354 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS 



a friend of mine, then residing at Hastings, ob- 

 served several fish floating on the surface of the 

 water, and men and boys wading in and pulling 

 them out, the Fish apparently making no effort to 

 escape. On enquiry, he found that they were all 

 Gurnards, no other fish exhibiting this phenome- 

 non at that time, although he was informed that 

 a few years before, some conger eels were, during 

 severe weather, in the same predicament. 



Some of the fishermen attributed the helpless- 

 ness of the gurnards to the circumstance of their 

 having been blinded by the cold. Others said, 

 the fish mistook the flakes of snow, which fell on 

 the surface of the sea, for insects, and that they, 

 by leaping up so constantly and eagerly, for the 

 purpose of catching them, at last " blew them- 

 selves ;" meaning that they so distended the air 

 bladder, that it lost its elasticity or power of con- 

 traction, and thus they became helpless. On 

 inspecting a fish just caught, the eyes were perfect, 

 but upon opening the abdomen, and removing the 

 air bladder, the latter was found extremely dis- 

 tended. 



It is probable that the gurnards came into shal- 

 low water in search of food, and the shallow water 

 being much colder than the deep water, the fish 

 became so benumbed, that when they had once 

 distended the air-bladder to mount to the surface, 

 the muscles had not power to compress it, and 



