n
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
LIBRARY
OF THE
MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY
7/. 3^Y
Library of
SAMUEL GARMAN
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Fn^raved for ih^MUi/ralists Iibrarif.
THE
'EMT^MM^mTB 2L3B3IA3^»
2(SSla'HT(DIj©ST.
Ivory &■ Skua Gull Dolphin & Flying- Fish.
LONDON. HENRY -G. BOHN,
VORK STRCET. COVENT GARDEN.
THE
NATURALIST'S LIBRARY.
\
EDITED BY
SIE WILLIAM JAEDINE, BAKT.
F.n.B.E., F.L.S., ETC., ETC.
VOL. XXXV.
ICHTHYOLOGY.
FISHES,
rAUTlCULAULY THEIR STRUCTU HE AND EC0>0M1CAL USES.
U Y J. S. B U S n N A N, M. U.,
V.RS.E., ETC., ETC.
EDINBURGH :
AY, II. LIZARS, 3, ST. JAMES' SQUARE.
LONDON :
HENRY G. 130IIN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1853.
0
•^ .si.
I
CONTENTS.
The Edible Lethrynus.
Lethrynus esadejitus. Plate XII.
Mailed Peristedion.
Peristedion oataphractum. Plate XIII.
Armed Monocentris.
Alonocentris cornutus. Plate XIV.
Spotted Ostracion.
Ost radon cubicus. Plate XV. .
Porcupine Diodon.
Diodon hystrix. Plate XVI. . .
Radiated "Weaver.
Trachinus radiatus. Plate XVII.
Blainville's Piked Dog-fish.
Spinax BlainvUlii. Plate XVIII.
Yellow-bellied Acanthurus.
Acanthurus hepatus. Plate XIX.
Port Praslin Balistes.
Balistes praslinoides. Plate XX.
Homed Ostracion.
Ostracion comutus. Plate XXI.
Four-homed Aspidopborus.
A^idophorus quadricornis. Plate XXII.
Atlantic Corypbsene, or Dolphin.
Coryphczna equisitis. Plate XXIII. .
Dolphin of the Ancients.
Coryphcena hippuris. Plate XXIV. .
Painted Labrus.
Labrus formosus. Plate XXV.
fialvani's Torpedo.
Torpedo Gahani. Plate XXVI.
White Shark.
Charcharias vulgaris. Plate XXVII.
PAGB
136
138
139
140
142
144
146
147
ib.
148
150
152
153
155
157
161
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Blue Shark. Plate XXVII.* (Plate only given.) . 161
Cirrated Saw-fish.
Pristis drratus. Plate XXVIII. . . .166
Common Sword-fish. Plate XXIX. (Plate only given.) ib.
Indian Histiophorus.
Histiophorus hidkus. Plate XXX. (Plate 29 in text.) 167
Long-beaked Chelmon.
Chelmon longirostris. Plate XXXI. (Plate 30 in text.) 170
On the Economical Uses of Fishes . . . .171
Portrait of Hippolito Salviani .... 2
Vignette Title-page 3
In all Thirty-four Plates in this Volume.
Note It will be observed, that there are two Plates given
in the contents above without any particular description of
them being in the text, in consequence of their descriptioa
having been embraced in the other corresponding forms.
CONTENTS.
Memoir of Hippolito Salviam .
17
Introduction
45
The Banded Ophisurus.
Opldsurus alternans. Plate I. . .
86
Indian Pilot-fish.
Naiicrates Indictis. Plate II.
89
The Short Sun-fish.
Orthogoriscus mola. Plate III.
91
Sf inola's Trachipterus.
Trachypteriis Spi?iolcB. Plate IV.
92
Halgan's Spine-tailed Ray.
Trygon Halgani. Plate V. . . .
94
The New Zealand Gurnard.
Trigla kumu. Plate VI. .
106
The Oriental Daotylopterus.
'
Dactylopterus orientalis. Plate VII. , ,
. . 107
Common Flying-fish.
