248 



THE SMELT. 



fresh water to spawn, in the months of March and April, and 

 return home in the month of May. They pay their return visit 

 for the benefit of the angler and epicure, and bite about the 

 same time with Jack Frost, in the month of October or Novem- 

 ber. In the vicinity of Boston they are caught all through tho 

 winter in immense quantities, and sent to the markets. As 

 many as one hundred dozen of them are known to have been 

 taken by one man with two lines in one day. 



The usual mode of fishing for them through the ice, is with 

 a fixing consisting of a piece of brass wire, of ten or fifteen 

 inches in length, passed through a small piece of lead which 

 answers for a sinker ; to each end of this is attached a Lime- 

 rick trout hook, about No. 2 or 3, tied to the ordinary length 

 of gut, baited with shrimps, or small pieces of minnow or frog. 

 This is attached to a sufficient length of cotton or flax line, and 

 finally fastened to a short stick of live oak, ash, or some other 

 elastic wood, which is stuck into the ice through a hole about 

 eighteen to twenty-four inches in diameter. An expert hand at 

 this business can attend to two or three lines of this description, 

 amuse himself by skating, and take home a sufficient quantity 

 of smelts to satisfy a craving appetite sharpened by exercise, 

 excitement, and a pure, healthy atmosphere. 



At other places, and in other seasons, they are taken with 

 the usual trout tackle, with the exception of the sinker, which 

 should vary in size according to the strength of the tide. 



This fish is very tenacious of life, has been known to exist a 

 long time after being taken out of water, and is for this reason 

 admirably adapted for transportation. They have been trans- 

 ferred successfully into fresh-water ponds, both in this country 

 and England. Yarrell, in his " British Fishes," says : 



" Smelts were kept for four years in a fresh- water pond, hav- 

 ing no communication with the sea ; they continued to thrive, 

 and propagated abundantly. They were not affected by freez- 



