The curiosities of food

by P. L. Simmonds

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]