When the

those which are taken without fire. fishery is over, they cut off the heads, take out the gall and guts, and then lay them in barrels, and salt them. The common way of eating anchovies is with oil, vinegar, &c., in order to which they are first boned, and the tails, fins, &c., slipped off. Being put on the fire, they dissolve in almost any liquor. They are made into sauce by minching them with pepper, &c. Some also pickle anchovies in small earthen pots, made on purpose, of two or three pounds weight, more or less, which they cover with plaster to keep them the better. Anchovies should be chosen small, fresh pickled, white on the outside and red within. They must have a round back; for those which are flat or large are often nothing

but sardines.

SECT. IV. OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY.

The mackerel, see SCOMBER, is a summer fish of passage, found in large shoals, in various parts of the ocean not far north; but especially

on the French and English coasts. It is about seventeen inches in length, and weighs nearly two pounds. The body long, round, thick, and fleshy, is beautifully shaped for swimming, and becomes very small and slender towards the tail, which is so much forked, that it seems to be almost parted into fins. Hanmer found one in the month of June containing 546,681 eggs; when first taken it exhibits a phosphoric light. Its eyes, when they first appear on our coasts, and during winter, are covered with a kind of white film; they are then nearly blind, this, however, they cast in the beginning of summer. The fishing is usually in April, May, and June, or July, according to the place. They enter the English channel in April, and proceed up the straits of Dover as the summer advances; so that by June they are on the coasts of Cornwall, Sussex, Normandy, Picardy, &c. where the fishery is most considerable. They are an excellent food fresh; and not to be despised, when well prepared, pickled, and put up in barrels; a method of preserving them chiefly used in Cornwall. They are taken either with a line or nets: the latter is the chief method, and is usually performed in the night. The rules observed in the fishing for mackerel are much the same as those in the fishery of herrings. There are two ways of pickling them the first is, by opening and gutting them, and filling the belly with salt, crammed in as hard as possible with a stick; which done, they range them in rows, at the bottom of the vessel, strewing salt between the layers. In the second way, they put them immediately into tubs full of brine, made of fresh water and salt; and leave them to steep, till they have imbibed salt enough to make them keep; after which, they are taken out, and barrelled up, taking care to press them close down. Mackerel are not cured or exported as merchandise, except by the Yarmouth and Lowestoft merchants, but are generally consumed at home; especially in London, the sea-ports between the Thames and Yarmouth, east, and the Land's end of Cornwall, west. It is said that this fish was in high esteem with the Romaus. VOL. IX.

SECT. V. OF THE LOBSTER FISHERY.

Lobsters are taken along the British Channel, and on the coast of Norway, whence they are brought to London for sale; as also in the frith of Edinburgh, and on the coast of Northumberland By 10th & 11th Will. III. c. 24, no lobster is to be taken under eight inches in length, from the peak of the nose to the end of the middle fin of the tail; and by the 9th Geo. II. c. 33, no lobsters are to be taken on the coast of Scotland from the 1st of June to the 1st of September. See CANCER. They are in season from September to June. The shell is black before it is boiled, but afterwards becomes red. During winter, the cock is supposed to be more delicate eating than the hen. They are taken in what fishermen call pots, in shape like a mouse-trap, made either of netting or twiggen work; these, after being baited with garbage, and having a buoy affixed, are made fast to a rope, and thrown to the bottom of the sea, where it may be found to be from six to ten feet deep. On the York

shire and Orkney coasts, the fishermen use small nets, with iron hoops, baited with fish guts, or dried dog-fish. London consumes more lobsters than all the rest of the country together. They are sent hither as far as from the Orkneys in chests, which contain 400 or 500 each; and, when aboard the first smack that is to sail for Queen900 or 1000 are thus collected, they are stowed borough and Billingsgate.

SECT. VI.-OF THE OYSTER FISHERY.

