358 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



ago which weighed seventy-eight pounds and measured five 

 feet eight inches in length. They feed on herrings, sprats, 

 mollusca, worms, and small shell fish, are very voracious, and 

 have excellent digestions. Captain Brown killed one at Kil- 

 lough, Co. Down, Ireland, in which he found upward of fifty 

 smqll crabs, and other testaceous and crustaceous animals. 

 The Cod fisheries find emplo)rment for a large number of peo- 

 ple and are a great source of profit. The flesh is highly valued 

 as an article of diet, and the liver for the properties of the oil 

 which it produces, while other parts are used for various pur- 

 poses. 



The Salmon. In the Fourth order of Dr. Giinther's classifica- 

 tion we find the Salmon, the Trout, the Pike, the Flying Fish, 

 the Carp, the Roach, the Chub, the Herring, the Sardine, the 

 Anchovy, the Gymnotus and the Eel, besides other fish. Of 

 these the Salmon takes easy precedence. Izaak Walton called 

 it " the King of fresh- water fish," and many have accorded it 

 the first place among its kind for the delicacy of its flavour. It 

 is of migratory habits, leaving the sea in the autumn and as- 

 cending rivers for the purpose of depositing its spawn, and re- 

 turning to the sea in the spring. In seeking suitable places 

 for its purpose the salmon brooks no obstacle, leaping with 

 great vigour the rapids and falls that impede its course even 

 though they may sometimes exceed eight or ten feet in height. 

 Curving the body until it forms a circular spring, it strikes the 

 water with great force, throwing itself forward and thus lifting 

 itself over rocks and weirs. In the shallow gravelly pools which 

 they find towards the source of rivers, Salmon form hollows in 

 which they spawn, covering it up with the loose sand they ex- 

 cavate in the process. The eggs deposited in the later months 

 of the autumn are hatched in the earlier months of Spring and 

 by the end of May the whole of the young fish have followed 

 their parents to the sea. 



The Pike. The Pike, — fierce, strong, and voracious, — : 

 holds his own in the rivers of both the old and the new Worlds. 



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