said,--‘My good fellow, I wish you had thought of that a little sooner;
I don’t think you have quite killed me, but I hope you will remember
the difference between anchovies and capers as long as you live.’’
That highly esteemed fish, the sardine (_Clupea sardina_), which is
closely allied to the pilchard, though much smaller, is found chiefly
in the Mediterranean. It is taken in considerable quantities on our
shores, and is exceedingly plentiful on the coast of Algarva, in
Portugal, Andalusia and Granada in Spain, and along the shores of
Italy. The small sardines, caught on the coast of Provence, in France,
are esteemed the best. The French frequently cure them in red brine,
and when thus prepared, designate them anchovied sardines. Sardines
constitute a considerable portion of the food of the lower orders in
Lisbon. 6,269 cases of sardines were imported into San Francisco, in
1853.
In 1852, 576 millions of sardines were taken on the coast of Brittany,
which extends about 200 miles. Half of these were sold fresh and the
other half preserved in oil. 160 vessels manned by 3,500 sailors and
fishermen are engaged in the trade. The preparation, transport, and
sale of the fish employ 10,000 persons. 9,000 of these, of whom one
half are females, are occupied all the winter in making and mending
of nets. On shore, the preparation, conveyance, and sale of the fish
give occupation to 4,500 persons, of whom 2,500 are women; and in the
interior of the country 4,400 other persons are occupied in the sale.
The fishing lasts about 200 days, and yields a net profit to all
concerned of three millions of francs. The sardines disappear in
November and return in April. Where they go during these four months,
why they go, or what they do while gone, has never yet been discovered.
The fishermen say that the same individuals never come twice, that
every successive arrival is composed of fish of smaller size than those
that left last, and that they appear to be their young. At any rate,
they count implicitly on their appearance, and no sardine was ever yet
known to break an engagement thus tacitly entered into.
A very intelligent naturalist and correspondent of mine, Mr. R. Hill,
has furnished me with some interesting information respecting the West
Indian fishes. One of the best labroid fishes is the hog fish, both for
its flesh, thick, white, and luscious, separating in large strata, and
its exemption from small abdominal bones. It is one of the commonest
and yet one of the best fishes taken in the harbour of Port Royal,
either by the fish pot or the line, the only source for supplying the
Kingston market in the deep waters there.
The hog fish has its scales red with yellow at the base of each. It
feeds amongst rocks, attains 3 and 4 feet of length, though 2½ feet is
usually the largest dimension in Jamaica. The flesh is most delicious,
but its fullness and firmness make it good for drying and smoking, when
too large for a one day’s dish.
There are several _Lachnolaimes_ ordinarily in the market, but only one
properly called the hog fish (_Suillus_). The villous membrane that
covers part of the pharyngeals and palate gives it its scientific name,
‘woolly throat.’
The most beautiful is the _aigula_, the aigrette of the Windward
Islands. They are all sought after for the excellence of their flesh,
‘_la bonté de leur chair_,’ but one, the _caninus_, is occasionally
poisonous.
The yellow tail snapper (_Mesoprion cynodon_) and other species of the
genus, attain a large size, and are much esteemed in the East and West
Indies as an article of food.
The flesh of the Queen mullet (_Upeneus martinicus_) of the Indian and
American seas is very delicious, and resembles in some respects the
true mullet (_Mullus surmuletus_).
The paracuta (_Sphyræna Barracuda_), the pike of the ocean, has a
firm and palatable flesh, and is esteemed by many people. It proves,
however, sometimes poisonous when caught in certain localities.
The callipeva (_Mugil liza_) is an esteemed river fish of the West
Indian seas, which seldom extends further than the embouchures of
streams or into the ponds and marshes. Chief Justice Temple, of
Honduras, characterizes it as the salmon of the tropics; and indeed, it
very much resembles that prince of the finny tribe in its size, shape,
habits, and flavour. The flesh, however, is not red, neither is it so
firm as that of the salmon, but it is quite as fat and infinitely more
juicy and delicate. When cut in slices, folded in tissue paper, and
lightly fried--which is the only way in my opinion of dressing a fish,
the flavour of which is so volatile, so smooth, so ethereal, that it
more resembles an odour, or the rich fragrance of a thousand different
flowers mixed and mellowed by distance, than an actual taste on the
palate--nothing can surpass it;--to subject it unprotected to the
fumiginous influence of an iron pan, would be the act of a Hottentot
or a Tartar. Dressed in the manner I have mentioned, it would not have
disgraced Olympus, nor offended the critical taste of the Apicii, the
last of whom would have refrained from hanging himself whilst a single
callipeva remained in his fish pond. The callipeva is very excellent
when cured, and it is often brought in that state to the Belize market
in large quantities. The roe of this fish is very superior and almost
equals caviare. This is dried and sold separately. I may incidentally
mention that the large strong brilliant scales of this fish now enter
into commerce for the manufacture of those pretty fish-scale ornaments,
brooches, bracelets, &c., sold at the Crystal Palace and elsewhere.
The _Mugil curema_, another species, is taken about Port Royal
harbour, Jamaica, and when large, passed off in the Kingston market
for callipeva. The true callipeva or calipever, as it is indifferently
spelt, is the ‘white salmon’ of Jamaica, and weighs from 6 to 18 lbs.
It is caught in the brackish waters of the Ferry on the road to Spanish
Town.
Mullet of various kinds, the salt water species being white, and the
mountain or river species red, are one of the three delicacies of
Jamaica.
Then, there is the delicate smook, either fresh or salt water, weighing
from 10 to 16 lbs.; the stone bass, of the river or sea, much esteemed,
from 2 to 4 lbs.; the delicate black snapper, weighing 4 or 5 lbs.; the
chuck, a delicate fresh-water fish, of about 6 lbs.; and the cutlass, a
good flat frying fish: which will suffice to show that there need be no
lack of a dish of good fish for the West Indian epicure.
The anchovy or silver fish (_Engraulis edentatus_ of Cuvier and Val)
abounds on the palisade shallows of Port Royal harbour. They are a most
exquisite fry, cooked, strung together on a palm straw through the eye
by half-dozens, and served up as they serve whitebait.
King fish are only occasionally taken within the harbour, at Port
Royal Bank. They are very delicate eating and weigh from 10 to 20 lbs.
The king fish mackerel (_Cymbium regale_) is taken at the head of the
harbour by being gently towed for with a line. The pine fish, in great
estimation with the Jews, which ranges from four to thirty pounds, are
frequently harpooned from Port Royal dock yard, six feet long.
The sun fish, or lucannany of Demerara, is excellent food, being firm,
fat, and with few bones; owing to its extreme lusciousness, it is
difficult to salt or dry. It is about two feet in length and attains to
7 or 8 lbs. in weight.
The arawan is another Guiana fish, particularly fine as food, but like
the last named, very fat and luscious.
The pacou are caught in large numbers by means of weirs or dams, and
weigh on an average 7 lbs. each. They are split, salted, and dried,
and when cured, highly prized. The morocoto, or osibu, is also a most
delicious fish, in taste nearer resembling flesh than fish, and eagerly
sought after by the epicure.
If the gourami, which the French have introduced to the tanks and ponds
of Cayenne and their West Indian Islands, was entitled to no more than
half the praise Commerson bestows upon it, it must be considered a
fish worth some trouble and expense to possess. ‘Nihil inter pisces,’
he says, ‘tum marinos, tum fluviatiles, exquisitius unquam degustavi.’
