CHAPTER XIX.

OSSEI, OR BONY FISHES.

Under this denomination is comprehended many of the fishes which are most familiar to us. They are characterized, as we have said elsewhere, as a group of animals having a solid skeleton. They are divided into six orders; founded, however, it is necessary to add, on characteristics of little organic importance, and the names bestowed upon them are of a most barbarous description. These names are, I. _Plectognathi_, namely, fishes in which the upper jaw is attached to the cranium, from πλεκτὸς, _interlaced_, and γνάθος, _jaw_.

Afterwards those in which the upper jaw is movable, and the gills arranged in circles, like rounded hoops. These are, II. the _Lophobranchii_, from λὀφυς, _crested_, or aigrette, and βρἀνχια, _gill_.

In the other orders the gills are arranged in a comb-like form. These are divided into two great groups. In the first, the rays of the fins are soft, except occasionally the first of dorsal or pectoral fins. These are, III. the _Malacopterygians_, from μαλακὸς, _soft_, and πτερύγιον, _finned_--the third group of osseous fishes. In a later group the fish have bony rays to the anterior dorsal fins, some osseous rays, and the anal fin and generally one of the ventral fins. These are, IV. the _Acanthopterygians_, from ἂκανθα, _spiny_, and πτερύγιομ, _finned_, which form the last group of bony fishes.

I. PLECTOGNATHI.

From their organization the fishes of this order establish the passage from _cartilaginous_ to the _osseous_ fishes. Their skeleton, which remains for some time more or less soft, becomes finally hard. The chief characteristic of the order is that the maxillary is firmly attached to the side of the inter-maxillary bone which forms the jaw, and the arch of the palate is united to the skull in such a manner as to be motionless. The operculum and rays of the gills are hidden under a thick skin, which leaves externally only a small branchial slit. These fishes have no true ventral fin, and have only vestiges of side fins.

This order comprehends two natural families characterized by the armature of their jaws. They are the _Gymnodonta_ and the _Sclerodermata_.

In the family of _Gymnodonta_ the jaws have no apparent teeth, but they are furnished with a species of beak in ivory, which represents them. The Sun-fish, _Tetrodon_ (Fig. 357), belong to the family.

The Globe-fish are so named from their large head and bony salient jaws, which are each divided in front by a sort of vertical slit in two portions, which simulate two teeth. These four portions of bony jaw, which project beyond the lips, somewhat resemble the hard and dentate jaws of the turtle. Their anterior part is sometimes prolonged, like the mandibles of the beak of the parrot. They are perfectly arranged to crush the shells of the molluscs, as well as the resisting envelope of the crustaceans on which they feed. The skin of these fishes bristles with small slightly-projecting spines, the number of which compensate for their brevity, which repel their enemies, and even wound the hand that would grasp them. They enjoy, besides, a singular faculty; they can inflate the lower part of their body, and give it an extension so considerable that it becomes like an inflated ball, in which the real shape of the animal is lost. This result is obtained by the introduction of an immense quantity of air into the stomach when it wishes to ascend to the surface. The species of globe-fish are numerous. Some of them are common in the Nile, where they are frequently left ashore during the annual inundations.

The Globe-fish (_Orthagoriscus mola_), in the upper part of the engraving, is easily distinguished from the _Tetrodons_ by its compressed spineless body; being very round in its vertical contour, it has been compared to a disk, and more poetically to the moon--whence its popular names--to the great circular surface of which the dazzling silvery white disk bears some resemblance. But it is especially during the night that it justifies the name given to it. Then it shines brightly, from its own phosphorescent light, at a little distance beneath the surface. On very dark nights the globe-fish is sometimes seen swimming in the soft light which emanates from its body, the rays rendered undulating by the rippling of the water which it traverses, so as to resemble the trembling light of the moon half-veiled in misty vapours. When many of these fishes rove about together, mingling their silvery trains, the scene suggests the idea of dancing stars. The moon-fish is common in the Mediterranean, and sometimes reaches the markets of Paris. It is about thirty inches in length, and its weight is considerable. Its flesh is fat and viscous, and by no means pleasant to eat.

The _Diodons_ (Fig. 358) only differ from the globe-fish in the form of their bony jaws, each forming only one piece. They seem to have two teeth, whence their name, from δίς, _two_, ὀδοὺς, _teeth_. They differ also in their spines, which are much larger than those of the globe-fish. These fishes may be said to be the hedgehogs and porcupines of the sea. Like the globe-fish, they can erect their spines and inflate their bodies.

They are numerous in species--_Diodon pilosus_, represented in Fig. 358, being typical of the others.

The Sclerodermes are distinguished by their conical or pyramidal muzzle, terminating in a little mouth armed with true teeth; their skin is generally stiff and covered with hard scales. The File-fish, _Balistes_ and _Coffers_, are selected for notice. The File or Rudder-fish (Fig. 359) have the body compressed; the jaws are furnished with eight teeth, arranged in a single row on each jaw, and covered with true lips; the eyes are nearly level with the skin; the mouth is small, and the body enveloped in very hard scales, which are connected in groups and distributed into compartments more or less regular, and strongly connected by means of a thick skin. The animal is thus protected by a sort of cuirass and casque very difficult to penetrate.

With the exception of one species, the Balistes are inhabitants of Tropical seas. They are generally brilliantly coloured; they herd together in great numbers, and in their gambols produce curious combinations of brilliant colouring in the Equatorial seas. Their flesh is held in slight estimation, and at certain periods of the year is even said to be dangerous.

The Coffers, or Ostracions (Fig. 360), are without scales, but covered with regular osseous compartments, which are so jointed the one to the other that the body is, as it were, enclosed in a kind of box or long coffer, which only reveals the external organs of locomotion--namely, the fins and a portion of tail. In some the body is triangular, in others quadrangular, with or without spines.

These singular fishes are found in the Indian Ocean and in the American seas. They are of moderate size, and are much prized in the United States as food.

II. LOPHOBRANCHII.

The Lophobranchii comprehend a few types, but are numerous in species. Here the gills are divided into small round tufts, and arranged in pairs along the branchial arches; a structure quite peculiar, of which we have no examples in any other fishes. These gills are enclosed under a large cover, or operculum, attached on all sides by a membrane, which leaves only a small hole for the escape of water which has served the purposes of respiration.

These little cuirassed fishes consist of two genera, _Syngnathus_ and _Hippocampus_. The Syngnathes, or pipe-fishes, possess a very curious organic peculiarity. Their bodies are long, slender, and slightly tapering, covered with plates set lengthwise, without ventrals; the skin, in swelling, forms under the belly or under the tail, according to the species, a pouch into which the eggs glide to be hatched, and which is afterwards a shelter for the young. Most of the species are strangers to European seas, but some few are found in the Channel. The Trumpet Pipe-fish (Fig. 361) has the head small, the muzzle long, nearly cylindrical, slightly raised at the end, and terminating in a very small mouth without teeth. The animal is about twenty inches long; its skin is of a yellowish colour varied with brown. It lives in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, where it is largely used by the fishermen in baiting their hooks. It is found in great abundance in the Atlantic between the Equator and the Western Isles.

The Sea Horse (_Hippocampus_) is a small creature about the size of the engraving (Fig. 362); its head has a singular resemblance to that of the horse. The rings which constitute the integument of the body and tail have a close resemblance to the rings of some caterpillars. This curious combination of forms originated the name, Hippocampus, from ἵππος, _horse_, κάμπος, _fish_, adopted in very ancient times to designate this creature. It is found in the Atlantic, round the coast of Spain, the south of France, in the Mediterranean, and in the Indian Ocean. Mr. Lukis, who raised two females in captivity, describes their habits as follows:--"When they swim," he says, "they preserve a vertical position, but their tail seems on the alert to seize whatever it meets with in the water, clasping the stem of the rushes. Once fixed, the animal seems to watch attentively all the surrounding objects, and darts on any prey presenting itself with great dexterity. When one of them approaches the other, they interlace their two tails, and it is only after a struggle that they can separate again, attaching themselves by the lower part of the chin to some rush in order to release themselves. They have recourse to the same manœuvre when they wish to raise the body, or when they wish to wind their tail to some new object. Their two eyes seem to move independently of each other, like those of the chameleon. The iris is bright and edged with blue."

The sea-horses have the pectoral fins so formed as easily to sustain the body, not only in the water, but even in the air; they are, in fact, winged fishes, and probably originated the famous winged courser of mythology, after which they are sometimes named. They rarely exceed four inches in length; the body is covered with triangular scales, commonly of a bluish colour. They live on worms, fishes' eggs, and fragments of organic substances which they find in the far land at the bottom of the sea.

III. MALACOPTERYGII.

The principal character of the fishes of this order is that the rays of the fins are soft, except sometimes the first ray of the dorsal or pectorals. They inhabit either sea or fresh water, and include fishes of the utmost importance as human food, such as the herring, the cod, the salmon, carp, pike, and many others. Modern naturalists, following Cuvier, subdivide them into three orders:--1. _Apoda_, without ventrals; 2. _Sub-branchiati_, ventrals under the pectorals; 3. _Abdominales_, having ventrals behind the pectorals.

1. APODA.

A single family composes this order, which comprehends great numbers both in genera and species; they are anguilliform or snake-like, elongated in form, the skin thick and soft, and have no ventral fins. In this order are included the _Ammodytes_, _Gymnotes_, _Murænas_, and _Anguilla_, or eels.

The Ammodytes have the body elongated and serpent-like, having a continuous fin extending along the greater part of the back, with another at the opposite side, and a third or forked fin at the end of the tail. The muzzle is also long; the lower jaw longer than the upper. _A. lancea_ (Fig. 363) buries itself in the sand; hence it is called the sand-eel; it hollows out a burrow for itself in the sand with its muzzle to the depth of fifteen or twenty inches, where it hunts out worms, on which it feeds, while it shelters itself from the jaws of many voracious fishes, which eagerly pursue it for its delicate flesh. In appearance the _Ammodytes lancea_ is silvery blue, brighter on the lower parts than on the upper, the radiating fins on the abdomen being alternately white and bluish in colour.

The gymnotes are long, nearly cylindrical, and also serpent-like, the tail being long in comparison to the other parts of the body. Beneath the tail is a long swimming fin, the only locomotive organ, and it is this nakedness of the back which confers its designation of γυμνὸς, _naked_, νῶτος, _back_.

The Gymnotes are fresh-water fishes of South America, where they attain a great size. There are several species, but the most remarkable, from its singular physical properties, is the Electrical Eel, _Gymnotus electricus_ (Fig. 364). These properties enable the gymnotus to arrest suddenly the pursuit of an enemy, or the flight of its prey, to suspend on the instant every movement of its victim, and subdue it by an invisible power. Even the fishermen themselves are suddenly struck and rendered torpid at the moment of seizing it, while nothing external betrays the mysterious power possessed by the animal.

The electrical properties of the gymnotus were reported for the first time by Van Berkal. The astronomer Richer, who had been sent to Cayenne in 1671 by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, on the Geodesic Survey, first made known the singular properties of the American fish. "I was much astonished," says this author, "to see a fish some three or four feet in length, and resembling an eel, deprive of all sensation for a quarter of an hour the arm and neighbouring parts which touched it. I was not only an ocular witness of the effect produced by its touch; but I have myself felt it, on touching one of these fishes still living, though wounded by a hook, by means of which some Indians had drawn it from the water. They could not tell what it was called; but they assured me that it struck other fishes with its tail in order to stupefy them and devour them afterwards, which is very probable when we consider the effect of its touch upon a man."

The observations of Richer made little impression at the time on the _savants_ of Paris, and matters remained in this state for seventy years, when the traveller Condamine spoke in his "Voyage en Amérique" of a fish which produced the effects described by Richer. In 1750 a physician named Ingram furnished some new views respecting this fish, which he thought was surrounded by an electric atmosphere. In 1755 another physician, the Dutch Dr. Gramund, writes: "The effect produced by this fish corresponds exactly with that produced by the Leyden jar, with this difference, that we see no tinsel on its body, however strong the blow it gives; for if the fish is large, those who touch it are struck down, and feel the blow on their whole body."

Many experiments followed these; but we are indebted to Alexander von Humboldt for the first precise account of this very curious fish. The celebrated naturalist read to the Institute of France an important memoir upon the electrical eel from Bonpland's observations, the substance of which we shall give here.

In traversing the Llanas of the province of Caracas, in order to embark at San Fernando de Apure on his voyage up the Orinoco, M. Bonpland stopped at Calabozo. The object of this sojourn was to investigate the history of the gymnotus, great numbers of which are found in the neighbourhood. After three days' residence in Calabozo some Indians conducted them to the Cano de Bera, a muddy and stagnant basin, but surrounded by rich vegetation, in which _Clusia rosea_, _Hymenoea courbaril_, some grand Indian figs, and some magnificent flowering odoriferous mimosas, were pre-eminent. They were much surprised when informed that it would be necessary to take thirty half-wild horses from the neighbouring savannahs in order to fish for the gymnotus.

The idea of this fishing, called in the language of the country _embarbascar con caballos_ (intoxicating by means of horses), is very odd. The word _barbasco_ indicates the roots of the _Lacquinia_, or any other poisonous plant, by contact of which a body of water acquires the property of killing, or, at least, of intoxicating or stupefying the fishes. These come to the surface when they have been poisoned in this manner. The horses chasing them here and there in a marsh has, it seems, the same effect upon the alarmed fishes. While our hosts were explaining to us this strange mode of fishing, the troop of horses and mules had arrived, and the Indians had made a sort of battue, pressing the horses on all sides, and forcing them into the marsh. The Indians, armed with long canes and harpoons, placed themselves round the basin, some of them mounting the trees, whose branches hung over the water, and by their cries, and still more by their canes, preventing the horses from landing again. The eels, stunned by the noise, defended themselves by repeated discharges of their batteries. For a long time it seemed as if they would be victorious over the horses. Some of the mules especially, being almost stifled by the frequency and force of the shock, disappeared under the water, and some of the horses, in spite of the watchfulness of the Indians, regained the bank, where, overcome by the shocks they had undergone, they stretched themselves at their whole length. The picture presented was now indescribable. Groups of Indians surrounded the basin; the horses with bristling mane, terror and grief in their eyes, trying to escape from the storm which had surprised them; the eels, yellow and livid, looking like great aquatic serpents swimming on the surface of the water, and chasing their enemies, were objects at once appalling and picturesque. In less than five minutes two horses were drowned. An eel, more than five feet long, glided under one horse, discharged its apparatus through its whole extent, attacking at once the heart, the viscera, and the plexus of the nerves of the animal, probably benumbing and finally drowning it.

When the struggle had endured a quarter of an hour, the mules and horses appeared less frightened, the manes became more erect, the eyes expressed less terror, the eels shunned in place of attacking them, at the same time approaching the bank, when they were easily taken by throwing little harpoons at them attached to long cords, the harpoon, sometimes hooking two at a time, being landed by means of the long cord. They were drawn ashore without being able to communicate any shock.

Having landed the eels, they were transported to little pools dug in the soil, and filled with fresh water; but such is the terror they inspire, that none of the people of the country would release them from the harpoon--a task which the travellers had to perform themselves, and receive the first shock, which was not slight--the most energetic surpassing in force that communicated by a Leyden jar completely charged. The gymnotus surpasses in size and strength all the other electric fishes. Humboldt saw them five feet three inches long. They vary in colour according to age, and the nature of the muddy water in which they live. Beneath, the head is of a fine yellow colour mixed with red; the mouth is large, and furnished with small teeth arranged in many rows.

The gymnotus makes its shock felt in any part of its body which is touched, but the excitement is greater when touched under the belly, and in the pectoral fin. The gymnotus gives the most frightful shocks without the least muscular movement in the fins, in the head, or any other part of the body. The shock, indeed, depends upon the will of the animal, and in this respect differs from a Leyden jar, which is discharged by communicating with two opposite poles. It happens sometimes that a gymnotus, seriously wounded, only gives a very weak shock, but if, thinking it exhausted, it is touched fearlessly and at once, its discharge is terrible. Indeed, the phenomena depend so much upon the will of the animal, that, according to Von Humboldt, if it is touched by two metallic rods, the shock is communicated sometimes by one, sometimes by the other wand, though their extremities are close together.

The experiments already related in connection with the torpedo were repeated here. If we place ourselves upon an isolated support, and take hold of a metallic rod, a shock is received; but no shock is received, on the other hand, if the fish is touched with a glass rod, or one covered with wax. Humboldt and Bonpland repeated this experiment many times, with decisive results. The electric organ has been carefully described by these observers. The organs extend from under the tail, occupying nearly one-half of the thickness. It is divided into four longitudinal bundles of muscles, the upper ones large, the two smaller below, and against the base of the anal fin. Each bundle consists of many parallel membranous plates, placed closely together and very nearly horizontal. These plates abut in one part on the skin, in another, on the mean vertical plane of the fish. They are united to each other by an infinity of smaller plates, placed either vertically or transversely. The smaller prismatic and transversal canal, intercepted by these two orders of plates, are filled with gelatinous matter. All this organic apparatus receives many nerves, and presents, in many respects, an arrangement nearly analogous to that of the torpedoes.

The Sea-Eels (_Muræna Helena_) are serpent-like fishes, of cylindrical form and delicate proportions, but strong, flexible, and active, swimming in waving, undulating movements in the water, just as a serpent creeps on dry land. The murænas have no pectoral fin; the dorsal and anal fin are reunited in the tail fin. A branchial opening is observable on each side of the body. The sea-eels are numerous in species. _Muræna Helena_ (Fig. 365), which is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, has only a single row of teeth upon each jaw. It attains the length of forty to fifty inches. It loves to bask in the hollows of rocks, approaching the coast in spring-time. It feeds on crabs and small fishes, seeking eagerly for polyps. The voracity of these fishes is such that when other food fails they begin to nibble at each other's tails.

The sea-eels are caught with rod and line, or by lines and ground-bait, but their instinct is such that they often escape. When they have swallowed a hook they often cut the line with their teeth, or they turn upon it and try, by winding it round some object, to strain or break it. When caught in a net, they quickly choose some mesh through which their body can glide.

Those who have studied the classics will remember the passionate love with which the Roman gourmet regarded these fishes. In the days of the Empire enormous sums were expended in keeping up the ponds which enclosed them, and the fish themselves were multiplied to such an extent that Cæsar, on the occasion of one of his triumphs, distributed six thousand among his friends. Licinius Crassus was celebrated among wealthy Romans for the splendour of his eel-ponds. They obeyed his voice, he said, and when he called them they darted towards him in order to be fed by his hands. The same Licinius Crassus, and Quintus Hortensius, another wealthy Roman patrician, wept the loss of their murænas on one occasion, when they all died in their ponds from some disease. This, however, was only a matter of taste, passion, or fashion; sometimes, however, accompanied by cruelty and gross corruption.

It was thought among the Romans that murænas fed with human flesh were the most delicately flavoured. A rich freedman, named Pollion, who must not, however, be confounded with the orator of the name, had the cruelty to order such of his slaves as he thought deserving of death, and sometimes even those who had done nothing to excite his anger, to be thrown to them. On one occasion, when he entertained the Emperor Augustus, a poor slave who attended had the misfortune to break a precious vase; Pollion immediately ordered him to be thrown to the eels. But the indignant emperor gave the slave his freedom, and, in order to manifest his indignation with Pollion, he ordered his attendants to break every vase of value which the freedman had collected in his mansion.

In the present day sea-eels are little esteemed in a gastronomic point of view. Nevertheless they are still sought for on the coast of Italy, and the fishermen avoid with great care the bites of their sharp teeth.

The Eels (_Anguilla_) have pectoral fins, under which are the gill-openings on each side; the dorsal and anal fins extending up to the tail, mingling with this last, which terminates in a point at the extremity. The eels are divided into two groups: 1. The Eels (_Anguilla_), properly so called; and, 2. The _Congers_. The first inhabit most European rivers, except in the spawning season, when, according to some naturalists, they betake themselves to the sea. During the greater part of their existence, therefore, they have no connection with the ocean. The _Congers_, on the other hand, are fishes of great size, which inhabit the seas of warm countries, as well as those of Northern Europe. The type of this family is the Common Conger, _Conger vulgaris_ (Fig. 366), which differs from the true eels chiefly in the dorsal fins, which commence very near to the pectorals; and also in their upper jaw being longer than their under one. They attain the thickness of a man's leg, and are sometimes two yards in length. The conger-eel is frequently found in salt marshes, but its flesh is held in little esteem.

2. SUB-BRANCHIATI.

The fishes of this order are characterised by vertical fins being attached under the pectorals, and immediately suspended to the shoulder bone. Exclusively marine fishes, they inhabit every region of the globe. The order comprehends three families:--I. _Discobolidæ_; II. _Pleuronectidæ_, or flat fishes; III. the _Gadidæ_.

I. DISCOBOLIDÆ.

The family of Discobolidæ consists of a small number of species characterised by their ventral fins being discoform, as in the sea-snails (_Liparis_), in which the lengthened mucous body is without scales, but with one long dorsal fin; the pectoral and ventrals forming one disk, as in Fig. 367, or the Suckers (_Lepidogaster_), where the pectorals and ventrals form two disks.

In the Lump-fish, _Cyclopteris_ (Fig. 368), the disk formed by the ventrals forms a sort of sucker, by which the fish attaches itself to the rocks; while the _Echineis_ is remarkable for the disk-like sucker with which it is provided.

