116 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
§J tUu 1$- 
MIGRATION OF FISHES.— No. 2. 
BY G. BROWN 
GOODS — BEAD 
CULTURAL ASSOCIATION 
BEFORE THE AMERICAN FISH 
MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE. 
On the coast of eastern Maine we are told that the men- 
haden schools keep passing to the eastward until about the 
middle of July, when their impetus is apparently checked, 
and their movements for thirty or forty days seem to be 
local only. During this period the temperature at Portland 
varies from 60 deg. to 70 deg., this beiDg the height of mid- 
summer. The monthly means for July and August, 1876, 
were 66 deg. 7 min., and 63 deg. 9 min. The same months at 
New London are placed at 73 deg. and 73 deg. 3 min ; at 
Norfolk, 84 deg. 1 min. ; June, July and August, at Jackson- 
ville, average above 85 deg., and we have no satisfactory evi- 
dence that the menhaden are seen there in midsummer. At 
Key West the lowest monthly mean is December, at 60 deg. 
4 min., in an unusually cold winter. 
BANGE OF TEMPEBATUBE PREFERRED. 
These facts seem to indicate that under ordinary circum- 
stances the menhaden prefers a temperature of 60 deg. to 70 
deg., Fahrenheit. When the rising temperature of spring 
has passed the limit of 50 deg. to 51 deg., the fish are certain 
to appear : and when the falling temperature of autumn 
reaches that point their departure is equally sure, though a 
few individuals may linger in water not congenial to them. 
The opposite limit seems to be marked by the line of 80 deg , 
or perhaps 75 deg. 
An easterly or northerly wind, lowering temporarily the 
surface temperature, causes the school to sink below the sur- 
face. The chill of night also drives them down. 
These conclusions are not regarded as final. The move- 
ments of the fish about Cape Hatteras are very puzzling, and 
need to be interpreted by a series of careful temperature ob- 
servations. 
THE RELATIONS OF THE TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER TO THE 
SEASONAL MOVEMENTS OF THE MENHADEN. 
The relations of the temperature of the water to the move- 
ments of the menhaden schools having been studied, a new 
question is at once suggested. When the schools disappear 
from our coast, driven by falling temperatures, where do they 
go? The answer must be in the form of a theory, for no one 
has seen them during their winter absence ; at least no one 
has been able to identify the New England and Middle States’ 
fishes after their departure in the autumn. It is evident that 
there are but three courses open to our coast fishes when it 
becomes necessary for them to leave inshore : 
1. They may swim out to sea until they find a stratum of 
water corresponding in temperature to that frequented by 
them during their summer sojourn on our coast. 
2. They may swim southward until they find water of the 
required warmth. 
8. They may descend into the abyssal depths of the ocean, 
there to remain for a 6eason in partial or total torpidity. 
The last of these theories is the least plausible, from the 
fact that it necessitates the greatest change in habits. The 
susceptibility of the menhaden to slight changes of tempera- 
ture has been pointed out. Hybernation in the oceanic 
depths involves a change of ten to twenty-five degrees colder 
than that preferred by them in summer, as well as other im- 
portant changes in respect to specific gravity and pressure. 
The hybernation theory is a favorite one with the fisher- 
men of the British provinces, and has recently received 
strong support from Professor Hind in his treatise on the 
“ Fisheries of North America.” His arguments refer to the 
mackerel, although the scup, tautog and herring are included 
by implication. He refers to the appearance of the mackerel 
“ with scales on their eyes and blind,” and suggests that the 
winter sleep of fishes is probably much more general than is 
usually supposed. He takes the position that there are only 
two alternatives possibly open to fishes which cannot live in 
cold water. They must migrate south or hybemate. His 
arguments naturally fall into two categories— those against 
migration and those in favor of hybernation. Those in favor 
of hybernation may be summed up as, first, the testimony of 
fishermen and travelers; second, the quoted opinions of theo- 
rizes ; third, peculiarities in early and late fish ; and fourth, 
the alleged hybernation of other fishes. 
TESTIMONY OF FISHERMEN IN FAVOR OF HYBERNATION CRITICISED. 
