The Angler. 361 



sabstance. This forms the fishing-rod and line ; its termination 

 expanded, soft, hanging down like a bait, and in this example 

 the whole was nine inches long. Behind this are five slender 

 processes, obscurely united by a membrane, which may be 

 regarded as the first dorsal fin ; these processes or rays becom- 

 ing gradually shorter, second dorsal and anal opposite each 

 other, the former having twelve rays, the latter ten ; pectoral 

 fins horizontal, with twenty-four rays, joined to the body by a 

 lengthened wrist which is hid under the skin; and the 

 longitudinal direction of the bones of the wrist causes this fin 

 to be placed far behind, yet not so far as the gill open- 

 ing, which is situated behind it, and is so open in consequence 

 of the loose nature of its membrane and the length of the six 

 slender branchial bony rays, that by fishermen the pair are 

 termed pockets. The ventral fins resemble slender paws, with 

 six rays. Tail slightly rounded, with eight rays ; all the fins 

 thick and fleshy, with lobes or crenations at the border. The 

 colour above is of various shades of dark or ashy-grey, mottled, 

 and in a younger condition, prettily and regularly striped, white 

 below : extremities of the fins often red. The olfactory portion 

 of the brain exists as a separate globe of nervous matter, dis- 

 tinct from the united ganglions forming the true brain, although 

 it is united to it by a bar or string of nerve; and from this anterior 

 globe proceed some fine fibres which we should have described 

 as passing foward to the perforated elevations above the upper 

 jaw, which we suppose to form the nostrils ; but we hesitate to 

 say that these fibres are actually united to or expanded on these 

 membranous processes, since Professor Owen, whose accuracy in 

 observation no one will question, has not been able to trace them 

 thither. These processes are also furnished, at their root at 

 least, with nerves of considerable size, but which are only 

 organs of feeling, as is the nervous trunk from which these 

 branches spring, and which conveys its powers of sensation 

 over the face and to the corners of the mouth with the neigh- 

 bouring parts. As this nerve is the largest in the body, except 

 the nerve of sight, we may believe it to bestow the function of 

 exquisite touch in a degree proportionate to its superior size. 

 There exists in this fish also what perhaps we should least expect 

 to find in it, an organ of hearing, which it possesses in a higher 

 degree of development than in many other species. It is true 

 there is no external orifice by which undulations causing 

 sound can obtain access ; but there is no reason to suppose that 

 any modulations of sound are felt by any true fish. It is only a 

 few variations of noise or tone that are perceived by them, and in 

 this particular the angler is at least equal with the generality of 

 the inhabitants of the ocean. But to the eye of this fish we 

 would direct particular attention, as it is in its structure we 



