The Zoologist — March, 1874. 3887 



fully about in in the tank, like gold fish in a glass globe. They are no doubt 

 quite unaccustomed to man, and consequently they are tame ; and with their 

 large, smooth, mottled faces, their huge mouths, and lidless, unspeculative 

 eyes, they are about as unfamiliar objects as one can well see. They seem 

 rather to like to be scratched, as they are greatly infested by Caligi and all 

 kinds of suctorial copepods. One of them will take a crab or a large Fusus 

 or Buccinum quietly out of one's hand, and with a slight movement transfer 

 it down its capacious throat into its stomach, where it is very soon attacked 

 and disintegrated by the powerful gastric secretion. In one welled smack 

 I visited on one occasion, one of the fish had met with some slight injury 

 which spoiled its market, and it made several trips in the well between 

 London and Fseroe, and became quite a pet. The sailors said it knew them. 

 It was mixed up with a number of others in the tank when I was on board, 

 and certainly it was always the first to come to the top for the chance of a 

 crab or a bit of biscuit, and it rubbed its head and shoulders against my 

 hand quite lovingly." — P. 59. 



The tameness of fish is by no means unprecedented : I have been 

 told of carp on the Continent, especially at Heidelberg, that come 

 to the surface of the water to be patted by visitors; others collect 

 at the tinkling of a bell, and others again obey the summons of a 

 whistle. Fishes in the Brighton Aquarium come in crowds to touch 

 Mr. Lawler's hands, which he dabbles in the water purposely to 

 attract them, and I have seen a school of the beautiful rock 

 whiting obey the beckoning finger of a visitor, who was evidently 

 accustomed thus to exhibit his attractive powers. The truth is that 

 fishes are greedy creatures, and in confinement soon learn that the 

 visits of human beings are accompanied by food ; hence, I conclude 

 their love of man's society is what is usually denominated "cup- 

 board love." 



But we must not linger too long on the Fteroe Banks : on the 

 9th Dr. Thomson steamed again to Stornaway, and thence, on 

 the 15tb, in a north-easterly direction, two hundred and fifty 

 miles, dredging with various success. At Thorshavn, the capital 

 of the Faroes, the naturalists were most hospitably entertained by 

 Mr. Holten, the Danish Governor, to whose lady this splendid 

 volume is dedicated, as a graceful acknowledgment, in these 

 words : — " To Madame Holten, this Volume is dedicated, in 

 grateful remembrance of the pleasant times spent by 

 himself and his comrades at the governor's house in 

 Thorshavn, by the Author." 



