THE FISH OF BOUILLABAISSE 



These fish do not differ in the least from those of 

 the shops; they belong to exactly the same species. 

 But, now, they look somehow different, and give a 

 better idea of what they are really like. Full of life, 

 jumping all over the place, their colours are clearer; 

 they look fresher; their contours are more natural. 

 The crawfish or spiny lobsters of different kinds 

 beside them show, by their vigorous leapings, the 

 degree of life that is still in them. The crabs career 

 about in all directions, or hide under the bunches of 

 seaweed. On the boat which has just caught them, 

 the assortment which is inert and discoloured on the 

 shop counter is animated, brightly hued, full of 

 movement and life. 



But the naturalist is inclined to pay more attention 

 to the other, still more numerous, creatures which 

 come with the fish and live near them in the submarine 

 field. The professional fisherman throws them away, 

 for, since they cannot be eaten, there is no profit to 

 be made out of them. The naturalist takes and pre- 

 serves them for purposes of study. Their diversity, 

 the way in which they are found associated, their 

 appearance — all these combine to form one of the 

 most remarkable phenomena of nature. 



In the first place, for they catch the eye in the 

 miscellaneous assortment brought up by the net, are 

 spherical or oval bodies, sometimes as large as one's 

 fist, compact in appearance, and of a splendid orange 

 colour. It is especially from them that we get the 

 powerful odour of the sea which the catch as a whole 

 gives off. They are inert, and when we pull them apart 

 with a finger, we find a felt-like, resistant flesh, which 

 is almost homogeneous except for a fairly broad 

 opening pierced in a particular point of the surface. 

 These are globular sponges, containing a delicate 

 skeleton of siliceous concretions which makes them 

 practically useless. Their scientific name, Suberites, 

 expresses the similarity of their flesh, as regards its 



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