232 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



for the very small silver wires witli wliich they are fastened. 

 Several weeks time is required to make a single scale basket. 



The Alewife is of a greenish color, and is closely allied to 

 Slippery Dick. 



The Great Hog Fish is named from its swine-like profile and 

 dentition. Its body is compressed and elevated; its snout point- 

 ed; its dorsal fin protruding, and its skin resembles brown and 

 red marble, being light beneath. "When it swims, the dorsal fins 

 and their long streamer-like appendages give it a singular and 

 graceful appearance. It is quite common, attains a length of 

 thirty inches, and a weight of thirty pounds. Its flesh is hard, 

 white and exquisitely flavored, and it is numbered among the 

 choicest table fish. 



The School Master is fifteen inches in length, weighs three 

 to four pounds, and its color is an attractive bronze. It is not 

 a safe table fish. 



The Porcupine Fish, or Sea Hedge Hog, is a truly wonderful 

 creature on account of its peculiar armor, and of its capacity to 

 swallow either air or water, and thereby become ball-shaped. 

 Its body is covered with triangular plates, from each of which 

 rises a sharp spine, and some of the sjiines are an inch in length. 

 When alarmed, it fills its body with air or water, thereby assum- 

 ing a globular form, erects all its spines, and presents a formid- 

 able appearance. In this position it resembles an immense ches- 

 nut burr. Its color is brown above and light beneath, with spots 

 of darker brown near the operculum. One of the smaller ones 

 which Mr. Phelps secured, he says, was five inches long, and four 

 inches in diameter. 



The Sioell Fish, or Puffer, is of an olive green color, and its 

 surface is rongliened with prickles. Its body is oblong and cylin- 

 drical. It derives its name from the swollen ball-like shape which 

 it assumes when taken from the water, and irritated. It is from 



