ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 215 



with rancid oil, which, in their estimation, gives the 

 savoury morsel additional flavour. The smell alone, 

 is said, hy a traveller, to be so nauseous, as to prevent 

 any but a native from partaking of it, unless severely 

 pressed wilh hunger. 



Of another kind of salmon, named afterwards 

 S. Rossii^ 3378 fish, whose aggregate weight was 

 six tons, were taken at one haul of a small seine on 

 the coast of Boothia Felix. Hearne describes the 

 number of Coppermine salmon in the river of that 

 name as almost incredible. Another exquisite fish, 

 known among the natives by the strange name of 

 attihawmeg, the Corregonus alhus of more civilized 

 systematists, is much esteemed by those residing in 

 the fur coimtries. It is taken in great abundance 

 during the winter in gill-nets, which are stretched 

 under the ice, between two holes, which are kept 

 constantly open for the purpose of inspection. This 

 fish, when frozen, will keep in that state without 

 any other precaution for a whole winter, though the 

 fresh ones are always preferable. 



Sturgeons of immense size are at times found in 

 myriads in some of the North American rivers, which 

 they enter for the purpose of spawning. 



The fish found in the seas of the northern regions 

 of America, are neither so numerous or important to 

 man as the fresh- water species just-mentioned, with 

 the exception of the cod and one or two others. 

 The capelin, Mallotus Grwnlandicus, in Labrador, is 

 principally used as bait for cod, although farther 

 north, when dried, it " forms so important an article 



