same locality or fishing-ground. This fish does not migrate along the coast, but acquires its desired temperature by gradually moving from shallower to deeper water, and returning as the season grows colder. Nearly all fish which go in schools migrate more or less along the coast after coming from the deeper water, while those which are distributed over the bottom, as the Cod, Haddock, etc., do not migrate except from shallower to deeper water.

Codfish visit the shallow water of Massachusetts Bay to spawn about the first of November, and towards the last of

*

this month deposit their eggs on the sandy banks and rocky ledges. About eight or nine millions of ova are annually deposited by each female. The codfish remain in the vicinity of their eggs till June, when they again retire to deeper water, the shallow water having become too warm for them.

The codfish, like the mackerel, takes no care of its eggs, and only a small portion of these ever arrive at maturity. Nature so regulates the destiny of these eggs that only a portion of them are permitted to mature, otherwise the

*G. O. Sars of Christiania, Norway, has observed that codfish deposit their spawn at the surface of the water, where the ova float throughout the whole of their development. He has followed up the development of the egg, and of the young, during the first fortnight after exclusion. The embryo leaves the egg on the 16th day. See Günther's Zoological Record for 1868.- EDITORS.

codfish would soon monopolize the whole ocean. These eggs are eagerly devoured as food by the various animals which inhabit the bottom, and the proportion of eggs destroyed in this and other ways cannot be readily estimated, but we know it must be enormous by the comparatively few young fish we see. If, during its stay in shallow water, the weather should suddenly become cold, and so remain for two or three days, the codfish immediately retreats to water of some forty fathoms in depth, and does not return till the temporary change has passed; then they gradually seek their Fig. 111.

former resort, which is a depth of fifteen or twenty fathoms. The Haddock (Fig. 110) at such times likewise retreats, but does not so soon return to its former station.

The quantity of codfish annually taken does not differ so much in the different years as does that of the mackerel, yet the amount is somewhat variable. The cause is the same in both cases, but as the codfish has a shorter distance to come the annual number is naturally less variable. The number of codfish existing at the present time does not appear to differ from that of twenty or more years ago, and I think we are safe in assuming that there has been no perceptible diminution for a century.

The food of the codfish consists of smaller fish, mollusks and crustacea. The bait considered by the fishermen as best adapted to their tastes are the common Herring (Clupea elongata), squid, etc., but clams (Mya arenaria and Mactra

solidissima) are more generally used, as only this bait can be obtained at all seasons of the year; clams are also found to remain longer on the hooks.

Nearly all the codfish obtained on our coast are brought to market in an unsalted condition, but they form only a small portion of the number sold in Massachusetts. The majority of the codfish sold here are brought from the Banks of Newfoundland and other great banks, and are always brought in a salted state.

We have already stated that although many hundred thousands of mackerel and codfish are captured through the agency of man, and many more are destroyed by other influences, there has been, notwithstanding, no noticeable change

in their numbers. But there are some species of fish which visit our coast that are constantly diminishing in numbers, and our shores were formerly frequented by some fishes in great quantities, which have now nearly, if not quite, disappeared.

The Bluefish (Temnodon saltator), Fig. 111, which inhabits our waters from the last of June till September, has had very marked periodic variations in numbers. This fish, as history informs us, was captured and esteemed as an article of food by the earlier settlers of this state. Previous to the year 1763 bluefish were very plenty on the southern coast of Cape Cod, but about this year they all disappeared, and none were taken till sixty or seventy years after. For the

past thirty years specimens have been taken, but they did not arrive in any noticeable abundance till within the last sixteen years, and are at the present time again vanishing. During the last mentioned period I have observed them about Provincetown in great abundance, where they often presented a beautiful spectacle. At times the splashing of the water caused by these fish in their rapid motions in pursuit of their prey, could be seen as far as the eye can reach. They make great havoc among their weaker neighbors, and some fishes have been entirely driven from our waters by this ferocious species. All fish which are a prey to the bluefish migrate on its first appearance. In the case of the mackerel, fishermen have noticed that when a few bluefish have been caught during the mackerel season, that a few days after not

Fig. 113.

The Bill-fish, Scomberesox Storerii.

a mackerel could be found, having been driven from the vicinity by the bluefish. I think it may be affirmed that the disappearance of so many of our smaller fish is due to the destructive nature of the bluefish; it even drives fish much its superior in size.

In respect to our smaller fishes, the Herring (Clupea elongata), etc., we observe a considerable decrease in the numbers which now annually visit our shores, as compared with their former numbers. The Poggy (Alosa Menhaden) and the Herring (Clupea elongata), Fig. 112, have comparatively almost deserted the waters about Provincetown, where I have formerly seen them in immense schools very near the shore. Fishermen made nets and other necessary preparations every year to capture them on their arrival in the spring, and the business was carried on extensively and profitably for many years, but at the present time no such fishing there exists.

The Bill-fish (Scomberesox Storerii), Fig. 113, which but fifteen years since I saw stranded on the shore by the thousands, driven in by its devouring pursuers, has gradually decreased, till at the present time it has nearly, if not quite, been driven away, and I think that during the past year there was not one specimen seen at Provincetown.

CULTIVATION OF ALPINE FLOWERS.

BY ALFRED W. BENNETT.

MR. ROBINSON is no mere enthusiast in his subject when he says: "This book ('Alpine Flowers for English Gardens') is written to dispel a very general error that the exquisite flowers of alpine countries cannot be grown in gardens, and as one of a series of manuals having for their object the improvement of our out-door gardening, which it appears to me, is of infinitely greater importance than anything that can ever be accomplished in enclosed structures, even if glass sheds or glass palaces were within the reach of all." His first concern is with the structure of rockeries, in the mode of building which not only is the taste still displayed, or at all events till quite recently, barbarous and inartistic in the extreme; but it would seem as if the very conditions necessary for the health of the plants were studiously neglected. The ordinary idea of the treatment of rock-plants, judging from the hideous monstrosities which may be seen in many a gentleman's garden, is that you have nothing to do but to poke them in between the chinks of perfectly bare stones or clinkers piled together in a promiscuous heap, in order to present them in their native habitats. A gardener who commits such an absurdity as this, can never have ascended a mountain with his eyes open. To quote again from Mr. Robinson :-"Mountains are often bare, and cliffs are