846 CONGER. 



the minute creatures (mites) which are bred in stale wheaten 

 flour were employed to feed on, and so remove the oily particles^ 

 and hasten the drying. 



But the fishery for Congers has been becoming more unsuc- 

 cessful for several years; as, in the west at least, has been the 

 case with those other kinds which are usually taken with the 

 line; and the circumstance can only be explained by the belief 

 of the evil influence of the repeated tearing up of the ground 

 on which, in the deeper water, they are bred. It has been 

 not uncommon for a boat with three men to bring on shore 

 from five hundred- weight to four times that amount; but a much 

 less quantity is more recently considered a favourable adventure, 

 and those also considerably less in size^ as regard which at a 

 distant date I possess a note of an example that weighed one 

 hundred and four pounds, with others of eighty-six and ninety. 

 This last-mentioned fish was in length seven feet two inches, 

 with a girth of twenty-seven inches; and another, which was 

 of the more ordinary weight of fifty-six pounds, was eight feet 

 in length, and in girth about two feet. The general form is 

 much like that of the Eel — long, slender, round anteriorly, 

 flattened towards the tail. The head widened at the hinder 

 part, narrowing forward to the snout, which projects over the 

 lower jaw; temporal muscles close together on the top of the 

 head; the space from between the eyes to the snout arched 

 over; three plaits in front, and on each side of them a short, 

 flat, blunt barb, having an aperture; a single round open 

 nostril on the border between the plaits and the barb. Eyes 

 level with the surface, large and bright; lips fleshy at the 

 sides; a single close-set row of teeth in each jaw, and a bed 

 of them in front of the palate. Gill openings small, in front 

 of the pectoral fins, and a little below the line of their root; 

 lateral line straight, dotted through its length with a row of 

 white points. The single dorsal fin begins nearer the head 

 than in the Eel, being only a little behind the border of the 

 pectorals; the anal runs from the vent to join it in forming 

 the tail; pectorals round. The colour almost or altogether 

 black, except the belly, when living on rocky ground, lead or 

 cream-coloured when on sand or open ground. 



An abundant distribution of nerves to the mouth, lips, barbs 

 on the upper lips, folds, and single nostrils, is the cause and 



