178 LUMP SUCKER. Class IV. 



prey greatly on them, leaving the skins ; num- 

 bers of which thus emptied float at that season 

 ashore. It is easy to distinguish the place 

 where seals are devouring this or any unctuous 

 fish, by a smoothness of the water immediately 

 above the spot ; this fact is now established ; it 

 being a tried property of oil to still the agitation 

 of the waves, and render them smooth. * 



Great numbers of these fish are found m the 

 Greenland seas during the months of April and 

 May, when they resort near the shore to spawn. 

 Their roe is remarkably large, which the Green" 

 landers boil to a pulp, and eat. They are 

 extremely fat, which recommends them the 

 more to the natives, who admire all oily food : 

 they call them Nipisets, or Cat-fish, and take 

 quantities of them during the season, "f* 



This fish is sometimes eaten in England, 

 being stewed like carp, but is both flabby and 

 insipid. 



[The beautiful variety J of this fish, called by 

 Doctor Shaw, the Pavonian sucker, was first 

 described and figured by the reverend Hugh 



« Philos. Trans. 1774. p. 445. 



f Crantz's Hist. Greenland, i. 96. 



% Klein indeed makes a species of it in his Hist. Pise. Miss. 

 iv. n. 3. t. 14. f. 5. under the title of Oncotion dilute viridis et 

 vivide coloribus pavoneis resplendens ; dorso parum nigricante, 

 pinnis viridibus, ad amlitum decoratis. 



