SMELT. 77 



Mayor of London, from the 28th of August (St. Augustine) 

 till Good-Friday. Formerly, the Thames from Wands- 

 worth to Putney-bridge, and from thence upwards to the 

 situation of the present suspension-bridge at Hammersmith, 

 produced abundance of Smelts, and from thirty to forty 

 boats might then be seen working together ; but very few 

 are now to be taken, the state of the water, it is believed, 

 preventing the fish advancing so high up. The particu- 

 lar cucumber-like smell of this fish is well known ; and 

 it is very considerably more powerful when they are first 

 taken out of the water. 



The Smelt is generally in great request from its delicate 

 and peculiar flavour. This quality, coupled with the cir- 

 cumstance of the fish passing six or seven months of the 

 year in fresh water, has induced two or three experiments 

 to retain it in ponds, one of which was attended with com- 

 plete success, and the attempts might be multiplied with 

 advantage. Colonel Meynell, of Yarm in Yorkshire, kept 

 Smelts for four years in a fresh-water pond having no com- 

 munication with the sea : they continued to thrive, and 

 propagated abundantly. They were not affected by freez- 

 ing, as the whole pond, which covered about three acres, 

 was so frozen over as to admit of skating. When the pond 

 was drawn, the fishermen of the Tees considered that they 

 had never seen a finer lot of Smelts. There was no loss of 

 flavour or quality. 



From the point of the lower jaw to the end of the gill- 

 cover, the length is, as compared to the body alone, as one 

 to three ; the depth of the body not equal to the length of 

 the head : the dorsal fin commences half-way between the 

 point of the nose and the end of the fleshy portion of the 

 tail ; the first ray of this fin less than half the length of 

 the second, which is as long as the third ; the second and 



