ESOCID^ OE PIKES. 307 



that he will eat men as well as horses. Both these state- 

 ments (exaggerations no doubt, and probably suggested by 

 the great proportions and monster ugliness of the glanis 

 or sheet-fish) are not wholly discountenanced by some 

 remarkable recitals of comparatively modern authors, 

 which certainly leave his character still under a cloud. 

 •Thus, from one individual mentioned by Sonnini, were 

 recovered the stolen or strayed remains of a good-sized 

 boy; from the paunch of another, which had fattened 

 for sixteen years in a hole under a gentleman's kitchen, 

 a man's hand, with three gold rings on the fingers, was 

 pulled out ; and though the ' corpus delicti •" was not 

 found upon his person, the circumstance of finding any 

 part of a man stowed away in such a pantry was suffi- 

 cient to create strong suspicion of violence and unfair 

 play, especially when coupled with the Bohemian adage, 

 which declares that, whUe other fish prey only on fish, 

 this glanis preys upon everything, ' pisces pisci prseda, 

 at huic omnes.' 



The sUurua, to which rather numerous genus the pre- 

 sent species belongs, are characterized, inter alia, by a 

 strong spine, formed of the first ray of the pectoral fin, 

 so articulated to the shoulder-bone that they can 'fix 

 bayonets' and inflict very dangerous wounds ; the mouth 

 is cleft at the end of the muzzle, and the maxiUaries, 

 prolonged into barbels, come ofi" from the lower jaw. 

 This silurus glanis (the ' saluth' of the Swiss, the 

 ' schad' of Germany, and the ' mal' of Sweden, in all 

 which countries it abounds) is slimy like an eel, of a 

 greenish colour, spotted with black above, and with yel- 

 lowish-white underneath. He has an enormous head, 

 small round eyes, covered with a membrane, and six 

 barbels to the lower jaw, by means of which he contrives, 

 after the manner of the lophius, to inveigle prey. The 

 glanis' full stature is that of two grenadiers lying foot 

 to foot ; his weight reaches from three to four hundred 



