THE LIVING WORLD. 
89 
The Gobio, or Gudgeon, is so easily caught as to have become a synonym 
for stupidity. It is a sightly fish, and has much to defend it against its evil 
reputation. 
The Sea Barbel (so named from the wattles about its mouth), has two 
pair of mustache-like projections on its mouth. 
The Father Lasher, or Lucky Proach ( Cottus bubalis), will, when 
irritated, erect its spines like quills upon the fretful porcupine. 
The Suckers ( Cato stomidce) are many in species, though possibly the 
buffalo-fish and the carp sucker are 
sufficiently well known to represent 
the family. 
The Anchovy ( Engraulus ) may 
barbed (Barbus fluviatilis ). 
ANCHOVY. 
he said to support, by itself, an industry. The Eastern coast abounds in these 
little fish, which are pickled and distributed throughout the country. 
The Sailor Sword-fish can furl and unfurl its dorsal fin as though opening 
and shutting a fan. As those found in Ceylon are twenty feet long, it is easy 
to imagine the spectacle pre¬ 
sented by these fish as they 
sail near the surface of the 
water. Its flesh is well-flavored 
and nourishing, and an excel¬ 
lent article of leather is made 
from its skin. 
The Sword-Fish ( Xiphias 
gladius') varies in length from ten to twenty feet, and its 
upper jaw is prolonged into an immense sword-like 
weapon. No fish is safe against its attack, and it has 
many a time been known to drive its sword through 
the massive timbers of large ships. Its flesh, when 
pickled, is esteemed by some persons, whose number is 
sufficient to convert the sword-fish into an article of 
foreign and domestic commerce, and the annual catch 
is valued at as much as fifty thousand dollars. The 
Mediterranean and New England coasts both abound in 
swordfish , whose capture is the source of a lucrative sword fish. 
industry. An old fisherman insisted that on one occa¬ 
sion, while all unthoughtful of any swordfish , his dory was pierced by one of 
them, and the sword penetrated his trouser-leg as far up as the knee. The 
swordfish is caught by harpooning, and furnishes all the variet}^ of excitement 
to be found in the whale fishery. The swordfish has an ancestry that would 
put to the blush the claims of a few generations. The merchantman Dread- 
naught was sunk by a leak produced by a blow from the sword of a fish. In 
the case of a whaler it was found that the fish had pierced through the copper 
