COD BAIT IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 105 



pears, Great Nature has wisely ordained that big fishes shall 

 eat the little ones, and, to compensate for this consumption, 

 fishes naturally increase many hundred fold faster than land 

 animals, as before observed. 



I have presented these three great baits the smelt, spear- 

 ing, and caplin for the angler's information, for I have been 

 acquainted with many anglers who could not name the dif- 

 ferent fishes when taken together in great masses. Shoals 

 O A these fishes are followed by salmon, codfish, and by the 

 larger fishes of prey, such as the horse mackerel, cero, and 

 bonetta, over which hover flocks of gulls, and ever and anon 

 the latter swoop and shriek as they pick up the debris float- 

 ing on the surface left by the monsters as they follow and 

 feed on the shoals of these tender delicacies. 



THE CAPLIN. ^[allotus villosus. 



All the estuaries of rivers and shores of the St. Lawrence 

 teem with the caplin, and sometimes with the smelt also, and 

 occasionally with all these three shoaling together. They 

 form the staple food of the silver trout of the estuaries. All 

 these fishes spawn in the spring, and, therefore, I am sur- 

 prised that they should be supposed to belong to any branch 

 of the Salmo genus. 



SECTION SEVENTH. 



THE SEA BASS. 



Where low the level Jersey shore 

 Spreads out its ribb'd and sandy floor, 

 At break of day the fishers launch 

 The little skiff, so swift and stanch, 

 Spread the white sail, forsake the strand, 

 To dare the ocean miles from land. 

 Full well by shoremarks they may know 

 Where reefs of weeds are hidden low ; 

 G2 



