KING HERRING 



701 



sounds that give the vicinity an uncanny 

 aspect. This effect, moreover, is in- 

 creased by the strange hues of the surface, 

 the white of the alkaline efflovescence 

 being tinted yellow by the sulphur or 

 dark red or orange by mercury sulphides. 



A sharp bluff separates the area occu- 

 pied by the solfataras from the flat occu- 

 pied during times of flood by Volcano 

 Lake, and small openings lead from the 

 shore of the lake into this bluff. These 

 openings, like the volcanoes themselves, 

 usually discharge vapors, and from some 

 of them hot springs or mud flows issue. 



It is related that one of the riders 

 employed by a big cattle company that 

 controls the greater part of the range 

 south of the line decided in a moment 

 of alcoholic inspiration to explore one of 

 these uncanny caves. He came out 



quickly, sobered and shaken, and started 

 for his pony. "The crust's too thin in 

 this neighborhood for me," he is reported 

 to have said. "I don't believe the end 

 of that hole is more than forty feet from 

 hades, and while I'm a fair gambler and 

 only an ordinary sinner, I don't want to 

 take any chances hereabouts. Calexico 

 and the forget-it-water for mine." 



But for the sober man the region about 

 Volcano Lake, although a veritable in- 

 ferno in the desert summer heat, with the 

 puffing of the steam jets, the sulphurous 

 odors, the treacherous, hot marshes, and 

 the weird coloring, is perhaps for that 

 very reason an area of deep interest ; 

 but it is only one of many interesting 

 features in a most unique and even 

 yet very imperfectly explored corner of 

 North America. 



KING HERRING 



An Account of the World's Most Valuable Fish, the 



Industries it Supports, and the Part it 



Has Played in History 



By Hugh M. Smith 



U. S. Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries 



WHEN one takes a bird's-eye 

 view of the fisheries of the 

 world he quickly perceives 

 that there is no family of fishes and no 

 group of aquatic animals that con L 

 tributes so largely to the support of the 

 human race as the herrings. The family 

 has 200 members, nearly all of which 

 exist in great abundance. 



In nearly every country having exten- 

 sive fisheries some kind of herring is of 

 importance, and in many countries rep- 

 resentatives of the family are among the 

 most valuable of the water products. 

 Some of the herrings live exclusively in 

 salt water, some exclusively in fresh 

 water, and some alternately in the sea 

 and streams. 



Characters by which the herrings may 

 readily be recognized are the presence of 

 a single dorsal fin, which, like all the 

 other fins, is composed only of soft or 

 non-spinous rays ; the absence of an adi- 

 pose dorsal fin, such as occurs in the sal- 

 mons and trouts ; a swim-bladder, which 

 communicates with the esophagus bv a 

 pneumatic duct ; four gills ; a forked 

 tail ; a terminal mouth with weak or de- 

 ficient teeth ; a fully scaled body but 

 naked head ; the absence of a series of 

 "lateral line" organs, and a generally 

 silvery coloration. The structure of the 

 mouth parts determines the food, which 

 usually consists of minute animals and 

 plants, strained from the water by the 

 numerous gill-rakers. 



