FISHING-ROD OF THE ANGLER-FISH. 5 



land's usual morning sliopping-time to charge him with 

 sawdust. Unfortunately I had miscalculated the time. 

 It appears that she had not gone out, and that the 

 savoury odour had ascended to the bedroom windows. 

 As the vulture smells his prey from afar off, so did 

 Mrs. B. discover that there was a stinking fish in the 

 house. She therefore descended upon me and John 

 with outstretched pinions and raised crest. 



'' It was too late to bolt, so I stood it out. Expostu- 

 lations were in vain. She turned the empty bottles 

 out of a hamper and put it under the fish. She then 

 cut the rope with a kitchen-knife, and the fish fell with 

 a flop into it. The hamper was then directed to Mr. 

 Edon, at my museum. I am glad to say they had a 

 job to get it upstairs, and I would not help. The last 

 I saw of the hamper was that it was standing on the 

 pavement outside the Parcels Delivery Office, not in the 

 shop, and that a dog was sniffing inquiringly through 

 the cracks in the hamper, and that there were several 

 blue-bottles flying about over the vicinity." 



In October, 1873, I received a very fine angler fish 

 caught in a trawl in 27 fathoms of water, between Berry 

 Head and Start Point, on the coast of Devon ; this fish 

 weighed 47lbs., and was 3ft. llin. in length, and 1ft. 

 6^in. in the widest part. In its stomach I found two 

 mary-soles, one common sole, one piked dog-fish 1ft. 

 6in. long, three moderate-sized crabs, fourteen five- 

 fingers, and one whiting. 



This fish is called the angler, or fishing-frog, on ac- 

 count of a most wonderful provision it has to attract 

 other fish, by means of two long moveable spines con- 

 nected with the top of the head. The mechanism by 

 which this lure is worked by the fishing-frog is most 

 interesting : it consists of a ring working within a ring. 



