46 ANGLING. 



of the ferocious shark, which not seldom makes a 

 meal even of the lord of the creation. A parti- 

 cular friend of our own, now in Scotland, has his 

 right leg in the West Indies, in consequence of an 

 act of aggression alike unpleasant and uncalled for, 

 and which a Christian-minded pedestrian finds it 

 easier to forgive than forget. The species which 

 live chiefly on vegetables are few in number, almost 

 all fishes preferring pork to green peas. 



The growth of these creatures depends greatly on 

 the nature and amount of food, different indi- 

 viduals of the same species exhibiting a large 

 disparity in their dimensions. They grow less 

 rapidly in small ponds or shallow streams, than 

 in large lakes and deep rivers. We once kept a 

 minnow, little more than half an inch long, in a 

 small glass vessel for a period of two years, during 

 which time there was no perceptible increase in its 

 dimensions. Had it continued in its native stream, 

 subjected to the fattening influence of a continuous 

 flow of water, and a consequent increase in the 

 quantity and variety of its natural food, its cubic 

 dimensions would probably have been twenty times 

 greater ; yet it must have attained, long prior to the 

 lapse of a couple of years, to the usual period of the 

 adult state. The growth itself seems to continue, 

 under favourable circumstances, for a length of 

 time, and we can scarcely set bounds to, certainly 

 we know not with precision, the utmost range of 

 the specific size of fishes. Salmon sometimes at- 

 tain a weight of eighty pounds and upwards, and 

 the giant pike of Kaiserslautern, is alleged to have 



