ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 183 



valuable fish is now very rare in the United States, 

 where it w^as formerly abundant, in consequence of 

 the number of steamers plying on all the navigable 

 rivei-s. It is now confined, Ave are informed, to the 

 north-eastern states alone. In the arctic regions, 

 the salmon occurs in such profusion, that 3378 were 

 taken at one haul in the month of July, and Sir 

 John Ross obtained a ton weight of salmon from an 

 Esquimaux in e:schange for one or two knives *. 



The whole of the numerous species composing 

 the family Salmonidce^ may be regarded as furnishing 

 food, excellent in its kind, for man, but none of 

 them, in this country at least, are of equal impor- 

 tance, in an economical point of view, with the 

 salmon which we have just treated of at consider- 

 able length. One species, however, well knoAvn as 

 the salmon trout, is so abundant in the Scotch rivers, 

 and attains such a large size, as to be frequently 

 sold for the young salmon, although much inferior 

 according to some. " Two hundred are frequently 

 taken at a single draught of a sweep net, and thi-ee 

 hundred have occasionally been counted." In fact, 

 the diff'erent kinds of trout, and other salmonidse in 

 this country, are better known as affording amuse- 

 ment to the angler, than as food for man. There is, 



* The Norwegian rivers have long been known to produce 

 salmon of superior quality, and from the nature of the streams 

 in which they are found, the mode of taking them varies con- 

 siderably from those in common use in this country. But, 

 from want of space, we shall not stop to enumerate them, 

 however interesting they may be. 