If neither the fishes of the sea nor those of fresh water streams,
to Commerson, who had described so many fishes, and tasted as many
as he had described, were found to exceed the deliciousness of the
gourami,--the _Osphromenus olfax_,--it should be imported into every
West Indian colony. The Dutch at Batavia, in Java, have long bred it
in large earthen vases, changing the water daily, and feeding it on
herbs of rivers and ponds, particularly on the _Pistia natans_. In the
Mauritius, they have become a common river fish, and are esteemed the
most delicate of the dishes brought to table.
Capt. Philibut carried the specimens of the gourami from Mauritius
to Cayenne. Out of 100 taken on board he lost 23 on the passage. The
French colonists feed and breed it in ponds, much as the Barbadians
do the caffum (_Megalops Atlanticus_). The caffum is allied to the
herring, and weighs 12 or 15 lbs.; and though an important stand-by for
a dinner in Barbados, it is an inferior fish.
Twenty years ago, I well remember that Mr. Richard Hill called
attention in Jamaica to the gourami, which was first then being
introduced as a tank fish into Martinique and Guadaloupe. His
communication appeared in Dr. Paul’s _Physical Journal_, published at
Kingston.
It is supposed that this valuable fresh-water fish was procured
originally from China, but not a single author gives intimation of
it in the natural history of the Chinese empire. So interesting a
species, among people so attentive to the breeding and cultivating
whatever can be added to their food supplies, must have been brought
under their notice. The Dutch have it only artificially bred in Java,
but neither Renard, Valentine, Russell, nor Buchanan, who have all
written largely on the fishes of India and of the Indian Islands, are
acquainted with any such river-fish as the gourami. In India they
give the name _gouragi_ or _koragi_ to a fish known to naturalists as
the _Ophicephalus_, and the probability is that Commerson, who first
noticed the _Osphromenus olfax_, had corruptly applied that word and
made _gourami_ of it.
This delicious fish, so easily bred and fed, from its food being the
duck weed of the ponds, has a contour plump, round, and massy like
the carp of Europe. The colour is a burnished brown, somewhat golden
tinted, faintly ruddy, particularly on the head and fins. Vertical
bands of bronze stretch obliquely from the back to the belly;--and the
ventral fin in its first spine is lengthened into a long thread as long
as the entire fish from head to tail. It belongs to a very curious
family distinguished as _labyrinthan-pharyngeals_. The structure of
fishes of this family is peculiar:--it consists of the upper surface of
the pharyngeal bones being divided into leaves, which form cavities and
ledges, more or less complicated, for the retention of water, very much
like the web of cells in the paunch of the camel. This apparatus lies
immediately under the opercula. It is closely shut in, and pours out a
ceaseless stream to moisten the gills and keep them from drying up when
the fish quits the water and betakes itself to the grass, either to
feed on herbs or to change its domicile when the ponds grow muddy and
stagnant.
The ancient writers on Natural History were familiar with the character
of these curious _pharyngeals_. Theophrastus, in his Treatise, speaks
of certain of the fishes of India that come forth from the rivers
at times, and then return to them again: and he mentions that they
resemble mullets. The strange habit of the _Anabas_, which has received
this name from its climbing predilections, (anabaino, ascendo,) is
well authenticated. M. Daldorf, a Lieutenant in the service of the
Dutch East India Company, in an article in the _Linnæan Transactions
for 1797_, mentions that, in the month of November 1791, he took one
of these anabas fishes from the cleft foot-stalk of a palm tree,
growing near a pond. The fish was five feet above the water, and was
endeavouring to ascend still higher. Another observer, M. John, tells a
similar story. The fish, he says, usually remains in the muddy bottom
of ponds and lakes; but it will take to creeping on dry ground for
several hours, by the inflexion of its body; and by the assistance of
its serrated opercula, and the spines of its fins, it will climb on the
palm-trees which are in the neighbourhood of ponds, along which drops
the water that the rains have accumulated at their tops.--(Griffith’s
_Supplement to Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom_. _Fishes_, p. 361.)
Though the gourami belongs to the family of fishes, having a reservoir
for water to moisten the gills when they quit their ponds, it does not
climb trees as the anabas, but only traverses the grass. This fish
would be a most desirable acquisition to our colonies. It could be
readily procured from Guadaloupe. It is as remarkable for its size as
its flavour. It becomes as large as a turbot, and is equally delicious.
It would be soon naturalized in our streams. The female hollows a
little fosse in the edge of the reservoir in which it is kept, and
there deposits its eggs.
The pirarucu (_Sudis gigas_) is a splendid fish 5 or 6 feet long, with
large scales of more than an inch in diameter, and beautifully marked
and spotted with red.
The lakes in Brazil contain great quantities of them, and they are
salted and dried for the Para market. It is a very fine flavoured
fish, the belly in particular being so fat and rich that it cannot be
cured, and is therefore generally eaten fresh. ‘This fish’ (remarks Mr.
Wallace) ‘with farinha and some coffee made us an excellent supper; and
the alligator’s tails which I now tasted for the first time, was by no
means to be despised. A smaller kind is that eaten, the flesh being
more delicate than in the larger species.’
The sheep’s head, or, in more scientific language, the _Sargus ovis_,
is a favourite fish in North America, where it visits the coasts in
large shoals during the summer and autumn. The principal fishery is
off the coasts of New York, and thousands are occasionally taken
at a single cast of the large nets used at some places. The fish,
immediately on their capture, are packed in ice, and sent to the New
York market, where they have been known to sell as high as £7 for one
of large size, although the usual price for one is only about a dollar.
This fish is pretty generally considered throughout the States, both by
epicures and others, as an almost _sans-pareil_; and Dr. Mitchell, who
has written much on American ichthyology, is of the same opinion.[26]
The green cavalla (_Caranx Bartholomæi_) is very good eating, and
much in demand. They are caught by the Barbados fishermen, sometimes
in nets and in large numbers. Another species, the Jack ‘or John and
Goggle-eye,’ as it is locally termed (_C. Plumieri_), is in some
seasons of the year very poisonous. When they are suspected of being
so, an experiment is tried upon a duck, by giving her one of them to
swallow, and if at that season it is poisonous, the duck dies in about
two hours.
The flounder or plaice (_Rhombus ocellatus_), a fish which belongs to
the turbots, is a very delicate fish.
The common flying-fish (_Exocœtus Roberti_) is so abundant in some
seasons of the year about Barbados, that they constitute an important
article of food, and during the season, a large number of small boats
are occupied in fishing. They are very delicate and tender. Some
experiments have been made to preserve them, by salting and smoking,
and with perseverance this would probably be successful, and a new
dainty be added to European tables. Such large numbers are occasionally
caught that they meet with no sale, and are thrown away, or used as
manure.[27]
Sprats are a cheap delicacy with the lower classes in this country, and
are pretty plentiful at times, but they are also greatly esteemed in
the West India Islands. A species, called the ‘yellow-tailed sprat,’
proves unfortunately poisonous at certain periods of the year, chiefly
among the Leeward and Virgin Islands.
The cuckold or horned coney fish (_Monacanthus tomentosus_) is much
used as food, and, when stuffed and baked, considered a delicacy.
Under the general name of the Spanish mackerel, several species of
_Cymbium_, _C. Caballa_, _C. regale_, and _C. immaculata_, are caught
in the West Indian seas. They are a coarse, dry fish, and not much
esteemed, except when _coveeched_. To coveech a fish, it must be cut
into junks, fried with onions and oil, and afterwards potted with
vinegar, a little pepper or cloves, fried onions, and some oil.
