358 SILURUS AT ALDEBMASTON PARK. 



general shape he is very hke the Burbolt of the Trent ; 

 his eyes are tiny little specks ; on each side of his nose 

 he has two long feelers, tapering to a fine point ; under 

 the lower jaw there are several barbules ; his teeth are 

 very minute, hardly teeth at all. In each pectoral fin 

 there is a formidable serrated spine which, by a most 

 intricate mechanism, he can lock and unlock, in fact, 

 acting like a trigger. 



In February, 1876, Lord Odo Kussell, ambassador at 

 Berlin, kindly sent me, through Lord Arthur Kussell, 

 a magnificent specimen of the silurus. It measured 

 5ft. 6in. long, and weighed about lOOlbs. A cast of this 

 monster fish is in my museum. 



In 1862, or 1863, Sir Stephen Lakeman, who has an 

 estate at Kopacheni, on the banks of the Argisch, a 

 tributary of the Danube a,bout ten miles from Bucharest, 

 brought over with him 36 specimens of silurus. Of these 

 only fourteen were alive. I took down ten of them to 

 my friend, Higford Burr, Esq., Aldermaston Park, 

 Beading, and turned them out into the large pond in 

 front cf the house. Some three years afterwards this 

 pond was let dry — the silurus had entirelj^ disappeared. 



On the 27th October, 1880, Lord Odo Eussell brought 

 to Wpburn Abbey, from Berlin, seventy of the Silurus 

 (jJanis in their second year. These Siluri were bred at 

 Berneuchen, near Custrin, by Herr Max von dem 

 Borne. 



THUNDER-FISH. 



( Cohites fossilis.) 



About the same time that I took the silurus down to 

 Aldermaston, I also took some Thunder-fish. These 

 fish also disappeared in an unaccountable manner. 