The _Echineis remora_ is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, and abounds in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It is furnished with a flat disk, which covers its head, as represented in Fig. 369, which is formed of a number of transverse and movable cartilaginous plates. Aided by this organ, it attaches itself firmly to rocks, and even to ships and larger fishes, such as the Dog-fish (_Acanthius_), which it meets with in its wanderings. Its adhesion to those objects is so strong that the strength of a man fails to separate them. It invariably attaches itself to the dorsum and flank of the shark, and sometimes weighs a pound and a quarter. "I have found," writes a friend, "as many as seven on one shark." It is never solitary, and makes long voyages on this monstrous animal locomotive, and that without fatigue or danger, for its enemies are kept at a distance by the formidable monster which carries it.

II. PLEURONECTIDÆ.

The Flat-fishes (_Pleuronectidæ_) have the body flat and greatly compressed, but in a direction different from that of the _Raias_ and other analogous beings. In the case of the Raia the body is flattened horizontally, while in the Pleuronectidæ they are compressed laterally. The head of fishes of this order is not symmetrical; the two eyes are placed on the same side; the two sides of the mouth are unequal.

To these peculiarities of structure we shall return when we come to observe the several types more clearly. In inaction, as in motion, the flat-fishes are always turned upon their side, and the side turned towards the bottom of the sea is that which has no eye. This habit of swimming on their side is that to which they owe their name of πλευρὰ, side, and νέχτος, swimmers.

Their chief organ of natation is the caudal fin, but they are distinguished from all other fishes by the manner in which they use this oar. When turned upon their side this organ is not horizontal, but vertical, and strikes the water vertically up and down. They advance through the water but very slowly, compared to the motion of other fishes. They ascend or descend in the water with greater promptitude, but they cannot turn to the right or left with the same facility as other fishes. This property of rising or sinking in the water with facility is the more useful to them, inasmuch as the greater part of their existence is passed at the greatest depths, where they draw themselves along the sands at the bottom of the sea, and often hide themselves from their enemies. Among the _Pleuronectidæ_, soles, turbot, flounders, and plaice may be noted.

Soles (_Solea_) have the body oblong, the side opposite to the edges generally furnished with shaggy, soft hairs; the muzzles round, nearly always in advance of the mouth, which is twisted to the left side, and furnished with teeth on one side only, while the eyes are on the right side. The dorsal fin commences about the mouth, and extends up to the caudal or terminal fin. The Common Sole, _Solea vulgaris_ (Fig. 370), is plentiful in the Channel, along the Atlantic coasts, and especially in the Mediterranean. It is brown on the right, and whitish on the opposite side. Its pectoral fins are spotted black; the scales rugged and denticulate; its size seems to vary according to the coast it frequents. Off the mouth of the Seine soles are sometimes taken eighteen and twenty inches in length. There are several modes of taking them, but for commercial purposes it is taken by the trawl-net. When the ground-hook is employed it is baited with fragments of small fish. Every one knows the delicate flavour of the flesh of the sole, which, however, varies greatly in different localities, those of the Channel Islands being particularly choice.

The Turbot, _Rhombus maximus_ (Fig. 371), resembles in its general form a lozenge, whence its name of _rhombus_. Its under jaw is more advanced than the upper jaw, and is furnished with many rows of small teeth. Its fins are yellow, with brownish spots. The left side is marbled brown and yellow; the right side, which is the inferior, white with brownish spots and points. The true turbot is the special delight of the epicure, and fabulous sums are said to have been given at different times by rich persons in order to secure a fine turbot. The fish used to be taken largely on our own coasts, but now we have to rely upon more distant fishing-grounds for a large portion of our supply--large quantities coming from Holland. The turbot spawns during the autumn, and is in fine condition during spring and early summer. Mr. Yarrell says that it spawns in spring. Dr. Bertram doubts this, although he is not quite sure of it, inasmuch as "there will, no doubt, be individuals of the turbot kind, as there are of all other kinds of fish, that will spawn all the year round." The turbot abounds on our west coast, round Torbay, and off the mouth of the Seine and the Somme, from whence comes most of the fish consumed in London and Paris. The flounders, plaice, and halibut form an important section of the Pleuronectidæ.

The Flounders and Plaice (_Platessa_) inhabit the northern seas of Europe. They have their eyes placed on the right side; the dorsal as well as the anal fin extending from over the eyes to the caudal, both stretching out to a point towards the centre, giving a rhombic form to the fish. In _Platessa_ the jaws are furnished with a single row of obtuse teeth.

The Common Plaice, _P. vulgaris_ (Fig. 372), attains the length of ten or twelve inches; it is brown above, spotted with red or orange. On the eye-side of the head are some osseous tubercles. The body, which is somewhat lozenge-shaped, is smooth.

The Flounders (_P. flesus_) are fresh-water fishes of small size, abundant in the Thames and many other rivers; they are only second in importance to the soles and turbot among the Pleuronectidæ; the numbers of brill, flounders, dab, and plaice required being close upon a hundred million for the supply of London alone.

The usual mode of capturing flat-fish is by means of a trawl-net, but many varieties of these may be caught with a hand-line. "A day's sea-fishing," says Dr. Bertram, in his "Harvest of the Sea," "will be chequered by many little adventures. There are various minor monsters of the deep that will vary the monotony of the day by occasionally devouring the bait. A tadpole fish, better known as the sea-devil, or angler, may be hooked; or a visit from a hammer-headed shark, or a pile-fish, will add greatly to the excitement; and if the 'dogs' should be at all plentiful, it is a chance if a single fish be got out of the sea in its integrity. So voracious are these Squalidæ, that I have often enough pulled a mere skeleton into the boat, instead of a plump cod of ten or twelve pounds weight."

The Dab, _P. limanda_ (Fig. 373), is very common in the markets of Paris, where it is held in great esteem. It takes its name Limanda from the hard and dentate scales on its body. The Platessa have the jaws furnished with a single row of obtuse teeth; the dorsal fin only extends in front to a line with the eye, leaving an interval between it and the caudal. The form of the body is rhomboidal, as in the turbot, and the eyes are usually on the right side. The flounder, the plaice, and the dab, are all examples of this group of fishes.

The Halibut, _Hippoglossus vulgaris_ (Fig. 374), is a large fish, inhabiting the seas of Northern Europe and Greenland, where it is occasionally caught measuring seven feet, and weighing from three to four hundred pounds. A fish of this species was brought to Edinburgh market in April, 1828, measuring seven feet and a half in length and three feet broad, weighing three hundred and twenty pounds. The body of the halibut is more elongated than that of the plaice or flounder, the jaws and pharyngeans being armed with strong and pointed teeth.

Great quantities of this fish are caught on the Greenland and Norway coasts, and other northern regions. According to Lacepede, the natives fish for this with an implement which they call _gangnaed_. It is composed of a hempen cord five or six hundred yards in length, to which are attached some thirty smaller cords, each furnished with a barbed hook at its extremity. The larger cord is attached to floating planks, which act as trimmers, indicating the place of this formidable engine of destruction.

The Greenlanders usually replace the hempen cords by thongs of whalebone or narrow bands of shark's skin. At the end of twenty hours these lines are drawn home, and it is not at all unusual to find five or six large halibut caught on the hooks. PL. XXVIII. represents the native mode of fishing for halibut in the Greenland Seas.

Another mode of capturing this and other flat-fish is to spear them on their sandy beds. "No rule can be laid down," says Dr. Bertram, "for this method of fishing. It is carried on successfully by means of a common pitchfork, but some gentlemen go the length of fine spears made for the purpose, very long, and with very sharp prongs. Others, again, use a three-pronged farmyard graip, which has been known to do as much real work as more elaborate single points contrived for the purpose. The simplest directions I can give is just to spear every fish they see." M. Figuier adds, as a caution, that before attacking these fishes, body to body, it is necessary to wait till they are somewhat exhausted, otherwise they might overturn both bark and fisherman.

The Greenlanders cut the animal up, and salt the pieces; then expose them to the air, in order to dry them preparatory to a long voyage.

In its fresh state the halibut is not very delicate, and is hard and difficult of digestion; however, its great size renders it a valuable prize. We may add that, notwithstanding its great size, the halibut has deadly enemies in the dolphins, as well as in the birds which prey upon fishes on the shore. It is itself a voracious fish, devouring crabs, cod-fish, and even the _Raiadæ_, not even sparing its own species; they attack each other, nibbling at the tail or fins.

III. GADIDÆ.

The Gadidæ embrace the whole of the Linnæan genus _Gadus_. They are found mostly in the seas of cold or temperate regions in both hemispheres, and are the objects of pursuit for which the great fisheries of Europe and America are established. They are known by the position of the ventral fin under the throat, and by the pointed character of those fins. The body is long and slightly compressed; the head well proportioned. Their fins are soft, and their scales are small and soft. The jaws and front of the _os vomer_ have unequal-pointed teeth of moderate size, and disposed in several rows. The gill-covers are large, and consist of seven rays. Most of the species have the dorsal fin, and contain two others besides--a fin behind the vent, and a distant caudal fin. The stomach is large, and the intestine long. The air-bladder large and strong, and in some cases notched on the margin. The flesh of most of the species yields white, healthy, and agreeable food, easily separable into flakes when cooked, and easy of digestion. The family includes the several genera:--MORRHUA, to which belongs the Common Cod-fish, _M. callarias_; the Haddock, _M. æglefinus_.--The MERLANGUS, or Whiting, _M. vulgaris_, and _M. albus_; the Coal-fish, _M. carbonarus_; and the Pollack, _M. pollachius_.--The MERLUCIUS, or Hakes.--The LOTA, or Ling, _L. molva_.--MOTELLA, or Rock Ling, and Silver Gade, _M. argenteola_; and other genera of less importance.

The head of the Cod (_Morrhua callarias_) is compressed; the eyes placed on the side, close to each other, and veiled by a transparent membrane, a conformation which, according to Lacepede, enables the animal to swim on the surface of the water in northern regions in the midst of mountains of ice and under banks covered with snow, without being dazzled by the brilliant light; but this opinion is unsupported by any other naturalist of note.

The jaws of the cod-fish are unequal, and among the rows of teeth with which it is armed many are mobile, and can be hidden in their cavities, or raised, according to the will of the animal. The dorsal fins, three in number, are in clusters, as in Fig. 375; anal fins are two; pectoral fins narrow, and terminating in a point; caudal fin slightly forked. Its colour is of an ashy grey, spotted with yellow on the back; white and sometimes reddish beneath.

The cod-fish is provided with a vast stomach, and is very voracious, feeding on fishes, crabs, and molluscs. It is so gluttonous and indiscriminating, that it will even swallow pieces of wood and other similar objects. This is essentially a sea-fish: it is never seen in fresh-water streams or rivers, remaining during the greater part of the year in the depths of the sea. Its habitual sojourn is in the portion of the Northern Ocean lying between the fortieth and sixty-sixth degrees of latitude.

In the vast range thus frequented by the cod, two large spaces are pointed out which it seems to prefer. The first extends to the coast of Greenland, and the other is limited by Iceland, Norway, the Danish coast, Germany, Holland, and the east and north coast of Great Britain and the Orkney Isles, comprehending the Doggerbank, Vellbank, and Cromer coast, together with salt-water lakes and arms of the sea, such as the Gairloch, Portsoy, and the Moray Firth, which indent the west coast of Scotland, and attract considerable shoals of cod-fish.

The second range, less generally known, but more celebrated among sailors, includes the coast of New England, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and, above all, the island of Newfoundland, on the south coast of which is the famous sand-bank called the _Great Bank_, having a length of nearly two hundred leagues, with a breadth of sixty-two, over which flows from ten to fifty fathoms of water. Here the cod-fish swarm, for here they meet shoals of herrings and other animals, on which they feed. Such is, according to Lacepede, the geographical distribution of the cod-fish.

The English, French, Dutch, and Americans give themselves up to the cod-fishery on the bank of Newfoundland with inconceivable ardour. This island was discovered and visited by the Norwegians in the tenth and eleventh centuries, long before the discovery of America; but it was only in 1497, after the discoveries of Columbus, that the navigator, John Cabot, having visited these regions, gave it the name by which it has since been known, and called attention to the swarms of cod-fish which inhabited the surrounding sea. Immediately after, the English and some other nations hastened to reap these fruitful fields of living matter. In 1578, France sent a hundred and fifty ships to the great bank, Spain a hundred and twenty-five, Portugal fifty, and England forty.

During the first half of the eighteenth century, England and her colonies, with the French, cultivated the cod-fishery.

From 1823 to 1831 France sent three hundred and forty-one ships, with seven thousand six hundred and eighty-five men, which carried into port over fifty million pounds of fish, an average of about six millions annually. Two thousand English ships of various sizes, manned by thirty thousand seamen, are now employed in this important branch of industry.

On the coast of Norway, from the frontiers of Russia to Cape Lindesnæs, the cod-fishery is an important branch of trade, in which a maritime population of twenty thousand fishermen are employed, with five thousand boats.

The cod is taken either by net or line. The net is chiefly employed at Newfoundland. The net used is rectangular, and furnished with lead at the lower edge, and cork buoys on the upper edge. One of the extremities is fixed on the coast; the other is carried seaward, following a curve taken by the boats, and the fish are attracted by drawing upon both extremities of the net; and by one stroke many boat-loads are sometimes taken.

The modern cod-smack is clipper-built, with large wells for carrying the fish alive, its cost being about £1500. The crew usually consists of ten to twelve men and boys, including the captain. The line is also used for taking cod and haddocks. "Each man," says Bertram, "has a line of fifty fathoms in length, and attached to each of these lines are a hundred 'snoods,' with hooks already baited with mussels, pieces of herring, or whiting. Each line is laid 'clear,' in a shallow basket, and so arranged as to run freely as the boat shoots ahead. The fifty-fathom line with a hundred hooks is in Scotland called a 'taes.' If there are eight men in a boat, the length of the line will be four hundred fathoms, with eight hundred hooks, the lines being tied to each other before setting. On arriving at the fishing-ground, the fishermen heave overboard a cork buoy, with a flagstaff about six feet in height attached to it. This buoy is kept stationary by a line, called the 'pow end,' reaching to the bottom of the water, where it is held by a stone or a grapnel fastened to the lower end. To the 'pow end' is also fastened the fishing line, which is then paid out as fast as the boat sails, which may be from four to five knots an hour. Should the wind be unfavourable for the direction in which the crew wish to set the line, they use the oars. When the line or 'taes' is all out, the end is dropped and the boat returns to the buoy. The 'pow' line is hauled up with the anchor and fishing line attached to it. The fishermen then haul in the line, with the fish attached to it. Eight hundred fish might be taken, and often have been, by eight men in a few hours by this operation; but many fishermen say now, that they consider themselves fortunate when they get a fish on every fifth hook on an eight-lined 'taes'-line."

Hungry cod-fish will seize almost any kind of bait, and this is used either fresh or salted. The fresh bait is furnished by the herring, whiting, and capelan, a little fish which in the spring descends from the North Sea in shoals, pursued by the cod-fish. In the terror caused by the innumerable bands of their enemies, the capelans spread themselves in all the seas round Newfoundland in masses so thick that the waves throw them ashore, and they accumulate occasionally in heaps upon the sandy beach.

The principal fishery for capelan intended for bait takes place on the coast of Newfoundland. The inhabitants of these regions carry their booty to the fishermen, who make Saint-Pierre their rendezvous, with whom they find ready purchasers.

The schooners, with a fair provision of bait, leaving Saint-Pierre and other ports, take a north-easterly direction towards the great bank, and, having chosen their fishing-ground, cast anchor in fifty or sixty fathoms, and forthwith the crews give their sole attention to the lines; some of them watch the lines, which are raised every instant, the captured fish removed, and the hooks re-baited; others subject the captured fishes to a first preparation for preserving them; they are opened, the entrails removed, and the fish split in two, and piled one on the other, and covered with salt. This labour goes on as long as the fishing lasts. The sailor is on deck night and day, covered with oil and blood, and surrounded with all sorts of offal and fish-like smells. But this alone is insufficient. Boats, manned by crews of two or three sailors, are continually moving about, attending to the more distant lines, or "taes," which radiate round the ship in all directions.

One portion of the cod caught is despatched to Europe in a fresh state, without other preparation than the salting which they receive on the deck of the schooner. But much the greater portion are carried on shore and subjected to further preparation. Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Islands, which are granted to the French fishermen on condition that no fortifications are erected on them, is resorted to for the purpose by the French fleet; St. John's, the capital, by the English. The Comte de Gobineau gives an animated picture of the whole process of curing the cod-fish in the "Tour du Monde for 1863." "The French houses which pursue this branch of trade," he says, "belong principally to the Ports of Granville and St. Breuc; and the crews of their ships consist of two very distinct elements; the smaller portion, being specially raised among the fishermen properly so called, they form the aristocracy on board; to these are added a larger number of mere labourers, who are landed on the arrival of the vessel at her port. Their functions are limited to receiving the fish from the boats, opening it, washing off the glutinous matter in the _chauffant_, putting the liver apart, and laying out the split fish between the layers of salt; finally, subjecting it to the different phases of the drying process on the strand.

"The _chauffant_ is a shed raised upon piles, standing one half in the water and one half on shore; it is constructed of planks and posts, through which the air is suffered to circulate freely, but covered in with some of the ship's sails. Here the process of separating the intestines from the body of the fish, and the salting process are carried on, in the midst of an atmosphere charged with all manner of disgusting smells, for the labourer is by no means delicate, and never thinks of removing the disgusting impurities which he is creating. There he stands, knife in hand, tearing and cutting out intestines and separating vertebræ, his only care being to avoid cutting himself, which is the chief danger he runs, in the midst of odours sufficient to produce suffocation.

"Connected with the platform, on which this rough operation is performed is a cauldron, sunk in the earth, to receive the oil pressed out of the liver. This cauldron is surmounted by a roof some nine feet in height, in the form of an inverted cone. Here the oil which flows from the open way above is suffered to remain, after which it is drawn off into casks.

"The drying sheds, formerly of wood, are now constructed of stone, and in places well exposed to the sun, and especially to the wind, artificial or otherwise. The sun, it is said, does not dry, but scorches; the wind, on the other hand, marvellously fulfils the purpose, and in order to avoid the one and court the other, an apparatus has been invented, consisting of long movable branches, which can be inclined so as to bring the wind directly upon the row of cod, in connection with the sun's rays, which are, indeed, not very formidable in this foggy region."

The cod-fish thus dried at Newfoundland are forwarded for consumption to all parts of the world; but only a small part of the products of the fishery are thus prepared. More than half the produce of the French fleet are sent to France merely salted, by ships which carry salt, bringing back fish in return to Rochelle, Bordeaux, and Cette, where the process of curing is completed. In our home fisheries, to abbreviate slightly Dr. Bertram's account, the greater part of the cod taken are eaten fresh, but considerable quantities of the cod and ling taken on the coast are sent to market cured. The process pursued is very simple: they are brought on shore quite fresh, and are at once split from head to tail, and by copious washings thoroughly cleansed from all particles of blood; a piece of the backbone is cut away; they are drained, and afterwards laid down in long vats, where they are covered with salt, and kept under heavy weights. By-and-by the fish are taken out of the vats; they are once more drained, and carefully brushed, to remove any impurity, and bleached by being spread out singly on the sandy beach, or on the rocks; when thoroughly bleached, they are collected into heaps technically called _steeples_, and when the _bloom_, or whitish appearance, comes out on the fish, they are ready for the market.

The cod is one of our best-known fishes, and was at one time much more plentiful and cheap. It is a deep-water fish, found in all northern seas, and in the Atlantic, but never in the Mediterranean. It is extremely voracious, greedily eating up the smaller denizens of the ocean. It grows to a large size, and is very prolific, as most fishes are. A cod-roe has been found more than once to be half the gross weight of the fish, and specimens of the female cod have been caught with upwards of eight millions of eggs. The fish spawn in mid-winter: but here our information ceases; when it becomes reproductive is unknown. Dr. Bertram thinks that it is at least three years old before it is endowed with breeding power.

The growth of the cod is supposed to be very slow. Dr. Bertram quotes the authority of a rather learned fisherman of Buckie, who had seen a cod which had got enclosed in a large rock pool, and he found that it did not grow at a greater rate than eight to twelve ounces per annum, though it had abundance of food.

On our own coast two modes of fishing are in common use: one by deep-sea lines, on each of which hooks are fastened at distances twelve feet apart by means of short lines six feet long, called on the Cornish coast "snoods." Buoys, ropes, or grapnels, are fixed to each end of the long line, to keep them from entanglement with each other. The hooks are baited with capelan, lance, or whelks, and the lines are shot across the tide about the time of slack water, in from forty to fifty fathoms, and are hauled in for examination after six hours.

An improvement has been introduced upon this mode of fishing by Mr. Cobb. He fixes a small piece of cork about twelve inches above the hook, which suspends the bait, and exhibits it more clearly to the fish by the motion of the wave. The fishermen, when not engaged in hauling, shooting, or baiting the long lines, fish with hand-lines, holding one in each hand, each armed with two hooks, kept apart by a strong piece of wire. A heavy weight attached to the lower end of each line keeps it steady near the ground, where the fish principally feed. Enormous quantities of cod, haddock, whiting, and coal-fish, with pollack, hake, ling, and torsk, are taken in this way all round our coast. Of cod-fish alone four hundred to five hundred and fifty have been taken in ten hours by one man, and eight men have taken eighty score of cod in one day, fishing off the Doggerbank in five and twenty fathoms water. Latterly the Norfolk and Lincoln, and even the Essex, coasts, have yielded a large supply of fish, which are caught as described, and are stowed in well-boats, in which they are carried to Gravesend, whence they are transhipped into market-boats, and sent up to Billingsgate by each evening tide; the store-boats not being allowed to come up higher, as the fresh water would kill the fish.

