160 ANOTHER QUEER FISH 



XXXVIII 



For sheer unmitigated hideousness there is no verte- 

 Another brate animal which surpasses the angler or 

 queer Fish fishing-frog (Lophius piscatorius) the wide- 

 gab, as we call him in the north. According to human 

 aesthetics it has not a single redeeming feature. Its 

 enormous countenance, occupying one-third of the 

 creature's entire length, expresses nothing but stealthy 

 craft, ferocious cruelty, and eager gluttony, and one 

 shudders to recognise hi its entire structure the 

 analogues of our own organs. An unpleasant similarity 

 is imparted by the form of the ventral fins, which are 

 placed very far forward, and are palmate, slightly tinged 

 with flesh colour, resembling six-fingered hands. With 

 these organs the fish is able to walk on the sea-bottom, 

 and even to crawl on dry land. 



Fisher-folk are well acquainted with this monster of 

 the deep, which is pretty common round all our coasts ; 

 but the landsman who beholds it for the first time 

 stands amazed at the ingenuity of Nature when she 

 aims at the repulsive. From an immense, flattened, 

 spiny head, nearly circular in outline, depends a bloated 

 stomach, whence the slender body tapers rapidly to the 

 tail. The mouth, when open, forms a circular chasm, 

 sometimes upwards of four feet in circumference, 

 both jaws being set with a row of strong, incurved 

 teeth, which the owner can fold inwards to admit 

 the passage of prey, and erect again to prevent its 

 egress. When the mouth is closed, the fishing-frog's 



