﻿GILL] ill! HISTORY OP I ll i: VNGLEK 509 



struggle then commencedj but so firmly did the fish retain its grasp, 

 that it suffered itself to be dragged oul of the water and secured." 



Another feature of tin- fish is the slowness of its digestive powers. 

 Conch has also aptly illustrated tins characteristic, where the angler's 



skill was utilized by other fishers. "On one occasion there were 

 found in the stomach of an angler nearly three quarters of a hundred 

 herrings; and so little had they suffered change that they were sold 

 by the fisherman in the market without .any suspicion in the buyer 

 of the manner in which they had been obtained. In another instance 

 there were taken from the stomach twenty-one flounders and a dory, 

 all of them of sufficient size and sufficiently uninjured to make a 

 good appearance in the market where they were sold." Still more 

 apt evidence of the slowness of digestion has been given by James 

 T. Linsley (1844). A large angler (3 ft. 8 in. long), caught near 

 Bridgeport, Conn., " continued alive out of water about 24 hours," 

 and when cut open, Linsley " took from its stomach subsequently, a 

 large half pail-full of fishes, of various species, such as tom-cods, 

 dinners, bass-fry, etc. ; of the latter, some were as perfect as when 

 swallowed, notwithstanding the lapse of time mentioned." 



VI 



Of all the remarkable characteristics of the angler, perhaps the 

 most remarkable are the manner in which the eggs of the female are 

 consigned to the waves and the subsequent development and meta- 

 mi irphosis of the young. As much as 22 or 23 centuries ago, at least, 

 the manner of oviposition was known to Greek fishermen and briefly 

 noticed by Aristotle. 



Leaving aside his irrelative and speculative remarks, he declared 

 that the sea frog lays its eggs in a bunch near the shore. Not 

 until quite recently w : as more information communicated, and then 

 in a land unknown to the Greek philosopher. 



About the end of summer the fishes seek shallower water and the 

 inhabitants of the depths advance upwards ; the sexes must then 

 consort together, but in what manner and what rites of marriage 

 are performed is unknown ; the result, however, is, that about the 

 time indicated " the fishermen on the New England coast often notice 

 a substance floating on the water, which they term ' a purple veil,' 

 the precise nature of which has caused much speculation on their 

 part, and which answers singularly well to its designation.'" S. F. 

 Baird, in 1871, became interested in the accounts he heard and sought 

 to determine the origin of the " purple veil." He found one " which 

 presented the appearance of a continuous sheet of a purplish brown 



