222 



>[alacop- 

 tervgii 



Sub-bra- 

 chiali- 



Discoboli. 



ICHTHYOLOGY. 



dom used for food by those who can provide better. It is, 

 however, held in some estimation by tlie Greenlanders, 

 themselves an oily people, whose lines do not alw ays tail in 

 pleasant places. They also eat its roe (which is a very 

 large one), after having reduced it by boiling to a pulp. In 

 Ireland it is sometimes salted. This fish is very unwieldy, 

 and, possessing few means of defence, it generally remains 

 at the bottom of the sea, adhering to the rocks. It thus 

 becomes an easy prey both to seals and sharks. Large 

 placid oily spots upon the surface of the sea are often seen 

 above the places where the lump-fish have been seized and 

 slain. We also occasionally find their skins floating empty 

 along the shore, the flesh and blood having been previous- 

 ly extracted by their insatiate foes. The male is said to 

 preserve with great care the eggs which he has fecundat- 

 ed, and he has moreover been famed in fable for his affec- 

 tionate behaviour to the female. There does not, however, 

 appear to be any real foundation for this trait in his cha- 

 racter, — a very unfrequent one in that of any member of 

 the fishy tribes. 



Cyclopt. spinosiis inhabits the northern seas. Cycl. mi- 

 nutits is found in the Atlantic, and C. nudus in the Indian 

 Ocean. 



2rf, LiPARis, Artedi. Has only one dorsal fin, which, as 

 well as the anal, is rather long. The body is smooth, elon- 

 gated, and compressed behind. 



Lip. vulgaris {Cyc. liparis, L.), the unctuous sucker 

 of Pennant, is a European species of variable size, not un- 

 common about the mouths of rivers, especially those of 

 the northern seas. It is a well-known British species, re- 

 markable not merely for dying, but for actually dissolving, 

 soon after it is taken out of the water. Liparis 3Iontagui 

 measures only about two inches in length.' It was disco- 

 vered by tlie naturalist whose name it bears, among the 

 rocks at Milton, on the south coast of Devon, during 

 some extraordinary low tides. Lip. gelatinosus is another 

 northern species, the flesh of which is not eatable, as de- 

 scribed by Pallas in his Spicilegia Zoologica. Its flesh is so 

 bad that not even dogs will eat it. 



Genus Echeneis, Linn. This genus, so different from 

 its neighbours, might, like the old Linnasan genus Pleuro- 

 nectes, almost form a separate family of the sub-brachian 

 malacopterygian fishes. The species called Remoras are 

 remarkable for the flattened disk tliey bear upon their 

 heads, and by means of which they can adhere to other 

 bodies with considerable firmness. These disks are com- 

 posed of a certain number of transverse cartilaginous plates, 

 directed obliquely backwards ; dentated or spinous at their 

 posterior edge, and moveable in such a manner that the 

 fish can create a vacancy between them ; and thus, aided 

 also by the toothed margin, it fixes itself securely either to 

 rocks or floating bodies. 



This genus has the body elongated, and clothed with 

 small scales ; a single soft dorsal fin op|)osite to the anal ; 

 the head quite flat above ; the mouth cleft horizontally, 

 and rounded ; the lower jaw placed more forwards, and 

 furnished, as well as the inter-maxillary bones, with small 

 pectiniform teeth. There is a row of regularly-set small 

 teeth, like cilia, along the edge of the maxillaries, which 

 form the external margin of tlie upper jaw ; the vomer is 

 furnished with cardiform teeth, as well as the tongue. 

 They have eight branchiostegous rays. Their stomach is 

 a wide cul-de-sac ; the caeca six or eight in number ; the 

 intestine wide, but short. They have no swimming bladder. 

 The species are few in number. Of these, Echeneis re- 

 mora, Linn., the famous Remora, or sucking fish, of the Me- 

 diterranean, is the best known. It has usually eighteen 

 plates in its cranial disk. 