The Haddock (_Morrhua æglefinus_) is common in our markets; it is much smaller than the cod, but in other respects not unlike it. It frequents the same localities, and is caught with long lines baited usually with mussels; the old fish keep close in shore, and are only got with herring bait. In the village of Findhorn, Morayshire, large numbers of haddocks are dried and smoked with the fumes of hard wood and sawdust. Hence the term "Finnan haddies," an article in such request at a Scottish breakfast. The village of Findhorn affords a very small portion of the haddocks sold as such, but the true "Finnans" are supposed to have the finest flavour.

The Whiting, _Merlangus vulgaris_ (Fig. 376), by some amateurs considered the most delicate of all the Gadidæ, is plentiful all round our coast. It spawns in March, and the eggs are quickly hatched. It prefers a sandy shore, and is usually found some miles from the coast. It is a small fish, rarely exceeding twelve inches long, and seldom reaching two pounds in weight. The whiting is long in the body, clothed with very small, thin, and round scales; its dorsal fins are, like the cod, three in number; it is without barbellary appendage; its upper jaw projects over the lower; it is of a silvery white, sometimes relieved by an olive tint, which is contrasted upon the back by the blackish tint which distinguishes the pectoral and caudal fins, and by a black spot which some individuals have at the junction of the pectorals with the body.

The whiting inhabits the seas which wash the whole European coast, often approaching the shore in shoals, and are taken annually in great numbers.

3. ABDOMINALES.

The fishes belonging to this order have the ventral fins under the abdomen placed behind, and not attached to the bones of the shoulder. It is much the most numerous and important of the great division of the Malacopterygeans. It includes most of our fresh-water fishes, a great number of marine species, and many like the salmon, which betake themselves to the rivers in the spawning season to deposit their ova. We shall limit our remarks to the species which are essentially marine, such as the _Salmonidæ_, the _Clupeadæ_, and a few others.

SALMONIDÆ.

The fishes of this family are graceful in shape, and have the body clothed in scales; they have two dorsals, the first with soft rays, followed by a second, which is smaller, formed without rays, and adipose--that is, formed simply of a skin filled with fatty matter, unsupported by osseous rays. They inhabit the seas of temperate and northern regions; ascending the rivers at certain seasons, and, in some instances, living exclusively in the great rivers and watercourses. They are found even in the most elevated mountain brooks. The grayling or shad, guiniad, sprat, trout, and the salmon, the type of the family, belong to the group.

The genus _Salmo_ includes three species, namely, _Salmo salar_, _S. croix_, and _S. trutta_, the trout. Of these, _S. salar_ (Fig. 377) has the body long, the muzzle roundish, but more so in the male than in the female, the upper jaw provided with a fossette, into which the point of the lower jaw penetrates; the back is a slaty blue, the sides and lower part of the body of a silvery diaphanous white, with great black spots scattered round the upper part of the head, round the upper edge of the eye, and over the operculum or covering. Some brownish irregular spots, variable both in form and size, are sprinkled over the sides. In other respects their colours are subject to variations according to circumstances. Before assuming the characters here indicated, however, the salmon has passed through three stages, each of which is marked by peculiarities worthy of being noted. The young salmon (Fig. 378) is greyish and striped with black. At the end of a year it has acquired a fine metallic hue. "The other parts," according to Mr. Blanchard, "are of a dazzling steel-blue; eight or ten large spots of the same brilliant blue cover it as with a silvery mantle on the sides; between these spots a reddish, or, rather, brightish-rusty iron colour prevails; a black spot is usually observable in the middle of the operculum. The belly is of a fine diaphanous blue in the parr" (Fig. 379).

Dr. Bertram gives a very clear and intelligible account of the early days of the salmon, which was at one time veiled in mystery. "The spawn, deposited by the parent fish in October, November, and December, lies in the river till about April or May, when it quickens into life. I have already described the changes apparent in the salmon's egg, from the time of its fructification till the birth of the fish. The infant fry are of course very helpless, and are seldom seen during the first week or two of their existence, when they carry about with them, as a provision for food, a portion of the egg from whence they emanated. At that time the fish is about half an inch in size, and presents such a singular appearance that no person seeing it would ever believe that it would grow into a fine grilse or salmon. About fifty days is required for the animal to assume the shape of a perfect fish; before that time it might be taken for anything else than a young salmon. At the end of two years it has changed into a smolt. After absorbing its umbilical bag, which it takes a period of twenty to forty days to accomplish, the young salmon may be seen about its birthplace, timid and weak, hiding about the stones, and always apparently of the same colour as the surroundings of its sheltering place. The transverse bars of the parr, however, speedily become apparent, and the fish begins to grow with considerable rapidity, especially if it is to be a twelvemonth smolt, and this is very speedily seen at such a place as the Stormontfield ponds. The young fish continue to grow for a little more than two years before the whole number make the change from parr to smolt, and seek the salt water. Half the number of any one hatching begin to change at a little over twelve months from the date of their coming to life. And thus there is the extraordinary anomaly of fish of the same hatching being at one and the same time parr of half an ounce in weight, and grilse weighing four pounds. The smolts of the first year return from the sea, while their brothers and sisters are timidly disporting in the breeding shallows of the upper streams." A late sea-going smolt explains the anomaly of a spring salmon.

It thus appears that, in its first stage, the Young Salmon (Fig. 378) is called a _parr_: during the second it is a _smolt_, namely, a parr plus a jacket of silvery scales. While they continue in the state of parr they lead a secluded life, totally unable to endure salt water, which would kill them. When they have become smolts the fish betake themselves in bands to the sea. The sea-feeding being favourable, and the fish strong enough for the salt water, a rapid growth is the consequence. After that they disappear, spreading themselves over the wide world of the ocean. At the end of two months of a life mysterious and so far unknown, these fishes reappear in the rivers, returning to their native pools; but how changed! _Quantum mutati!_ The smolt, which has lived in the river two or three years, and only attained the length of six or eight inches, returns at the end of two months' sojourn in the sea, weighing three to four, and after six months, ten or twelve pounds. It is now a grilse.

After depositing their eggs the grilse remain some time in the fresh water, when they again go to the sea. This second sojourn, of about two months, is sufficient to send it back weighing from six to twelve pounds. It is now an adult salmon. Each new visit to the sea brings the salmon back increased in size in proportion to the duration of the voyage. In the month of March, 1845, the Duke of Athole took a salmon in the Tay after it had deposited its eggs; he marked it by attaching a metal label to it. It weighed ten pounds. The same individual with its metal label was again fished up after five weeks and three days' absence. It now weighed twenty-one pounds, having in the meantime travelled forty miles down the river to the sea. This fish must, however, have made a long sea run during these thirty-eight days and its seeking up the river again.

In most circumstances, according to Mr. Blanchard, to whom we are indebted for much information relative to the development and migration of these fishes, salmon of various ages, which have nevertheless sojourned in the sea as grilse, adult salmon, and others intermediate between them, whose first sojourn at sea has extended to eight or ten months, ascend the rivers together in an order no less varied, the older individuals heading the column, the youngest bringing up the rear.

When the period for depositing their eggs approaches, a male and female pair off, as it were; seeming to choose, by a common accord, a retired place in which to spawn. Here both male and female employ themselves in hollowing out a nest in the strand, some eight or nine inches deep, wherein the female deposits her eggs, which the male fertilizes by shedding a milky fluid over them, sheltering the eggs afterwards by a covering of sand.

The salmon only ascends the rivers to spawn. They eagerly return afterwards to salt water. When enjoying themselves in the water they swim slowly, floating near the surface; but in pursuit of any object, or if threatened with danger, they dart out of the water with extraordinary promptitude. The tail is, in fact, a true oar moved by powerful muscles; a low waterfall is to the salmon no serious obstacle when it is impelled to ascend to its breeding-place. Curving its vertebral column, it forms itself into a sort of elastic spring; the arc of which being suddenly unbent, strikes the water with great force with the tail, and in the rebound it leaps to the height of several yards, clearing waterfalls of considerable height. If it falls without accomplishing its object, it repeats the manœuvre until it is at last successful. It is especially when the leader of the band makes a successful leap that the others, acquiring new spirit from its example, throw themselves upwards until their emulation is rewarded by success.

Some of the British waterfalls are celebrated for their salmon leaps. Wales, Scotland, and Ireland have each their celebrated leaps; in Pembrokeshire, Argyleshire, and at Ballyshannon, in county Donegal, and at Leixlip. The cataract of Leixlip is upwards of twenty feet high, and the country people make a holiday in order to see the salmon clear its height. These acrobat fishes frequently fall before they finally succeed, and it is not unusual for the people to place osier baskets to trap them in their fall. At the cataract of Kilmorack, in Inverness-shire (Fig. 380), the inhabitants living near the river have a practice of fixing branches of trees on the edge of the rocks. By means of these branches they contrive to catch the fishes which have failed in their leap; it is even asserted that sportsmen have been known to kill them on the wing, as it were, in their leap. But the exploit, attributed to Lord Lovat by Dr. Franklin, is perhaps the nearest approach to the fabulous which we have met with.

Having remarked that great numbers of salmon failed in their efforts to surmount the Falls of Kilmorack, and that they generally fell on the bank at the foot of the fall, Lord Lovat conceived the idea of placing a furnace and a frying-pan on a point of rock overhanging the river. After their unsuccessful effort some of the unhappy salmon would fall accidentally into the frying-pan. The noble lord could thus boast that the resources of his country were so abundant, that on placing a furnace and frying-pan on the banks of their rivers, the salmon would leap into it of their own accord, without troubling the sportsman to catch them. It is more probable, however, that Lord Lovat knew that the way to enjoy salmon in perfection is to cook it when fresh from the water, and before the richer parts of the fish have ceased to curd. The principal salmon found in the market are Tweed, Tay, North Esk, Spey, Skye, Norwegian, and above all Severn, said to be the best which comes to market, neither of which must be confounded with the imported American variety--the origin of the prevalent cheap London kipper--and the Cape, or red-mouthed variety. Cape and Americans are at once distinguished by their flesh boiling a blanched white. Tweed salmon are more varied; and this river, famous in song, is also noted for its production of the greatest proportion of bull-trout. The Tay yields the largest grilse and salmon, but the Spey follows fast in her wake; Tay fish sometimes weigh sixty pounds. The minor Scotch rivers produce smaller but superior fish. Skye and West-coast grilse are short, thick, and small-headed, and proportionally more abundant. Trout are numerous; sea-bull, burn, or loch, and the so-called herring-trout, are the varieties usually met with. The whitling of the Tweed, grayling of Tay, and tinnock of North and South Esk, are young sea and bull-trout, abounding in March and April, when a sportsman will land fifty or sixty daily, weighing from one quarter to a pound. Trout flesh varies in colour from a clear white to a dark red; the North Esk red trout is most esteemed. The best run from a pound and a half to three pounds. The burn-trout is always red, and has been killed as heavy as thirty pounds. The herring-trout, never found in English rivers, and only caught on our coast by herring-trawlers, is a special favourite: may it not be the whitling of the French rivers? In all other species colour varies with locality, and cannot be accounted for.

We have seen how rapidly the young salmon increase in size in the sea. During this stage of existence the salmon, being a carnivorous fish, rapidly develops itself from the grilse to the adult state. From a careful analysis made by Dr. Wilson Johnston of the Bengal army, it appears that there is no recorded instance of healthy salmon partaking of herring or sand-lances; the tape-worm and other conditions of perverted appetite persisting in all. Tape-worm is most common in the hybrid Norwegian, and explains the reason why Clupeadæ are sometimes found in their stomachs. Should the fish not be charged with spawn, it will shortly return to sport among the dancing waves; but if matured for breeding, at which period the female shows a dirty brown hue, and the male a black, they mate, choose a spot for the salmon nest, and there deposit myriads of ova. The longer a salmon continues in the river the duller their colour becomes; the flavour is greatly depreciated; so that Izaac Walton's statement, that "the further they get from the sea they be both fatter and better," is dead against our daily experience.

During the period of river residence salmon never feed. It avails not to argue that fear acts as an emetic and empties the stomach; the incontestable fact remains that the entire gastro-intestinal tract _ab ore ad ano_ is in ninety-nine per cent. devoid of any trace of food. Juvenile experience on the part of the fish, recurring as a phantasm, causes them to snap at a shining artificial minnow or a gaudy fly, but they never rise out of the water; the bait must dip to them, and when hooked they shake the intruder as a terrier does a rat. If salmon never feed in fresh water, what is the rationale of their existing there? Well, the superabundant store of fat deposited in the areolar tissue appears to furnish a material which is functionally homologous to the fatty supply stored by the Asiatic and African doomba sheep, which is drawn upon to sustain life-action, when névès, avalanches, or a heavy snow-fall imprisons the herbage outcrop. That continued muscular exertion can be sustained without special fatigue on non-nitrogenous diet, Fick and Wislicensus have proved by the recent ascent of the Faulhorn: it is moreover notorious that the chamois hunter and the Hindoo runner prefer fats and saccharoids. Is there any show of reason, then, why the salmon should not maintain its fresh-water muscular tear and wear by a stock of non-nitrogenous fatty material? That such is the true philosophy of salmon river life is borne out by the following facts:

1st. So soon as the exhausting secretions of the milt and roe take place the spent fish turn seaward to recruit.

2nd. The digestive secretions are not eliminated in the absence of food; the most recent experience of physiology finds its echo here. Your boxer trains on meat or nitrogenous aliment, but enters the list on hydro-carbons (fats, saccharines, and amylaceous substances). The salmon get into condition by immediately appropriating the albumen of the echinodermal ova, enter their life-struggle of wintry months in river water with an incorporated stock of potential calorific aliment, convertible, as occasion demands, into organic muscular mechanical effort.

The British rivers in which the salmon abound are the Severn, the Wye, the Tweed, the Tay, the Don, and the Dee, with many of their tributaries, and in Ireland, the Shannon. Besides these, many of the watercourses of lesser note adjoining the coast have been renowned for their salmon fisheries. Some of the Scottish rivers, especially, are famous for the size and quality as well as numbers of salmon. In days not very distant from ours, farm servants made it a condition of their hiring that salmon should not be served to them more than three days in the week. These times are changed. In the districts in which this condition was the most stringently insisted on, the proprietors derive a princely revenue from this source alone. The Tay fisheries yield a revenue of seventeen thousand pounds per annum. The Spey, for its length the richest in Scotland, produces twelve thousand pounds per annum. The river is only a hundred and twenty miles from its source to the sea, and its picturesque banks are celebrated in a local ballad, which says, not very harmoniously, that

"Dipple, Dundurcus, Dandaleith, and Dulocq, Are the bonniest haughs of the run of the Spey;"

but there's "no standing water in the Spey!" The river drains thirteen hundred miles of mountains, many of whose bases are more than a thousand feet above the level of the sea. The Tweed, which has been "poached" and plundered, by its proprietors using unfair implements, until there was scarcely a fish in its upper waters, is slowly recovering under legislative enactments, and its rental is now seven thousand five hundred pounds.

Salmon abounds in the Loire and its affluents, but is much more rare in the Seine and Marne. They enter the Rhine and the Elbe, and most of the great rivers of the north of Europe. In France they were formerly found in the rivers of Brittany, and in the Gironde. They are now very rare in these rivers. The coast of Picardy is well furnished, but they are rare in Upper and Lower Normandy. In Norway, especially in the district of Drontheim, the salmon fishery is conducted on a large scale on the sea-shore as well as in the interior waters. The Baltic is rich in salmon. Considerable fisheries are carried on in the waters of the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia, as well as in the waters of Swedish Laponia. The takes vary every year; in 1860 being much above the average throughout Great Britain, or as in 1772, when the fish were so scarce in the Tweed, that it was believed they had gone off the coast. They invariably go to leeward with the wind, and have been caught a hundred miles off land. Salmon are in condition at various periods of the year, apparently not depending on the latitude of the rivers. Thus the Tay is one of the earliest rivers, while the North and South Esk are the latest, yet they debouch within a few miles of each other. It is the opinion of Mr. Joseph Johnston of Montrose (whose acknowledged fifty years' practical experience carries weight with it in all fishery parliamentary committees) that the Stormontfield ponds, by artificially rearing the parr, render them more helpless when they commence river life on their own account. As a natural result, the death-ratio is enormously increased--cui bono? especially when the parr have only the _option_ of leaving, and are not compelled to go out. We must, therefore, receive Dr. Bertram's narrative, much as we respect his authority, with some reserve. A seed will not grow, nor will a parr ever become a grilse, unless under given conditions: it is therefore an easy matter to explain the anomaly of a parr passing seaward becoming a four-pound grilse, while its twin-brother remaining in the breeding-pond is conditionally developed as only a half-ounce samlet, yet none the less a dwarfed grilse--the possibility of growth existing all the while, although it was not actively evoked by physical surroundings.

The modes of procedure in salmon fishery are very various. Spearing with tridents, and liestering with a weighted hook by torch-light, "burning the water," as the Scotch have it, as well as trammel, wear, and cruive-wear fishing, are now prohibited. Legal fishing in rivers is confined to row nets, and fly and bait rod fishing, fixtures being illegal since 1810. Wear shot; a larger and heavier row-net placed at the meeting of the waters; stake, fly, and bag-nets are used in the open sea. The latter is most in vogue, the former being almost superseded by the fly. Fixtures on the sea coast were held to be legal in Lord Kintore's case by House of Lords in 1828, and continued so till the passing of the recent Act. By this act all legal modes of fishing are in action from the first of February to the fourteenth of September, a period, however, now curtailed by twenty-eight days,--netting being illegal from Saturday to Monday in each week. It remains to be seen whether the gourmet will enjoy his salmon better after its Sabbath rest; perhaps its ragout will then haunt him as it did Talleyrand's abbé, who, instead of the _mea culpa_ of the Confiteor, iterated, "Ah! le bon saumon! ah! le bon saumon!"

A bag-net is composed of three chambers; the first, which is the widest, is at the entrance. The next is the doubling, and is one inch to the mesh narrower than the outer. The last is the fish court, where the fish by a simple and ingenious contrivance are prevented from finding the door by which they entered. It is partly floated by corks and partly by an empty cask on the head or principal riding rope. It is set in the sea by ropes attached to anchors, one anchor rope to the head of the net and one on each wing at the entrance of the bag. The bag-leader is a separate net held by a rope and anchor on the land side, and is fastened to the bag net. The principle of fishing is this: the tide makes a curve on the leader of the bag, in this curve the fish swim into the net. Bags are adapted for any kind of coast, and six or seven are run out to sea end on. Fly nets are the same as bags in principle, but slightly altered so as to adapt them for being fixed to stakes driven into the sand instead of being moored by rope and anchor; they are always used where the tide ebbs. Stake nets are expensive, and seldom used now-a-days. When in fishing trim they are, however, more deadly than fly nets: their chambers are three times as large, but the principle of fishing in bag and stake nets is identical, leaders being used in all. It is noteworthy that trout are never caught in these leaders.

ESOCIDÆ.

This family includes the _Pike_, which, being a fresh-water fish, need not now occupy our attention; it includes also the singular genus _Stomias_, and the Flying-fish, _Exocoetus_.

The _Stomias_ have a body much elongated, the muzzle being very short, the mouth very deeply cleft, the opercula reduced to small membranous laminæ; the maxillarius fixed to the cheek; the inter-maxillary palatine and maxillary bones are rather sparingly furnished with teeth, and those are long and hooked. Similar teeth are observable on the tongue. The ventral fins are placed far back, and the dorsal fin is placed opposite the anal fin, on the hinder extremity of the body.

Only two species of this genus are known: the one of the Mediterranean, _Stomia boa_ (Fig. 381), the other of the Atlantic Ocean, _S. barbatus_, so called from the long barbula on the chin. Both species are black in colour, with numerous small silvery spots on the abdomen. The body of _S. boa_ is thin, compressed, covered with little thin scales of blackish blue, much spotted on the back and abdomen, a little brighter on the sides--the head, in some respects, recalling that of a serpent.

Flying is so much associated in our minds with the usual denizens of the air, that the idea of flying-fishes seems to be a contradiction. Nevertheless, some fishes possess that power, the fins being transformed into wings, which they are enabled to raise for a few seconds. These wings, however, are neither long nor powerful, for they rather act the part of a parachute than wings. The distinguishing characteristic of the _Exocoetus_, or flying-fish, is the pectoral fins, nearly the length of the body, the head flattened above and on the sides, the lower part of the body furnished with a longitudinal series of carinated scales on each side, the dorsal fin placed above the anal, the eyes large, and the jaws furnished with small pointed teeth.

The Flying-fishes (Fig. 382) in their own element are harassed by attacks of other inhabitants of the ocean, and when under the excitement of fear they take to the air, they are equally exposed to the attacks of aquatic birds, especially the various species of gulls. We have said that, in their leap from the water, their fins sustain them rather as parachutes than wings, with which they beat the air. Mr. Bennett's description is pretty clear on this point. "I have never," he says, "been able to see any percussion of the pectoral fins during flight; and the greatest length of time I have seen this volatile fish on the fly has been thirty seconds by the watch, and the longest flight, mentioned by Captain Basil Hall, has been two hundred yards, but he thinks that subsequent observation has extended the space. The usual height of their flight, as seen above the surface of the water, is from two to three feet, but I have known them come on board at the height of fourteen feet and upwards. And they have been well ascertained to come into the chains of a line of battle ship, which is considered to be upwards of twenty feet. But it must not be supposed that they have the power of raising themselves into the air after having left their native element; for on watching them I have often seen them fall much below the elevation at which they first rose from the water; nor have I ever in any instance seen them rise from the height to which they first sprang, for I conceive the elevation they take depends on the power of the first spring."

