208 
ANGLEK. 
The teeth of this fish are set round the month like the prongs 
of a rat-trap, and are long, strong, and pointed; and those of 
the lower jaw are directed obliquely inward, so that as this jaw 
is withdrawn to close with the upper, these teeth may become 
interlocked together, and thus prevent the escape of the prey; 
while the teeth of the tongue and gullet, by the aetion of 
muscles which act on the latter, prevent such struggles as might 
obstruct the process of swallowing. The teeth appear to be in 
a state of perpetual renewal, and those of the inner row are 
for the most part the largest. They carry with them in their 
growth a covering of the membrane from which they are pro- 
duced, and from it perhaps they derive nourishment long after 
their protrusion from the gums. 
The instinctive force w'ith which the Angler retains its prey 
when this has come within the grasp of these teeth, may be 
judged from a fact related by the natural historian Jonston; 
who tells us that the fish had been left on the beach by the 
receding tide, when a fox came prowling along in search of 
provender, and chanced to thrust its nose within the compass 
of the expanded jaw; which then closed upon it and hold it 
fast, until, after a considerable time, it was discovered by 
people that were passing by. In another instance an Angler 
of largo size rvas discovered by a couple of boys, in shallow 
water, iii a boat where they happened to be without oars. But 
W'ith the intention perhaps of annoying the fish, they loosened 
a board that lay along the bottom of the bo.it, and thrust it 
within the creature’s expanded jaws, which immediately closed 
upon it. A struggle then commenced, but so firmly did the 
fish retain its grasp, that it suffered itself to be dragged out of 
the water and secured. 
But sometimes stratagem will fail to supply the cravings of a 
hungry stomach; and then, in spite of its inaptitude for effort, 
the Angler will mount into the higher regions of the sea, and 
there without discrimination endeavour to glut itself with any 
object that may attract its attention. It has been known to 
grasp within its jaws the floating barrel which is usually 
fastened to the middle of the head -rope of a Pilchard sean; 
and it has swallowed a large whitewashed ball of cork which 
formed the buoy of a crab-pot, by which it became choked. 
When an individual was seen by a fisherman to be swimming 