Exocetus volitans. Plate VIII. . .
109
The Homed Zanclus or Chsetodon.
Zanclus cornutus. Plate IX. . • •
116
Argus Pteraclis.
Pteraclis ocellatus. Plate X. . . .
118
Back's Grayling.
Thymullus signifer. Plate XI. , . •
120
COxXTENTS.
The Edible Lethrynus.
Lethrynus escuUntus. Plate XII.
Mailed Peristedion.
Peristedion oataphradum. Plate XIII.
Armed Monocentris.
Afonoceniris comuttis. Plate XIV.
Spotted Ostracion.
Ostracion cubicus. Plate XV. .
Porcupine Diodon.
Diodon hystrix. Plate XVI, . .
Radiated Weaver.
Trachinus radiatus. Plate XVII.
Blainville's Piked Dog-fish.
Spinax Blainvillii. Plate XVIII.
Yellow-bellied Acanthurus.
Acanthurus hepatus. Plate XIX.
Port Praslin Balistes.
Batistes praslinoides. Plate XX.
Horned Ostracion.
Ostracion comutus. Plate XXI.
Four-homed Aspidophorus.
Aspidophorns quadricomis. Plate XXII.
Atlantic Coryphaene, or Dolphin.
CoryphcB7ia equisitis. Plate XXIII. .
Dolphin of the Ancients.
Chryphcena hippuris. Plate XXIV. .
Painted Labrus.
Labrus formosus. Plate XXV.
Oalvani's Torpedo.
Torpedo Galvani. Plate XXVI. .
White Shark.
Charcharias vulgaris. Plate XXVII.
PAGE
136
138
139
140
142
144
146
147
ib.
148
150
152
153
155
157
161
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Blue Shark. Plate XXVII.* (Plate only given.) . 161
Cirrated Saw-fish.
Pristis drratus. Plate XX VIII. . . .166
Common Sword-fish. Plate XXIX. (Plate only given.) ib.
Indian Histiophorus.
Histiophorus Indkus. Plate XXX. (Plate 29 in text.) 167
Long-beaked Chelmon,
Chelmonlongirostris. Plate XXXI. (Plate 30 in text.) 170
On the Economical Uses of Fishes . . . .171
Portrait of Hippolito Salviam .... 2
Vignette Title-page 3
In all Thirty-four Plates in this Volume.
Note. — It will be observed, that there are two Plates given
in the contents above without any particular description of
them being in the text, in consequence of their description
having been embraced in the other corresponding forms.
MEMOIR
OF
HIPPOLITO SALVIANL
MEMOIR
OP
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI
Though the subject of the present Memoir is pro-
bably unknown even by name to the rast majority of
our readers, he nevertheless possesses such indispu-
table claims to celebrity, as an early and successful
cultivator of Natural History, that his services
should be overlooked by none who take an interest
in the study of Zoology. Flourishing in a distant
age, — in agitating and troublous times, and con-
fining his chief attention to a somewhat obscure
and difficult department of the science, his services
seem to have been appreciated only by Ichthyolo-
gists; and certainly he has never acquired that
notoriety in the general annals of literature which
nas been bestowed upon much inferior men. Even
his name is not inscribed in those long lists which
have been accumulated, in the course of ages, in
the commonwealth of European celebrity ; and still
less has it found a place in the annals of British
B
r
)8 MEMOIR OP
science*. Though it may be impossible now to
attain, or recover, much of his personal and private
history, yet as his beautiful work remains, and as
it is universally allowed to be not more elegant
than it has been useful, it is clear that the admirers
of Natural History owe him a debt of gi-atitude
which is far from having been paid. His chief
production is a splendid illustrated work on Ichthy-
ology ; and few attempts could be more appropriate,
we conceive, than that in that department of the
Naturalist's Library which is dedicated to Fishes,
and in which their faithfully coloured delineation
is second only to their accurate scientific description,
an endeavour should be made to do justice to the
memory and labours of one of the most distin-
guished revivers of the science in modem times.
