40 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
attention. The planting of live specimens is less diffi- 
cult, if carried out at a cool time of year when the 
temperature is from 41° to 50° Fahr., and provided 
that a, too great change in the warmth of the water is 
avoided. Specimens two or three years old should be 
selected and then conveyed to such lakes as seem suited 
for planting". It is also advisable to plant Smelt in the 
same water for some years previously, unless they al- 
ready exist there. The Pike-perch grows quickly and 
attains a considerable size. In Lakes Millar and Wener 
it reaches, though seldom, a weight of from 20 to 22 
pounds and a length of from 3 to 4 feet. Trybom 
estimates the length of a Pike-perch one year old to 
be from 90 to 130 mm., two years old 220 to 260 
mm., and three years old 350 to 390 mm. 
The Pike-perch is taken in many ways, but gene- 
rally with nets or large “ ryssjor ” (see p. 33, tig. 7). 
At the beginning of the spawning-season, when the nights 
are still dark in Sweden, the Pike-perch is taken in a 
drag-net, if, at the places where it spawns, the bottom is 
so level that a net can be drawn there. It is sometimes 
the custom to light bonfires on the shore at this time, 
in the hope that the fishes may be enticed to collect 
near the firelight. In other places, where a drag-net 
cannot be employed, the Pike-perch is taken by traw- 
ling. The nets which are used in fishing for the Pike- 
perch during winter, are made especially for this pur- 
pose, the meshes are large, and the nets are always set 
in deep water. From midsummer till late in autumn 
the Pike-Perch is also caught on night-lines with a bait 
of Smelt or Bleak. Sometimes, though very seldom, it 
is taken with rod and line. According to Ekstrom 
live bait is necessary, but others consider half rotten, 
strong smelling bait the best. 
The Pike-perch is undeniably one of the most de- 
licate Scandinavian fishes. It is eaten fresh, salted or 
dried, in the last case generally after being soaked in 
lye. In France, according to Cuvier, it is also eaten 
raw with oil, pepper and salt. Its flesh is white, firm, 
free from small bones and of excellent flavour. Still 
it is generally stated that if one eats Pike-perch daily, 
one soon becomes tired of it. The fat is said to be 
used among the peasantry for rubbings in cases of 
rheumatic pains, luxations etc. According to the time, 
year and the abundance or scarcity of the fish, the 
market-price of the Pike-perch here in Stockholm va- 
ries as follows: in spring it costs about 4 3 /' 4 cl. per lb., 
in summer 6 3 / 4 cl., at midsummer sometimes as much 
as 10 cl., in autumns and winter from 6 ! / 4 cl. to 8 cl., 
sometimes not so much. All these prices are reckoned 
for middle-sized and perfectly fresh Pike-perch. 
(Ekstrom, Smitt.) 
Genus ACERINA. 
Form of the body an oblong oval slightly compressed at the sides. Scales middle-sizecl with sharply dentated mar- 
gin. Top of the gill-cover f urnished posteriorly with one or two spines. Preoperculum and shoulder- girdle dentated. 
Inferior margin of the preorbital bones without teeth. Head naked , its outer bones pierced with large ducts con- 
nected with the lateral line. Small , car diform teeth of equal size on the intermaxillaries, the lower jaw and the 
vomer; also in a simple row on the palatine bones ( often wanting on the vomer and the last named bones). Tongue 
'without teeth. Only three pyloric appendages. Pseudobranchice present but only rudimentary. Branchial membranes 
separate, each with 7 rays. One dorsal fin with from 13 to 19 spinous rays. Two b spinous rays in the anal 
fin, its base shorter than the soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin. In the caudal fin 15 c branched rays. 
Of this genus, which is confined exclusively to the 
so called Palcearctic region (Europe and Northern Asia), 
four species have been described, distinguished from one 
another by the colouring, the difference in the number 
of spinous rays in the dorsal fin and of the rows of 
scales, and the varying length of the snout. The species 
which possesses the shortest snout and the least number 
of rays in the dorsal fin is our common Pope. 
a Cf. Trybom, 1. c. and the same Quarterly Report for 1885, p. 277. 
b Rarely 3. 
<■ » 14. 
