124 LUMP FISH. 



this, in proportion to its depth. In this respect,, 

 then, the lips of the lamprey serve the animal not 

 only as an organ for taking food, like the tubular 

 lips of so many of the invertebrate tribes, parti- 

 cularly insects, but also as a kind of arms for 

 clinging to contiguous objects; and the same is 

 perhaps the case also with the sturgeon, the lips of 

 which, situated, not at the extremity of the snout, 

 but altogether under it, are somewhat similar in 

 structure to those of the lamprey. Other fishes, 

 such as the lump-sucker ( Cyclopterus lumpus)^ a 

 native of the northern seas, have the power of ad- 

 hering to rocks by means of a small oval and 

 concave membraneous disc, which is surrounded by 

 a fleshy margin fringed with thread-like appendages, 

 situated at the lower part of the body, and composed 

 apparently of their united ventral fins. In the in- 

 terior of this they form a vacuum, and adhere, 

 therefore, like the lamprey, upon the principle of 

 suction ; and the power with which they do so is 

 sometimes surprising, considering that the animal 

 is rarely more than a foot and a half long. " We 

 have known," says Mr. Pennant, " that on flinging 

 a fisli of this species, just caught, into a pail of 

 water, it fix itself so firmly to the bottom, that, on 

 taking the fish by the tail, the whole pail was 

 lifted, though it held some gallons, and that with- 

 out removing the fish from its hold." But the fish 

 which possesses, in the most remarkable degree, 

 this power of suction, is that which is called, par 

 txcellence^ the sucking-fish, forming the genus 



