An assiduous searching of these hanging fringes of fuci will be sure
to yield a pleasing return of other objects. Neglecting at this moment
the Prawns, Æsops, Opossum-shrimps, Spider-crabs, and many other
_crustacea_, not to speak of other classes, let us direct our thoughts
exclusively to the fishes. You will get probably one or two specimens
of that little bull-headed rogue, the Father-lasher,[101] armed at all
points, like a knight in the fair time of chivalry. An impudent little
rascal he looks, and right villanous; but whether he is in truth guilty
of whipping his paternal parent, this deponent saith not. Big-headed,
wide-mouthed, staring-eyed, beset on all sides with hard spines as
sharp as needles, which he erects with threatening fierceness as he
anticipates your touch, this Lucky Proach, as our northern friends name
him, may not invite a close acquaintance; and indeed our fishermen
generally jerk him energetically out of the net as soon as they see
him, thinking themselves “lucky” to be well quit of his prickles.
[Illustration: