k immediately ran for his bow and arrows, and
told me he would kill them all. He fastened the end of a ball of string
to an arrow, with a hook at the end of it; he tied the bladders of the
dog-fish at certain distances to the string; he then placed the ball
safe on the shore, took his bow, fixed the arrow in it, and aiming at
the largest salmon, shot it in the side; the fish tried to escape; I
assisted him to draw the cord; it was no easy task, for he struggled
tremendously; but at length, weakened by loss of blood, we drew him to
land, and despatched him.

The other boys came running up to congratulate the young fisherman on
his invention, and as it was to be feared that the rest, alarmed by this
attack, might take their departure, we determined to abandon everything
for the fishery. Fritz threw his harpoon, and landed, by means of the
reel, some large salmon; Ernest took his rod, and caught trout; and I,
armed like Neptune with an iron trident, succeeded in striking, amongst
the stones, some enormous fish. The greatest difficulty was to land our
booty; Fritz had struck a sturgeon at least eight feet long, which
resisted our united efforts, till my wife brought the buffalo, which we
harnessed to the line, and made ourselves masters of this immense prize.

We had a great deal of labour in opening and cleaning all our fish: some
we dried and salted; some my wife boiled in oil, as they preserve the
tunny. The spawn of the sturgeon, a huge mass, weighing not less than
thirty pounds, I laid aside to prepare as _caviare_, a favourite dish in
Holland and Russia. I carefully cleansed the eggs from the skin and
fibres that were mixed with them, washed them thoroughly in sea-water,
slightly sprinkled them with salt, then put them in a gourd pierced with
small holes to let the water escape, and placed weights on them to press
them completely for twenty-four hours. We then removed the caviare in
solid masses, like cheeses, took it to the smoking-hut to dry, and in a
few days had this large addition to our winter provision.

My next employment was the preparation of the valuable isinglass. I took
the air-bladder and sounds of the fish, cut them in strips, twisted them
in rolls, and dried them in the sun. This is all that is necessary to
prepare this excellent glue. It becomes very hard, and, when wanted for
use, is cut up in small pieces, and dissolved over a slow fire. The glue
was so white and transparent, that I hoped to make w