The only sketch of Salviani that we have seen,
and it is a very slight one, is from the pen of Baron
Cuvier. This illustrious Frenchman, great in every
department of Natural History, laboured more as-
siduously in none than in the difficult one of Ich-
thyology. In his celebrated introductory history of
this branch of science, he was naturally led to con-
sider the labours of its early cultivators ; and some
of his remarks in this admirable summary are so
applicable to our present subject, as well as so
valuable in themselves, that we shall enrich our
pages with a very short epitome of them.
* No notice of Salviani is to be found in Moreri or Bayle,
or in the English Universal Biographies, or in any of the
Encyclopaedias, which have become such complete compcn««
diums of information.
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 10
Natural History, he remarks, is a science of
fects, and the number it comprehends is so great,
that no single individual can collect or verify those
which belong even to a single department: they
can advantageously be studied only by examining
all the authors who have ^vritten upon them, and
by comparing their statements with nature. It is
likewise true, that for the profitable examination
of these writers, for a just estimate of the degree
of confidence to be reposed in each, for the dis-
covery of the result of their individual labours, and
what they derived from those of their predecessors,
it is requisite that we should also know the circum-
stances in which they worked, the time when they
lived, the state in which they found the science,
the favouring circumstances in which they were
placed, both as it regards themselves and their
assistants, whether friends, patrons or pupils. These
details, arranged in the order of time, and connected
by their several links, constitute the history of the
science, the necessary basis of any work which
would present a general view of the whole.
Three principal epochs may be recognized in the
progress of Ichthyology. Like the other branches
of Zoology, it was at first, and for many ages,
composed only of detached observations. Aristotle,
three hundred years before the present era, began
to collect the scattered materials into a system, at
first very imperfect; founded upon observations
and rules which were scarcely verified, and pecu-
liarly destitute of the means whereby one species
20 MEMOIR OF
miglit be distinguished fiora another. For more
than 1800 years, those who wrote upon the sub-,
ject almost entirely confined their attention to
copying, or commenting upon Aristotle. In the
middle of the 16th centuiy, however, Belon, Ron-
dolet, and Salviani returned to the true method of
observation, and rectifying and extending the state-
ments of Aristotle, conferred on Ichthyology a real
foundation by the description and representation of
a certain number of w^ell determined species.
Finally, Willoughby and Ray, at the end of the
3 7th century, attempted to arrange these species
according to a plan founded upon the distinctive
characters derived from their organization ; and
Artedi and Linnaeus, in the middle of the 18th,
completed this enterprise, by establishing well
defined genera, including in them various accu-
rately ascertained species. Since that period Ich-
thyology has been steadily advancing towards
perfection, and will continue to advance, with a
rapidity regulated by the ardour and sagacity with
which each Naturalist distinguishes what is true,
and publishes it, so as to ensure general appro-
bation.
Aristotle, by accumulating the stores of his prede-
cessors, by his own extraordinary assiduity, and by
the not less extraordinary assistance afforded him by
his distinguished patron Alexander the Great, recog-
nized 117 species of fishes. He dwelt upon their
mode of life, their percgiinations, their likings
and dislikings, their cunning, amours, and fecun-
niPPOLITO SALVIANI. 21
dltv ; the mode in ^vllic■ll tliey are captured, the time
they are most in season, and many other details.
What is most to be regretted in this mass of
valuable information is, that the author never sus-
pected that the nomenclature he employed would
become obsolete and obscure, a defect common to
all the ancient Naturalists, and which almost com-
pels us to do little more than guess at much, and
remain ignorant of the rest. Pliny's list of aquatic
animals amounts to 174; but Avhen we subtract
the shell -fish, the cete or whales, and the other
animals which are not true fish, there will not
remain above 95 or 96, some of w hich are probably
only duplicates of the others : about 30 of them
appear to be difi*erent from those mentioned by
Aristotle.
