BOOK III.

INHABITANTS OF THE WATER.

§ I. _Cetacea, or Sea Mammalia._

“Nature’s strange work, vast Whales of different form, Toss up the troubled flood, and are themselves a storm; Uncouth the sight, when they in dreadful play, Discharge their nostrils, and refund a sea; Or angry lash the foam with hideous sound, And scatter all the watery dust around; Fearless, the fierce destructive monsters roll, Ingulf the fish, and drive the flying shoal; In deepest seas these living isles appear, And deepest seas can scarce their pressure bear; Their bulk would more than fill the shelvy strait, And fathom’d depths would yield beneath their weight.”

THE WHALE is not properly a fish; since, though it lives in the sea, and has fins and a tail instead of legs and feet, it resembles in most other respects a seal, and differs from fishes, properly so called, in many important points. Indeed, it is always included in the class Mammalia, by zoologists, as it brings forth its young alive, and nourishes them with its milk; and hence a conceited person, who said he knew every fish from the shrimp to the Whale, was justly laughed at, as neither the Whale nor the shrimp are included in the fishes by zoologists.

The general form of the Whale’s body is that of a fish; but the tail is placed horizontally instead of vertically, and the skeleton of the fins exactly resembles that of a hand affixed to a contracted arm, though it is covered with so thick a skin that no trace of the formation of the bones can be discovered externally. There are only two fins, which are very small, and close to the head. The Whale, however, differs from fishes most materially in its having warm blood; and in its lungs, which are exactly the same as those of quadrupeds. Hence, though the Whale can remain a long time under water without breathing, it is compelled to come to the surface whenever it does breathe, and for this purpose it is furnished with two large nostrils, or blow-holes as they are called. The blow-holes are most beautifully and curiously contrived to close when the animal sinks under water; so that not a drop of water can enter the lungs, however great the pressure may be. The Whale is also provided with a very thick skin, containing an immense quantity of liquid oil, called the blubber, which is so easily detached from the flesh, that when a Whale is killed, the blubber, which is sometimes two feet thick, is taken off by passing a common spade between it and the body. This thick oily skin is a non-conductor of heat, and is thus admirably adapted for preventing the warm blood of the Whale from being chilled by the cold of the water. The true fishes, which are unprovided with such a covering, have cold blood, and are therefore not susceptible of chills.

The common Whale has no teeth in either jaw, but its mouth is furnished with a kind of fringe of numerous long horny laminæ, which are what we call whalebone, and which form a kind of strainer, admitting only the small fish on which the Whale feeds. This Whalebone is one of the valuable products of the whale, though the oil is most important.

“As when enclosing harpooners assail, In hyperborean seas, the slumbering Whale; Soon as the javelins pierce the scaly side, He groans, he darts impetuous down the tide; And, rack’d all o’er with lacerating pain, He flies remote beneath the flood in vain.” FALCONER.

Whales are taken in great numbers about Spitzbergen, Greenland, and other northern countries by the English, the Dutch, &c. Considerable fleets of ships are sent out every spring for this purpose. When they begin their fishery, each ship is fastened or moored with nose-hooks to the ice. Two boats, each manned with six men, are ordered by the commodore to look out for the coming of the fish for two hours, when they are relieved by two more, and so by turns; the two boats lie at some small distance from the ship, each separated from the other, fastened to the ice with their boat-hooks, ready to let go in an instant at the first sight of the Whale. Here the dexterity of the Whale hunters is to be admired; for as soon as the animal shows itself, every man is at his oar, and they all rush on the Whale with prodigious swiftness; at the same time taking care to come behind its head, that it may not see the boat, which sometimes so alarms it, that it plunges down again before they have time to strike it. But the greatest care is to be taken of the tail, with which it many times does very great damage, both to the boats and seamen. The harpooner, who is placed at the head or bow of the boat, seeing the back of the Whale, and making the onset, thrusts the harpoon with all his might into its body by the help of a staff fixed to the iron for this purpose, and leaves it in, a line being fastened to it of about two inches in circumference, and one hundred and thirty-six fathoms long. Every boat is furnished with seven of these lines, from the motion of which, when let run, they observe the course of the Whale.

