NO. 1782. STRUCTURE AND BABITS OF W0LFFISHE8—GTLL. 181 



relating to sea fisheries for the year 1907 (1909, pp. xxiv, xxv, Ixxxiv, 

 Ixxxv), it is declared that "catfish are entirely confined to the north- 

 ern regions and the North Sea and are taken almost entirely by 

 steam trawlers." A total of 74,150 hundredweight were landed in 

 Great Britain in 1907; 23,234 hundredweight wore taken in the 

 North Sea, 28,958 hundredweight were brought from Iceland, 18,434 

 hundredweight were received from Faroe, and 2,214 hundredweight 

 came from as far as the White Sea. The rest were caught chiefly 

 around Scotland. These proportions of course vary greatly from 

 year to year. The quantity landed is greater than that of such 

 esteemed fishes as the turbot and sole." 



The wholesale as well as retail price greatly varies. In the Bul- 

 letin Statistique, published by the Conseil Permanent International 

 pour I'Exploration de la Mer (1906), figures are given for Germany, 

 England, and Scotland for 1903 and 1904. In 1903 the wolffish 

 commanded in Germany, for a kilogram (about 2| pounds), an 

 average price of 0.20 of a shilling, and in 1904, 0.17 of a shilHng; 

 in England, respectively, 0.17 and 0.11 of a shilling, and in Scot- 

 land (1904), 0.11 of a shilling. The price was approximately equal 

 to that realized for whiting in England and Scotland and much 

 more than that prevailing for the same fish in Germany. It was 

 considerably greater than the price obtained for herring in the same 

 years in England and Scotland, but less than that commanded in 

 Germany. 



HABITS OF THE WOLF EEL. 



The wolf eel (AnarrMchthys ocellatus) is pronounced by Jordan and 

 Evermann (1898) to be "one of our most remarkable fishes." " Wolf 

 eel" is a made name originating from some one acquainted with the 

 wolffish. A more common designation along the Pacific coast, where 

 the true eel was unknown until introduced, is eel. According to Jor- 

 dan (1884), also, "the name ^Agia' is given to it by the Dalmatian 

 fishermen on Puget Sound, and that of ^ Morina' by the Italians at 

 Monterey." There may be some misunderstanding as to Agia, for in 

 the Adriatic and along the Dalmatian coast the name Azia, (also 

 spelled Asia, Asiao, and Asiar,) is applied to the piked dogfish {Squalus 

 acanthias). Morena (not Morina) is an Italian name of the common 

 moray ( Muraena Jielena) and therefore expresses essentially the same 

 appreciation of resemblance as the English name eel. 



It is an inhabitant of the Pacific coast from Puget Sound to Mon- 

 terey, "lurking among the rocks and occasionally left by the falling 

 tide." Sometimes, but rarely, a length of 8 feet or even more is 



a 67,348 hundredweight of the turbot and 63,085 hundredweight of the sole were 

 landed in 1907. 



