58 MARKETABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES 



of wecd-covcrcd rocks, and, in the tropical seas, of coral reefs. 

 Most of them are gaudily or beautifully coloured, and though 

 eatable are of no commercial importance in our country. 



The pipe-fishes (Fig. 28) belong to another, that is a fourth, 

 great division of the bony fishes, differing from the others in the 

 structure of the gills and in many other respects. There are no 



Fig. 28. — The Common Pipe-fish. 



spiny fin-rays, a single thin soft dorsal fin, no second pair of side 

 fins, and the tail fin much reduced or absent. The jaws are 

 elongated into a tube with a small mouth at the end of it. 

 These fishes live amongst sea-weeds, where by their swaying 

 slow movements and similar colouring they are almost completely 

 concealed. The sea-horse is one of them, and it is occasionally 

 but rarely found on British or Irish coasts, but is common in the 

 Channel Islands. 



If we consider the different habits of the fishes just passed in 

 review, and the various modes by which they are captured, we 

 find the principal division is into bottom fishes and surface fishes ; 

 the bottom fishes can be again divided into hook fishes and trawl 

 fishes, according to the instrument with which they are usually 

 captured, but the division is not complete, many kinds being 

 caught in both ways. The bottom fishes which are important in 

 connection with national food supplies, are those which live in 

 shallow or moderately deep water. The limit of profitable 

 fishing is seldom much beyond two hundred fathoms, at which 

 the deep sea region may be considered to commence, and the 

 limit of beam trawling is much less than this and may be put at 

 eighty fathoms. For commercial purposes therefore the fishes 



