[406] This proves that the local Cod, i. e., those that breed close to the shore, have much decreased; and this partly by over-fishing, and partly by the falling-off of their food in the form of young fishes coming to the sea from rivers and brooks.
[407] This is perhaps the first mention in America of cod-liver oil, now so much used in medicine.
[408] The Striped Bass (Labrax). The Bass mentioned four paragraphs below, as chasing mackerel “into the shallow waters,” may perhaps be the Bluefish (Temnodon).
[409] This is either an expression which has wholly passed out of use, or else a misprint. Probably the latter. It may, however, also be surmised that Morton characteristically coined a word from the Latin, and here meant to refer to the various large fish in New England waters, such as the Horse Mackerel (Thynnus secundo dorsalis), the Mackerel Shark (Lamna punctata), and the common Dogfish (Acanthias Americanus), all of which follow schools of mackerel, bass, &c., into shoal waters and prey upon them.
[410] “These Macrills are taken with drailes, which is a long small line, with a lead and a hooke at the end of it, being baited with a peece of a red cloath.” (New England’s Prospect, p. 30.) This instrument still bears the same name and is used in the same way.
[411] When caught in the Thames, within the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor of London, the Sturgeon (Acipenser) is a royal fish reserved for the sovereign. “The Sturgeon is a Regal fish too, I have seen of them that have been sixteen foot in lenghth.” (Jossel., Two Voyages, p. 105.)
[412] But little attention has been paid as yet in the United States to the Sturgeon fisheries, in spite of their great abundance.
[413] [jieele.] See supra, [111], note 1.
[414] “There be a greate store of Salt water Eeles, especially in such places where grasse growes: for to take these there be certaine Eele pots made of Osyers, which must be baited with a peece of Lobster, into which the Eeles entering cannot returne backe againe; some take a bushell in a night in this maner, eating as many as they have neede of for the present, and salt up the rest against Winter. These Eeles be not of so luscious a tast as they be in England, neither are they so aguish, but are both wholsom for the body, and delightfull for the taste.” (New England’s Prospect, p. 30.)
[415] Morton confounds the Shad (Alosa præstabilis), or Allize (corruption of the French Alose), with the smaller Alewife. This, with the Smelt and the Eel, are among the few shore fishes that are still found in comparative plenty. The Menhaden is used in our time to set corn.