The most common species is _E. volitans_. Its brilliant colouring would seem designed to point it out to its enemies, against whom it is totally defenceless. A dazzling silvery splendour pervades its surface. The summit of its head, its back, and its sides, are of azure blue; this blue becomes spotted upon the dorsal fin, the pectoral fin, and the tail. This fish is the common prey of the more voracious fishes, such as the shark, and the sea-birds; its enemies abound in the air and water. If it succeeds in escaping the Charybdis of the water, the chances are in favour of its coming to grief in the Scylla of the atmosphere--if it escapes the jaws of the shark, it will probably fall to the share of the sea-gull. The dolphin is also a formidable enemy to the much-persecuted flying-fish. Captain Basil Hall gives a very animated description of their mode of attack.[17] He was in a prize, a low Spanish schooner, rising not above two feet and a half out of the water. "Two or three dolphins had ranged past the ship in all their beauty. The ship in her progress through the water had put up a shoal of these little things (flying-fish), which took their flight to windward. A large dolphin which had been keeping company with us abreast of the weather gangway at the depth of two or three fathoms, and as usual glistening most beautifully in the sun, no sooner detected our poor dear friends take wing than he turned his head towards them, darted to the surface, and leaped from the water with a velocity little short, as it seemed to us, of a cannon-ball. But though the impetus with which he shot himself into the air gave him an initial velocity greatly exceeding that of the flying-fish, the start which his fated prey had got enabled them to keep ahead of him for a considerable time. The length of the dolphin's first spring could not be less than ten yards, and after he fell we could see him gliding like lightning through the water for a moment, when he again rose, and shot upwards with considerably greater velocity than at first, and of course to a still greater distance. In this manner the merciless pursuer seemed to stride along the sea with fearful rapidity, while his brilliant coat sparkled and flashed in the sun quite splendidly. As he fell headlong in the water at the end of each leap, a series of circles were sent far over the surface, for the breeze, just enough to keep the royals and topgallant studding-sails extended, was hardly felt as yet below.

"The group of wretched flying-fishes, thus hotly pursued, at length dropped into the sea; but we were rejoiced to observe that they merely touched the top of the swell, and instantly set off again in a fresh and even more vigorous flight. It was particularly interesting to observe that the direction they took now was quite different from the one in which they had set out, implying but too obviously that they had detected their fierce enemy, who was following them with giant steps along the waves, and was gaining rapidly upon them. His pace, indeed, was two or three times as swift as theirs, poor little things! and the greedy dolphin was fully as quick-sighted; for whenever they varied their flight in the smallest degree, he lost not the tenth part of a second in shaping his course so as to cut off the chase; while they, in a manner really not unlike that of the hare, doubled more than once upon the pursuer. But it was soon plainly to be seen that the strength and confidence of the flying-fish were fast ebbing; their flights became shorter and shorter, and their course more fluttering and uncertain, while the leaps of the dolphin seemed to grow more vigorous at each bound. Eventually this skilful sea-sportsman seemed to arrange his springs so as to fall just under the very spot on which the exhausted flying-fish were about to drop. This catastrophe took place at too great a distance for us to see from the deck what happened; but on our mounting high on the rigging, we may be said to have been in at the death; for then we could discover that the unfortunate little creatures, one after another, either popped right into the dolphin's jaws as they lighted on the water, or were snapped up instantly after."

THE CLUPEADÆ.

Of this family the herring is the graceful, useful, and well-known type, to which also the pilchard, the shad, and the anchovy belong. The Clupea have the body longish and compressed, especially at the belly, where it comes to an edge; it is clothed with large scales, forming towards the belly a saw-like edge, which is very thin and easily removed. One dorsal fin without spinous rays, and one ventral, both placed near the middle of the body, are its locomotive characteristics.

The Herring, _Clupea harengus_ (Fig. 383), is too well known to require description; its appearance is beautiful; but we shall only remark here that its back, which in the fish after death is of an indigo bluish colour, is green during life; the other parts vary considerably in their colours and markings, sometimes representing written characters, which ignorant fishermen have considered to be words of mystery. In November, 1587, two herrings were taken on the coast of Norway, on the bodies of which were markings resembling Gothic printed characters. These herrings had the signal honour of being presented to the King of Norway, Frederick II. This superstitious prince turned pale at sight of this supposed prodigy. On the back of these innocent inhabitants of the deep he saw certain cabalistic characters, which he thought announced his death and that of his queen. Learned men were consulted. Their science, as reported, enabled them to read distinctly words expressing the sentiment, "Very soon you will cease to fish herrings, as well as other people." Other _savants_ were assembled, who gave another explanation; but in 1588 the king died, and the people were firmly convinced that the two herrings were celestial messengers charged to announce to the Norwegian people the approaching end of the monarch.

This fish abounds throughout the entire Northern Ocean in immense shoals, which are found in the bays of Greenland, Lapland, and round the whole coast of the British Islands. Great shoals of them occupy the gulfs of Sweden, of Norway, and of Denmark, the Baltic and the Zuyder Zee, the Channel, and the coast of France up to the Loire, beyond which they never appear to be found. But the finest herrings are caught on Loch Fyne, on the west coast of Scotland.

The herrings are gregarious fishes, and live in great shoals closely packed together; shoals to be counted not by hundreds, but by thousands and tens of thousands, in many a shore and bay. It was the favourite theory, not very long ago, that herrings emigrated to and from the arctic regions. It was asserted, by the supporters of this theory, that in the inaccessible seas of high northern latitudes herrings existed in overwhelming numbers, an open sea within the arctic circle affording a safe and bounteous feeding-ground. At the proper season vast bodies gathered themselves together into one great army, which, in numbers exceeding the powers of imagination, departed for more southern regions. This great _Heer_, or army, was subdivided, by some instinct, as they reached the different shores, led, according to the ideas of fishermen, by herrings of more than ordinary size and sagacity, one division taking the west side of Britain, while another took the east side, the result being an adequate and well-divided supply of herrings, which penetrated every bay and arm of the sea round our coast, from Wick to Yarmouth. Closer observation, however, shows that this theory has no existence in fact. Lacepede denies that those periodical journeyings take place. Valenciennes also rejects them. It is true that the herrings have disappeared in certain neighbourhoods in which they were formerly very plentiful; but it is also certain that, in many of the fishing stations, fish are taken all the year round. Moreover, the discovery that the herring of America is probably a distinct species from that of Europe (which, smoked, is known as the "Digby Chick") is against the theory. In short, there is a total absence of proof of their pretended migrations to high northern latitudes; and recent discoveries all tend to show that the herring is native to the shores on which it is taken.

"It has been demonstrated," says Dr. Bertram, "that the herring is really a native of our immediate seas, and can be caught all the year round on the coast of the three kingdoms. The fishing begins at the island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, in the month of May, and goes on as the year advances, till in July it is being prosecuted off the coast of Caithness; while in autumn and winter we find large supplies of herrings at Yarmouth; there is a winter fishery in the Firth of Forth. Moreover, this fish is found in the south long before it ought to be there, according to the emigration theory. It has been deduced, from a consideration of the annual takes of many years, that the herring exists in distinct races, which arrive at maturity month after month. It is well known that the herrings taken at Wick in July are quite different from those caught at Dunbar in August and September; indeed I would go further, and say that even at Wick each month has its changing shoal, and that as one race appears for capture another disappears, having fulfilled its mission. It is certain that the herrings of these different seasons vary considerably in size and appearance; localities are marked by distinctive features. Thus the well-known Loch Fyne herring is essentially different from that of the Firth of Forth; and those differ again, in many particulars, from those caught off Yarmouth. In fact, the herring never ventures far from the shore where it is taken; and its condition, when it is caught, is just an index of the feeding it has enjoyed in its particular locality. The superiority of flavour of the herring taken in our great land-locked salt-water lochs is undoubted. Whether or not resulting from the depth and body of water, from more plentiful marine vegetation, or from the greater variety of land food likely to be washed into these inland seas, has not yet been determined, but it is certain that the herrings of our western sea-lochs are infinitely superior to those captured in the more open sea." "Moreover," he adds, "it is now known, from the inquiries of the late Mr. Mitchell and other authorities on the geographical distribution of the herring, that the fish has never been noticed as being at all abundant in the arctic regions."

The herring feeds on small crustaceans, fishes just hatched, and even on the fry of its own species. On the other hand, its enemies are the most formidable inhabitants of the ocean; the whales destroy them by thousands, but man, above all, carries on a war which threatens to be one of extermination. In fact, the herring-fishery has been to certain nations the great cause of their prosperity. It was the foundation of Dutch independence. Silk manufacture, coffee, tea, spices, which are productive of great commercial movements, address themselves only to the wants of luxury or fashion. The produce of the herring fishery, on the contrary, is one of necessity to the people; and Holland would have languished and quickly disappeared, with its fictitious territory, if the sea had not added to its commercial industry this inexhaustible mine of wealth. That vast field it has worked with persevering ardour. Struggling for an existence, it has conquered. Every year numerous vessels leave the coast of Holland for this precious marine harvest. The herring fishery is, for the Dutch people, the most important of maritime expeditions. It is with them known as the "great fishery." Whaling is known as the "small fishery." The great fishery is a golden mine to Holland; it is, besides, a very ancient occupation with ourselves. We find it flourishing in the twelfth century; for, in 1195, according to the historians, the city of Dunwich, in the county of Suffolk, was obliged to furnish the king with twenty-four thousand herrings. We also find mention made of the herring fishery in a chronicle of the Monastery of Evesham in the year 709.

Towards the year 1030 the French sent vessels into the North Sea from Dieppe for this fishing, nearly a century before the Dutch made the attempt; but as early as the thirteenth century that enterprising people employed two thousand boats in this industry. The Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians also threw themselves into this trade at an early period. The French, Danes, and Swedes furnish at the present time only sufficient for home consumption. The monopoly of foreign trade belongs to the English, Dutch, and Norwegians. "The quantity of herrings gathered every year by our neighbours beyond the Channel," says Moquin-Tandon, "is truly enormous. In Yarmouth alone four hundred ships, of from forty to sixty tons, are equipped, the largest being manned by twelve men. The revenue derived from this fleet is about seven hundred thousand pounds. In 1857 three of these fishing-boats, belonging to the same proprietors, carried home three millions seven hundred and sixty-two thousand fishes."

Since the beginning of this century the Scottish fishermen have emulated the zeal of the English. In a paper communicated to the British Association in 1854, Mr. Cleghorn, who has paid great attention to the subject, states "that there are nine hundred and twenty Wick boats engaged in the fishing, and that the produce was ninety-five thousand six hundred and eighty barrels" in one week alone, this being, however, a falling off of sixty-one thousand barrels from the previous year. The cause of this immense falling off was ascribed to a storm which had swept along the coast at the height of the season; but Mr. Cleghorn was inclined to ascribe it mainly to over-fishing, which had gradually diminished the number of herrings captured.

The boats employed by the French and Dutch in the herring fishery are about sixty tons burden. They generally depart for the Orkney and Shetland isles. They afterwards betake themselves to the German Ocean, and fish the Channel in November and December. These boats carry up to sixteen hands, according to their size. Arrived at their fishing ground, they cast their nets, as seen in PL. XXIX.

The lines of the Dutch fishermen are five hundred feet in length, composed of fifty or sixty different nets. The upper parts of these nets are supported by empty barrels or cork-buoys, the lower edge being weighted with lead or stones, which are kept at a convenient depth by shortening or lengthening the cords by which the buoys are attached. The size of the mesh of the nets is such that the herrings of a certain size are caught in it by the gills and pectoral fins. If the first mesh is too large to hold them they pass through, and get caught by the next or succeeding mesh, which is smaller. The herring-fishery is regulated by Act of Parliament, and the legal mode of capture is by means of what is called a drift-net. The drift-net is made of fine twine, marked with squares of an inch each to allow for the escape of the young fish. The nets are measured by the barrel bulk, a net measuring fifty feet long by thirty-two deep, and each holding half a barrel. The drift is composed of many separate nets fastened together by means of a back rope, and each separate net of the series is marked off by a bladder or empty cask. The process is that described by Dr. Bertram in an article published in the "Cornhill Magazine." The writer had made his arrangement for a night at the herring fishery under the auspices of Francis Sinclair, a very gallant-looking fellow, who sails his own boat from Wick, and takes his own venture. Bounding over the waves with a good capful of wind, they had left the shore and beetling cliffs far behind them; they reached their fishing ground, where they tacked up and down, eagerly watching for the oily phosphorescent gleam which is indicative of herrings. "At last, after a lengthened cruise," he says, "our commander, who had been silent for half an hour, jumped up and called to action. 'Up, men, and at them!' was the order of the night. The preparations for shooting the nets at once began by lowering sail. Surrounding us on all sides was to be seen a moving world of boats; many with sails down, their nets floating in the water, and their crews at rest. Others were still flitting uneasily about, their skippers, like our own, anxious to shoot in the right place. By-and-by we were ready; the sucker goes splash into the water; the 'dog,' a large inflated bladder to mark the far end of the train, is heaved overboard, and the nets, breadth after breadth, follow as fast as the men can pay them out, till the immense train is all in the water, forming a perforated wall a mile long and many feet in depth; the 'dog' and the marking bladder floating and dipping in long zigzag lines, reminding one of the imaginary coils of the great sea-serpent. After three hours of quietude beneath a beautiful sky, the stars--

'The eternal orbs that beautify the night'--

began to pale their fires, and, the gray dawn appearing, indicated that it was time to take stock. We found that the boat had floated quietly with the tide till we were a long distance from the harbour. The skipper had a presentiment that there were fish in his net; and the bobbing down of a few of the bladders made it almost a certainty, and he resolved to examine the drifts. By means of the swing rope the boat was hauled up to the nets. 'Hurrah!' exclaimed Murdoch of Skye; 'there's a lot of fish, skipper, and no mistake.' Murdoch's news was true; our nets were silvery with herrings--so laden, in fact, that it took a long time to haul them in. It was a beautiful sight to see the shimmering fish as they came up like a sheet of silver from the water, each uttering a weak death-chirp as it was flung into the bottom of the boat. Formerly the fish were left in the meshes of the net till the boat arrived in the harbour; but now, as the net is hauled on board, they are at once shaken out. As our silvery treasure showers into the boat we roughly guess our capture at fifty crans--a capital night's work."

But there is a reverse to this medal. Wick Bay is not always rippled by the land-breeze as on this occasion. "The herring fleet has been more than once overtaken by a fierce storm, where valuable lives have been lost, and thousands of pounds worth of netting and boats destroyed, and the gladdening sights of the herring fishery have been changed to wailing and sorrow."

The Yarmouth boats are decked vessels of from fifty to eighty tons, with attendant boats, costing about one thousand pounds, and having stowage for about fifty lasts; nominally, ten thousand, but, counted fisherwise, thirteen thousand, herrings, besides provision for a five or six days' voyage. Leaving a hand or two in charge of the vessel, the majority of the crew are out in the smaller boats, fishing.

The Dutch herring fishery is usually pursued during the night. When the nets are in the water the boat is left, as we have seen in Dr. Bertram's excursion, to drift in the meantime. Each boat is furnished with a lantern, which serves the double purpose of attracting the shoals of fish, and preventing collisions with other boats. The herring fishery is extremely capricious in its results; one or two boats have been known to carry into port the whole takings of a night. Valenciennes witnessed the capture of a hundred and ten thousand herrings in less than two hours. The nets are hauled in when moderately charged with fish by the crew; but it is often necessary to have recourse to the capstan in the process. Some of the hands are stationed to detach the fish from the nets; others detach the nets from the buoys; while others again fold up and stow away the nets for future use.

On the coast of Norway the electric telegraph is applied to the herring fishery, being employed to announce to the inhabitants of the fishing towns the approach of the shoals of fish. In the fiords of Norway, where the produce of the herring fishery is the principal means of existence to nearly the entire population, it often happened that the fish made its appearance at the most unexpected times, and on some parts of the coast the shoals could only be met by one or two boats. Before the boats from the bays and fiords could take part in the fishery, the herrings had deposited their spawn and returned to the open sea.

To prevent these disappointments, often repeated with great loss to the fishermen, the Norwegian government established, in 1857, a submarine electric cable, along the coast frequented by the herrings, of a hundred miles, with stations on shore at intervals conveniently placed for communicating with the villages inhabited by the fishermen. As soon as a shoal of herrings is known to be in the offing--and they can always be perceived at a considerable distance by the wave they raise--a telegram is despatched along the coast, which makes known in each village the approach to the bay in which the herrings have established themselves.

This important branch of industry has only assumed its real character since the fourteenth century, and its sudden and prodigious extension is due to the discovery of a simple Dutch fisherman, George Benkel, who died in 1397. To this man Holland owes much of its wealth. He discovered, in short, the art of curing the herring so as to preserve it for an indefinite time. From that moment the herring fishery assumed an unexpected importance, and became the source of much wealth to Holland and its industrious and enterprising people. Two hundred years after his death the Emperor Charles V. solemnly ate a herring on Benkel's tomb; it was a small homage paid to the memory of the creator of a new industry which had enriched his native land.

The Shad (_Alosa_), which have the body round and more plump than the herring, are still more distinguishable by the arrangement of their teeth. More than twenty species of this genus are known, varying considerably in size. They inhabit the seas which wash the coasts of Europe, Africa, India, and America. One species is the Common Shad, _Alosa communis_ (Fig. 384), which is found in the Channel, the North Sea, and all round our coast. It is of a silvery tint generally, greenish on the back, with one or two black spots behind the gills. The shad approaches the mouths of rivers and great estuaries, and habitually ascends them in the spring for the purpose of depositing its ova, and is found at this season in the Rhine, the Seine, the Garonne, the Volga, the Elbe, and many of our own rivers. In some of the Irish rivers the masses of shad taken in the seine-net have been so great that no amount of exertion has been sufficient to land them. It sometimes attains a very considerable size, weighing as much as from four to six pounds. The shad taken at sea are less delicate in their flesh than those caught in fresh water. The habits of the shad are very imperfectly known. Two species are found on the British coast, namely, the Twaite Shad of Yarrell (_Alosa finta_), which is about fourteen inches in length, brownish-green on the back, inclining to blue in certain lights, the rest of the body silvery white, with five or six dusky spots on each side arranged longitudinally. The jaws are furnished with distinct teeth; the tail deeply forked.

The second species, the Common or Allice Shad (_A. Communis_), is considerably larger, sometimes attaining twelve and even fifteen inches in length, having only one spot on each side of the body near the head; the jaws without teeth, the scales small in proportion. This species is plentiful in the Severn, but rare in the Thames.

The shad is found in the Severn and Thames in considerable quantities about the second week in July. They reach the fresh water about May, deposit their spawn, and return to salt water in July. Their scales are large.

The Sprat (_C. Sprattus_) has been the subject of a great controversy, like the parr--one party contending that it is the young of the herring; another, that it is a distinct species. Pennant, Yarrell, and many eminent naturalists adopt the first view: yet its specific characters, according to Pennant, are "greater depth of body than the young herring, gill-covers not veined; teeth of the lower jaw so small as to be scarcely sensible to the touch; the dorsal fin placed far back, and the sharp edge of the abdomen more acutely serrated than in the herring." Like the herring, they inhabit the deep water during the summer, following the shoal to the sea-shore in autumn. The sprat fishing commences in November and continues during the winter months, when they are caught in such numbers that in some localities they have been used as manure.

In support of the individuality of the sprat, the serrated belly and relative position of the fins are dwelt upon, together with the instance detailed by Mr. Mitchell, the Belgian consul at Leith, who exhibited a pair of sprats, having the roe and milt fully developed.

On the other hand, the abundance of the sprat has been adduced as a reason for its being the young herring. In addition to this, anatomists declare their anatomy shows no difference but size. "As to the serrated belly," says Bertram, "we may look on that as we do on the back of a child's frock, namely, as a provision for growth." If this is so, Dr. Bertram supplies material at once for thought and legislation. "The slaughter of sprats," he says, "is as decided a case of killing the goose with the golden eggs as the grilse slaughter carried on in our salmon rivers." But Mr. Bertram here overlooks a fact of which any one may convince himself, namely, that young herrings are caught without the serrated belly; nay, the curer's purchase is regulated by the sprat's rough, and the herring's smooth belly.

