10 
However, this theory is scarcely tenable when it is remembered 
that the menhaden are never seen south of the southernmost point 
of Florida, and that during the winter they are never seen north of 
Northernmost Florida. So the intervening stretch of coastal waters 
must accommodate the myriads of fish forming the immense schools 
visible farther north during the summer. The fact that there is only 
one fish scrap factory on the Atlantic coast side of Florida is abun- 
dant evidence that this is not the winter retreat of the Atlantic men- 
haden. The Florida menhaden, besides, possess different charac- 
teristics from the northern. They are unmistakably different in 
size and coloration. In fact, the fish caught on the different sections 
of the coast are peculiar to those sections; those in certain sections 
are infested with certain parasites not found on those from other 
sections. This fact is almost incontestable evidence that the fish 
thus characterized could not have been a part of a general migratory 
school the other members of which being entirely free from the para- 
sites. 
The size of the fish, as well as other characteristics, varies, those of 
a certain size being peculiar to a certain part of the coast. Roughly 
the largest fish, averaging about 12 inches in length, are found in the 
waters off the Xew England States; those taken in the Long Island 
region are about 10 inches; those off Xew Jersey and Delaware about 
9 inches ; those in the Chesapeake Bay region about 8 inches ; and those 
found below Cape Hatteras about 6 to 7 inches in length. 1 It does 
not seem in the least to trouble the adherents of the coastal migra- 
tion theory that the large fish characteristic of the Xew England 
coast always escape capture as they pass the southern coast twice 
a year. 
With regard to the second hypothesis it should be said that in 
those instances where it is known definitely that fish hibernate in a 
state of torpidity it is generally where that course of action is forced 
upon them. Thus it is restricted to fish in those bodies of water 
which are thoroughly chilled during the winter. Their torpidity is 
induced by the low temperature. It is difficult to believe that a fish 
in the ocean, where all agreeable temperatures are to be had. would 
willingly search out a spot, at some great depth and corresponding 
pressure, where the temperature was sufficiently chilling to induce 
torpidity and where a radical change in habits would have to be 
undergone. In addition, a fish once rendered torpid in the depths of 
the ocean would remain there, as the conditions there would be per- 
manent. 
The third alternative, the assumption that the fish, while migrating 
equatorially to a limited extent during the season of warm coastal 
water, migrate abatically for their winter's sojourn in the warmer 
i Hathaway, Bull, Bureau of Fisheries, 1908, Part I, p. 271, 
