10 THE KicH versus the poor man's fish. 



useful to us. No one, so far as I know, has seen the young 

 herring burst from its shell under such advantageous circum- 

 stances as we can view the salmon ova; but I have seen 

 bottled-up spawn of that fish just after it had ripened into life, 

 the infant animal being remarkably like a fragment of cotton 

 thread that had fallen into the water: it moved about with 

 great agility, but required the aid of a microscope to make out 

 that it was a thing endowed with life. Who could suppose, 

 while examming those wavy floating threads, that in a few 

 months afterwards they would be grown into beautiful fish, 

 with a mechanism of bones to bind their flesh together, scales 

 to protect their body, and fins to guide them in the water] 

 But young herring cannot be long bottled up for observation, 

 or be kept in an artificial atmosphere; for in that condition 

 they die almost before there is time to see them live; and 

 when in the sea there are no means of tracing them, because 

 they are speedily lost in an immensity of water. Perhaps now 

 that we have large aquariums at Brighton and the Crystal 

 Palace, we shall be able to trace the progress of the fish with 

 more exactitude. 



There are points of contrast between the salmon and the 

 herring which are worthy of notice. They form the St. G-iles' 

 and St. James' of the fish world, the one being a portion of 

 the rich man's food, the other filling the poor man's dish. 

 The salmon is hedged round by protecting Acts of Parliament, 

 but the herring gets leave to grow just as it swims, parliamen- 

 tary statutes not being thought necessary for its protection. 

 The salmon is born in a fine nursery, and wakened into life by 

 the music of beautiful streams : nurses and night-watchers, 

 hover about its cradle and guide its infant ways ; the herring, 

 however, like the brat of some wandering pauper, is dropped in 

 the great ocean workhouse, and cradled amid the hoarse roar of 

 ravening waters, whether it lives or dies being a matter of no 

 moment, and no person's business. Herring mortality in its infan- 

 tile stages is appalling, and even in its old age, at a time when 

 the rich man's fish is protected from the greed of its enemies 

 the herring is doomed to sufiier the most. And then to finish 

 up^ with the same appropriateness as they have lived, the venison 

 of the waters is daintily laid out on a slab of marble, while the 

 vulgar but beautiful herring is handled by a dirty costermonger 

 who drags it about in a filthy cart drawn by a wretched donkey! 

 At the hour of reproduction the salmon is guarded with 