As soon as the Whale is struck, the third man in the boat holds up his oar, with something on the top, as a signal to the ship; at the sight of which the man who is appointed to watch gives the alarm to those that are asleep, who instantly let fall their other four boats, which hang on the tackles, two at each side, ready to let go at a minute’s warning, all furnished with six men each, harpoons, lances, lines, &c. Two or three of these boats row to the place where the Whale may be expected to come up again; the others to assist the boat that first struck it with line; as the Whale will sometimes run out three more boats’ lines, all fastened to each other, for when the lines of the first boat are almost run out, they throw the end to the second to be fastened to theirs, and the second boat does the same to the third, and so on. In this manner line is supplied to such an extent that a large Whale has been known to carry off three miles of it.

A Whale, when he is first struck, will run out above a hundred fathoms of line, before the harpooner is able to take a turn round the boat’s stern; and with such swiftness that a man stands ready to throw water on the line to quench it, in case it should take fire, which it frequently does. There was, many years ago, a boat to be seen in the South Sea Dock at Deptford, the head of which was sawed off by the swiftness of the line running out. The harpoon would be of but little avail in the destruction of this animal; but part of the rowers, either at the first onset, or when, in order to fetch his breath, he rises to the surface and discovers himself to view, throwing aside their oars, and taking up their very sharp lances, thrust them into his body, till they see him spurt the blood through the blow-holes, the sight of which is a sign of the creature’s being mortally wounded. The fishermen, upon the killing of a Whale, are each entitled to some small reward. After the Whale is killed, they cut all the lines that were fastened to it, and then cut off the tail; upon this it instantly turns on its back; and in this manner they tow it to the ship, where they fasten ropes to keep it from sinking; and, when it is cold, begin to cut off the blubber. The blubber of a Whale is frequently found to be eighteen or twenty inches thick; which yields fifty or sixty puncheons of oil, each puncheon containing seventy-four gallons; and the upper jaw yields about six hundred pieces of whalebone, most of which are about twelve feet long, and six or eight inches broad; the whole produce of a Whale being worth one thousand pounds, more or less, according to the size of the animal. Whilst the men are at work on the back of the Whale they have spurs on their boots, with two prongs, which come down on each side of their feet, lest they should slip, the back of the Whale being very slippery.

When the Whale feeds, it swims with considerable velocity below the surface of the sea, with its jaws widely extended. A stream of water consequently enters its mouth, carrying along with it immense quantities of cuttle-fish, sea-blubber, shrimps, and other small marine animals. The water escapes at the sides; but the food is entangled, and, as it were, sifted by the fringe of whalebone within the mouth; this kind of strainer is rendered necessary by the very small gullet, which in a Whale of sixty feet long, does not exceed four inches in width. The sailors say that a penny-loaf would choke a Whale.

The Whale bellows fearfully when wounded or in distress. Its young is called a cub.

There is also an extensive Whale fishery in the Southern Ocean, carried on chiefly by the Americans. The Whale found in those seas is distinct from the Greenland Whale, and is described by naturalists under the name of _Balæna Australis_.

THE RORQUAL, OR FIN-BACKED WHALE,

(_Balænoptera boops_,)

IS a very large Whale, specimens sometimes measuring as much as one hundred feet in length. It is distinguished by its smaller head, and by the existence of a sort of fin on the lower part of its back. The Rorqual is found in the northern seas, and specimens are sometimes seen off our coasts. It is not of much value, as it furnishes far less blubber than the common Whale, and the baleen or whalebone is so short as to be useless.

THIS animal has teeth in the lower jaw only; and no whalebone. The substance called spermaceti is extracted from its immense head, which is nearly half the size of the entire animal; and the throat is so large that it could swallow a shark.

