sroM', Mvss. ;J()1 



soiig]it shelter among the siispeiulcd l)cnia(l(\s or \\('((ls, m Inch 

 float in masses in connection with the m ood. 'J'liar tiny do 

 not themselves feed on the hcrnaclcs is plain, for I lia\f luvci- 

 found them in the stomach; hut what cause should had thcui 

 to come to us vmder such circumstances, or as is reported to 

 have happened in some rare instances, where the hottom of a 

 ship has been foul from the same cause, appears difficult to 

 be explained; as is also the fact that so large a number 

 should be thus attracted, when they are reported, in the 

 INIediterranean to be of solitary habits. 



So familiar is the opinion that such a mass of floating wreck 

 in the northern part of the Atlantic is usually accompanied 

 with a multitude of these fishes, that I am informed, when 

 it floats within sight of a ship and the weather is favourable, 

 a boat is often sent Avith the expectation to obtain some of 

 them, which is done by piercing them Avith a spear usually 

 employed by sailors for such an object, under the name of 

 grayns. So many as thirty-five have been secured at one 

 time by a single boat on our own coast. It is agreed on all 

 hands that they form an excellent dish at table. 



Of a considerable number of these fishes Avhich have come 

 under mv observation I have never met Avith more than one ex- 

 ample that has exceeded, or e\'en reached the Aveight of tAventy 

 pounds. But on the evidence of Cuvier, Ave gather that in 

 the Mediterranean they sometimes so Aastly exceed this, as to 

 be met Avith of a hundrcdAveight ; and it is from this circum- 

 stance chiefly that I am led to believe it likely to be a fish 

 long lost to science, but knoAvn to the ancients, and men- 

 tioned by Oppian under the name of the Etnaian catit/tarNs, 

 an epithet Avhich Scaliger pronounces to have been applied to 

 the fish on account of its great size. The particulars leading 

 to this supposition are but fcAV, and perhaps obscure, but they 

 afjree Avith the characters of the fish as knoAvn in its native 

 haunts; and although Ovid designates it as 



"Cantliarus ingratus succo," 

 "The Cantliarus of uiiplrasant flavour," 



this n;ay have depended on tlu^ mode of cookery, or the 

 taste of the eater; and that it was fished for as a valuable 

 TOL. I. 2 G 



