nsiiES. 219 



wrapped in brown paper, and carried for three liours in a per- 

 son's pocket.* The Carp is so exceedingly tenacious of hfe, 

 that it is a common practice in Holland to keep it alive for 

 three weeks or a month, placed in wet moss, and in a net kept 

 in a cool place. A little water is occasionally thrown over the 

 net, and the tish are fed with bread steeped in milk. 



EiiRORS AND TRADITIOKS. — To thosc who now enter on the 

 study of fishes, with access to the stores of knowledge accu- 

 mulated by earlier labourers, and having for their guidance the 

 light reflected from other depai-tments of science, the ideas 

 with which some species of fish have been a.ssociated cannot 

 but seem strange, incongruous, and unreasonable. But this 

 assumption of superiority is one that a wider range of study 

 assuredly dispels ; and it teaches us, at the same time, to hold 

 our own views with humility, seeing how great were the errors 

 of inquu'ers who were certainly not less able nor less intel- 

 ligent. The subject is one to which we can only advert, yet it 

 cannot but prove instructive. 



The Mackerel jNIidge, one of the most diminutive of our native 

 fishes (Motella glauca), is only about an inch and a quarter 

 in length. "This seems," says Mr. Couch, "to be one of the 

 species spoken of by the older naturalists under the name of 

 apua, and which, from their minute size, and the multitudes 

 in which they sometimes a})j)eared, they judged to be pro- 

 duced by spontaneous generation from the froth of the sea, 

 or the putrefaction of marine substances. "t The notions with 

 respect to the origin of Eels were not less fanciful. Aristotle 

 believed that they sprang from mud ; Phny, from fragments 

 which were separated from their bodies by rubbing against 

 rocks ; others supposed that they proceeded from the carcases 

 of animals; Helmont belie vcd tliat they came from May-dew, 

 and might be obtained from the following process : — " Cut up 

 two tufts covered with May-dew, and lay one upon the other, 

 the grassy sides inwards, and thus expose them to the heat of 

 the sun ; in a few hours there will spring from them an iniinite 

 quantity of Eels." Horse-hair, from the tail of a stallion, when 

 deposited in water, was formerly believed to be a never-failing 

 source of a supply of young Eels. X The ear bones of the Maigre 

 {Scimna aquila), a fish which attains the length of five or six 



• Loudon's Mag. Nat Hist., vol. ^^. p. 330. 

 t Vide Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 193. 

 j Idem, vol. ii. p. 289. 



