198 THE SMELT 



title Osmerus upon the genus, from the Greek 

 ' fragrant.' About that fragrance there can be no doubt 

 in the mind of any one who has seen the fish landed. 

 It is perceptible under a gentle breeze at a distance of 

 nearly one hundred yards. Some have compared it to 

 the scent of violets, others to that of cucumbers ; but 

 my own olfactories detect in it nothing more refined 

 than the smell of fresh rushes. Like many popular 

 etymologies, the explanation of ' smelt ' as signifying a 

 fish that smells or is smelt is utterly wide of the mark. 

 ' Smelt ' meant the same in Anglo-Saxon as it does in 

 modern English ; but there is no verb ' to smell ' in 

 Anglo-Saxon. The scientific name Osmerus, therefore, 

 can only take rank as an erudite pun. 



Smelts, as we know them in this country, are of 

 purely estuarine habit, ascending the rivers no further 

 than the tidal rise is felt and there depositing their 

 spawn. The creature is of fairy-like beauty when 

 freshly landed, the colour on the back varying from 

 sea-green to palest brown ; the sides are faintly tinged 

 with yellow, violet, or rose, shot with silvery gleams ; 

 but as the scales are devoid of pigment, the body of the 

 fish is translucent, the bones and internal organs being 

 discernible through the skin. 



Small as this fish is, at the time of our visit to Cree- 

 town it had been for nearly forty years the cause of 

 much heartburning and some litigation. From time 

 immemorial sparlings had been regarded as white fish, 

 not affected by the laws applicable to red fish that is, 

 salmon. All or any fishermen might take them as 

 freely as flounders, whiting or other marine fishes. It 



