MALACOPTERYGII. 



the southern parts of Virginia. This seldom exceeds four pounds 

 in weight. Dr. Mitchell speaks of a Salmon of Lake Huron, 

 which weighed one hundred and twenty pounds, but the Lake 

 Salmon are not now often found to exceed eighty pounds. To 

 the prolific nature of the Salmon we have already referred. 

 These delicious fish were formerly quite abundant ; indeed, it 

 is not many years since they were, in Massachusetts, a perfect 

 drug. We have read of a boy who was apprenticed in New. 

 buryport, with the special condition in his indentures, that he 

 should not be obliged to eat salmon more than three times a 

 week. 



(21) Clttptida, (Lat. clupea, a river fish or shad.) 

 The fishes of this family, including Herrings, Pilchards, Sprats, 

 Sardines, Anchovies and Shad, are among those esteemed as 

 most useful and indispensable. Both the maxillaries and inter- 

 maxillaries are employed to form the margin of the upper jaw. 

 These fish are exceedingly abundant. Four hundred thousand 

 Anchovies are said to have been taken at one haul, on the coast 

 of Sardinia. These latter fish are preserved with salt, after 

 removing the head and intestines. They are about the size of 

 the little finger, and used as a condiment. 



Herrings, (Clupea harengus.) are now supposed to live in the 

 vicinity of the places where they are caught, approaching the 

 shore to spawn in such numbers that the water is filled with 

 loose scales rubbed off in the crowd. The Herring fishery along 

 the coasts of Europe and America, gives employment in sum 

 mer to many thousands of people. The consumption in Europe 

 alone of two thousand millions of these fish, annually, does not 

 seem to decrease their numbers. They are valuable in com 

 merce, either pickled or smoked. To prepare the Red or 

 Smoked Herring, the fish are sprinkled with salt, and lie about 

 six days in heaps on a brick or stone floor. Rods are then 

 passed through the gills, care being taken not to have them touch 

 each other. These rods are suspended in tiers, in ovens, hold 

 ing from ten to twelve thousand, where the herrings are smoked 

 for a month with hard wood, and after being cooled, are packed 

 for market. The Emperor Charles V, in 1556, erected a mon 

 ument, and ate a herring over the grave of a fisherman of Zea 

 land, who had improved the art of pickling herring. Several 

 species of Herring are caught on the coasts, and in the rivers 

 of the Atlantic States. Some idea of the extent of the herring- 

 fishery in Maine may be obtained from the fact that at Treat s 

 island, there were in five days, caught, salted, and stored up for 

 smoking, what would make or pack five thousand boxes. Some 

 kinds of Herring are used instead of guano, for enriching land. 



