38 



; ANARRHICAS. GOBID.E, OR GOBIES. 



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

 to this family, although differing from 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 



FIG. 272.-BLKN.Y. U attainS th e 



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. 273. ANARRHICAS 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 GOBID^E, 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- 



