HABITS OP THE CAPELIN. 545 



is driven drie by the surge of the sea on the pibble and sands. Of this, being^as good as a smelt, 

 you can take up with a shove-net as plentiful as you do wheate in a shovell sufScieut in three or 

 four hours for a whole citie." 



In 1880 Dr. Bean found this fish abundant and in immense schools on the cod grounds of the 

 North Pacific, and found forty individuals in the stomach of one cod of ten pounds weight. 



The abundance of this fish in northern waters, and the voracity with which schools of cod 

 follow them, have been described by many writers, by none perhaps better than by Anspach, who 

 thus describes the appearance of Conception Bay about the year 1818: 



" It is impossible to conceive, much more to describe, the splendid appearance of Conception 

 Bay and its harbors on such a night, at the time of what is there called the Capelin Skull. Then 

 its vast surface is completely covered with myriads of fishes of various kinds and sizes, all actively 

 engaged either in pursuing or avoiding each other; the whales alternately rising and plunging, 

 throwing into the air spouts of water; the codfish bounding above the waves and reflecting the 

 light of the moon from their silvery surface; the Capelius hurrying away in immense shoals to seek 

 a refuge on the shore, where each retiring wave leaves countless multitudes skipping upon the 

 sand, an easy prey to the women and children who stand there with barrows and baskets ready to 

 seize upon the precious and plentiful booty; while the fishermen iu their skiffs, with nets made for 

 that purpose, are industriously employed in securing a sufdcient quantity of the valuable bait for 

 their fishery." ^ 



" The manner in which the Capelin deposits its spawn is one of the most curious circumstances 

 attending its natural history. The male fishes are somewhat larger than the female, and are pro- 

 vided with a sort of ridge projecting on each side of their backbones, similar to the eaves of a 

 house, in which the female Capelin is deficient. The latter, on approaching the beach to deposit 

 its spawn, is attended by two male fishes, who huddle the female betwee;) them, until the whole 

 body is concealed under the projecting ridges, and her head only is visible. In this position all 

 three run together, with great swiftness, upon the sands, when the males, by some inherent 

 imperceptible power, compress the body of the female between their own, so as to expel the spawn 

 from the orifice and the tail. Having thus accomplished its delivery, the three Capelins separate, 

 and, paddling with their whole force through the shallow water of the beach, generally succeed in 

 regaining once more the bosom of the deep, although many fail to do so, and are cast upon the 

 shore, especially if the surf be at all heavy. Like the common Smelt, the Capelin possesses the 

 cucumber smell; but it differs from the Smelt in never entering fresh-water streams."^ 



" Instances are common of vast numbers of Capelin being found dead, or in a dying state, 

 where the schools come inshore to spawn. The sandy bottom of the sloping beach is not unfre- 

 quently strewed with dead fish, and dying Capelin maybe seen wandering about and spasmodically 

 gasping in the water from which millions of the species had abstracted the oxygen necessary for 

 their existence. 



"The Capelin spawn, as is well known, on sandy, sloping beaches, but they also spawn in waters 

 of different depths where the bottom is composed of sand. The fishermen take Capelin with their 

 casting-nets in from fifteen to thirty fathoms, and probably also in water of much greater depth, 

 the needed condition being a smooth, sandy bottom over which the trio engaged in spawning may 

 'run' touching the bottom. In the neighborhood of Baccalieu Tickle, Mr. Jabez Tilly relates 

 that in 1864 the fishermen took Capelin for a month, from the third week in June to the third week 

 in July, in water varying from fifteen to thirty fathoms, with the casting-net. In the second week 



'Page 305. 



^Lanman : Report United States Commission Fish and Fisheries, part II, 1874, p. 225. 

 35 P 