It becomes an article of trade in that manner, and a considerable
quantity, according to Sir Robert Schomburgk, is sent from the Leeward
Islands and Barbados to Guiana.
The young king-fish, termed _Coramour_ in the West Indies, kept in a
fish pond or craal for some time, is esteemed a great delicacy.
The mud-fish (_Eleotris gyrinus_), found in the water courses of
Antigua, is also considered a dainty. This fish is common in the
streamlets and creeks of the other West Indian Islands, and is
considered a most delicious fish when in full perfection. It resembles
the smelt in appearance, and is easy of digestion.
The common cod of Newfoundland (_Morrhua vulgaris_) is well known as
an article of food the wide world over. It is always a thick, well-fed
fish, and often attains a great weight, sometimes 70 or 80 lbs., and
even more.
There is another variety, slightly, though permanently distinct, the
American cod, fine specimens of which may be seen in the fish market of
Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the season; their quality is admirable.
Dried cod for the Brazils are packed in large flat tubs, called drums,
into which they are pressed by a powerful screw. Each drum contains
exactly 128 lbs. of dry fish, that being the Portuguese quintal; and
the drums are shaped to suit the convenience of the Brazilians, who
transport them into the interior of South America slung in pairs upon
mules. For the Mediterranean markets, the fish are stowed in the
holds of the vessels in bulk, and seldom receive damage, such is the
excellent manner in which they are cured and stowed. The best and
whitest of the cod are required for the Neapolitan market, for even
the Lazzaroni of Naples are very particular as to the quality of their
fish.
On the coast of Norway, cod are caught in nets, and it is stated by
Mr. Laing, in his journal of a residence in that country, that these
nets are becoming more in use every season. For this fishery, every
boat is provided with six or eight nets, each twenty fathoms in length,
and thirty meshes deep. The mesh of the cod net is six inches from
knot to knot, and is made of three-ply hemp thread. The back ropes and
ground ropes of each net are fastened to the net, and the whole are set
like Scotch herring nets, only with longer buoy-ropes. The cod nets
are set at night, in 60 to 80 fathoms water, and are taken up in the
morning. The introduction of nets in the cod fishery is said to have
improved very considerably the condition of the inhabitants of the
coast of Norway, as by means of nets, the quantity of fish caught has
been nearly doubled. It is not at all unlikely, that cod nets might be
used with advantage on the Gulf-coast of New Brunswick, especially in
the early part of each season, when the cod come close to the shore in
pursuit of herring, capelin, and gaspereaux.
‘Some of the purely national dishes of Sweden, as lut-fisk on
Christmas-eve, are most extraordinary things, lut-fisk being the stock
fish steeped in a solution of potash until in fact decomposition takes
place. On Christmas-eve, the great evening of Sweden, this thing is
boiled and eaten with oil sauce; and this, together with grot, which
is simply boiled rice, form the Christmas dishes of Sweden, just as
roast beef and plum pudding do of England. The smell of the lut-fisk
is terrific, but a true Swede clings to his national dish on Julaften
as much as any beef-eating Englishman does to his. The poor often
substitute boiled corn for rice; and at all times rye porridge made
with milk, not water, is their common food; the number of meals might
seem to make amends for their quality. Fish is almost the staple of
food; quantities are salted in the autumn, and even in winter. They
are taken in a most ingenious manner from under ice. You see holes cut
in certain distances, and a man seated on a stool at the furthest end
on each side. The man you are looking at appears to be sitting idly
on the ice, but suddenly he puts his hand into the small opening cut
in it, and pulls up a bright coloured little fish, and then another
and another, throwing them on the frozen lake, where they jump about,
displaying their colours, poor things, to advantage, and suffering
cruelly.’[28]
Much more attention is now paid to the prosecution of the fisheries,
and the preparation of the fish for export, in our North American
colonies. Last season, an enterprising firm in Carleton, New Brunswick,
sent to the Gulf of St. Lawrence a vessel of 30 tons, fitted with the
necessary apparatus and well supplied, for the preparation of spiced
salmon; which vessel, after an absence of two months and a half,
returned with a full fare of the estimated value of £1,750, or yielding
a profit of about 700 per cent. on the outlay, with all expenses
defrayed!
A large New Brunswick vessel recently brought to Liverpool 100 boxes,
containing 1,200 tons of preserved lobsters, of the presumed value of
£300, also the result of colonial enterprise.
The flesh of the sea-perch or cunner (_Ctenolabrus cæruleus_),
sometimes called, on account of its prevailing colour, the blue perch,
is sweet and palatable. They are skinned before being dressed. The fish
is taken by myriads, on the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts.
The striped bass (_Labrax lineatus_) is a very fine salt-water fish,
and so is the diminutive white bass, better known by its popular name
‘white perch.’ They are a very fine fish for the table when in season.
Their ordinary weight is from four to six ounces in September; they
are often taken above half-a-pound in weight; the largest seen weighed
above a pound.
A schull of the striped bass, 500 or 600 in number, weighing from 4
to 8 lbs. each, have often been taken at one haul of the net, in New
Brunswick. They ascend fresh-water streams for shelter during the
winter, and were formerly taken in large quantities in the Richibucto
and Miramichi rivers. The fish gathered in large shoals, lying in a
dull, torpid state under the ice, and holes being cut, they were taken
in nets in immense numbers, corded up stiff on the ice, like fire-wood,
and sent off in sled-loads to Fredericton and St. John.
The chub is usually considered a coarse fish, but those of large size,
eaten fresh, are very palatable. Mr. Yarrell says, ‘that boiling chub
with the scales on is the best mode of preparing it for table.’
‘The brook-trout of America’ (_Salmo fontinalis_), says Mr. Herbert,
‘is one of the most beautiful creatures in form, colour, and motion
that can be imagined. There is no sportsman, actuated by the true
animus of the pursuit, who would not prefer basketing a few brace
of good trout, to taking a cart-load of the coarser and less game
denizens of the water. His wariness, his timidity, his extreme cunning,
the impossibility of taking him in clear and much fished waters, except
with the slenderest and most delicate tackle--his boldness and vigour
after being hooked, and his excellence on the table, place him without
dispute next to the salmon alone, as the first of fresh-water fishes.
The pursuit of him leads into the loveliest scenery of the land, and
the season at which he is fished for is the most delightful portion of
the year.’
The sea-trout of the basin of Bonaventura are of large size, 3 lbs.
and upwards, brilliantly white, in fine condition, very fine and well
flavoured.
The summer gaspereaux, or alewives, (_Alosa tyrannus_) are an
exceedingly fat fish, and well flavoured; the only objection to them is
their oily richness. Besides their being fatter, they are smaller and
more yellow in colour than the spring fish.
To the epicure, a fresh caught salmon-trout of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, especially early in the season, will always afford a rich
treat. The flesh is of a brilliant pink colour, and most excellent: its
exceeding fatness early in the season, when it first enters the mixed
water of the estuaries, is such that it can be preserved fresh but a
very short time. The sportsman will find it a thoroughly game fish;
rising well at a brilliant fly of scarlet ibis and gold, and affording
sport second only to salmon fishing. In some parts of the Gulf they
have been caught weighing 5 to 7 lbs.
That beautiful and savoury fish, the smelt, is a great table delicacy
with us; but on the Gulf coasts of New Brunswick, large quantities are
used every season merely for manure.
