6 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



might have confined his reply to the words, " Why, as 

 men do on land/' without the addition, " the great ones 

 eat up the little ones." 



How admirably, too, are fish formed ! Their elongate, 

 oval, compressed configuration, and their smooth covering 

 suiting them exactly to the element in which they live 

 and move ; while from a continuous series of scales, marked 

 by what is called the " lateral line " (visible on almost every 

 fish from its gill-covers to its tail), and pierced with a tube 

 near their centre, a slimy, glutinous matter, secreted by 

 glands beneath, is exuded, which not only preserves the 

 surface of the body from the action of the water, but also 

 decreases the friction, as does the composition laid on the 

 bottom of a racing boat. 



Nor less suited to their purposes are the various Fins of 

 fish, of which, by the way, the angler should know the 

 proper names. There are the two Pectoral, or breast fins, 

 which may be called the fore legs of a fish ; the one or two 

 Dorsal, or back fins ; the Ventral, or belly fins ; the Anal 

 fin, between the belly fins and the tail; and the Caudal 

 fin, the tail itself. The last-mentioned gives them their 

 chief means of propulsion ; the dorsal and anal fins effect 

 their lateral movements ; elevation and depression are pro- 

 moted by the pectoral ; and quiescent suspension by the 

 ventral fins ; though the " air," or " swimming bladder," 

 a membranous pouch situated close under the spine, and 

 capable of compression or expansion according to the will 

 of the fish, is their chief means of raising or depressing 

 themselves without any apparent use of the fins at all. 



The Strength of fish is very great ; and I do not think 

 I am wrong in saying that they are, for their size, the 

 strongest of all Vertebrate animals. If I remember rightly, 