Upon a careful examination of all the works of
the first epoch which remain, it would appear that
the ancients had recognized and named about 150
kinds of fish, which amounted to nearly the whole
of those which are used in the Mediterranean as
articles of food ; but they had not fixed precisely
their characters, nor had they established any me,-
thodical arrangement, so that they themselves were
often perplexed in endeavouring to identify them.
After the time of Aristotle, no one had engaged in
the investigation of their structure ; such inquiries
ceasing with the Peripatetic school. The Barba-r.
rians added nothing. And the nine succeeding
centuries were not more favourable ; the Monks not
occupying themselves with observations, and even
22i MEMOIR OF
Aristotle's works being for a time unknown to them.
But a brighter day at last dawned. Dante and
Petrarch did much in the 1 4th century ; the Greeks,
driven from Constantinople in the 15th, carried the
works of classic ages along with them, printing was
invented, America and the Indies were discovered,
letters revived, and with them Natural History saw
before it a field of boundless extent. Ichthyology
was the first branch which revived under these
happy auspices ; and the first care of its cultivators
was to ascertain and imderstand what was kno"wn
upon the subject by the ancients. This task ac-
complished, the second great epoch, as already
hinted, arrived; the foundation of modem ichthy-
)logy was laid, and chiefly by the labours of men
whose works appeared very much at the same time,
Belon's in the year 1555, Rondolet's in 1554-5,
and Salviani's in 1554-8. From this statement, it
is manifest that these distinguished individuals must
have laboured very much independently of each
other, though they were cotemporaries ; and hence
each merits a separate consideration, and presents
a distinct claim to our respectful regard.
HiPPOLiTO Salviani was born in the year 1514,
in La Citta di Castello, situated on the Tiber (the
ancient Ti/ernum Metaurense)^ twenty-seven miles
8. w. of Urbino, the capital, of the Duchy of that
name. He was of noble descent* ; -and after hav-
ing finished his general education, he studied medi-
* See Biographic Universelle, sub. voce.
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 23
cine; and having -s-isited the cities of Italy, he
finally settled at Rome, where, according to Dr.
Paul Freher of Nuremberg, he long practised the
healing art with great celebrity, and taught the
science of medicine in its University mth much
success, magnum auditorum, concursu*. His va-
ried talents, and peculiar taste for Natural History,
obtained for him the friendship of Cardinal Cervini,
who procured for him the situation of Physician to
Pope Julius III. Salviani selected the class of
fishes as the chief object of his researches, and
used every effort to collect such as he could pro-
cure in Italy, while he extended the range of
his knowledge by obtaining, with the help of his
protector, accurate drawings of those which were
kno^Mi in Greece, France, Germany, and Britain.
Many notices of his success in these endeavours
will be found in the following pages. He esta-
blished in his own dwelling a regular printing
establishment, whence issued his lesser treatises,
and where he corrected his great work, entitled
Aquatilium, Animalium. Historia. The date of
this elegant volume, on the frontispiece, is 1554,
although the impression was not completed till the
year 1558. The author had first dedicated his
work to his benefactor Cardinal Cervini ; but this
prelate, one of the presidents of the Council of
Trent, having become Pope, under the title of
Marcellus II., and having died of apoplexy twenty-
* See Theatnim Virorum Eruditione Singular! Clarorum,
p. 1265, Noremb. 1688.
24 MEMOIR OF
one days after his election, he substituted another
dedication to his successor, Pope Paul lY.
