FISHING-ROD OF THE ANGLEE-FISH. 5 



land's usual morning shopping-time to charge him with 

 sawdust. Unfortunately I had miscalculated the time. 

 It appears that she had not gone out, and that the 

 savoury odour had ascended to the bedroom windows. 

 As the "viiltm-e smells his prey from afar off, so did 

 Mrs. B. discover that there was a stinking fish in the 

 house. She therefore descended upon me and John 

 with outstretched pinions and raised crest. 



'' It was too late to bolt, so I stood it out. Expostu- 

 lations were in vain. She turned the empty bottles 

 out of a hamper and put it under the fish. She then 

 cut the rope with a Idtchen-knife, and the fish fell with 

 a flop into it. The hamper was then directed to Mr. 

 Edon, at my museum. I am glad to say they had a 

 job to get it upstairs, and I would not help. The last 

 I saw of the hamper was that it was standing on the 

 loavement outside the Parcels Delivery Office, not in the 

 shop, and that a dog was sniffing inquiringly through 

 the cracks in the hamper, and that there were several 

 blue-bottles flying about over the vicinity." 



In October, 1873, I received a very fine angler fish 

 caught in a trawl in 27 fathoms of water, between Berry 

 Head and Start Point, on the coast of Devon; this fish 

 weighed 47lbs., and was 8ft. llin. in length, and 1ft. 

 6^in. in the widest part. In its stomach I found two 

 mary-soles, one common sole, one piked dog-fish 1ft. 

 6in. long, three moderate-sized crabs, fourteen five- 

 fingers, and one whiting. 



This fish is called the angler, or fishing-frog, on ac- 

 count of a most wonderful provision it has to attract 

 other fish, by means of two long moveable spines con- 

 nected with the top of the lieaJ. The mechanism by 

 which this lure is worked by the fishing-frog is most 

 interesting : it consists of a ring working within a ring. 



