198 



month of January 1831. These were brought from the 

 North in the lobster-boats. The length assigned to this 

 species by M. Nilsson is from eighteen inches to two feet, 

 rarely three feet. Mr. Low says the largest he had heard of 

 was three feet and a half. Mr. Donovan's specimen, which 

 was brought alive to London in the well of a fishing-boat, 

 measured twenty-five inches. 



But little being known in the South of the habits of 

 this fish, an abridgment of Faber's account of it may be 

 interesting. 



" A northern fish, scarcely occurring below 60 or above 

 73; not migrating regularly, and therefore rarely seen by 

 the ichthyologists of the South. Plentiful on the coasts of 

 Norway as far as Finmark, of the Faroe Islands, and the 

 west and south coasts of Iceland ; rare on the north and east 

 coasts of Iceland. It must be uncommon in Greenland, as 

 Fabricius only knew it from the report of the natives. 

 Just touches the most northern point of Denmark, at Skagen 

 in Jutland, where it is sometimes taken ; not at all in the 

 south. Approaches the land early in the year in shoals, that 

 of Iceland in January ; remains there in company with the 

 Five-Bearded, and goes away again late in summer. Lives in 

 deep water, and is therefore seldom taken, even when it is 

 most abundant. Prefers a rocky bottom, on which sea- 

 weeds grow. Never found anything in its stomach ; and this 

 has probably given rise to the saying, that it lives on the 

 juice of sea-weeds. Spawns in April and May among the 

 fuci along the coast. Is rarely taken with the Cod hooks, 

 more frequently at the smaller lines. Sometimes taken by 

 the Norwegian fishermen among the Holibuts. It must 

 have less power of resisting the violence of the sea than its 

 congeners, as it is thrown up dead in incredible numbers on 

 the coasts of the Faroe Islands and the south coast of Ice- 



