216 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 



of food in Greenland, that it has heen termed the 

 daily bread of the natives." The voyager Hakluyt, 

 so far back as 1578, writes " of these (capelins) 

 being as good as a smelt, you may take up with a 

 shove-net as plentifully as you do wheate in a shovell, 

 sufficient in three or four hours for a whole citie." 

 It is imported in the dried state into this country, 

 though the quantity is inconsiderable. Another fish, 

 the Greenland bull-head, Coitus Groenlandicus^ is of 

 no less cgnsequence to the natives, who, besides, are 

 exceedingly fond of it, eating even the roe, and that 

 in a raw state. Dr. Richardson relates of the methy, 

 Lotha maeulosa, that " when well bruised and mixed 

 with a little flour, the roe can be baked into very 

 good biscuits, which are used in the fur-countries as 

 tea-bread." Two species of mackarel, the Scomber 

 grex, and vernalis, are at times very abundant, and 

 their vast shoals carry plenty to the shores they chance 

 to visit. The halibut, as mentioned before, is often 

 taken on the American coast, but the fins alone are 

 eaten ; at least, in general, such is the case. There 

 are extensive shad fisheries in the United States, 

 especially in the neighbourhood of New York, where 

 the greater part of those caught are taken in per- 

 manent erections for the purpose, which stop them 

 in their passage up into fresh water. The sheep's 

 head, or, in more scientific language, the Sargus 

 ovis, is a favourite fish in America, where it visits 

 the coasts in large shoals during the summer and 

 autumn. Its principal fishery is off the coasts of 

 New York, and thousands are sometimes taken at 