1. The statements of one M. Pleville le Peley, “an eye- 
witness,” are quoted both from Lacepede and FL de la Blan- 
chere. M. le Peley gravely states that he had observed about 
the coasts of Hudson Bay “ the mud at the bottom of the 
small, clear hollows, encrusted with ice around their coast, 
entirely bristled over by the tails of mackerel imbedded in it 
nearly three parts of their length ” (Hind. op. cit. Part II., 
p. 10, note) ; and again “affirms having seen in the middle of 
winter, in deep, muddy bottoms, myriads of mackerel packed 
one against the other, with one-half the body plunged, in the 
mud, where they remained during the winter. As soon as 
spring came they aroused themselves from their torpor and 
appeared always on the same day on the same coast at the sur- 
face of the sea, and repaired to favorable spots to spawn ” 
(Part I, p. 78). The absurdity of these statements renders it 
unnecessary to crit icise them. The other testimony is less defi- 
nite. A Newfoundland fisherman remembers tohave heard his 
father say that forty years before “ he had often seen mack- 
erel in White Bay come on shore like squid, with scales on 
their eyes and blind, about Christmas ” ( Part I, p. 78) ; and 
again a statement quoted from the Rev. John Ambrose that 
“mackerel have been brought up from the muddy bottoms of 
some of our outer coves by persons spearing for eels through 
the ice” (Observations on the Fishing Grounds of 8t. Marga- 
ret's Bay, N. S., by Rev. John Ambrose, and Proceedings and 
Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Sciences, 
1866-7, quoted by Hind op. cit. Part I, p. 79), which statement 
is not supported by the personal evidence of Mr. Ambrose, 
being merely a hearsay story. And this is all. Prof. Hind, 
in Part II of the same work (p. 10) remarks confidently: 
“ That the mackerel spends the winter months in a torpid 
condition near to the locality where the school first show 
themselves on the coast has already been adverted to and 
again refers to “the fact already noticed that it is taken in 
winter from muddy bottoms." I submit that no such fact 
has been established, and that Prof. Hind's generalizations 
are without foundation. There is much better evidence to 
prove (hat swallows hybemate in the mud of ponds, a theory 
which has had numerous advocates since the time of Gilbert 
White, of Selborne. 
THE CONCLUSIONS OF THEORIZER8 IN FAVOR OF HYBERNATION, CON- 
TINUED. 
2. Prof. Hind first quotes from “La Peche et Les Pois- 
sons " of M. de la Blaucbere. The statement, printed as t 
is in a single paragraph instead of two, and not given in I . 
conveys the imnressiou that M. de la Blaucbere ’“dorse 
views of Pleville le Peley, already quoted. On the contrary, 
he slates explicitly : “ The question of the annual and regular 
appearance and disappearance of tins fish is still unsolved. 
He then proceeds to contrast with M. le I eley s views of Du- 
hamel de Mouceau, Anderson and others, who represented 
that the mackerel pass the winter in the Northern seas, and 
in spring, beginning their migrations, pass Southward, visit- 
ing first Iceland, then Jutland, then Scotland and Ireland 
and the coasts of Continental Europe, in autumn assembling 
together for a return to the polar regions. Then no quotes 
Pleville le Peley and remarks: “This theory associates the 
mackerel with many other sedentary fishes which puss the 
winter at the bottom of the sea, stupefied by the cold into a 
kind of lethargy, and would seem to explain why in October 
young mackerel of ten and fifteen millimetres are taken 
why in winter others of larger size are taken, not 
with a line, but with nets which entangle those which 
have not already buried themselves in the mud or the saud. 
(Nouveau Dictonnaire General des Peches, etc., Part I de la 
Blaucbere ; Paris, 1868, p. 183, article maquereau). Another 
quotation is made (Hind, op cit. Part II. p. TO) from Shaw s 
“General Zoology or Systematic Natural History,” published 
1803. Hind asserts “ that the four disputed points in rela- 
tion to the natural history of this fish are there asserted, 
namely, its local habits, its torpidity during hybernation the 
film over the eye, and the fact of its being partly embedded 
in the soft mua or sand during its winter sleep." 
1 admit that Shaw asserts the presence of a film over the eye 
He does not, however, even give the theory or hybernation 
his personal indorsement, but, remarking that the long migra- 
tion of the mackerel and herring seems at present to he called 
in question, continues: “It is thought more probable that the 
schools which appear in such abundance round the more tem- 
perate European coasts in reality reside during the winter at 
no very great distance, immersing themselves in the soft bot- 
tom, and remaining in a state of torpidity from which they are 
awakened by ibe warmth of the returning spring and gradual- 
ly recover their former activity." Even if Shaw could fairly 
be quoted as a supporter of this theory, bis opinion is of little 
value. He was not a naturalist, hut a book maker, and his 
compilations are acknowledged to be inaccurate. (See a 
criticism on Shaw's General Zoology in Gills Arrangement of 
the Families of Fishes, etc., 1872, pp. 40 and 41.) 
The opinions of Dr. Bernard Gilpin and the late Rev. John 
Ambrose, two excellent Nova Scotian observers, are quoted, 
(part I., p. 79) though wilh no apparent reason, for the latter 
remarks only that “ it is the opinion of some ” that the third 
run of mackerel, which takes place at St. Margaret’s Bay 
about the first of August, are not returning from the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, but from sea, and “it may be that a portion of 
the immense school, passing eastwardly in the spring, strikes 
off to some favorite bank outside to deposit the spawn. Or 
there may be a sort that never go as far east or west as the 
others, but wiuter along our shores, etc., etc.,” while Dr. Gil- 
pin expressly remarks that though the asserted torpidity and 
blindness favor the idea of hybei nation, he does not think that 
we have yet sufficient proof to assert them as facts. 
