SIIKATKISII. 



7(11 



size, liave cvci- 1)chmi seen too:ethc'r ;it SoWi. ( )i' tht'iii 

 we are told tliat they pursue and drive tiicir tiA-ing' 

 victims in eoninion, until, sure of their prey, with one 

 consent and with open mouth they dart about with in- 

 credible speed, seizing and devouring their victims. In 

 order to attain this great velocity the Shentfish chiefly 

 employs its tail, 1)\' whose serpentine movements and 

 quick blows it sculls itself along like the Eel. Fortu- 

 nately for the tishes it pursues, the Sheattish by its 

 violent mo\ i-ments and rapid pace sets the water in 

 commotion and thus betrajs itself." When the Sheatfish, 

 on the other hand, lies lazily at rest and allows small 

 fishes, frogs, crustaceans, insects, and even worms to 

 glide do^\■n its ma^v, we may well conjecture that here 

 too (cf. ali(i\i', pp. 26;] — 2()4) the iiuier transverse cur- 

 tains of the nmutli act as valves, so to s|ieak, in ]iump- 

 ing the tiny victims into its gape. Ih.iwcvcr, the 

 Sheattish is not exclusively carnivonjus; vegetable sub- 

 stances also enter into its diet. 



From older times we have accounts of assaults 

 made by the Sheattish upon higher animals as well, even 

 upon man, or at least of its devouring the bodies of 

 drowned persons. Gesnej; tells us that the stomach of 

 a Sheatfish was found to contain a human head and a 

 right hand with two gold rings, and that geese, ducks, 

 anil animals that were being watered, have been seized 

 by the same fish. Pali-as says of the Sheatfish in Russia 

 that it is so voracious that it does not fear to seize 

 bathers by the legs. VALE^X'IEN^■ES quotes several accounts 

 from Hungary of its attacking children. Heckel and 

 KxER state that at Vienna on one occasion a poodle ^vas 

 found in tlie stomach of a Sheatfish, and that at Press- 

 Inirg a similar discoverv was made of the remains of a 

 boy. E. SvEDMAiiK, the geologist, who has collected the 

 instances of the occurrence of the Sheatfish in the Di- 

 strict of Calmar, was told there that "long ago" a person 

 had stood on the shore of Lake VersjO and watched a i 

 Sheatfish seize a lamb. The Sheatfish is therefore feared, 

 this being also due in all probability, as Heckel and 

 Kner have remarked, to the bitter experience that a 

 few may have had of the ol)stinate wounds caused by 

 the spines on tlie first pectoral ray of the Sheatfish. 

 Specimens of large size may also prove no easy booty 

 to their captors. "On Lake Storutter," writes Sveo.mauk, 

 "a fisherman speared in the back a monster that di-ew 

 the punt all round the lake before it finalh" surren- 



dered.' J^ir,L.rKii<iii(i fells a similar tale of a Sheatfish 

 that was caught on a longliiic in Lakc^ Immel. 



The Sheattish is eminently sensitive to changes in 

 the weather, especially to thunder, when it may often 

 be seen at the surface, as well as at other times on 

 warm summer days with drizzling rain (Holm). In many 

 places too the; Sheatfish passes for a weather-fjrophet. 

 "When it breathes air," says the fisherman — and this is 

 a necessity to most fishes, but above all to tlie Physo- 

 stoines — "it raises itself out of the wafer like a big, 

 black man" (SvEinhMtK). It is extremely tenacious of 

 life. A male 1 '.) dm. long w:is s(!nt by rail on the ^iUtli 

 of May, 1889, in a wooden box containing straw and 

 a little ice, from Lake Bafven to Stockholm. It was still 

 living on its arrival, and was kept alive for several days in 

 a vessel where the water \\as just sufficient to cover it. 



riie spawning-season occurs in the summer (May — 

 July), generally about midsummer. "At this .season," 

 says Holm, "the Sheatfish is sluggish and lethargic, being 

 eas}' to surprise and capture. This applies in particular 

 to the females, which for some time previous to the 

 spawning lie among the rushes, where, it is said, the 

 female deposits her roe, after first providing a secure 

 and convenient receijtacle for it by scooping with her 

 tail a hole in which the young subsequently stay for 

 some time." The ancient account of Aristotle, that 

 the male watches the roe, is now regarded as dubious. 

 The number of eggs varies as usual according to the 

 size of the fish. In a female 1'87 kgm. in weight Be- 

 necke counted more than 60,000 eggs. The eggs are 

 slightly yellow, 3 mm. in diameter, and are hatched in 

 8 — 14 days. The fry grow quickly, where food is abun- 

 dant, attaining in the first year, according to Bkehm", 

 a weight of ^^ kgm., in the second a weight of l'\, 

 kgm. A fisherman of Strasburg, Baldner by name. 

 \vho has left a manuscri])t written in 1666 and con- 

 taining an account of all the birds, fishes, and other 

 animals he had taken, tells us that a Sheatfish caught 

 in the River 111 near Strasburg was kept in captivity 

 from 1.569 to 1620 and during this period attained a 

 length of about 1 ' ^ metres. 



Young Sheatfish, less than 1 metre in length, are 

 (piite eatable, though not exactly easy of digestion. The 

 tail is the l)est part of the body. The flesh is soft, 

 white, and rather sweetish in taste. Valenciennes com- 

 pared its flavour most nearly to that of the F.cl. but 



" Thierleben, Abtli. Ill, Bd. 2, p. 201. 



