CHAPTER XIX.

OSSEI, OR BONY FISHES.

Under this denomination is comprehended many of the fishes which are

most familiar to us. They are characterized, as we have said elsewhere,

as a group of animals having a solid skeleton. They are divided into six

orders; founded, however, it is necessary to add, on characteristics of

little organic importance, and the names bestowed upon them are of a

most barbarous description. These names are, I. _Plectognathi_, namely,

fishes in which the upper jaw is attached to the cranium, from

πλεκτὸς, _interlaced_, and γνάθος, _jaw_.

Afterwards those in which the upper jaw is movable, and the gills

arranged in circles, like rounded hoops. These are, II. the

_Lophobranchii_, from λὀφυς, _crested_, or aigrette, and

βρἀνχια, _gill_.

In the other orders the gills are arranged in a comb-like form. These

are divided into two great groups. In the first, the rays of the fins

are soft, except occasionally the first of dorsal or pectoral fins.

These are, III. the _Malacopterygians_, from μαλακὸς, _soft_, and

πτερύγιον, _finned_--the third group of osseous fishes. In a

later group the fish have bony rays to the anterior dorsal fins, some

osseous rays, and the anal fin and generally one of the ventral fins.

These are, IV. the _Acanthopterygians_, from ἂκανθα, _spiny_, and

πτερύγιομ, _finned_, which form the last group of bony fishes.

I. PLECTOGNATHI.

From their organization the fishes of this order establish the passage

from _cartilaginous_ to the _osseous_ fishes. Their skeleton, which

remains for some time more or less soft, becomes finally hard. The

chief characteristic of the order is that the maxillary is firmly

attached to the side of the inter-maxillary bone which forms the jaw,

and the arch of the palate is united to the skull in such a manner as to

be motionless. The operculum and rays of the gills are hidden under a

thick skin, which leaves externally only a small branchial slit. These

fishes have no true ventral fin, and have only vestiges of side fins.

This order comprehends two natural families characterized by the

armature of their jaws. They are the _Gymnodonta_ and the

_Sclerodermata_.

[Illustration: Fig. 357. The Globe-fish (Orthagoriscus), and Sun-fish

(Tetrodon).]

In the family of _Gymnodonta_ the jaws have no apparent teeth, but they

are furnished with a species of beak in ivory, which represents them.

The Sun-fish, _Tetrodon_ (Fig. 357), belong to the family.

The Globe-fish are so named from their large head and bony salient jaws,

which are each divided in front by a sort of vertical slit in two

portions, which simulate two teeth. These four portions of bony jaw,

which project beyond the lips, somewhat resemble the hard and dentate

jaws of the turtle. Their anterior part is sometimes prolonged, like

the mandibles of the beak of the parrot. They are perfectly arranged to

crush the shells of the molluscs, as well as the resisting envelope of

the crustaceans on which they feed. The skin of these fishes bristles

with small slightly-projecting spines, the number of which compensate

for their brevity, which repel their enemies, and even wound the hand

that would grasp them. They enjoy, besides, a singular faculty; they can

inflate the lower part of their body, and give it an extension so

considerable that it becomes like an inflated ball, in which the real

shape of the animal is lost. This result is obtained by the introduction

of an immense quantity of air into the stomach when it wishes to ascend

to the surface. The species of globe-fish are numerous. Some of them are

common in the Nile, where they are frequently left ashore during the

annual inundations.

The Globe-fish (_Orthagoriscus mola_), in the upper part of the

engraving, is easily distinguished from the _Tetrodons_ by its

compressed spineless body; being very round in its vertical contour, it

has been compared to a disk, and more poetically to the moon--whence its

popular names--to the great circular surface of which the dazzling

silvery white disk bears some resemblance. But it is especially during

the night that it justifies the name given to it. Then it shines

brightly, from its own phosphorescent light, at a little distance

beneath the surface. On very dark nights the globe-fish is sometimes

seen swimming in the soft light which emanates from its body, the rays

rendered undulating by the rippling of the water which it traverses, so

as to resemble the trembling light of the moon half-veiled in misty

vapours. When many of these fishes rove about together, mingling their

silvery trains, the scene suggests the idea of dancing stars. The

moon-fish is common in the Mediterranean, and sometimes reaches the

markets of Paris. It is about thirty inches in length, and its weight is

considerable. Its flesh is fat and viscous, and by no means pleasant to

eat.

The _Diodons_ (Fig. 358) only differ from the globe-fish in the form of

their bony jaws, each forming only one piece. They seem to have two

teeth, whence their name, from δίς, _two_, ὀδοὺς, _teeth_.

They differ also in their spines, which are much larger than those

of the globe-fish. These fishes may be said to be the hedgehogs and

porcupines of the sea. Like the globe-fish, they can erect their spines

and inflate their bodies.

They are numerous in species--_Diodon pilosus_, represented in Fig. 358,

being typical of the others.

[Illustration: Fig. 358. Diodon pilosus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 359. The File-fish (Balistes).]

The Sclerodermes are distinguished by their conical or pyramidal muzzle,

terminating in a little mouth armed with true teeth; their skin is

generally stiff and covered with hard scales. The File-fish, _Balistes_

and _Coffers_, are selected for notice. The File or Rudder-fish (Fig.

359) have the body compressed; the jaws are furnished with eight teeth,

arranged in a single row on each jaw, and covered with true lips; the

eyes are nearly level with the skin; the mouth is small, and the body

enveloped in very hard scales, which are connected in groups and

distributed into compartments more or less regular, and strongly

connected by means of a thick skin. The animal is thus protected by a

sort of cuirass and casque very difficult to penetrate.

With the exception of one species, the Balistes are inhabitants of

Tropical seas. They are generally brilliantly coloured; they herd

together in great numbers, and in their gambols produce curious

combinations of brilliant colouring in the Equatorial seas. Their flesh

is held in slight estimation, and at certain periods of the year is even

said to be dangerous.

[Illustration: Fig. 360. The Coffer, or Ostracion.]

The Coffers, or Ostracions (Fig. 360), are without scales, but covered

with regular osseous compartments, which are so jointed the one to the

other that the body is, as it were, enclosed in a kind of box or long

coffer, which only reveals the external organs of locomotion--namely,

the fins and a portion of tail. In some the body is triangular, in

others quadrangular, with or without spines.

These singular fishes are found in the Indian Ocean and in the American

seas. They are of moderate size, and are much prized in the United

States as food.

II. LOPHOBRANCHII.

The Lophobranchii comprehend a few types, but are numerous in species.

Here the gills are divided into small round tufts, and arranged in pairs

along the branchial arches; a structure quite peculiar, of which we have

no examples in any other fishes. These gills are enclosed under a large

cover, or operculum, attached on all sides by a membrane, which leaves

only a small hole for the escape of water which has served the purposes

of respiration.

[Illustration: Fig. 361. The Trumpet Pipe-fish (Syngnathus).]

These little cuirassed fishes consist of two genera, _Syngnathus_ and

_Hippocampus_. The Syngnathes, or pipe-fishes, possess a very curious

organic peculiarity. Their bodies are long, slender, and slightly

tapering, covered with plates set lengthwise, without ventrals; the

skin, in swelling, forms under the belly or under the tail, according to

the species, a pouch into which the eggs glide to be hatched, and which

is afterwards a shelter for the young. Most of the species are strangers

to European seas, but some few are found in the Channel. The Trumpet

Pipe-fish (Fig. 361) has the head small, the muzzle long, nearly

cylindrical, slightly raised at the end, and terminating in a very small

mouth without teeth. The animal is about twenty inches long; its skin is

of a yellowish colour varied with brown. It lives in the Atlantic and

Mediterranean, where it is largely used by the fishermen in baiting

their hooks. It is found in great abundance in the Atlantic between the

Equator and the Western Isles.

[Illustration: Fig. 362. The Sea-horse (Hippocampus).]

The Sea Horse (_Hippocampus_) is a small creature about the size of the

engraving (Fig. 362); its head has a singular resemblance to that of the

horse. The rings which constitute the integument of the body and tail

have a close resemblance to the rings of some caterpillars. This curious

combination of forms originated the name, Hippocampus, from ἵππος,

_horse_, κάμπος, _fish_, adopted in very ancient times to designate

this creature. It is found in the Atlantic, round the coast of Spain, the

south of France, in the Mediterranean, and in the Indian Ocean. Mr.

Lukis, who raised two females in captivity, describes their habits as

follows:--"When they swim," he says, "they preserve a vertical position,

but their tail seems on the alert to seize whatever it meets with in the

water, clasping the stem of the rushes. Once fixed, the animal seems to

watch attentively all the surrounding objects, and darts on any prey

presenting itself with great dexterity. When one of them approaches the

other, they interlace their two tails, and it is only after a struggle

that they can separate again, attaching themselves by the lower part of

the chin to some rush in order to release themselves. They have

recourse to the same manœuvre when they wish to raise the body, or when

they wish to wind their tail to some new object. Their two eyes seem to

move independently of each other, like those of the chameleon. The iris

is bright and edged with blue."

The sea-horses have the pectoral fins so formed as easily to sustain the

body, not only in the water, but even in the air; they are, in fact,

winged fishes, and probably originated the famous winged courser of

mythology, after which they are sometimes named. They rarely exceed four

inches in length; the body is covered with triangular scales, commonly

of a bluish colour. They live on worms, fishes' eggs, and fragments of

organic substances which they find in the far land at the bottom of the

sea.

III. MALACOPTERYGII.

The principal character of the fishes of this order is that the rays of

the fins are soft, except sometimes the first ray of the dorsal or

pectorals. They inhabit either sea or fresh water, and include fishes of

the utmost importance as human food, such as the herring, the cod, the

salmon, carp, pike, and many others. Modern naturalists, following

Cuvier, subdivide them into three orders:--1. _Apoda_, without ventrals;

2. _Sub-branchiati_, ventrals under the pectorals; 3. _Abdominales_,

having ventrals behind the pectorals.

1. APODA.

A single family composes this order, which comprehends great numbers

both in genera and species; they are anguilliform or snake-like,

elongated in form, the skin thick and soft, and have no ventral fins. In

this order are included the _Ammodytes_, _Gymnotes_, _Murænas_, and

_Anguilla_, or eels.

The Ammodytes have the body elongated and serpent-like, having a

continuous fin extending along the greater part of the back, with

another at the opposite side, and a third or forked fin at the end of

the tail. The muzzle is also long; the lower jaw longer than the upper.

_A. lancea_ (Fig. 363) buries itself in the sand; hence it is called the

sand-eel; it hollows out a burrow for itself in the sand with its muzzle

to the depth of fifteen or twenty inches, where it hunts out worms, on

which it feeds, while it shelters itself from the jaws of many voracious

fishes, which eagerly pursue it for its delicate flesh. In appearance

the _Ammodytes lancea_ is silvery blue, brighter on the lower parts than

on the upper, the radiating fins on the abdomen being alternately white

and bluish in colour.

[Illustration: Fig. 363. The Lance (A. lancea).]

The gymnotes are long, nearly cylindrical, and also serpent-like, the

tail being long in comparison to the other parts of the body. Beneath

the tail is a long swimming fin, the only locomotive organ, and it is

this nakedness of the back which confers its designation of γυμνὸς,

_naked_, νῶτος, _back_.

[Illustration: Fig. 364. The Gymnotus Electricus, or Electrical Eel.]

The Gymnotes are fresh-water fishes of South America, where they attain

a great size. There are several species, but the most remarkable, from

its singular physical properties, is the Electrical Eel, _Gymnotus

electricus_ (Fig. 364). These properties enable the gymnotus to arrest

suddenly the pursuit of an enemy, or the flight of its prey, to suspend

on the instant every movement of its victim, and subdue it by an

invisible power. Even the fishermen themselves are suddenly struck and

rendered torpid at the moment of seizing it, while nothing external

betrays the mysterious power possessed by the animal.

The electrical properties of the gymnotus were reported for the first

time by Van Berkal. The astronomer Richer, who had been sent to Cayenne

in 1671 by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, on the Geodesic Survey,

first made known the singular properties of the American fish. "I was

much astonished," says this author, "to see a fish some three or four

feet in length, and resembling an eel, deprive of all sensation for a

quarter of an hour the arm and neighbouring parts which touched it. I

was not only an ocular witness of the effect produced by its touch; but

I have myself felt it, on touching one of these fishes still living,

though wounded by a hook, by means of which some Indians had drawn it

from the water. They could not tell what it was called; but they assured

me that it struck other fishes with its tail in order to stupefy them

and devour them afterwards, which is very probable when we consider the

effect of its touch upon a man."

The observations of Richer made little impression at the time on the

_savants_ of Paris, and matters remained in this state for seventy

years, when the traveller Condamine spoke in his "Voyage en Amérique" of

a fish which produced the effects described by Richer. In 1750 a

physician named Ingram furnished some new views respecting this fish,

which he thought was surrounded by an electric atmosphere. In 1755

another physician, the Dutch Dr. Gramund, writes: "The effect produced

by this fish corresponds exactly with that produced by the Leyden jar,

with this difference, that we see no tinsel on its body, however strong

the blow it gives; for if the fish is large, those who touch it are

struck down, and feel the blow on their whole body."

Many experiments followed these; but we are indebted to Alexander von

Humboldt for the first precise account of this very curious fish. The

celebrated naturalist read to the Institute of France an important

memoir upon the electrical eel from Bonpland's observations, the

substance of which we shall give here.

[Illustration: Plate XXVII.--Fishing for Eel (Gymnotus) on the

Orinoco.]

In traversing the Llanas of the province of Caracas, in order to embark

at San Fernando de Apure on his voyage up the Orinoco, M. Bonpland

stopped at Calabozo. The object of this sojourn was to investigate the

history of the gymnotus, great numbers of which are found in the

neighbourhood. After three days' residence in Calabozo some Indians

conducted them to the Cano de Bera, a muddy and stagnant basin, but

surrounded by rich vegetation, in which _Clusia rosea_, _Hymenoea

courbaril_, some grand Indian figs, and some magnificent flowering

odoriferous mimosas, were pre-eminent. They were much surprised when

informed that it would be necessary to take thirty half-wild horses from

the neighbouring savannahs in order to fish for the gymnotus.

The idea of this fishing, called in the language of the country

_embarbascar con caballos_ (intoxicating by means of horses), is very

odd. The word _barbasco_ indicates the roots of the _Lacquinia_, or any

other poisonous plant, by contact of which a body of water acquires the

property of killing, or, at least, of intoxicating or stupefying the

fishes. These come to the surface when they have been poisoned in this

manner. The horses chasing them here and there in a marsh has, it seems,

the same effect upon the alarmed fishes. While our hosts were explaining

to us this strange mode of fishing, the troop of horses and mules had

arrived, and the Indians had made a sort of battue, pressing the horses

on all sides, and forcing them into the marsh. The Indians, armed with

long canes and harpoons, placed themselves round the basin, some of them

mounting the trees, whose branches hung over the water, and by their

cries, and still more by their canes, preventing the horses from landing

again. The eels, stunned by the noise, defended themselves by repeated

discharges of their batteries. For a long time it seemed as if they

would be victorious over the horses. Some of the mules especially, being

almost stifled by the frequency and force of the shock, disappeared

under the water, and some of the horses, in spite of the watchfulness of

the Indians, regained the bank, where, overcome by the shocks they had

undergone, they stretched themselves at their whole length. The picture

presented was now indescribable. Groups of Indians surrounded the basin;

the horses with bristling mane, terror and grief in their eyes, trying

to escape from the storm which had surprised them; the eels, yellow and

livid, looking like great aquatic serpents swimming on the surface of

the water, and chasing their enemies, were objects at once appalling and

picturesque. In less than five minutes two horses were drowned. An eel,

more than five feet long, glided under one horse, discharged its

apparatus through its whole extent, attacking at once the heart, the

viscera, and the plexus of the nerves of the animal, probably benumbing

and finally drowning it.

When the struggle had endured a quarter of an hour, the mules and horses

appeared less frightened, the manes became more erect, the eyes

expressed less terror, the eels shunned in place of attacking them, at

the same time approaching the bank, when they were easily taken by

throwing little harpoons at them attached to long cords, the harpoon,

sometimes hooking two at a time, being landed by means of the long cord.

