( 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
350 
outside and above the ventral tins, the belly thus ac- 
quires a somewhat raised longitudinal margin. 
The transparency of the scales displays the Mac- 
kerel-like coloration of the body in all its brilliancy. 
The back is greenish, with a steel-blue lustre of varying 
intensity, darker, nearly black, at the middle, and form- 
ing a longitudinal band at the boundary between it 
and the sides. The sides are silvery, and the under 
surface of the belly white. The dorsal and caudal tins 
are of the same colour as the back, shading either into 
green or blue, the latter fin, however, with a dash of 
gray. The pectoral, ventral and anal fins are of the 
same colours as the sides and belly, light gray or yel- 
lowish white. The iris is silvery white, with a more 
or less distinct dash of gold. 
The true geographical range of the Garpike extends 
from the neighbourhood of Trondhjem in Norway south- 
wards throughout the Mediterranean: it occurs in the 
Black Sea as well as in the Baltic. North of Trondhjem 
it is sometimes found, it is true, up to the extreme 
I north of Norway; but there, as on the coast of Iceland, 
it is of rarer occurrence. In the north of the Baltic 
too, it becomes rarer. On the coast of Scania and off 
Kiel it is common, but is found only in small numbers 
on the Prussian coast (Benecke). Lindstrom assigns it to 
Gothland and Ekstrom to the island-belt of Morko, while 
Lilljeborg obtained specimens of an average size from 
Roslag. According to Malmgren and Mela it ascends 
the Gulf of Bothnia up to Qvarken and wanders east- 
wards half-way up the Gulf of Finland; but in both 
these arms of the Baltic it is rare. On the west coast 
of Sweden, however, from the Sound up, as well as on 
the Danish coast and off the south and central parts of 
Norway, it appears close in shore, in large shoals, every 
year. Even in Sweden it sometimes enters the mouths 
of rivers or penetrates higher up the stream: Nilsson 
states that in the River Hoje it has been taken as far 
up as Varpinge, near Lund". 
No less active than voracious, the Garpike is one 
of the few fishes that really make their presence known 
at the surface of the sea, where it appears in large 
numbers, whether it be in order to spawn, in chase of 
its prey, or itself in flight from some enemy. “There 
are times also,” says Couch 6 , “when the sea is calm and 
smooth, that it may be seen engaged in solitary amuse- 
ment at the surface, or perhaps many together, by 
leaping again and again over some floating object, as 
a rod or straw, or it may thrust itself bolt upright out 
of the water, to fall back again in an apparently clumsy 
manner. It is an amusement with fisherboys to throw 
some slender stick to the Garfish, when it will execute 
a variety of evolutions about and over it as it floats.” 
In pursuit of some little fish at the surface, or when 
hunted itself, it may be often seen leaping out of the 
water in the chase. “We were fishing yesterday,” writes 
Cornish 1 ', “off Lamorna, in about eight fathoms of water, 
and close in shore, when our attention was attracted 
by a noise in the water near us. It was caused by a 
large shoal of gerricks scudding very rapidly on the 
surface of the water. The appearance was as though 
the fish were actually swimming on the surface, with 
the larger portion of their bodies in the air, but this 
was probably an optical delusion, caused by the constant 
succession of fish coming to the surface. They passed 
close by us, less than five fathoms from the bows of 
ou] 1 boat, and as they passed we satv in chase of them 
certainly one, and probably more than one, large Tunny 
(“albacores,” as they call them here). The tunnies were 
dashing about after their prey, almost on the surface 
of the water, and removed all doubt as to their identity 
by more than once springing clean out of water close 
by us.” Schagerstrom describes a similar scene in the 
Sound**: “It is a really fine sight on a clear day to see 
a large shoal of these fishes hunted by Tunnies 6 . The 
Garpike keep to the surface, and often leap a foot or 
two out of the water.” When the Garpike has taken 
the hook (which must be offered it at the surface and 
constantly kept in motion), “it does not seek,” says 
Couch, “to escape by darting away, but, as if conscious 
only of the annoyance from the restraint of the line, 
it will mount to the surface, even before the fisherman 
discovers that he has had a bite; and there, with its 
body partly out of the water, it struggles with the line 
in a variety of active contortions.” 
We have every proof that the Garpike leads the 
life of a surface-fish, and in this respect it reminds us 
a In Holland the Garpike enters the branches of the Rhine; see Tijdschr. Nederl. Dierk. Vereen., Supph, Deel II, p. 109. 
b Fish. Brit. Isl., vol. IV, p. 147. 
c Zoologist , vol. XXIII, 1865, p. 9814. 
d Phys. Sails. Tidskr. 1838, Haft. Ill, p. 297. 
e SchageestrOm here writes Delphinus delphis; but we learn from Kr0YEK that by springare the fishermen of the Sound mean 
the Tunny. 
