CONGER. 343 



of tlie cavity of the body, as in the kindred fish; and although 

 the grains may be shed through the summer, we only feel 

 confident of them in the autumn. Mr. R. Q. Couch remarks, 

 in the "Zoologist," that he had seen cases where the ova 

 were as large as small peas; but as this is rare, and in 

 general they are very minute, the rapidity of their development 

 at last must be rapid. And a friend in the west of Cornwall 

 has informed me under the date of the 30th. of December, 

 that about two months before he caught in a trammel-net in 

 Helford Harbour a large quantity of curiously-formed stuff, 

 which an old fisherman pronounced to be weed. But it 

 appeared to the observer to exhibit more evidence of design 

 and regularity than are usually discovered in sea-weed; and 

 on examining the masses there were found a young fish much 

 resembling a Conger in each of the diverging globules, which 

 in form were an elongated ellipse. The growth of these young 

 ones is not slow, but several years must pass before they 

 reach the size at which they are sometimes found. 



In every part of its body this fish possesses great muscular 

 strength and agility; and these it puts forth in a manner that 

 is highly characteristic when the object is to deliver itself from 

 restraint. When taken on board the boat and left undisturbed, 

 the sensitive powers of its tail are employed in searching out 

 the nature and limits of its prison; and then this organ is 

 stretched out to lay hold of the gunwale ; by fixing its holdfast 

 on which a reversed muscular contraction is put in force, and 

 the whole body is turned overboard; to prevent which, however, 

 when the fish is first taken, it is usual to inflict a smart blow 

 with the hat or bludgeon on the root of the tail, or on the 

 vent; either of which is effectual in disabling the victim. But 

 again, if the hvmgry fish has had the mishap to have found 

 its way into a crab-pot, the method of escape is with some 

 amount of diflTerence, although the tail is still the instrument 

 employed. Thrust between the upright willow rods, they are 

 thus pressed asunder to allow of the reversed muscular action 

 of the body, and at last of the passage and escape of the head. 

 A further and somewhat diflferent proceeding is the resource 

 when the fisherman's hook is fastened in the jaws; and a 

 revolving action is particularly successful when the line is of 

 the sort termed a bultey or long line, already described; and 