The Pilchard, _Clupea pilchardus_ (Fig. 385), sometimes called the gipsy herring, visits our coasts all the year round. It was at one time thought, as the herring was, to be migratory, but, like that fish, it is now found to be a native of our own seas, and a constant inhabitant of our shores. It has been known to spawn in May, but the usual time is October, and authorities like Mr. Couch think it breeds only once a year. Its visit to shallow water causes immense excitement; persons watch night and day from the lofty cliffs along the Cornwall coast, and the watchers (locally called "huers") signal the boats at sea beneath them the moment they see indications of the approach of a shoal. Mr. Wilkie Collins gives an animated picture of the "huer:" "A stranger in Cornwall, taking his first walk along the cliffs in August, could not advance far without witnessing what would strike him as a very singular and even alarming phenomenon. He would see a man standing on the extreme edge of a precipice just over the sea, gesticulating in a very remarkable manner, with a bush in his hand, waving it to the right and to the left, brandishing it over his head, sweeping it past his feet; in short, acting the part apparently of a maniac of the most dangerous description. It would add considerably to the stranger's surprise if he were told that the insane individual before him was paid for flourishing the bush at the rate of a guinea a week. And if he advanced a little, so as to obtain a nearer view of the madman, and observed a well-manned boat below turning carefully to the right and left, as the bush turned, his mystification would probably be complete, and his ideas as to the sanity of the inhabitants would be expressed with grievous doubt.

"But a few words of explanation would make him alter his opinion. He would learn that the man was an important agent in the pilchard fishery of Cornwall, that he had just discovered a shoal swimming towards the land, and that the men in the boats were guided by his gesticulations alone in their arrangements for securing the fish on which so many depend for a livelihood."

The pilchard, the young of which is believed to be the sardine of commerce, where its place is not usurped by the sprat, is sometimes taken in the Channel, on the coasts of Brittany and Cornwall, and in the Mediterranean, and on the coast of Sardinia, whence its commercial name. In Brittany floating-nets are employed. The fishing is conducted in boats, each carrying five men; hundreds of these boats may sometimes be seen engaged at the same time three or four leagues from the coast, the nets being only drawn when they are fully charged, when the fish are arranged bed upon bed in osier baskets, each boat returning habitually to port when it has secured twenty-five thousand fishes. The fishery extends over five or six months, the produce being about six hundred millions of sardines.

The Basque fishermen employ a net in the form of a sack, with rings at each corner.

On the coast of Cornwall, as we have hinted, it is one of the staple industries, and pursued systematically. Where they come from, and whither they go, seems alike unknown. All that is certain is, that they are met with in shoals swimming past the Scilly Islands as early as July. In August the inshore fishing begins, and they appear on various parts of the coast as far north as Devonshire and the south coast of Ireland up to October and November; no doubt those which have escaped the innumerable nets spread for them.

"The first sight from the cliffs of a shoal of pilchards," says Mr. Collins, in the work already quoted, "is not a little interesting. They produce on the sea the appearance of the shadow of a dark cloud, which approaches until you can see the fish leaping and playing on the surface by hundreds at a time, all huddled close together, and so near the shore that they can be caught in fifty or sixty feet of water. Indeed, when the shoals are of considerable magnitude, the fish behind have been known literally to force the fish in front up to the beach, so that they could be taken in baskets, or even with the hand.

"With the discovery of the first shoal, the active duties of the lookout, or huer, on the cliffs begin. Each fishing village places one or more of these men on the watch all round the coast. He is, therefore, not only paid his guinea a week while he is on the watch, but a percentage on the produce of all the fish taken under his auspices. He is placed at his post, where he can command an uninterrupted view of the sea, some days before the pilchards are expected.

"The principal boat used is, at least, of fifteen tons burden, and carries a large net called the 'seine,' which measures a hundred and ninety fathoms in length, and costs a hundred and twenty pounds--sometimes more. It is simply one long strip from eleven to thirteen fathoms in breadth, composed of very small meshes, and furnished all along its length with cork at one edge and lead at the other. The men who cast this net are called 'shooters,' and receive eleven shillings and sixpence a week, and one basket of fish out of every haul.

"As soon as the 'huer' discerns a shoal he waves his bush. The signal is conveyed to the beach by men and boys watching near him. The 'seine'-boat, accompanied by another, to assist in casting the net, is rowed out to where he can see it; then there is a pause and hush of expectation. Meanwhile the devoted pilchards press on--a compact mass of thousands on thousands of fish--swimming to meet their doom. All eyes are fixed on the 'huer;' he stands watchful and still, until the shoal is thoroughly embayed in water which he knows to be within the depth of the 'seine.' Then, as the fish begin to pause in their progress, and gradually crowd closer and closer together, he gives the signal, and the 'seine' is cast or 'shot' overboard.

"The grand object is now to enclose the entire shoal. The leads sink one side of the net perpendicularly to the bottom, the corks buoy the other to the surface of the water. When it has been taken all round the shoal, the two extremities are made fast, and the fishes are imprisoned within an oblong barrier of netting. The art is how to let as few of the pilchards escape as possible while the process is being completed. Whenever the 'huer' observes that they are startled, and separating at any particular point, he waves his bush, and thither the boat is steered, and there the net is shot at once; the fish are thus headed and thwarted in every direction with extraordinary address and skill. This labour completed, the silence of intense expectation that has hitherto prevailed is broken--there is a shout of joy on all sides--the shoal is secured.

"The 'seine' is now regarded as a great reservoir of fish. It may remain in the water a week or more; to secure it against being moved from its position, in case a gale should come on, it is warped by two or three ropes to points of land in the cliff, and is at the same time contracted in circuit by its opposite ends being brought together and passed lightly over its breadth for several feet. While these operations are being performed, another boat, another set of men, and another net, are approaching the scene of action.

"The new net is called the 'tuck;' it is smaller than the 'seine;' inside which it is to be let down, for the purpose of bringing the fish close to the surface. The men who manage this net are called 'regular sewers.' The boat is first of all rowed inside the seine-net, and laid close to the seine-boat, which remains stationary outside. To its bows one rope at the end of the tuck-net is fastened. The tuck-boat now slowly makes the inner circle of the seine, the smaller net being dropped overboard, and attached to the seine at intervals as she goes. To prevent the fish from getting between the two nets during the operation, they are frightened into the middle of the enclosure by beating the water with oars, and stones fastened to ropes. When the 'tuck' has at length travelled round the whole circle of the 'seine,' and is securely fastened to the seine-boat at the end as it was at the beginning, everything is prepared for the great event of the day--hauling the fish to the surface.

"Now all is excitement on sea and shore; every little boat in the place puts off, crammed with idle spectators; boys shout, dogs bark, and the shrill voices of the former are joined by the deep voices of the 'seiners.' There they stand, six or eight stalwart, sun-burnt fellows, ranged in a row in the seine-boat, hauling with all their might at the 'tuck'-net, and roaring out the nautical 'Yo, heave ho!' in chorus. Higher and higher rises the net; louder and louder shout the boys and the idlers; the 'huer,' so calm and collected hitherto, loses his self-possession, and waves his cap triumphantly. 'Hooray! hooray! Yoy--hoy, hoy! Pull away, boys! Up she comes! Here they are!' The water boils and eddies; the 'tuck'-net rises to the surface; one teeming, convulsed mass of shining, glancing, silvery scales; one compact mass of thousands of fish, each one of which is madly striving to escape, appears in an instant. Boats as large as barges now pull up, in hot haste, all round the nets, baskets are produced by dozens, the fish are dipped up in them, and shot out, like coals out of a sack, into the boats. Presently the men are ankle-deep in pilchards; they jump upon the benches, and work on till the boats can hold no more. They are almost gunwale under before they leave for the shore."

In the process of curing, the scene becomes doubly picturesque, but this is shore-work, with which our space forbids us to deal.

"Some idea of the almost incalculable multitude of pilchards caught on the Cornwall shores," says Mr. Collins, "may be gathered from the following data: At the small fishing cove of Trereen six hundred hogsheads were taken in little more than a week, during August, 1850. Allowing two thousand four hundred fish only to each hogshead (three thousand would be the highest calculation), we have a result of one million four hundred and forty pilchards caught by the inhabitants of one little village alone, on the Cornish coast, at the commencement of the season's fishing."

The Anchovy (_Engraulis_) is chiefly taken in the Mediterranean, and is much sought after for its delicate flavour when salted and cured. It is a small, slender fish, about four to four and a half inches in length; head pointed, mouth very wide, gill-openings large, abdomen smooth; when living it is greenish on the back, silvery beneath; after death it changes to a bluish black. The fishery which gives the most abundant results takes place on the shores of the Mediterranean, principally on the coast of Sicily, the isles of Elba, Corsica, Antibes, Frejus, Saint-Tropez, and Cannes. They are also taken on the Dalmatian coast, and in the neighbourhood of Ragusa.

The anchovy is only fit for food after being preserved and salted. The process of curing commences by throwing it into a strong brine; then, the head and entrails being removed, they are arranged in rows in barrels or boxes of tin, in alternate layers of salt and fish; finally, after some days of exposure, they are hermetically closed and despatched to market. Those prepared on the Provençal coast were formerly carried to the fair of Beaucaire, whence they found their way all over France, and to many parts of Europe. Now, the anchovies cured at Marseilles, and other Provençal ports, are sent direct to the various markets of Europe.

THE ACANTHOPTERYGEANS

include the Perch family, which is altogether a fresh-water fish, and, however interesting in itself, foreign to our present purpose. It includes also the cat-fish, which is also known as the _bar_, and more commonly the wolf-fish, in Bas-Languedoc and Provence. It is common in the Mediterranean, and in many of the great rivers which empty themselves into it. The Cat-fish (Fig. 386) has the appearance of an elongated perch; its colour, in the adult state, is of a uniform silvery hue, marked with brown and yellow spots in the young.

The Weevers (_Trachinus_), forming another division of this family, are characterised by their very compressed head and the strong spines of the operculum. They are elongated in shape, with short muzzles; they have a habit of burying themselves in the sand, and are formidable to fishermen, from the dangerous wounds they inflict with their spines. _Trachinus communis_ (Fig. 387) is widely diffused in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

The genus _Uranoscopus_ are so named from the position of their eyes, which are directed towards the sky, from οὐρανὸς, the heavens, and σκοπέω, I regard. From this peculiar arrangement, they can only see above them. They are closely connected with the cat-fish. _Uranoscopus vulgaris_ (Fig. 388) belongs to the Mediterranean, and is remarkable for its thick cubical head and erect spiny dorsal fins.

The Mullets (_Mullus_) have the body thick and oblong, the profile of the head approaching the vertical line; scales large, two dorsal fins, widely separated--the rays of the first spinous, of the second, flexible; two cirri at the lower jaw. Two species are known, both inhabitants of our west and south-west coasts: the Striped or Red Mullet (_Mullus surmuletus_), rare as British, and the Red Mullet (_M. barbatus_). The first is a fine bright vermilion red, with three dominating yellow lines; the throat, breast, ventral, and lower surface of the tail are white, slightly tinged with rose; the fins have their rays more or less red, the iris of the eyes a pale gold colour, just touched with red; the head bears two barbels. This beautiful fish is plentiful in the Mediterranean and sometimes in the Channel, common in the gulfs of Gascony, and is frequently served on the table at Bordeaux and Bayonne, where it is known as the barbel; its flesh is a little flaky, of an agreeable flavour, but less esteemed than the red mullet.

The Red Mullet (_Mullus barbatus_) is clothed in brilliant colours of bright red, mingling with silvery tints upon the side and belly; it presents fine indistinct reflections, but none of the yellow lines which occur in the preceding species. It is to its brilliant colouring that the red mullet owes much of its celebrity. When we add that its flesh is white, firm, and agreeable to the taste, the estimation in which it was held by the ancients is sufficiently explained. With the Romans the mullet was an object of luxury on which they expended fabulous sums; they cultivated the fish in their fish-ponds not only as a delicacy of the table, but for the beauty of form and colour. This fierce love of beauty, however, too often approached to cruelty. Seneca and Pliny both give us to understand that the rich patricians of Rome gave themselves the barbarous pleasure of seeing the mullet expire under their eyes, in order to witness the various shades of purple, violet, and blue which succeed each other--from cinnabar red to the palest white, as the animal gradually loses its strength, and expires by a slow and cruel death. The great rival of Cicero, the advocate Hortensius, who attracted crowds of people to the Forum by his eloquent and elegant discourses, had an inordinate passion for this kind of enjoyment. These little inhabitants of the waters were led by a small canal which was carried under the festive table, and his great enjoyment was to witness the agonies of the unhappy fish just taken from its native element and carried to the table, palpitating with its dying convulsions, as it perished beneath his eyes, he in the meanwhile enjoying a sumptuous banquet. The possession of these poor creatures had, in short, become the rage, a furious passion, and their price soon became excessive. A fish of three pounds produced a considerable sum to the fortunate fisherman, while one of four and a half pounds was simply ruinous, says Martial. Asinius Gelius purchased one for eight thousand sesterces (upwards of sixty pounds). Under Caligula, according to Suetonius, three mullets cost thirty thousand sesterces (about two hundred and forty pounds). Although it is no longer the object of ferocious enjoyment on the one hand, or prodigal expenditure on the other, it is still much sought after, both for its beauty of colour and excellent table qualities. It is found in many seas, but particularly in the Mediterranean, where it is taken all round the coast, usually in muddy bottoms; it is fished for both by line and net.

The Gurnards (_Trigla_) are remarkable for the singular manner in which the head is mailed and cuirassed; the operculum and shoulder-bones are armed with spines, having trenchant blades, which give them a disagreeable, even a hideous, physiognomy, and has procured them various names, such as sea-frog, sea-scorpion, sea-devil, and sundry other equally significant names. With this forbidding appearance, however, the gurnards are among the most resplendent inhabitants of the sea. Nothing can exceed the beauty of their markings; but the brilliancy with which Nature has gifted them is their misfortune; it betrays them to their enemies, which are found in the air as well as in the water, and without their prodigious fecundity this species would long since have disappeared.

Twelve species of Trigla are known. In the British seas the commonest species is the Grey Gurnard (_Trigla gurnardus_), a silvery-grey fish, more or less clouded with brown and speckled with black. A rare species with us, but very common in the Mediterranean, is the Red Gurnard, _Trigla pini_ (Fig. 389). It is of a fine bright rose-red colour, paler beneath and more vivid about the fins, of which there are two distinct dorsal and one ventral. Beneath the pectorals are three detached rays; both jaws and front of the lower palate are armed with fine velvety teeth. The Perlon, or Sapharine Gurnard (_T. hirundo_), is a large and handsome fish, remarkable for the lively green and blue hues of the inner surface of its large pectoral fins.

The Flying Gurnard (_Dactylopterus volitans_) somewhat resembles the Triglas, but differs in having the fin-rays of the pectorals connected by membranes, by which it is enabled to support itself some time in the air, like the flying-fish; the pectorals, when extended, forming a sort of parachute (Fig. 390), which sustains it when it leaps out of the water. Several species are known.

All nature seems to conspire against these singular creatures, while they have been gifted with the double power of swimming and flying. The flying-fish only escapes from the Bonitas, and other voracious fishes which pursue it on the bosom of the sea, to expose itself to the attacks of the inhabitants of the air. A crowd of sea-fowl, such as frigate-birds, the albatross, and the gulls, carry on a bloody war with them when they venture on flight. Enemies thus pursue the unhappy fish whatever element it betakes itself to. Nevertheless it passes from one element to the other with an energy which frequently defeats the attacks of its enemies. When it leaps from the sea to the height of five or six feet, it sustains itself for several hundred feet, changing its direction. In its flight it may be compared to that of the flying dragon; the popular name given to it is said to be derived from the grunting noise they make on being taken out of the water.

LABYRINTHIFORM PHARYNGEANS.

In the fishes of this order the superior pharyngeal bones are divided into numerous and irregular little leaflets, which intersect the cellules situated under the operculum, which again serve to retain a certain quantity of water. This water preserves the gills, however, when the animal is dry, which permits them to live on shore, where they frequently contrive to creep over great distances in search of water. The genus _Anabas_, from ἀναβαίνω, to ascend, possess this peculiarity of organization in a remarkable degree; it enables them to leave the rivers and marshes and little watercourses of Borneo and Java, and other islands of the Indian Archipelago, and creep through the herbage or along the ground by means of the inflexions of their bodies, the dentation of their opercules, of their spines and fins. This fact, although only recently known to modern naturalists, was well known to the ancients, and has been recorded by Theophrastus.

The family of the Scomberoides is the most important group in the order, comprehending some of the fishes most useful to man, from their size, the excellence of their flesh, and their abundance. The Tunny (_Thynnus_, Cuv.), the Mackerel (_Scomber scombrus_), and the Bonita (_Thynnus pelamys_), have yielded, from the remotest antiquity, immense resources as human food, both in the fresh and preserved state.

The tunny, while resembling the mackerel in many respects in its general form, is rounder, and attains a much larger size, being sometimes found eight and nine feet in length, and weighing three to four hundred pounds. The upper part of the body is a bluish-black; the belly is grey, with silvery spots. These fishes sometimes present themselves in the Atlantic, but in the Mediterranean they are very abundant. At some periods of the year they approach the coast in innumerable shoals, and in numerous serried ranks, forming a vast battalion, which conceals itself under the waves, and only betrays itself on the exterior by the motion of the sea, caused by such vast numbers travelling rapidly through the water. In many localities the shoals of tunnies show themselves in the spring, pursuing their way towards the east, and in the autumn we find them pursuing an opposite direction. We see the same thing on the coast of Provence. Upon the coast of La Ciotat a first fishing takes place from the months of March to July, and a second again from July to October. But at other points of the coast they arrive at the same time from very different directions; nevertheless, in some places they are only winter visitors.

The tunny-fishing goes back to the remotest antiquity. The Phoenicians, the first navigators known, carried it on on the coast of Spain. In our days the fishing is carried on with great activity on the coasts of Provence, of Sardinia, and Sicily.

The fishing is generally carried on by the tunny-net, but in Provence it is fished with an enclosed net called the _madrague_.

The tunny-net consists of a combination of nets, which is quickly cast into the sea in order to head the tunnies at the moment of their passage. When the sentinels, posted for the purpose, as in the pilchard fishery, have signalled the approach of a shoal of tunnies and its direction, by the indications of a flag which points to the spot occupied by the finny tribe, the fishing-boats are immediately directed to the designated spot, and ranged in curved lines, forming with the light floating net a half circular enclosure, turned towards the shore, the interior of which is called the _garden_. The tunnies thus enclosed in this garden, between the coast and the net, become agitated with terror. As they advance towards the shore they press upon the enclosure, or rather a new interior enclosure is formed with other nets held in reserve. In this second enclosure an opening is left, through which the tunnies have to pass. In continuing thus to diminish the space by successive enclosures, each occupies a smaller diameter, in which the fish are enclosed in about a fathom and a half of water. At this moment a species of seine-net is thrown into the garden. This net is hauled into shallow water by force of arms, and the small tunnies are taken by the hand, the larger by hooks. The boats are charged with them, and they are carried ashore. A single day's fishing will sometimes produce as many as sixteen thousand tunnies, each from twenty to five and twenty pounds weight.

When the park, in place of being established for a single fishery, is a permanent construction in the sea, it is called, in Provence, a madrague. The madrague is a vast enclosure. The netting which forms the partitions of its chambers are sustained by buoys of cork on the surface, and kept down by heavy stones and other weights on the lower edge, and maintained in this position by cords, one extremity of which is attached to the net, and the other is moored to an anchor. The madrague is intended to arrest the shoals of tunnies at the moment when they abandon the shore in order to return to the open sea. For this purpose a long alley or run is established between the sea-shore and the park or madrague. The tunnies follow this alley, and, after passing from chamber to chamber, betake themselves at last to the body of the park.

In order to force them into the madrague they are pressed towards the shore by means of a long net, which is extended in their rear attached to two boats, each of which sustains one of the upper angles of the net. When the fishes come to the last compartment, the fishermen raise a horizontal net, which makes a sort of plate of this compartment, in which the fishes are gradually raised to the surface of the water. This operation occupies the whole night.

In the morning the tunnies are collected in a very narrow space, and at varying distances from the shore; and now the carnage commences. The unhappy creatures are struck with long poles, boat-hooks, and other weapons. The tunny-fishing presents a very sad spectacle at this its last stage; fine large fish perish under the blows of a multitude of fishermen, who pursue their bloody task with most dramatic effect. The sight of the poor creatures, some of them wounded and half dead, trying in vain to struggle with their ferocious assailants, is very painful to endure. The sea, red with blood, long preserves traces of this frightful carnage, of which an illustration is attempted in PL. XXXI.

The flesh of the tunny is much esteemed, being firm and wholesome. It is called the salmon of Provence. "For our part," says M. Figuier, "we put it far above the salmon. Nothing is comparable to the fresh tunny thrown into a hot frying-pan, and sprinkled with vinegar and salt. When properly cooked, nothing can be more firm or savoury. In short, nothing of the kind can rival, or even be compared, with the tunny, as we find it at Marseilles and Cette."

The tunny is greatly celebrated among the Greeks and other inhabitants on the shores of the Mediterranean, of the Propontus, and the Black Sea. The Romans attached great value to certain parts of this fish, as the head and the lower part of the belly. The neighbouring parts were in little esteem with them. They cut them into pieces and preserved them in vases filled with salt. They are now preserved with oil and salt after being cooked; this preparation is in great request at Cette, Montpellier, and Marseilles. With a pot of marine tunny, preserved in the vinegar of Lunel, a household is pretty well prepared for any event.

The Mackerel (_Scomber scombrus_) is too well known to require minute description. Who has not admired these fishes, with their steel-blue back, and changing iridescent sides of gold and purple and green, relieved by fine waving lines of deeper black, as they appear on the market-stalls, or as they are emptied in the early morning from the fishing-boat? The head is blue above, with black markings, the rest of the body being heightened with iridescent shades of gold and purple.

