GENERAL FACTS ABOUT SEA FISH 25 



while, on the other hand, he devotes some attention to the 

 suckers and rocklings, which no one would ever dream of 

 eating, save as an alternative to starvation. Mcintosh and 

 Masterman, again, include the weevers and gobies, but practi- 

 cally omit the rays. Some allowance must probably be made, 

 not only for the relative importance of certain groups in the 

 district with which each writer is best acquainted, but also for 

 difference in taste. Thus, whereas with the Norwegians the 

 so-called little ling {^Molva abyssorum), or " birkelange" is 

 a favourite article of food, Holt mentions a case of a seal 

 which refused to eat it ! * A word may here be said on the 

 subject of rigor mortis. It is that stiffening of the muscles 

 which ensues at some variable period after death. It may 

 follow in a few minutes ; it may delay many hours : this 

 depends on circumstances. Likewise, the condition may 

 endure a short or a long time, also according to the circum- 

 stances attending death. A spent salmon would behave quite 

 differently from a fresh-run fish. Professor Cossar Ewart f 

 has shown that rigor sets in later in a fish in which the 

 brain has been destroyed. In a hare that has been chased, 

 in a fish that has been played on the hook, rigor sets in rapidly 

 and is of only short duration. Dr. Ewart's investigations in 

 the matter take a very practical turn, since they enable him to 

 demonstrate the fact that fish intended for preservation should 

 be treated just after rigor sets in, and also that putrefaction 

 occurs somewhat sooner, other conditions being equal, in 

 trawl-fish than in those taken on the hook. He altogether 

 distrusts the housewife's empirical clues to freshness, such as 

 smell, colour of the gills, or brightness of the eyes. 



At the same time. It would not be desirable to limit our 

 studies to only the comparatively few fishes that we use as 

 food. For centuries man has gathered the treasures of the 

 deep without any thought of harvesting. The harvesting has 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, 1894, p. 415. 

 •fFroc. Roy, Soc, June, 1887, p. 443. 