Sub-bra- 



chiati. 



Discoboli. 



The extraordinary power possessed by this fish, of ad- Malacop- 

 hering tenaciously to any flattish surface, was known to terygii 

 ancient writers, as well as to the curious inquirers of mo- 

 dern times. Pliny luxuriates upon it with his usual dis- 

 cursive verbosity. The reader may possibly be amused 

 by Philemon Holland's translation of the passages in ques- 

 tion. " Having so far proceeded in the discourse of na- 

 ture's historic, that I am now arrived at the very lieigth of 

 her forces, and come into a world of examples, I cannot 

 chuse but in the first place consider the power of her ope- 

 rations, and the infinitnesse of her secrets, which offer 

 themselves before our eyes in the sea : for in no part else 

 of this universal frame is it possible to observe the like ma- 

 jestic of nature : insomuch, as we need not seeke any far- 

 ther, nay, we ought not to make more search into her di- 

 vinitie, considering there cannot be found any thing equall 

 or like unto this one element, wherein she hath surmount- 

 ed and gone beyond her own selfe in a wonderfuU number 

 of respects. For, first and foremost, is there any thing 

 more violent than the sea ; and namely when it is troubled 

 with blustring winds, whirlepuffs, storms, and tempests ? 

 or wherein hath the wit of man been more employed 

 (seeke out all parts of the known world) than in seconding 

 the waves and billows of the sea, by saile and ore ? Fi- 

 nally, is there ought more admirable than the inerrable 

 force of the reciprocall tides of the sea, ebbing and flowing 

 as it doth, whereby it keepeth a current also, as it were 

 the stream of some great river ' 



" The current of the sea is great, the tide much, the winds 

 vehement and forcible ; and more than that, ores and sailes 

 withall to help forward the rest, are mightie and powerfuU : 

 and yet there is one little sillie fish, named echeneis, that 

 checiceth, scorneth, and arresteth them all. Let the winds 

 blow as much as they will, rage the storms and tempests 

 what they can, yet this little fish commaundeth their furie, 

 restraineth their puissance, and, maugre all their force, as 

 great as it is, compelleth ships to stand still : a thing which 

 no cables, be they never so big and able as they will, can 

 perform. She bridleth the violence and tameth the great- 

 est rage of this universall world, and that without any 

 paine that she putteth herselfe unto, without any holding 

 or putting backe, or any other meanes save only by cleav- 

 ing and sticking fast to a vessell : in such a sort as this one 

 small and poore fish is sufficient to resist and withstand so 

 great a power both of sea and navie, yea and to stop the 

 passage of a ship, doe they all what they can possible to 

 the contrarie. What should our fleets and armadoes at 

 sea make such turrets in their decks and forecastles ? 

 what should they fortifie their ships in warlike manner, to 

 fight from them upon the sea, as it were from mure and 

 rampier on firme land ? See the vanitie of man ! alas, 

 how foolish are we to make all this adoe ? When one 

 little fish, not above half a foot long, is able to arrest and 

 stay per force, yea, and hold as prisoners, our goodly tall 

 and proud ships, so well armed in the beakehead with yron 

 pikes and brazen tines ; so offensive and dangerous to 

 bouge and pierce any enemie ship which they doe encountre. 

 Certes, reported it is, that in the naval battaile before Ac- 

 tium, wherein Antonius, and Ckopatra the queene, were 

 defeited by Augustus, one of these fishes staled the admi- 

 rall ship wherein M. Antonius was, at what time as he 

 made all the hast and meanes he could devise with help of 

 ores to encourage his people from ship to ship, and could 

 not prevaile, untill he was forced to abandon the said ad- 

 rairall, and go into another galley. Meanwhile the arma- 

 da of Augustus Casar, seeing this disorder, charged with 

 greater violence, and soone invested the fleete of Atitonie. 

 Of late dales also, and within our remembrance, the like 



' Donovan's British Fishes, t. Ixviii. 



