoals of sprats which 
come south in the end of summer and return by the beginning 
of winter. Neither does its large eye necessarily determine it as 
a deep-sea form—as very small eyes, or even none at all, are 
quite as distinctive features of such forms. 
W. ARTHUR. 
Roslyn, June 16th, 1884. 
