500 THE GAR-PISH. 



nmiierous in the spring, there will be a drought during 

 the ensuing summer, and that the succeeding year is sure 

 to prove a dear one. The usual length of this fish is from 

 two feet to two feet six inches. Kroyer says it attains 

 three feet, and a weight of two pounds. 



The Gar-Fish, which diiring spring and early summer 

 are brought to the Gothenburg and other marl^ets in 

 enormous numbers, are captured in various ways, some by 

 the hook, but for the most part by nets of some kind or 

 other. One plan of beguiling them, as related to me by 

 Baron Cederstrom, struck me as somewhat singular. 

 During the spawning season, as known, they may often 

 be seen in immense numbers gambolling, as it were, on 

 the surface of the water. This being observed by the 

 fisherman, he loads his boat with stones, and rowing to 

 the near vicinity of the shoals, spreads his net around and 

 about it. He then casts the stones amongst the fish, who, 

 terrified at the unexpected onset, rush hither and thither 

 in every direction, and not a few, as a consequence, into 

 the toils. In this way the man perseveres until such 

 times as the shoal is entirely dispersed, or that he has 

 succeeded in fully freighting his little craft. 



Tlie Gar-Eish has many persecutors. Fishermen in the 

 Sound assert that, in the spring, the Seals lie on the watch 

 for them at the island of Hven, in the Sound; and that, on 

 the return of the fish from the Baltic during early autumn, 

 the Common Tunny drives them under the land, where 

 they would otherwise never go. The Gar-Fish, according 

 to Kroyer, is, moreover, sadly pestered by parasitical 

 worms, the Ascaris Acus being found in the ventral cavity, 

 the Echinorhynchus angustatus and E. Pristis, Scolex 

 poli/nwrphus, and Botriocephalns Belones, Duj., in the 

 intestinal canal, and the Distoma gihbosnm infesting the 

 stomach. On the gills the Seteracanthus pedahis and 

 H. sagittattis, Dies., have also been observed. 