To these very scanty statements concerning Sal-
viani's earlier and riper years, the perusal of his
work will, as may readily be supposed, supply
various additional particulars. These we will irot
attempt to anticipate ; but we may remark, in
general, that he was speedily regarded as the prin-
cipal and most distinguished Naturalist of his day
in the Great City. Thus we learn, that when any
thing curious in animated nature found its way to
Rome, he was almost invariably and immediately
apprised of it ; and he, in his turn, lost no time in
informing all his scientific friends, who immediately
resorted to him, to inquire and examine for them-
selves. " I communicate the tidings (he remarks),
not only that I may not deprive them of the gratifi-
cation which I myself enjoy but also that from our
mutual conversations on these new and strange
objects, we may be able more satisfactorily to arrive
at correct conclusions." After all were in this way
satisfied, Salviani was in the habit of examining
the internal parts of the animal, and of making
preparations, always retaining the skin, and pre-
paring, when possible, a stuffed specimen, together
with accurate drawings.
, "Without further preliminary remark, we now
turn to Salviani's great work, and shall consider
the more important objects that are there brought
under review, in a brief analysis, which we trust
will be both useful and interesting;.
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 25
The work is an immense folio of 500 pages, got
up in a style of elegance of execution of which ive
rarely see an example even in these latter times, and
comprising nearly 100 copperplates of the same
dimensions, many of which have not been surpassed
by the efforts of modern art. To the proper subject-
matter of the volume are prejSxed various imperial
and other documents confirming the copy-right to
the author. One of these is from the Emperor
Charles V., and another from the Pope; and of
this latter, as containing some allusion to our
author, as well as illustrating the aspiring spirit
and practical working of the ecclesiastical power,
and also as exhibiting the views then entertained
on the subject of literary property and the rights of
authors, a subject of undiminished interest now,
we may here quote a part : — " Pope Julius III. &c.
Forasmuch as our beloved son, Hippolito Salviani,
a Roman citizen, and who for many years has been
our ordinary physician, has caused it to be notified
to us, that with gi*eat labour he has written a
history of aquatic animals, and has printed it, to-
gether with copperplate figures of the animals,
drawn from the Hfe, and engraved at much per-
sonal expense, and since he apprehends that a
work of this kind may be reprinted without his
leave, and greatly to his prejudice. We, wishing to
protect him from loss, grant and appoint that the
said history and figures be not printed, sold, or
kept for sale, by any one without his pennission,
during the ten years succeeding their first impress-
26 MEMOIR OP
sion; prohibiting all and every one of tlie faith-
ful in Christendom, of both sexes, both in Italy
and beyond it, and especially all booksellers and
printers, under the penalty of the greater excommu-
nication, in the countries subject either directly or
indirectly to the Roman church, together with the
penalty of 500 golden ducats, and the forfeiture of
the books. We commit this, moreover, in special
charge to our venerable brothers, the Archbishops,
Bishops, and their vicars-general, and also to the
legates in temporal affairs of the Apostohc see, and
likemse to the governors and rulers of the several
states themselves, that as often as they, or any of
them, shall be required at the instance of the said
Hippolito, they shall inflict and execute the fore-
said penalties, with all their might, against all
contraveners, by ecclesiastical censures, whose se-
verity may be increased, and by other legal mea-
sures under the Apostohc see ; calling to their help
the aid of the ci^dl power, when that may be
required."
The whole work is arranged in two great divi-
sions, very different from each other in their plan
and character. The former, occupying about one-
fifth of the volume (112 pages), is a kind of synop-
tical account of the whole of the inhabitants of " TJje
World of Waters," alphabetically arranged, in a sort
of continuous table, in which, in a number of suc-
cessive columns, are supplied many interesting par-
ticulars concerning each of them. This statement,
however, requires further explanation, and this may
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 2?
