SHORE FISHES. 263 



stones, under the limp weeds, and in crevices of the rock. 

 Here they come. Prawns in shoals, little Wrasse and big 

 ones, the long lithe forms of Gunnel and Rockling, the 

 attenuated Fifteen-spined Stickleback, the Weever, and many 

 another. Our attention is taken by a waving black form near 

 at hand, and for a few minutes we are at a loss to make out 

 what it can be. It appears to be a plant of strange nature, 

 for it is evidently rooted at the bottom. And then a suspicion 

 arises that the swaying and waving of the ribbon is not entirely 

 caused by the influx of the tide, but we have not decided what 

 it is, when up it comes with a green shore crab at the other 

 end of it. It is a small Conger that has been struggling to 

 bring into the light of day this crab, which it had tracked to 

 his hole in the bottom. In such a position the crab had 

 evidently something to cling to, but the Conger had fixed his 

 teeth in the crab, and it was only a question of time when the 

 crab should be unable longer to hold out. The Conger is 

 rapidly off to his own special haunt, there to eat the crab in 

 peace. 



The Conger Eel (Conger vulgaris] is for its size among the 

 most powerful of our fishes. The largest specimens, of 

 course, are taken in deep water, but individuals of con- 

 siderable size are taken from the rocks, where they have 

 their retreats in little caverns beneath the broad fronds of 

 Laminaria. Jonathan Couch remarked that he had a note of 

 a Conger that had been taken weighing one hundred and four 

 pounds, and of another measuring seven feet two inches 

 which weighed ninety pounds. Even much smaller monsters 

 than this have to be treated with caution when caught, the 

 fishermen usually striking them a smart blow on the tail to 

 disable them and so prevent much mischief. The upper jaw 

 of the Conger projects over the lower one, which is the reverse 

 of what obtains among the true eels (Anguilld) ; the dorsal 

 fin, too, begins much nearer, and as in the eels combines with 

 the ventral fin to form the tail. 