As food, the skate is held in very different degrees of estimation in
different places. In London, large quantities are consumed, and crimped
skate is considered delicate and well flavoured; but on some parts of
the English coast, although caught in considerable numbers, the flesh
is seldom eaten, and is only used for baiting lobster pots. The French
are great consumers of the skate; and its flesh is used extensively
both at New York and Boston. By many it is deemed a great delicacy.
After the fish is skinned, the fleshy part of the huge pectoral fins,
which is beautifully white, is cut into long thin slips, about an inch
wide; these are rolled like ribbon, and dressed in that form.
The capelan (_Mallotus villosus_), the smallest species of the
salmon family, possesses like the smelt the cucumber smell, but it
differs from the smelt in never entering fresh-water streams. As an
article of bait for cod, and other fish of that class, the capelan
is a fish of much importance; whenever abundant, the cod-fishing is
excellent. It has been found as far north in the arctic region as man
has yet penetrated; and it forms so important an article of food in
Greenland, that it has been termed the daily bread of the natives. In
Newfoundland, it is dried in large quantities, and exported to London,
where it is sold principally in the oyster shops.
The large, flat-fish known as the halibut (_Hippoglossus vulgaris_),
which sometimes attains the weight of 300 lbs, is often taken by the
cod-fishers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. These fish are cut in slices,
and pickled in barrels, in which state they sell at half the price
of the best herrings. The flesh, though white and firm, is dry, and
the muscular fibres coarse. The fins and flaps are however esteemed
delicacies.
The mackerel of the British North American coasts is of a much finer
flavour than those caught on the shores of Europe.
The salmon are also noted for their very fine flavour.
If there are no turbot, brill, or sole, in the St. Lawrence, there
are other delicacies. A species of eel is exceedingly abundant and
frequently of large size. One of these, a sea-eel, split, salted,
and smoked, without the head, was 30 inches in length, and 15 inches
in diameter, breadth as split, nearly the size of an ordinary
smoked salmon and quite as thick. 300 barrels of large eels, taken
with the spear in the Buctouche river, are usually salted-down for
winter use. They are generally excessively fat, the flesh very white
and exceedingly well flavoured. Packages of eels have been lately
imported into London from Prince Edward’s Island. Smoked eels are very
delicious, and they have even begun to preserve these fish thus at Port
Phillip.
The fisheries of the North American lakes and rivers are not prosecuted
as they might be, but are beginning to receive more attention. The
white-fish (_Corregonus albus_) is found in all the deep lakes west of
the Mississippi, and indeed from Lake Erie to the Polar Sea. That which
is taken in Leech Lake is said by amateurs to be more highly flavoured
than even that of Lake Superior. There is another species of this
fish, called by the Indians tuliby or ottuniby (_Corregonus artidi_),
which resembles it, but is much less esteemed. Both species furnish a
wholesome and palatable food.
The French Canadians call this fish _Poisson Pointu_, and the English
term them ‘gizzard fish.’ The origin of the latter name appears to
be, that the fish feeds largely on fresh-water shell fish and shelly
molluscs; and its stomach thereby gains an extraordinary thickness, and
resembles the gizzard of a fowl. The stomach, when cleaned and boiled,
is a favourite morsel with the Canadian voyageurs.
The white-fish of the bays and lakes of Canada is represented to be
the finest fish in the world by the Canadians. The flavour of it is
incomparable, especially when split open and fried with eggs and crumbs
of bread. They weigh on the average about 2 lbs. each when cleaned--100
of them filling a good sized barrel. Those caught in Lake Huron are
more highly prized than any others.
Several Indian tribes mainly subsist upon this fish, and it forms the
principal food at many of the fur posts for eight or nine months of the
year, the supply of other articles of diet being scanty and casual.
Its usual weight in the northern regions is from 2 to 3 lbs., but it
has been taken in the clear, deep, and cold waters of Lake Huron, of
the weight of 13 lbs. The largest seen in the vicinity of Hudson’s Bay
weighed between 4 and 5 lbs., and measured 20 inches in length, and 4
in depth. One of 7 lbs. weight, caught in Lake Huron, was 27 inches
long.
Among other species of fish that inhabit these great inland seas are
the mashkinonge, or mashkilonge, the pike or jack, the pickerel or
gilt carp, the perch, and a species of trout called by the Chippeways,
namogus.
A huge mashkilonge, so ravenous is its propensities, is often caught
from the stern of a steamer in full speed, by throwing out a strong
line with a small tin fish attached. A marked peculiarity of most of
the Lake fish is the quantity of fat, resembling that of quadrupeds,
which they contain, entirely different from the salt-water fish--while
their flavor differs from that of the latter, being much more delicate
and white than that of river fish.
Lake Superior abounds with fish, particularly trout, sturgeon, and
white-fish, which are caught at all seasons and in large quantities.
Of these the trout, weighing from 12 to 50 lbs., and the white-fish,
weighing often over 20 lbs., are perhaps the most important.
The salmon trout are equally large, weighing from 10 to 70 lbs.
Lake Champlain also abounds with fish, among which are salmon,
lake-shad, pike, and other fish.
The reciprocity treaty has given a new field to the fisheries on the
Canada side of Lake Huron. Some 200 American fishermen are now engaged
within fifty miles each side of Goderich in the business. This has
greatly stimulated the Cannucks, and it is estimated 400 of them are
now engaged in the same business. About 100 miles of the Lake shore is
lined with gill nets and seines. Every boat that comes in has a large
number of salmon-trout from 30 to 50 lbs. weight. White-fish are very
large. The fish caught at Collingwood terminus of the northern railway,
from Toronto, are packed in ice, and go to Oswego, Rome, Utica, Albany,
and New York. Great quantities taken at Goderich go in ice from thence
to Cleveland and Cincinnati.
The Toronto and Oswego markets are supplied with fish from Collingwood,
and a well organized company, with nets, ice-houses, &c., might do a
fine business by supplying the New York, Boston, and other American
markets, daily with trout, bass, and white-fish from the waters of
Georgian Bay.
Fishing with the scoop net is the most laborious of all modes of
fishing. It was found in practice at the Sault St. Marie by the
Baron De Hortan, when he penetrated to that point in 1684. It has
been practised ever since, because it is the only mode by which the
white-fish can be taken. They go there to feed and not to spawn; the
bottom of the river is a rocky broken ground, and the current runs at
the rate of 12 miles per hour; the eddy in which the fish are found is
of small circuit, and only one canoe at a time can enter it. The canoe
is forced into it by setting poles. The man in the bow has a scoop net,
the handle to which is about 15 feet in length. He has only time to
make one stroke with the scoop, the next instant the canoe is whirled
away by the current far below the point where the stroke was made.
The plunge of the scoop may be successful or not according to chance;
one fish or half-a-dozen may be taken, or very frequently none. As
soon as one canoe is thus swept away, another one supplies its place,
and in this manner some eight or ten canoes in rapid succession take
their turn. Canoes are used because, being lighter, they can be forced
up where it would not be possible to put a boat. Even though the
white-fish would take the hook, still in such rapid water it could not
be used.
Again, the character of nearly the whole of the coasts of Lakes Huron
and Superior forbids any other mode of fishing than by gill nets.
Gill nets are often set in 60 feet of water, and the fish cannot be
taken at such localities in any other mode, except at some seasons of
the year when they will take the hook.
