700 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
The ovaries are fusiform or cylindrical sacs with 
fairly thick walls; the testes are flat, lobate, and thin- 
walled. The kidneys lie as usual between the air- 
bladder and the spinal column, forming an anterior 
division and a larger, posterior one, beside and behind 
the air-bladder. The urinary bladder is large, and is 
most developed on the right side. 
The principal habitat of the Sheatfish lies in the 
south-east of Europe, the species being commonest in 
Russia and Austria. It is there too, in the Caspian and 
Black Seas and the rivers that flow into these waters, 
that it attains its maximum size. According to Pallas 
and Grimm the Sheatfish occurs throughout European 
Russia, with the exception of the basin of the White Sea 
and its rivers. In the Danube too, especially towards 
the mouth, the species is plentiful and of great size. In 
the Greek Peninsula it is common, according to Apo- 
stolides, in the River Peneus, off Larissa, and in Li- 
vadia. In Italy and the Iberian Peninsula it is wanting, 
and also in France and Belgium, except in the River 
Doubs in the extreme east of France, where it has been 
caught occasionally near the town of Dole. In Switzer- 
land its occurrence is confined to the Lakes of Constance 
(the basin of the Rhine) and Morat (Murten), a small 
lake east of Neuchatel, where it lives, strange enough, 
outside its strict geographical range, which lies on the 
other side of the Rhine. In England, as well as in 
Scotland and Ireland, it is wanting, though repeated 
attempts have been made to plant it there. Before 
Haarlem Meer was drained (1836 — 53), the Sheatfish, 
according to Gronovius, was very common in this lake, 
which was chiefly formed, however, by an inroad of the 
sea in the fifteenth century. It is still found in several of 
the small lakes of Holland. In the rivers and lakes of 
Germany the Sheatfish is widely spread, and also in the 
Baltic Provinces of Russia, according to Seidlitz. Nor 
does it shun the brackish waters of the North, for it 
occurs, according to Benecke, in the Haffs of Northern 
Germany. In Finland, according to Malmgren, it is 
found only in the lakes near Tavastehus and is very 
seldom caught, though, according to Gadd", it attains 
so great a size “that a yoke of oxen are required to 
move it from the spot". Nor is the Sheatfish a common 
species in Sweden, though it occurs at many scattered 
spots in the south-east of the country, principally in 
three separate districts: one to the north, including 
Lakes Malar, Hjelmar, Borsjo, and Bafven in Soderman- 
land and Lake Hunn in Ostergothland ; one more to the 
east, the neighbourhood of Oscarshamn, where it is known 
from Lakes Humel, Nejer, Versjo, Tvinger, Storutter, 
Greater and Lesser Ramsjo, Goten, Maren 6 , Bodasjo (Fli- 
seryd), and the River Emm; and one to the south, the 
neighbourhood of Christianstad, where it is found in 
Lakes Immel, Ifosjo, Ousby, and the River Helge. Nils- 
son also quotes a doubtful newspaper statement of the 
occurrence of the Sheatfish in Lake Bolmen, in Smaland. 
In Denmark the Sheatfish was common at the end of 
the last century, according to Holm, in Lake Soro, where 
it had probably been introduced from Germany; but it is 
now exterminated there. It has also been taken once in 
a river near Kjoge, into which Kroyer supposed it had 
wandered after some roving excursion in the Baltic. 
In Norway the Sheatfish has never been found. 
The Sheatfish is a sluggish but voracious fish-of- 
prey. Its very appearance is repulsive. Slimy and slip- 
pery as an Eel, with its broad gape, small, blinking 
eyes, and long, warily plied barbels, it looks as though 
fashioned especially to lie in wait for the destruction of 
others. Its size too has rendered it an object of dread 
even to man. An old Bohemian proverb says, “One 
fish is another’s prey, but the Sheatfish eats them all;” 
and we have numerous accounts of the Sheatfish attack- 
ing domestic animals and children. Hidden among the 
rushes or in the mud, the tints of which are reproduced 
in its coloration, it lies motionless the greater part of 
its time, only waving its barbels to and fro, until some 
victim approaches so near that only a sudden movement 
is requisite to seize and devour its prey. Or one of 
its senses tells it that a dainty morsel, some decom- 
posing body or baited hook, is not far off, and it wrig- 
gles thither. During a part of the year, the cold sea- 
son, it retires to deeper water; in spring and summer, 
til! the spawning is over, it keeps to shallower spots 
and the shore. 
The Sheatfish generally leads a solitary life, though 
not to such a degree that it does not seek company. 
One of the authors who have most contributed to our 
knowledge of its habits, the Dane Holm, who published 
in 1779 his observations of the Sheatfish in Lake Soro 
in Zealand, even tells us: “The Sheatfish is fond of 
company and is therefore seldom found alone; but only 
three or four, and these always of about the same 
a Abo Tidningar, 1 772, p. 366. 
b From these nine lakes the observations were collected in 1890 by Mr. E. Svedjviark the geologist. 
