CAITDIEBERRY, CANDLEBERRY MYRTLE, WAX TREE, WAS :MYRTLE, TALLOW TREE, or BAYBERRY, ityrica eerifera, a small tree or shrub of 4 to 18 ft. high, but generally a low-spreading shrub, a native of the United States of America, but most abundant and luxuriant in the south. It belongs to the natural order aireentomr, suborder myrketr, according to some, a distinct natural order. distinguished by naked flowers, with 1-celled ovary, fruit (stone-fruit)—the scales becoming fleshy—and a single erect seed. The genus myriea has male and female flowers on separate plants; and 'the scales of the catkin, in both male and female flowers, are concave. The C. has evergreen oblongo-lanceolate, leaves with two small serratures on each side at the point, sprinkled with resinous dots. The bark and leaves when bruised emit a delightful fragrance. The drupes—properly called berries—are about the size of peppercorns, and when ripe are covered with a o'reenisli-white wax, which is collected by boiling them and skim ming it off, and is afterwards melted and refined. A bushel of berries will yield 4 or 5 pounds. It is used chiefly for candles. which burn slowly, with little smoke, and emit an agreeablebalsamie odor, but do not give a strong light. An excellent scented soap Is made from gale is the SWEET GALE of the moors and bogs of Scotland, well known for its delightful fragrance, a native of the whole northern parts of the world. Several species are found at the cape of Good Hope, one of which, M. eordifolia, bears the name Was Surma, and candlc,k are made from its berries.
or ELTLACTION, Thaleichthr Pacificus, a remarkable fish of the family solnmithr, nearly allied to the capelin (q.v.), and, like it, strictly a sea-fish approaching the coasts to spawn, but not entering rivers. The candle-fish inhabits the Pacific ocean, near the western shores of America, from Vancouver's island northwards. It is not larger than a smelt, has a somewhat pointed and conical head, a large mouth, teeth on the pharyn geals, and the tongue rough, but the lower jaw, palatines, and vomer destitute of teeth. The color is greenish olive on the back, passing into silvery white on the sides and belly, sparsely spotted with dirty yellow. It is probably the fattest or most oleaginous of all fishes, or indeed of animals, and is used by the Indians not only as an article of food, but for making oil. To broil or fry it, is nearly impossible, because it almost com pletely melts into oil. Indeed, the Indians often use it, in a dried state, as a lamp for lighting their lodges, merely drawing through it a piece of rush pith, or a strip from the inner bark of the "cypress tree" of these regions, Ouija gigantea—a species of arbor vitae—as a wick, a long needle of hard wood being used for this purpose, and the fish being then lighted at one end, burns steadily until it is all consumed. In order to use
the dried fish for food, the Indians often melt it into oil, by the application of heat, and drink the oil. It is also eaten uncooked. Drying is accomplished without any gutting or cleaning, the fish being fastened on skewers passed through the eyes, and hiing in the thick smoke at the top of sheds in which wood fires are kept burning. They soon acquire a flavor of wood-smoke, and the smoking helps to preserve them. 'l'hey are then stowed away in large f rails, made from cedar-bark or rushes, in order to be used for food in winter. Immense shoals of candle-fish approach the shores in summer, and are caught in moonlight nights, when they come to sport at the surface of the water, which may often be seen glittering with their multitudes. The Indians paddle their canoes noiselessly amongst them, and catch them by means of a monster comb or rake—a piece of pine-wood from 6 to 8 ft. long, made round for about 2 ft. of its length at the place of the hand-gripe, the rest flat, thick at the back, hut having a sharp edge in front, where teeth are driven into it about 4 in. long, and an inch apart. These teeth are usu ally made of bone, but the Indian fishers have learned to prefer sharp iron nails when they can get them. One Indian, sitting in the stern, paddles the canoe; another, stand ing with his face to the bow, holds the rake firmly in both hands, the teeth pointing sternwards. sweeps it with all his force through the glittering mass. and brings it to the surface teeth upwards, usually with a fish, and sometimes with three or four, impaled on each tooth. This process is carried on with wonderful rapidity. When a sufficient quantity of candle-fish has been dried for winter, the rest that are caught arc made into oil, being for this purpose, piled in heaps until partially decomposed, and then placed in large square pine-tree boxes; a layer about 3 deep in the bottom of each box, covered with cold water, and a layer of hot stones put in, then a layer of small pieces of wood, another layer of fish, stones, and so on. The oil is skimmed from the surface of the water in the boxes. A vast quantity of oil is thus obtained. The candle-fish is an excellent article of winter food in a climate of which the winter is severe; and notwithstanding its excessive fatness, is of agreeable flavor. It has not yet become an article of econom ical value to the civilized inhabitants of North-western America, but seems very likely to do so, and to acquire very considerable commercial importance.