GWYNIAI). 
911 
l 3 / 4 — 2 mm. in diameter, in the larger fetsikar as 
much as 3 mm. At first they are highly sensitive, 
especially to warmth ; when the embryo is half-developed, 
they are easier of transportation. In water of a tem- 
perature varying from December to April between 
+ 1° and + 5° C. (34° and 41° Faiir.), the fry are not 
hatched and capable of swimming until 5 months after 
the deposition of the ova. Just after their hatching 
Gwyniad fry are 9 mm. long, when a fortnight old, 
11 or 12 mm., at the age of one month, 15 mm., and 
when three months old, about 30 mm. (Norback). In 
the following year the young measure about 12 — 17 cm. 
From his examination of American Gwyniads Milner" 
deduced the following results: 
Weight of the 
mother fish. 
Weight of the 
ovaries. 
Number of eggs. 
Number of eggs per lb. 
in the living fish. 
2 lbs. 
5 3 / 4 oz. 
21,229 
10,614 
93/ 
/ 4 5? 
7'Vj » 
28,500 
10,361 
4 „ 
16 
48,100 
12,000 
77, 
25 
66,606 
8,881 
In the largest Gwyniad this result pretty nearly cor- 
respond to Norback’s calculation for Scandinavian Gwy- 
niads, that on an average each female Gwyniad has 
7,000 — 8,000 eggs to each Swedish pound* of her 
own weight. 
The Gwyniad does not yield to the Salmon as a 
food-fish. In many parts of Sweden, especially in Norr- 
land, it is more important to the fisherman. It is 
taken principally with net and seine, but also on long- 
lines, and at the spawning-places the leister is em- 
ployed. The small Gwyniads of Lake Wetter that 
frequent the shallower parts of the lake are netted 
with the so-called stronot (= strewing seine , but really 
a net, being without pocket), which is plied in the 
same way as the trammel-net c , with a beater, but 
without any outer net. One end is made fast by 
the shore or on a shoal, and the fisherman rows the 
other end of the net in a spiral with many curves, 
one within another. In the Gulf of Bothnia Gwy- 
niads are trapped in large ryssjor, with mouths and 
hoops a fathom wide and with a land arm some- 
times a thousand feet long, extending out from the 
shore to deep water even where the beach is shelving. 
On the Swedish coast these traps are called Finnish 
storryssjor , from the country where they were first 
used, and they are considered to be the most effective 
engines of all, for not only Gwyniads, but also every 
other kind of fish, especially Salmon — and sometimes 
a seal or two — enter into the catch. But their use 
readily becomes an abuse, if they close channels, or 
are set at the mouths of rivers to bar the passage of 
the ascending fish. In Lake Wener the long-line is 
also employed; it may be baited with worms, shellfish, 
or small Gammaroids. But in the Lake of Constance 
Gwyniads take a hook baited with nothing but a black 
horse-hair, which is bent so as to have some slight 
resemblance to a fly. When fishing for Gwyniad, how- 
ever, the angler should be cautious, for the fish struggles 
violently to escape, and often tears its mouth loose 
from the hook. 
In flavour the large fetsik may be mistaken for 
Salmon, if boiled fresh and served with suitable sauce. 
Smoked fetsik too is a dainty food. The large bldsik 
is also excellent eating — the muksun in particular — 
and the Lake Ring Gwyniad, small as it is, is com- 
mended for its fine flavour; but it will not bear keeping. 
Salted Gwyniad is common in the markets of Norrland, 
and in this form or dried the Gwyniad is an important 
winter food among the Lapps. 
The Gwyniad fisherman suffers greatly from the 
depredations of the seal, which appears, says Ekstrom, 
to be highly partial to the flesh of this fish. “The is- 
lander often finds his nets stripped by the seal, and 
considers that he has got off cheaply, if the nets are left 
whole. When once the seal has found a net, and been 
allowed to make a good meal there, it often repeats the 
visit, and unless the net be removed, it comes every 
night without fail for its share of the fisherman’s take.” 
a See Brown-Goode, 1. c., p. 519. 
l> A Swedish pound is about 15 oz. 
c See above, p. 741, note a. 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
115 