Again, there are localities along Lake Superior, where fish such as
the rock sturgeon and mashkilonge can only be taken with the spear, and
that in 30 feet water; the bottom is so disturbed, distorted, upheaved,
and broken by volcanic action, that gill nets cannot be used, and the
fish can only be reached in the hollows, crevices, and chasms of the
rock where they lie, by means of a spear, which is thrown and has a
line attached to the extremity.
The _Lake Superior Journal_ says:--‘Angling through the ice to a depth
of 30 fathoms of water is a novel mode of fishing somewhat peculiar to
this peculiar region of the world. It is carrying the war into fishdom
with a vengeance, and is denounced, no doubt, in the communities on the
bottoms of these northern lakes as a scaly piece of warfare. The large
and splendid salmon-trout of these waters have no peace; in the summer
they are enticed into the deceitful meshes of the gill-net, and in the
winter, when they hide themselves in the deep caverns of the lakes,
with fifty fathoms of water above their heads, and a defence of ice
two or three feet in thickness on the top of that, they are tempted to
destruction by the fatal hook. Large numbers of these trout are caught
every winter in this way on Lake Superior. The Indian, always skilled
in the fishing business, knows exactly where to find them and how to
kill them. The whites make excursions out on the Lake in pleasant
weather to enjoy this sport. There is a favourite resort for both fish
and fishermen near Gros Cap, at the entrance of Lake Superior, through
the rocky gateway between Gros Cap and Point Iroquois, about 18 miles
above the Sault, and many a large trout at this point is pulled up from
its warm bed at the bottom of the Lake in winter, and made to bite the
cold ice in this upper world. To see one of these fine fish, four or
five feet in length, and weighing half as much as a man, floundering
on the snow and ice, weltering and freezing to death in its own blood,
oftentimes moves the heart of the fisherman to expressions of pity. The
_modus operandi_ in this kind of great trout fishing is novel in the
extreme, and could a stranger to the business overlook at a distance
a party engaged in the sport, he would certainly think they were mad,
or each one making foot-races against time. A hole is made through
the ice, smooth and round, and the fisherman drops down his large
hook, baited with a small herring, pork, or other meat, and when he
ascertains the right depth, he waits--with fisherman’s luck--some time
for a bite, which in this case is a pull altogether, for the fisherman
throws the line over his shoulders and walks from the hole at the top
of his speed till the fish bounds out on the ice. I have known of as
many as fifty of these splendid trout caught in this way by a single
fisherman in a single day; it is thus a great source of pleasure and a
valuable resource of food, especially in Lent; and the most scrupulous
anti-pork believers might here ‘down pork and up fish’ without any
offence to conscience.’
The Cleveland _Plain-dealer_ has a lengthy account of the trade of the
house of J. M. Craw and Son, of that city. It says:--‘At the warehouse,
133, River street, in this city, is a grand depôt of its receipts.
From this place large supplies of salt provisions, fisherman’s tackle,
seines, lines, and everything needed on the coasts of the upper lakes,
are forwarded. At Washington Harbour, in Green Bay, engagements are
made with the fishermen of 118 boats, each of which has a head
fisherman, who has his crew engaged in fishing. Over 300 men are
constantly engaged, spring and fall, in that locality in catching,
packing, and forwarding fish. Similar settlements of fishermen are
scattered all along the coasts of Lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron, and
Erie. The number of varieties of Lake fish fit for packing is large,
including white-fish, siskawit, trout, pickerel, cat-fish, bass,
herring, perch, shad, and bayfish. The amount of fish received by Craw
and Son, in 1856, exceeded 14,000 barrels, and as their receipts this
year from Lake Michigan will be about 6,000 barrels, an increased
aggregate is anticipated. This large amount is so much added to the
food of the country, and constitutes an important addition to its
wealth. From the details of this single house we may learn something of
the extent of the entire trade.’
In the Baikal Lake, Siberia, there is a fish (_Callyonimus
Baicalensis_) from four to six inches long, so very fat, that it melts
before the fire like butter. It yields an oil sold to great advantage
to the Chinese.
The _Lake Superior Journal_, of October 27, notices the arrival of a
100 barrels of the famous siskawit from Isle Royale, and learns from
one of the fishermen that there have been caught this season between
300 and 400 barrels of this fish, together with a few trout and white
fish. They fish on that island for this fish principally, as the
siskawit are worth as much again as whitefish and mackinac trout in the
lake markets.--The siskawit is said to be the fattest fish that swims,
either in fresh or salt water. The fishermen assert, that one of these
fish, when hung up by the tail in the hot sun of a summer day, will
melt and entirely disappear, except the bones. In putting up about 50
barrels this season, one of the fishermen made two and a half barrels
of oil from the heads and ‘leaf fat’ alone, without the least injury
to the marketableness of the fish. Besides this leaf fat, the fat or
oil is disseminated ‘in a layer of fat and a layer of lean’ throughout
the fish. They are too fat to be eaten fresh, and are put up for market
like whitefish and trout.
‘Fish being here very scarce,’ (Falls of the Uaupés,) ‘we were
obliged,’ says Mr. Wallace, ‘to live almost entirely on fowls, which,
though very nice when well roasted, and with the accompaniment of ham
and gravy, are rather tasteless, simply boiled or stewed, with no
variation in the cookery, and without vegetables.
‘I had now got so thoroughly into the life of this part of the country,
that like everybody else here, I preferred fish to every other article
of food. One never tires, and I must again repeat, that I believe there
are fish here superior to any in the world.
‘Our fowls cost us about a penny each, paid in fish-hooks or salt, so
that they are not such expensive food as they would be at home. In
fact, if a person buys his hooks, salt, and other things in Para, where
they are about half the price they are in Barra, the price of a fowl
will not exceed a halfpenny; and fish, pacovas, and other eatables that
this country produces, in the same proportion.
‘Many of the fish of the Rio Negro are of a most excellent flavour,
surpassing anything I have tasted in England, either from the fresh
or the salt waters; and many species have real fat, which renders the
water they are boiled in a rich and agreeable broth. Not a drop of this
is wasted, but with a little pepper and farinha is all consumed, with
as much relish as if it were the most delicate soup.’[29]
Pirarucú, the dried fish, which with farinha forms the chief
subsistence of the native population of Brazil, and in the interior is
the only thing to be obtained, resembles in appearance nothing eatable,
looking as much like a dry cow-hide, grated up into fibres, and dressed
into cakes, as anything I can compare it with. When eaten, it is boiled
or slightly roasted, pulled to pieces and mixed with vinegar, oil,
pepper, onions, and farinha, and altogether forms a very savoury mess
for a person with a good appetite and a strong stomach.
If we pass to the Pacific coasts of South America, we find the most
esteemed fish are the robalo, the corvino, the lisa, and the king-fish.
The robalo (_Esox Chilensis_, _Hemiramphus Brazillensis_ of Cuvier,)
is nearly of a cylindrical form, and from two to three feet long. It
is coated with angular scales of a golden colour upon the back, and
silver on the belly; the fins are soft and without spines, the tail
is truncated, and the back marked longitudinally with a blue stripe,
bordered with yellow. The flesh is very white, almost transparent,
light, and of a delicious taste. Those taken upon the Araucanian coast
are the most in repute, where they are sometimes caught of eight pounds
weight. The Indians of Chiloe smoke them, after having cleaned and
soaked them for 24 hours in sea water, and, when sufficiently dry, pack
them up in casks of 100 each, which are generally sold for about three
dollars. The robalo prepared in this manner is said to be superior to
any other kind of dried fish.