be supplied in the -words of the author. " After I
had formed the resolution of writing a history of
aquatic animals, being well aware of the difficulty of
the undertaking, I thought it would be advantageous
again, to examine with additional care, the authors,
both ancient and modem, who had treated of them,
and who had committed to writing any thing worthy
of notice. After carefully collecting all these parti-
culars, I arranged under their proper heads, in one
view, and in alphabetical order, what had previously
been w idely scattered and existed in the midst of
confusion. When after much labour I had completed
this task, I found that I had executed a greater and
more useful work than I anticipated; for besides
a vast collection of materials for my principal ob-
ject, this other result followed, that having so
much under my eye, it was generally easy to illus-
trate what was obscure, and to correct whatever was
erroneous ; and having thus experienced so much
benefit myself, I determined to arange it, as in my
first book, for the benefit of others*." It will now be
more easily understood that upon opening the volume
in any part of this first portion, it is seen that the
two pages under the eye go together to form part
of a continuous alphabetic table, consisting of nine
columns ; the first three of which, beginning at the
left hand, are occupied with the name or names of
the animals brought under review, first in Latin,
then in classical Greek, and thirdly in the vulgar
tongue, whether of Italy, Greece, France, or else-
* Prsefatio.
28 MEMOIR OP
where. All tliese names are not to be considered
as an unnecessary display of scliolarship, because,
in fact, at this and previous periods, ^vllen the true
principles of classification were unknown, the names
were indispensable in relation to that matter, which
of all others most confused naturalists, viz., the cor-
rectidentification of the species ; and even after all
their care, much uncertainty still remained. The
fourth column contains what is denominated the ' at-
tributa^' a word of somewhat extended signification,
and made to comprehend the properties, qualities, lo-
cality, &c. as will immediately be illustrated. The re-
maining six, contain accurate references to the works
of previous authors, wherein the information supphed
in the atfributa is authenticated, the first five being
assigned to those who were regarded as the chief
authorities in the science, viz., to Aristotle, Oppian,
Pliny, Athenius, and ^lian, and the last not to
one, but to all the remaining authorities, or rather
authors, not confined to Natural History only, but
referring to such travellers, historians, and even
poets, as had made interesting allusions to the ani-
mals under review. This last list is of course some-
what heterogeneous, and shows the extended reading
of the author. It contains numerous references to the
waitings of such men as Hesiod, Heroditus, Hesy-
chius and Pausanius, Strabo, Dioscorides, Cicero,
Galen, and Ausonius ; among the poets, to Terence,
Ovid, and Virgil, also to Suidas and Massaria ;
among the Fathers, as they are called, to Clemens
Alexandrina, St. Basil, Ambrose, and Isidore of
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 29
Seville; and among many others, finally, to V. Gylllus
and Mathiolus, among more modern authors. It
should be observed that these references, though mi-
nute and accurate, are not extracts or quotations, but
simply references ; so that they are useful only when
the work mentioned is itself actually consulted."
It should now be noted that this first book, be-
sides proper fishes, contains, as before stated, accounts
of the kind just described, of all varieties of aquatic
animals, — of such quadrupeds as in popular lan-
guage are called amphibious, as the beaver, otter,
seal, and hippopotamus, — of the whole order of
cete or whales, — of reptiles, such as crocodiles,
frogs, tadpoles, lizards, saurines, tortoises, &c. — of
molluscous animals, as the nautilus and purpura, —
of proper shell-fish, as the oyster, &c. — of Crus-
tacea, as the crab and lobster, — also of echin-
dermata and polypi, such as the star-fish and sponges;
and finally, the group of what may be called sea*
monsters, such as the triton, mermaid, the marine
horse and elephant, the sea-lion and hyaena, ape,
and hare, and the kraken ; beings as much involved
in obscurity at that time as they have been both
before and since.
