Part 20
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.