FISHES. 117 diately under the hole ; and by going round and round in this manner, extending on one circle of ground after another, as far as the length of the spear handle will allow, comes in contact with the eels that lie underneath, and brings them up on the ice. Some¬ times, in the early part of winter, we may see from fifty to sixty persons on one part of the ice, fishing eels in this way. Trout, smelt, tom-cod, and perch, are caught in winter with a hook and line, through a hole in the ice ; within the Bras d'Or waters of , fine cod fish are taken during winter in the same manner. In describing the fishes that abound along the coasts of our American possessions, the tribes that are of the most importance to us as affording food, and the means of employment to man, claim the greatest attention ; and nature has, in the seas of those regions, so bountifully answered the necessities of our species, as to create the tribes of fishes most useful to us, in the most abundant multitudes. The herring and cod are the most generally plen¬ tiful. The first, on which the latter feeds, precedes it, and attracts it to the shores of those countries. Then follow myriads of caplin (salmo arcticus), always accompanied by vast shoals of cod, which are again kept on the coasts by the multitudes of cuttle¬ fish (sepia loligo), called squid in , which the domains of the ocean send forth. Alewives and mackarel appear periodically on the coasts, all undoubtedly governed by imperative natural laws, or what we generally explain as animal instinct