104: FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



THE SPEARING, OR SILVERSIDES. Genus Atherina. 



of a broad satin-like band, extending the whole length of the 

 body ; the place of the ribs indicates lustrous stripes, which 

 disappear shortly after death; upper part of the opercles, 

 near the nape, dark green ; caudal dark at the base, and with 

 an obscure marginal band ; dorsal caudal fins light green ; 

 pectorals, ventrals, and anal light colored, tinged faintly with 

 bluish; irides silvery; bones of the head sub-diaphanous." 



The foregoing quotation is from De Kay's description of 

 the smelt ; but he inadvertently described a spearing. I am 

 not surprised at that, for they shoal together, and even Dr. 

 Clerk, an angler and a scholar, did not know the difference 

 until I casually pointed it out to him. 



When in the autumn's latest time. 



And first the streams run icy cold, 

 In Indian summer's crimson prime, 



When forest trees are touched with gold, 

 Then take the silvery fi^h that gleam 



Along the eddies of the stream. 



THE CAPLIN. 



This is the tiny, translucent fish, of from three to six inches 

 in length, which shoals in great abundance on the shores of 

 Newfoundland and Labrador, and is chiefly used as bait for 

 cod. It will be seen that this fish belongs to the same order 

 as the smelt and spearing, the chief difference consisting in 

 its double anal fin. All codfish fleets employ a sloop, two 

 row-boats, and a set of hands with caplin nets, to keep them 

 supplied with bait. It is an interesting sight to witness a 

 city of boats distributed over many miles of water in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, or about Newfoundland, and the bait- 

 tenders hauling seines over shoals and about islands where 

 the tiny caplin resort for protection from the cod. So, it ap- 



