170 



THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



aromatic water plant abundant by rivers 

 and the marshes of the fen country 

 Acorus is from the Greek a, without, 

 and core, the pupil of the eye, and was 

 given to this plant because of its repute 

 in diseases of the eye, although at least 

 one good authority maintains that our 

 Iris pseudo-acorus is the true acorus of- 

 Dioscorides, who highly recommended 

 it for various diseases. 



MARINE AQUARIUM 

 JOTTINGS. 



By J. Osborne. 

 (Continued from page 166.) 



I think I must have been specially attract- 

 ed by the ugly and repulsive among fish. I 

 have twice had the Hag alive though it is 

 not so ugly as the last, nor as the " Polly mog," 

 it is less to my taste than either. Eel like in 

 form, without fins, except a little along 

 the back and around the tail, and con- 

 tinued along the underside, it has nothing 

 ins it shape to repel. But when it opens its 

 mouth, if the orifice at one end of its body 

 deserves such a name, it is then its repulsive- 

 ness appears. Its mouth is round, and hang- 

 ing from it are eight yellowish filaments, and 

 one solitary tooth. I could fancy it like 

 some vampire of old fixing itself on the 

 body of its victim, and sucking out the very 

 life. Whether it is a parasite or what I do 

 not know, but it is a disagreeable mouth to 

 see open, and I would not like it to fasten 

 upon my hand. 



The Pipe-fish is another curious creature. 

 The body is very long in proportion to its 

 bulk, being quite six inches long and no 



thicker than a pipe stem. It is covered 

 with hard horny scales or plates ; its mouth 

 projects considerably, and it seems to open 

 its jaws only at the end, the appearance of 

 the open mouth being like that of the human 

 lip when pursed together for whistling. 

 This fish I have only taken in the dock, 

 swimming about the timber rafts, generally 

 a few together. It never lived many hours 

 in my aquarium, though, like the young 

 herring, it could bear the somewhat pollu- 

 ted water of the docks. 



The Sand Launce, locally called the Sand 

 Eel, is a very difficult fish to observe. It 

 seems to frequent shallow water, coming 

 inshore with the rising tide, and is often 

 left in shoals in the pools on the shore. As 

 the tide leaves these pools, which are formed 

 from the shifting of the sand by the currents, 

 there is generally an outlet for some of the 

 water at one end, while more of it drains 

 through the sand as the tide retires. Other 

 fish can thus be seen swimming about when 

 there is but little water left, but the moment 

 you are observed by the shoal of Sand 

 Launce there is a quick movement, a sparkle 

 from their silvery bellies a little disturbance 

 of the sand, and they are gone. They dart 

 at the sand, and seem as their tail waves 

 about for a moment or two, to be screwing 

 their way in. They soon loose this habit 

 in an aquarium, but I never could keep 

 them very long alive, and while I had them, 

 there was but little else to remark on their 

 ways of living. They are much used for 

 bait and the fishermen seek them with a 

 hooked instrument which they draw rapidly 

 to and fro through the sand, catching them 

 in the curve. They need to be very quick 

 when they find one, or it would be off and 

 away. They wear woollen gloves to enable 

 them to hold the slippery little creatures. 

 Mackerel, Gurnet and such like fish are 

 taken with them, or perhaps I should say 

 used to be so taken, for the manner of fishing 

 has changed as much as other things. 