"We shall now supply a few specimens of the
information furnished by the author, from which
the character of this part of the work, and the state
of the science, may be easily inferred ; and in doing
this, we shall rather follow the modem classification
than the alphabetic arrangement. Of the Hippo-
potamus, or river-horse, we are informed that the
30 MEMOIR OP
nose Is very flat, the teeth and tail are like those of
the boar, though the former are somewhat less cut-
ting ; it has the mane and hack of the horse, and
neighs like it ; the hoof is cleft ; the hide impene-
trable, except when moistened, and covered with a
few hairs ; in size it equals the ass ; its internal
parts are like those of the horse ; it inhabits the
banks of the Nile, and is amphibious. According
to Pliny, it was first exhibited at Rome by Marcus
Scaurus. It browses on the corn fields, with much
cunning ; it has little or no afiection for its parents ;
according to Pausanias, it is as dangerous to man as
the crocodile ; and according to Pliny, it taught men
the use of phlebotomy — mittendi sanguinis rationem
docuit. It is accounted sacred in the Papremitanan
district. An account of its mode of capture is
given by Heroditus ; according to ^lian, its flesh is
hard and difiicult to cook ; finally, the diseases in
which it may be usefully employed are stated in
the references given to Pliny, Nicander, Dioscori-
des, and Paulus ^gineta. Again, of the seal or
sea-calf, we are told that it receives its name from
its lowing cry ; that it is an imperfect quadruped,
with small feet, the fore ones like those of the beai,
the hind ones like the tails of fishes, but covered
with hair ; that it has no external ears, but has the
auditory passage ; that its eye changes into a thou-
sand colours; that the teeth are like those of the
sow, and the tongue is cleft at the point. It has
no gall, the kidnies have no internal cavities, but are
solid and like those of the ox. It is very fleshy and
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 31
soft, and its bones cartilaginous ; it Las mammsa
and milk, and brings forth its young on shore
and, according to Aristotle, at all seasons, like man,
having one, two, and sometimes three at a birth.
On the same authority, after twelve days, it con-
ducts its young to the watery element, habituating
them to it from time to time ; and from this quar-
ter it procures its food. It breathes and sleeps — no
animal more soundly : it bellows even in its sleep.
It is capable of instruction, and may be taught to
salute the people by its look and voice, and it an-
swers when called by name. They are accustomed
to fight dreadfully with each other. According to
Aristotle, the seal belongs to the cetaceous tribes ;
it lives both on land and in the water. According
to Pliny, it is the only marine animal which is not
struck by lightning. It is killed with great diffi-
culty, except when struck on the head. How it is
taken may be learned from Oppian ; its flesh is soft
and disagreeable ; the elasticity of its skin is great.
Pliny states that a strong soporific virtue resides in
the right flipper ; its other remedial powers may be
learned from Pliny and Galen, in the various parts
of their writings which are cited.
With regard to the whale tribe, he enumerates
the balaena, physeter, phalasna or capadolio, the
tursio, orca, dolphin, and platanista, most of which
have kept their places in most of our systems to
the present day, and concerning many of them, all
obscurity is far from being removed. As an ex-
ample of the opinions of the time respecting this
32 MEMOIR OP
order, we shall supply the account of the dolphin.
" It has neither ears nor apertures in place of ears,
yet it hears, which, indeed, is wonderful. It has no
appearance of an olfactory organ, and yet has a very
acute smell. The snout is flat, the mouth under the
snout, and almost in the middle of the abdomen . It
has a tongue like that of a pig, has no branchiae, but
a blow-hole ; it has lungs, but no gall ; it has bones,
but no spines ; it has a broad flat back ; it is covered
with a strong hide or skin. It produces its young
in the tenth month, during summer, and sometimes
two at a birth ; its aff*ection towards its young and
those of its own kind is remarkable ; it grows during
ten years, and lives for thirty. Whenever it touches
iand it dies ; it belongs to the class cetacea ; it
seems a terrestrial and aquatic animal ; it breathes
like man and groans ; raising its blow-hole above
the surface of the water, it there sleeps, breathing
while sleeping ; it is carnivorous and seizes its prey
only when it turns upon its back. It is the s^^dftest
of all animals, and is supposed to be in continual
motion. It is soothed by music, is very friendly to
man, is mindful of kindness conferred. It fishes for
its prey in company with men ; and is very sagacious
in swimming, in foreseeing a storm, also when it is
caught, and in preparing a place for its burial. It
is accounted a sacred fish ; the reason why it is
regarded agreeable to Neptune ; it is the king of
fishes ; in what manner it fights with the Amia ;
how it kills the crocodile in the Nile; it conceals
itself in the dog-days ; where and by whom it has
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 33
been bought at a great price. Its flesli is hard and
unsavory. According to Oppian, its capture is un-
la^vful ; the diseases for which it is a remedy are
mentioned."
