394 MODERN SEA FISHING 



selves. They appear to be a gay, reckless fish, dashing hither 

 and thither, believing that the sea is wide and obstacles few. 

 Some herrings imbued with this idea when placed in an 

 aquarium, ran their heads against the glass and killed them- 

 selves immediately the gas was turned out. It was found that 

 by leaving a small jet of gas during the night this self-martyr- 

 dom was prevented. Sometimes herrings revenge themselves 

 in a wholesale way on the fishermen by simply crowding into 

 the nets until their weight is so great that the warp has to be 

 cut. Once, on the East coast, about 700 nets, worth i,3oo/., 

 were thus sunk by fish. 



The SMELT is a name given to three different fish. In the 

 first place, the term is used locally instead of smolt the young 

 salmon, with which we now have nothing to do. There is also 

 the atherine, or sand smelt, which naturalists do not call a smelt 

 at all ; and lastly there is the true smelt, also called sparling 

 (Osmerus esperlanus), which many people will be surprised to 

 learn is a member of the salmon family. This, the true or 

 cucumber smelt, has two back fins, that near the tail being 

 without rays and fatty or adipose, like those borne by salmon, 

 trout, and grayling. The atherine also has two back fins, but 

 the one near the tail is of the ordinary kind with rays, while 

 the back fin near the head is small, spines projecting from the 

 edge of it like the dorsal fin of the perch. If the posterior 

 dorsal fin of a doubtful specimen is carefully examined, there 

 need be no difficulty in settling the question. 



Everyone, I take it, knows the general appearance of these 

 delicate silvery-looking little fish. The true smelt, when freshly 

 caught, gives off a peculiar smell, which many people have 

 compared with cucumber (possibly because it smells it is called 

 the smelt). Some say that the perfume is of violets ; others, 

 again, being reminded of rushes. For my own part, I say a 

 smelt smells of smelt and of no other smell whatever. The 



