538 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



"Hialmare Giadda, Siljaus Laka, Ulo Lax. 

 Aro bland bilsta fiskar iiti sjogar tags."" 



Several parts of the lUirbot are used Ijy the Swe- 

 dish peasants, and ;dso, according to Pallas, by the 

 Ostiacs', as medicinal remedies. The oil which flows 

 spontaneously from the liver, is employed as eye-salve; 

 and the pyloric appendages, which are known l)y the 

 peasants as lakehln (Burbot-claws), are dried and pow- 

 dered, the powder being taken in doses of a teaspoonful 

 as a preventative of ague. The skin is wrapped, as soon 

 as it has been flayed, round cracked glass vessels. When 

 dry it adheres firmly to the glass, keeping the pieces to- 

 gether and rendering the vessel watertight. The Ostiacs 

 make it into clothes. When rubl)ed with fat or oil it 

 becomes semi-transparent, and is said to be used by the 

 Russian peasants to glaze their windows. The air-bladder 

 may be employed, in the form of isinglass, as glue. 



The methods of catching Burbot are various but 

 simple, as this fish is by no means cautious or cunning. 

 It is taken most generally and in the greatest quantitj'- 

 in traps, either of the ordinary description (see p. .33, 

 tig. 7), or hanu'inn-traps, which are sunk in a hole in 

 the ice and hung there vertically (with the top upmost). 

 Sometimes too, single traps {mjdyday, see p. 32, tig. 6) 

 are set at the l)ottom. In spring, as soon as the ice has 

 broken up, the Burbot is also taken with long-lines, 

 which are generally baited with Pope {Accrina cernua), 

 the most temi^ting bait and that most easily procurable 



at this season. In summer it is caught on standing- 

 hooks, in wliich case the bait should also be sunk to the 

 bottom. During winter the so-called lakskifva (Burbot- 

 disk) is used, a plate of lead in the sliape of a fish and 

 fui-nished with several hooks, with which the Burbot is 

 struck. This disk also appears in another form — called 

 rot (rat) or lakekdx, and common on the shores of Lake 

 Wetter and in Verndand — which consists of a spike 

 with four hooks projecting in opposite directions (in a 

 cross), and is not unlike a grapnel. On the shaft just 

 above the hooks or a little further up, the fisherman 

 fastens a bit of Burbot-roe wrapped in a piece of muslin, 

 or a small fish. This tackle is let down through a hole 

 in the ice. The fisherman keeps plucking the hook up- 

 wards as soon as it reaches the bottom, and two or three 

 Burbot, allured by the bait on the hook, may often be 

 struck and drawn up together. When the Burbot makes 

 its way to the shores, a hal)it we have mentioned above, 

 it is stunned (ddfvad). This is done in the following 

 manner: the fisherman, armed with nothing but an axe, 

 walks slowly and cautiously on the clear, new ice near 

 shore, and when he sights the Burbot, which keeps close 

 under the ice, he brings down the axe-head heavily just 

 above the head of the fish. The latter is thus stunned, 

 and lies helpless at the same spot, while the fisherman 

 quickly breaks a hole in the ice and secures his catch. 

 Of course, this last method is feasible only on very 

 shelving shores. 



(SUNDEVALL, S:\IITT.) 



Genus PHYCIS. 



Two fuUij developed dorsal fins, one anal fin: the vertical fins distinctly separated {a distinct peduncle of the tail). 

 Ventral fins ivith, three rai/s, tjut apparenthj irltli unli/ one, filamentous, and branched. Caudal fin truncate or 

 rounded. Carcliforin teeth of uniform size {without canines) on the intermaxillary hones, in the louder Jaw, and 



on the head of the corner. Branchiostegal rays 7. 



The great inconstancy in the numl)er of rays in 

 file ventral fins of the preceding genus contrasts it most 

 shai'ply with the genus Phycis, in which these rays have 

 suffered considerable reduction in number, but in adult 

 specimens have attained a length in nujst cases even 

 relatively greater than that wliich otherwise characterizes 

 the larvie of these fishes. In comparison with the three 

 preceding genera, which Phycis resembles in the arrange- 

 ment of the vertical fins, this genus is distinguished by 



the deeper, more compressed form of the body in aclult 

 specimens. During youth, however, the types are in 

 this i-espect similar, or at least very nearly so. 



The genus Phycis, itself one of the deep-sea fishes, 

 is the centre of a group consisting of several other 

 forms that belong to the abyssal zone, and compose 

 series of forms with dift'erent directions of development, 

 but so continuous that the limitation of the genera is 

 extremely difficult, if it be even possible to suggest a 



" "Pike of Hialinnre, Burbot of Siljan, Salmon of Ulea, Are amnng Uie l)est fishes cauglil in lakes." Hialmare is a lake in central 



Sweden, Siljan a lake in Dalecarlia, anfl Uleil a river in Finland. Tn. 



'' The Ostiacs arc a people of Finnish extraction that inhaliit the conntry between the Ural Mountains and the River Obi and the 

 neighbtiurhood of the Yenisei. Tr. 



