BLIND MACKEREL.
Can any of your numerous contributors, who may be lovers of ichthyology, inform me whether or not the mackerel is blind when it first arrives on our coasts? I believe it to be blind, and for the following reasons:—A few years ago, while beating up channel early in June, on our homeward-bound voyage from the West Indies, some of the other passengers and myself were endeavouring to kill time by fishing for mackerel, but without success.
When the pilot came on board and saw what we were about, he laughed at us, and said, "Oh, gentlemen, you will not take them with the hook, because the fish is blind." We laughed in our turn, thinking he took us for flat-fish, and wished to amuse himself at our expense. Observing this he said, "I will convince you that it is so," and brought from his boat several mackerel he had taken by net. He then pointed out a film over the eye, which he said prevented the fish seeing when it first made our coast, and explained that this film gradually disappeared, and that towards the middle of June the eye was perfectly clear, and that the fish could then take the bait.
I have watched this fish for some years past, and have invariably observed this film quite over the eye in the early part of the mackerel season, and that it gradually disappears until the eye is left quite clear. This film appears like an ill-cleared piece of calf's-foot jelly spread over the eye, but does not strike you as a natural part of the fish, but rather as something extraneous. I have also remarked that when the fish is boiled, that this patch separates, and then resembles a piece of discoloured white of egg. This film may be observed by any one who takes the trouble of looking at the eye of the mackerel.
I have looked into every book on natural history I could get hold of, and in none is the slightest notice taken of this; therefore I suppose my conclusion as to its blindness is wrong; but I do not consider this to be conclusive, as all we can learn from books is, "Scomber is the mackerel genus, and is too well known to require description." I believe less is known about fish than any other animals; and should you think this question on natural history worthy a place in your "N. & Q.," I will feel obliged by your giving it insertion.
An Odd Fish.