GIGANTIC SIZE. 85 



also, that in consequence of its oily nature it cannot be consi- 

 dered as wholesome or digestible." The flesh is white, soft 

 and luscious, and although very inferior to it, more resembles 

 that of the eel than any other fish. In some places the fat is 

 used instead of lard. Isinglass is prepared from its swim- 

 bladder. 



The silurus, as is the case with other fish that live at the 

 bottom, is very tenacious of life, and will survive long after 

 being taken out of the water if placed in wet grass. 



It spawns about midsummer, amongst reeds, &c. Bloch 

 tells us he has found seventeen thousand three hundred small 

 greenish-coloured eggs in a fish of three pounds weight, and 

 that the fry appear even as early as from the sixth to the 

 ninth day. The young are of slow growth. The old story 

 of the male guarding the female, and the young afterwards, 

 seems now exploded. 



The silurus attains to eight feet or upwards in length. 

 Richter speaks of one captured near to Limritz, in Pome- 

 rania, which had a mouth so large, that it could easily have 

 taken in a child of six to seven years old ; and that he him- 

 self has seen one lying on a charette, or kind of cart, that 

 was longer than the vehicle itself! According to Kramer, 

 they are found in the Danube, weighing more than three 

 hundred pounds, with a girth that two men cannot span. 

 Bloch tells us, indeed, that in 1761, an individual was taken 

 at Writzen, on the Oder, of which the salted flesh alone 

 filled two barrels and a half, each barrel ordinarily weighing 

 three hundred pounds ; so that this fish, sinking the head, 

 entrails and fins, must therefore have weighed seven hundred 

 and fifty pounds ! 



The strength of the silurus, which lies chiefly in its tail, 



