THE SEA A FOOD EESERVOIR MOORE. 601 



fish is one of the most ungainly and extraordinary appearing of our 

 fishes. Its body is broad and squat, the head is enormous, and the 

 breadth of its mouth, measured on its arc, is ahnost equal to half 

 the length of the entire body. The jaws are each armed with a double 

 row of formidable teeth, and the entire margin of the body, includ- 

 ing the lower jaw, is fringed w^ith ragged fleshy barbels. A peculiar 

 feature is a long staff with a fleshy flag at its tip, which represents 

 the first spine of the dorsal fin, which has migrated from its normal 

 position on the back to the top of the head, where, it is asserted, it 

 serves as a lure to attract smaller creatures within reach of the mouth. 

 The size of the stomach is commensurate with the maw. and the vo- 

 racity of the fish is in keeping with both, its meals during the day 

 sometimes w^eighing half as much as itself. 



Its food consists of almost every kind of animal which the mouth 

 can take in, fishes, starfishes, mollusks, lobsters, crabs, and even water- 

 fowl. It is recorded that seven wild ducks have been found in a 

 single fish. Its habit of catching geese is said to have given it the 

 connnon name here used, wdiile the great size of the organ which 

 enables it to take such large prey has given it another of its numerous 

 names, " all-mouth." 



The eggs of this extraordinary appearing fish are as remarkable 

 as the adult, and are found inclosed in great numbers in floating, 

 jellylike rafts sometimes 25 to 30 feet long and 4 or 5 feet wide, 

 greatly exceeding the parent in bulk. The paradox of the compara- 

 tive dimensions of the parent and the egg masses is explained by the 

 fact that the mucus in which the eggs are embodied when they leave 

 the fish swells enormously by imbibition of sea water. 



The description of the goosefish may not sound alluring, but never- 

 theless it is an excellent fish, and in some European markets brings 

 a higher price than the universally esteemed mackerel. The flesh of 

 the body is firm and rather gelatinous in consistency, white, fine 

 grained and practically boneless, and analysis shows it to contain 

 somewhat more protein than some of the common food fishes and 

 about as much as sirloin steak if allowance be made for the greater 

 quantity of waste in the latter as purchased in the market. This 

 good food is practically all wasted in the United States, whereas 

 about 6,000,000 pounds are consumed annually by Great Britain. It 

 has been estimated that at least 10,000,000 poimds are caught inci- 

 dentally in American fisheries and thrown away. 



The sharks and rays collectively constitute another group of fishes 

 which popular prejudice has relegated to the waste pile, although 

 there is nothing repulsive in their appearance. They are all free of 

 the mucus or slime which makes some fish tmattractive in the mass, 

 but is usually w^ashed away before they reach the ultimate consumer, 