There are two species of mackerel--that of the Atlantic and of the Channel, which has no swimming-bladder, _Scomber scombrus_ (Fig. 391), and the mackerel of the Mediterranean, _Scomber colias_, which has the swimming-bladder, and which is a very rare fish in our seas.

The mackerel is common to all European seas: being the _Veirat_ of the Bay of Languedoc; the _Aurion_ of Provence; the _Bretal_ in some parts of Brittany; the _Macarello_ of the modern Romans; the _Scombro_ of the Venetians; the _Lacesto_ of the Neapolitans; the _Cavallo_ of the Spaniards; the well-known Mackerel of our own shores, and the _Makril_ of the Swedes; it is found on the coast of North America, and as far south as the Canary Islands. It is a wandering, unsettled fish, supposed to be migratory, but individuals are always found on our coast. They are supposed to remain during the winter in the North Sea, and afterwards on the coast of Scotland and Ireland in January and February, on their way to the Atlantic. Here their great army is divided into two: one branch passes along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts, while the other enters the Channel. In May they appear on the coasts of England and France. In June they reach Holland. In July one portion of them returns to the Baltic, while another skirts the coast of Norway on its way to winter quarters.

Lacepede estimated that this migration, which is so regular, and its stages so rigorously indicated, was irreconcilable with a great number of very precise observations; and he arrived at the conclusion that the mackerel passes the winter at the bottom of the sea, more or less remote from the coast, which they again approach in the spring. At the commencement of the fine season they advance towards the shore which best agreed with them, showing themselves often on the surface, like the tunny, traversing the sea in courses more or less direct or sinuous, but never following the periodical circle which has been so ingeniously traced out for them.

Mr. Milne Edwards also remarks that, if these legions of fishes ascended from the Polar seas, they ought to visit the Orkneys before they appeared in the Channel, and enter the Mediterranean later in the season; but he is assured that they appear at the Orkneys late in the season. It appears, in short, that there are different varieties which haunt the several neighbourhoods in which they abound.

The largest mackerel are taken at the entrance of the Channel, but they are considered less delicate than the smaller fishes. The shoals of mackerel, it appears, never enter the Gulf of Gascony, but they abound along the shores of Brittany up to the North Sea. It is about the month of April that they begin to be met with, but they are still small and without milt or roe. In the months of June and July the fish is in its most perfect state. Towards the end of September and October mackerel of the same year's birth are taken; finally, in November and December, the fishermen still fish them, and send them to market, but this is an irregularity, and the fishermen of Lowestoft and Yarmouth take their great harvest in May and June; in the Firth of Forth, and on the north coast of Scotland, at a few weeks later.

As mackerel are very voracious, they greedily devour all sorts of bait, but they are chiefly taken by the drift-net. The drift-net is twenty feet deep and a hundred and twenty feet long, well buoyed at the upper edge, but without weights at the bottom. The meshes, made of fine twine tarred to a reddish colour for preservation, are calculated to admit the head of the fish and catch it by the gills, so as to prevent its withdrawal. A fleet of mackerel-boats dragging these large nets, which are extended vertically in the sea, or float between the two tides, is well represented in PL. XXXII.

The flesh of the mackerel is fat and high flavoured. Among the ancients a liquid was extracted from this fat called _garum_, which was considered a very nourishing preparation. The price of this liquid was very high; in modern measures it was valued at about sixteen shillings the pint. It was acrid, half putrefied, and very nauseous, but it had the property of rousing the appetite and stimulating the digestive organs. Garum played the part of a condiment at a period when the exciting array of Indian spices was unknown. Seneca charges it, as we do pepper and other hot spices taken in excess, with destroying the stomach and health of gourmands. This garum is spoken of by the traveller Pierre Belon, writing in the sixteenth century, as being held in great estimation at Constantinople in his time. Rondelet, the author of a very remarkable book published in 1554, who ate garum at the table of William Pellicier, Bishop of Maguelonne, thought he could trace the liquid not to the mackerel, but to one of the Sparoïdes (_Sparus smaris_).

The mackerel possesses phosphorescent properties which cause it to shine in the dark, especially after death, when decomposition has commenced.

The mackerel is not only voracious, but, in spite of its small size, it has the hardihood to attack fishes much larger and much stronger than itself. It is even said that they love human flesh. According to the naturalist bishop, Pontoppidan, who lived in the sixteenth century, a sailor belonging to a vessel which had cast anchor in one of the Norwegian ports, when bathing one day in the sea, was assailed by a shoal of mackerel. His companions came to his relief; the eager band were repulsed with great difficulty, but not till it was too late: the unfortunate sailor was so exhausted that he died a few hours after. By a natural law of compensation the ubiquitous mackerel is surrounded by numerous enemies; the larger inhabitants of the ocean eagerly devour them. Certain fishes, in appearance very weak, such as the muræna, fight them with great advantage.

Closely connected with the mackerel and other Scombridæ, we have the Bonita of the Tropics. This is a fish of considerable size, celebrated by its pursuit in great shoals of the flying-fish, of which we have already spoken. The Bonita (_Thynnus pelamys_) is not unlike the mackerel in shape, but less compressed, and upwards of twenty-five to thirty inches long. It is occasionally found on our coast, but only as an accidental visitor, for its true home is the Tropics. It is a beautiful fish of a fine blue colour, with short pectoral fins and four longitudinal bands on each side of the belly. It is easily harpooned from the dolphin-striker, and appears to have the power of generating electricity. Any one grasping the living fish is violently shaken as in palsy, "agitans," so much so that the most resolute son of Neptune cannot control his speech; every attempt culminates in an unintelligible spasmodic sputter. The instant the bonita is dropped, the muscles resume their routine action.

The Sword-fish, _Xiphias gladius_ (Fig. 392), so called from the upper jaw being elongated into a formidable spear or sword, was known to the ancients, and has borne the name which recalls its salient characteristic from very early times. In short, it is recognized at a glance from its organic structure, and from the resemblance of its prolonged horizontal and trenchant muzzle to the blade of a sword. With the ancients it was Ξιφίας, and _Gladius_; with the moderns it is the Sword-fish, the _Dart_, the _Spece spada_, and _l'Espadon épée_.

This fish attains a great size, being found in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, in company with the tunny, from five to six feet in length. Its body is lengthy, and covered with minute scales, the sword forming three-tenths of its length. On the back it bears a single long dorsal fin; the tail is keeled, the lower jaw is sharp, the mouth toothless, the upper part of the fish bluish-black, merging into silver beneath. It seems to have a natural desire to exercise towards and against all the arm with which Nature has furnished it; it darts with the utmost fury upon the most formidable moving bodies; it attacks the whale; and there are numerous and well-authenticated instances of ships being perforated by the weapon of this powerful creature.

In 1725, some carpenters having occasion to examine the bottom of a ship which had just returned from the tropical seas, found the lance of a sword-fish buried deep in the timbers of the ship. They declared that, to drive a pointed bolt of iron of the same size and form to the same depth, would require eight or nine blows of a hammer weighing thirty pounds. From the position of the weapon it was evident that the fish had followed the ship while under full sail; it had penetrated through the metal sheathing, and three inches and a half beyond, into the solid frame.

The sword-fish has obstinate combats with the saw-fish, and even the shark, and it is supposed that when he attacks the bottom of a vessel he takes that sombre mass for the body of an enemy. But this terrible jouster, this Paladin of the abyss, often becomes himself the prey of a most contemptible enemy. A miserable little parasite, the _Pennatula filesa_, penetrates its flesh, and almost drives it mad with pain.

The flesh of the young sword-fish is white, compact, and of excellent taste; that of adults resembles the tunny. It is the object of a fishery of some importance in the Straits of Messina. The fishermen of Messina and Reggio join in this fishery with a great number of boats, carrying brilliant flambeaux, while one of the crew is stationed at the mast-head to announce the approach of the sword-fish. At a given signal the boats rush on to attack them with the harpoons (Fig. 393). During this fishery the sailors sing a peculiar melody, but without words.

The family of _Pediculate Pectorals_ is so named from the fishes of which it is composed bearing their pectoral fins on a species of arm which forms a prolongation of the carp bone; it includes the Frog-fish, remarkable for the excessive circumference of the head and shoulders as compared with the rest of the body, the immense opening of a jaw, armed with pointed teeth, and the cutaneous jagged stripes of various lengths with which it bristles at many points. Its skin is soft, smooth, and without scales or other asperities; the members which support the pectorals, and other peculiarities, combine to render it a hideous and forbidding object, well calculated in ignorant and superstitious times to frighten the multitude. The remains of this fish, prepared in such a manner as to be transparent, and rendered luminous by a lamp enclosed in its interior, has often helped to deceive and frighten the timid by its fantastic appearance.

The Frog-fish, _Lophius piscatorius_--Linn. (Fig. 394), which attains the length of five or six feet, lives in the sand, or sunk in the mud, leaving the long and movable filaments with which the head is furnished to float in the water; the shreds which terminate them act as natural bait when they float about in different directions, from their resemblance to worms and other living creatures. The fishes which swim above them, and which they see very well by the assistance of their two eyes placed on the summit of the head, are attracted by these deceitful decoys. When the prey arrives near to the enormous jaws, which are almost always wide open, it is engulfed and torn to pieces by its strongly-hooked teeth.

This manner of lying in ambush, and fishing, as it were, with a hook and line for fishes which its conformation does not permit it to pursue, has acquired for it the name of the frog-fish, which is sometimes given to it. It is found more or less in all parts of the Mediterranean and in many parts of the Atlantic, being frequently taken both in the Gulf of Gascony and in the Channel.

The family of _Labridæ_ comprehends: I. The Wrasse (_Labrus_), a genus of fishes decked in the most lively colours; for the yellow, green, blue, and red, forming bands of spots, give the body the appearance of being enriched with brilliant metallic reflections. II. The _Julis_, of Risso, the Mediterranean species of which is remarkable for its fine violet colour, relieved on each side by an orange band.

Of the _Labridæ_ we represent here, as a type of the family, the adult Green and Red Labrus (Fig. 395), varieties of the commonest species, called the sea-parrot, the body of each being oblong, clothed with large scales: a dorsal fin, frequently with membranous appendages, thick fleshy lips, and large conical teeth; cheeks and gill-covers clothed with scales; gill-covers smooth at the edges; three spines in the anal fin. In _Julis_ the cheeks and gill-covers are without scales; in other respects they resemble _Labrus_.

Among the acanthopterygeous fishes we shall only notice the singular family of _Fistulariadæ_, or Pipe-fishes, so called from the extreme elongation of the fore part of the head, forming a tube, at the extremity of which is the mouth. Of this family, _Fistularia tabacaria_ (Fig. 396) may be considered the type. The tube of the muzzle is long and flat, and from the caudal fin springs a terminal filament nearly as long as the body. This species of pipe-fish is common at the Antilles; it attains the length of about three feet, but its flesh is leathery and insipid. It feeds upon crustaceans and small fishes, which it drags from the interstices of the rocks and stones by means of its long and taper pipe.

* * * * *

We close our abbreviated history of the Ocean and such of the inhabitants with which it swarms as seems most likely, from their habits and other peculiarities, to interest the readers, conscious of its many imperfections. Where every creature which moves and breathes in the watery world is so full of interest, it will not surprise the reader to learn that one of the editor's chief difficulties has been that of selection, his most painful task that of rejecting the vast mass of interesting matter he had necessarily to pass in review.

We have shown in the first chapter of this work that nearly three-fourths of the surface of the earth is bathed by the sea. Struck with this vast extent of ocean, a witty French writer says, "One is almost tempted to believe that our planet was specially created for fishes." They are, indeed, a very important part of creation; they form, as it were, a bond uniting the vertebrate to invertebrate animals. They have a more complicated organization than any of the other oceanic inhabitants (except the Cetaceæ), as they are also the most numerous, the most varied in form, and by far the most brilliant in colour, and the most active in their movements.

Pliny, the naturalist, describes ninety-four species of fishes. Linnæus has characterised four hundred and seventy-eight. The naturalists of the present day know upwards of thirteen thousand, a tenth of which are fresh-water fishes.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 17: "Lieutenant and Commander," by Captain Basil Hall. Bell & Daldy, London.]

INDEX.

Abdominales, 560.

Acalephæ, or Sea Nettles, 195.

Acanthopterygians, 590.

Acclimatizing sponges, 80.

Acephalous Mollusca, 316.

Acetabuliferous Cephalopods, 448.

Achatina zebra, 409.

Actiniaria, 181.

---- dianthus, 189.

Æquerea violacea, 198.

Agalma rubra, 239. Its graceful appearance, _ib._ Its interior, 240.

Alcyonaria, 119.

---- proper, 144.

Alcyonium digitatum, 144, 151.

Allice Shad, 584.

Alternate generation in the Biphora, 315.

Alveolina oblonga, 95.

Ambulacral appendages, 263.

Amoebæ diffluens, 86.

---- princeps, 86.

Ammodytes lancea, 537.

Anabas, 596.

Analysis of sea water, 15, 18.

Anatomy of the Carp, 504.

Anchovy (Engraulis), 589.

Ancient trilobite, 448.

Animalcules, their action, 10.

Antarctic Ocean, 3. Discoveries, 44, 50.

Antipathidæ, 148, 149.

Apiocrinus pentacrinus, 271.

Aplysia depilans, shell and animal, 393.

Apoda, 536.

Apolemia contorta, 241. Parts magnified, 242.

Aporous Madrepores, 150.

Appearance of the sea, 60.

Aquarium, the, 66.

Arctic Ocean, 9.

Argonauta, fables concerning it, 467. Aristotle's description, _ib._ Oppian's description, 468. His mistakes, _ib._ Rumphius, 469. Real history, 470. Madame Power's experiments, _ib._ Locomotive organs, 471.

Argonauta argo, shell and animal, 469.

---- papyracea, animal and shell, 471.

Aristotle's Lantern, 287, 289.

Ascidia microcosmus, 310.

---- pedunculata, 311.

Ascidians, simple, social, and composite, 310.

Aspergillum vaginiferum, 331.

Asteracanthion glacialis, 264.

Asterias, 260.

---- aurantiaca, 263.

---- rubens, 261.

Asterophyton verrucosum, 279.

Astrea punctifera, 155.

Atlantic Ocean, 2.

Atmospheric currents, 29.

Atolls and Atollons, 166.

Aurelia aurita, 199.

Azoic rocks, 61.

Bacterium termo, 108.

Baffin's Bay discovered, 44.

Baltic Sea, 6.

Barentz's discoveries, 44.

Barren reefs, 173.

Beale's adventure with a Cuttle-fish, 452.

Bed of coral, 128.

Behring's Straits, 44.

Beröe Forskahli, 255.

Berthelot's representation of the capture of a Cephalopod, 462.

Biphora, 313.

Birth of coralline larvæ, 133.

Bivalves, how united, 318.

Blue minyade, 193.

Bonitas, 595, 602.

Bonpland's account of the Electrical Eel, 539.

Boring Pholades, 326.

Botrillus, 311.

Branch of Virgularia magnified, 143.

Branchial infusoria, 107.

Breathing in Molluscs, 305.

Brooke's sounding apparatus, 5.

Bryozoare Polyps, 134. Their organization, 305.

Buccinum senticosum, and B. undatum, 433.

Bulimus sultanus, 408.

Bulla ampulla, B. oblonga, and B. nebulosa, 394.

Cabot's discoveries, 43, 554.

Calmar, the, 458.

Callianira, 257.

Campanulariæ, 228.

Cancale Oysters, 368.

Cape Horn, 2.

---- Race, 8.

Carcharius vulgaris (the Shark), 517. Its description, _ib._ Destructive habits, 518. Immense power, 519. Its flesh coarse, 521. Superstitious devotions to, 521, 522.

Cardium hians, and C. Greenlandicum, 337.

---- aculeatum and C. edulis, 337.

---- costatum, 338.

Carnivorous Cephalopods, 454.

Cartilaginous fishes, 508.

Caryophillia cyathus, 151.

Cassidulina, 92.

Cassiopea Andromeda, 222.

Cassis glauca, C. rufa, C. canaliculata, and C. Madagascariensis, 429.

---- undata, 430.

Cat-fish, 591.

Celebrated Oyster eaters, 370.

Cephalopodous Mollusca, 445.

Cephalous Mollusca, 391.

Cerithium fasciatum, C. aluco, and C. giganteum, 419.

Cestidæ, 258.

Chancellor's discoveries, 43.

Chart of the Atlantic, 7.

Charybdis, whirlpool of, 42.

Chimæra arctica, 524.

Chiton magnificus, 410.

Chrysaora Gaudichaudi, 218.

Ciliate Infusoria, 111.

Circulating tubes in the Coral, 131.

Circulation of the ocean, 23.

Cirrotheutis Mülleri, 466.

Classic feast on the Corniche du Prado, at Marseilles, 291.

Cleodara cuspidata, 444.

---- lanceolata and C. compressa, 444.

Clupeadæ, 575.

Clypeaster rosaceus, 287.

Cocos Island, 170, 172.

Cod curing, 556.

---- fish (Morrhua callarias), 553.

---- fisheries, 554.

Coffres (Ostracion), 533.

Colour of the sea, 11. Local causes of, 13. Effects of animalcules, _ib._ Algæ of rivers, 14.

Comatulæ, 275.

Comatula Mediterranea, 275.

Complicated organization of a polyp, 137.

Condylostoma patens, 113.

Conger Eels (Anguilla conger), 543.

Contents of a drop of water, 97.

Conus, principal forms of, 426.

Cook's discoveries, 44, 50.

Coral and living polyps, 129.

---- fisheries, 137.

---- islands, 21.

Coralline spicula, 130.

Corallines, 119.

Cornularia cornucopia, 144.

Corpuscles from which young polyps emanate, 136.

Corystes Cassivelaunus, male, 489. Female, 490.

Cothurnia pyxidiformis, 112.

Crabs, their habits, mode of attacking cocoa-nuts, 484. Travelling Crabs, 485. Propagation, 486.

Cramp-fish (Torpedo marmorata), 514.

Crinoïdea, 270.

Cruelty to Oysters, 372.

Crustaceans, 477. Their organization, 478. Breathing apparatus, 481. Destructive habits, 482.

Crystatella mucedo, 307.

Ctenophora, 198, 254.

Cultivation of Oysters, 375.

Currents of the ocean, their causes, 23, 27, 28. Bifurcation of currents, 33.

Cuttle-fish, 449. Described, 455. Its pigments, 456. Habits, 457.

Cyclones, 32.

Cyclopteris, 544.

Cyclostoma, 508.

Cydippa pilens, 257.

Cypræa, principal forms of, 420.

---- capensis, C. testudinaria, C. nucleus, and C. pantherina, 423.

---- coccinella, 421.

---- tigris and animal, ib.

---- undata, C. zigzag, C. moneta, and C. Madagascariensis, 422.

Cytherea, principal forms of, 335.

---- geographica, _ib._

Dab (Platessa limanda), 550.

Dactylopora cylindracea, 95.

Darwin's observations at Terra del Fuego, 167.

---- theory of coral islands, 21.

---- theory of subsidence, 170.

Daughter of the sea, 137.

Davis's discoveries, 43.

Dead men's fingers, 144.

Death in the ocean, 62.

Decapoda, their organization, 464.

Decomposition of Infusoria, 97.

De Haven's search for Franklin, 58.

Delphinula sphærula, 417.

Dendrophylla ramea, 160. Magnified, 161.

Density of salt water, 16.

Dentalina communis, 92.

Depth of the sea, 1.

Depths of oceanic storms, 63.

Diodon pilosus, 532.

Diphydæ, 242.

Disaster of the San Francisco, 32.

Discobolidæ, 544.

Discophora, 198.

Distribution of land and water, 1.

Dog-fish (Acanthias vulgaris), 522.

Donax trunculus, 320.

---- rugosus and D. denticulatus, 333.

Dredge employed in Oyster fishing, 375.

Dujardin's discoveries, 85.

D'Urville's voyages, 44, 51. Adelia's Land, 53.

Dykes of Holland undermined, 322.

Early animal life, 61.

Echineis remora, 544, 545.

Echinodermata, 259.

Echinoidæ, 280. Armament, _ib._ Skeleton and masticating apparatus, 288.

Echinus esculentus, 284.

---- mamillatus, without spines, 282.

---- ---- with spines, 281.

Edible Snails, 405.

Edwardsia calimorpha, 191.

Effects of hurricanes, 40.

Eggs of Sepia officinalis, 457.

Electrical Eel, 537.

Electrical properties of the Cramp-fish, 514.

Organs described, 518.

Eledone moschatus, its habits, 465.

Encrinites, or Stone-lilies, 270.

Encrinus liliformis, 271.

Enderby's Land, 44.

Equinoctial currents, 30.

Eschara, 307.

Esocidæ, 571.

Euglenia viridis, 111.

European pentacrinus, 273.

Euryalina, 279.

Evaporation, 17. Its effects on the sea, 18.

Exocoetus exiliens, 573.

Expanding Coral, 135.

Experiments on the Physalia, 249.

Exuberance of life in the ocean, 62.

Fabularia discolithes, 95.

Falkland Islands, 165.

Fan Gorgon, magnified, 122.

Faujasina, 91.

File-fish (Balistes), 532.

First Oyster-eater, 369.

Fishes, their organization, 502. Locomotive apparatus, _ib._ Swimming bladder, 503. Breathing apparatus, 505. Sight, _ib._ Propagation, 507. Classification, 508.

Fish's eye, 505.

---- teeth, 506.

Fishing for Coral, 137.

---- -- Electrical Eels with horses, 539.

