120 BRITISH . and larger than those of the herring, and on the belly there is a sharp scaly ridge. When fresh, this fish is rather fat, and tolerably good eating; but when salted, it becomes thin, and much inferior to herring. It answers the market well, to which it forms an article of export of some importance. In April, smelts ascend the brooks and rivulets from the sea in vast numbers to spawn. On first arri¬ ving, this delicate fish is excellent; but it soon becomes poor in fresh water. It remains in the harbour all winter, and is caught with a hook and line through the ice. Mackarel arrive on the coast in summer, but they are then poor. Those caught in autumn are very fat. Vast quantities are caught with seines and nets ; they are also caught with a hook and line, trailing fifteen or twenty fathoms after a boat or vessel under sail. The caplin (salmo arcticus) is about six or seven inches long, and resembles a smelt in form and colour, but it has very small scales. It is delicate eating, but its chief value is as bait for cod. The shores of Newfoundland and Labrador seem to be the favourite resorts of the caplin, as it appears but seldom in the Gulf of Lawrence, or on the coasts of Nova Scotia , or farther south. The astonishing numbers of this fish which frequent Newfoundland and Labrador , would appear incredible, were not the fact witnessed by thousands for many years. Dense shoals of them are sometimes known to be more than fifty miles in length, and several miles broad, when they strike in