Fishes appear to execute annually two great migrations. By one of these
shiftings they forsake the deep water for a time, and approach the
shallow shores, and by the other they return to their more concealed
haunts. These movements are connected with the purposes of spawning,
the fry requiring to come into life, and to spend a certain portion
of their youth in situations different from those which are suited
to the period of maturity. It is in obedience to these arrangements
that the Cod and Haddock, the Mackerel, and others, annually leave
the deeper and less accessible parts of the ocean, the region of the
zoophytic tribes, and deposit their spawn within that zone of marine
vegetation which fringes our coasts, extending from near the high-water
mark of neap-tides to a short distance beyond the low-water mark of
spring-tides. Amidst the shelter in this region afforded by the groves
of arborescent fuci, the young fish were wont in comfort to spend
their infancy, but since these plants have been so frequently cut down
to procure materials for the manufacture of kelp, and the requisite
protection withdrawn, the fisheries have greatly suffered. Many species
of fish, as the Salmon, Smelt, and others, in forsaking the deep water,
and approaching a suitable spawning station, leave the sea altogether
for a time, ascend the rivers and their tributary streams, and, having
deposited their eggs, return again to their usual haunts. Even a certain
species of fish, inhabiting lakes, as the Roach, betake themselves to
the tributary streams, as the most suitable places for spawning.
The Goramy, of India, are stated by General Hardwicke to watch most
actively the margins of the spot which they select and prepare for
depositing their spawn, driving away with violence every other fish
which approaches their cover. The General adds that from the time he
first noticed this circumstance about one month had elapsed, when one
day he saw numerous minute fishes close to the margin of the grass, on
the outer side of which the parent fishes continued to pass to and fro.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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