OF SPINOUS FISHES IN GENERAL. 239 



difcrlminately devours, fo that every fifli owes its fafety to its minute- 

 nefs, celerity, or courage. The pike will draw down the water-rat and 

 young ducks while fwimming about. Gefner mentions a mule that 

 Hooped to drink, when a famifhed pike that was near feized it by the 

 nofe, nor was it difengaged till the bead flung it on Ihore. They will 

 contend with the otter for his prey, and endeavour to force it from him. 

 For this reafon it is dreaded by all other fifh ; and fmall ones fhew the 

 fame uneafinefs and deteftation at the prefence of their tyrant, as little 

 birds do at the fight of an hawk or an owl. When the pike lies afleep 

 near the furface, as is frequent, the leiTer filh are often obferved to fwim 

 around it in vaft numbers, with a mixture of caution and terror. 



Other tribes of frefh water fifh chiefly fubfifl: on worms and infects, 

 purfuing them at the bottom, or jumping after them to the furface. In 

 winter their appetite feems to forfake them, at leafl: they continue fo tor- 

 pid, that few baits will tempt them. They continue in deep holes for 

 days together, without appearing to move. The cold feems to affed: 

 them, they lie clofe to the bottom, and feldom venture out except the 

 day be fine, and the fliallows tepified by the rays of the fun. Some 

 fifhes may be rendered fo torpid by the cold, in the northern rivers, as 

 to be frozen up in their great maflfes of ice, in which they continue for 

 feveral months, the prifoners of congelation, waiting the approach of a 

 warmer fun, to reftore life and liberty. 



Each fpecies of fifli is infeft:ed with worms of kinds peculiar to itfelf, 

 Thefe lodge either in the jaws, and the intefi:ines internally, or near the 

 fins externally. When healthy and fat, fifli are not much annoyed by 

 them J but in winter, when lean or fickly, they fuffer very much. In 

 fome feafons they fuffer epidemic diforders, and are feen dead by the 

 water-fide, without apparent caufe ; yet the^ are animals of all others 

 rrioft vivacious, and often live on fubfl:ances poifonous to the more per- 

 fcft clafles of animated nature. Whether the poifonous qualities of fome 

 may not arife from this caufe is uncertain. That they inflid poifonous 

 wounds is the opinion of many. Their being poifonous, when eaten, is 

 equally notorious ; and the caufe equally infcrutable. Others have af- 

 cribed the poifon of thefe fifties to their feeding upon copperas beds. 

 W^ith us, if fifties, fuchas carp or tench, acquire any difagreeable flavour 

 from the lakes in which they have been bred, this can be removed, by 

 their being kept fome time in finer and better water. 



Part V. No. 30. S f , OF 