The quantity of oil produced from the Spermaceti Whale is not so considerable as that obtained from the common or Greenland Whale, but in quality it is far preferable, as it yields a bright flame, without exhaling any nauseous smell. The substance known by the name of ambergris is also obtained from the body of this animal. It is generally found in the stomach, but sometimes in the intestines; and, in a commercial point of view, is a highly valuable production. The spermaceti is in a fluid state while the animal is living, and as soon as it is dead a hole is made in the head, and the liquid taken out with buckets. It becomes solid as it cools, and it is afterwards made into candles, &c.

When we reflect that the same Power whose will has formed the immense bulk of this marine monster has also given animation, senses, and passions to the smallest of the microscopic animalcules, how lowered must be the pride of man, who, standing in the middle, and nearly at equal distance from both, is yet unable to comprehend the mechanism which puts them in motion, and much less that intelligence and power which has given them life, and has assigned to them their respective stations in the universe! Let us then exclaim, with astonishment and gratitude, with the Psalmist: “O Lord, how inscrutable are thy ways, how magnificent thy works!”

THIS animal, like the whale, is not considered a fish, though it lives in the water, as it has warm blood and suckles its young, which are born alive. It has also lungs instead of gills, and is therefore obliged to raise its head above the surface of the water to breathe.

The Dolphin is from six to ten feet in length. The body is roundish, gradually diminishing towards the tail; the nose is long and pointed, the skin smooth, the back black or dusky blue, becoming white below. It has numerous small teeth in each jaw; a dorsal and two pectoral fins, and a tail in the shape of a crescent. The beak-like snout has probably made the French call the Dolphin the sea-goose.

Several curious stories have been related of this animal, most of which are fabulous. The anecdote of Arion, the musician, who, being thrown overboard by pirates, was indebted for his life to one of these animals, is well known, and acquired great credit among ancient poets, as it was said to be by his music that Arion charmed the Dolphin. There are several other fables mentioned by ancient authors to prove the philanthropy of the Dolphin. Since the province of _Dauphiné_ in France has been united to the crown, the heir-apparent has been called “Dauphin,” and quarters a Dolphin on his shield. Falconer, in his beautiful poem, “The Shipwreck,” describes the death of the Dolphin in the following elegant manner:

“---- Beneath the lofty vessel’s stern A shoal of sporting dolphins they discern, Beaming from burnished scales refulgent rays, Till all the glowing ocean seems to blaze. In curling wreaths they wanton on the tide; Now bound aloft, now downward swiftly glide. Awhile beneath the waves their tracks remain, And burn in silver streams along the liquid plain; Soon to the sport of death the crew repair, Dart the long lance, or spread the bated snare. One in redoubling mazes wheels along, And glides, unhappy, near the triple prong. Rodmond, unerring, o’er his head suspends The barbed steel, and every turn attends: Unerring aim’d, the missile weapon flew, And plunging, struck the fated victim through. The upturning points his pond’rous bulk sustain; On deck he struggles with convulsive pain; But while his heart the fatal javelin thrills, And fleeting life escapes in sanguine rills, What radiant changes strike the astonish’d sight, What glowing hues of mingled shade and light! No equal beauties gild the lucid west With parting beams all o’er profusely dressed; No lovelier colours paint the vernal dawn, When orient dews impearl the enamell’d lawn; Than from his sides in bright suffusion flow, That now with gold empyreal seem to glow; Now in pellucid sapphires meet the view, And emulate the soft celestial hue; Now beam a flaming crimson to the eye, And now assume the purple’s deeper dye: But here description clouds each shining ray; What terms of art can Nature’s power display?”

Unfortunately for poetry, the beautiful colours of the dying Dolphin exist entirely in the fancy of the poet; as the Dolphin in a dying state displays no tints but black and white, and it is believed that the notion so prevalent among the ancients of the change of colour in this animal was derived from a true fish, the Dorado, which does exhibit this phenomenon.

