36 IMr W. E. Cormack oii the Natural History and 



dustry and summer rejoicing, where air, earth, and water, had 

 met in harmony together, soon to become the conflicting scene 

 of an arctic winter. 



Of the Capelin. — The value of this delicate and interesting 

 little fish may be estimated, when it is known to constitute the 

 bait with which more than half the cod caught in these seas are 

 taken. The capelin arrives on the coasts of these countries to 

 spawn about the end of June, and departs about the end of 

 July and beginning of August. It arrives at Labrador about 

 a month later, and remains from two to four months. Its num- 

 bers are often truly wonderful. Immediately on its arrival, it 

 pushes its dense shoals into the small bays and creeks, as if to 

 shun the jaws of the millions of its devouring enemies, the cod, 

 and many other fishes which had followed it from the deep, and 

 which remain arrayed at a little distance, impatient for its de- 

 struction. These massive clouds of capelin are sometimes more 

 than fifty miles long, and many miles broad. Their spawn is 

 sometimes thrown up along the beaches, forming masses of con- 

 siderable thickness^ most of which is carried back into the sea 

 , by a succeeding tide or two. 



The capelin is six or seven inches in length ; although the 

 males sometimes occur nearly twice the ordinary size. It is 

 caught for bait, in nets constructed of different forms for the 

 purpose. It possesses some peculiar quality, which unfits it to be 

 cured for domestic use like the herring, and is, therefore, mere- 

 ly dried in the sun. Whether the migration of the capelin is 

 to and from the north sea, or limited to the adjacent deep- 

 waters, does not appear to be yet well ascertained, notwithstand- 

 ing that its appearance and disappearance at all parts of these 

 coasts are watched, as important events, by every fisherman. On 

 the great scale, it is as regular and certain in its appearance and 

 disappearance, as the herring is on the coasts of Europe. It 

 generally appears some days earlier at the south-east parts of 

 Newfoundland, than at the neighbouring parts of the island far- 

 ther to the north ; and from its leading in the bank-cod to these 

 places (as in 1825), it would seem to have come in from the 

 Great Bank. There is little doubt that it is on the banks at 

 certain seasons, as is shewn not merely by the circumstance of 



