368 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



Fishes, in a domesticated state, are subject to various 

 maladies, the cause and cure of Avhich have not been suc- 



" The pond is replenished with fishes by the keeper, whose house is hard 

 by. In easy weather, this man rows out in his fishing coble, to the mouth 

 of Logan Bay, in which the inlet of Portnessock is situate. For catching 

 the fish, he uses the common hand line, and the usual baits. He is provided 

 with a wide tub, into which he puts a convenient quantity of sea-water : to 

 this tube he immediately commits such part of his capture as happen to be 

 little hurt by the hook. He finds it necessary, during summer, to cover the 

 tub with a cloth ; and in sultry weather he experiences difficulty in keeping 

 the fishes alive in the tub till he reach the shore. This, it seems evident, 

 cannot be ascribed either to mere heat, or to the exhausting of the air con- 

 tained in the water, by the respiration of the fishes. In all probability, it 

 depends on the influence of the electric fluid of the atmosphere. De la Ce- 

 PEDE, in his essay on the culture of fresh-water fishes, particularly mentions 

 the powerful effect of this fluid on them, when confined in small portions of 

 water, in the course of their transference from one place to another. 



" As might naturally be supposed, the fishermen prefer for the pond 

 young fish, or at most those of middle size, to those of large growth. In 

 selecting cod-fish, for example, he rejects all that exceed 61b., giving the 

 preference to what he styles lumps, or young cod-fish, weighing 41b. or 51b. 

 In the pond, the fish are not only preserved alive till wanted for use, but, 

 being regularly fed, are found to be fattened. They are taken for use, how- 

 ever, merely by the line and hook ; and it is probable, that the fish in best 

 condition will not always be the first to catch at the bait. 



" The fishes we observed in the pond were the following : 

 " 1. Cod, {Gadus morhtia). They were lively, and caught greedily at shell- 

 fish, which we threw into the pond. They kept chiefly, however, in the 

 deep-water, and, after approaching with a circular sweep, and making a 

 snatch at the prey, descended out of sight to devour it. It has often been 

 doubted, whether the red-ware codling of Scotland was the young merely 

 of the common cod, or a distinct species, Gadus callarias. Here one would 

 think the question might easUy be decided. Upon describing this red-ware 

 codling, we were assured that it occurs on the coast of Galloway, and that it 

 had sometimes been caught and placed in the pond ; but that, after a year, 

 it became as large and as pale in colour as a common grey cod. This ac- 

 cords with our own observations made in less favourable circumstances. 



" 2. Haddock (G. ceglefinus). These, contrary to expectations, we found to 

 be the tamest fishes in the pond. At ebb tide they come to the inner mar- 