THE WHITE WHALE, or Beluga, is included among the dolphins. The body is white, tinged with yellow, or rose-colour, and its proportions are more agreeable than those of most of the cetacea. It measures from twelve to eighteen feet in length. White Whales are gregarious, assembling in flocks or herds, and playing about with rapid and graceful movements. The female has two young ones at a time, over which she watches with the greatest apparent affection. They follow all her movements, and do not quit her till they are nearly full grown. This Whale is generally confined to the northern latitudes, though one was taken in the Firth of Forth in 1815. The oil is of excellent quality, and the flesh eats like beef. According to some writers the flesh, when pickled with vinegar and salt, is as well tasted as pork; and thus the body, which is generally thrown away when the sailors have cut off the blubber, might be used by them as food. The internal membranes are used by the Greenlanders for windows, and the sinews for thread, and the fins and tail, when properly prepared, are said by some of the old writers to be good eating.

THE PORPOISE is one of the cetacea, and nearly allied to the dolphin, but it has not the beaked snout of that animal. The length of the Porpoise, from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail, is from four to eight feet, and its girth about two feet and a half. The figure of the whole body is conical; the colour of the back is deep blue, inclining to shining black; the sides are grey, becoming white below. The tail is crescent-shaped. There are only three fins, one on the back, and one on each shoulder. The eyes are very small. When the flesh is cut up, it looks very much like pork; but although it was once considered a sumptuous article of food, and is said to have been occasionally introduced at the tables of the old English nobility, it certainly has a disagreeable flavour. Porpoises live on small fish, and appear generally in large shoals, particularly in the mackerel and herring seasons, at which time they do very great damage to fishermen, by breaking and destroying the nets to get at their prey. Their motion in the water is a kind of circular leap; they dive deep, but soon again rise up in order to breathe. They are so eager in the pursuit of their prey, that they sometimes ascend large rivers, and have even been seen above Westminster Bridge. They have no gills, and blow out the water with a loud noise, which in calm weather may be heard at a great distance. They are seen nearly in all seas, and are very common upon the British coasts, where they sport with great activity, chiefly at the approach of a squall.

The Grampus (_Phocæna Orca_) is a species of Porpoise, and a decided and inveterate enemy to whales; which they attack in great flocks, fastening round them like so many bull-dogs, making them roar with pain, and frequently killing and devouring them. They are usually from twenty to twenty-five feet in length, and in general form and colour resemble the common Porpoise; but the lower jaw is considerably wider than the upper, and the body is somewhat broader and more deep in proportion. The back-fin sometimes measures six feet in length. In one of the poems of Waller, a story (founded on fact) is recorded of the parental affection of these animals. A Grampus and her cub had got into an arm of the sea, where, by the desertion of the tide, they were enclosed on every side. The men on shore saw their situation, and ran down upon them with such weapons as they could at the moment collect. The poor animals were soon wounded in several places, so that all the immediately surrounding water was stained with their blood. They made many efforts to escape; and the old one, by superior strength, forced itself over the shallow into the ocean. But though in safety herself she would not leave her young one in the hands of assassins. She therefore again rushed in; and seemed resolved, since she could not prevent, at least to share the fate of her offspring. The story concludes with poetical justice; for the tide coming in, conveyed them both off in safety; and it is probable, from the great thickness of their skins, that their wounds had not been very deep.

A MARINE animal, differing from all the cetacea, to which it belongs, in not having any teeth, properly so called, and in being armed with a horn of seven or eight feet in length, which projects from the head. This horn is white, spirally twisted throughout its whole length, and tapering to a point: it is harder, whiter, and more valuable than the ivory of the elephant, and was formerly in high repute for its supposed medical properties: small ones may be sometimes seen set with an elegant head as a walking-stick, and large specimens have been employed as bed-posts. The animal itself is from twenty to forty feet in length, and is occasionally found with two horns; indeed, there is always the germ of a second horn both in the male and female, though it is rarely developed in the former, and never in the latter, from which we may conjecture that the females trust entirely to the males for their defence, as we know is the case with several of the mammalia. When there is only one horn, it is always on the left side of the head; and when there are two, the horn on the left side is always larger than the other. This animal chiefly inhabits the arctic seas, and its food is said to consist of the smaller kinds of flat fish and other marine animals; its horn is useful in breaking away the ice when it wants to come up to breathe. The blubber supplies a small quantity of very fine oil, and the Greenlanders are very partial to the flesh.

