168 



THE SEA. 



the intruder as a terrier does a rat." Their superabundant store of fat enables them to live 



on themselves, as it were, as do the 

 Asiatic and African doomba sheep 

 when avalanches and heavy snow-falls 

 stop their supplies of herbage.* They 

 become much thinner during their stay 

 in fresh water; their colour becomes 

 duller, and their flavour much depre- 

 ciated. Izaak Walton's statement that 

 "the further they get from the sea 

 they be both fatter and better" is 

 utterly erroneous, for they fatten 'only 

 in the sea. In March, 1845, the Duke 

 of Athole took a ten-pound salmon in 

 the Tay after it had spawned, and 

 attached a medal to it and then let it 

 go to sea. The same individual, with 

 THE SALMON (Saiiiio sttlar). its decoration, was fished up five weeks 



and a few days afterwards, when it had been to the refreshing salt water. It 

 had more than doubled its weight, for it weighed twenty-one pounds. 



CHAPTER XV. 

 OCEAN LIFE. THE HARVEST OF THE SEA (concluded). 



The Clupedce The Herring Its Cabalistic Marks A Warning to Royalty The "Great Fishery "Modes of Fishing 

 A Night with the Wick Fishermen Suicidal Fish The Value of Deep-sea Fisheries Report of the Commissioners- 

 Fecundity of the Herring No fear of Fish Famine The Shad The Sprat The Cornish Pilchard Fisheries The 

 " Huer "Raising the "Tuck" A Grand Harvest Gigantic Holibut Newfoundland Cod Fisheries Brutalities of 

 Tunny Fishing The Mackerel Its Courage, and Love of Man Garum Sauce The formidable Sword-fish Fishing 

 by Torchlight Sword through a Ship's side General Remarks on Fish Fish Life Conversation Musical Fish- 

 Pleasures and Excitements Do Fish sleep? 



A GREAT and important group of the bony fish is comprised under the family name Clupedae, 

 It includes such useful fish as the herring, pilchard, shad, and anchovy. The family is as 

 interesting to the merchant as to the gastronomist. 



The herring hardly needs description here, but it may just be remarked, en passant, 

 that its back, indigo-coloured after death, is greenish during life. The curious markings 

 often found on the herring have been considered by ignorant fishermen to signify mysterious 

 words of cabalistic import. On one November day, near three hundred years ago, two 

 herrings were caught on the coast of Norway, which bore marks resembling Gothic printed 



* A very stout man, placed where no food is obtainable, will (health and age being identical) live longer than a 

 lean one. There is a recorded case of a fat man living nearly sixty days without food. 



