AND HOW TO CATCH THEM. 117 



An angler or fishing-frog there is also, of strange 

 unsightly form, but, like many such forms, marvellously 

 organised and strangely adapted to the sphere in 

 which it dwells, burying itself in the sand much after 

 the manner of the " sand-raiser." The long rod-like 

 spine with which its nose is furnished, and the 

 tempting bait-like appendage at its tip, being alone 

 visible to the prowling fish, who, allured by its 

 fluttering play, venture within the fatal grip of a 

 pair of jaws of no ordinary size and power. The 

 voracity of this fish is immense, swallowing incredible 

 quantities of flounders, plaice, soles, and other fish ; 

 your trammels and trawls will in some places become 

 encumbered by numbers of them. They are perfectly 

 useless, except as crab-pot bait or manure. 



Oysters, scollops, mussels and cockles, periwinkles, 

 whelks, and limpets, are all by one mode or another 

 brought under the notice of the fisherman. On the 

 commercial importance of some of these shell-fish, as 

 they are popularly called, it is needless to dwell here, 

 the London market alone consuming them by ship- 

 loads, and paying annually for their obtainment sums 

 which seem all but incredible. To the naturalist 

 or collector of the beautiful and curious, few fields are 

 more wide and productive than that offered by the 

 study and examination of the denizens of ocean's 

 depths. 



BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS, LONDON. 