They were drawn ashore without being able to communicate any shock.

Having landed the eels, they were transported to little pools dug in the

soil, and filled with fresh water; but such is the terror they inspire,

that none of the people of the country would release them from the

harpoon--a task which the travellers had to perform themselves, and

receive the first shock, which was not slight--the most energetic

surpassing in force that communicated by a Leyden jar completely

charged. The gymnotus surpasses in size and strength all the other

electric fishes. Humboldt saw them five feet three inches long. They

vary in colour according to age, and the nature of the muddy water in

which they live. Beneath, the head is of a fine yellow colour mixed with

red; the mouth is large, and furnished with small teeth arranged in many

rows.

The gymnotus makes its shock felt in any part of its body which is

touched, but the excitement is greater when touched under the belly, and

in the pectoral fin. The gymnotus gives the most frightful shocks

without the least muscular movement in the fins, in the head, or any

other part of the body. The shock, indeed, depends upon the will of the

animal, and in this respect differs from a Leyden jar, which is

discharged by communicating with two opposite poles. It happens

sometimes that a gymnotus, seriously wounded, only gives a very weak

shock, but if, thinking it exhausted, it is touched fearlessly and at

once, its discharge is terrible. Indeed, the phenomena depend so much

upon the will of the animal, that, according to Von Humboldt, if it is

touched by two metallic rods, the shock is communicated sometimes by

one, sometimes by the other wand, though their extremities are close

together.

The experiments already related in connection with the torpedo were

repeated here. If we place ourselves upon an isolated support, and take

hold of a metallic rod, a shock is received; but no shock is received,

on the other hand, if the fish is touched with a glass rod, or one

covered with wax. Humboldt and Bonpland repeated this experiment many

times, with decisive results. The electric organ has been carefully

described by these observers. The organs extend from under the tail,

occupying nearly one-half of the thickness. It is divided into four

longitudinal bundles of muscles, the upper ones large, the two smaller

below, and against the base of the anal fin. Each bundle consists of

many parallel membranous plates, placed closely together and very nearly

horizontal. These plates abut in one part on the skin, in another, on

the mean vertical plane of the fish. They are united to each other by an

infinity of smaller plates, placed either vertically or transversely.

The smaller prismatic and transversal canal, intercepted by these two

orders of plates, are filled with gelatinous matter. All this organic

apparatus receives many nerves, and presents, in many respects, an

arrangement nearly analogous to that of the torpedoes.

The Sea-Eels (_Muræna Helena_) are serpent-like fishes, of cylindrical

form and delicate proportions, but strong, flexible, and active,

swimming in waving, undulating movements in the water, just as a serpent

creeps on dry land. The murænas have no pectoral fin; the dorsal and

anal fin are reunited in the tail fin. A branchial opening is observable

on each side of the body. The sea-eels are numerous in species. _Muræna

Helena_ (Fig. 365), which is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, has

only a single row of teeth upon each jaw. It attains the length of forty

to fifty inches. It loves to bask in the hollows of rocks, approaching

the coast in spring-time. It feeds on crabs and small fishes, seeking

eagerly for polyps. The voracity of these fishes is such that when other

food fails they begin to nibble at each other's tails.

The sea-eels are caught with rod and line, or by lines and ground-bait,

but their instinct is such that they often escape. When they have

swallowed a hook they often cut the line with their teeth, or they turn

upon it and try, by winding it round some object, to strain or break

it. When caught in a net, they quickly choose some mesh through which

their body can glide.

Those who have studied the classics will remember the passionate love

with which the Roman gourmet regarded these fishes. In the days of the

Empire enormous sums were expended in keeping up the ponds which

enclosed them, and the fish themselves were multiplied to such an extent

that Cæsar, on the occasion of one of his triumphs, distributed six

thousand among his friends. Licinius Crassus was celebrated among

wealthy Romans for the splendour of his eel-ponds. They obeyed his

voice, he said, and when he called them they darted towards him in order

to be fed by his hands. The same Licinius Crassus, and Quintus

Hortensius, another wealthy Roman patrician, wept the loss of their

murænas on one occasion, when they all died in their ponds from some

disease. This, however, was only a matter of taste, passion, or fashion;

sometimes, however, accompanied by cruelty and gross corruption.

[Illustration: Fig. 365. The Sea-Eel (Muræna Helena).]

It was thought among the Romans that murænas fed with human flesh were

the most delicately flavoured. A rich freedman, named Pollion, who must

not, however, be confounded with the orator of the name, had the cruelty

to order such of his slaves as he thought deserving of death, and

sometimes even those who had done nothing to excite his anger, to be

thrown to them. On one occasion, when he entertained the Emperor

Augustus, a poor slave who attended had the misfortune to break a

precious vase; Pollion immediately ordered him to be thrown to the eels.

But the indignant emperor gave the slave his freedom, and, in order to

manifest his indignation with Pollion, he ordered his attendants to

break every vase of value which the freedman had collected in his

mansion.

In the present day sea-eels are little esteemed in a gastronomic point

of view. Nevertheless they are still sought for on the coast of Italy,

and the fishermen avoid with great care the bites of their sharp teeth.

[Illustration: Fig. 366. The Common Conger (Conger vulgaris).]

The Eels (_Anguilla_) have pectoral fins, under which are the

gill-openings on each side; the dorsal and anal fins extending up to the

tail, mingling with this last, which terminates in a point at the

extremity. The eels are divided into two groups: 1. The Eels

(_Anguilla_), properly so called; and, 2. The _Congers_. The first

inhabit most European rivers, except in the spawning season, when,

according to some naturalists, they betake themselves to the sea. During

the greater part of their existence, therefore, they have no connection

with the ocean. The _Congers_, on the other hand, are fishes of great

size, which inhabit the seas of warm countries, as well as those of

Northern Europe. The type of this family is the Common Conger, _Conger

vulgaris_ (Fig. 366), which differs from the true eels chiefly in the

dorsal fins, which commence very near to the pectorals; and also in

their upper jaw being longer than their under one. They attain the

thickness of a man's leg, and are sometimes two yards in length. The

conger-eel is frequently found in salt marshes, but its flesh is held in

little esteem.

2. SUB-BRANCHIATI.

The fishes of this order are characterised by vertical fins being

attached under the pectorals, and immediately suspended to the shoulder

bone. Exclusively marine fishes, they inhabit every region of the globe.

The order comprehends three families:--I. _Discobolidæ_; II.

_Pleuronectidæ_, or flat fishes; III. the _Gadidæ_.

I. DISCOBOLIDÆ.

The family of Discobolidæ consists of a small number of species

characterised by their ventral fins being discoform, as in the

sea-snails (_Liparis_), in which the lengthened mucous body is without

scales, but with one long dorsal fin; the pectoral and ventrals forming

one disk, as in Fig. 367, or the Suckers (_Lepidogaster_), where the

pectorals and ventrals form two disks.

[Illustration: Fig. 367. The Sea-Snail (Liparis).]

In the Lump-fish, _Cyclopteris_ (Fig. 368), the disk formed by the

ventrals forms a sort of sucker, by which the fish attaches itself to

the rocks; while the _Echineis_ is remarkable for the disk-like sucker

with which it is provided.

[Illustration: Fig. 368. The Lump-fish (Cyclopteus).]

[Illustration: Fig. 369. Echineis remora.]

The _Echineis remora_ is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, and abounds

in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It is furnished with a flat disk,

which covers its head, as represented in Fig. 369, which is formed of a

number of transverse and movable cartilaginous plates. Aided by this

organ, it attaches itself firmly to rocks, and even to ships and larger

fishes, such as the Dog-fish (_Acanthius_), which it meets with in its

wanderings. Its adhesion to those objects is so strong that the strength

of a man fails to separate them. It invariably attaches itself to the

dorsum and flank of the shark, and sometimes weighs a pound and a

quarter. "I have found," writes a friend, "as many as seven on one

shark." It is never solitary, and makes long voyages on this monstrous

animal locomotive, and that without fatigue or danger, for its enemies

are kept at a distance by the formidable monster which carries it.

II. PLEURONECTIDÆ.

The Flat-fishes (_Pleuronectidæ_) have the body flat and greatly

compressed, but in a direction different from that of the _Raias_ and

other analogous beings. In the case of the Raia the body is flattened

horizontally, while in the Pleuronectidæ they are compressed laterally.

The head of fishes of this order is not symmetrical; the two eyes are

placed on the same side; the two sides of the mouth are unequal.

To these peculiarities of structure we shall return when we come to

observe the several types more clearly. In inaction, as in motion, the

flat-fishes are always turned upon their side, and the side turned

towards the bottom of the sea is that which has no eye. This habit of

swimming on their side is that to which they owe their name of

πλευρὰ, side, and νέχτος, swimmers.

Their chief organ of natation is the caudal fin, but they are

distinguished from all other fishes by the manner in which they use this

oar. When turned upon their side this organ is not horizontal, but

vertical, and strikes the water vertically up and down. They advance

through the water but very slowly, compared to the motion of other

fishes. They ascend or descend in the water with greater promptitude,

but they cannot turn to the right or left with the same facility as

other fishes. This property of rising or sinking in the water with

facility is the more useful to them, inasmuch as the greater part of

their existence is passed at the greatest depths, where they draw

themselves along the sands at the bottom of the sea, and often hide

themselves from their enemies. Among the _Pleuronectidæ_, soles, turbot,

flounders, and plaice may be noted.

Soles (_Solea_) have the body oblong, the side opposite to the edges

generally furnished with shaggy, soft hairs; the muzzles round, nearly

always in advance of the mouth, which is twisted to the left side, and

furnished with teeth on one side only, while the eyes are on the right

side. The dorsal fin commences about the mouth, and extends up to the

caudal or terminal fin. The Common Sole, _Solea vulgaris_ (Fig. 370), is

plentiful in the Channel, along the Atlantic coasts, and especially in

the Mediterranean. It is brown on the right, and whitish on the opposite

side. Its pectoral fins are spotted black; the scales rugged and

denticulate; its size seems to vary according to the coast it frequents.

Off the mouth of the Seine soles are sometimes taken eighteen and twenty

inches in length. There are several modes of taking them, but for

commercial purposes it is taken by the trawl-net. When the ground-hook

is employed it is baited with fragments of small fish. Every one knows

the delicate flavour of the flesh of the sole, which, however, varies

greatly in different localities, those of the Channel Islands being

particularly choice.

[Illustration: Fig. 370. The Common Sole (Solea vulgaris).]

The Turbot, _Rhombus maximus_ (Fig. 371), resembles in its general form

a lozenge, whence its name of _rhombus_. Its under jaw is more advanced

than the upper jaw, and is furnished with many rows of small teeth. Its

fins are yellow, with brownish spots. The left side is marbled brown

and yellow; the right side, which is the inferior, white with brownish

spots and points. The true turbot is the special delight of the epicure,

and fabulous sums are said to have been given at different times by rich

persons in order to secure a fine turbot. The fish used to be taken

largely on our own coasts, but now we have to rely upon more distant

fishing-grounds for a large portion of our supply--large quantities

coming from Holland. The turbot spawns during the autumn, and is in fine

condition during spring and early summer. Mr. Yarrell says that it

spawns in spring. Dr. Bertram doubts this, although he is not quite sure

of it, inasmuch as "there will, no doubt, be individuals of the turbot

kind, as there are of all other kinds of fish, that will spawn all the

year round." The turbot abounds on our west coast, round Torbay, and off

the mouth of the Seine and the Somme, from whence comes most of the fish

consumed in London and Paris. The flounders, plaice, and halibut form an

important section of the Pleuronectidæ.

[Illustration: Fig. 371. The Turbot (Rhombus maximus).]

The Flounders and Plaice (_Platessa_) inhabit the northern seas of

Europe. They have their eyes placed on the right side; the dorsal as

well as the anal fin extending from over the eyes to the caudal, both

stretching out to a point towards the centre, giving a rhombic form to

the fish. In _Platessa_ the jaws are furnished with a single row of

obtuse teeth.

The Common Plaice, _P. vulgaris_ (Fig. 372), attains the length of ten

or twelve inches; it is brown above, spotted with red or orange. On the

eye-side of the head are some osseous tubercles. The body, which is

somewhat lozenge-shaped, is smooth.

[Illustration: Fig. 372. The Common Plaice (Platessa vulgaris).]

The Flounders (_P. flesus_) are fresh-water fishes of small size,

abundant in the Thames and many other rivers; they are only second in

importance to the soles and turbot among the Pleuronectidæ; the numbers

of brill, flounders, dab, and plaice required being close upon a hundred

million for the supply of London alone.

The usual mode of capturing flat-fish is by means of a trawl-net, but

many varieties of these may be caught with a hand-line. "A day's

sea-fishing," says Dr. Bertram, in his "Harvest of the Sea," "will be

chequered by many little adventures. There are various minor monsters of

the deep that will vary the monotony of the day by occasionally

devouring the bait. A tadpole fish, better known as the sea-devil, or

angler, may be hooked; or a visit from a hammer-headed shark, or a

pile-fish, will add greatly to the excitement; and if the 'dogs' should

be at all plentiful, it is a chance if a single fish be got out of the

sea in its integrity. So voracious are these Squalidæ, that I have often

enough pulled a mere skeleton into the boat, instead of a plump cod of

ten or twelve pounds weight."

The Dab, _P. limanda_ (Fig. 373), is very common in the markets of

Paris, where it is held in great esteem. It takes its name Limanda from

the hard and dentate scales on its body. The Platessa have the jaws

furnished with a single row of obtuse teeth; the dorsal fin only extends

in front to a line with the eye, leaving an interval between it and the

caudal. The form of the body is rhomboidal, as in the turbot, and the

eyes are usually on the right side. The flounder, the plaice, and the

dab, are all examples of this group of fishes.

[Illustration: Fig. 373. The Dab (Platessa limanda).]

The Halibut, _Hippoglossus vulgaris_ (Fig. 374), is a large fish,

inhabiting the seas of Northern Europe and Greenland, where it is

occasionally caught measuring seven feet, and weighing from three to

four hundred pounds. A fish of this species was brought to Edinburgh

market in April, 1828, measuring seven feet and a half in length and

three feet broad, weighing three hundred and twenty pounds. The body of

the halibut is more elongated than that of the plaice or flounder, the

jaws and pharyngeans being armed with strong and pointed teeth.

[Illustration: Plate XXVVIII.--Natives fishing for Halibut on the

Greenland Coast.]

Great quantities of this fish are caught on the Greenland and Norway

coasts, and other northern regions. According to Lacepede, the

natives fish for this with an implement which they call _gangnaed_. It

is composed of a hempen cord five or six hundred yards in length, to

which are attached some thirty smaller cords, each furnished with a

barbed hook at its extremity. The larger cord is attached to floating

planks, which act as trimmers, indicating the place of this formidable

engine of destruction.

The Greenlanders usually replace the hempen cords by thongs of whalebone

or narrow bands of shark's skin. At the end of twenty hours these lines

are drawn home, and it is not at all unusual to find five or six large

halibut caught on the hooks. PL. XXVIII. represents the native mode of

fishing for halibut in the Greenland Seas.

[Illustration: Fig. 374. The Halibut (Hippoglossus vulgaris).]

Another mode of capturing this and other flat-fish is to spear them on

their sandy beds. "No rule can be laid down," says Dr. Bertram, "for

this method of fishing. It is carried on successfully by means of a

common pitchfork, but some gentlemen go the length of fine spears made

for the purpose, very long, and with very sharp prongs. Others, again,

use a three-pronged farmyard graip, which has been known to do as much

real work as more elaborate single points contrived for the purpose. The

simplest directions I can give is just to spear every fish they see." M.

Figuier adds, as a caution, that before attacking these fishes, body to

body, it is necessary to wait till they are somewhat exhausted,

otherwise they might overturn both bark and fisherman.

The Greenlanders cut the animal up, and salt the pieces; then expose

them to the air, in order to dry them preparatory to a long voyage.

