The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-11-17
WINTER HABITS OF FISHES.
Whs the Shad and Other Species Spend
the Cold Months of the year.

the COl0 months or the wear.
From the Washington Star.
How do fishes spend the winter? Fisher
men, who ought to know something about
the matter, have all sorts OF strange theo>
ries on this point. They will tell you that
the fnny dwellers Of the waters mostly bury
themselves in the mud to escape the cold.
OF few species like the catfish this is true I;
but the experts with nets aud lines enter
tain the same notion about the behring's of
the Chesapeake, chiefly because they are
often fetched up with dredge from the deep
water oyster beds.
In reality the circumstance lie merely due
to the fact that the behring's have sought the
euuable temperature of the depths in wins
ter, and now aud then they are accidentally
caught by the dredges. A life absurd be-
lief Is entertained with regard to the
mackerel, concerning the alleged mud bury
ing habit of which there has recently been
some discussion In the newspapers.
FALSE THEORIES.
A good many old notions about the WAYS
in which fishes spend the winter have been
exploded.
For example, it used 20 be supposed that
all the shad which frequent the Atlantic
coast sought the depths of southern seas
during the cold season every year, return
ing in the spring and swimming in shoals
northward, some entering the Potomac to
spawn, while others kept on to the Del
aware, to the Connecticut and to the rivers
OF Maine. As matter of fact, the shad
make no such migrations. Il is positively
known that they do not ordinarily swim
faster than at about the rate OF ten miles a
day, SO that it would take them four or five
years to get from Florida TO the ST. Law
renee. Very often, too, shad make their
| appearance in the Connecticut before they
| arrive in the Potomac.
WHERE THE sHAD GO.
The truth is that the shsd never 60 very
| far from the mouths Of the rivers in which
they were spawned. For instance, Mrs. r.
| 0. Z. Shad was born in the Potomac not far
from Washington. She is properly a FISH
| Of the ocean, but, in order to rspr oduce her
species, she is obliged to go up the river
each spring and lay her eggs in a spot vs. here
! they can be conveniently fortified and
| hetched.
When she has performed this maternal
| function she returns to the sea unless she
| is 30 unfortunate as to be caught and eaten
| 1t is probable that she never enters any
stream except the Potomac, and in winter
she does not go farther from its mouth than
10 necessary to reach the deeper waters or
shore near and tempered by the warm cur
rent Of the Gulf stream, which flows frcm
the tropics northward. 1t is the same way
with all the shad. They cruise around dur
| ing the greater part of the year not far
from the rivers where they were Matched,
returning to these streams annually at
! spawning time.
ABOUT HERRINGS AND SALMON.
What is true of the shad in this regard is
! likewise true of the alewives, which is the
correct name of the so-called "herrings''
! that frequent the Potomac. The true her
rings are ocean fishes, which never come
| into the rivers The winter habits OF the
salmon. which were long regarded as a
mystery, are doubtless similar. They never
60 far from the mouths of the rivers where
| they we're spawned, returning to them at
each breeding seasoB.
If this were not the case they would not
always come back, as they do, to the same
stream. Thus IL happens that when all of
| the Ealmon that ascend particular river
are caught that stream ceases to have any
| salmon thereafter, though other rivers not
! far away may tenn with them every sum
mer, 1t is not very accurately known
where and how the blue fish spend the
winters, but they are always found in
| great numbers along the North Carolina
coast during the cold time Of year.
/ Fishermen say that owing to their al
1 legged habit OF wintering in the mud mack
erel are commonly found early in the spring
to be more or less blinded by cataracts over
their eyes. This however. Is probably due
to the fact that they have zen poorly fed
! while in the deep waters TO which they re-
treated to escape the cold. 1t is the shall
lows Of the ocean that tenn most plenteous-
ly with forms of lite which serve as food
for fishes, the waters along shore being a
sort of soup full of organic matter, both
animal and vegetable, on which innumera-
bic creatures browse and grow fat.
REVERSING THE CUSTOM.
Striped bass reverse the usual habit of sea
fishes which spawn in the rivers. They run
up the streams in the winter to breed
Eels, on the other hand, leave the streams
and 80 TO the sea to spawn. For that rea =
son their manner Of reproduction has been
regarded until recently as a mystery, all
sorts of extraordinary theories being enter
tanned on the subject, Of which not the least
absurd was a notion to the effect that they
were developed from horsehairs.
When gazing I'm vour lover'z evea