The British oyster (ostrea edulis) a bivalvular testaceous fish, found in all parts of the kingdom, though not the largest, has been said to be the best and most wholesome in the world. They were famous in the days of the Romans, so that, according to Juvenal and Pliny, they were conveyed from the coast of Kent to Rome. Those of Colchester, however, are now thought fully equal to those of Kent. In Scotland they breed in the creeks and bays of the Orkney and Western Islands; but the most considerable fisheries are in the Friths of Forth, near Inchkeith, and Prestonpans, in Musselburgh Bay. Here they obtain the appellation of Pandoors, from being taken close by the doors of the salt pans. Oysters cast their spat, or spawn, in the month of May; when first shed, it has the appearance of candle-grease, and adheres to stones, or any other substance, which the dredgers term cultch ;the spat is covered with a shell in two or three days, and, in the course of three years, it becomes marketable in size. The dredgers make use of a very thick, strong, net, fastened to three spills of iron; this they drag along the bottom of the sea, forcing the oysters into it. In England, many, after being taken in this manner, are carried to other places, and laid in beds, or pits of salt water, to fatten; where they derive a green color, sometimes, and are then found unwholesome. A green color is often artificially given to them in the salt marshes; but we do not consider it as any improvement, as we think white oysters both look, and taste, better than those that are green. The sea star (asterias glacialis) is a most destructive animal in a bed of oysters

T

The fishing for oysters is permitted from the 1st of September to the last day of April inclusive: or, according to common observation, oysters are in season in all those months which have the letter r in their name.

SECT. VII.-SALMON FISHERY.

The Report from the Select Committee of the Salmon Fisheries of the United Kingdom, ordered by the house of commons to be printed, the 17th of June 1824, presents so complete an account of the habits of this fish, and the general modes pursued in obtaining it, that we cannot do better in this place than present an abstract of it to the reader.

In the course of the examinations which are here recorded, the committee seem to have been anxious to determine the different species of fish usually found in the salmon rivers, or captured in the nets. This is an object of considerable importance, in every view of the subject before us. 1. Salmon.-All the witnesses are of the same opinion with regard to this species; but they differ greatly as to the question, Whether the salmon of one river can be distinguished from those of another by any definite characters. Mr. Halliday has compared them in Ireland, England, and Scotland, many times, and says, 'I cannot make out the distinction of one river's fish from that of another.' Mr. James Bell states, 'I have a little guess; not altogether.' J. Proudfoot considers the Tweed fish as smaller than those of the Tay, and those of the River Isla as smaller than those of the River Tay; but, when asked if upon meeting with an Isla fish and a Tay fish in the frith, he should know the one from the other, he replies No; I would not.' On the other side of the question, Mr. James Wilson, in reference to the North and South Esks at Montrose, declares, that the species of salmon are quite different in these two rivers;' and adds, 'One is a large coarse scaly fish, and the other is a smaller and a finer fish.' Mr. James Bell states, that the Aberdeen fish is quite different from the Tay, different in the scale.' Geo. Little, esq. states, that the salmon in the Shannon grow to a large size;' and adds, We have three fishings that fall all into one bay in Ireland, the Bush, the Bann, and the Foyle, and we can easily distinguish the fish of all the different rivers when we take them. The salmon in the bush is a long-bodied round salmon, nearly as thick at the head as he is at the middle. The salmon that we kill at the Bann, is what I call a very neat-made fish, very broad at the shoulders, and the back fin tapering away towards the tail, and quite a different shaped fish from the Bush fish. The Foyle is a river that we seldom get any large salmon in.'

A considerable degree of importance seems to be attached to this branch of the enquiry, with the view of determining the question, Whether the fish bred in a particular river always return to their birth-place, and to no other river. Sir Humphry Davy assumes that salmon, and salmon-trout, belong, in fact, to the river in which they were spawned,' and that each variety of salmon, or salmon-trout affects a particular river, and always returns to it;' p. 145.

The other witnesses seem generally to entertain the same opinion. Mr. Little has been told of evidence on this subject, p. 112; but no facts are communicated. Indeed, Mr. Halliday asserts, that they do not all come to the same river in which they were bred ;' and as a proof of this he states, I found the different rivers vary fron: one year to another; but when one is protected and another unprotected, the unprotected river keeps up its quantity as well as the protected one;' p. 87.

