173 LUMP SUCKER. Class IV. 



prey greatly on them, leaving the skins ; num- 

 bers of which thus emptied float at that season 

 ashore. It is easy to distinguish the place 

 where seals are devouring this or any unctuous 

 fish, by a smoothness of the water immediately 

 above the spot ; this fact is now established ; it 

 being a tried property of oil to still the agitation 

 of the waves, and render them smooth. 1 



Great numbers of these fish are found in the 

 Greenland seas during the months of April and 

 May, when they resort near the shore to spawn. 

 Their roe is remarkably large, which the Green- 

 landers boil to a pulp, and eat. They are 

 extremely fat, which recommends them the 

 more to the natives, who admire all oily food : 

 they call them Nipisets, or Cat-fish, and take 

 quantities of them during the season, f 



This fish is sometimes eaten in England, 

 being stewed like carp, but is both flabby and 

 insipid. 



[The beautiful variety J of this fish, called by 

 Doctor Shaw, the Pavonian sucker, was first 

 described and figured by the reverend Hugh 



* Philos. Trans. 1774. p. 445. 



f Crantzs Hist. Greenland, i. 96. 



% Klein indeed makes a species of it in his Hist. Pise. Miss. 

 iv. n. 3. t. 14. f- 5- under the title of Oncotion dilute viridis et 

 vivide coloribus pavoneis resplendens ; dorso parum nigricante, 

 pinnis viridibus, ad amlitum decoratis. 



