130 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 



this latitude;" but he adds, "some few are 

 taken in the south, probably wanderers." On" 

 the other hand, he notices a distinct but far 

 smaller species as common. His words are : 

 " The Greenlanders have their most common 

 food from their augmarset, or small herring, 

 a kind of lodden, called by the Newfoundland 

 men capelin,* near half a foot long ; their 

 back is dark green, and their belly silver 

 white. Like herrings, they swim into the bays 

 in such quantities, to lodge their spawn on the 

 rocks, that the sea looks black, and is ruffled or 

 curled. They make their first appearance in 

 March or April, and the common gull is their 

 betrayer. They spawn in May and June, and 

 this is the Greenlanders' harvest, when they 

 lade out whole boats' full in a few hours, with 

 a hoop-sieve, knit with sinews. They dry 

 them on the open rocks in the air, and then 

 pack them up, and lay them by for winter, as 

 their daily bread." The fact is, that the 

 herring is a deep water fish, advancing towards 

 our shores for the purpose of breeding, and 

 thence retiring to the deep again. 



The herring spawns in October, or the early 



* Dried capelins are sold in the London markets ; they 

 have a peculiar flavour, something like that of burned leather, 

 that is, letting the sense of smell stand for that of taste. 

 Some persons like them. 