In its fresh state the halibut is not very delicate, and is hard and

difficult of digestion; however, its great size renders it a valuable

prize. We may add that, notwithstanding its great size, the halibut has

deadly enemies in the dolphins, as well as in the birds which prey upon

fishes on the shore. It is itself a voracious fish, devouring crabs,

cod-fish, and even the _Raiadæ_, not even sparing its own species; they

attack each other, nibbling at the tail or fins.

III. GADIDÆ.

The Gadidæ embrace the whole of the Linnæan genus _Gadus_. They are

found mostly in the seas of cold or temperate regions in both

hemispheres, and are the objects of pursuit for which the great

fisheries of Europe and America are established. They are known by the

position of the ventral fin under the throat, and by the pointed

character of those fins. The body is long and slightly compressed; the

head well proportioned. Their fins are soft, and their scales are small

and soft. The jaws and front of the _os vomer_ have unequal-pointed

teeth of moderate size, and disposed in several rows. The gill-covers

are large, and consist of seven rays. Most of the species have the

dorsal fin, and contain two others besides--a fin behind the vent, and a

distant caudal fin. The stomach is large, and the intestine long. The

air-bladder large and strong, and in some cases notched on the margin.

The flesh of most of the species yields white, healthy, and agreeable

food, easily separable into flakes when cooked, and easy of digestion.

The family includes the several genera:--MORRHUA, to which belongs the

Common Cod-fish, _M. callarias_; the Haddock, _M. æglefinus_.--The

MERLANGUS, or Whiting, _M. vulgaris_, and _M. albus_; the Coal-fish, _M.

carbonarus_; and the Pollack, _M. pollachius_.--The MERLUCIUS, or

Hakes.--The LOTA, or Ling, _L. molva_.--MOTELLA, or Rock Ling, and

Silver Gade, _M. argenteola_; and other genera of less importance.

The head of the Cod (_Morrhua callarias_) is compressed; the eyes placed

on the side, close to each other, and veiled by a transparent membrane,

a conformation which, according to Lacepede, enables the animal to swim

on the surface of the water in northern regions in the midst of

mountains of ice and under banks covered with snow, without being

dazzled by the brilliant light; but this opinion is unsupported by any

other naturalist of note.

[Illustration: Fig. 375. The Cod-fish (Morrhua callarias).]

The jaws of the cod-fish are unequal, and among the rows of teeth with

which it is armed many are mobile, and can be hidden in their cavities,

or raised, according to the will of the animal. The dorsal fins, three

in number, are in clusters, as in Fig. 375; anal fins are two; pectoral

fins narrow, and terminating in a point; caudal fin slightly forked. Its

colour is of an ashy grey, spotted with yellow on the back; white and

sometimes reddish beneath.

The cod-fish is provided with a vast stomach, and is very voracious,

feeding on fishes, crabs, and molluscs. It is so gluttonous and

indiscriminating, that it will even swallow pieces of wood and other

similar objects. This is essentially a sea-fish: it is never seen in

fresh-water streams or rivers, remaining during the greater part of the

year in the depths of the sea. Its habitual sojourn is in the portion of

the Northern Ocean lying between the fortieth and sixty-sixth degrees of

latitude.

In the vast range thus frequented by the cod, two large spaces are

pointed out which it seems to prefer. The first extends to the coast of

Greenland, and the other is limited by Iceland, Norway, the Danish

coast, Germany, Holland, and the east and north coast of Great Britain

and the Orkney Isles, comprehending the Doggerbank, Vellbank, and Cromer

coast, together with salt-water lakes and arms of the sea, such as the

Gairloch, Portsoy, and the Moray Firth, which indent the west coast of

Scotland, and attract considerable shoals of cod-fish.

The second range, less generally known, but more celebrated among

sailors, includes the coast of New England, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia,

and, above all, the island of Newfoundland, on the south coast of which

is the famous sand-bank called the _Great Bank_, having a length of

nearly two hundred leagues, with a breadth of sixty-two, over which

flows from ten to fifty fathoms of water. Here the cod-fish swarm, for

here they meet shoals of herrings and other animals, on which they feed.

Such is, according to Lacepede, the geographical distribution of the

cod-fish.

The English, French, Dutch, and Americans give themselves up to the

cod-fishery on the bank of Newfoundland with inconceivable ardour. This

island was discovered and visited by the Norwegians in the tenth and

eleventh centuries, long before the discovery of America; but it was

only in 1497, after the discoveries of Columbus, that the navigator,

John Cabot, having visited these regions, gave it the name by which it

has since been known, and called attention to the swarms of cod-fish

which inhabited the surrounding sea. Immediately after, the English and

some other nations hastened to reap these fruitful fields of living

matter. In 1578, France sent a hundred and fifty ships to the great

bank, Spain a hundred and twenty-five, Portugal fifty, and England

forty.

During the first half of the eighteenth century, England and her

colonies, with the French, cultivated the cod-fishery.

From 1823 to 1831 France sent three hundred and forty-one ships, with

seven thousand six hundred and eighty-five men, which carried into port

over fifty million pounds of fish, an average of about six millions

annually. Two thousand English ships of various sizes, manned by thirty

thousand seamen, are now employed in this important branch of industry.

On the coast of Norway, from the frontiers of Russia to Cape Lindesnæs,

the cod-fishery is an important branch of trade, in which a maritime

population of twenty thousand fishermen are employed, with five thousand

boats.

The cod is taken either by net or line. The net is chiefly employed at

Newfoundland. The net used is rectangular, and furnished with lead at

the lower edge, and cork buoys on the upper edge. One of the extremities

is fixed on the coast; the other is carried seaward, following a curve

taken by the boats, and the fish are attracted by drawing upon both

extremities of the net; and by one stroke many boat-loads are sometimes

taken.

The modern cod-smack is clipper-built, with large wells for carrying the

fish alive, its cost being about £1500. The crew usually consists of ten

to twelve men and boys, including the captain. The line is also used for

taking cod and haddocks. "Each man," says Bertram, "has a line of fifty

fathoms in length, and attached to each of these lines are a hundred

'snoods,' with hooks already baited with mussels, pieces of herring, or

whiting. Each line is laid 'clear,' in a shallow basket, and so arranged

as to run freely as the boat shoots ahead. The fifty-fathom line with a

hundred hooks is in Scotland called a 'taes.' If there are eight men in

a boat, the length of the line will be four hundred fathoms, with eight

hundred hooks, the lines being tied to each other before setting. On

arriving at the fishing-ground, the fishermen heave overboard a cork

buoy, with a flagstaff about six feet in height attached to it. This

buoy is kept stationary by a line, called the 'pow end,' reaching to the

bottom of the water, where it is held by a stone or a grapnel fastened

to the lower end. To the 'pow end' is also fastened the fishing line,

which is then paid out as fast as the boat sails, which may be from four

to five knots an hour. Should the wind be unfavourable for the direction

in which the crew wish to set the line, they use the oars. When the line

or 'taes' is all out, the end is dropped and the boat returns to the

buoy. The 'pow' line is hauled up with the anchor and fishing line

attached to it. The fishermen then haul in the line, with the fish

attached to it. Eight hundred fish might be taken, and often have been,

by eight men in a few hours by this operation; but many fishermen say

now, that they consider themselves fortunate when they get a fish on

every fifth hook on an eight-lined 'taes'-line."

Hungry cod-fish will seize almost any kind of bait, and this is used

either fresh or salted. The fresh bait is furnished by the herring,

whiting, and capelan, a little fish which in the spring descends from

the North Sea in shoals, pursued by the cod-fish. In the terror caused

by the innumerable bands of their enemies, the capelans spread

themselves in all the seas round Newfoundland in masses so thick that

the waves throw them ashore, and they accumulate occasionally in heaps

upon the sandy beach.

The principal fishery for capelan intended for bait takes place on the

coast of Newfoundland. The inhabitants of these regions carry their

booty to the fishermen, who make Saint-Pierre their rendezvous, with

whom they find ready purchasers.

The schooners, with a fair provision of bait, leaving Saint-Pierre and

other ports, take a north-easterly direction towards the great bank,

and, having chosen their fishing-ground, cast anchor in fifty or sixty

fathoms, and forthwith the crews give their sole attention to the lines;

some of them watch the lines, which are raised every instant, the

captured fish removed, and the hooks re-baited; others subject the

captured fishes to a first preparation for preserving them; they are

opened, the entrails removed, and the fish split in two, and piled one

on the other, and covered with salt. This labour goes on as long as the

fishing lasts. The sailor is on deck night and day, covered with oil and

blood, and surrounded with all sorts of offal and fish-like smells. But

this alone is insufficient. Boats, manned by crews of two or three

sailors, are continually moving about, attending to the more distant

lines, or "taes," which radiate round the ship in all directions.

One portion of the cod caught is despatched to Europe in a fresh state,

without other preparation than the salting which they receive on the

deck of the schooner. But much the greater portion are carried on shore

and subjected to further preparation. Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Islands,

which are granted to the French fishermen on condition that no

fortifications are erected on them, is resorted to for the purpose by

the French fleet; St. John's, the capital, by the English. The Comte de

Gobineau gives an animated picture of the whole process of curing the

cod-fish in the "Tour du Monde for 1863." "The French houses which

pursue this branch of trade," he says, "belong principally to the Ports

of Granville and St. Breuc; and the crews of their ships consist of two

very distinct elements; the smaller portion, being specially raised

among the fishermen properly so called, they form the aristocracy on

board; to these are added a larger number of mere labourers, who are

landed on the arrival of the vessel at her port. Their functions are

limited to receiving the fish from the boats, opening it, washing off

the glutinous matter in the _chauffant_, putting the liver apart, and

laying out the split fish between the layers of salt; finally,

subjecting it to the different phases of the drying process on the

strand.

"The _chauffant_ is a shed raised upon piles, standing one half in the

water and one half on shore; it is constructed of planks and posts,

through which the air is suffered to circulate freely, but covered in

with some of the ship's sails. Here the process of separating the

intestines from the body of the fish, and the salting process are

carried on, in the midst of an atmosphere charged with all manner of

disgusting smells, for the labourer is by no means delicate, and never

thinks of removing the disgusting impurities which he is creating. There

he stands, knife in hand, tearing and cutting out intestines and

separating vertebræ, his only care being to avoid cutting himself, which

is the chief danger he runs, in the midst of odours sufficient to

produce suffocation.

"Connected with the platform, on which this rough operation is performed

is a cauldron, sunk in the earth, to receive the oil pressed out of the

liver. This cauldron is surmounted by a roof some nine feet in height,

in the form of an inverted cone. Here the oil which flows from the open

way above is suffered to remain, after which it is drawn off into casks.

"The drying sheds, formerly of wood, are now constructed of stone, and

in places well exposed to the sun, and especially to the wind,

artificial or otherwise. The sun, it is said, does not dry, but

scorches; the wind, on the other hand, marvellously fulfils the purpose,

and in order to avoid the one and court the other, an apparatus has been

invented, consisting of long movable branches, which can be inclined so

as to bring the wind directly upon the row of cod, in connection with

the sun's rays, which are, indeed, not very formidable in this foggy

region."

The cod-fish thus dried at Newfoundland are forwarded for consumption to

all parts of the world; but only a small part of the products of the

fishery are thus prepared. More than half the produce of the French

fleet are sent to France merely salted, by ships which carry salt,

bringing back fish in return to Rochelle, Bordeaux, and Cette, where the

process of curing is completed. In our home fisheries, to abbreviate

slightly Dr. Bertram's account, the greater part of the cod taken are

eaten fresh, but considerable quantities of the cod and ling taken on

the coast are sent to market cured. The process pursued is very simple:

they are brought on shore quite fresh, and are at once split from head

to tail, and by copious washings thoroughly cleansed from all particles

of blood; a piece of the backbone is cut away; they are drained, and

afterwards laid down in long vats, where they are covered with salt, and

kept under heavy weights. By-and-by the fish are taken out of the vats;

they are once more drained, and carefully brushed, to remove any

impurity, and bleached by being spread out singly on the sandy beach, or

on the rocks; when thoroughly bleached, they are collected into heaps

technically called _steeples_, and when the _bloom_, or whitish

appearance, comes out on the fish, they are ready for the market.

The cod is one of our best-known fishes, and was at one time much more

plentiful and cheap. It is a deep-water fish, found in all northern

seas, and in the Atlantic, but never in the Mediterranean. It is

extremely voracious, greedily eating up the smaller denizens of the

ocean. It grows to a large size, and is very prolific, as most fishes

are. A cod-roe has been found more than once to be half the gross weight

of the fish, and specimens of the female cod have been caught with

upwards of eight millions of eggs. The fish spawn in mid-winter: but

here our information ceases; when it becomes reproductive is unknown.

Dr. Bertram thinks that it is at least three years old before it is

endowed with breeding power.

The growth of the cod is supposed to be very slow. Dr. Bertram quotes

the authority of a rather learned fisherman of Buckie, who had seen a

cod which had got enclosed in a large rock pool, and he found that it

did not grow at a greater rate than eight to twelve ounces per annum,

though it had abundance of food.

On our own coast two modes of fishing are in common use: one by deep-sea

lines, on each of which hooks are fastened at distances twelve feet

apart by means of short lines six feet long, called on the Cornish coast

"snoods." Buoys, ropes, or grapnels, are fixed to each end of the long

line, to keep them from entanglement with each other. The hooks are

baited with capelan, lance, or whelks, and the lines are shot across the

tide about the time of slack water, in from forty to fifty fathoms, and

are hauled in for examination after six hours.

An improvement has been introduced upon this mode of fishing by Mr.

Cobb. He fixes a small piece of cork about twelve inches above the hook,

which suspends the bait, and exhibits it more clearly to the fish by the

motion of the wave. The fishermen, when not engaged in hauling,

shooting, or baiting the long lines, fish with hand-lines, holding one

in each hand, each armed with two hooks, kept apart by a strong piece of

wire. A heavy weight attached to the lower end of each line keeps it

steady near the ground, where the fish principally feed. Enormous

quantities of cod, haddock, whiting, and coal-fish, with pollack, hake,

ling, and torsk, are taken in this way all round our coast. Of cod-fish

alone four hundred to five hundred and fifty have been taken in ten

hours by one man, and eight men have taken eighty score of cod in one

day, fishing off the Doggerbank in five and twenty fathoms water.

Latterly the Norfolk and Lincoln, and even the Essex, coasts, have

yielded a large supply of fish, which are caught as described, and are

stowed in well-boats, in which they are carried to Gravesend, whence

they are transhipped into market-boats, and sent up to Billingsgate by

each evening tide; the store-boats not being allowed to come up higher,

as the fresh water would kill the fish.

The Haddock (_Morrhua æglefinus_) is common in our markets; it is much

smaller than the cod, but in other respects not unlike it. It frequents

the same localities, and is caught with long lines baited usually with

mussels; the old fish keep close in shore, and are only got with herring

bait. In the village of Findhorn, Morayshire, large numbers of haddocks

are dried and smoked with the fumes of hard wood and sawdust. Hence the

term "Finnan haddies," an article in such request at a Scottish

breakfast. The village of Findhorn affords a very small portion of the

haddocks sold as such, but the true "Finnans" are supposed to have the

finest flavour.

The Whiting, _Merlangus vulgaris_ (Fig. 376), by some amateurs

considered the most delicate of all the Gadidæ, is plentiful all round

our coast. It spawns in March, and the eggs are quickly hatched. It

prefers a sandy shore, and is usually found some miles from the coast.

It is a small fish, rarely exceeding twelve inches long, and seldom

reaching two pounds in weight. The whiting is long in the body, clothed

with very small, thin, and round scales; its dorsal fins are, like the

cod, three in number; it is without barbellary appendage; its upper jaw

projects over the lower; it is of a silvery white, sometimes relieved by

an olive tint, which is contrasted upon the back by the blackish tint

which distinguishes the pectoral and caudal fins, and by a black spot

which some individuals have at the junction of the pectorals with the

body.

[Illustration: Fig. 376. The Whiting (Merlangus vulgaris).]