2. Grilse.--Sir H. Davy and Mr. John Wilson consider this fish as a young salmon; other witnesses, as Messrs. Little, Johnstone, and Halliday, entertain a different opinion, viewing it as a distinct species. They found this opinion of its claim to rank as a species, on the circumstances of its being found full of milt or of roe, and of its spawning and return to the sea as a kelt or spawned fish. But fish spawn long before they attain maturity, consequently this test is of little value. But other proofs are offered. Mr. Johnstone says, "The grilse is a much less fish in general; it is much smaller at the tail in proportion, and it has a much more swallow tail, much more forked; it is smaller at the head, sharper at the point of the nose, and generally the grilse is more bright in the scales than the salmon;' p. 38. Mr. Halliday states, 'that a grilse's tail is very much forked, like that of a swallow; a salmon's tail is not forked like that of a grilse, and the chowk fins (pectorals) of a grilse are much more blue in their color than a salmon's; a grilse is much smaller at the head and immediately above the tail than a salmon is: it seems to be a different fish in shape every way; besides, it goes up full of spawn in the end of the year, and does not come down till the spring, when it is a kelt grilse, while the young salmon are coming up the rivers in numbers of at least fifty young salmon for every kelt grilse that returns to the sea:' p. 63. Mr. Little, who entertains a similar opinion to the two preceding witnesses, states, that grilses enter rivers in June, seldom in May, p. 12 (confirmed by Mr. Halliday, p. 53.); and adds, We do not find in some rivers the same proportion of grilses to salmon as we do in others; for instance, in our fishing at the Foyle, it consists almost entirely of grilse,' p. 110. When they first appear in the rivers, they are from a pound and a half to three pounds in weight,' and they increase gradually every week during the time we kill them.' At the end of the season they weigh eight, nine, or ten pounds. He likewise states, Our water keepers tell me that they very seldom see a salmon and grilse breeding together, but they have seen it occasionally, but not generally; very seldom;' p. 113. There can be little doubt, that the term grilse is used in general to denote a young salmon, though the same epithet is probably bestowed on a distinct species of the genus salmo, with which it seems to be confounded.

3. Trout.-Sir H. Davy considers salmonpeal, sewen, and bull-trout, as constituting one species, the salmo-eriox of Linnæus, the most correct appellation of which is sea-trout. The salmo trutta of Linnæus, however, has been universally regarded by British systematical writers as the

6

common sea-trout; and the salmo eriox is a very different species. Linnæus employed the term eriox as a trivial name to the S maculis cirereis, cauda extremo æquali of Artedi, and the gray of Willoughby and Ray. Mr. Johnstone says, Although in some friths and rivers, where there are a great many salmon, there are also great numbers of trout; yet in others, where are a great many salmon, there are very few trout;' p. 38. Mr. Halliday states, In the Annan I have known us get more sea-trouts in one day, than we shall get in the Tay in a whole year;' p. 64. Mr. Little declares, that the sea-trout are not found in all salmon rivers. We do not see any thing like the Spey trout, or like the trout that is caught in the Solway Frith, or like the trout that is caught in the Tweed, in any of our fishings in Ireland. They do not breed, nor are they to be seen there; p. 111. Sir H. Davy states, that 'the different habits of the salmon and sea-trout are well demonstrated in the Moy, near Ballena in Ireland,' on which there is a large pile near the town, and which, below the fall, is joined by a considerable stream. The salmon leap this fall; the sea-trout almost all spawn in the smaller stream, a few miles from the sea;' p. 144. There is some strange blunder here. Mr. Little, the tenant of the fishings on the Moy, says, there are trout, but not the trout called the sea-trout;' and with regard to the pile or fall which obstructs the progress of the trout, and over which the salmon leap, he adds,‘They can go over it at tide-time, without leaping; after the tide rises they can go over it;' p. 134. He likewise observes, A trout goes very far up the river to spawn. The smaller the fish is, they go the higher up into the little streams to deposit the spawn; but the trout in the Moy are quite a different kind of trout from what we call in Scotland the salmon or sea-trout;' p. 134.

