228 ANOMALOUS CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 



fwims, and often breaks the net to pieces that enclofes it ; but the inflant rt 

 is raifed with its head above water, all its adtivity ceafes : it is then a life- 

 lels, fpiritlefs lump, and fuffers itfclf to be tamely dragged on Ihore -, yet 

 it has been found to break a fifherman's leg with a blow of its tail. 



Caviar is made from the roe of allkindsof (turgeon, but particularly 

 the fecond. It is a confiderable merchandize among the Turks, Greeks, 

 and Venetians, Caviar fomewhat refembles fofc foap in confiftencci but 

 it is of a brown, uniform colour, and is eaten as cheefe with bread. It 

 is made of the fpawn from, the body of the fturgeon j for the fturgeon dif- 

 fers from other cartilaginous fi(h, having fpawn like a cod, not eggs like 

 a ray. 



The Hufo, or Ifinglafs Fifli, is caught in great quantities in the Danube, 

 from the months of OAober to January : feldom under fifty pounds weight, 

 often above four hundred : its flefli is foft, glutinous and flabby ; but it 

 is fometimes falted, which makes it better tafted, and then it turns red 

 like falmon. It is for the commodity it furnilhes that it is chiefly taken. 

 Ifinglafs is of a whitifti fubfl:ance, inclining to yellow, done up into rolls, 

 made of the flcin, the entrails, the fins and the tail of this fifli, cut into 

 fmall pieces, macerated and boiled to a jelly ; which hardens when dry. 



OF ANOMALOUS CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 



IN this clafs we have the Pipe Fifli, that almofl: tapers to a thread ; 

 the Mole, or Sun Fifti, that has the appearance of a bulky head, but 

 the body cut off in the middle ; the Hippocampus, with an head fome- 

 what like that of an horfe j and the Water Bat, whofe head can fcarcely 

 be difl:inguiflied from the body ; the Fifliing Frog, from its defermity, 

 called the Sea Devil, the Chimsera, the Lump Fifti, the Sea Porcupine, 

 and the Sea Snail. Of thefe the hiftory is but little known. 



The Mole, or Sun Fifti, fometimes grows very large j one taken 

 near Plymouth was five hundred weight. In form it refembles a bream, 

 or fome deep fifti cut off in the middle : the mouth is very fmall, and 

 contains in each jaw two broad teeth, with ftiarp edges : the colour of 

 the back is duflcy and dappled, the belly a filvery white. When boiled, 

 it has been obferved to turn to a glutinous jelly, and would moil probably 



fervc 