ALSO called the Sea Cow, is a great deal smaller than the other cetacea just described, and differs from them in its diet, which consists entirely of marine plants. It haunts the coasts and estuaries of South America, and measures nine or ten feet in length; its head is comparatively small, its jaws are furnished only with grinding-teeth, of which it has thirty-two, its skin is provided with a good many scattered bristles, and its flippers, or fins, with four small nails. This animal not unfrequently raises its head and shoulders out of the water, when it is said to have some resemblance to a human being, and it is probable that the distant view of a nearly related species, the _Lamantin_, which inhabits the shores of Africa, may have given the ancients their first notion of the Mermaid. The Manatee is captured with harpoons, and its flesh is said to be very good eating. When salted and dried it will keep for a year. It also furnishes an excellent oil, and its skin is used for making harness and whips. The Dugong (_Halicore Dugong_) is a very similar animal, inhabiting the eastern seas. It grows to a length of eighteen or twenty feet.

§ II. _Cartilaginous Fishes._

SOMETIMES grows to the length of eight or ten feet, and has been found to weigh five hundred pounds. It has a long, slender, pointed nose, small eyes, and a small mouth destitute of teeth, placed beneath and unsupported by the maxillæ; so that when the animal is dead, the mouth remains always open. The body is covered with five rows of large bony tubercles, and the under side is flat; it has one dorsal fin, two pectoral, two ventral, and one anal. The upper part of the body is of a muddy olive colour, and the under part silvery. The tail is bifurcated, the upper part being much longer than the under. Sturgeons subsist principally on insects and marine plants, which they find at the bottom of the water, where they mostly resort.

The Sturgeon annually ascends our rivers in the summer, particularly those of the Eden and Esk; and when caught, as it sometimes is, in the salmon-nets, it scarcely makes any resistance, but is drawn out of the water apparently lifeless. One of the largest Sturgeons ever caught in our rivers was taken in the Esk a good many years ago: it weighed four hundred and sixty pounds. This fish is found in most of the rivers in Europe; it is also common in those of North America, and especially in the lakes and rivers of Northern Asia.

The flesh of the Sturgeon is delicious; and it was so much valued in the time of the Emperor Severus, that it was brought to table by servants with coronets on their heads, and preceded by music. In London, every Sturgeon that is caught in the Thames is presented by the Lord Mayor to the Sovereign. The roe, when preserved with salt and oil, is called _caviar_, and is a favourite dish with many persons; the best is made in Russia. The flesh is also pickled or salted, and sent all over Europe. So prolific is this fish, that Catesby says the females frequently contain a bushel of spawn each; and Leeuwenhoek found in the roe of one of them no fewer than one hundred and fifty thousand million eggs!

“Increasing still the terrors of the storms, His jaws horrific arm’d with threefold fate, Here dwells the direful Shark.”

THE SHARK differs from the whale in not being one of the mammalia. It is cold-blooded, and does not suckle its young. It has no lungs, and its mode of breathing is like that of other fishes, except that its gills are fixed, and the water escapes by five apertures on each side. The body of the Shark is elongated, and tapers gradually from the head to the tail, or is very slightly dilated in the middle. Its muzzle or nose is rounded, and projects very much over the mouth, the nostrils being situated on the under side. The male shark is smaller than the female, and differs from it in appearance, in possessing two elongated appendages, one of which is attached to the hinder edge of each of the ventral fins. The purpose which these appendages are intended to serve is not known. Some of the Sharks produce their young alive, and others lay eggs contained in horny cases of an oblong shape, with long tendrils at each of the four corners. After the young Sharks are hatched, these curious cases are often washed on shore, and are called mermaids’ purses.