The authorities, support of the hybernation theory do not, 
in fact, support it, and the testimony cited by Prof. Hind is 
merely tradition and popular opinion, some obtained directly, 
the remainder at second hand. 
ARGUMENTS FROM THE ALLEGED HYBERNATION OF OTHER FISHES, 
CONTINUED. 
Still another set of arguments is based upon the supposed 
hybernatiDg habits of other species of fishes. Prof. Hind re- 
marks: “In seas which are not ice-incumbered the winter 
torpidity of tbe mackerel may be of very short duration ; in 
ice-incumbered seas it may extend over several months. In 
this particular this mackerel resembles the 6turgeon of the 
Caspian Sea, whose torpidity during the winter is well known, 
and this winter sleep is not confined to these fish, but is prob- 
ably much more general than is usually supposed.” (Part II, 
d. 11). Here we have a definite statement. The mackerel 
jybernate, and the winter sleep is not confined to the mac- 
kerel. 
The only hybernation which is definitely known to occur 
among fishes takes place in the fresh water lakes and streams 
of cold regions. The fish are driven by cold into the deeper 
waters, and there remain in a state of torpor proportionate in 
degree to the amount of cold which they experience. They 
may even be frozen up in the midst of a mass of ice and re- 
cover their vitality when the ice is melted. Mr. Milner had a 
mud-minnow ( Mclanura limi ) which was frozen in solid ice 
in the middle of an aquarium globe three or four times, and 
each time recovered its vitality upon thawing out. Marine 
fishes in the extreme north doubtless undergo similar experi- 
ences, though I am not aware that aDy record of such a phe- 
nomenon has ever been published. 
Iu warm regions an analogous phenomenon takes place, 
which has been called {estivation. When i he lakes and streams 
are dried up by tbe heat the fish seek refuge in the deepest 
pools, and, when these too are dried, they bury themselves in 
the mud at the bottom and remain torpid until the rainy sea- 
son refills the reservoirs and revives them. Hybernation and 
{estivation do not appear in any case voluntary acts. The 
fish do not become torpid of their own volition. They avoid 
it as long as they can, and only succumb when they are de- 
prived of means of escape. They never become torpid when 
there are greater depths to which they can retreat. 
( To be continued.) 
try ; 5,000, Balahack Brook, South Windham ; 1 1,000, SrUod 
I tali Lake, East Haven ; 1,000, Rogers Pond, Branford , 500 
Valley Pond, Woodbridge.” , r XT 
With the exception of the 5,000 destined for New Fair 
field, arrived in good condition at their various destinations ; 
and of the total number 9,989 died before hatching, and 4,262 
before reaching the proper agq to be transferred to the waters 
of the State. There is every reason for great encouragement 
in the work of iutroducifig black bass. The fish of this 
variety originally planted some years ago have increased at a 
wonderful rate, and the Commissioners have during the past 
year been in receipt of numerous reports of the success of 
their efforts in this direction. Many bass weighing four and 
five pounds have been captured from waters which once con- 
tained only inferior and insignificant fish. In connection 
with this topic it may be noted that the opinion expressed in 
the Forest and Stream of May 17, 1877, that the introduc- 
tion of bass into the Connecticut was deleterious to the shad 
fishery, has been amply sustained by subsequent facts, the re- 
turn for the shad seines in 1877 being fifty per cent, greater 
than that of 1876. 
The principal object for which the Fish Commission was 
established was the attempt to restore to the rivers of the 
State the salmon formerly so abundant, and to increase tha 
supply of shad. The results with the latter fish were so suc- 
cessful that Congress was led to the provision of a Govern- 
ment Commission, which has been instrumental in placing 
shad in the waters of nearly every State in ibe Union. After 
much perseverance the Connecticut Commissioners succeeded 
in obtaiuiug a limited number of salmon eggs, until, in 1874, 
more than 1,100,000 were placed in the Connecticut 
These are to return in 1878 or 1879. Of the appearance of 
salmon in the river or in the ponds west of its mouth there 
were several reports duriDg the past season. Much encour- 
agement is to be taken from the success of Massachusetts in 
the Merrimack River salmon stocking, a report of which from 
Com. Brackett is embodied in the present r<ywrt. Much 
complaint is justly made of the futility of the efforts on the 
part of the Commissioners, so long as the present abuses by 
fishermen with gill-nets are not corrected. This is a matter de- 
manding new legislation, and as to the proper regulations to 
be enforced the Commissioners suggest : . . 
“1st. The time of fishing for shad should be so changed 
that none could be taken except between March 15lh and 
June 15th of each year. . . ' . 
