38 



BLENNID^E; ANARRHICAS. GOBIDJS, OR GOBIES. 



for themselves. The AnarrMcas, or Sea- Wolf, must be referred 

 to this family, although differing fr^m it in possessing no ventral 



fins, and in hav- 

 ing the jaws 

 and palate armed 

 with large tuber- 

 cular teeth. 

 This fish may be 

 almost regarded 

 as replacing the 

 Sharks in the 

 Arctic seas ; for 

 it attains the 

 length of six or 

 seven feet, and is extremely voracious and bold. Its body, though 

 massive, is adapted for active and energetic motion; and its power- 



FIG. 272. BLENNY. 



FIG. 273. ANARRHFCAS LUPUS. 



ful bite makes it a very formidable enemy. It often enters the 

 fishermen's nets, for the purpose of plundering them of the 

 entangled fish ; and when the fishermen attack it, and it cannot 

 dart through the net, it fights like a Lion. On the east coast of 

 Scotland it is not an unfrequent visitor ; and its appearance and 

 habits cause it to be regarded with great dislike ; nevertheless 

 its flesh is wholesome and palatable. It is understood to prey 

 indiscriminately upon Fishes, Crustacea, and shelled Mollusca; its 

 jaws and teeth being capable of breaking the hardest shell. In 

 the family GOBIRE, or Gobies, we find the same simple flexible 

 rays in the dorsal fin, as in the preceding group ; but the ventral 

 fins are united beneath the chest, forming a sort of conical 

 sucker, which the Fish seem to use for the purpose of occasionally 

 attaching themselves to solid bodies. They live, like the Blen- 



