Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/244

that there are two great divisions of the same fish which migrate and spawn at different seasons, the confusion is removed. It has already been observed that the quantities in which the schulls appear are very irregular. That they are liable to fluctuations there can be no doubt, but that it is so extensive as it appears to be, is not so certain. The irregularity is more observable in the spring and autumn, than in the summer fishery. Some of. the oldest and most intelligent of our men, entertain an opinion that if from any cause the eastward migrations pass up mid-channel, the spring fish first appear on the eastern fishing grounds about Brighton, and spawn before they get so far west as the Cornish or Devonshire coasts ; hence the eastern fishery is profitable, while the western is a failure. If on the contrary, they pass up at short distances from the shore, the eastern fishery is a failure, and their boats come westward to take the fish. How far this is strictly correct I am unable to say from actual observation, but it is an opinion believed by many of the fishermen. The failure of the fish- ery, therefore, frequently depends on our men looking for them in a wrong direction, and thus the fish pass unnoticed. As they do not rise to the surface during the spring and autumn as they do in sum- mer, the fishermen are obliged to fish before they can detect their presence, hence much valuable time is frequently lost, though the fish may have been passing for many days. It frequently happens when the fishery has been a complete failure near the shore, it has been re- markably successful in deep water, and vice versa. The fishery is, therefore, very irregular, sometimes a few thousands are all that are taken per boat through a season, at others they are caught in abun- dance. The largest quantity I ever saw taken was in October, 1844, when the boats of Mount's Bay brought on shore in three nights, one million, six hundred thousand ; but great as this was, they all seemed to think the finest year ever witnessed was in 1806, but the quantities then caught I cannot ascertain This account of their movements is somewhat different from that given by Mr. Yarrell in his 'British Fishes,' but is founded on the observations made in this western ex- tremity of our Island. The quantity actually taken cannot be ascer- tained, since the largest quantities are carried to distant markets, with- out being brought on shore. The mackerel, though a voracious feeder, always prefers a living bait, and always strikes it backward, i.e. if it pursues a bait on a hook, hung from a boat under sail, going six or eight miles an hour, it pursues, and advances beyond it, turns and takes it as it advances, either sideways or directly backwards. It has been frequently observed by writers, that some fish arc liable to