MYTHS AND LEGENDS 425 



Brazil and the Guianas, with a length of about fifteen feet and 

 a weight of four hundred pounds (fig. looc). 



At the other end of the scale is a tiny Goby {Mistichthys 

 luzonensis) found only in one of the lakes of Luzon in the Phihp- 

 pine Islands, which enjoys the distinction of being the smallest 

 of all known vertebrates, fully mature individuals measurmg only 

 half an inch in total length (fig. 146). This fish is very abun- 

 dant, and in spite of its small size forms an important article of food. 

 Some of the Gobies found in the coral-reef pools of Samoa and 

 other islands of the Pacific are nearly as small, and certam 

 Top Minnows or Cyprinodonts of the New World {Poeciliinae) 

 are less than an inch long when fully grown. 



There is a widespread and popular beUef that certain species 



Fig. 145. THE LARGEST FISH KNOWN. 



Whale Shark {Rhineodon typicus), X about xio- (After Gudger.) 



of fish live to a vast age, and stories of Carp of one hundred or 

 one hundred and fifty years of age, and of hoary Pike more than 

 two hundred years old, occur in some of the works on natural 

 history pubHshed during the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- 

 turies. As Dr. Regan has pointed out, the statements concerning 

 most of the very old Carp "rest on very unrehable evidence," 

 and although there is good reason for beheving that under 

 artificial conditions this fish may attain to a good old age, it is 

 doubtful whether it exceeds fifteen years in a wild state. 

 Satisfactory proofs of the alleged great age of Pike are likewise 

 difficult to find, but the same author remarks that "it is 

 probable that fish of sixty or seventy pounds weight are at 

 least as many years old." The story of the so-called "Emperor's 

 Pike" makes amusing reading, and is one that was a great 

 favourite with all writers on fishes since it was first printed by 

 Gesner in 1558. The fish was said to have been captured in a 