---- -- Halibut, 551.

---- -- Sponges, 78.

Flabellum pavoninum, 153.

Flat fishes, their organization, 546. Special properties, _ib._

Flight of the Flying-fish, 573.

Flounders (Platessa flessus), 549.

Flustra foliacea, 308.

Flux of the waves, 37.

Flying-fish, 571, 573.

---- Gurnard, 595.

Fog-banks, 26.

Foraminifera, 87.

Franklin's discoveries, 47.

Fringing reefs, 174, 175.

Frog-fish (Lophius), 605.

Fungia agariciformis, 159.

---- echinata, 158.

Fusus proboscidiferus, F. pagodus, and F. colus, 436.

Gadidæ, 552.

Galeolaria aurantiaca, 244.

Gathering of the waters, 11.

Generation of Star-fishes, 267.

Geographical distribution of Oysters, 368.

Gigantic Cephalopod stranded on the coast of Jutland, 461.

Globe-fish, 530.

Gorgonia flabellum, 121.

---- verticellata, 123.

Gorgonidæ, 121.

Gosse's description of the Sea-urchin, 282.

Gulf of Mexico, 9.

---- Stream, 32.

Gurnards (Trigla), 594.

Gymnotus, its electrical properties, 538. Effect of its shock, 540.

Haddock (Morrhua æglefinus), 559.

Halibut, 551.

Hammerhead (Zygæna malleus), 523.

---- mollusc, 352.

Harpa imperialis, and H. articularis, 434.

---- ventricosa, 433.

Harpooning Holothuria, 295.

Helix citrina, and H. Stuartia, 408.

Hermit Crab, 492.

Herring, the, 575. Fisheries, 576. Habits, 577. Scotch fisheries, _ib._ Dutch fisheries, 578. A night at the herring fishery, 580. Norwegian fisheries, 582.

Holothuria lutea, 293.

---- fishery, 295.

Humboldt's researches, 538.

Hyalea gibbosa, and H. longirostris, 443.

Indian Ocean, 2.

Industrial occupation on the sea-shore, 65.

Inequalities of the sea-basin, 9.

Infusoria, 97. Their numbers, _ib._ In the Ganges, _ib._ Species, _ib._ In blocks of ice, 98. Reproduction, 103.

Infusorial parasites, 105.

Isis corolloïdis, 124.

---- hippuris, 125.

Jan Mayen's Island, 44.

Kane's, Dr., discoveries, 25, 49.

Kerguelen Island, 44.

Kraken, marvellous stories concerning, 460.

Labridæ, 606.

Labrus communis, _ib._

Labyrinthiform Pharyngeans, 596.

Land and water, 1.

Legend of the first mussel-fisher, 347.

---- ---- Sea-urchin, 282.

Life in the ocean, 60.

Limax rufus, 400.

Limpets, 410.

Lobsters, 496.

Loligo vulgaris, and L. Gahi, 459.

Lophius piscatorius, 605.

Lophobranchii, 534.

Luidia fragillissima, 269.

Lumbricus terrestris, 114.

Lump-fish (Cyclopteris), 537.

---- ---- (Raia clavata), 503.

Lunar tides, 35.

Lymnea stagnalis, 397.

Lymneans, 397. Their habits, _ib._ Organization, 398.

Mackerel, 599. Do they migrate? 600.

M'Clintock's discoveries, 48.

M'Clure's discoveries, _ib._

Madreporidæ, 159.

Madrepora plantaginea, 162.

Madrague, a combination of nets, 597.

Maelström whirlpool, 42.

Malacopterygii, 536.

Malleus alba, 352.

---- vulgaris, _ib._

Mantle in Molluscs, its uses, 319.

Marenna Oysters, 368.

Masticating apparatus, 288.

Mean depth of the sea, 1-3.

Meandrina cerebriformis, 156.

Mediterranean Sea, 6.

Medusadæ, 195, 213.

Medway Oyster-beds, 368.

Meleagrina margaritifera, 353.

Metamorphoses in Infusoria, 106.

Microscopic forms of life, 62.

Millepora alcicornis, 164.

Milne Edwards's study, 65.

Minyadinians, 193.

Mitra episcopalis and M. papalis, 425.

Molluscoïda, 303. Organization, 304. Generation, 305.

Mollusca, 301. Their characteristics, 315.

Monade Lentille, 109.

Monodonta Australis, and M. labia, 416.

Monsoons, 33.

Montfort, Denis de, on the Kraken, 460.

Moon-fish (Orthogoriscus mola), 530.

Mounts Erebus and Terror, 55.

Mullet (Mullus), 591. A Roman luxury, 592.

Muræna, 541.

---- ponds, a passion with Roman patricians, 542.

Murex scorpio, and M. erinaceus, 435.

---- tenuispina, and M. haustellum, 434.

Muschelkalk rocks, 272.

Mussels, 344. Organization of, 345. Habits, _ib._ Localities, 346.

Mussels of Aiguillon Bay, 347.

Mussel-piles in Aiguillon Bay, 349.

---- ---- with basket-work, _ib._

---- punt of Aiguillon, 348.

Mutilation of Infusoria, 107.

Mytylus edulus, 344.

Nacre, its composition, 353.

Nadir points, 36.

Nautilus pompilius, section with animal and without, 446.

Nephtys, 145.

New Caledonia, 174.

Noctiluca miliaris, 96.

Nummulites, 93.

Nummulitis lenticularis, 92.

---- Rouaulti, 94.

Occulina flabelliformis, 153.

Octopus brevisses, and O. horridus, 464.

---- macropus, _ib._

---- vulgaris, 463.

Olaüs Magnus on the Kraken, 460.

Oldhamia, 61.

Oliva erythrostoma, O. porphyria, O. irisans, and O. Peruviana, 428.

Operculina, 92.

Ophiocoma Russei, 278.

Ophiuradæ, 277.

Organization of Foraminiferæ, 96.

---- -- Infusoria, 100.

---- -- Sponges, 81.

---- -- Star-fishes, 260.

Ossei, or Bony fishes, 529.

Ostend Oysters, 368.

Ostreadæ (the Oyster), 362.

Oyster (Ostrea), 362. Its organization, _ib._ Reproduction, 365. Incubation, _ib._

Oyster beds of France, 378.

---- beds on Lake Fusaro, 376, 378.

---- claires of Marennes, 380.

---- cultivation, 375.

---- eaters, 370.

---- farms at Whitstable, 383.

---- fishing, 374.

---- of different ages, 366.

---- packing system, 378.

Ovulum oviformis, and O. cornea, 424.

---- volva, 425.

Pacific Ocean, 3.

Pagurus Bernhardus, 492.

Palinurus vulgaris, 487.

Pallas on Alcyonia, 145.

Pandore Oyster beds, 384.

Paramecium aurelia and its parasites, 105.

---- Bursaria, 112.

Parr, or young Salmon, 563.

Parry's discoveries, 46.

Patella cærulea, P. umbella, 411. P. granatina, and P. barbata, 412.

---- longicosta, _ib._

Paulin's submarine apparatus, 65.

Pearl fisheries, 255. Value of, 257.

---- Oyster, 253.

Pearly Nautilus, 447.

Pecten glaber, 386.

---- Japonica, 387.

---- opercularis, _ib._

---- plica, _ib._

---- pseudamussium, 386.

Pectenidæ, 385.

Pelagia noctiluca, 200.

Pelagic plants and animals, 61.

---- rivers, 30.

Pennatula spinosa, 141.

Pennatulidæ, 139.

Pentacrinus, 271.

---- caput Medusæ, 272.

---- Europæus, 273.

---- fasciculosus, 271.

Pectunculatis aureflua, 342.

---- delessertii, _ib._

---- pectiniformis, 343.

---- scriptus, _ib._

Perforated madrepores, 150.

Peyssonnel's discoveries, 126.

Phallusia grossularia, 310.

Pholades, or borers, 328.

Pholas crispata, 329.

---- papyracea, and P. melanoura, _ib._

Phosphorescence of the sea, 12. Causes of, 13.

Phosphorescent chain of Salpæ, 315.

Phyllactis prætexta, 192.

Physa castanea, 399.

Physalia, 244. Its poisonous properties, 248.

Physical properties of water, 24.

Physophora hydrostatica, 234.

Pilchards, 585. Cornwall "huers," the pilchard fishery, 586.

Pinna bullata and P. nobilis, 362.

---- rudis and P. nigrina, 361.

Pinnoctopus corolliformis, 466.

Pintadine pearls, 353.

Pipe-fish (Syngnathus), 534.

Pipe-fishes (Fistularia), 607.

Plaice (Platessa vulgaris), 549.

Planorbis corneus, 398.

Pleuronectidæ, 546.

Plumatella cristallina, 306.

Polar seas, 43. Expeditions to, _ib._

Polyp and branch, 131.

Polypidom, 144.

---- and Polypi defined, 116.

Polypifera, 116.

Polypiferous crust in Gorgons, 149.

Pomotouan Archipelago, 169.

Porites, 162.

---- astroïdes, 147.

---- furcata, 163.

Porpita pacifica, 233.

Porpitæ, 232.

Portion of the disk of Physophora hydrostatica, 236.

Portunus variegatus, 488.

Poulpe: Marvellous stories of the ancients concerning, 460. Mandibles preserved in the College of Surgeons, 461.

Praya diphys, 243.

Primitive generation, 106.

Principal forms of Anodon, 340.

---- species of Sea-anemones, 187.

Propagation of Infusoria, 104.

---- of Sea-urchins, 290.

Protozoa, 71. Leuwenhoek's discoveries, _ib._

Pteroceras, their origin, 439.

---- chiragra, and P. lambis, 440.

---- scorpio, and P. millepeda, 439.

Pteropoda, 441. The organization, wings, or flappers, _ib._

Pulmonary Gasteropods, 396, 409.

Pupa uva, 409.

Pure water, 15.

Purpura, its reputation with the ancients, 431.

---- consul, 432.

---- lapillus and patula, 432.

Pyrosoma, 312.

Raiadæ, 510.

Rarefaction in Polar seas, 59.

Rataria, 232.

Ravages of the Teredo, 321.

Ray-fish, 513.

Recuperative powers of Holothuria, 293.

Red Sea Corals, 175.

Reflux of tides, 35.

Reign of law, 61.

Rhizopods, 83.

Rhizostoma Aldrovandi, 221.

---- Cuvieri, 220.

Rock covered with young Coral Polyps, 135.

Roman indifference to life, 542.

Rose aurelia, 225.

Ross's (Sir James) discoveries, 44, 45, 51.

Rotation of the earth, 36.

Rotella Zealandica, 416.

Rudimentary forms of life, 61.

Rugous madrepores, 148.

Sagartia viduata, 189.

Salmonidæ, 561.

Salmon leaps, 565. Falls of Kilmorack, _ib._ Anecdote of Lord Lovat, 566.

Salpa maxima, 314.

Saltness of the sea, 16. Its source, 21.

Salt water at the Poles, 19. At the Equator, _ib._

Salt-water lakes, 16.

Sarcoda, 100.

Sargasso Sea, 31.

Saw-fish, 524.

Scallop-shell, 385.

Scomberoïdes, 596.

Scoresby's account of the Polar seas, 56.

Scottish pearls, 341.

Scylla and Charybdis, 42.

Sea Anemone, 182. Organization, 183. Toxicological properties, 186.

---- Cucumber, 291.

---- Eel (Muræna Helena), 542.

---- Eggs, 291.

---- Horse (Hippocampus), 535.

---- Lampreys, 509.

---- Level, 10.

---- Mussels, 344.

---- Nettles, 195.

---- Palm, 272.

---- Pen, 139-144.

---- Slug, 407.

---- Snail (Liparis), 544.

---- Urchins, 281.

---- water, its components, 15.

Section of a Coral branch, 132.

---- of Atlantic Telegraph, 8.

Seine Net, 588.

Selachians, 510.

Sepia (Cuttle-fish), 449. Its suckers, _ib._

---- officinalis, 455.

---- tuberculosa, and bone of S. officinalis, 456.

Sertulariadæ, 211.

Shad, the (Alosa), 584.

Shallow water, its temperature, 25.

Shark (Carcharius vulgaris), 517.

Shark-fishing, 520.

Shell of the Mollusca, 316. Is it a skeleton? 317. How built up, 318. Shell of the Strombus, 438.

Ship-worm and its ravages, 321. Its organization, 322. Reproduction, 324. Its boring hood, 326.

Siderolites calcitrapoides, 94.

Silver in the sea, 21.

Siphonophora, 228.

Skeleton Echinus, 288.

Skeleton of the Perch, 503.

Smolt, 564.

Snails: form and characteristics, 401. Their organization, 402. Breathing, _ib._ Circulation, _ib._ Sight, 403. Reproduction, _ib._ Shell, _ib._ Their reputation with the Classics, 404.

Solarium perspecticum, and S. variegatum, 418.

Solar-lunar tides, 37.

Soles (Solea vulgaris), 547.

Sophonophora, 198.

Spearing Halibut, 551.

Spey Salmon, 568.

Spherical form of the earth, 10.

Spiroloculina, 92.

Spondylus, various, 387.

Spongia, half natural size, 75.

Spongia, 82. Their generation, _ib._ Organization, 74. Localities, _ib._ Varieties of, 80.

Spontaneous division of Infusoria, 104.

---- generation, 105.

Squalidæ, 517.

Star-corals (Astrea), 155.

Star-fishes, 260. Their metamorphoses, 267. Dismemberment, 268. Suicidal propensities, _ib._

---- and Oysters, 266.

Stentor Mülleri, 114.

Stinging apparatus of Physophora hydrostatica, 238.

---- tentacles of Physalia, 247.

Stomach of Infusoria, 102.

Stomia boa, 571.

Strombus gigas, shell and animal, 437.

Stone lilies, 276.

Stormontfield fish-ponds, 563.

Straits of Gibraltar, 34.

Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio), 526.

---- fishing in the Volga, 527.

Sturiona, 524.

Stylaster flabelliformis, 154.

Sub-branchiata, 544.

Submarine currents, 33.

Subsidence, theory of coral islands, 178.

Suckers, or Star-fishes, 264. Suicidal tendency of Star-fishes, 269.

Surbinolia, 148.

Swimming bladder, 503.

Sword-fish (Xiphias), 602. Warlike habits, 603. Fishing, _ib._

Symphynota, 355.

Synapta duvernea, 299.

Succinea putris, 409.

Tabulate madrepores, 163.

Teeth of the Bream, 506.

----- ---- Carp, _ib._

----- ---- Gold-fish, 507.

----- ---- Trout, _ib._

Tellina radiata, 334.

------ sulphurea, and T. donacina, _ib._

------ virgata, _ib._

Temperature of the sea, 24.

Tentacles of Molluscs, 302.

Tentaculiferous Cephalopods, 445. Their suckers (Acetabula), _ib._

Teredo navalis, its ravages, 322, 325.

Testacella haliotidea, 401.

Textilaria, 92.

Thalassianthidæ, 191.

Thames Oyster beds, 368.

Thermal lines of sea temperature, 23.

Thynnus pelamys (the Bonita), 596, 602.

Tidal wave, 39. Its height in different seas, 40. Of the Atlantic, 25.

Tides, 35.

Torpedo marmorata, 514.

Trachinus communis, 590.

Trade-winds, their origin, 30.

Trembley's discoveries, 72.

Tridacna gigas, 338.

---- squamosa, 339.

Triton variegatum, T. lotorium, and T. anus, 435.

Trochus inermis, T. Cookii, and T. imbricatus, 414.

---- niloticus, and. T. virgatus, 414.

---- stellaris, 417.

Tubelaridæ, 226.

Tubiporinæ, 120.

Tubipora musica, _ib._

Tubulous madrepores, 150.

Tunicata, 309.

Tunny fish (Thynnus), 596.

----- fishing, 597.

----- net, _ib._

Turbo imperialis, 416.

----- margaritaceus and T. argyrostomus, 415.

----- undulatus, 415.

Turbot (Rhombus), 548.

Ultima Thule, 43.

Umbellularia Greenlandica, 143.

Unio littoralis, 340; and U. pictorum, 341.

Uranoscopus vulgaris, 592.

Urbulina universa, 92.

Uses of salt in the sea, 23.

Vastness of the oceanic fields of observation, 64.

Vegetable life, _ib._

Venus verrucosa, 335.

Veretillum cynomorium, 144.

Vetrina fasciata, 409.

Vibracule in molluscs, 301.

Vibrioni baguetta, 108.

Vilelladæ, 229.

---- limbosa, _ib._

Virgularia, 142.

---- mirabilis, _ib._

Volvox globator, 101.

Walsh's, Dr., experiments with the Torpedo, 515.

Water, 1.

Water-lilies, 304.

Watering-pot, the, 331.

Waves off Cape Horn, 41.

Weddell's discoveries, 44, 51.

Weight of the waters of the sea, 11.

---- of equatorial waters, 28.

Weevers (Trachinus), 590, 591.

Whence comes the salt of the sea? 21.

Whirlpools, 42. Scylla, _ib._ Charybdis, _ib._

White Ray (Raia batis), 511.

Whiting (Merlangus vulgaris), 559, 560.

Whorled Gorgon, magnified, 124.

Wilkes's expedition, 44, 51.

Willoughby's discoveries, 43.

Winds, 39. Effect on tides, _ib._

Wrasse (the), Labrus, 606.

Young Oysters, 366. ---- Polyp attached to a rock, 135.

Zenith points, 36.

Zoantharia 147, 159.

Zoanthoa thalassanthos, 148.

Zoanthus socialis, 193.

Zone of Calms, 30.

Zoophytes, 69. Its derivation, 70.

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=English Spelling and Reading Book.= With upwards of 50 Engravings on Wood. New Edition. 8vo, cloth, 1s.

=Euclid, Cassell's=: being the First Six Books with the Eleventh and Twelfth of Euclid. Edited by Professor WALLACE, A.M. of the Glasgow University, and Collegiate Tutor of the University of London. Crown 8vo, stiff covers, 1s.; cloth, 1s. 6d.

=Euclid, Cassell's, Key to=; containing the Enunciations of all the Propositions and Corollaries. 32mo, paper covers, 4d.

=Family Prayer Book.= Bound in plain cloth, 7s. 6d.; handsome cloth, with gilt edges, 9s.; morocco antique, 21s.

=Five Shilling Series.=

=The Story of Don Quixote.= By Miss MATÉAUX. Re-narrated in a familiar manner, especially adapted for Younger Readers, and Illustrated with numerous Engravings. Crown 8vo.

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=Children's Carols.= The Music by HENRY LESLIE, the Illustrations by J. E. MILLAIS. 4to.

=Home Chat with Our Young Folks.= By CLARA MATÉAUX, Author of "The Story of Don Quixote," &c. &c. With about 120 Engravings. Fcap. 4to.

=Scraps of Knowledge for the Little Ones.= By Miss BESEMERE, Author of "Picture Teaching." With 100 Illustrations. Fcap. 4to.

=The Happy Nursery.= By ELLIS A. DAVIDSON, Author of "Our First Grammar," "Our Bodies," "Our Food," &c. &c. Fcap. 4to, with numerous Illustrations and Designs for Toys.

=French, Cassell's Lessons in=: containing a Complete View of the Idioms of the French Language, in a Series of Easy and Progressive Lessons. By Professor FASQUELLE. New Edition, revised and improved. By Professor DE LOLME. Parts I. and II., in paper, 2s.; cloth, each, 2s. 6d. Complete in One Volume, cloth, 4s. 6d.

---- =Key to the Exercises in Cassell's Lessons in.= 12mo, paper, 1s.; cloth 1s. 6d.

=French Manual.= Forming a Complete, Simple, and Practical Guide to a _thorough_ knowledge of Speaking the French Language. By Professor DE LOLME. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s.

=French Reader, The.= Containing Extracts from the Best Authors. Designed for the Improvement of Students in reading the French Language. New Edition. By Professor DE LOLME. 12mo, paper, 2s.; cloth, 2s. 6d.

=French-English and English-French Dictionary.= Composed from the French Dictionaries of the French Academy, Bescherelle, Landais, &c.; from the English Dictionaries of Ogilvie, Johnson, Webster, &c, &c.; and from the Technological and Scientific Dictionaries of both Languages. By Professors DE LOLME and WALLACE. Demy 8vo, cloth, lettered, 7s. 6d.

---- Cheap Edition for Schools. Cloth, 3s. 6d.

=French, Shilling Lessons in.= By Professor DE LOLME. 18mo, sewed, 1s.; cloth, 1s. 6d.

=French, Sixpenny Lessons in=, with Rules for Pronunciation, on an entirely Novel and Simple Plan. Reprinted in a revised form. Crown 8vo, paper covers, 6d.

=Galbraith and Haughton's Scientific Manuals.= The high character of this Series is well known, as furnishing Text-books for the Dublin University and numerous first-class Schools.

=Arithmetic.= Containing nearly 2,000 Examples. Cloth, lettered, 3s. 6d. =Plane Trigonometry.= Cloth, lettered, 2s. 6d. =Euclid.= Elements I., II., III. Cloth, lettered, 2s. 6d. =----= Books IV., V., VI. Cloth, lettered, 2s. 6d. =Mathematical Tables.= Cloth, lettered, 3s. 6d.

=Galbraith and Haughton's Manuals=--_continued_.

