Page images
PDF
EPUB

parent, and soon dissolves, and melts away. It is but a little animal, being not above five inches long. The colour, when fresh taken, is of a pale brown, and the shape of the body is round. It is taken in England, at the mouths of rivers, four or five miles distant from the sea.

THE PIPE FISH.

THE body of the Pipe Fish, in the thickest part, is not thicker than a swan quill, while it is above fifteen inches long. Its general colour is an excellent olive brown, marked with numbers of bluish lines, pointing from the back to the belly. It is viviparous; for, on crushing one that was just taken, hundreds of very minute young ones were observed to crawl about.

THE HIPPOCAMPUS,

WHICH, from the form of its head, some call the Sea Horse, never exceeds nine inches in length. It is about

as thick as a man's thumb; and the body is said, while alive, to have hair on the fore part, which falls off when it is dead. The snout is a sort of tube, with a hole at the bottom, to which there is a cover, which the animal can open and shut at pleasure. Behind the eyes there are two fins, which look like ears; and above them are two holes, which serve for respiration. It, upon the whole, more resembles a great caterpillar than a fish.

To these animals may be added the GALLEY FISH, which Linnæus degrades into the insect tribe, under the title of the Medusa. To the eye of an unmindful spectator. this fish seems a transparent bubble, swimming on the surface of the sea, or like a bladder variously and beautifully painted with vivid colors, where red and violet predominate, as variously opposed to the beams of the sun. It is, how

ever, an actual fish; the body of which is composed of cartilages, and a very thin skin filled with air, which thus keep the animal floating on the surface, as the winds and the waves happen to drive. Persons who happen to be walking along the shore, often tread upon these animals; and the bursting of their body yields a report as when one treads upon the swim of a fish. It has eight broad feet with which it swims, or which it expands to catch the air as with a sail. It fastens itself to whatever it meets by means of its legs, which have an adhesive quality. But what is most remarkable in this extraordinary creature is the violent pungency of the slimy substance with which its legs are smeared. If the smallest quantity but touch the skin, so caustic is its quality, that it burns it like hot oil dropped on the part affected. The pain is worst in the heat of the day, but ceases in the cool of the evening.

CHAP. VIII.

Of Bony Fishes in general....Apodal Fishes.... The EEL.... The Conger....The Netted Eel....The Cordated Eel....The Electrical Eel....The LAUNCE....The WOLF FISH....The SWORD FISH....Jugular Fishes....The DRAGONET..... The WEEVER.... The CoD....Three and five bearded Cods....The Haddock...The Whiting Pout...The Bib...The Poor...The Coal Fish... The Pollock...The Whiting...The Hake... The Ling...The Burbot... The BLENNY... The Crested and Vi viparous Blenny...The Butterfly Fish... The Star-gazer... Thoracic Fishes... The GOBY, or Rock Fish... The Remora, or Sucking Fish... The BULLHEAD...The Miller's Thumb

The Pogge...The Flying SCORPENA... The DOREE...The Opah...The FLOUNDER...The Halibut...The Plaise... The

Dab...The Turbot....The Sole...The Lantern Fish.... The Pearl...The Whiff...The GILTHEAD...The Streaked Gilthead... The Dorado... The WRASSE...The Ballan, &c...The PERCH... The Basse... The Ruffe... The Lanceolated HOLOCENTER....The STICKLEBACK.... The MACKEREL....The Tunny... The Scal... The SURMULLET... The GURNARD.... The Bow-banded CHETODON... The Beaked Chaetodon... The PARROT FISH...Abdominal Fishes... The LOACH... The Four-eyed Loach.... The SALMON... The Sea Trout... The White Trout.... The Samlet....The Trout....The Gillaroo, or Gizard Trout.... The Char....The Grayling....The Smelt....The Gwiniad.... The PIKE.... The Sea Needle....The Saury... The ARGENTINE...The ATHERINE... The MULLET

The FLYING FISH... The HERRING... The Pilchard...The Herring Fishery....The Sprat.... The Anchovy.... The Shad ...The CARP....The Barbel....The Tench....The Gudgeon ...The Bream.... The Rud....The Crucian....The Roach.... The Dace....The Chub....The BLEAK....The White Bait.... The MINNOW....The Gold and Silver Fishes.... The Telescope Carp....The Horned SILURUS....The TRUMPET FISH....The TOBACCO PIPE FISH....The SEA COCK.... The Art of Angling....Baits, &c. for Fishes....Praise of Angling.