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4. Whitling.-Sir H. Davy considers this fish as a young salmon, and states, that they are 'without visible ova or spermatic secretion; are found in salmon rivers, a mile or two from the sea, and which return to the sea, without attempting a farther migration;' p. 145. Mr. Little, who knows this fish by different names in different rivers, as hirlings, whitings, or finnocks, declares, We never see such a fish in Ireland, in the rivers we are concerned with.' Mr. Halliday states, that in Carlisle they call them whitings: in Annan hirlings, and in the North finnocks. I never saw any in the Tay; but I have taken 100 dozen in the Annan at one draught. It is about twelve inches long. The tail of the hirling is straighter than that of the salmon or grilse, and it is quite a short-headed fish; neither does the head of the hirling shoot like that of the salmon when he is going to spawn. The largest I ever saw was about threequarters of a pound. My reasons for believing that they are not the young salmon, are, that when they go up the rivers, they are as full of spawn for their size as the salmon is; and when they come down in the spring of the year kelts, we are getting the young salmon;' p. 63. Mr. Johnstone agrees with the preceding witnesses, in asserting the ordinary presence of ova and spermatic secretion, and in considering this fish

as a distinct species. They are called hirlings on the Scotch side of the Solway, whitings on the English side; hirlings, whitings or whitlings at Berwick; whitelings in the Tay; and finnocks in the north of Scotland;' p. 37.

5. Pur.-Mr. Little is the only witness who is questioned in reference to this fish. I have seen them; but I consider them merely a freshwater fish, or a species of fish by themselves, unconnected with our salmon-fisheries altogether. p. 113.

It is probable that some species of migratory trouts have not been noticed at all. The river fishers are better acquainted with the trouts than the frith fishers.-But we return to the habits of the salmon, as furnishing materials for regulating the legislative enactments of this kingdom.

Before entering upon this branch of the subject it may be proper to state, that the present legal time for beginning the salmon-fishing varies in different rivers, from the 10th December (in the Tay) to the 12th March (in the Solway); and that the fishing-season legally ends, according to the rivers, from the 12th August (Ireland generally) to the 4th December (in the Teign). How far these terms are suitable or improper will presently appear.

In the more important actions of the salmon, viz. migration and spawning, there is a season during which these are executed by the greatest number of individuals, occupying, however, a range of some months. But there are individuals, executing these operations irregularly, at other periods. Mr. Little says, "There are some rivers in which you will get some good salmon all the year round.' In the spring months few fish enter rivers; they rapidly increase in numbers as the summer advances, and in autumn again they begin to decrease, leaving the winter months, as to the ascending migration, to constitute a dead season.

The condition of rivers in the spring influences the movements of the salmon. J. Proudfoot states, that in the spring of the year the fish always occupy the north side of the Tay (i. e. the sunny side of the river). The north side fishing kills far more fish than the south side;' p. 28. Mr. Little states, that in the river Shannon the salmon fishery is nearly over by the middle of May,' p. 114; and that he does not get many fish in the Foyle of any kind till the end of May;' p. 112. When the great differences existing between different rivers, in the quantity, temperature, and contents of their waters, are duly considered, we need not wonder at the influence these circumstances may exert on the motions of salmon ; but, if we make a difference in the close season between one river and another, we must, with equal propriety, establish a similar distinction between the south side and the north side of every river. In rivers, during the early spring months, the fisheries are seldom productive: even lord Gray's fishings on the sunny side of the Tay, according to J. Gillies, taking the average from the 10th December till the end of January, will not, one season with another, pay the expenses or little more. There are some very good fishings in the month of February; perhaps in the month of February there will be ten days of those fishT2

L

ings, and scarcely take one fish. The same witness adds, in reference to the kind of fish taken at those periods in the Tay, 'You will get ten foul fish till the middle of February for one clean one;' p. 139. As the season advances, the salmon appear on the shores, in the estuaries, and enter the rivers in greater numbers. The stakenets, in such places, according to Mr. Halliday, are seldom productive but in May, June, and July;' p. 68. The fishings fall materially off about the middle of August, and to the end of it;' p. 69, and 84. 'In September they catch almost nothing;' p. 84. These conditions vary much with the season. The salmon are most abundant in dry seasons on the shore, and in estuaries. In rivers, they abound most in wet seasons. J. Proudfoot declares that in rainy seasons, in heavy speats, the upper fisheries (in the river) give more fish in proportion when the river is high than when it is little;' p. 26. The fish which enter rivers in the spring and summer months, have roe; but in May, for example, it is very small. As the season advances, the roe and milt are found in a riper state, until the time of spawning; but, in these respects, there are individual differences. Now, since salmon enter rivers months before they be ready for spawning, Do they remain in the river until that period, or do they occasionally return to the sea? On this subject the committee seem to have bestowed considerable attention. The opinions of the witnesses, however, are at variance. In reference to the fish on the shore and in estuaries, Mr. Wilson declares, 'I believe they all go up those rivers; they are upon the shore, and get up the river if they can;' p. 14. Several of the other witnesses give it as their opinion, that salmon, before the spawning season, enter the rivers, and return again to the sea, influenced by very different instincts from those of spawning. The following proofs are offered:

son.

