SALMONID.E. 139 



ABDOMINAL 

 MALACOPTERYGIJ SALMONUXffi. 



THE CAPELIN. 



Mallotus Villotits; Cuvier. 



OF this beautiful little fish, which inhabits the northern seas only, 

 never coming farther south than the shores of Nova Scotia and New 

 Brunswick, I am unable to offer any representation to my readers, 

 never having seen a specimen or engraving. 



He is very nearly allied to the Smelts, from which he differs princi- 

 pally in the smallness of his teeth. 



He is stated in Mr. Peiiey's report on the Fisheries of the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, to be "from four to seven inches in length, the under 

 jaw longer than the upper, the color of the back greenish, the under 

 surface of the body silvery. They usually appear about Miscon and 

 in the bay of Chaleur early in May ; but sometimes not until nearly 

 the end of that month. The Cod fishery does not commence until 

 the arrival of the Capelin, which continues near the shores until the 

 end of July." 



Mr. Perley proceeds to state that, in consequence of the " wanton 

 destruction of the proper food of the Cod Herring and Capelin 

 which are taken in immense quantities, not for immediate eating, or 

 for curing, or for bait, but for manuring the ground," the Cod fishery 

 is utterly declining, the fisheries going to waste, and the establishments 

 deserted and going to ruin. 



" In a representation," he adds, " made to the Canadian Legislature 

 by a fisherman of Gaspe, it is stated that this fisherman had seen five 

 hundred barrels of Capelin taken in one tide expressly for manure ; 

 and that he has also seen one thousand barrels of Herring caught at 

 one time, and not taken away, but left to rot upon the beach." 



It is in this connection that I have here enumerated the Capelin ; 

 for he cannot be taken with the hook, so far as 1 can learn, and there- 

 fore is not game. But for Cod fishing, whether with the deep-sea line, 