“2d No salmon should be taken in any of the waters of 
this State previous to July J, 1880. If Statutes should be 
enacted as suggested, even then the work would not be com- 
Pl “ Experience has shown that they must be enforced, and 
this can only be done by employing honest and fearless men 
who will devote their whole time to it during the fishing 
season and of course a sufficient amount of money must be 
appropriated to pay them for their services. The simple 
question is, whether the money which has been devoted to 
this work by the State during ten years shall be sacrificed to 
the rapacity of a few fishermen, or whether Connecticut shall 
have an equal chance with her sister States to test the success 
of the labors of her Fish Commissioners.” 
Abstract of the Twelfth Annual Report of 
the Fish Commission of Connecticut for 
the Year 1877. 
T HE limited appropriation of the last General Assembly 
has restricted the operations of the Cotamission. The 
distribution of luod-locked salmon fry was as follows to the 
ponds and lakes where in 1876 100,000 of (he same species 
were planted : 
“ 5,000, Waramung Lake, New Preston ; 5,000. Bantam 
Lake, Litchfield ; 5,000, Hog Lake, Lyme ; 5,000, Gardiner's 
Lake, Salem ; 5,00O, Twin Lakes, Salisbury; 5,000, Wan- 
ouscoponus Lake, Lakeville ; 5,000, Spectacle Ponds, Kent ; 
5,000, Square Pond, New Fairfield ; 5,000, Snipsic Lake, 
Rockville ; 5,000, Hampton Pond, Easthampton ; 5,000, Long 
Lake, Wonted ; 5,000, 3 Wangambourg Pond, South Coven- 
The Blaok Bass of Cate Cod, Mass.— When and bi 
Whom they Were Introduced. — Mr. Editor: The first talk 
of the introduction of the black bass in Southeastern Massacbu 
setts, was at the summer mansion of the late Samuel T. Tis- 
dale, at Agawam, East Wareham, on or about the first day of 
August, 1849. Prominent amoDg the gue6ts was the late Mr. 
Preston H, Hodges, then the landlord of the Clinton Hotel, 
located on the east side of the City Hall Park, New York. 
After the feasibility of moving live bass from some Western 
lake to Wareham was duly considered, Mr. Tisdale made the 
following proposition to Mr. Hodges : “ In the proper season 
next year, 1850, if you will procure the fish (bass) at some 
convenient point and convey them to Wareham, I will pay [el 
bills, except your time, which you must take from the fund 
of amusement consequent in the capture of that historic game 
fish, which, to me, is a stranger.” Mr. Hodges accepted the 
proposition, and on the 15th of the following June he put out 
for Saratoga Lake, with necessary tackle and tanks, and com- 
menced operations, and readily captured twenty black bas6, 
and started by rail f< r Wareham. On his arrival at Sprrag- 
field. Mass., the vitiated water was drawn from the tnnks and 
fresh iced water introduced in its stead, and, strange to relate, 
in a few moments every fish turned up dead. Of course this 
was a sad disappointment, but Mr. Hodges took the first train 
west for Saratoga, and again was successful, as lie captured 
twenty more bass in a reasonable time, and again shaped his 
course for Wareham, via rail to Albany, from thence by boat 
to New York, where he changed the water ; and taking a stock 
of cochituate, embarked on a Fall River steamer to Fail River, 
from thence by rail to Agawam, East Wareham, where he 
arrived with his nineteen bass (oue having died on the trip.) 
These fisli were placed in the Flax Pond, a small sheet of 
water near Mr. Tisdale’s residence, at 10:46 o'clock a. m., on 
the 4th day of July, 1850. 
The next year, 1851, about the same number of bass were 
introduced in other waters in this locality by the same indivi- 
dual. The increase of black bass is truly wonderful ; it is prob- 
ably due to tbe great amount of food our waters contribute to 
their voracious appetite, and by their hardy hubit. To-day, 
more than one hundred lakes, ponds and rivers, in Eastern 
Massachusetts are populated from this early private ' enter- 
prise. . 
Rhode Island and Connecticut are also reaping a harvest of 
fish, due to the enterpise of two men, whose names should be 
enrolled in the history of fish culture. It would be useless 
to write at length concerning this truly gamo fish, as he is too 
well known to the readers of the Forest and Stream and 
Rod and Gun for me to relate anything new in his nature 
and habit. 
I have never taken a bass here over four and one-quarter 
pounds, yet. it is not uncommon to see larger ones, and there 
are reliable reports that several were taken last season weigh- 
ing from six to seven and a half pounds. , 
Of course, in ray life 1 have angled with a great variety oi 
rods, say beginning with an alder stick, white cedar, nemiocK, 
birch, and so down with the pace of time, of numerous arus- 
tical joint rods of domestic and foreign make, but 1 am iranK 
to confess that I never have handled but one rod m my life. 