BONY FISHES.

THE third general division of fishes is into that of the Spinous, or Bony Kind. These are obviously distinguished from the rest, by having a complete bony covering to their gills; by their being furnished with no other method of breathing but gills only; by their bones, which are sharp and thorny; and their tails, which are placed in a situation perpendicular to the body.

The history of any one of this order very much resembles that of all the rest. They breathe air and water

hrough the gills; they live by rapine, each devouring such animals as its mouth is capable of admitting; and they propagate, not by bringing forth their yonng alive, as in the cetaceous tribes, nor by distinct eggs, as in the generality of the cartilaginous tribes, but by spawn, or peas, as they are generally called, which they produce by hundreds of thousands.

The bones of this order of fishes, when examined but slightly, appear to be entirely solid; yet, when viewed more closely, every bone will be found hollow, and filled with a substance less rancid and oily than marrow. These bones are very numerous, and pointed; and, as in quadrupeds, are the props or stays to which the muscles are fixed, which move the different parts of the body.

The number of bones in all spinous fishes of the same kind is always the same. It is a vulgar way of speaking, to say, that fishes are, at some seasons, more bony than at others; but this scarce requires contradiction. It is true, indeed, that fish are at some seasons much fatter than at others; so that the quantity of the flesh being diminished, and that of the bones remaining the same, they appear to increase in number, as they actually bear a greater proportion.

As the spinous fishes partake less of the quadruped in their formation than any others, so they can bear to live out of their own element a shorter time. Some, indeed, are more vivacious in air than others; the eel will live several hours out of water; and the carp has been known to be fattened in a damp cellar. The method is, by placing it in a net well wrapped up in wet moss, the mouth only out, and then hung up in a vault. The fish is fed with white bread and milk, and the net now and then plunged into the water.

It is impossible to account for the different operations

of the same element upon animals that to appearance have the same conformation. To some fishes, bred in the sea, fresh water is immediate destruction; on the other hand, some fishes, that live in our lakes and ponds, cannot bear the salt water. This circumstance may possibly arise from the superior weight of the sea water. As, from the great quantity of salt dissolved in its composition, it is much heavier than fresh water, so it is probable it lies with greater force upon the organs of respiration, and gives them their proper and necessary play: on the other hand, those fish which are used only to fresh water, cannot bear the weight of the saline fluid, and expire in a manner suffocated in the grossness of the strange element. There are some tribes, however, that spend a part of their season in one, and a part in the other. Thus the salmon, the shad, the smelt, and the flounder, annually quit the ocean, and go up the rivers to deposit their spawn. This seems the most important business of their lives; and there is no danger which they will not encounter, even to the surmounting precipices, to find a proper place for the deposition of their future offspring. The salmon, upon these occasions, is seen to ascend rivers five hundred miles from the sea, and to brave, not only the dangers of various enemies, but also to spring up cataracts. As soon as they come to the bottom of the torrent, they seem disappointed to meet the obstruction, and swim some paces back; they then take a view of the danger that lies before them, survey it motionless for some minutes, advance, and again retreat; till at last, summoning up all their force, they take a leap from the bottom, their body straight, and strongly in motion; and thus most frequently clear every obstruction. It sometimes happens, however, that they want strength to make the leap; and then, in the fisheries, they are taken in their descent.

« PreviousContinue »