The whiting inhabits the seas which wash the whole European coast, often

approaching the shore in shoals, and are taken annually in great

numbers.

3. ABDOMINALES.

The fishes belonging to this order have the ventral fins under the

abdomen placed behind, and not attached to the bones of the shoulder. It

is much the most numerous and important of the great division of the

Malacopterygeans. It includes most of our fresh-water fishes, a great

number of marine species, and many like the salmon, which betake

themselves to the rivers in the spawning season to deposit their ova. We

shall limit our remarks to the species which are essentially marine,

such as the _Salmonidæ_, the _Clupeadæ_, and a few others.

SALMONIDÆ.

The fishes of this family are graceful in shape, and have the body

clothed in scales; they have two dorsals, the first with soft rays,

followed by a second, which is smaller, formed without rays, and

adipose--that is, formed simply of a skin filled with fatty matter,

unsupported by osseous rays. They inhabit the seas of temperate and

northern regions; ascending the rivers at certain seasons, and, in some

instances, living exclusively in the great rivers and watercourses. They

are found even in the most elevated mountain brooks. The grayling or

shad, guiniad, sprat, trout, and the salmon, the type of the family,

belong to the group.

[Illustration: Fig. 377. Adult Salmon.]

The genus _Salmo_ includes three species, namely, _Salmo salar_, _S.

croix_, and _S. trutta_, the trout. Of these, _S. salar_ (Fig. 377) has

the body long, the muzzle roundish, but more so in the male than in the

female, the upper jaw provided with a fossette, into which the point of

the lower jaw penetrates; the back is a slaty blue, the sides and lower

part of the body of a silvery diaphanous white, with great black spots

scattered round the upper part of the head, round the upper edge of the

eye, and over the operculum or covering. Some brownish irregular spots,

variable both in form and size, are sprinkled over the sides. In other

respects their colours are subject to variations according to

circumstances. Before assuming the characters here indicated, however,

the salmon has passed through three stages, each of which is marked by

peculiarities worthy of being noted. The young salmon (Fig. 378) is

greyish and striped with black. At the end of a year it has acquired a

fine metallic hue. "The other parts," according to Mr. Blanchard, "are

of a dazzling steel-blue; eight or ten large spots of the same brilliant

blue cover it as with a silvery mantle on the sides; between these spots

a reddish, or, rather, brightish-rusty iron colour prevails; a black

spot is usually observable in the middle of the operculum. The belly is

of a fine diaphanous blue in the parr" (Fig. 379).

[Illustration: Fig. 378. The Young Salmon.]

[Illustration: Fig. 379. Salmon, or Parr, a year old.]

Dr. Bertram gives a very clear and intelligible account of the early

days of the salmon, which was at one time veiled in mystery. "The spawn,

deposited by the parent fish in October, November, and December, lies in

the river till about April or May, when it quickens into life. I have

already described the changes apparent in the salmon's egg, from the

time of its fructification till the birth of the fish. The infant fry

are of course very helpless, and are seldom seen during the first week

or two of their existence, when they carry about with them, as a

provision for food, a portion of the egg from whence they emanated. At

that time the fish is about half an inch in size, and presents such a

singular appearance that no person seeing it would ever believe that it

would grow into a fine grilse or salmon. About fifty days is required

for the animal to assume the shape of a perfect fish; before that time

it might be taken for anything else than a young salmon. At the end of

two years it has changed into a smolt. After absorbing its umbilical

bag, which it takes a period of twenty to forty days to accomplish, the

young salmon may be seen about its birthplace, timid and weak, hiding

about the stones, and always apparently of the same colour as the

surroundings of its sheltering place. The transverse bars of the parr,

however, speedily become apparent, and the fish begins to grow with

considerable rapidity, especially if it is to be a twelvemonth smolt,

and this is very speedily seen at such a place as the Stormontfield

ponds. The young fish continue to grow for a little more than two years

before the whole number make the change from parr to smolt, and seek the

salt water. Half the number of any one hatching begin to change at a

little over twelve months from the date of their coming to life. And

thus there is the extraordinary anomaly of fish of the same hatching

being at one and the same time parr of half an ounce in weight, and

grilse weighing four pounds. The smolts of the first year return from

the sea, while their brothers and sisters are timidly disporting in the

breeding shallows of the upper streams." A late sea-going smolt explains

the anomaly of a spring salmon.

It thus appears that, in its first stage, the Young Salmon (Fig. 378) is

called a _parr_: during the second it is a _smolt_, namely, a parr plus

a jacket of silvery scales. While they continue in the state of parr

they lead a secluded life, totally unable to endure salt water, which

would kill them. When they have become smolts the fish betake themselves

in bands to the sea. The sea-feeding being favourable, and the fish

strong enough for the salt water, a rapid growth is the consequence.

After that they disappear, spreading themselves over the wide world of

the ocean. At the end of two months of a life mysterious and so far

unknown, these fishes reappear in the rivers, returning to their native

pools; but how changed! _Quantum mutati!_ The smolt, which has lived in

the river two or three years, and only attained the length of six or

eight inches, returns at the end of two months' sojourn in the sea,

weighing three to four, and after six months, ten or twelve pounds. It

is now a grilse.

After depositing their eggs the grilse remain some time in the fresh

water, when they again go to the sea. This second sojourn, of about two

months, is sufficient to send it back weighing from six to twelve

pounds. It is now an adult salmon. Each new visit to the sea brings the

salmon back increased in size in proportion to the duration of the

voyage. In the month of March, 1845, the Duke of Athole took a salmon in

the Tay after it had deposited its eggs; he marked it by attaching a

metal label to it. It weighed ten pounds. The same individual with its

metal label was again fished up after five weeks and three days'

absence. It now weighed twenty-one pounds, having in the meantime

travelled forty miles down the river to the sea. This fish must,

however, have made a long sea run during these thirty-eight days and its

seeking up the river again.

In most circumstances, according to Mr. Blanchard, to whom we are

indebted for much information relative to the development and migration

of these fishes, salmon of various ages, which have nevertheless

sojourned in the sea as grilse, adult salmon, and others intermediate

between them, whose first sojourn at sea has extended to eight or ten

months, ascend the rivers together in an order no less varied, the

older individuals heading the column, the youngest bringing up the rear.

When the period for depositing their eggs approaches, a male and female

pair off, as it were; seeming to choose, by a common accord, a retired

place in which to spawn. Here both male and female employ themselves in

hollowing out a nest in the strand, some eight or nine inches deep,

wherein the female deposits her eggs, which the male fertilizes by

shedding a milky fluid over them, sheltering the eggs afterwards by a

covering of sand.

The salmon only ascends the rivers to spawn. They eagerly return

afterwards to salt water. When enjoying themselves in the water they

swim slowly, floating near the surface; but in pursuit of any object, or

if threatened with danger, they dart out of the water with extraordinary

promptitude. The tail is, in fact, a true oar moved by powerful muscles;

a low waterfall is to the salmon no serious obstacle when it is impelled

to ascend to its breeding-place. Curving its vertebral column, it forms

itself into a sort of elastic spring; the arc of which being suddenly

unbent, strikes the water with great force with the tail, and in the

rebound it leaps to the height of several yards, clearing waterfalls of

considerable height. If it falls without accomplishing its object, it

repeats the manœuvre until it is at last successful. It is especially

when the leader of the band makes a successful leap that the others,

acquiring new spirit from its example, throw themselves upwards until

their emulation is rewarded by success.

[Illustration: Fig. 380. Salmon Leap at Kilmorack.]

Some of the British waterfalls are celebrated for their salmon leaps.

Wales, Scotland, and Ireland have each their celebrated leaps; in

Pembrokeshire, Argyleshire, and at Ballyshannon, in county Donegal, and

at Leixlip. The cataract of Leixlip is upwards of twenty feet high, and

the country people make a holiday in order to see the salmon clear its

height. These acrobat fishes frequently fall before they finally

succeed, and it is not unusual for the people to place osier baskets to

trap them in their fall. At the cataract of Kilmorack, in

Inverness-shire (Fig. 380), the inhabitants living near the river have a

practice of fixing branches of trees on the edge of the rocks. By means

of these branches they contrive to catch the fishes which have failed in

their leap; it is even asserted that sportsmen have been known to kill

them on the wing, as it were, in their leap. But the exploit, attributed

to Lord Lovat by Dr. Franklin, is perhaps the nearest approach to the

fabulous which we have met with.

Having remarked that great numbers of salmon failed in their efforts to

surmount the Falls of Kilmorack, and that they generally fell on the

bank at the foot of the fall, Lord Lovat conceived the idea of placing a

furnace and a frying-pan on a point of rock overhanging the river. After

their unsuccessful effort some of the unhappy salmon would fall

accidentally into the frying-pan. The noble lord could thus boast that

the resources of his country were so abundant, that on placing a furnace

and frying-pan on the banks of their rivers, the salmon would leap into

it of their own accord, without troubling the sportsman to catch them.

It is more probable, however, that Lord Lovat knew that the way to enjoy

salmon in perfection is to cook it when fresh from the water, and before

the richer parts of the fish have ceased to curd. The principal salmon

found in the market are Tweed, Tay, North Esk, Spey, Skye, Norwegian,

and above all Severn, said to be the best which comes to market, neither

of which must be confounded with the imported American variety--the

origin of the prevalent cheap London kipper--and the Cape, or

red-mouthed variety. Cape and Americans are at once distinguished by

their flesh boiling a blanched white. Tweed salmon are more varied; and

this river, famous in song, is also noted for its production of the

greatest proportion of bull-trout. The Tay yields the largest grilse and

salmon, but the Spey follows fast in her wake; Tay fish sometimes weigh

sixty pounds. The minor Scotch rivers produce smaller but superior fish.

Skye and West-coast grilse are short, thick, and small-headed, and

proportionally more abundant. Trout are numerous; sea-bull, burn, or

loch, and the so-called herring-trout, are the varieties usually met

with. The whitling of the Tweed, grayling of Tay, and tinnock of North

and South Esk, are young sea and bull-trout, abounding in March and

April, when a sportsman will land fifty or sixty daily, weighing from

one quarter to a pound. Trout flesh varies in colour from a clear white

to a dark red; the North Esk red trout is most esteemed. The best run

from a pound and a half to three pounds. The burn-trout is always red,

and has been killed as heavy as thirty pounds. The herring-trout, never

found in English rivers, and only caught on our coast by

herring-trawlers, is a special favourite: may it not be the whitling of

the French rivers? In all other species colour varies with locality, and

cannot be accounted for.

We have seen how rapidly the young salmon increase in size in the sea.

During this stage of existence the salmon, being a carnivorous fish,

rapidly develops itself from the grilse to the adult state. From a

careful analysis made by Dr. Wilson Johnston of the Bengal army, it

appears that there is no recorded instance of healthy salmon partaking

of herring or sand-lances; the tape-worm and other conditions of

perverted appetite persisting in all. Tape-worm is most common in the

hybrid Norwegian, and explains the reason why Clupeadæ are sometimes

found in their stomachs. Should the fish not be charged with spawn, it

will shortly return to sport among the dancing waves; but if matured for

breeding, at which period the female shows a dirty brown hue, and the

male a black, they mate, choose a spot for the salmon nest, and there

deposit myriads of ova. The longer a salmon continues in the river the

duller their colour becomes; the flavour is greatly depreciated; so that

Izaac Walton's statement, that "the further they get from the sea they

be both fatter and better," is dead against our daily experience.

During the period of river residence salmon never feed. It avails not to

argue that fear acts as an emetic and empties the stomach; the

incontestable fact remains that the entire gastro-intestinal tract _ab

ore ad ano_ is in ninety-nine per cent. devoid of any trace of food.

Juvenile experience on the part of the fish, recurring as a phantasm,

causes them to snap at a shining artificial minnow or a gaudy fly, but

they never rise out of the water; the bait must dip to them, and when

hooked they shake the intruder as a terrier does a rat. If salmon never

feed in fresh water, what is the rationale of their existing there?

Well, the superabundant store of fat deposited in the areolar tissue

appears to furnish a material which is functionally homologous to the

fatty supply stored by the Asiatic and African doomba sheep, which is

drawn upon to sustain life-action, when névès, avalanches, or a heavy

snow-fall imprisons the herbage outcrop. That continued muscular

exertion can be sustained without special fatigue on non-nitrogenous

diet, Fick and Wislicensus have proved by the recent ascent of the

Faulhorn: it is moreover notorious that the chamois hunter and the

Hindoo runner prefer fats and saccharoids. Is there any show of reason,

then, why the salmon should not maintain its fresh-water muscular tear

and wear by a stock of non-nitrogenous fatty material? That such is the

true philosophy of salmon river life is borne out by the following

facts:

1st. So soon as the exhausting secretions of the milt and roe take place

the spent fish turn seaward to recruit.

2nd. The digestive secretions are not eliminated in the absence of food;

the most recent experience of physiology finds its echo here. Your boxer

trains on meat or nitrogenous aliment, but enters the list on

hydro-carbons (fats, saccharines, and amylaceous substances). The salmon

get into condition by immediately appropriating the albumen of the

echinodermal ova, enter their life-struggle of wintry months in river

water with an incorporated stock of potential calorific aliment,

convertible, as occasion demands, into organic muscular mechanical

effort.

The British rivers in which the salmon abound are the Severn, the Wye,

the Tweed, the Tay, the Don, and the Dee, with many of their

tributaries, and in Ireland, the Shannon. Besides these, many of the

watercourses of lesser note adjoining the coast have been renowned for

their salmon fisheries. Some of the Scottish rivers, especially, are

famous for the size and quality as well as numbers of salmon. In days

not very distant from ours, farm servants made it a condition of their

hiring that salmon should not be served to them more than three days in

the week. These times are changed. In the districts in which this

condition was the most stringently insisted on, the proprietors derive a

princely revenue from this source alone. The Tay fisheries yield a

revenue of seventeen thousand pounds per annum. The Spey, for its length

the richest in Scotland, produces twelve thousand pounds per annum. The

river is only a hundred and twenty miles from its source to the sea, and

its picturesque banks are celebrated in a local ballad, which says, not

very harmoniously, that

"Dipple, Dundurcus, Dandaleith, and Dulocq,

Are the bonniest haughs of the run of the Spey;"

but there's "no standing water in the Spey!" The river drains thirteen

hundred miles of mountains, many of whose bases are more than a thousand

feet above the level of the sea. The Tweed, which has been "poached" and

plundered, by its proprietors using unfair implements, until there was

scarcely a fish in its upper waters, is slowly recovering under

legislative enactments, and its rental is now seven thousand five

hundred pounds.

Salmon abounds in the Loire and its affluents, but is much more rare in

the Seine and Marne. They enter the Rhine and the Elbe, and most of the

great rivers of the north of Europe. In France they were formerly found

in the rivers of Brittany, and in the Gironde. They are now very rare in

these rivers. The coast of Picardy is well furnished, but they are rare

in Upper and Lower Normandy. In Norway, especially in the district of

Drontheim, the salmon fishery is conducted on a large scale on the

sea-shore as well as in the interior waters. The Baltic is rich in

salmon. Considerable fisheries are carried on in the waters of the Gulfs

of Finland and Bothnia, as well as in the waters of Swedish Laponia. The

takes vary every year; in 1860 being much above the average throughout

Great Britain, or as in 1772, when the fish were so scarce in the Tweed,

that it was believed they had gone off the coast. They invariably go to

leeward with the wind, and have been caught a hundred miles off land.

Salmon are in condition at various periods of the year, apparently not

depending on the latitude of the rivers. Thus the Tay is one of the

earliest rivers, while the North and South Esk are the latest, yet they

debouch within a few miles of each other. It is the opinion of Mr.

Joseph Johnston of Montrose (whose acknowledged fifty years' practical

experience carries weight with it in all fishery parliamentary

committees) that the Stormontfield ponds, by artificially rearing the

parr, render them more helpless when they commence river life on their

own account. As a natural result, the death-ratio is enormously

increased--cui bono? especially when the parr have only the _option_ of

leaving, and are not compelled to go out. We must, therefore, receive

Dr. Bertram's narrative, much as we respect his authority, with some

reserve. A seed will not grow, nor will a parr ever become a grilse,

unless under given conditions: it is therefore an easy matter to explain

the anomaly of a parr passing seaward becoming a four-pound grilse,

while its twin-brother remaining in the breeding-pond is conditionally

developed as only a half-ounce samlet, yet none the less a dwarfed

grilse--the possibility of growth existing all the while, although it

was not actively evoked by physical surroundings.

