The fishermen have very peculiar names for the winds, which they have received from the Greeks. Thus the north wind is called among them the " tramudanaj'^ as if, as in Greece and Italy, it blew towards them across mountains ; the south vnnd. they call the " Anatohan," but about Odessa it goes by the name of the " Wind of Constantinople."
Like all frontier people, these fishermen, coming from various parts of the interior, and stopped by the natural boundary of the sea, are of mixed races. The sea itself also contributes its quota, for it is not uncommon for shipwrecked marhiers to remain on the shore and turn fishermen. The general language cf conversation among them, however, is the Russian.
The principal classification made by the Russians of all the fish known to them, is into red and white fish. All the fine sturgeon kinds, so frequent in the Black Sea and its rivers, are denominated " red fish," and the smaller races, such as herrings, mackerel, carp, perch, &c., are called " white fish." Besides these, there are many which belong neither to the one nor the other class, such as the shark, the dolphin, and the roach.
The most important of all these to the fisherman is the mackerel (in Russian called the skmnhria), which furnishes him with daily bread, and somodmes even witli riches. This fish rises in spring, in pursuit of another, called here the '' kapsa," and followed in its tm-n by 'the larger " palamida."
446 FISHERIES OF THE DNIESTER.
If tlie winter is mild, and the spring comes in early, the mackerel is not considered worth much ; but, after a severe season, they not only come in much larger shoals, but are infinitely finer and fatter. They are finest in autumn, when they have been feeding in the different bays and gulfs, and often come with meat an inch thick on them. At this season also the shoal will sometimes make a sudden turn and rush back, as if seized with panic terror, and then they are caught by hundreds of thousands. These sudden returns of the fish betoken a speedily approaching winter, and in two or three days afterwards the cold is sure to set in. The mackerel have very much fallen off in the Bay of Odessa, partly perhaps from the more frequent fishing for the consumption of the town, but principally from the great navigation. What is caught before June is unimportant, and is immediately sold in the markets, but the shoals then become too great to be consumed in the neighbourhood, and it is necessary to begin the salting for the interior. This operation is carried on with the utmost possible celerity, and those who perform it do not trouble themselves to cut open the fish, but draw out at one stroke the whole contents of tlie stomach, through the giUs, as fast as young girls among us shell peas. As the mackerel is a delicate fish, and very easily spoilt, it is usual to throw the nets in the evening, and to proceed the whole night with the process of salting. The tubs are first thickly strewn with salt, and the fish then put in, in layers, exactly in the position in which they swim, each layer lying across the one below it. The tubs are then left a few days standing in the shade, the fat which collects at the top is taken off, and put aside, to be sold separately, a thick layer of coarse salt is laid over, and they are then closed, and placed in the huts till the autumn, when the Jews from Poland, and other dealers, arrive. The September fish cost from forty to fifty, but those caught earlier not more than fifteen or twenty rubles the thousand. This mackerel is sent as far back into the interior as the middle of the continent, where its farther advance is checked by encoimtering the salt fish from the Baltic.
The herring of the Black Sea is not found in great shoals further than the mouth of the Danube, where it is caught and prepared in a similar manner. It is possible that the great mass of fresh water brought down by that river may prevent their going further. These herrings are, in comparison with the Dutch herrings, as much smaller, as the Swedish are larger.
After mackerel and herrings the commonest fish is the turbot, but it does not appear to be equal in flavour to that of the NorthSea countries, perhaps because it is so cheap, and its squinting physiognomy meets one continually in every market.