CONGER. 
343 
of the cavity of the body, as in the kindred fish; and although 
the grains may be shed through the summer, we only feel 
confident of them in the autumn. Mr. E. Q. Couch remarks, 
in the “Zoologist,” that he had seen cases -where the ova 
•were as large as small peas; but as this is rare, and in 
general they are very minute, the rapidity of their development 
at last must be rapid. And a friend in the -west of Cornwall 
has informed me under the date of the 30th. of December, 
that about two months before he caught in a trammel-net in 
TIelford Harbour a large quantity of curiously-formed stuff, 
which an old fisherman pronounced to be weed. But it 
appeared to the observer to exhibit more evidence of design 
and 1 egulai ity than aie usually discovered in sea-weed* and 
on examining the masses there were found a young fish much 
resembling a Conger in each of the diverging globules, which 
in form were an elongated ellipse. The growth of these young 
ones is not slow, but several years must pass before they 
reach the size at which they are sometimes found. 
In every part of its body this fish possesses great muscular 
strength and agility; and these it puts forth in a manner that 
is highly characteristic when the object is to deliver itself from 
restraint. When taken on board the boat and left undisturbed, 
the sensitive powers of its tail are employed in searching out 
the nature and limits of its prison; and then this organ is 
stretched out to lay hold of the gunwale; by fixing its holdfast 
on which a reversed muscular contraction is put in force, and 
the whole body is turned overboard; to prevent which, however, 
when the fish is first taken, it is usual to inflict a smart blow 
with (/le hat or bludgeon on the root of the tail, or on the 
vent; either of which is effectual in disabling the victim. But 
again, if the hungry fish has had the mishap to have found 
its way into a crab-pot, the method of escape is with some 
amount of difference, although the tail is still the instrument 
employed. Thrust between the upright willow rods, they are 
thus pressed asunder to allow of the reversed muscular action 
of the body, and at last of the passage and escape of the head. 
A further and somewhat different proceeding is the resource 
when the fisherman’s hook is fastened in the jaws; and a 
revolving action is particularly successful Avhen the line is of 
the sort termed a bultey or long line, already described; and 
