CHAPTER IX 



SOME SOUTH AMERICAN FISHES 



Utterly unlike the coast of the Australian 

 Continent is that three thousand mile stretch 

 of sea-shore on the west side of South America, 

 extending from the Gulf of Panama to the Straits 

 of Magellan. A steady, and seldom fierce, south- 

 east trade-wind blows along it most of the year, 

 with intervals of dead calm, and, though the 

 coast is generally precipitous, it can be safely 

 approached by boats, so that fishing close up to 

 the rocks in deep water is possible, and it is 

 there that lurk the rock-cod, so abundant in 

 those regions. I need hardly repeat that this is 

 not the cod so familiar to us Europeans. It is 

 related to the Ophiodons, and is a formidable- 

 looking but harmless fish, rather ill-propor- 

 tioned, its head, with its huge mouth, occupying 



one-third of its entire length. 



137 



