164 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Mode of preserving salmon ou the continent. 



they appear at the aperture, they are there 

 caught. 



Since large nets have heen used in Norway, 

 the salmon fishery has become an object of con- 

 siderable importance. These nets extend aleng 

 the coast in the form of semicircles, or triangles 

 and sometimes seven hundred fish are taken at 

 a single haul. Two thousand fresh salmon are 

 frequently carried to Bergen in one day. Great 

 numbers of salmon are likewise caught in Swe- 

 den, in the Gulf of Bothnia, near Lapland, and 

 also in Holland, at the mouths of the Rhine and 

 the Maese. 



A common method of preserving salmon prac- 

 tised on the continent, is by smoking them. For 

 this purpose the fish is cut open, the head is cut 

 off, and the spines of the back taken out ; it is 

 then left four days in salt, and after being clean- 

 ed and dried, is exposed to the smoke for three 

 weeks, or a fortnight. Care must be taken to 

 keep it in a dry place. Salmon of eighteen or 

 twenty pounds are the most proper for smoking, 

 small ones spoil too soon, and the large fish will 

 not readily take the smoke, 



These fish when taken out of their natural ele- 

 ment very soon die ; to preserve the flavour they 

 must be killed us soon as they are taken out of 

 the water. The fishermen usually pierce them 

 near the tail with a knife, where they soon die 

 with loss of blood. It has been observed that 

 this fish will keep for several weeks without spoil-; 



