THE TRUE FISHES. 



especially in the lakes. They are taken with lances, cnl into slabs of half 

 an inch in thickness, and dried in the sun after having ..." 



salted. 



The smelt, or frost-fish, of the United States, and the smelt, or sparl 

 of England, are very nearly alike. Our smelt enters the rivers m the * il 

 ter and early spring for the purpose of spawning, and at such t imes thej are 

 taken m large numbers. Josselyn, in 1677, wrote « the frost-fish is a little 



kfltattl <L- Mtifhti 1* 



Fig. 303. — Periecu (Arapaima gigas). 



bigger than a gudgeon, and are taken in fresh brooks: where the w.v 



are frozen, they make a hole in the ice about half a yard or a yard wide, 



to which the fish repair in great numbers, where, with small i; 1 3 



a hoop about the bigness of a firkin-hoop, with a staff fastened to it, tl 



take them out of the hole." Their habits and the mode of fishing the 



same to-day. Some esteem the smelts highly ; but to others their 



taste is very disagreeable. 



The salmon family, containing; the salmon, trout, cliarr. white! 