=Mechanics.= Cloth, lettered, 3s. 6d. =Optics.= Cloth, lettered, 2s. 6d. =Hydrostatics.= Cloth, lettered, 3s. 6d. =Astronomy.= Cloth, lettered, 5s. =Steam Engine.= Cloth, lettered, 3s. 6d. =Algebra.= Third Edition. Part I., cloth, 2s. 6d.; complete, cloth, lettered, 7s. 6d. =Tides and Tidal Currents.= New Edition, with Tidal Cards. Cloth, lettered, 3s. =Natural Philosophy.= With 160 Illustrations. Cloth, 3s. 6d. =The Three Kingdoms of Nature.= With numerous Illustrations. New and cheaper Edition. 5s.

=German Reader, The International=, for the use of Colleges and Schools. Containing Aids to Students, Selections from the best Prose Writers, and an Anthology of German Poetry. By EDWARD A. OPPEN, of Haileybury College. 12mo, cloth, 4s. 6d.

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Complete in One Volume, cloth, 4s. 6d.

---- =Key to.= Revised Edition. 12mo, paper, 1s.; cloth, 1s. 6d.

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=German-English and English-German Pronouncing Dictionary, The.= 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.

=German Dictionary.= Cheap Edition for Schools, 3s. 6d.

=Gift Books for Young People.=

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=Greece, The Scenery of.= By W. LINTON. Fifty exquisitely beautiful full-page Steel Engravings, with descriptive Letterpress. Handsome quarto Volume, cloth, lettered, gilt edges, 42s.

=Greece, The Poets Of.= By EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A., Oxon; Author of "Griselda, and other Poems," &c. Demy 8vo, 256 pages, 10s. 6d.

=Greek, Lessons in.= By the Rev. J. R. BEARD, D.D. 12mo, paper, 3s. 6d.; cloth, 4s.

=Guide to the Indian Civil Service=: containing Directions for Candidates, Standards of Qualification, Salaries, and Specimens of Examination Papers. By A. C. EWALD, F.S.A. Fcap. 8vo.

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=Labour Stands on Golden Feet.= A Holiday Story for Sensible Apprentices, Journeymen, and Masters. Translated from the German of HEINRICH ZSCHOKKE by Dr. JOHN YEATS.

=The Microscope, and Some of the Wonders it Reveals.= By the Rev. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., F.L.S., Author of "Country Walks of a Naturalist with his Children," &c.

=Stories of the Olden Time.= Selected and Arranged by M. JONES, Author of "The Story of Captain Cook," &c.

=Truly Noble.= A Story, by Madame De CHATELAIN.

=Autobiography of a Lump of Coal, a Grain of Salt, &c. &c.= By ANNIE CAREY.

=Love and Life in Norway.= By BJORNSTJERN BJORNSON. Translated from the Norwegian by the Hon. AUGUSTA BETHELL.

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=History Of England=, from the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of William and Mary in 1683. By JOHN LINGARD, D.D. Sixth Edition. Revised and considerably Enlarged. In Ten Volumes, cloth, lettered.

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=Cassell's Illustrated Robinson Crusoe.= Beautifully Illustrated throughout.

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=Goldsmith's Works.= The VICAR OF WAKEFIELD and POEMS. Illustrated throughout.

=Illustrated Travels=: a Record of Discovery, Geography, and Adventure. Edited by H. W. BATES, Assistant-Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, and profusely illustrated by the best Artists of the day, from Drawings made on the spot. Royal 4to, cloth, 15s.; extra cloth, extra gilt, gilt edges, 18s.

=In Memoriam the late George Housman Thomas.= Being a series of carefully printed Wood Engravings, from Designs by Mr. THOMAS, with Descriptive Letterpress. Handsome quarto Volume. Cloth, gilt, 21s.

=Insect World, The.= A Popular Account of the Orders of Insects. From the French of LOUIS FIGUIER. Edited by E. W. JANSEN, Lib. E.S. Demy 8vo, 576 Plates, cloth, lettered, 16s.; extra cloth gilt, £1 1s.

=Italian Finances.= By G. SEMENZA, Member for Como in the Italian Parliament. Cloth, 6s.

=Jingles and Jokes for Little Folks.= By TOM HOOD. Illustrated. Boards, 1s.

=Latin Grammar, The.= By Professors ANDREWS and STODDARD. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

=Latin Exercises.= Adapted to Andrews and Stoddard's "Latin Grammar." 12mo, paper, 1s. 6d.; cloth, 2s.

=Latin Reader, The.= Adapted to "Cassell's Latin Grammar;" to which is appended an appropriate Dictionary. 12mo, cloth, 1s. 6d.

=Latin, Lessons in.= By the Rev. J. R. BEARD, D.D. 12mo, paper, 2s. 6d.; cloth, 3s. =Key to ditto=, 12mo, paper, 1s.; cloth, 1s. 6d.

=Latin, First Lessons in.= By Professors ANDREWS and STODDARD. 12mo, paper, 1s.; cloth, 1s. 6d.

=Latin-English and English-Latin Dictionary, Cassell's.= By J. R. BEARD, D.D., and C. BEARD, B.A. Cloth, 7s. 6d.

=Latin Dictionary.= Cheap Edition for Schools. Cloth, 3s. 6d.

=Little Songs for Me to Sing.= Illustrated by J. E. MILLAIS, R.A.; with Music composed expressly for the Work by HENRY LESLIE. Square crown (_Dedicated, by express permission, to Her Royal Highness the_ PRINCESS OF WALES), 6s.

=Log of the Fortuna, The.= A Cruise in Chinese Waters. By Captain A. F. LINDLEY. Illustrated with about Fifty Engravings. Fcap. 4to, 7s. 6d.

=Mission Life.= Containing an Account of the various Mission Works now proceeding in all parts of the globe. Vols, for 1869 and 1870, price 7s. 6d. each.

=Natural History of Commerce.= By J. YEATS, LL.D. With Coloured Frontispiece. Cloth, lettered, price 5s.

=Natural History, Cassell's Popular.= Profusely Illustrated with splendid Engravings and Tinted Plates. Complete in Two Volumes, bound in cloth, 30s. Do., Two Volumes, half-calf, full gilt back, 45s. Do., Two Volumes, half-morocco, full gilt, 50s. Do., with Coloured Illustrations, Four Volumes, bound in cloth, 42s.

=Natural History of the Three Kingdoms, The.= With Coloured Plates, and Text in English, French, and German. Oblong 4to, coloured boards, 3s. 6d.

=Natural Philosophy, in Easy Lessons.= By Professor TYNDALL. Cloth, lettered, 2s. 6d.

=New Popular Educator.= Revised to the Present Date, with numerous Additions. Vols. I., II., III., IV., V., and VI. now ready, best cloth gilt, 6s. each.

=North-West Passage by Land, The.= By Viscount MILTON, M.P., F.R.G.S., F.G.S., &c., and W. B. CHEADLE, B.A., M.D. Cantab., F.R.G.S. 8vo, cloth, with Twenty-two full-page Illustrations and Two Maps. _Sixth Edition_, 21s. Do., Smaller Edition, _complete_, with Eight Illustrations, crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.

=Ocean World, The.= A Descriptive History of the Sea and its Inhabitants. From the French of LOUIS FIGUIER. Edited by C. O. G. NAPIER, F.G.S. Demy 8vo, 427 Plates, cloth, lettered, 16s.; extra cloth gilt, £1 1s.

=Old Friends and New Faces.= Demy 4to, cloth, elegantly gilt, with Twenty-four full-page Illustrations, beautifully printed by KRONHEIM, 5s.

=Penny Library of Popular Authors.=

=1. The Book of Martyrs.= By JOHN FOXE. With Engraved Frontispiece, complete, 252 pages, price One Penny. Also, Special Editions of the same, in cloth limp, 4d., or cloth, gilt edges, 6d.

=2. The Pilgrim's Progress.= By JOHN BUNYAN. With Engraved Title and Frontispiece, complete, 384 pages, price One Penny. Also, Special Editions of the same, in cloth limp, 4d., or cloth, gilt edges, 6d.

=Pianoforte, The History of the.= By E. BRINSMEAD. Cloth, lettered, gilt, price 3s.

=Pictures from English Literature.= The Text by Dr. WALLER. Full-page Illustrations by E. M. WARD, R.A., J. C. HORSLEY, R.A., W. F. YEAMES, A.R.A., J. GILBERT, G. DU MAURIER, S. L. FILDES, W. SMALL, H. K. BROWNE, Mrs. E. M. WARD, J. D. WATSON, MARCUS STONE, W. CAVE THOMAS, F. W. LAWSON, E. WEGNER, R. MACBETH, E. HUGHES, F. BARNARD, &c. &c. Handsome 4to, cloth gilt, 21s.

=Picture Natural History.= A Series of Plates, numbering upwards of 700, in which the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Kingdoms are classified in Families. With Descriptive Letterpress. Edited by the Rev. C. BOUTELL, M.A. 4to, cloth, lettered, 5s.

=Picture Teaching for Young and Old=: A Series of Object Lessons Progressively Arranged, so as to teach the meaning of every term employed. With more than 200 Illustrations. 4to, cloth, lettered, 5s.

=Poet Hero, A.= By Countess VON BOTHMER, Author of "Strong Hands and Steadfast Hearts", &c. &c. 408 pp. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

=Poets, Cassell's 3s. 6d. Edition of the=, in Fcap. 8vo, printed on Toned Paper, elegantly bound in cloth, extra gold and colours. Best morocco, inlaid with enamel letter piece, 6s. 6d. each. Each Volume contains a Memoir, and is Illustrated with a Portrait of the Author, engraved on Steel, and numerous full-page Illustrations on Wood, from Designs by Eminent Artists:--

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=Lives of the British Poets.=

=Practical Poultry Keeper, The.= A Complete and Standard Guide to the Management of Poultry, whether for Domestic Use, the Market, or Exhibition. By L. WRIGHT. _Fourth Edition._ With plain Illustrations, bound in cloth, 5s.; with coloured ditto, ditto, 6s. 6d.

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=Elementary Arithmetic=: supplying more than 1,100 Examples. Cloth, lettered, 4d. Key to ditto, cloth, 3d.

=Elementary British History=: a condensed recital of the Principal Events of British History. Cloth, lettered, 6d.

=Elementary Geography=, written in a simple, terse style, and Illustrated. Cloth, lettered, 4d.

=England at Home=: An Elementary Text-Book of Geography, Manufacture, Trade, and Commerce. Cloth, lettered, 1s.

=Our Bodies=: An Elementary Text-Book of Human Physiology. With numerous Illustrations on Wood. Cloth, lettered, 1s.

=Our Houses, and what they are Made of=: giving full Account of the Nature and Origin of Wood, Iron, Stone, &c., with Illustrative Designs and Descriptions. Cloth, lettered, 1s.

=Our First Grammar=: an Elementary Text-Book for Beginners. Cloth, 1s.

=Our Food.= Intended to supply Elementary Lessons in the Processes involved in the Production of the various Articles of Food, and also their proper Uses and Combinations. Cloth, lettered, 1s.

=The Uses of Plants in Food, Arts, and Commerce.= With Illustrations, 1s.

=Right Lines in their Right Places=: explaining to the youngest pupil the First Principles of Geometry. With Drawings on Wood by the Author. Cloth, lettered, 1s.

=The Boy's First Reader.= Standard I. Cloth limp, 4d.

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=Vegetable Physiology=, in a series, of easy Lessons, with numerous Illustrations. Cloth, lettered, 1s. 6d.

=The Animal Kingdom=, explained in a familiar but strictly scientific manner. With abundant Illustrations. Double Vol., cloth, lettered, 2s.

=Quiver, The=: containing Interesting Articles for Sunday Reading. Profusely Illustrated. Vol. for 1870 now ready, price 7s. 6d. cloth plain: or gilt, 8s. 6d.

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=Life and Career of Lord Brougham.= Cloth, 1s. 6d. =The Life of Benjamin Disraeli=, 1s.; cloth, 1s. 6d. =The Life of John Bright=, 1s.; cloth, 1s. 6d. =The Life of W. B. Gladstone.= 1s.; cloth, 1s. 6d. =The Public Life of Queen Victoria.= 2s.; cloth, 2s. 6d.

=Robinson Crusoe, Adventures of.= New Edition, Royal 8vo., profusely Illustrated, and containing Coloured Frontispiece. Cloth plain, 5s.; cloth gilt, gilt edges, 6s. 6d.

=Romance of Commerce, The.= By H. R. FOX-BOURNE, Author of "The Life of Sir Philip Sydney." Cloth, lettered, 7s. 6d.

=San Juan Water Boundary Question.= By Viscount MILTON, M.P. Cloth, 10s. 6d.

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=Lottie's White Frock=, and other Stories. =Helpful Nellie=, and other Stories. =Only Just Once=, and other Stories. =The Boot on the Wrong Foot=, and other Stories. =Little Content=, and other Stories. By EDITH WALFORD. =Little Lizzie.= By MARY GILLIES. And other Tales. =Luke Barnicott.= By WILLIAM HOWITT. And other Tales. =My First Cruise.= By W. H. Kingston. And other Tales. =The Boat Club.= By OLIVER OPTIC. And other Tales. =The Delft Jug.= By SILVERPEN. And other Tales. =The Elchester College Boys.= By MRS. HENRY WOOD. And other Tales. =The Little Peacemaker.= By MARY HOWITT. And other Tales. =Jonas's Farm.= And other Tales.

=Shilling Toy-Books.= In Demy 4to, stiff covers. With full-page Illustrations printed in Colours by KRONHEIM.

=1. How Cock Sparrow Spent his Christmas.= =2. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.= =3. Queer Creatures, Drawn by One of Themselves.= =4. Æsop's Fables.= (21 Plates.)

=Shilling Packets of Coloured Cards,= each containing Twelve Designs beautifully printed in Colours from Nature.

=Floral Beauties of the World.=

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=Peoples of the World.= By BESSIE PARKES-BELLOC. Imperial 16mo. Illustrated with about Fifty Engravings. 6s.

=The Story of Captain Cook.= By M. JONES, Author of "Stories of the Olden Time." Imperial 16mo. Illustrated with about Fifty Engravings. 6s.

=Stock-Feeder's Manual, The.= The Chemistry of Food in relation to the Breeding and Feeding of Live Stock. By Dr. CAMERON. Cloth, lettered, 5s.

=Swiss Family Robinson.= New Edition, profusely Illustrated. Bound in cloth, gilt, 5s.; extra gilt, gilt edges, 6s. 6d.

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=Linear Drawing.= By E. A. DAVIDSON, Lecturer on Engineering and Architectural Drawing in the City of London Middle Class Schools. Containing the principles of Linear Drawing as adapted to Trade, Manufactures, Engineering, Architecture, and Design, with about 150 Illustrations, and Six whole-page Diagrams of working drawings. Cloth limp, 2s.

=Orthographic and Isometrical Projection.= By the same Author, Treating of the Projection of Plans, Elevations and Sections of Solids, and the Development of Surfaces for Masons, Carpenters, Builders, Architects, Plumbers, and Artisans generally. Illustrated with about Forty whole-page Diagrams, drawn on Wood by the Author. Cloth limp, 2s.

=Linear Drawing and Projection.= The Two Volumes in One. Cloth, lettered, 3s. 6d.

=Building Construction,= the Elements of, and Architectural Drawing, with 130 Illustrations, drawn on Wood by the Author. By E. A. DAVIDSON, Author of "Linear Drawing," &c. Cloth limp, 2s.

=Drawing for Carpenters and Joiners.= By E. A. DAVIDSON. Containing a Description of the Construction of the Subject of each Study, and the Method of Drawing it. With Elementary Lessons in Free-hand and Object Drawing. With 250 Illustrations and Drawing Copies. Double Vol, cloth limp, 3s. 6d.

=The Elements of Practical Perspective.= By the same Author. Containing Perspective, Projection of Simple Points, Lines, Planes, and Rectangular Solids, Polygons, and Prisms, Pyramids, Circles, Cylinders, Arches, &c. &c. With Thirty-six full-page Illustrations. Drawn on Wood by the Author. Cloth limp, 2s.

=Drawing for Machinists.= By the same Author. With abundant Illustrations and Working Diagrams. Double Volume, Cloth, lettered, 3s. 5d. (_Nearly ready_.)

=Thames and Tweed.= By G. ROOPER. Containing every information necessary for fishing in these rivers at all times of the year. With Directions as to Rods, Lines, Tackle, &c. &c. Cloth, 2s. 6d.

=Thorwaldsen's Triumphal Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon.= Twenty-two Plates, Folio. With Descriptive Letterpress, and Essay on "The Personal and Art Character of Thorwaldsen," by HERMANN LUCKE. 42s.

=Transformations of Insects.= By EMILE BLANCHARD. Translated by Dr. DUNCAN, Secretary of the Geological Society, and Professor of Geology, King's College, London. Profusely Illustrated. Royal 8vo, cloth gilt, 15s.

=Two Shilling Series= of New and Original Works. Bound in best cloth, gilt edges, with Coloured Illustrations.

=Dr. Savory's Tongs.= By TWO SISTERS. =The Golden Gate.= By H. G. B. HUNT. =Love and Duty.= By ANNA J. BUCKLAND. =Brave Lisette.= And other Stories. By MISS CARLESS. =Beatrice Langton;= or, The Spirit of Obedience. 2s. =New Stories and Old Legends.= By Mrs. T. K. HERVEY. =Owen Carstone=: a Story of School Life. =The Boy who Wondered.= =The Little Orphan.= =The Story of Arthur Hunter and his First Shilling.= =The Story of the Hamiltons.= =The Hillside Farm.=

=Vegetable World, The=, From the French of LOUIS FIGUIER. Edited by C. O. G. NAPIER, F.G.S. Demy 8vo, with 471 Plates, cloth, lettered, 16s.; extra cloth gilt, £1 1s.

=Webster's Etymological Dictionary.= The Etymology of every Word given, and a Vocabulary of the Roots of Words. Cloth, 3s. 6d.

=Woman: Her Position and Power.= Containing Essays on the Social, Moral, and Religious Position of Woman; her Duties, Privileges, and Influence, &c. By Rev. W. LANDELS, D.D. 5s.

=World before the Deluge, The.= From the French of LOUIS FIGUIER. Carefully edited by H. W. BRISTOW, F.R.S., of the Geological Survey. Demy 8vo, 233 Plates, cloth, lettered, 16s.; extra cloth gilt, £1 1s.

=World of the Sea=, The. Translated from the French of ALFRED FREDOL, by the Rev. H. M. HART. Demy 8vo, with Coloured and Tinted Plates, and numerous Wood Engravings. Best cloth, lettered, 21s.

=World Of Wonders, The.= A Record of Things Wonderful in Nature, Science, and Art. Cloth, 7s. 6d.; full gilt, 10s. 6d.

=Wonders, Library Of.= A Series of Gift Books. With numerous Illustrations, and handsomely bound in a cover specially designed for this series of Gift Books. Cloth extra, 5s. each.

=Wonders in Acoustics.= =Wonderful Escapes.= =Wonders of Animal Instinct.=

"Certainly one of the best books upon the instincts of insects and animals which we have seen."--_Standard._

=Wonders of Architecture.=

"The little work before us is a great help to the formation of our tastes and the study of a great science."--_Naval and Military Gazette._

=Wonders of Bodily Strength and Skill.=

"A pleasant volume, full of interesting facts."--_Daily Telegraph._

=Wonderful Balloon Ascents.= Containing a Popular Account of Ballooning from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, the Ascents made, and Improvements effected. With Sixteen full-page and numerous other Engravings.

_The following CATALOGUES of Messrs._ CASSELL, PETTER, _and_ GALPIN'S PUBLICATIONS, &c., _are now ready, and may be had from any Bookseller_:--

=1. Catalogue Of Educational Works=, of Students' and Scholars' Materials.

=2. Catalogue of Technical Manuals and Primary School-Books.=

=3. The Children's Books Catalogue=, Illustrated. Rewards and Prizes.

=4. Classified Catalogue= of 60,000 Electrotypes of Valuable Engravings for Sale.

=5. The Complete Descriptive Catalogue.=

=6. The Classified Catalogue=, containing a Complete List of Publications, from One Penny upwards, arranged according to price.

CASSELL, PETTER, AND GALPIN, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON; AND 596, BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

* * * * *

Transcriber notes:

Tags that surround words =3. The Children's Books Catalogue= indicate bold. Tags that surround the word _Naval and Military Gazette._ indicate italics.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | P.24. 'he Equator.' changed to 'the Equator.'. | | P.81. 'Marseileise' changed to 'Marseillaise'. | | P.161. Fig. 75. 'Dendrophylia' changed to 'Dendrophyllia'. | | P.186. 'd'Acclimitation' changed to 'd'Acclimatation'. | | P.203. Fig. 87. 'Hydra viridris' changed to 'Hydra viridis'. | | P.224. 'vetebrated' changed to 'vertebrated'. | | P.299. 'duvernea' changed to 'duvernæa', also in the | | list of illustrations. | | P.318. 'coattings' changed to 'coatings'. | | P.335. 'themeslves' changed to 'themselves'. | | P.352. 'Malægrina' changed to 'Maleagrina'. | | P.403. 'insensi le' changed to 'insensible'. | | P.408. 'connnection' changed to 'connection'. | | Plate XXIII. Fig. III. 'Vlouta' changed to 'Voluta'. | | P.523. 'other other' changed to 'other'. | | P.531. 'it own' changed to 'its own". | | P.580. Added 'Plate' to illustration XXIX, 'Plate XXIX.' | | P.581. 'cranes' changed to 'crans'. | | Fixed various punctuation. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+