The corvino (_Sparus Chilensis_) is nearly of the same size as the
robalo; it is sometimes, however, found of five or six feet in length.
This fish has a small head, and a large oval body, covered with broad,
rhomboidal scales, of a mother-of-pearl colour, marked with white. The
tail is forked, and the body encircled obliquely, from the shoulders
to the belly, with a number of brownish lines. The fins are armed
with spiny rays, and the flesh is white, firm, and of a good taste,
particularly when fried. It would probably be better still if it were
prepared like that of the tunny.
The lisa (_Mugil Chilensis_) in its form, scales, and back is much like
the common mullet, but is distinguished by the dorsal fin, which in the
lisa is entire. There are two species of this fish, the sea and the
river lisa, neither of which exceeds a foot in length; the first is a
very good fish, but the latter is so exquisite, that it is preferred by
many to the best of trout.
Another esteemed fresh-water fish of Chile is the bagre, or luvur
(_Silenus Chilensis_, probably the _A. geneionis inermis_), which has a
smooth skin, without scales, and is brown upon the sides, and whitish
under the belly. In appearance, it is not very prepossessing, for in
form it resembles a tadpole; the head being of a size disproportionate
to the length of the body, which does not exceed eleven inches at the
most. It has a blunt mouth, furnished like that of the barbel with
barbs. It has a sharp spine on the back fins, like the tropical bagre,
but its puncture is not venomous, as that is said to be. The flesh is
yellow, and the most delicious of any esculent fish that is known.
There is said to be another species of this fish inhabiting the sea,
which is black--the same, probably, that Anson’s sailors called, from
its colour, the chimney-sweep.
While on the subject of fish common to this locality, I may mention
that the Abbé Molina states, that ‘the river Talten, which waters the
Araucanian provinces, produces a small fish called _paye_, which, as I
have been assured by those who have seen them, is so diaphanous, that
if several are placed upon each other, any object beneath them may be
distinctly seen. If this property is not greatly exaggerated, this fish
might serve to discover the secret process of digestion and the motion
of the fluids.’
Mr. Ruschenberger thus describes a Hawaiian restaurant:--‘The earth
floor of a straw hovel was covered by mats. Groups of men squatted in
a circle, with gourd plates before them, supplied with raw fish and
salt-water, and by their side was an enormous gourd, of the dimensions
of a wash tub, filled with poë, a sort of paste made of taro. They ate
of the raw fish, occasionally sopping the torn animal in the salt water
as a sauce, then sucking it, with that peculiar smack which indicates
the reception of a delicious morsel.’
The noble salmon, which honest Izaak Walton justly calls, ‘the king of
fresh-water fish,’ is too well known as a choice article of food to
need description. A jowl of fresh salmon was one of the requisites,
in 1444, at the feast of the Goldsmiths’ Company; and in 1473, three
quarters of Colnbrook salmon are charged 6_s._ 4_d._; and at a fish
dinner of the same company in 1498, among large quantities of fish
mentioned, are a fresh salmon 11_s._; a great salmon £1; and two
salmon-trout 2_s._ 8_d._ In 1518, for ij. fresh samon xvijˢ jᵈ Item,
a fresh samon xiijˢ iiijᵈ; and in the eighth year of King Henry VIII.
iiij. fresh samons are charged xlˢ
In the great rush after gold, the fisheries of the Pacific coast, which
have been famous for years past for their extent and value, have not
received that attention which they merit. Now that the living tide has
again set in strongly towards the North-West, the demand for food to
feed the thousands will cause the fishery to be more largely developed.
The whole coast is particularly rich in the more valuable species of
the finny tribe.
A San Francisco paper states:--‘The salmon of California and Oregon,
with which our markets are supplied in the fresh and cured state,
are nowhere surpassed in quality or flavour. Our rivers, bays, and
estuaries are alive with these valuable fish, and the fishermen
are busy in securing them during the present run. It is estimated
that there are 400 boats on the Sacramento river alone, engaged in
fisheries. The boats are valued at 60,000 dollars, the nets at 80,000
dollars, and seines at 6,000 dollars. The fishing season lasts from the
1st of February to the 1st of August, during which time the estimated
average of each boat per day is 30 dollars, or an aggregate of 12,000
dollars. The hauling seines yield 100 dollars each per day, or 2,000
dollars in the aggregate. The fish thus caught supply the markets
of San Francisco, Sacramento, Marysville, and the mining towns in
the interior. Sometimes 2,000 lbs. are sent to one order. The amount
shipped daily to San Francisco at present is from 5,000 to 6,000 lbs.,
which will be increased as the season advances.
‘The fishing smacks outside the harbour in the vicinity of Drake’s
Bay, Punto de los Reyes, Tomales, and similar points, as well as other
portions of the coast, are busily engaged in the trade.
‘This business is becoming every year of greater interest, and the
attention of our legislature has recently been drawn to its proper
regulation and protection. A description of the fishes common to these
waters, with an account of their habits, quality, and relative value,
would be of great interest.
‘In addition to salmon there are other varieties of fish deserving
more than a passing notice. Much difficulty is experienced in
classifying them under the proper heads, and recognizing the species
under their various arbitrary names. The sturgeon, the rock cod, the
mackerel--which, although it bears some resemblance to the Atlantic
fish is inferior to it in flavour and fatness--the herring, the smelt,
the sardine, and other varieties found in our markets, are all more
or less valuable. Myriads of sardines abound along the whole southern
coast. The Bay of Monterey has especially become famous for its
abundance of this small but valuable fish. It is a matter of surprise
that the taking and preparation of this fish, which enters so largely
into the commerce of the world, has never been attended to as a source
of revenue and profit in this region. The experiment certainly is worth
testing. There are doubtless many persons here, familiar with the trade
as practised on the coast of France, whose services might be secured in
the business.’
Another Californian paper, the _Sacramento Union_, remarks:--‘The
fishing interest in the Sacramento at this point is increasing and
expanding with astonishing rapidity, from year to year, and from
month to month. The water of the river must be alive with salmon, or
such numbers caught daily would sensibly reduce their numbers. But
experienced fishermen inform us, while the run lasts, so countless is
the number, that no matter how many are employed in the business, or
how many are taken daily, no diminution can be perceived. Even the
‘tules’ between this and the Coast Range are reported to be filled
with salmon. The run this year is said to be greater than ever before
known at this season. The extraordinary run of the present time is only
expected to continue for something like three weeks. They seem to run
in immense schools, with some weeks intervening between the appearance
of each school, during which the numbers taken are light, as compared
with the quantity taken during a time like the present. No account is
kept of the number engaged in fishing, or of the amount caught, and
all statements relative thereto are made from estimates obtained from
those who have experience in the business, and probably approximate
correctness. These estimates give the number of men employed now in
taking fish in the Sacramento at about 6OO--the number of fish taken
daily, on an average, at 2,000--their average weight 17 lbs., making
34,000 lbs. per day. Two cents per lb., which is probably more than
the present average price by the quantity, would give a daily income
to those employed of 680 dollars, not very high pay. Either the number
of men engaged in the business, we imagine, must be over estimated,
or the number of fish caught under estimated. It requires two men to
man a boat, which would give 300 boats for 600 men: 2,000 fish a day
would give to each man a fraction over three as his share. We presume
few are fishing who do not catch a good many more than that number.
