138 AMERICAN FISHES. 



comparison of these which I am perfectly satisfied will prove to be 

 two distinct species this last spring ; but unfortunately I was neces- 

 sarily absent from home during the very few days of this season in 

 which they were taken in the Passaic, and lost the opportunity of 

 doing so. The run of them is becoming less and less numerous every 

 successive season, and it is to be apprehended that ere long they will 

 cease to visit us at all. 



I will remark here that the habit of the European Smelt in England 

 is very capricious in regard to the rivers which he honors with his 

 presence. It is said that in England the Smelt is never taken between 

 Dover and Land's End ; on the eastern side of the island it is taken 

 from the Thames and Medway to the Tay, and on the western, in the 

 Solway, and so far south only as the Mersey and the Dee. 



A specific description of this well-known little fish would be useless, 

 as I am unable to furnish data of comparison between the Smelt of 

 the Raritan and Passaic rivers in New Jersey and the Osmerus Viri- 

 descens. 



Before proceeding farther, I will merely observe that I am well as- 

 sured that it is generally believed these different species of fish cannot 

 be taken with the hook, merely for the reason that no one has ever 

 attempted so to take them ; at least, with any bait at which there was 

 the slightest probability of their rising. 



I know that the Shad and the Herring, contrary to all received 

 opinion, can be taken with the fly ; and I have had great sport myself 

 with the latter fish, off the pier of Fort Diamond in the New York 

 Narrows, catching them with a gaudy peacock-fly, as fast as I could 

 throw it in and pull them out. 



It would by no means surprise me to find, that, during the time 

 when Smelt run up our streams, they may be taken freely, either with 

 a very small bright fly, or with morsels of shrimp or pellets of their 

 own roe, upon a number- twelve Limerick Trout-hook, and thrown 

 like a fly, on the surface.* Should such prove to be the case, they 

 would afford very pretty light fishing at a time when there is no other 

 sport for the angler. 



* NOTE TO REVISED EDITION. On this point, see Supplement. Art. American 

 Smelt. 