The bones of the Shark are like gristle, and very different from those of most other fishes. Hence all the fishes with bones similar to those of the Shark are placed in a separate order, and called cartilaginous fishes.

The White Shark is sometimes found weighing nearly two thousand pounds. The throat is often large enough to swallow a man; and a human body has sometimes been found entire in the stomach of this tremendous animal. He is furnished with six rows of sharp triangular teeth, which amount in all to a hundred and forty-four, serrated on their edges, and capable of being erected or depressed at pleasure, owing to a curious muscular mechanism in the palate and jaws of the Shark. The whole body and fins are of a light ash-colour; the skin rough, and employed to smooth cabinet work, or to cover small boxes or cases. His eyes are large and staring, and he possesses great muscular strength in his tail and fins. Whenever he spies, from the deepest recesses of the sea, a man swimming or diving, he darts from the place, up to his prey, and if unable to take in the whole, or snatch away a limb, he follows for a long time the boat or vessel in which the more nimble swimmer has found a safe and opportune retreat: but seldom does he let any one escape his jaws, and get off entire. Sir Brook Watson was swimming at a little distance from a ship, when he saw a Shark making towards him. Struck with terror at its approach, he cried out for assistance. A rope was instantly thrown; but even while the men were in the act of drawing him up the ship’s side, the monster darted after him, and, at a single snap, tore off his leg.

We are told that, in the reign of Queen Anne, some of the men of an English merchant-ship, which had arrived at Barbadoes, were one day bathing in the sea, when a large Shark appeared, and was rushing upon them. A person from the ship called out to warn them of their danger; on which they all immediately swam to the vessel, and arrived in perfect safety, except one poor man, who was cut in two by the Shark, almost within reach of the oars. A comrade and intimate friend of the unfortunate victim, when he observed the severed trunk of his companion, was seized with a degree of horror that words cannot describe. The insatiate Shark was seen traversing the bloody surface in search of the remainder of his prey, when the brave youth plunged into the water, determining either to make the Shark disgorge, or to be buried himself in the same grave. He held in his hand a long and sharp-pointed knife, and the rapacious animal pushed furiously towards him; he had turned on his side, and had opened his enormous jaws, in order to seize him, when the youth, diving dexterously under, seized him with his left hand, somewhere about the upper fins, and stabbed him several times in the belly. The Shark, enraged with pain, and streaming with blood, plunged in all directions in order to disengage himself from his enemy. The crews of the surrounding vessels saw that the combat was decided; but they were ignorant which was slain, until the Shark, weakened by loss of blood, made towards the shore, and along with him his conqueror; who, flushed with victory, pushed his foe with redoubled ardour, and, by the aid of an ebbing tide, dragged him on shore. Here he ripped up the bowels of the animal, obtained the severed remainder of his friend’s body, and buried it with the trunk in the same grave. This story, however incredible it may appear, is related in the History of Barbadoes, on the most satisfactory authority.

Had nature allowed this fish to seize his prey with as much facility as many others, the Shark tribe would have soon depopulated the ocean, and reigned alone in the vast regions of the sea, till hunger would have forced them to attack and ultimately destroy each other; but the upper jaw of this devouring animal, is so constructed as to offer, by its prominency, an impediment to the Shark’s easily seizing his prey; and consequently when on the point of catching hold of anything, he is obliged to turn on one side, which troublesome evolution often gives the object of his pursuit time to escape. The flesh of this fish is of a disagreeable taste, and cannot be eaten with any kind of relish, except the part near the tail.

Twenty different species of this family are known, and the number of different families of the Shark tribe is very great.

THE GREENLAND SHARK, (_Selachus maximus_,)

IS another very voracious species; and one extremely difficult to kill. It is the great enemy of the whale, and devours the bodies of those left by the fishers. Its teeth are very small, pointed, and numerous. The snout is short. It is sometimes known as the Basking Shark.

