.174 



HARDIVICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



portant matter) a rather large quantum of victuals. 

 Some of these teeth are attached to the jawbone by 

 a sort of spring-trap joint. The outer base of the 

 tooth is free, but the inner part of the base is fixed 

 to the jaw by an elastic ligament, so that the whole 

 tooth works like the spring-catch of a dog-hook, 

 readily permitting ingress but absolutely forbidding 

 egress. By this ingenious dental contrivance when 

 food is taken into the jaws of the fish, most of the 

 teeth are thereby bent backwards towards the gullet, 

 whereby it will be seen that the swallowing process is 

 immensely facilitated, and the escape of the morsel 

 prevented. The eyes of the angler form the sole 

 redeeming feature of his personal appearance. They 

 are very large, very bright, of eminent power, and, 

 though placed rather close together, they are each 

 capable of separate, independent movement. The 

 nostril tube has at 

 its upper end a 

 kind of cup, the 

 bottom of which is 

 divided into pro- 

 jecting leaflets on 

 which the ultimate 

 branchlets of the 

 nerves of smell are 

 distributed. It 



would thus appear 

 that this fish can 

 not only smell the 

 grateful effluvium 

 of his prey, but 

 can actively search 

 about for the de- 

 lectable odoriferous 

 impression thereof 

 The whole fish 

 commonly mea- 

 sures about three 

 feet in length by 

 fifteen inches in 



breadth, but hideous and formidable monsters of five 

 feet long have been captared. 



On contemplating the singularly crafty and in- 

 genious habits of the angler, I hear somebody sing- 

 ing out, " What an intelligent animal ! Surely here 

 is reason (a very loose phrase) equal to that displayed 

 by man ! " But we may rejoin^does the creature, 

 when he waves his organic bait in order to decoy 

 fish, actually know what he is about, i.e. is he 

 actually conscious that his angle-like filament is 

 calculated or competent to seduce and allure rash 

 and heedless fry to their destruction? We profess 

 ignorance as to the Darwinian view of the matter ; 

 but you may depend upon it, that this hideous sea- 

 devil swallows his dinner with as much gusto as any 

 other creature, and he doesn't trouble his head 

 further about the business. The fishing-rod upon 

 his cranium is waved backwards and forwards, front- 



Fig. 102. — Angler Fish (Lophius piscatorius). 



ways and sideways, this way and the other way, the 

 gluttonous, green-hearted fry are seduced to explore, 

 the cavernous mouth engulfs it down, and that's all. 

 This fish is an uncommonly practical individual 

 indeed, especially about dinner-time, but he is by no 

 means either a mechanician or a philosopher. The 

 fact of the matter is, however, that the angler, al- 

 though crafty, astute, and apparently intelligent, is 

 furnished with a notably small prosencephalon — a 

 department of the brain supposed to i^epresent the 

 cerebrum of the higher vertebrata. There are a few 

 anatomical features about this fish which it may be 

 proper to enumerate here. The bones are specially 

 soft ; of all osseous fishes this one presents the 

 simplest vertebral column, the abdominal vertebrae 

 have no ribs, their transverse processes are mere 

 rudiments, and they interlock with each other in a 



sort of dove-tail 

 manner ; the bran- 

 chial chamber is 

 very large, and ex- 

 tends back to the 

 hind part of the 

 abdomen ; the gill- 

 cover rays are of 

 enormous length, 

 the muscle which 

 operates to admit 

 water to the gills 

 is enormously de- 

 veloped, and the 

 outlets of the 

 branchial chamber 

 are very small (all 

 these respiratory 

 provisions are, as 

 we have seen, ex- 

 ceedingly ancillary 

 to a shore-haunting 

 career) ; further, 

 the radius and ulna 

 are connate with the coracoid bone, and the carpal 

 portion of the liand projects freely from the side of 

 the body, by which device the creature is enabled to 

 vault and hop about with considerable acrobatic 

 agility. 



Of a quick-glancing, bright, and silvery colour is 

 the common sand launce, sometimes called the sand 

 or horn-eel {Amntodytes lancea). It doesn't mind 

 soiling its beautiful coat a little when the tide retires, 

 for presto ! as quick as thought, it buries itself from 

 half a foot to two feet or so deep in the soft sand. 

 There it remains imprisoned till the waters return 

 again to the flood, when it stealthily emerges, and 

 keenly searches about for marine worms, &c., by 

 way of food. The jaws are very movable, very sen- 

 sitive, and sharp at the point, and in conjunction 

 with the small head, the square and slender body, 

 the swift-moving muscles of the body, they prove of 