We saw a boat-load, the product of the previous night, consisting of
66 salmon, weighed yesterday morning. They averaged a fraction over
17 lbs., and gave 33 as the number caught by each man, instead of
three, as estimated above. Say the 600 fishermen man, on an average,
200 boats a night; the average number caught by each boat put at 20,
and the sum total would be 4,000 fish, instead of 2,000, as estimated.
Our impression is that the latter comes nearer the mark than the
former, as a good many of the fishermen send their fish directly to
San Francisco; others take them to different points for salting. Large
numbers are salted down daily, several firms and individuals being
extensively engaged in this branch of the trade. The fish are put
down in hogsheads, which average, when filled, about 800 lbs. From
1,000 to 3,000 lbs. are put down daily by those engaged in salting. An
acquaintance has filled 65 hogsheads this season. The most of those
engaged in salting live on the Washington side of the river, and salt
their fish there. Including those engaged in salting, catching, and
selling, probably the fish business furnishes employment for 1,000 men.’
The salmon is found in no other waters in such vast multitudes as are
met in the rivers emptying into the Pacific. On the Atlantic side,
the leading fish feature is the run of shad in the spring; on the
Pacific side, salmon ascend the rivers at all seasons, in numbers
beyond all computation. In California and Oregon, the rivers are alive
with them; the great number taken by fishermen are but a drop from
the bucket. Above this, on the coast side, tribes of Indians use no
other food. As a table luxury, they are esteemed by most persons the
finest fish caught. Unlike many fish, they contain but few bones, and
the orange-coloured meat can be served in slices to suit customers.
It is emphatically the meat for the million; it costs so little--not
a quarter that of other meats--that rich and poor can feast upon
salmon as often in the day as they choose to indulge in the luxury.
In the course of a few years, salmon fishing will extend itself to
all the prominent rivers in the North Pacific States. Catching and
curing salmon will then have become a systematized business; the fish
consumption will then have extended itself generally over those States,
and more than likely become, in the meantime, an important article of
export.
While upon the subject of these fisheries, it may be added, that a
considerable portion of the Chinese population, both at San Francisco
and at Sacramento, have engaged extensively in this business. In
the vicinity of Mission Creek, near the former city, they have gone
into the business upon a large scale. The average ‘catch,’ each day,
is estimated at about 5,000 lbs., for which a ready market is found
among the Chinese population, at five dollars per cwt. The process of
catching, cleaning, and curing, presents a busy and curious scene.
Sir John Bowring remarks that, ‘The multitudes of persons who live
by the fisheries in China afford evidence not only that the land is
cultivated to the greatest possible extent, but that it is insufficient
to supply the necessities of the overflowing population; for
agriculture is held in high honour in China, and the husbandman stands
next in rank to the sage, or literary man, in the social hierarchy.
It has been supposed that nearly a tenth of the population derive
their means of support from fisheries. Hundreds and thousands of boats
crowd the whole coasts of China--sometimes acting in communities,
sometimes independent and isolated. There is no species of craft by
which a fish can be inveigled which is not practised with success
in China. Every variety of net, from vast seines, embracing miles,
to the smallest hand-filet in the care of a child. Fishing by night
and fishing by day--fishing in moonlight, by torchlight, and in utter
darkness--fishing in boats of all sizes--fishing by those who are
stationary on the rock by the seaside, and by those who are absent
for weeks on the wildest of seas--fishing by cormorants--fishing by
divers--fishing with lines, with baskets--by every imaginable decoy and
device. There is no river which is not staked to assist the fisherman
in his craft. There is no lake, no pond, which is not crowded with
fish. A piece of water is nearly as valuable as a field of fertile
land. At daybreak every city is crowded with sellers of live fish, who
carry their commodity in buckets of water, saving all they do not sell
to be returned to the pond or kept for another day’s service.
The fishing grounds of Van Diemen’s Land are periodically visited by
a splendid fish named arbouka, a well-known piscatory visitant on the
coast of New Zealand. Great numbers of these beautiful denizens of the
deep have been caught, varying in weight from 60 lbs. to 100 lbs. each.
The trumpeter is one of the most magnificent of Tasmanian fish; and is
unrivalled in the quality of its flesh by any visitant in those waters.
A demand has been created for them in Victoria; and before long, a
stirring trade will be established between the two colonies in these
beautiful fish.
The native cooking-oven of New Zealand, called the unu, is a very
curious contrivance, and is thus described by Mr. S. C. Brees. It
consists of a round hole, about two or three feet in diameter, and
twelve inches deep, in which some wood is placed and lighted. Large
pebble-stones are then thrown on the fire and heated, which remain at
the bottom of the hole after the wood is consumed; the stones are next
arranged, so as to present a level surface, and sprinkled with water;
wild cabbage or other leaves are moistened and spread over them, upon
which the food intended to be cooked is laid; the whole is then covered
over with leaves and flax-baskets, and lastly, filled over with earth,
which completes the operation. After allowing it to remain a certain
time, according to circumstances, which the cook determines with the
utmost precision, the oven is opened and the food removed. Eels and
potatoes are delicious when cooked in this manner, and every other kind
of provision.
The seer-fish (_Cybium guttatum_) is generally considered the finest
flavoured of the finny race that swims in the Indian seas; it has a
good deal the flavour of salmon.
There are several esteemed fish obtained round Ceylon. The Pomfret
bull’s eye (_Holocentrus ruber_) is found at certain seasons in
abundance on the southern coast of Ceylon, in deep water. It is
greatly esteemed by the natives as an article of food, and reaches a
considerable size, frequently nearly two feet in length. The flesh
is white and solid. For splendour and beauty, this fish is almost
unsurpassed.
A fish called by the natives great-fire (_Scorpæna volitans_) is eaten
by the native fishermen, the flesh being white, solid, and nutritive.
Linnæus describes the flesh as delicious.
The pookoorowah (_Holocentrus argenteus_) is a very delicious fish,
seldom exceeding twelve or thirteen inches in length. The gal-handah
(_Chætodon araneus_), a singular and much admired fish, only about
three inches in length, has a delicate and white flesh, and is greatly
esteemed.
In Java and Sumatra, a preparation of small fish, with red-rice,
having the appearance of anchovies, and the colour of red-cabbage, is
esteemed a delicacy. So in India, the preparation called tamarind fish
is much prized as a breakfast relish, where the acid of the tamarind is
made use of for preserving the white pomfret-fish, cut in transverse
slices. The mango-fish (_Polynemus longifilis_, Cuvier; _P. paradiscus_
of Linnæus), about eight or nine inches long by two deep, is much
esteemed in India. At Calcutta the _Lates nobilis_, different species
of _Polynemus_, and the _Mugil Corsula_, daily cover the tables of
Europeans, who will more readily recognize these fishes under the names
of the _Begti_ or _Cockup_, _Sudjeh_, _Tupsi_, and the Indian Mullet.
At the Sandheads may be found some of those delicious fishes, which
are more familiar to the residents of Madras and Bombay, for instance,
the Indian soles, the roll-fish, and above all, the black and white
pomfrets, and the bummolah, which latter in a dried state is known
by the name of the Bombay duck. The bummolah is a small glutinous
transparent fish, about the size of smelt.
There are many excellent fish obtained from the sea round the Cape
Colony, and about 2,500 tons are shipped annually to the Mauritius,
forming nearly three fourths of the island consumption; the principal
consumers being the coolie labourers or Indian population.