ARE so excessively voracious, that they are altogether fearless of mankind. They follow vessels with great eagerness, seizing with avidity everything eatable that is thrown overboard; and have sometimes been known to throw themselves on fishermen, and on persons bathing in the sea. As, however, they are much smaller and weaker than most of the other Sharks, they do not always attack their enemies by open force, but generally have recourse to stratagem. They, consequently, conceal themselves in the mud, and lie in ambush, like the ray or skate-fish, (also one of the cartilaginous fishes,) until they have an opportunity of successfully attacking their prey. On the coasts of Scarborough, where haddocks, cod, and Dog-fish are in great abundance, the fishermen universally believe that the Dog-fish make a line or semicircle to encompass a shoal of haddocks and cod, confining them within certain limits near the shore, and eating them as occasion requires: they are therefore considered very destructive to this fishery. The flesh of the Dog-fish is hard and disagreeable; its skin, when dried, is made into the well-known _shagreen_, and from the liver a considerable quantity of oil may be extracted. Shagreen is also made from the skin of other cartilaginous fishes.

THE HAMMER-HEADED SHARK, (_Zygæna malleus_,)

IS a very curious kind, having a transverse head like that of a hammer, with an eye at each extremity; and the Fox-Shark, or Thresher (_Carcharias vulpes_), is remarkable for the enormous length of the upper lobe of its tail, with which it is able to strike with tremendous force. This fish is one of the great enemies of the whale.

IS a species of the Ray, which was long disregarded in this country as a coarse, bad-tasted food, but which now appears upon our best tables. It is still, however, disregarded in Scotland and the north of England, where its flesh is principally used as a bait for other fish. On some parts of the continent, where these fish are caught in great abundance, they are dried for sale. The best season for Skate is the spring of the year. The body is broad and flat, of a brown colour on the back, and white on the lower side: the head is not distinct from the body, so that this fish and all belonging to this genus are apparently acephalous, or without a head. The peculiar form of this fish is owing to the large size of the pectoral fins, which extend from the head to the base of the tail, and are very wide in the middle, and so, combined with the sharpness of the snout, give the fish the shape known as rhomboidal. Dr. Monro has remarked, that in the gills of a large Skate there are upwards of one hundred and forty-four thousand subdivisions, or folds; and that the whole extent of this membrane, whose surface is nearly equal to that of the whole human body, may be seen by a microscope to be covered with a network of vessels, that are not only extremely minute, but exquisitely beautiful. The tail of the Skate is long, and generally prickly. The mouth is, as it were, paved with teeth, which are flat, and nearly square in shape. In the full-grown male the centre teeth are pointed, at least in some species. The eggs deposited by the female Skate are very similar to those laid by the shark, being in the shape of a square bag, with two horns at each end as here represented.

In this horny case the embryo is contained, and grows till it has acquired strength enough to burst through its prison. The colour of the bag is maroon, and the substance like thin brown parchment or leather. The female begins to drop these singly in the month of May, and continues to do so for several months, to the number of two or three hundred. In some parts of Cumberland they are called, by the common people, Skatebarrows, on account of their resemblance to the barrows which are carried by two men, and used for the conveyance of goods, &c.

The Skate sometimes attains a very large size. Willoughby speaks of one so huge that it would have served one hundred and twenty men for dinner. Some naturalists are of opinion that these fishes are the largest inhabitants of the deep, and that only the smallest of them come near the surface of the water, the biggest remaining flat at the bottom of the sea, where an unfathomable deep secures them against the wiles of man.

Nine species of the Skate or Ray are found on the British coasts.

RESEMBLES the Skate in its general appearance; the principal difference consists in the latter having sharp teeth, and a single row of spines upon the tail, while the former has blunt teeth, and several rows of spines both upon the back and tail. A Thornback was caught near the island of St. Kitt’s, in the year 1634, which measured twelve feet in length, and nearly ten in width. It is sometimes eaten in England, but as its flesh is inferior to that of the Skate, it is generally sold at a low price. The young ones, however, which have the denomination of _Maids_, are delicate eating.

