ANOTHER BREAKFAST DELICACY. 291 



smallest kinds of pan-fishes. This is a broiler as truly as is a 

 shad or a Spanish mackerel. 



Though an abdominal, it does not belong to the genus Sal- 

 mo any more than does the smelt, which some ichthyologists 

 classify with that genus, though the smelt spawns in spring, 

 and the whitefish late in summer or early in autumn. 



Whitefish are taken with nets and placed in fish-pounds in 

 the fall, confined by water-fencing with nets or stone, whence 

 they are taken with large scap-nets and sent to market. The 

 new process of dry-freezing is being resorted to at the West, 

 so as to enable the netters to take them in the season when 

 they are best for the table, and preserve them in a 'certain 

 stage of refrigeration until it is thought desirable to market 

 them. This is the preferable method, because, when confined 

 in pounds, closely packed, many of them get frozen, being 

 thus rendered unmarketable by reason of their slow death. 

 In the winter of 1868 there were 500 lost from one pound 

 near Detroit by freezing. The pound system should be abol- 

 ished by law. 



" The fisher stakes his net and weir 

 The persecuted shoals to snare ; 

 The seiner runs his seines around, 

 Where'er their shining scales abound ; 

 Then, dragging to the neighboring shore, 

 The white sands strew with ample store ; 

 Yet, spite of foe, and net, and seine, 

 Unnumbered myriads yet remain." ISAAC M'LELLAN. 



THE LAKE HERRING. 



The herring belongs to the Clupeidce family of fishes, and 

 is the fifth and last division of the "Malacopterygiens abdomi- 

 naux" being the supposed link between the Gadidce and the 

 Salmonidce, without second dorsal or adipose fin. The lake 

 herring is quite similar to that of the salt waters, subsisting 

 chiefly on animalculae. Its back is dark gray with a greenish 

 tinge, white sides and abdomen, and covered with large sil- 

 very scales. It is from nine to twelve inches in length, and 

 when fresh is a good broiler; but the world knows that it is 



