SQO PYRAMIDAL SUCKER. 



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 estabhshed, 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 in 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 Greenlanders boil to a pulp and eat : 

 they are extremely fat, which recommends them 

 the more to the natives, who admire oily food : 

 they call them Nipisets or Cat-Fish, and take quan- 

 tities of them during the season. This fish is some- 

 times eaten in England, being stewed like Carp, 

 but is both flabby and insipid." 



Var. ? 



PYRAMIDAL SUCKER. 



Cyclopterus Pyramidatus. C. dorso jpyramidato, . 

 Sucker with pyramidal back. 



Lumpus gibbosus. Will, ichth. p. 209. t, N. 10. f. 2. 



Habit or general appearance that of the common 

 Sucker, but with the back raised into a high pyra- 

 midal elevation : colour, so far as may be judged 

 from a dried specimen, the same as in the common 

 Sucker, of which it seems to be generally considered 



* See Phil. Trans. IT74. p. 445-. 



