644 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
furnished to float in the water; the shreds which terminate them act 
as natural bait when they float about in different directions, from their 
resemblance to worms and other marine creatures. The fishes which 
swim above them, and which they see very well by the assistance of 
their two eyes placed on the summit of the head, are attracted by 
these deceitful decoys. When the prey arrives near to the enormous 
Fig. 404.—The Frog-fish (Lophius piscatorius). 
jaws, which are almost always wide open, it is engulfed and torn to 
pieces by the strongly-hooked teeth. 
This manner of lying in ambush, and fishing, as it were, with a 
hook and line for fishes which its conformation may not permit it to 
pursue, has acquired for it the name of the fishing-frog, which is some- 
times given to it. It is found more or less in all parts of the Mediter- 
ranean and in many parts of the Atlantic, being frequently taken both 
in the Gulf of Gascony and around the British coast. 
We close our abbreviated history of the Ocean and such of the 
inhabitants with which it swarms as seems most likely, from their 
