NATURALIZATION OF FISHES. 215 



trice they are served on hot plates with the accompaniment 

 of coffee, and one's breakfast is complete. 



Much of the gluten and fat which makes fish palatable, 

 is between the skin and the flesh, and in the skin itself; 

 thus any fish suffers in edibility by stripping it. There is a 

 way of cooking catfish, which I think had its origin with 

 the negroes in lower Virginia and Maryland ; it is vastly 

 superior to a chowder or a "cubrion." The fish are 

 merely scraped as one would a trout, and not divested of 

 heads or skins, and are stewed (not too much) with just 

 enough water to cover them. Flitch of bacon with onions 

 or pot-herbs are put in for seasoning, and unskimmed milk or 

 cream is added when the dish is half cooked. Large white 

 catfish, which sometimes grow to the size of two or three 

 pounds, thus treated, are very fine. 



Persons who have small ponds, or large either, if the 

 water is too warm for trout, should by all means cultivate 

 catfish. A pond of half an acre, or even of less size, if well 

 stocked, will supply two or three messes a week for a good- 

 sized family. These fish, though mostly herbivorous, will 

 eat almost anything. A muddy or grassy pond is particu- 

 larly adapted to them. Although they will take a small 

 fish if presented as a bait, they are harmless to other spe- 

 cies, and without detriment to either, can be put into ponds 

 with bass. 



In transporting catfish they should not be crowded, as 

 they are apt to injure each other with their sharp spines. 

 A better way, if the distance is not over a day's travel, is 

 to saturate an old carpet, and lay it in the bottom of a 



