Tin: SIIKKI'S-IIKAI). 403 



generous fish, tukcii nearly in the Minu* waters, and with the 

 same hait— any, to wit, of the tVe.sh-water niolhiseas, ami, above 

 all, with the cray-tish — uhich is as e.veellcnt as this other is 

 nl)onunal)le on tlic table : 



" This is a villain in ^'iiieral estinuition — the pest of the 

 fisher fur Hass — a fish that putteth tin- eouk, who would 

 render him aeceptable at tabli>, in a (|uan(lary — from whieh, I 

 nm sorry to say, 1 cannot relie\e her, though she be at her 

 wits' end. 



" He is genenilly brown, grey, or reddish above, and of a 

 dead, impure whiti> below. His head is large, and his bodv is 

 flattened laterally, though the frying-pan rejeeteth him. His 

 ordinary weight is two or three pounds, thoii^di he sometimes 

 weiglis five and even six. Ills food, his haunts, his habits, are 

 similar to those of the Hlaek Hass, w hom he ever aceompanieth, 

 a»s though he were intended by nature iw a foil to set olf the 

 merits of that jewel of the flood. He is despised, yea, detested, 

 by the choleric angler, who pulls him out, and then dasheth him 

 upon the stones. 



*' The Sheep's-head of the sea is a lusty, crafty fish, bepraised 

 alike by the fisherman and the epicure. At the turn of the tide 

 he takes the whole soft clam on your hook at a mouthful, and 

 chews it, shell and all, and [lulls like a Salmon as you draw him 

 in ; and his radiant, deep and broad-barred sides — as he flaps 

 about on the sands of that low i.nlet in the great south bay of 

 Long Island, to whieh you havi- just hauled him — how bril- 

 liantly they show, and make you think of the dying Dolphin, 

 and of old Arion ! And when he reposes at the head of tiic 

 tabic — fit place for him — beautiful, though boih d, how heartfelt 



n n 2 



