426 A HISTORY OF FISHES 



lake in Wiirttemburg in the year 1497, and was found to have a 

 copper ring encircUng the gill region bearing an inscription to 

 the effect that the Pike had been placed in the lake by the 

 Emperor Frederick II in the year 1230, no less than two 

 hundred and sixty-seven years before its final capture. Un- 

 fortunately, the accounts given by other authors reveal a 

 number of discrepancies, and they cannot agree as to which 

 of the Fredericks was responsible for marking the fish, or as to 

 the exact locaUty at which it was finally recaptured. Its 

 length has been stated to be nineteen feet, and its weight five 

 hundred and fifty pounds, and an oil painting of it is said to 

 be preserved at the castle of Lantern in Swabia : what appears 

 to be a contemporary copy of this painting is in the Natural 

 History Museum at South Kensington. The actual skeleton of 

 the monster is reputed to be preserved in the cathedral at 

 Mannheim, but this was studied by a celebrated German 



Fig. 146. THE SMALLEST FISH KNOWN. 



Mistichthys luzonensis, X4. (After H. M. Smith.) 



anatomist during the last century, who found that the vertebrae 

 in the backbone were too numerous to belong to a single 

 individual — in other words, that the skeleton had been length- 

 ened to fit the story ! 



The shortest-lived fish would appear to be the Transparent 

 or White Goby {Latrunculus pellucidus) , the course of whose life 

 is run in a single year. This is probably the only recorded 

 example of an "annual vertebrate," although it has been stated 

 that the little Ice-fish [Salanx) of China has a similarly short 

 life. 



A curious myth has arisen concerning the alleged healing 

 powers of the Tench, and it has long been believed that sick 

 or wounded fish were cured by the touch of this fish. It is true 

 that other fishes have been observed to rub themselves against 

 the Tench's body, but the idea that the slime acts as a kind of 

 balsam is now generally discredited. According to Izaak Walton 

 the Tench is the particular physician of the Pike, who "forbears 



