232 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
for the very small silver wires with which they are fastened. 
Several weeks time is required to make a single scale basket. 
The Alewife is of a greenish color, and is closely allied to 
Slippery Dick. 
The Great Hog Fish is named from its swine-like profile and 
dentition. Its body is compressed and clevated; its snout point- 
_ed; its dorsal fin protruding, and its skin resembles brown and 
red marble, being light beneath. When it swims, the dorsal fins 
and their long streamer-like appendages give it a singular and 
graceful appearance. It is quite common, attains a length of 
thirty inches, and a weight of thirty pounds. Its flesh is hard, 
white and exquisitely flavored, and it is numbered among the 
choicest table fish. 
The School Master is fifteen inches in length, weighs three 
to four pounds, and its color is an attractive bronze. It is not 
a safe table fish. 
The Porcupine Fish, or Sea Hedge Hog, is a truly wonderful 
creature on account of its peculiar armor, and of its capacity to 
swallow either air or water, and thereby become ball-shaped. 
Its body is covered with triangular plates, from each of which 
rises a sharp spine, and some of the spines are an inch in length. 
When alarmed, it fills its body with air or water, thereby assum- 
ing a globular form, erects all its spines, and presents a formid- 
able appearance. In this position it resembles an immense ches- 
nut burr. Its color is brown above and light beneath, with spots 
of darker brown near the operculum. One of the smaller ones 
which Mr. Phelps secured, he says, was five inches long, and four 
inches in diameter. 
.The Swell Fish, or Puffer, is of an olive green color, and its 
surface is roughened with prickles. Its body is oblong and cylin- 
drical. It derives its name from the swollen ball-like shape which 
it assumes when taken from the water, and irritated. It is from 