The modes of procedure in salmon fishery are very various. Spearing with

tridents, and liestering with a weighted hook by torch-light, "burning

the water," as the Scotch have it, as well as trammel, wear, and

cruive-wear fishing, are now prohibited. Legal fishing in rivers is

confined to row nets, and fly and bait rod fishing, fixtures being

illegal since 1810. Wear shot; a larger and heavier row-net placed at

the meeting of the waters; stake, fly, and bag-nets are used in the open

sea. The latter is most in vogue, the former being almost superseded by

the fly. Fixtures on the sea coast were held to be legal in Lord

Kintore's case by House of Lords in 1828, and continued so till the

passing of the recent Act. By this act all legal modes of fishing are in

action from the first of February to the fourteenth of September, a

period, however, now curtailed by twenty-eight days,--netting being

illegal from Saturday to Monday in each week. It remains to be seen

whether the gourmet will enjoy his salmon better after its Sabbath rest;

perhaps its ragout will then haunt him as it did Talleyrand's abbé, who,

instead of the _mea culpa_ of the Confiteor, iterated, "Ah! le bon

saumon! ah! le bon saumon!"

A bag-net is composed of three chambers; the first, which is the widest,

is at the entrance. The next is the doubling, and is one inch to the

mesh narrower than the outer. The last is the fish court, where the fish

by a simple and ingenious contrivance are prevented from finding the

door by which they entered. It is partly floated by corks and partly by

an empty cask on the head or principal riding rope. It is set in the sea

by ropes attached to anchors, one anchor rope to the head of the net and

one on each wing at the entrance of the bag. The bag-leader is a

separate net held by a rope and anchor on the land side, and is fastened

to the bag net. The principle of fishing is this: the tide makes a

curve on the leader of the bag, in this curve the fish swim into the

net. Bags are adapted for any kind of coast, and six or seven are run

out to sea end on. Fly nets are the same as bags in principle, but

slightly altered so as to adapt them for being fixed to stakes driven

into the sand instead of being moored by rope and anchor; they are

always used where the tide ebbs. Stake nets are expensive, and seldom

used now-a-days. When in fishing trim they are, however, more deadly

than fly nets: their chambers are three times as large, but the

principle of fishing in bag and stake nets is identical, leaders being

used in all. It is noteworthy that trout are never caught in these

leaders.

ESOCIDÆ.

This family includes the _Pike_, which, being a fresh-water fish, need

not now occupy our attention; it includes also the singular genus

_Stomias_, and the Flying-fish, _Exocoetus_.

The _Stomias_ have a body much elongated, the muzzle being very short,

the mouth very deeply cleft, the opercula reduced to small membranous

laminæ; the maxillarius fixed to the cheek; the inter-maxillary palatine

and maxillary bones are rather sparingly furnished with teeth, and those

are long and hooked. Similar teeth are observable on the tongue. The

ventral fins are placed far back, and the dorsal fin is placed opposite

the anal fin, on the hinder extremity of the body.

Only two species of this genus are known: the one of the Mediterranean,

_Stomia boa_ (Fig. 381), the other of the Atlantic Ocean, _S. barbatus_,

so called from the long barbula on the chin. Both species are black in

colour, with numerous small silvery spots on the abdomen. The body of

_S. boa_ is thin, compressed, covered with little thin scales of

blackish blue, much spotted on the back and abdomen, a little brighter

on the sides--the head, in some respects, recalling that of a serpent.

Flying is so much associated in our minds with the usual denizens of the

air, that the idea of flying-fishes seems to be a contradiction.

Nevertheless, some fishes possess that power, the fins being transformed

into wings, which they are enabled to raise for a few seconds. These

wings, however, are neither long nor powerful, for they rather act the

part of a parachute than wings. The distinguishing characteristic of the

_Exocoetus_, or flying-fish, is the pectoral fins, nearly the length of

the body, the head flattened above and on the sides, the lower part of

the body furnished with a longitudinal series of carinated scales on

each side, the dorsal fin placed above the anal, the eyes large, and the

jaws furnished with small pointed teeth.

[Illustration: Fig. 381. Stomia boa.]

The Flying-fishes (Fig. 382) in their own element are harassed by

attacks of other inhabitants of the ocean, and when under the excitement

of fear they take to the air, they are equally exposed to the attacks of

aquatic birds, especially the various species of gulls. We have said

that, in their leap from the water, their fins sustain them rather as

parachutes than wings, with which they beat the air. Mr. Bennett's

description is pretty clear on this point. "I have never," he says,

"been able to see any percussion of the pectoral fins during flight; and

the greatest length of time I have seen this volatile fish on the fly

has been thirty seconds by the watch, and the longest flight, mentioned

by Captain Basil Hall, has been two hundred yards, but he thinks that

subsequent observation has extended the space. The usual height of their

flight, as seen above the surface of the water, is from two to three

feet, but I have known them come on board at the height of fourteen

feet and upwards. And they have been well ascertained to come into the

chains of a line of battle ship, which is considered to be upwards of

twenty feet. But it must not be supposed that they have the power of

raising themselves into the air after having left their native element;

for on watching them I have often seen them fall much below the

elevation at which they first rose from the water; nor have I ever in

any instance seen them rise from the height to which they first sprang,

for I conceive the elevation they take depends on the power of the first

spring."

[Illustration: Fig. 382. The Flying-fish (E. exiliens).]

The most common species is _E. volitans_. Its brilliant colouring would

seem designed to point it out to its enemies, against whom it is totally

defenceless. A dazzling silvery splendour pervades its surface. The

summit of its head, its back, and its sides, are of azure blue; this

blue becomes spotted upon the dorsal fin, the pectoral fin, and the

tail. This fish is the common prey of the more voracious fishes, such

as the shark, and the sea-birds; its enemies abound in the air and

water. If it succeeds in escaping the Charybdis of the water, the

chances are in favour of its coming to grief in the Scylla of the

atmosphere--if it escapes the jaws of the shark, it will probably fall

to the share of the sea-gull. The dolphin is also a formidable enemy to

the much-persecuted flying-fish. Captain Basil Hall gives a very

animated description of their mode of attack.[17] He was in a prize, a

low Spanish schooner, rising not above two feet and a half out of the

water. "Two or three dolphins had ranged past the ship in all their

beauty. The ship in her progress through the water had put up a shoal of

these little things (flying-fish), which took their flight to windward.

A large dolphin which had been keeping company with us abreast of the

weather gangway at the depth of two or three fathoms, and as usual

glistening most beautifully in the sun, no sooner detected our poor dear

friends take wing than he turned his head towards them, darted to the

surface, and leaped from the water with a velocity little short, as it

seemed to us, of a cannon-ball. But though the impetus with which he

shot himself into the air gave him an initial velocity greatly exceeding

that of the flying-fish, the start which his fated prey had got enabled

them to keep ahead of him for a considerable time. The length of the

dolphin's first spring could not be less than ten yards, and after he

fell we could see him gliding like lightning through the water for a

moment, when he again rose, and shot upwards with considerably greater

velocity than at first, and of course to a still greater distance. In

this manner the merciless pursuer seemed to stride along the sea with

fearful rapidity, while his brilliant coat sparkled and flashed in the

sun quite splendidly. As he fell headlong in the water at the end of

each leap, a series of circles were sent far over the surface, for the

breeze, just enough to keep the royals and topgallant studding-sails

extended, was hardly felt as yet below.

"The group of wretched flying-fishes, thus hotly pursued, at length

dropped into the sea; but we were rejoiced to observe that they merely

touched the top of the swell, and instantly set off again in a fresh and

even more vigorous flight. It was particularly interesting to observe

that the direction they took now was quite different from the one in

which they had set out, implying but too obviously that they had

detected their fierce enemy, who was following them with giant steps

along the waves, and was gaining rapidly upon them. His pace, indeed,

was two or three times as swift as theirs, poor little things! and the

greedy dolphin was fully as quick-sighted; for whenever they varied

their flight in the smallest degree, he lost not the tenth part of a

second in shaping his course so as to cut off the chase; while they, in

a manner really not unlike that of the hare, doubled more than once upon

the pursuer. But it was soon plainly to be seen that the strength and

confidence of the flying-fish were fast ebbing; their flights became

shorter and shorter, and their course more fluttering and uncertain,

while the leaps of the dolphin seemed to grow more vigorous at each

bound. Eventually this skilful sea-sportsman seemed to arrange his

springs so as to fall just under the very spot on which the exhausted

flying-fish were about to drop. This catastrophe took place at too great

a distance for us to see from the deck what happened; but on our

mounting high on the rigging, we may be said to have been in at the

death; for then we could discover that the unfortunate little creatures,

one after another, either popped right into the dolphin's jaws as they

lighted on the water, or were snapped up instantly after."

THE CLUPEADÆ.

Of this family the herring is the graceful, useful, and well-known type,

to which also the pilchard, the shad, and the anchovy belong. The Clupea

have the body longish and compressed, especially at the belly, where it

comes to an edge; it is clothed with large scales, forming towards the

belly a saw-like edge, which is very thin and easily removed. One dorsal

fin without spinous rays, and one ventral, both placed near the middle

of the body, are its locomotive characteristics.

The Herring, _Clupea harengus_ (Fig. 383), is too well known to require

description; its appearance is beautiful; but we shall only remark here

that its back, which in the fish after death is of an indigo bluish

colour, is green during life; the other parts vary considerably in their

colours and markings, sometimes representing written characters, which

ignorant fishermen have considered to be words of mystery. In November,

1587, two herrings were taken on the coast of Norway, on the bodies of

which were markings resembling Gothic printed characters. These herrings

had the signal honour of being presented to the King of Norway,

Frederick II. This superstitious prince turned pale at sight of this

supposed prodigy. On the back of these innocent inhabitants of the deep

he saw certain cabalistic characters, which he thought announced his

death and that of his queen. Learned men were consulted. Their science,

as reported, enabled them to read distinctly words expressing the

sentiment, "Very soon you will cease to fish herrings, as well as other

people." Other _savants_ were assembled, who gave another explanation;

but in 1588 the king died, and the people were firmly convinced that the

two herrings were celestial messengers charged to announce to the

Norwegian people the approaching end of the monarch.

[Illustration: Fig. 383. The Herring (Clupea harengus).]

This fish abounds throughout the entire Northern Ocean in immense

shoals, which are found in the bays of Greenland, Lapland, and round the

whole coast of the British Islands. Great shoals of them occupy the

gulfs of Sweden, of Norway, and of Denmark, the Baltic and the Zuyder

Zee, the Channel, and the coast of France up to the Loire, beyond which

they never appear to be found. But the finest herrings are caught on

Loch Fyne, on the west coast of Scotland.

The herrings are gregarious fishes, and live in great shoals closely

packed together; shoals to be counted not by hundreds, but by thousands

and tens of thousands, in many a shore and bay. It was the favourite

theory, not very long ago, that herrings emigrated to and from the

arctic regions. It was asserted, by the supporters of this theory, that

in the inaccessible seas of high northern latitudes herrings existed in

overwhelming numbers, an open sea within the arctic circle affording a

safe and bounteous feeding-ground. At the proper season vast bodies

gathered themselves together into one great army, which, in numbers

exceeding the powers of imagination, departed for more southern regions.

This great _Heer_, or army, was subdivided, by some instinct, as they

reached the different shores, led, according to the ideas of fishermen,

by herrings of more than ordinary size and sagacity, one division taking

the west side of Britain, while another took the east side, the result

being an adequate and well-divided supply of herrings, which penetrated

every bay and arm of the sea round our coast, from Wick to Yarmouth.

Closer observation, however, shows that this theory has no existence in

fact. Lacepede denies that those periodical journeyings take place.

Valenciennes also rejects them. It is true that the herrings have

disappeared in certain neighbourhoods in which they were formerly very

plentiful; but it is also certain that, in many of the fishing stations,

fish are taken all the year round. Moreover, the discovery that the

herring of America is probably a distinct species from that of Europe

(which, smoked, is known as the "Digby Chick") is against the theory. In

short, there is a total absence of proof of their pretended migrations

to high northern latitudes; and recent discoveries all tend to show that

the herring is native to the shores on which it is taken.

"It has been demonstrated," says Dr. Bertram, "that the herring is

really a native of our immediate seas, and can be caught all the year

round on the coast of the three kingdoms. The fishing begins at the

island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, in the month of May, and goes on as

the year advances, till in July it is being prosecuted off the coast of

Caithness; while in autumn and winter we find large supplies of herrings

at Yarmouth; there is a winter fishery in the Firth of Forth. Moreover,

this fish is found in the south long before it ought to be there,

according to the emigration theory. It has been deduced, from a

consideration of the annual takes of many years, that the herring exists

in distinct races, which arrive at maturity month after month. It is

well known that the herrings taken at Wick in July are quite different

from those caught at Dunbar in August and September; indeed I would go

further, and say that even at Wick each month has its changing shoal,

and that as one race appears for capture another disappears, having

fulfilled its mission. It is certain that the herrings of these

different seasons vary considerably in size and appearance; localities

are marked by distinctive features. Thus the well-known Loch Fyne

herring is essentially different from that of the Firth of Forth; and

those differ again, in many particulars, from those caught off Yarmouth.

In fact, the herring never ventures far from the shore where it is

taken; and its condition, when it is caught, is just an index of the

feeding it has enjoyed in its particular locality. The superiority of

flavour of the herring taken in our great land-locked salt-water lochs

is undoubted. Whether or not resulting from the depth and body of water,

from more plentiful marine vegetation, or from the greater variety of

land food likely to be washed into these inland seas, has not yet been

determined, but it is certain that the herrings of our western sea-lochs

are infinitely superior to those captured in the more open sea."

"Moreover," he adds, "it is now known, from the inquiries of the late

Mr. Mitchell and other authorities on the geographical distribution of

the herring, that the fish has never been noticed as being at all

abundant in the arctic regions."

The herring feeds on small crustaceans, fishes just hatched, and even on

the fry of its own species. On the other hand, its enemies are the most

formidable inhabitants of the ocean; the whales destroy them by

thousands, but man, above all, carries on a war which threatens to be

one of extermination. In fact, the herring-fishery has been to certain

nations the great cause of their prosperity. It was the foundation of

Dutch independence. Silk manufacture, coffee, tea, spices, which are

productive of great commercial movements, address themselves only to the

wants of luxury or fashion. The produce of the herring fishery, on the

contrary, is one of necessity to the people; and Holland would have

languished and quickly disappeared, with its fictitious territory, if

the sea had not added to its commercial industry this inexhaustible

mine of wealth. That vast field it has worked with persevering ardour.

Struggling for an existence, it has conquered. Every year numerous

vessels leave the coast of Holland for this precious marine harvest. The

herring fishery is, for the Dutch people, the most important of maritime

expeditions. It is with them known as the "great fishery." Whaling is

known as the "small fishery." The great fishery is a golden mine to

Holland; it is, besides, a very ancient occupation with ourselves. We

find it flourishing in the twelfth century; for, in 1195, according to

the historians, the city of Dunwich, in the county of Suffolk, was

obliged to furnish the king with twenty-four thousand herrings. We also

find mention made of the herring fishery in a chronicle of the Monastery

of Evesham in the year 709.

Towards the year 1030 the French sent vessels into the North Sea from

Dieppe for this fishing, nearly a century before the Dutch made the

attempt; but as early as the thirteenth century that enterprising people

employed two thousand boats in this industry. The Danes, Swedes, and

Norwegians also threw themselves into this trade at an early period. The

French, Danes, and Swedes furnish at the present time only sufficient

for home consumption. The monopoly of foreign trade belongs to the

English, Dutch, and Norwegians. "The quantity of herrings gathered every

year by our neighbours beyond the Channel," says Moquin-Tandon, "is

truly enormous. In Yarmouth alone four hundred ships, of from forty to

sixty tons, are equipped, the largest being manned by twelve men. The

revenue derived from this fleet is about seven hundred thousand pounds.

