"FYSSHE AND FYSSHEYNGE." 118 



It is said "There are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it." We 

 know that many families of fishes have become totally extinct since the initial epoch 

 of creation; but of those now in existence the total number of admitted species of 

 fishes inhabiting the waters of the United States is something over 1,400, the num- 

 ber of genera about 200, of families thirty-two. 



Science divides the different races or groups of the world's fauna into classes, 

 orders, sub-orders, families, genera and type-species. Apparent species of fish fauna 

 are so numerous as to receive no attention from ichthyologists, unless they are 

 verified by typical examples. 



Of the thirty-two families referred to, most are fit for food, though a very 

 large proportion have hitherto been rejected from the table. 



Within two years, however, a club has been formed, with headquarters at New 

 York, and a large outside membership, for the express object of utilizing as food 

 what has hitherto been considered noxious or inedible. Qualified candidates must 

 have no gorge or compunction of stomach, and at stated dinners the initiated 

 ichthyophagi get away with an incredible lot of skates, shark fins, toadfish, lam- 

 preys, blowfish, sea cucumbers, echini, horsefish, sea spiders and the like. 



A correct taste, however, long ago evolved and established four of the thirty- 

 two families as the choicest for food. These are the Salmonidae, which include the 

 trout, salmon, grayling, whitefish, charrs and smelts, represented by about forty 

 varieties ; the Centrarchidae, which include the bass, sunfish and perches, in variety 

 about sixty ; the Esoscidae, which includes the pikes, pickerels and muscalonge, and 

 the Cyprinidse, a very numerous tribe of dace, carp, chubs, etc. 



These four families represent both of the great diversions of Acanthopterigii, 

 or spiny-finned fishes, and the Malacopterigii, or soft-rayed fishes ; and it is a 

 gratifying coincidence that these fine edible fish are the ones which afford the 

 keenest sport to anglers. They are not only the most active, the most symmetrical 

 and the most beautiful in colors, but they are universally distributed among the 

 bright golden spots of earth. Their habitat is where the wood nymphs dwell, where 

 the birds carol, the gaudy butterflies flit and the bees drone ; where crystal foun- 

 tains gush, and the green moss grows vivid in the spray ; where every combination 

 of romantic rockwork, waving foliage and tracery of ferns and trailing vines 

 of gentlest nature, animate and inanimate combine to reproduce an Eden. 



Wherever the leaping trout and sturdy bass are found there are no snakes. 

 In the deep seclusion of these Edenal retreats no noxious serpent lurks. In this 

 paradise without a devil, the harassed and toil-worn voyager seeks rest and quiet 

 retirement, and the poet draws his inspiration : 



"Sweet Nature around me; the world's troubles far, 

 Believe me, we fishers philosophers are." 



While all the four great families referred to are widely distributed throughout 

 the temperate zone, the Cyprinoids are found chiefly in sub-tropic belts, and actually 

 thrive in the hot and tepid rivers of Arizona and New Mexico. The goldfish, which 

 is one variety of the family, is easily raised in warm, muddy water, and cannot 

 stand too cold a temperature. He grows fat on a simple diet of bread crumbs, and 

 with this homely fare is happy. The Salmonidse and many of the Centrachidae, to 

 which the basses belong, are not found in strictly sandy regions. Trout are finest 

 in granite formations, and bass in limestone, though both are found in each. The 

 Esoscidae, or pikes and pickerels, thrive in both rocky and sandy tracts, in clear 

 running water and in turbid, sluggish ponds alike. They are particularly fond of 

 swamps and marshy places. 