1. It is asserted that salmon, remaining a short time in fresh-water, become weak, and return to the sea to be recruited.—It is stated by some of the witnesses, that salmon are fattest at a particular seaMr. Little says, 'In the month of May I consider they are as good and as perfect as at any one season of the year. From the month of May, they are gradually growing worse till they begin to deposit their spawn in the month of November; p. 114. Mr. Wilson reckons 'salmon is at its best at Midsummer, and falls greatly off after about the middle of July;' p. 12. Mr. Johnstone considers May and June as the period of their greatest perfection,' but he adds, there may be equal to three months difference between the quality of fish; p. 56. Mr. Bell, on the other hand, declares that the fish is full as good on the 10th December in the Tay as at any other time of the year;' and 'the Tweed fish are good in August; that is their best season;' p. 21. Mr. P. J. Proudfoot says, in reference to the Tay, 'there is a great deal of good fish killed by the time we commence the season' (on 10th December); p. 27. These opinions are of less value than those now to be stated respecting the relative qualities of sea and river fish. Mr. Wilson decidedly declares that there is no difference in the quality of salmon taken at different parts of the same river, or in the tideway, or in the sea

adjoining, during the proper season; p. 13. On the other hand, Mr. Johnstone says, 'the salmon caught in the sea, and nearest to the sea, are generally the richest.' When they have been some days in the water, they lose their bright color,''their firm state; the fish gets longer in proportion to its thickness, and loses its weight.'-'If he is not many days in the water, if he is caught immediately out of the sea, I do not see he can be any worse;' p. 50. A few weeks would make him a great deal worse;' p. 53. Mr. Halliday states, that those that had been long in fresh water were very much exhausted, quite changed in the color, as if they had hung in a smoky chimney for some time; others were very red in the skin, by having been in the fresh water for some time.' When they are in the fresh waters they turn as slippery as an eel;' p. 61. 'The salmon becomes unsound after it has been detained in fresh-water at any season;' p. 79. Mr. Little not only states, if he remains any length of time in a fresh river, he becomes worse,' but even limits the period to a week or ten days; p. 126. This supposed deterioration in fresh water, we consider to be visionary, and for this reason,-if it took place, how could the fish suffer under its influence for months, while exerting themselves in ascending to the spawningground,-while in the protracted act of spawning,-during their residence in the neighbourhood after parturition,-and in their subsequent descent to the sea?

2. Salmon remaining in fresh water have their gills covered and eaten by worms, which fall off upon their return to the sea.—Mr. Johnstone declares. They get infested with worms or maggots in the gills if they remain long in the fresh water, which I think would kill them in the end, if they did not go back to the sea to get clear of these worms or maggots;' p. 35. Mr. Halliday says of fish in a bad condition, Some of those we took had their gills almost eaten through with maggot worms, by being so long up the river;' p. 61. Mr. Little declares, 'I have seen their gills entirely eaten off them by the worms in fresh water; at least the thin and red parts entirely eat away' (i. e. all their organs of respiration). I do not believe they are ever found in that state except in fresh water, and it is necessary for them to leave the fresh water to get clear of the vermin which fasten upon them while there;' p. 108. The worm referred to is the lernæa salmonea of Linnæus, the entomoda salmonea of Lamarck. We still ask the question, If the fresh water be so very exhausting, and the attacks of the maggot so very troublesome and destructive, how can the spawning fish survive during their residence for months in a river? It is to be regretted that the season of the year, and the condition of the fish as to spawning, have not been determined, as, trusting to the declarations of experienced river fishers, we consider that these worms only appear on the kelt fish, or such as have spawned, and which are consequently on their return to the sea.

3. Salmon are caught in the rivers and estuaries on their way out to sea.-In proof of this, Mr. Halliday states, 'I fished the Annan for many years; and there is one pool in particular, namely