Geelbeck, or yellow mouth, sometimes called Cape salmon (_Otolithus
æquidens_, Cuv. and Val.), is the finest as to quality; they are
taken abundantly with the hook and line, or net, and weigh about 14
lbs. The cost of preparation ready for shipment is about £12. It forms
an article of food for the poor and lazy. The Malays at the Cape cure
a great deal in vinegar (for home consumption), the same as pickled
salmon in England; and it is not a bad representative of it. For
exportation they are opened down the back, the intestines taken out,
head cut off, salted for a night, and dried in the sun.
Snook (_Thyrsites atua_), similar to the baraconta, is a long, slim,
oily fish, taken with any shining bait; it is a perfect salt-water
pike, very strong and ferocious, and is dispatched, after being pulled
on board, by blows on the head with a kind of knob-kerrie. These are
cured the same way as the geelbeck; the cost of production is about £16
per ton. They are highly prized by the colonists, and esteemed before
any fish imported into Mauritius, fetching about £2 per ton more than
cod. These fish are very fine eating when cured fresh. They are also
much esteemed in Ceylon. The Malays cure them without salt by drying in
the sun, with a little pepper and spice; they are then delicious.
Silver fish (_Dentex argyrozona_) are similar to the bream of England;
each weighs from 6 to 8 lbs. They are got up for shipment the same as
the others; the cost of production is about £10 per ton. They are the
least esteemed of any at the Mauritius market, but when fresh they
are very nice eating. The bastard silver fish (_D. rupestris_) is
considered one of the very finest fishes in the colony. It is esteemed
for foreign markets. Harders are a mullet, about eight inches long,
which are principally cured in small casks in brine, for up-country
use. The Cape farmers are very fond of them, but few are exported.
They have also mackerel very large, very fat, which are better cured
than fresh.
The Jacob Evertsen (_Sebastes capensis_), so called after a Dutch
captain, remarkable for a red face and large projecting eyes, is a fish
which, though common in Table Bay almost at all seasons, is highly
prized for its flesh by most colonists. Another species, the sancord
(_S. maculatus_), which is not so common, is a very delicious fish. The
kabeljauw (_Sciæna hololepidota_) is a large fish from two to three
feet long, common on the coast, being caught with the hook and the
drag-net. It is one of the staple fishes in the Cape Town market; dried
and salted like cod it is exported to the Mauritius and elsewhere. Its
flesh when young is good, but firm and dry in adult individuals. The
baardmannetje (_Umbrina capensis_, Pappe), another newly described fish
of the same family, which is chiefly caught in False Bay during summer,
measures from 2 to 2½ feet, and is reputed for its delicious flesh.
The hangberger (_Sargus Hottentotus_), a fish about 18 inches long,
which is common in Table Bay from June to August, is much in request,
particularly at the time when it is with roe. It is also cured and
pickled for economical purposes. It feeds on shell fish, and is caught
with the hook.
The Hottentot fish (_Sargus capensis_), from 12 to 14 inches long,
which is mostly confined to Table Bay and the West Coast, may be caught
at all seasons with the hook. It is not only a superior table fish, but
forms when salted and dried an article of export.
The roode steen brassem of the Dutch (_Chrysophrys laticeps_, Cuvier)
is a bulky fish, often exceeding 3½ feet in length and 14 inches in
breadth. It is very voracious, and feeds generally on crabs and cuttle
fish (_Sepia_ and _Loligo_). As food it is much prized, and is also
cured for exportation.
The Roman fish (_Chrysophrys cristiceps_) is one of the prettiest and
most delicious fish met with in the Cape markets. It is generally
acknowledged to be a superior dish.
The daggerath (_Pagrus laniarius_) is of a dark rose colour, about 12
inches long. It is highly prized in the colony for its delicious flesh.
This handsome fish owes its surname, _laniarius_ (butcher), both to its
colour and to its sharp teeth and voracity.
The windtoy (_Cantharus Blochii_) is a delicious table fish, more
commonly caught in winter, and often put up in bundles along with
the Hottentot fish (_Sargus capensis_). The flesh of the dasje fish,
another species (_Cantharus emarginatus_), is also highly esteemed as
food.
There is a fish called by the colonists the bamboo fish (_Boops
salpa_), from feeding on algæ and being caught principally in
localities where there is an abundance of sea-weed. On account of its
vegetable nourishment, it exhibits at times a particular smell when
embowelled, and is for that reason called stink-fish by some of the
fishermen. It is a rich and delicate fish, and though scarce in the
Cape Town market, is common in Saldanha Bay, where it is dried and
salted for home consumption.
The flesh of the bastard Jacob Evertsen (_Pimelepterus fuscus_) is well
flavoured and very nice. This fish is of a uniform dusky brown colour.
It feeds on shell-fish.
The galleon fish (_Dipterodon capensis_) is more plentiful in the
western division of the Cape Colony; it is highly esteemed as food
and always fetches a good price. It is, however, disliked by some on
account of the many black veins traversing its flesh, and is at times
rather unwholesome, from being too rich and requiring good digestive
organs.
The elft-fish (_Temnodon saltator_) is uniformly lead coloured, shaded
with dark green on its back. From leaping now and then out of the water
it has obtained its name of _saltator_ (jumper). It is held in great
esteem as a table fish, and the younger individuals are truly deemed a
dainty.
There are several species of mullet recorded as inhabitants of the
bays and rivers of the Cape Colony. All of them are caught with the
net. They make good table fish, but are more frequently salted or
smoke-dried (under the name of bokkoms) like the herring, and thus
preserved, form a very considerable article of home consumption as well
as of export.
The klip-fish (_Blennius versicolor_, Pappe) is greatly reputed for its
flesh, which is nice, well flavoured, and wholesome.
The flesh of the bagger (_Bagrus capensis_) is extremely delicate, and
bears a greater resemblance to that of the eel than that of any other
sea fish in the colony. Owing to its ugliness, this curious fish,
which hides itself among stones in muddy water the better to entrap
its unsuspecting prey, is from popular prejudice less prized than it
deserves.
English writers on Ichthyology comment very unfavourably on the merits
of the hake (_Gadus merluccius_) and call it ‘a coarse fish, scarcely
fit for the dinner table.’ At the Cape its qualities are generally and
fully appreciated; in fact, its flesh is highly delicate and little
inferior to that of the haddock (_Gadus æglefinus_). At times it makes
its appearance in large shoals. It is then abundantly caught, salted,
and dried, for exportation. The cured or dried Cape stock-fish is an
excellent dish, far superior to that insipid stuff introduced from
Holland or other countries.
The rock-cod (_Serranus Cuvierii_) is highly esteemed as an article of
food.
Sardines in myriads swarm round Table Bay, at one season of the year;
klip-fish, king klip-fish, and soles (rather scarce), are considered a
luxury.
It is hardly requisite to say much of that cosmopolitan fish, the sole,
which is for its delicacy prized as well at the Cape as elsewhere.
Thousands of cray-fish are caught daily; four of the largest can be
obtained for a penny; but it is not fashionable to eat them, although
they are very good.
The quantity of fish throughout the whole extent of the coast,
bordering on the Agulha’s bank, is immense, and would be the richest
fishery in the world. Exports of sardines in the French style, of
potted cray-fish in the American, and the choicest fish preserved fresh
in tins, might be made profitable.
I may add here that Dr. L. Pappe, of Cape Town, to whom I am indebted
for my information on the Cape fishes, has published in the Colony an
interesting synopsis of the edible fishes at the Cape of Good Hope,
in which he furnishes much new and interesting descriptive scientific
detail.