GREAT BRITAIN. 29 



Various causes may be in existence hastening or retard- 

 ing the growth of marine fishes, as the purity or the reverse 

 of the water in which they reside, its temperature, saltness, 

 the strength of the prevailing currents, the force of the 

 waves, the character of the neighbouring coast, if it is bold 

 and rocky, fertile or barren, and whether the shore is sandy 

 or stony, while some of the most suitable places for growth 

 are found in marine banks well stocked with invertebrate 

 forms of animal life. Confinement, as in aquarium, in many 

 species seems to decrease the rapidity of growth, but in 

 some forms, as turbot and conger, such does not appear to 

 be invariably the case. In the Southport Aquarium, some 

 small turbot, measuring about 3 inches across, attained to 

 10 Ibs. weight in two and a half years, and 20 Ibs. after 

 another two years, or a yearly increment of about 4^ Ibs. a 

 fish. 



The voracity of some forms is well known. Thus the 

 skeleton of an angler-fish (Lophius) was exhibited before 

 the Dublin Zoological Society in 1847. It was 2\ feet 

 long. Inside its stomach was found a cod 2 feet long; 

 inside the cod were two whiting of the ordinary size, and 

 within each whiting were the half-digested remains of 

 numerous minute fishes. 



The angler-fish crouches in the sand, stirring up the 

 mud by the action of its ventral and pectoral fins. Hidden 

 by this obscurity, it elevates an appendage situated on the 

 upper surface of its head, and waves it in various directions 

 by way of attraction as a bait, and small fishes which 

 approach are at once seized as a prey. The weever 

 (Trachinus) strikes with its opercular spine. The torpedo, 

 commonly known as the cramp-fish, evidently employs its 

 electric organ for the purpose of securing fast-swimming 

 fish, which would otherwise readily outswim it. Some 