In 1857 three of these fishing-boats, belonging to the same proprietors,

carried home three millions seven hundred and sixty-two thousand

fishes."

Since the beginning of this century the Scottish fishermen have emulated

the zeal of the English. In a paper communicated to the British

Association in 1854, Mr. Cleghorn, who has paid great attention to the

subject, states "that there are nine hundred and twenty Wick boats

engaged in the fishing, and that the produce was ninety-five thousand

six hundred and eighty barrels" in one week alone, this being, however,

a falling off of sixty-one thousand barrels from the previous year. The

cause of this immense falling off was ascribed to a storm which had

swept along the coast at the height of the season; but Mr. Cleghorn was

inclined to ascribe it mainly to over-fishing, which had gradually

diminished the number of herrings captured.

The boats employed by the French and Dutch in the herring fishery are

about sixty tons burden. They generally depart for the Orkney and

Shetland isles. They afterwards betake themselves to the German Ocean,

and fish the Channel in November and December. These boats carry up to

sixteen hands, according to their size. Arrived at their fishing ground,

they cast their nets, as seen in PL. XXIX.

[Illustration: Plate XXIX.--The Herring Fishery.]

The lines of the Dutch fishermen are five hundred feet in length,

composed of fifty or sixty different nets. The upper parts of these nets

are supported by empty barrels or cork-buoys, the lower edge being

weighted with lead or stones, which are kept at a convenient depth by

shortening or lengthening the cords by which the buoys are attached. The

size of the mesh of the nets is such that the herrings of a certain size

are caught in it by the gills and pectoral fins. If the first mesh is

too large to hold them they pass through, and get caught by the next or

succeeding mesh, which is smaller. The herring-fishery is regulated by

Act of Parliament, and the legal mode of capture is by means of what is

called a drift-net. The drift-net is made of fine twine, marked with

squares of an inch each to allow for the escape of the young fish. The

nets are measured by the barrel bulk, a net measuring fifty feet long by

thirty-two deep, and each holding half a barrel. The drift is composed

of many separate nets fastened together by means of a back rope, and

each separate net of the series is marked off by a bladder or empty

cask. The process is that described by Dr. Bertram in an article

published in the "Cornhill Magazine." The writer had made his

arrangement for a night at the herring fishery under the auspices of

Francis Sinclair, a very gallant-looking fellow, who sails his own boat

from Wick, and takes his own venture. Bounding over the waves with a

good capful of wind, they had left the shore and beetling cliffs far

behind them; they reached their fishing ground, where they tacked up and

down, eagerly watching for the oily phosphorescent gleam which is

indicative of herrings. "At last, after a lengthened cruise," he says,

"our commander, who had been silent for half an hour, jumped up and

called to action. 'Up, men, and at them!' was the order of the night.

The preparations for shooting the nets at once began by lowering

sail. Surrounding us on all sides was to be seen a moving world of

boats; many with sails down, their nets floating in the water, and their

crews at rest. Others were still flitting uneasily about, their

skippers, like our own, anxious to shoot in the right place. By-and-by

we were ready; the sucker goes splash into the water; the 'dog,' a large

inflated bladder to mark the far end of the train, is heaved overboard,

and the nets, breadth after breadth, follow as fast as the men can pay

them out, till the immense train is all in the water, forming a

perforated wall a mile long and many feet in depth; the 'dog' and the

marking bladder floating and dipping in long zigzag lines, reminding one

of the imaginary coils of the great sea-serpent. After three hours of

quietude beneath a beautiful sky, the stars--

'The eternal orbs that beautify the night'--

began to pale their fires, and, the gray dawn appearing, indicated that

it was time to take stock. We found that the boat had floated quietly

with the tide till we were a long distance from the harbour. The skipper

had a presentiment that there were fish in his net; and the bobbing down

of a few of the bladders made it almost a certainty, and he resolved to

examine the drifts. By means of the swing rope the boat was hauled up to

the nets. 'Hurrah!' exclaimed Murdoch of Skye; 'there's a lot of fish,

skipper, and no mistake.' Murdoch's news was true; our nets were silvery

with herrings--so laden, in fact, that it took a long time to haul them

in. It was a beautiful sight to see the shimmering fish as they came up

like a sheet of silver from the water, each uttering a weak death-chirp

as it was flung into the bottom of the boat. Formerly the fish were left

in the meshes of the net till the boat arrived in the harbour; but now,

as the net is hauled on board, they are at once shaken out. As our

silvery treasure showers into the boat we roughly guess our capture at

fifty crans--a capital night's work."

But there is a reverse to this medal. Wick Bay is not always rippled by

the land-breeze as on this occasion. "The herring fleet has been more

than once overtaken by a fierce storm, where valuable lives have been

lost, and thousands of pounds worth of netting and boats destroyed, and

the gladdening sights of the herring fishery have been changed to

wailing and sorrow."

The Yarmouth boats are decked vessels of from fifty to eighty tons, with

attendant boats, costing about one thousand pounds, and having stowage

for about fifty lasts; nominally, ten thousand, but, counted fisherwise,

thirteen thousand, herrings, besides provision for a five or six days'

voyage. Leaving a hand or two in charge of the vessel, the majority of

the crew are out in the smaller boats, fishing.

The Dutch herring fishery is usually pursued during the night. When the

nets are in the water the boat is left, as we have seen in Dr. Bertram's

excursion, to drift in the meantime. Each boat is furnished with a

lantern, which serves the double purpose of attracting the shoals of

fish, and preventing collisions with other boats. The herring fishery is

extremely capricious in its results; one or two boats have been known to

carry into port the whole takings of a night. Valenciennes witnessed the

capture of a hundred and ten thousand herrings in less than two hours.

The nets are hauled in when moderately charged with fish by the crew;

but it is often necessary to have recourse to the capstan in the

process. Some of the hands are stationed to detach the fish from the

nets; others detach the nets from the buoys; while others again fold up

and stow away the nets for future use.

On the coast of Norway the electric telegraph is applied to the herring

fishery, being employed to announce to the inhabitants of the fishing

towns the approach of the shoals of fish. In the fiords of Norway, where

the produce of the herring fishery is the principal means of existence

to nearly the entire population, it often happened that the fish made

its appearance at the most unexpected times, and on some parts of the

coast the shoals could only be met by one or two boats. Before the boats

from the bays and fiords could take part in the fishery, the herrings

had deposited their spawn and returned to the open sea.

To prevent these disappointments, often repeated with great loss to the

fishermen, the Norwegian government established, in 1857, a submarine

electric cable, along the coast frequented by the herrings, of a hundred

miles, with stations on shore at intervals conveniently placed for

communicating with the villages inhabited by the fishermen. As soon as a

shoal of herrings is known to be in the offing--and they can always be

perceived at a considerable distance by the wave they raise--a telegram

is despatched along the coast, which makes known in each village the

approach to the bay in which the herrings have established themselves.

This important branch of industry has only assumed its real character

since the fourteenth century, and its sudden and prodigious extension is

due to the discovery of a simple Dutch fisherman, George Benkel, who

died in 1397. To this man Holland owes much of its wealth. He

discovered, in short, the art of curing the herring so as to preserve it

for an indefinite time. From that moment the herring fishery assumed an

unexpected importance, and became the source of much wealth to Holland

and its industrious and enterprising people. Two hundred years after his

death the Emperor Charles V. solemnly ate a herring on Benkel's tomb; it

was a small homage paid to the memory of the creator of a new industry

which had enriched his native land.

The Shad (_Alosa_), which have the body round and more plump than the

herring, are still more distinguishable by the arrangement of their

teeth. More than twenty species of this genus are known, varying

considerably in size. They inhabit the seas which wash the coasts of

Europe, Africa, India, and America. One species is the Common Shad,

_Alosa communis_ (Fig. 384), which is found in the Channel, the North

Sea, and all round our coast. It is of a silvery tint generally,

greenish on the back, with one or two black spots behind the gills. The

shad approaches the mouths of rivers and great estuaries, and habitually

ascends them in the spring for the purpose of depositing its ova, and is

found at this season in the Rhine, the Seine, the Garonne, the Volga,

the Elbe, and many of our own rivers. In some of the Irish rivers the

masses of shad taken in the seine-net have been so great that no amount

of exertion has been sufficient to land them. It sometimes attains a

very considerable size, weighing as much as from four to six pounds. The

shad taken at sea are less delicate in their flesh than those caught in

fresh water. The habits of the shad are very imperfectly known. Two

species are found on the British coast, namely, the Twaite Shad of

Yarrell (_Alosa finta_), which is about fourteen inches in length,

brownish-green on the back, inclining to blue in certain lights, the

rest of the body silvery white, with five or six dusky spots on each

side arranged longitudinally. The jaws are furnished with distinct

teeth; the tail deeply forked.

The second species, the Common or Allice Shad (_A. Communis_), is

considerably larger, sometimes attaining twelve and even fifteen inches

in length, having only one spot on each side of the body near the head;

the jaws without teeth, the scales small in proportion. This species is

plentiful in the Severn, but rare in the Thames.

[Illustration: Fig. 384. The Allice Shad (Alosa communis).]

The shad is found in the Severn and Thames in considerable quantities

about the second week in July. They reach the fresh water about May,

deposit their spawn, and return to salt water in July. Their scales are

large.

The Sprat (_C. Sprattus_) has been the subject of a great controversy,

like the parr--one party contending that it is the young of the herring;

another, that it is a distinct species. Pennant, Yarrell, and many

eminent naturalists adopt the first view: yet its specific characters,

according to Pennant, are "greater depth of body than the young herring,

gill-covers not veined; teeth of the lower jaw so small as to be

scarcely sensible to the touch; the dorsal fin placed far back, and the

sharp edge of the abdomen more acutely serrated than in the herring."

Like the herring, they inhabit the deep water during the summer,

following the shoal to the sea-shore in autumn. The sprat fishing

commences in November and continues during the winter months, when they

are caught in such numbers that in some localities they have been used

as manure.

In support of the individuality of the sprat, the serrated belly and

relative position of the fins are dwelt upon, together with the instance

detailed by Mr. Mitchell, the Belgian consul at Leith, who exhibited a

pair of sprats, having the roe and milt fully developed.

On the other hand, the abundance of the sprat has been adduced as a

reason for its being the young herring. In addition to this, anatomists

declare their anatomy shows no difference but size. "As to the serrated

belly," says Bertram, "we may look on that as we do on the back of a

child's frock, namely, as a provision for growth." If this is so, Dr.

Bertram supplies material at once for thought and legislation. "The

slaughter of sprats," he says, "is as decided a case of killing the

goose with the golden eggs as the grilse slaughter carried on in our

salmon rivers." But Mr. Bertram here overlooks a fact of which any one

may convince himself, namely, that young herrings are caught without the

serrated belly; nay, the curer's purchase is regulated by the sprat's

rough, and the herring's smooth belly.

[Illustration: Fig. 385. The Pilchard (Clupea pilchardus).]

The Pilchard, _Clupea pilchardus_ (Fig. 385), sometimes called the gipsy

herring, visits our coasts all the year round. It was at one time

thought, as the herring was, to be migratory, but, like that fish, it is

now found to be a native of our own seas, and a constant inhabitant of

our shores. It has been known to spawn in May, but the usual time is

October, and authorities like Mr. Couch think it breeds only once a

year. Its visit to shallow water causes immense excitement; persons

watch night and day from the lofty cliffs along the Cornwall coast, and

the watchers (locally called "huers") signal the boats at sea beneath

them the moment they see indications of the approach of a shoal. Mr.

Wilkie Collins gives an animated picture of the "huer:" "A stranger in

Cornwall, taking his first walk along the cliffs in August, could not

advance far without witnessing what would strike him as a very singular

and even alarming phenomenon. He would see a man standing on the extreme

edge of a precipice just over the sea, gesticulating in a very

remarkable manner, with a bush in his hand, waving it to the right and

to the left, brandishing it over his head, sweeping it past his feet; in

short, acting the part apparently of a maniac of the most dangerous

description. It would add considerably to the stranger's surprise if he

were told that the insane individual before him was paid for flourishing

the bush at the rate of a guinea a week. And if he advanced a little, so

as to obtain a nearer view of the madman, and observed a well-manned

boat below turning carefully to the right and left, as the bush turned,

his mystification would probably be complete, and his ideas as to the

sanity of the inhabitants would be expressed with grievous doubt.

"But a few words of explanation would make him alter his opinion. He

would learn that the man was an important agent in the pilchard fishery

of Cornwall, that he had just discovered a shoal swimming towards the

land, and that the men in the boats were guided by his gesticulations

alone in their arrangements for securing the fish on which so many

depend for a livelihood."

The pilchard, the young of which is believed to be the sardine of

commerce, where its place is not usurped by the sprat, is sometimes

taken in the Channel, on the coasts of Brittany and Cornwall, and in the

Mediterranean, and on the coast of Sardinia, whence its commercial name.

In Brittany floating-nets are employed. The fishing is conducted in

boats, each carrying five men; hundreds of these boats may sometimes be

seen engaged at the same time three or four leagues from the coast, the

nets being only drawn when they are fully charged, when the fish are

arranged bed upon bed in osier baskets, each boat returning habitually

to port when it has secured twenty-five thousand fishes. The fishery

extends over five or six months, the produce being about six hundred

millions of sardines.

The Basque fishermen employ a net in the form of a sack, with rings at

each corner.

On the coast of Cornwall, as we have hinted, it is one of the staple

industries, and pursued systematically. Where they come from, and

whither they go, seems alike unknown. All that is certain is, that they

are met with in shoals swimming past the Scilly Islands as early as

July. In August the inshore fishing begins, and they appear on various

parts of the coast as far north as Devonshire and the south coast of

Ireland up to October and November; no doubt those which have escaped

the innumerable nets spread for them.

"The first sight from the cliffs of a shoal of pilchards," says Mr.

Collins, in the work already quoted, "is not a little interesting. They

produce on the sea the appearance of the shadow of a dark cloud, which

approaches until you can see the fish leaping and playing on the surface

by hundreds at a time, all huddled close together, and so near the shore

that they can be caught in fifty or sixty feet of water. Indeed, when

the shoals are of considerable magnitude, the fish behind have been

known literally to force the fish in front up to the beach, so that they

could be taken in baskets, or even with the hand.

"With the discovery of the first shoal, the active duties of the

lookout, or huer, on the cliffs begin. Each fishing village places one

or more of these men on the watch all round the coast. He is, therefore,

not only paid his guinea a week while he is on the watch, but a

percentage on the produce of all the fish taken under his auspices. He

is placed at his post, where he can command an uninterrupted view of the

sea, some days before the pilchards are expected.

"The principal boat used is, at least, of fifteen tons burden, and

carries a large net called the 'seine,' which measures a hundred and

ninety fathoms in length, and costs a hundred and twenty

pounds--sometimes more. It is simply one long strip from eleven to

thirteen fathoms in breadth, composed of very small meshes, and

furnished all along its length with cork at one edge and lead at the

other. The men who cast this net are called 'shooters,' and receive

eleven shillings and sixpence a week, and one basket of fish out of

every haul.

"As soon as the 'huer' discerns a shoal he waves his bush. The signal is

conveyed to the beach by men and boys watching near him. The

'seine'-boat, accompanied by another, to assist in casting the net, is

rowed out to where he can see it; then there is a pause and hush of

expectation. Meanwhile the devoted pilchards press on--a compact mass of

thousands on thousands of fish--swimming to meet their doom. All eyes

are fixed on the 'huer;' he stands watchful and still, until the shoal

is thoroughly embayed in water which he knows to be within the depth of

the 'seine.' Then, as the fish begin to pause in their progress, and

gradually crowd closer and closer together, he gives the signal, and the

'seine' is cast or 'shot' overboard.

