98 FISHES SALMON DIAGRAM 5 



coloured spots, like trout. Salmon live ia the sea, but they 

 ascend the streams and rivers every year, sometimes to a long 

 distance, to spawn. When they have deposited their spawn, 

 they return to the sea till the following year. The flesh of the 

 salmon is red, and highly esteemed in countries where these 

 fish are not common, as in England and France. Their eggs 

 are comparatively large. They can, after being laid, be carried 

 to a great distance in damp moss, to be transferred to rivers 

 which the salmon do not generally ascend. When the young 

 are hatched, they remain at first motionless at the bottom of the 

 water ; they then begin to swim, and make their way towards 

 the sea. 



Herrings. The herring family includes the herrings, the 

 anchovies, and the sardines ; and it is one of those which are most 

 useful for food. 



The anchovy is chiefly found in the Mediterranean, though it 

 is not uncommon on our coasts. It is generally eaten potted, or 

 made into sauce. The sardine is common on the coast of Brit- 

 tany, where they fish for them with floating nets on the surface 

 of the water, and preserve them in two ways ; the first are either 

 salted and put into barrels, or else they are fried, and put into 

 tin boxes with oil, which are soldered up. 



The herring appears on our coasts. in shoals like the sardines, 

 but it forms larger banks as they are called ; and it also appears 

 later ; and while they fish for sardines in the summer, the her- 

 ring only begins to appear about the end of September or the 

 beginning ot October. They are then taken in prodigious quanti- 

 ties, and cost almost nothing in seaport towns. The boats go 

 out to fish for them by hundreds. They are taken by floating 

 nets of great length, in which they entangle their gills. When 

 there is good fishing, it does not take more than two hours for 

 the net to be loaded with fish. The herring is sold fresh, but 

 is also preserved in various ways ; it is salted, pickled in vine- 

 gar ; or smoked by putting it into the smoke of a fire made of 

 resinous wood, 



