LUMPFISH. 185 



variety of specimens, the operation is commenced on the 

 shoulder and carried downward to the tail, which is regularly 

 chopped off, and dismissed with the skin. On his attention 

 being first called to this fact, he thought it possible that the 

 cast-off skin might be accounted for on the assumption that 

 the Seal effected his repast by excavating the flesh out of the 

 skin; but all the fishermen decidedly affirm that he flays — or, 

 as one of them quaintly expressed it, — he peels them like a 

 potatoe. Sharks fed on them also, and in our western seas 

 an example has been taken from the stomach of a Skate. 



With us this fish does not often take a bait, but crustacean 

 animals fOnisciJ have been found in their stomachs; and, 

 from the great length of the entrails, it may be judged that 

 a portion of its subsistence at least is derived from sea vegetables, 

 for it is a law of nature to which hitherto no exception is 

 known, that creatures, whether of the land or sea, which feed 

 on the productions of the vegetable kingdom, are supplied with 

 entrails far more capacious than such as subsist on animal 

 tissues alone. In a Lumpfish of the length of ten inches, the 

 intestinal canal measured eleven feet, and the capacity was 

 further increased by several blind appendages, termed cseca, 

 which are organs of peculiar use, and, among their other 

 functions, serve materially to increase the functional power 

 of the intestines. It is probable also that the Lumpfish pursues 

 some other prey, which is to be obtained only at a higher 

 elevation in the water; for it is sometimes caught in bag-nets 

 set for Salmon, and in drift-nets shot in the fishery for Mackarel. 

 When thus exerting itself, it may be for rest only that it 

 sometimes resorts to the same contrivance as the Remora; for 

 I have been credibly informed of an instance in which a small 

 example was found adhering to the skin of a Mackarel that 

 had become entangled in a drift-net over a considerable depth 

 of water. 



These fishes are most frequently taken in the spring, when 

 they come to the nearer neighbourhood of the land for the 

 purpose of depositing their spawn; and at this time it happens, 

 whether by accident or otherwise, that many more females are 

 caught than males. The roe is produced in very large quan- 

 tities, so that in the month of April I have found it occupying 

 the larger portion of the cavity of the body; and the grains 

 VOL. II. 2 B 