THIS curious fish is capable of giving a violent shock, like that produced by the electrical machine, to the person who handles it. The body is nearly circular, and thicker than any other of the Ray kind, and is sometimes so large as to weigh between seventy and eighty pounds. The skin is smooth, of a dusky brown colour, and white underneath. The ventral fins form on each side, at the end of the body, nearly a quarter of a circle. The tail is short, and the two dorsal fins are near its origin. The mouth is small, and as in the other species, there are on each side below it five breathing apertures.

The shock imparted by the touch of the Cramp-fish, as the Torpedo is vulgarly called, is often attended with a sudden sickness at the stomach, a general tremor, a kind of convulsion, and sometimes a total suspension of the faculties of the mind. Such power of self-defence has Providence allowed this lumpish and inactive fish. Whenever an enemy approaches, the Torpedo emits from its body that benumbing shock, which incapacitates the other instantly, and it thereby gets time to escape. Nor is it merely a means of defence, but an advantage in other respects, for the Torpedo thus benumbs its prey, and easily seizes upon it. The animals thus killed are also supposed to become more easy of digestion.

IS very voracious, and feeds upon all kinds of flat fish, as soles, flounders, &c. It is often caught on the coasts of Great Britain, and of such a size as to weigh sometimes a hundred pounds. This fish seems to be of a middle nature between the rays and sharks, and is called by Pliny the Squatina; a name which seems to bring this species near that of the skate. Its head is large; the mouth has five rows of teeth, which are capable of being raised or depressed at pleasure. The back is of a pale ash-colour; the belly white and smooth. The shores of Cornwall are often frequented by this fish, but its flesh does not deserve to be praised, being hard, and of a very indifferent flavour.

It is supposed to have acquired the name of Angel-fish, from its extended pectoral fins bearing some similarity to wings, certainly, as Mr. Yarrell has remarked, not for its beauty; and of monk-fish, from its rounded head, appearing as if enveloped in a monk’s hood. The skin is rather rough, and is used for polishing, and other works in the arts. Mr. Donovan says that the Turks of the present day make shagreen of it.

THIS fish is found in the European and Atlantic seas. Its body is flattened anteriorly with four or five branchial openings below on each side; two spiracles behind the eyes; no anal fin; the head prolonged into a depressed bony beak, with strong pointed spines on each side; the lips are rough and sharp like a file, supplying the place of teeth. With its formidable weapon, which resembles a toothed saw, this fish attacks the largest whales, and inflicts very severe wounds. The colour of its body is of a greyish brown above, and paler below; its length about fifteen feet, the saw being about a third of the whole.

THE LAMPREY belongs to the last family of cartilaginous fishes, and is one of the lowest in the scale of vertebrated animals. It grows to the length of about three feet, although the British species, with which we are best acquainted, seldom exceeds twelve inches. To avoid the constant muscular exertions necessary to prevent their being carried away by the current, they attach themselves by the mouth to stones or rocks, and hence are called _Petromyzon_, Stone-suckers. The Lamprey, although no longer maintaining its ancient repute, is still considered a delicacy; those taken in the Severn being preferred to all others. Henry the First, as is well known, died of a surfeit of them; and in the reign of Henry the Fourth their importation was encouraged by immunities. The Roman epicures prized this fish so highly, that they bestowed the utmost care, and expended enormous sums in rearing them. Pliny tells us that Lucullus formed a fish-pond of such extent, that the fish it contained were, at his death, sold for four million sesterces. These polished barbarians sometimes threw a slave into the ponds where they kept their _Murœnæ_, or Lampreys, and considered that by this means they fattened the fish and gave them a superior flavour.

A CARTILAGINOUS FISH, which in its general appearance bears a near resemblance to the Lamprey. Its colour is dusky bluish above, and reddish towards the head and tail; its length from four to six inches. The Hag-fish is remarkable for its total want of eyes; its mouth is of an oblong form, with two beards or cirri on each side, and on the upper