94 BURBOLT. 



siderable degree of cold, at least in winter, appears to "be natural 

 to it; and hence it is not only common in Sweden, and other 

 parts of the north of Europe, but also in Siberia and other 

 portions of the north of Asia, as well as in India. 



Besides the names which we have already assigned to it, this 

 fish is also locally known as the Coney fish, from an opinion 

 formerly held that the creature called the Coney in the Sacred 

 Scriptures, the Arkeeko of Bruce, is the same with our common 

 rabbit; and this fish so far imitates the animal of the land as 

 to pass much of its time, and seek its shelter in holes 

 and overhanging banks of the rivers it frequents. These are 

 its hiding places by day, and from them it proceeds to seek 

 its food in the evening and night; and it is at these times that 

 the chief success is obtained by fishing for it: the method being 

 by lines laid especially for the purpose. We are informed that 

 forty have been taken in the River Trent by one fisherman in 

 a single night; and indeed with a little skill in finding their 

 haunts, there seems to be little difficulty in securing them, for 

 they possess the common character of their tribe in being very 

 voracious; and Sir John Franklin, in his first voyage to the 

 far north of the American continent, where he discovered this 

 fish, and which there bears the name of Methy, observes of it 

 that it will prey on fish that are large enough to swell out its 

 body to almost twice its natural size. To the commendation 

 bestowed on the flesh of the Burbolt, the liver is also pronounced 

 a great delicacy; but it is added that the roe is almost poisonous. 

 This roe is produced in great abundance. 



It is said that the Burbolt is found of larger size on the 

 continent, and particularly in the Lake of Geneva, than with 

 us; but we have a record of an example which weighed six 

 pounds, and Pennant mentions one which amounted to eight 

 pounds. Lloyd, in his Scandinavian adventures, mentions a 

 Burbolt that weighed twenty pounds. A more common size is 

 two or three pounds. The example selected for description 

 measured in length thirteen inches and a half. Head depressed, 

 wide, sloping from above the gill-covers to the mouth; upper 

 jaw a little overlapping the lower; snout rounded; mouth rather 

 capacious, tongue large, teeth numerous, in a bed round the 

 jaws, and a wide circle round the palate. Barb on the lower 

 jaw slender; eye moderate; body round and stout, with a 



