SURMULLET. 211 



been remarked that tliey have been found to assemble in 

 larger numbers after a great battle at sea. Happily it is out 

 of our power to confirm or deny this last alleged fact; but 

 an insjoection of the mouth of this fish, so small and toothless, 

 renders it incredible that at any time the human body or 

 any large object should be the subject of its apjDetite. That 

 it will take a hook, however, is familiarly known, although 

 this does not appear to be usual until the decline of summer, 

 when it enters harbours and is fished for from rocks and piers. 

 The Surmullet is well furnished for searching out its prey 

 by the possession of a pair of barbs, which hang below the 

 middle of its lower jaw, and are endued with quick powers 

 of sensation, residing in nerves, one in each of the pair, which 

 pass along their outer side, and, next to the nerves of 

 vision, are the largest in the body. The barbs themselves are 

 so placed, that when the fish rests upon the ground or passes 

 along, they can be lifted up and hid between the bones of 

 the gills; but they are in such a manner attached to a frame- 

 work of bones separate from the jaws, but united to them by 

 ligament at one end, and are acted on by muscles of such 

 considerable power, as to be capable of acting in every 

 direction in the examination of neighbouring objects. 



Ancient writers were so fully persuaded of its producing 

 spawn three times in the course of a year, that they gave it 

 the name of Trigle from that circumstance; which name has, 

 however, in modern times been bestoAved on another genus of 

 fishes; and they believed the selected place to be near the 

 mouths of large rivers. We see, however, but little signs of 

 its breeding on our coasts. 



The Surmullet is now, as it ever has been, an object of 

 enquiry to those who indulge in the luxuries of the table, 

 so that it became a proverb, that those who caught it never 

 knew the taste of it; but to obtain it in its perfection it 

 ought to be in the hands of the cook within a few hours after 

 it has been taken from the water. The ancients were aware 

 of this, and it was something more than curiosity which led 

 the Romans to produce the living fishes on the table for the 

 inspection of the guests, before they delivered them to the 

 cook. Seneca tells us they were scarcely valued unless they 

 had died in the presence of the guests. Those which with us 



