204 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 



Having now considered such of the fishes which 

 in this country are used by man for economical pur- 

 poses, as appear most worthy of notice, and treated 

 of them as far as is consistent with the plan of this 

 work, little now remains to be done before brieily 

 mentioning, and, in many cases, merely indicating 

 such species as are valued by the inhabitants of 

 other parts of the globe. Such a sketch, however, 

 must, from its very nature be exceedingly imperfect, 

 as in order to do any thing like justice to that sub- 

 ject, whole volumes would be required, and could be 

 written without at all exhausting the various sources 

 of information on this head. 



The two hard bones found just within the sides of 

 the head in fish, and called, from analogy, eai' bones 

 or ear stones, though, correctly speaking, not so, 

 were formerly, as procured from the Sciwna aquila^ 

 the umbrina of the Romans, in high repute as 

 charms. Even in the days of Belon, according to 

 that author, they were considered as infallil)le in 

 preventing and even curing several maladies, espe- 

 cially colic, hence they were best knoAvn by the 

 name of colic stones. In order to secure the benefits 

 of this panacea, it was believed, that unless they were 

 received as a gift, they had no effect. If purchased, 

 they immediately lost all medicinal properties, — this 

 we can easily understand. The fish producing them 

 is excellent eating ; it is abundant in the Mediter- 

 ranean, and sometimes wanders to our own shores. 



Many fishes, formerly highly esteemed by the 



