288 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



and the Water Bat, whose head can scarcely 

 be distinguished from the body. In this class 

 we find the Fishing Frog, which from its de- 

 formity some have called the Sea Devil ; the 

 Chimaera, the Lump Fish, the Sea Porcu- 

 pine, and the Sea Snail. Of all these the 

 history is but little known ; and naturalists 

 supply the place with description. 



The Sun Fish sometimes grows to a very 

 large size ; one taken near Plymouth was five 

 hundred weight. In form it resembles a 



of keeping the water free from eels, from a knowledge 

 of their destructive habits towards the spawn and fry of 

 other fishes. Other ponds into which eels have been 

 constantly introduced are obnoxious to them from some 

 quality in the water ; and they are known to leave such 

 places during the night, and have been found, on their 

 passage to other retreats. Dr Hastings, in his Illustra- 

 tions of the Natural History of Worcestershire, says at 

 page 134, " I will here mention a curious confirmation 

 of the opinion in favour of the overland migration of 

 eels. A relative of the late Mr Perrott was out in his 

 park with his keeper near a large piece of water, on a 

 very beautiful evening, when the keeper drew his atten- 

 tion to a fine eel quietly ascending the bank of the pool, 

 and with an undulating motion making its way through 

 the long grass: on further observation he perceived a 

 considerable number of eels quietly proceeding to a 

 range of stews, nearly the distance of a quarter of a mile 

 from the large piece of water from whence they started. ! 

 The stews were supplied by a rapid brook, and in all 

 probability the instinct of the fish led them in that di- 

 rection as a means of finding their way to some large 

 river from whence their ultimate destination, the sea, 

 might be obtained. This circumstance took place at 

 Sandford Park, near Enstone." 



That eels breed also in the fresh water of inland 

 rivers and lakes from which they are unable to visit the 

 sea. is, I believe, certain. A constant supply for the 

 table is obtained throughout the winter in these locali- 

 ties, as well as at other seasons, by gamekeepers and 

 fishermen, who have charge of waters thus situated ; and 

 no doubt exists in their minds that these eels are bred 

 in the places from which they are obtained, and of which 

 the great variation that occurs in the size is an additional 

 proof. 



The eel is a voracious feeder during certain months 

 of the year. In winter the stomachs of those which I 

 examined were empty: by the middle of March I found 

 the stomachs of others distended with the larvae of vari- 

 ous insects, and the bones of small fishes. They are 

 known to consume a large quantity of spaxvn, and will 

 attack large carp, seizing them by the fins, though with- 

 out the power of doing them further injury. Occasion- 

 ally they eat vegetable substances, and have been seen 

 swimming about the surface of water, cropping the 

 leaves of small aquatic plants. By means of a long and 

 capacious air-bladder, eels' rise to various elevations in 

 the water with great ease, and sometimes swim very 

 high even in deep water. When whitebait-fishing in 

 the Thames, I once caught an eel in the net in twenty- 

 six feet depth of water, though the whitebait-net does 

 not dip more than about three feet below the surface. 



Eels appear to be slow of growth, not attaining greater 

 length than twelve inches during the first year, and do 

 not mature roe till the second or third year. The sharp- 

 nosed species, however, acquires a large size. I saw at 

 Cambridge the preserved skins of two which weighed to- 

 gether fifty pounds ; the heaviest twenty-seven pounds, 

 the second twenty-three pounds. They were taken on 

 draining a fen-dyke at Wisbeach. 



bream, or some deep fish cut off in the middle : 

 the mouth is very small, and contains in each 

 jaw two broad teeth, with sharp edges : the 

 colour of the back is dusky and dappled, and 

 the belly is a silvery white. When boiled, 

 it has been observed to turn to a glutinous 

 jelly, and would most probably serve for all 

 the purposes of isinglass, were it found in 

 sufficient plenty. 



The Fishing Frog 1 in shape very much 

 resembles a tadpole or young frog; but then 



Ely is said to have been so named from rents being 

 formerly paid in eels: the lords of manors in the isle 

 were annually entitled to more than 100,000 eels. A 

 stich or stick of eels was twenty-five ; and the practice 

 of stringing eels on tough slender willow-twigs, put in 

 at the gill-aperture and out at the mouth, still prevails 

 in Dorsetshire among those who carry eels about for 

 sale from house to house ; one, two, or three pounds' 

 weight being thus strung on a stick, to suit different 

 customers. Elmore on the Severn obtained its name 

 from the immense number of eels which are tai\en 

 there. Yarrell's British Fishes, vol. II. 



1 The Fishing-Frog, Angler, Sea-Devil, or tJ'idc- 

 Gab. This fish, (says Mr Yarrell) which is not uncom- 

 mon in all the seas of Europe, and was in consequence 



called Lophius Europasus by Shaw, has also been called 

 frog and frog-fish from the earliest time, from its resem- 

 blance to a frog in the tadpole state. Its habits appeared 

 to the fishermen of former days so exact a representation 

 ofHhe art themselves practised that they by common con- 

 sent called it the Fisher. Aristotle calls it a sort of frog, 

 which, he says, is also called a fisher; and he adds; 

 that this fish owes its name to the tact and industry it 

 exercises to procure food. This fish has been taken on 

 the coast of Londonderry, Antrim, Dublin, Waterford, 

 and Cork, in Ireland; in England, on the coasts of 

 Cornwall, Devonshire, Norfolk, and Yorkshire ; in Scot- 

 land, in the Forth and among the Northern islands. It 

 is also named by authors as common on the shores of the 

 Baltic and Norway. 



In its appetite this fish is most voracious ; and as it 

 is not a rapid swimmer, possessing but little power in 

 its pectoral fins, it is supposed to be obliged to have 

 recourse to art in order to satisfy its appetite. Upon 

 the head, as will be seen in the figure, are two slender 

 elongated appendages, the first of them broad and flat, 

 tened towards the end, and having at this dilated part a 

 shining silvery appearance. These elongated filaments 

 are curiously articulated at the base with the upper sur- 

 face of the head. They have great freedom of motion 

 in any direction, the first filament more especially, pro- 

 duced by numerous muscles, amounting, according to 

 M. Bailly, to twenty-two. 



These elongated shafts are formed of bone covered by 

 the common skin ; and as the soft parts are abundantly 

 supplied with nerves, they may also serve the angler as 

 delicate organs of touch. The uses to which they are 

 applied are singular. While couching close to the ground, 

 the fish, by the action of its ventral and pectoral fins, 