"The grand object is now to enclose the entire shoal. The leads sink one

side of the net perpendicularly to the bottom, the corks buoy the other

to the surface of the water. When it has been taken all round the shoal,

the two extremities are made fast, and the fishes are imprisoned within

an oblong barrier of netting. The art is how to let as few of the

pilchards escape as possible while the process is being completed.

Whenever the 'huer' observes that they are startled, and separating at

any particular point, he waves his bush, and thither the boat is

steered, and there the net is shot at once; the fish are thus headed and

thwarted in every direction with extraordinary address and skill. This

labour completed, the silence of intense expectation that has hitherto

prevailed is broken--there is a shout of joy on all sides--the shoal is

secured.

"The 'seine' is now regarded as a great reservoir of fish. It may remain

in the water a week or more; to secure it against being moved from its

position, in case a gale should come on, it is warped by two or three

ropes to points of land in the cliff, and is at the same time contracted

in circuit by its opposite ends being brought together and passed

lightly over its breadth for several feet. While these operations are

being performed, another boat, another set of men, and another net, are

approaching the scene of action.

"The new net is called the 'tuck;' it is smaller than the 'seine;'

inside which it is to be let down, for the purpose of bringing the fish

close to the surface. The men who manage this net are called 'regular

sewers.' The boat is first of all rowed inside the seine-net, and laid

close to the seine-boat, which remains stationary outside. To its bows

one rope at the end of the tuck-net is fastened. The tuck-boat now

slowly makes the inner circle of the seine, the smaller net being

dropped overboard, and attached to the seine at intervals as she goes.

To prevent the fish from getting between the two nets during the

operation, they are frightened into the middle of the enclosure by

beating the water with oars, and stones fastened to ropes. When the

'tuck' has at length travelled round the whole circle of the 'seine,'

and is securely fastened to the seine-boat at the end as it was at the

beginning, everything is prepared for the great event of the

day--hauling the fish to the surface.

"Now all is excitement on sea and shore; every little boat in the place

puts off, crammed with idle spectators; boys shout, dogs bark, and the

shrill voices of the former are joined by the deep voices of the

'seiners.' There they stand, six or eight stalwart, sun-burnt fellows,

ranged in a row in the seine-boat, hauling with all their might at the

'tuck'-net, and roaring out the nautical 'Yo, heave ho!' in chorus.

Higher and higher rises the net; louder and louder shout the boys and

the idlers; the 'huer,' so calm and collected hitherto, loses his

self-possession, and waves his cap triumphantly. 'Hooray! hooray!

Yoy--hoy, hoy! Pull away, boys! Up she comes! Here they are!' The water

boils and eddies; the 'tuck'-net rises to the surface; one teeming,

convulsed mass of shining, glancing, silvery scales; one compact mass of

thousands of fish, each one of which is madly striving to escape,

appears in an instant. Boats as large as barges now pull up, in hot

haste, all round the nets, baskets are produced by dozens, the fish are

dipped up in them, and shot out, like coals out of a sack, into the

boats. Presently the men are ankle-deep in pilchards; they jump upon the

benches, and work on till the boats can hold no more. They are almost

gunwale under before they leave for the shore."

In the process of curing, the scene becomes doubly picturesque, but this

is shore-work, with which our space forbids us to deal.

"Some idea of the almost incalculable multitude of pilchards caught on

the Cornwall shores," says Mr. Collins, "may be gathered from the

following data: At the small fishing cove of Trereen six hundred

hogsheads were taken in little more than a week, during August, 1850.

Allowing two thousand four hundred fish only to each hogshead (three

thousand would be the highest calculation), we have a result of one

million four hundred and forty pilchards caught by the inhabitants of

one little village alone, on the Cornish coast, at the commencement of

the season's fishing."

The Anchovy (_Engraulis_) is chiefly taken in the Mediterranean, and is

much sought after for its delicate flavour when salted and cured. It is

a small, slender fish, about four to four and a half inches in length;

head pointed, mouth very wide, gill-openings large, abdomen smooth; when

living it is greenish on the back, silvery beneath; after death it

changes to a bluish black. The fishery which gives the most abundant

results takes place on the shores of the Mediterranean, principally on

the coast of Sicily, the isles of Elba, Corsica, Antibes, Frejus,

Saint-Tropez, and Cannes. They are also taken on the Dalmatian coast,

and in the neighbourhood of Ragusa.

The anchovy is only fit for food after being preserved and salted. The

process of curing commences by throwing it into a strong brine; then,

the head and entrails being removed, they are arranged in rows in

barrels or boxes of tin, in alternate layers of salt and fish; finally,

after some days of exposure, they are hermetically closed and despatched

to market. Those prepared on the Provençal coast were formerly carried

to the fair of Beaucaire, whence they found their way all over France,

and to many parts of Europe. Now, the anchovies cured at Marseilles, and

other Provençal ports, are sent direct to the various markets of Europe.

THE ACANTHOPTERYGEANS

include the Perch family, which is altogether a fresh-water fish, and,

however interesting in itself, foreign to our present purpose. It

includes also the cat-fish, which is also known as the _bar_, and more

commonly the wolf-fish, in Bas-Languedoc and Provence. It is common in

the Mediterranean, and in many of the great rivers which empty

themselves into it. The Cat-fish (Fig. 386) has the appearance of an

elongated perch; its colour, in the adult state, is of a uniform silvery

hue, marked with brown and yellow spots in the young.

The Weevers (_Trachinus_), forming another division of this family, are

characterised by their very compressed head and the strong spines of the

operculum. They are elongated in shape, with short muzzles; they have a

habit of burying themselves in the sand, and are formidable to

fishermen, from the dangerous wounds they inflict with their spines.

_Trachinus communis_ (Fig. 387) is widely diffused in the Atlantic and

Mediterranean.

The genus _Uranoscopus_ are so named from the position of their eyes,

which are directed towards the sky, from οὐρανὸς, the heavens, and

σκοπέω, I regard. From this peculiar arrangement, they can only see

above them. They are closely connected with the cat-fish. _Uranoscopus

vulgaris_ (Fig. 388) belongs to the Mediterranean, and is remarkable for

its thick cubical head and erect spiny dorsal fins.

[Illustration: Fig. 386. The Cat-fish.]

[Illustration: Fig. 387. The Weever-fish (Trachinus communis).]

The Mullets (_Mullus_) have the body thick and oblong, the profile of

the head approaching the vertical line; scales large, two dorsal fins,

widely separated--the rays of the first spinous, of the second,

flexible; two cirri at the lower jaw. Two species are known, both

inhabitants of our west and south-west coasts: the Striped or Red Mullet

(_Mullus surmuletus_), rare as British, and the Red Mullet (_M.

barbatus_). The first is a fine bright vermilion red, with three

dominating yellow lines; the throat, breast, ventral, and lower surface

of the tail are white, slightly tinged with rose; the fins have their

rays more or less red, the iris of the eyes a pale gold colour, just

touched with red; the head bears two barbels. This beautiful fish is

plentiful in the Mediterranean and sometimes in the Channel, common in

the gulfs of Gascony, and is frequently served on the table at Bordeaux

and Bayonne, where it is known as the barbel; its flesh is a little

flaky, of an agreeable flavour, but less esteemed than the red mullet.

[Illustration: Fig. 388. Uranoscopus vulgaris.]

[Illustration: Plate XXX.--Agony of a Red Mullet at the Feast of

Hortensius.]

The Red Mullet (_Mullus barbatus_) is clothed in brilliant colours of

bright red, mingling with silvery tints upon the side and belly; it

presents fine indistinct reflections, but none of the yellow lines which

occur in the preceding species. It is to its brilliant colouring that

the red mullet owes much of its celebrity. When we add that its flesh is

white, firm, and agreeable to the taste, the estimation in which it was

held by the ancients is sufficiently explained. With the Romans the

mullet was an object of luxury on which they expended fabulous sums;

they cultivated the fish in their fish-ponds not only as a delicacy of

the table, but for the beauty of form and colour. This fierce love of

beauty, however, too often approached to cruelty. Seneca and Pliny both

give us to understand that the rich patricians of Rome gave themselves

the barbarous pleasure of seeing the mullet expire under their eyes, in

order to witness the various shades of purple, violet, and blue which

succeed each other--from cinnabar red to the palest white, as the animal

gradually loses its strength, and expires by a slow and cruel death. The

great rival of Cicero, the advocate Hortensius, who attracted crowds of

people to the Forum by his eloquent and elegant discourses, had an

inordinate passion for this kind of enjoyment. These little inhabitants

of the waters were led by a small canal which was carried under the

festive table, and his great enjoyment was to witness the agonies of the

unhappy fish just taken from its native element and carried to the

table, palpitating with its dying convulsions, as it perished beneath

his eyes, he in the meanwhile enjoying a sumptuous banquet. The

possession of these poor creatures had, in short, become the rage, a

furious passion, and their price soon became excessive. A fish of three

pounds produced a considerable sum to the fortunate fisherman, while one

of four and a half pounds was simply ruinous, says Martial. Asinius

Gelius purchased one for eight thousand sesterces (upwards of sixty

pounds). Under Caligula, according to Suetonius, three mullets cost

thirty thousand sesterces (about two hundred and forty pounds). Although

it is no longer the object of ferocious enjoyment on the one hand, or

prodigal expenditure on the other, it is still much sought after, both

for its beauty of colour and excellent table qualities. It is found in

many seas, but particularly in the Mediterranean, where it is taken all

round the coast, usually in muddy bottoms; it is fished for both by line

and net.

The Gurnards (_Trigla_) are remarkable for the singular manner in which

the head is mailed and cuirassed; the operculum and shoulder-bones are

armed with spines, having trenchant blades, which give them a

disagreeable, even a hideous, physiognomy, and has procured them various

names, such as sea-frog, sea-scorpion, sea-devil, and sundry other

equally significant names. With this forbidding appearance, however, the

gurnards are among the most resplendent inhabitants of the sea. Nothing

can exceed the beauty of their markings; but the brilliancy with which

Nature has gifted them is their misfortune; it betrays them to their

enemies, which are found in the air as well as in the water, and without

their prodigious fecundity this species would long since have

disappeared.

[Illustration: Fig. 389. The Red Gurnard (Trigla pini).]

Twelve species of Trigla are known. In the British seas the commonest

species is the Grey Gurnard (_Trigla gurnardus_), a silvery-grey fish,

more or less clouded with brown and speckled with black. A rare species

with us, but very common in the Mediterranean, is the Red Gurnard,

_Trigla pini_ (Fig. 389). It is of a fine bright rose-red colour, paler

beneath and more vivid about the fins, of which there are two distinct

dorsal and one ventral. Beneath the pectorals are three detached rays;

both jaws and front of the lower palate are armed with fine velvety

teeth. The Perlon, or Sapharine Gurnard (_T. hirundo_), is a large and

handsome fish, remarkable for the lively green and blue hues of the

inner surface of its large pectoral fins.

The Flying Gurnard (_Dactylopterus volitans_) somewhat resembles the

Triglas, but differs in having the fin-rays of the pectorals connected

by membranes, by which it is enabled to support itself some time in the

air, like the flying-fish; the pectorals, when extended, forming a sort

of parachute (Fig. 390), which sustains it when it leaps out of the

water. Several species are known.

[Illustration: Fig. 390. The Flying Gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans).]

All nature seems to conspire against these singular creatures, while

they have been gifted with the double power of swimming and flying. The

flying-fish only escapes from the Bonitas, and other voracious fishes

which pursue it on the bosom of the sea, to expose itself to the attacks

of the inhabitants of the air. A crowd of sea-fowl, such as

frigate-birds, the albatross, and the gulls, carry on a bloody war with

them when they venture on flight. Enemies thus pursue the unhappy fish

whatever element it betakes itself to. Nevertheless it passes from one

element to the other with an energy which frequently defeats the attacks

of its enemies. When it leaps from the sea to the height of five or six

feet, it sustains itself for several hundred feet, changing its

direction. In its flight it may be compared to that of the flying

dragon; the popular name given to it is said to be derived from the

grunting noise they make on being taken out of the water.

LABYRINTHIFORM PHARYNGEANS.

In the fishes of this order the superior pharyngeal bones are divided

into numerous and irregular little leaflets, which intersect the

cellules situated under the operculum, which again serve to retain a

certain quantity of water. This water preserves the gills, however, when

the animal is dry, which permits them to live on shore, where they

frequently contrive to creep over great distances in search of water.

The genus _Anabas_, from ἀναβαίνω, to ascend, possess this

peculiarity of organization in a remarkable degree; it enables them

to leave the rivers and marshes and little watercourses of Borneo and

Java, and other islands of the Indian Archipelago, and creep through

the herbage or along the ground by means of the inflexions of their

bodies, the dentation of their opercules, of their spines and fins.

This fact, although only recently known to modern naturalists, was well

known to the ancients, and has been recorded by Theophrastus.

The family of the Scomberoides is the most important group in the order,

comprehending some of the fishes most useful to man, from their size,

the excellence of their flesh, and their abundance. The Tunny

(_Thynnus_, Cuv.), the Mackerel (_Scomber scombrus_), and the Bonita

(_Thynnus pelamys_), have yielded, from the remotest antiquity, immense

resources as human food, both in the fresh and preserved state.

The tunny, while resembling the mackerel in many respects in its general

form, is rounder, and attains a much larger size, being sometimes found

eight and nine feet in length, and weighing three to four hundred

pounds. The upper part of the body is a bluish-black; the belly is grey,

with silvery spots. These fishes sometimes present themselves in the

Atlantic, but in the Mediterranean they are very abundant. At some

periods of the year they approach the coast in innumerable shoals, and

in numerous serried ranks, forming a vast battalion, which conceals

itself under the waves, and only betrays itself on the exterior by the

motion of the sea, caused by such vast numbers travelling rapidly

through the water. In many localities the shoals of tunnies show

themselves in the spring, pursuing their way towards the east, and in

the autumn we find them pursuing an opposite direction. We see the same

thing on the coast of Provence. Upon the coast of La Ciotat a first

fishing takes place from the months of March to July, and a second

again from July to October. But at other points of the coast they arrive

at the same time from very different directions; nevertheless, in some

places they are only winter visitors.

The tunny-fishing goes back to the remotest antiquity. The Phoenicians,

the first navigators known, carried it on on the coast of Spain. In our

days the fishing is carried on with great activity on the coasts of

Provence, of Sardinia, and Sicily.

The fishing is generally carried on by the tunny-net, but in Provence it

is fished with an enclosed net called the _madrague_.

The tunny-net consists of a combination of nets, which is quickly cast

into the sea in order to head the tunnies at the moment of their

passage. When the sentinels, posted for the purpose, as in the pilchard

fishery, have signalled the approach of a shoal of tunnies and its

direction, by the indications of a flag which points to the spot

occupied by the finny tribe, the fishing-boats are immediately directed

to the designated spot, and ranged in curved lines, forming with the

light floating net a half circular enclosure, turned towards the shore,

the interior of which is called the _garden_. The tunnies thus enclosed

in this garden, between the coast and the net, become agitated with

terror. As they advance towards the shore they press upon the enclosure,

or rather a new interior enclosure is formed with other nets held in

reserve. In this second enclosure an opening is left, through which the

tunnies have to pass. In continuing thus to diminish the space by

successive enclosures, each occupies a smaller diameter, in which the

fish are enclosed in about a fathom and a half of water. At this moment

a species of seine-net is thrown into the garden. This net is hauled

into shallow water by force of arms, and the small tunnies are taken by

the hand, the larger by hooks. The boats are charged with them, and they

are carried ashore. A single day's fishing will sometimes produce as

many as sixteen thousand tunnies, each from twenty to five and twenty

pounds weight.

When the park, in place of being established for a single fishery, is a

permanent construction in the sea, it is called, in Provence, a

madrague. The madrague is a vast enclosure. The netting which forms the

partitions of its chambers are sustained by buoys of cork on the

surface, and kept down by heavy stones and other weights on the lower

edge, and maintained in this position by cords, one extremity of which

is attached to the net, and the other is moored to an anchor. The

madrague is intended to arrest the shoals of tunnies at the moment when

they abandon the shore in order to return to the open sea. For this

purpose a long alley or run is established between the sea-shore and the

park or madrague. The tunnies follow this alley, and, after passing from

chamber to chamber, betake themselves at last to the body of the park.

