240 MALACOPTERYGII. CLUPEAD^. 



the tube. A dim circle of light is thus shed upon 

 the bed of the stream, when the Trout, attracted 

 by the light, crowd around the globe as moths 

 around a candle. The fisherman then slowly 

 raises the lamp, which the fish follow, towards the 

 surface. He can now select the finest fish at his 

 leisure, which he strikes with a well-directed blow 

 on the head with his heavy knife. The fish 

 instantly sinks to the bottom, but it is only for a 

 moment, for it presently rises to the surface 

 bloody and dead, and, floating there, is presently 

 deposited in a bag hung round the operator's neck. 

 The other fishes, alarmed for the moment, are 

 soon attracted again, and become successively the 

 prey of the fisherman, until his desires are satis- 

 fied. 



Family V. Clupead^. 



{Herrings.) 



In most of their characteristics the Herrings 

 agree with the Salmons ; and so close is the affinity 

 between the two Families that the members of 

 the Salmonidan genus Coregonus, the Pollans and 

 Powans of our lakes, are called by the peasantry, 

 both in this country and Ireland, the Freshwater 

 Herrings. The same graceful form, curved in 

 gently swelling outlines, and tapering to a point 

 at each extremity, characterizes this Family, as 

 the preceding ; and like it the present is clothed 

 in large, well-formed scales, very easily detached. 

 Their chief distinction is the absence of the 

 adipose fin in the Herrings, which have only a 

 single dorsal of the ordinary structure, placed 



