PERCID.E. 



are directed to cut off the spines before they expose the 

 fish for sale ; and in Spain there is a positive law by which 

 fishermen incur a penalty if they bring to market any fish 

 whose spines give a bad wound, without taking them off. 



That the Great Weever prefers deep water, that it lives 

 constantly near the bottom, that it is tenacious of life when 

 caught, and that its flesh is excellent, are four points that 

 have been already noticed ; but this subject, in reference to 

 fishes generally, may be farther illustrated. It may be con- 

 sidered as a law, that those fish that swim near the surface of 

 the water have a high standard of respiration, a low degree 

 of muscular irritability, great necessity for oxygen, die soon 

 almost immediately, when taken out of water, and have flesh 

 prone to rapid decomposition. On the contrary, those fish 

 that live near the bottom of the water have a low standard 

 of respiration, a high degree of muscular irritability, and less 

 necessity for oxygen ; they sustain life long after they are 

 taken out of the water, and their flesh remains good for seve- 

 ral days. The carp, the tench, the various flat fish, and the 

 eel, are seen gaping and writhing on the stalls of the fish- 

 mongers for hours in succession ; but no one sees any sym- 

 ptom of motion in the mackerel, the salmon, the trout, or the 

 herring, unless present at the capture. These four last- 

 named, and many others of the same habits, to be eaten in the 

 greatest perfection, should be prepared for table the same 

 day they are caught ;* but the turbot, delicate as it is, may 

 be kept till the second day with advantage, and even longer, 

 without injury ; and fishmongers generally are well aware of 



* The chub swims near the top of the water, and is caught with a fly, a 

 moth, or a grasshopper, upon the surface ;. and Isaac Walton says, " But 

 take this rule with you that a chub newly taken and newly dressed is so much 

 better than a chub of a day's keeping after he is dead, that I can compare him 

 to nothing so fitly as to cherries newly gathered from a tree, and others that 

 have been bruised and lain a day or two in water." 