In order to force them into the madrague they are pressed towards the

shore by means of a long net, which is extended in their rear attached

to two boats, each of which sustains one of the upper angles of the net.

When the fishes come to the last compartment, the fishermen raise a

horizontal net, which makes a sort of plate of this compartment, in

which the fishes are gradually raised to the surface of the water. This

operation occupies the whole night.

In the morning the tunnies are collected in a very narrow space, and at

varying distances from the shore; and now the carnage commences. The

unhappy creatures are struck with long poles, boat-hooks, and other

weapons. The tunny-fishing presents a very sad spectacle at this its

last stage; fine large fish perish under the blows of a multitude of

fishermen, who pursue their bloody task with most dramatic effect. The

sight of the poor creatures, some of them wounded and half dead, trying

in vain to struggle with their ferocious assailants, is very painful to

endure. The sea, red with blood, long preserves traces of this frightful

carnage, of which an illustration is attempted in PL. XXXI.

The flesh of the tunny is much esteemed, being firm and wholesome. It is

called the salmon of Provence. "For our part," says M. Figuier, "we put

it far above the salmon. Nothing is comparable to the fresh tunny thrown

into a hot frying-pan, and sprinkled with vinegar and salt. When

properly cooked, nothing can be more firm or savoury. In short, nothing

of the kind can rival, or even be compared, with the tunny, as we find

it at Marseilles and Cette."

The tunny is greatly celebrated among the Greeks and other inhabitants

on the shores of the Mediterranean, of the Propontus, and the Black Sea.

The Romans attached great value to certain parts of this fish, as the

head and the lower part of the belly. The neighbouring parts were in

little esteem with them. They cut them into pieces and preserved them in

vases filled with salt. They are now preserved with oil and salt

after being cooked; this preparation is in great request at Cette,

Montpellier, and Marseilles. With a pot of marine tunny, preserved in

the vinegar of Lunel, a household is pretty well prepared for any event.

[Illustration: Plate XXXI.--Fishing for Tunny at Madrigue, on the Coast

of Provence.]

The Mackerel (_Scomber scombrus_) is too well known to require minute

description. Who has not admired these fishes, with their steel-blue

back, and changing iridescent sides of gold and purple and green,

relieved by fine waving lines of deeper black, as they appear on the

market-stalls, or as they are emptied in the early morning from the

fishing-boat? The head is blue above, with black markings, the rest of

the body being heightened with iridescent shades of gold and purple.

There are two species of mackerel--that of the Atlantic and of the

Channel, which has no swimming-bladder, _Scomber scombrus_ (Fig. 391),

and the mackerel of the Mediterranean, _Scomber colias_, which has the

swimming-bladder, and which is a very rare fish in our seas.

[Illustration: Fig. 391. The Mackerel (Scomber scombrus).]

The mackerel is common to all European seas: being the _Veirat_ of the

Bay of Languedoc; the _Aurion_ of Provence; the _Bretal_ in some parts

of Brittany; the _Macarello_ of the modern Romans; the _Scombro_ of the

Venetians; the _Lacesto_ of the Neapolitans; the _Cavallo_ of the

Spaniards; the well-known Mackerel of our own shores, and the _Makril_

of the Swedes; it is found on the coast of North America, and as far

south as the Canary Islands. It is a wandering, unsettled fish, supposed

to be migratory, but individuals are always found on our coast. They are

supposed to remain during the winter in the North Sea, and afterwards

on the coast of Scotland and Ireland in January and February, on their

way to the Atlantic. Here their great army is divided into two: one

branch passes along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts, while the other

enters the Channel. In May they appear on the coasts of England and

France. In June they reach Holland. In July one portion of them returns

to the Baltic, while another skirts the coast of Norway on its way to

winter quarters.

Lacepede estimated that this migration, which is so regular, and its

stages so rigorously indicated, was irreconcilable with a great number

of very precise observations; and he arrived at the conclusion that the

mackerel passes the winter at the bottom of the sea, more or less remote

from the coast, which they again approach in the spring. At the

commencement of the fine season they advance towards the shore which

best agreed with them, showing themselves often on the surface, like the

tunny, traversing the sea in courses more or less direct or sinuous, but

never following the periodical circle which has been so ingeniously

traced out for them.

Mr. Milne Edwards also remarks that, if these legions of fishes ascended

from the Polar seas, they ought to visit the Orkneys before they

appeared in the Channel, and enter the Mediterranean later in the

season; but he is assured that they appear at the Orkneys late in the

season. It appears, in short, that there are different varieties which

haunt the several neighbourhoods in which they abound.

The largest mackerel are taken at the entrance of the Channel, but they

are considered less delicate than the smaller fishes. The shoals of

mackerel, it appears, never enter the Gulf of Gascony, but they abound

along the shores of Brittany up to the North Sea. It is about the month

of April that they begin to be met with, but they are still small and

without milt or roe. In the months of June and July the fish is in its

most perfect state. Towards the end of September and October mackerel of

the same year's birth are taken; finally, in November and December, the

fishermen still fish them, and send them to market, but this is an

irregularity, and the fishermen of Lowestoft and Yarmouth take their

great harvest in May and June; in the Firth of Forth, and on the north

coast of Scotland, at a few weeks later.

[Illustration: Plate XXXII.--Fishing for Mackerel off the Cornwall

Coast.]

As mackerel are very voracious, they greedily devour all sorts of

bait, but they are chiefly taken by the drift-net. The drift-net is

twenty feet deep and a hundred and twenty feet long, well buoyed at the

upper edge, but without weights at the bottom. The meshes, made of fine

twine tarred to a reddish colour for preservation, are calculated to

admit the head of the fish and catch it by the gills, so as to prevent

its withdrawal. A fleet of mackerel-boats dragging these large nets,

which are extended vertically in the sea, or float between the two

tides, is well represented in PL. XXXII.

The flesh of the mackerel is fat and high flavoured. Among the ancients

a liquid was extracted from this fat called _garum_, which was

considered a very nourishing preparation. The price of this liquid was

very high; in modern measures it was valued at about sixteen shillings

the pint. It was acrid, half putrefied, and very nauseous, but it had

the property of rousing the appetite and stimulating the digestive

organs. Garum played the part of a condiment at a period when the

exciting array of Indian spices was unknown. Seneca charges it, as we do

pepper and other hot spices taken in excess, with destroying the stomach

and health of gourmands. This garum is spoken of by the traveller Pierre

Belon, writing in the sixteenth century, as being held in great

estimation at Constantinople in his time. Rondelet, the author of a very

remarkable book published in 1554, who ate garum at the table of William

Pellicier, Bishop of Maguelonne, thought he could trace the liquid not

to the mackerel, but to one of the Sparoïdes (_Sparus smaris_).

The mackerel possesses phosphorescent properties which cause it to shine

in the dark, especially after death, when decomposition has commenced.

The mackerel is not only voracious, but, in spite of its small size, it

has the hardihood to attack fishes much larger and much stronger than

itself. It is even said that they love human flesh. According to the

naturalist bishop, Pontoppidan, who lived in the sixteenth century, a

sailor belonging to a vessel which had cast anchor in one of the

Norwegian ports, when bathing one day in the sea, was assailed by a

shoal of mackerel. His companions came to his relief; the eager band

were repulsed with great difficulty, but not till it was too late: the

unfortunate sailor was so exhausted that he died a few hours after. By a

natural law of compensation the ubiquitous mackerel is surrounded by

numerous enemies; the larger inhabitants of the ocean eagerly devour

them. Certain fishes, in appearance very weak, such as the muræna, fight

them with great advantage.

Closely connected with the mackerel and other Scombridæ, we have the

Bonita of the Tropics. This is a fish of considerable size, celebrated

by its pursuit in great shoals of the flying-fish, of which we have

already spoken. The Bonita (_Thynnus pelamys_) is not unlike the

mackerel in shape, but less compressed, and upwards of twenty-five to

thirty inches long. It is occasionally found on our coast, but only as

an accidental visitor, for its true home is the Tropics. It is a

beautiful fish of a fine blue colour, with short pectoral fins and four

longitudinal bands on each side of the belly. It is easily harpooned

from the dolphin-striker, and appears to have the power of generating

electricity. Any one grasping the living fish is violently shaken as in

palsy, "agitans," so much so that the most resolute son of Neptune

cannot control his speech; every attempt culminates in an unintelligible

spasmodic sputter. The instant the bonita is dropped, the muscles resume

their routine action.

[Illustration: Fig. 392. The Sword-fish (Xiphias gladius).]

The Sword-fish, _Xiphias gladius_ (Fig. 392), so called from the upper

jaw being elongated into a formidable spear or sword, was known to the

ancients, and has borne the name which recalls its salient

characteristic from very early times. In short, it is recognized at a

glance from its organic structure, and from the resemblance of its

prolonged horizontal and trenchant muzzle to the blade of a sword. With

the ancients it was Ξιφίας, and _Gladius_; with the moderns it is the

Sword-fish, the _Dart_, the _Spece spada_, and _l'Espadon épée_.

This fish attains a great size, being found in the Mediterranean and

Atlantic, in company with the tunny, from five to six feet in length.

Its body is lengthy, and covered with minute scales, the sword forming

three-tenths of its length. On the back it bears a single long dorsal

fin; the tail is keeled, the lower jaw is sharp, the mouth toothless,

the upper part of the fish bluish-black, merging into silver beneath. It

seems to have a natural desire to exercise towards and against all the

arm with which Nature has furnished it; it darts with the utmost fury

upon the most formidable moving bodies; it attacks the whale; and there

are numerous and well-authenticated instances of ships being perforated

by the weapon of this powerful creature.

In 1725, some carpenters having occasion to examine the bottom of a ship

which had just returned from the tropical seas, found the lance of a

sword-fish buried deep in the timbers of the ship. They declared that,

to drive a pointed bolt of iron of the same size and form to the same

depth, would require eight or nine blows of a hammer weighing thirty

pounds. From the position of the weapon it was evident that the fish had

followed the ship while under full sail; it had penetrated through the

metal sheathing, and three inches and a half beyond, into the solid

frame.

The sword-fish has obstinate combats with the saw-fish, and even the

shark, and it is supposed that when he attacks the bottom of a vessel he

takes that sombre mass for the body of an enemy. But this terrible

jouster, this Paladin of the abyss, often becomes himself the prey of a

most contemptible enemy. A miserable little parasite, the _Pennatula

filesa_, penetrates its flesh, and almost drives it mad with pain.

The flesh of the young sword-fish is white, compact, and of excellent

taste; that of adults resembles the tunny. It is the object of a fishery

of some importance in the Straits of Messina. The fishermen of Messina

and Reggio join in this fishery with a great number of boats, carrying

brilliant flambeaux, while one of the crew is stationed at the mast-head

to announce the approach of the sword-fish. At a given signal the boats

rush on to attack them with the harpoons (Fig. 393). During this fishery

the sailors sing a peculiar melody, but without words.

[Illustration: Fig. 393. Fishing for Sword-fish in the Straits of

Messina.]

The family of _Pediculate Pectorals_ is so named from the fishes of

which it is composed bearing their pectoral fins on a species of arm

which forms a prolongation of the carp bone; it includes the Frog-fish,

remarkable for the excessive circumference of the head and shoulders as

compared with the rest of the body, the immense opening of a jaw, armed

with pointed teeth, and the cutaneous jagged stripes of various lengths

with which it bristles at many points. Its skin is soft, smooth, and

without scales or other asperities; the members which support the

pectorals, and other peculiarities, combine to render it a hideous and

forbidding object, well calculated in ignorant and superstitious times

to frighten the multitude. The remains of this fish, prepared in such a

manner as to be transparent, and rendered luminous by a lamp enclosed

in its interior, has often helped to deceive and frighten the timid by

its fantastic appearance.

[Illustration: Fig. 394. The Frog-fish (Lophius piscatorius).]

The Frog-fish, _Lophius piscatorius_--Linn. (Fig. 394), which attains

the length of five or six feet, lives in the sand, or sunk in the mud,

leaving the long and movable filaments with which the head is furnished

to float in the water; the shreds which terminate them act as natural

bait when they float about in different directions, from their

resemblance to worms and other living creatures. The fishes which swim

above them, and which they see very well by the assistance of their two

eyes placed on the summit of the head, are attracted by these deceitful

decoys. When the prey arrives near to the enormous jaws, which are

almost always wide open, it is engulfed and torn to pieces by its

strongly-hooked teeth.

This manner of lying in ambush, and fishing, as it were, with a hook and

line for fishes which its conformation does not permit it to pursue, has

acquired for it the name of the frog-fish, which is sometimes given to

it. It is found more or less in all parts of the Mediterranean and in

many parts of the Atlantic, being frequently taken both in the Gulf of

Gascony and in the Channel.

The family of _Labridæ_ comprehends: I. The Wrasse (_Labrus_), a genus

of fishes decked in the most lively colours; for the yellow, green,

blue, and red, forming bands of spots, give the body the appearance of

being enriched with brilliant metallic reflections. II. The _Julis_, of

Risso, the Mediterranean species of which is remarkable for its fine

violet colour, relieved on each side by an orange band.

[Illustration: Fig. 395. Adult Green and Red varieties of Labrus

communis.]

Of the _Labridæ_ we represent here, as a type of the family, the adult

Green and Red Labrus (Fig. 395), varieties of the commonest species,

called the sea-parrot, the body of each being oblong, clothed with large

scales: a dorsal fin, frequently with membranous appendages, thick

fleshy lips, and large conical teeth; cheeks and gill-covers clothed

with scales; gill-covers smooth at the edges; three spines in the anal

fin. In _Julis_ the cheeks and gill-covers are without scales; in other

respects they resemble _Labrus_.

[Illustration: Fig. 396. The Pipe-fish (Fistularia tabacaria).]

Among the acanthopterygeous fishes we shall only notice the singular

family of _Fistulariadæ_, or Pipe-fishes, so called from the extreme

elongation of the fore part of the head, forming a tube, at the

extremity of which is the mouth. Of this family, _Fistularia tabacaria_

(Fig. 396) may be considered the type. The tube of the muzzle is long

and flat, and from the caudal fin springs a terminal filament nearly as

long as the body. This species of pipe-fish is common at the Antilles;

it attains the length of about three feet, but its flesh is leathery and

insipid. It feeds upon crustaceans and small fishes, which it drags from

the interstices of the rocks and stones by means of its long and taper

pipe.

* * * * *

We close our abbreviated history of the Ocean and such of the

inhabitants with which it swarms as seems most likely, from their habits

and other peculiarities, to interest the readers, conscious of its many

imperfections. Where every creature which moves and breathes in the

watery world is so full of interest, it will not surprise the reader to

learn that one of the editor's chief difficulties has been that of

selection, his most painful task that of rejecting the vast mass of

interesting matter he had necessarily to pass in review.

We have shown in the first chapter of this work that nearly

three-fourths of the surface of the earth is bathed by the sea. Struck

with this vast extent of ocean, a witty French writer says, "One is

almost tempted to believe that our planet was specially created for

fishes." They are, indeed, a very important part of creation; they form,

as it were, a bond uniting the vertebrate to invertebrate animals. They

have a more complicated organization than any of the other oceanic

inhabitants (except the Cetaceæ), as they are also the most numerous,

the most varied in form, and by far the most brilliant in colour, and

the most active in their movements.

Pliny, the naturalist, describes ninety-four species of fishes. Linnæus

has characterised four hundred and seventy-eight. The naturalists of the

present day know upwards of thirteen thousand, a tenth of which are

fresh-water fishes.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 17: "Lieutenant and Commander," by Captain Basil Hall. Bell &

Daldy, London.]

INDEX.

Abdominales, 560.

Acalephæ, or Sea Nettles, 195.

Acanthopterygians, 590.

Acclimatizing sponges, 80.

Acephalous Mollusca, 316.

Acetabuliferous Cephalopods, 448.

Achatina zebra, 409.

Actiniaria, 181.

---- dianthus, 189.