MACKEREL. 
113 
along the whole west coast of Scandinavia, as far 
as the most northern parts of Norway 3 , though it is 
rare north of 62°, and has an equally wide range 
in the west of the Atlantic 6 . It is in the Skager Rack 
and the north of the Cattegat, as far as the neigh- 
bourhood of Kongsbacka and Ltesso, and off the south 
coast of Norway, that the Mackerel is most common in 
Scandinavian waters. As far south as the Bay of La- 
holm Mackerel-fry are sometimes found in great num- 
bers. Off the fishing- village of Kullen in Scania it is 
only occasionally found, though some few shoals appear 
yearly in the south of the Cattegat or even force their 
way through the Sound and the Belts into the Baltic, 
Avhere both Cederstrom and Lindstrom declare it is 
known to the fishermen of Gothland. It is said to oc- 
cur even in the Gulf of Finland, and though it is usu- 
ally rare in the Baltic, Mobius and Heincke state that 
in August, 1851, it was seen in large shoals and caught 
in thousands in Kiel Bay. Off the coasts of Ireland 
and England and the west coast of France the Mackerel- 
fishery is one of the most lucrative of all. It is most 
valuable in the English Channel, which may in all pro- 
bability be regarded as the central point of the range 
of the Mackerel in the east of the Atlantic. Farther 
south, where the Mackerel is found as far as the Canary 
Islands, as well as in the Mediterranean and the Black 
Sea, it is, however, less highly esteemed. According 
to Andersson’s theory, which, however, was overthrown 
by Bloch 0 , the Mackerel, like the Herring, was sup- 
posed yearly to make distant journeys from its winter- 
quarters in the Arctic Ocean. A French admiral"' was 
told by his sailors that at the beginning of spring, in the 
bays of Greenland, they had seen thousands of Mackerel 
standing with their heads bored into the mud: and he 
added that the Mackerel first caught were blind and 
were taken without difficulty in a net, but that after- 
wards they were compelled to use hooks to catch them, 
as they then shunned the nets. Greenland’s first natura- 
list, Fabricius, however, knew nothing of the occurrence 
of the Mackerel there; nor did Faber or any of his 
successors meet with it in Iceland. Again, these annual 
journeys lose all appearance of truth when we know 
that the Mackerel is caught as early in the year in the 
Mediterranean as in the North. After the experience 
Ekstrom gained in Bohuslan, his opinion, too, was that 
these journeys did not extend farther than from the 
deep water where the Mackerel spends the winter, to 
the island-belt where it spawns. The same opinion was 
maintained by Hind on behalf of the Canadians, in the 
dispute between Canada and the United States as to 
the right of the latter to take part in the fisheries in 
Canadian waters. But in his attempts to prove that 
the Mackerel hibernates in a state of lethargy at the 
bottom of the sea — we have similar stories of the 
hibernation of the swallows at the bottom of the lakes — 
he was met by Baird and Brown-Goode 0 on the part of 
the United States. They proved that within its range 
on the east coast of North America the Mackerel first 
appears in spring in the south and is gradually taken 
in increasing numbers farther and farther north. This 
circumstance, however, does not fully enable us to de- 
cide whether it is due to annual migrations from the 
south to the north and later in the year in the opposite 
direction, or whether it is only in the latter part of 
spring that the Mackerel ascends from the deep water 
off the northern parts of the coast. 
In spring, while the shoals are pressing into the 
island-belt, the Mackerel keeps to the surface, always 
chooses places where there is a current, and is most 
restless in stormy Aveather, ahvays swimming against 
wind and tide. Thus it happens that in certain years 
it arrives or departs earlier or later, according to the 
state of the weather 7 . Its Avanderings begin early. It 
has been seen in spring as early as the beginning of 
May, off the southernmost point of Nonvay (Lindesn&s), 
and a feAv days after it appears on the inside of the 
island-belt of Bohuslan, Avhere it seeks the shallower 
inlets. These shoals, hoAvever, are comparatively small, 
and the large ones do not enter the island-belt before 
the beginning of June. When the latter arrive, they 
may be seen at a long distance, as they ahvays keep 
to the surface and cause such a disturbance in the 
“ Kp.0yer (1. c. p. 595), S. Loven (Ekstr&m, ]. c.), Malmgren (1. c.), Esmarck (1. c.), Collett (1. c.). 
b “The Mackerel then,” says Brown-Goode (1. c., p. 282), “would appear to be a shore-loving fish, not addicted to wide wanderings 
in the ocean, and with range limited in the Western Atlantic between latitudes 35° and 56°, in the Eastern Atlantic between 36° and 71°. ” 
c Fische Deutschl ., pt. 2, p. 90. 
d Cuv., A r AL., 1. c., p. 18. 
e Rep. Commiss. Fish a. Fisher., 1877, pp. 56 etc. and Fisher, a. Fisher ., Industr., U. S., sect. I, p. 282. 
f In the west of the Atlantic, according to Brown-Goode, the Mackerel approaches the surface when the temperature of the water is 
about 45° Fahr. 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
15 
