The value of fish as food is likely to be better appreciated as meat becomes scarcer and higher priced. The government preserves the supply of fish for the people by collecting spawn (fish-eggs) and raising young fry to stock waters in which the supply would otherwise become exhausted by constant fishing.

The flesh of fish is in general similar in character to meat, yet it differs from meat in some ways. The points of un-likeness in the flesh of the two classes of animals correspond to differences in the nature of the animals themselves.

Cod, mackerel, haddock, halibut, bluefish, weakfish, shad, herring, and smelts are among the more common fish caught in Atlantic waters. Among the fish common on the Pacific coast are baracuda, sand-dabs, sea-bass, and pompano. The immense tunny-fish is here known as tuna. Spanish mackerel, flounder, and red-snapper are found in the Gulf of Mexico. Flesh cut from the back of red-snappers is sold by the pound as red-snapper throat. Whitefish, black bass, pike, several kinds of perch, and salmon and brook trout are fresh water fish. Trout are rare and expensive.

Plate XII.

Pompano.

Sheepshead.

Bluefish.

Fish. Mackerel. Shad.

Whitefish. Yellow perch.

Salmon.

Fish proper are distinguished from shell-fish by being vertebrate; that is, they have a back-bone.