i66 BURBOT. 



THE Burbolt, Burbot, or Eel-pout is the only British species of the family of Gadidce that 

 has its abode permanently in fresh water. This curious fish appears to have been known 

 to, or at least to be mentioned by Pliny under the name of miistela, or "weasel-fish." He says, 

 *' The fish next (to the scams) best for the table are the Diustckc, which, strange to say, the 

 lake of Brigantia, in Rhsetia, amongst the Alps, produces, rivalling the fish of the sea." 

 According to some editions this fish was valued only for its liver ; the Brigantine lake is 

 the present Boden See, or Lake of Constance. In some parts of France it is said still to 

 be called by the name of motclle, which I suppose is a corruption of mustela. The Lake of 

 Constance still produces Burbots, and there are specimens now in the British Museum from 

 that piece of water ; there are also specimens from the Gotha River, Sweden, the river 

 Elbe, Switzerland, and the south of Europe. American representatives of this fish are found 

 in Canada and the adjoining parts of the United States. In our own country the Burbolt 

 is rather a local fish. I have obtained, through the kindness of Mr. William Shelton, of 

 the Grange, Wergs, Wolverhampton, specimens from the Penk, a tributary of the Trent, 

 which river also produces it. According to Yarrell, the Nottingham market was, in his 

 time, occasionally supplied with examples for sale. It is found in the rivers of Yorkshire 

 and Durham, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Cambridgeshire. A good many years ago, Mr. 

 Masefield, of EUerton Hall, had numbers of these fish in the fishponds on his estate; he 

 used to prize them highly for the table, for the flesh is rich and delicious. I believe that 

 a long and hard frost was the means of killing a number; at any rate the Burbot has 

 ceased to exist in the Ellerton waters. Mr. Masefield is desirous to introduce them again 

 into his ponds; and being hardy fish, there would be no difficulty about the matter, excepting 

 that as they are generally caught with hooks on night-lines, the specimens are usually too 

 much injured to survive long after being taken; 



The Burbot does not occur in Scotland, nor is it included by Mr. Thompson among 

 the fishes of Ireland. It prefers slowly-running rivers, but will thrive in still waters. Like 

 the Eel — to which it bears some resemblance, hence, doubtless, its name Eel-pout*^ — ^the habits 

 of this fish are to conceal itself under stones and deep banks, and on this account it has 

 been called the Coney or Rabbit Fish, from its lurking nature. May the name of mustela, 

 mentioned by Pliny, refer to the same habits, associated in his day with those of the weasel ? 

 The spawning time is in March and April ; but little, if anything, is known, I believe, of 

 the young fry, or of the time required for the development of the ova. Bloch states that 

 the spawning time is in December and January. 



Pennant calls it a very delicate fish for the table, though of disgusting appearance when 

 alive ; says that it is very voracious, and preys on the fry and lesser fishes ; that it will not 

 often take a bait, but is generally caught in weels. Certainly the Burbot is a curious-looking 

 fish, but Pennant was too much given to detect what he called the disgusting in nature. 



In this country these fish seldom grow to a greater size than three or four pounds in 

 weight ; a more common size is about two pounds. According to Pennant, the largest 

 British specimen he ever heard of was taken in the Trent by Sir Jervase Clifton, which 

 weighed eight pounds ; a fish of very unusual size. Lloyd is quoted by Couch as mentioning 

 a Scandinavian specimen weighing twenty pounds. 



The Burbot was known to Plot, who has some very quaint remarks about it. Of the fishes 

 of this "inland county (Staffordshire) I could hear but of one," he says, "amongst them all 

 that I think undescribed, and that one of the smooth sort without scales, and for its solitar)' 

 way of living, of the GiTopalLKoi,-\ there having not above four of them been catch't, that I 



* PoxU, I think, refers to a fuller form of the bell}' than is seen in the Eel, which to some extent reminds one 

 of the belly of the Codfish, to which fish, indeed, it is related. 



f A term used by Aristotle; airopaSiica ^coa, "solitary animals," or "animals living only here and there." 