From among the moUuscousj animals we may
supply his description of the purpura (Buccinum,
Lin., Purpura, Lamarck) that shell-fish from a
vesicular reservoir of which the ancients derived
their beautiful purple, " Tyrioque ardehat Murice
lana ;" and which the discovery of cochineal has
now very much superseded. " This animal appears
to be of the turbinated family by its projecting
wedge-shaped snout, and by the tongue being pushed
forward, and extending club-shaped to the ex-
tremity. It has seven spines in the circle ; it pos-
sesses a natural covering; its tongue is very hard,
and about an inch long. It is much in request as
a dye, this pecuHar substance being found near the
middle of the fauces in a white vesicle. Both Aris"
totle and Pliny mention the time and the method
by which it is procured. The intensity of the
colour is in proportion to its proximity to the sun. It
is brought forth in spring, from slime and putrefying
matter*. It grows very rapidly, for it attains its full
size in a year. It possesses the senses of taste and
smell ; it is capable of motion but in a slight degree. *^
Aristotle states how and upon what it feeds ; it con-
* The reader will here and elsewhere perceive that Aris-
totle, as well as some eminent modern naturalists, is an advo-
cate for equivocal generation. He will also remember that
many of the opinions here delivered are not only obsolete,
but incorrect.
^
34 MEMOIR OF
ceals itself in the dog-days. It lives generally seven
years, and. can exist for fifty days out of the water.
The circles of its shells correspond to the years of
its existence. In Carteia it has been found weigh-
ing ten pounds. It is killed by rain and fresh
water. Aristotle describes the method by which it
is caught with the net ; its flesh is hard. Dios-
corides and Galen dwell upon the diseafjes in which
it is useful ; there are several species, the best of
which is that of T}Te."
Once more, with regard to a true conchifera, the
pecten or scallop-shell (Pecten, Lamarck), Salviani
tells us its common appellation is St. James' shell,
from the custom of pilgrims wearing it in their
hats or about their neck, expressive of their
crossing the sea in their way to the Holy Land,
or to some distant object of devotion. The
pecten is a shelhfish and a bivalve ; the shell is
striated, whence its name. One of the valves is
swelling, the other flat ; each shell has two pro-
jecting auricles. It has an ovum on one side of its
edge, which neaily disappears during spring; for
as the season advances the ovum diminishes in
size, till at length it quite disappears. It is
produced spontaneously, in sandy places, and in
spring. It grows rapidly, for it attains its full size
in a year. On moving the finger towards it, it
gapes, and immediately closes its shell, as if it
noticed and observed. It springs about, and is
observed to make a noise when it moves ; it con-
ceals itself in great heats and colds ; it is injured
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 35
by filtli, and acquires a reddish colour. It is sought
for during the night by the Urtica : the Cancillus
sometimes grows in it. By cooking it becomes
digestible, and is very agreeable when stewed with
ciiMiamon and pepper. According to Athenasus, the
white pecten is the best, and the largest of the red
and dark coloured best in spring, whilst, according
to Pliny, the darkest coloured and the largest are
best in summer. They are procured in great per-
fection near Mytilene. Pliny, Clemens Alex-
andrinus, and Methymneus speak of their medicinal
virtues." It will be noticed that in this description
it is said that this shell-fish springs about. Volitat.
This statement is given on the testimony of Aristotle,
Pliny, and Massaria, and in their works is more largely
insisted upon. It is so strange an attribute that it
may have been generally regarded as legendary and
untrue, and yet the statement has recently been
abundantly confirmed. If a basket of the common
pecten be placed near the water-edge it will be seen
that it is speedily emptied, by its inmates springing
fi'om their confinement to their native element.
This is effected by the sudden opening and shutting
of their valves, the lower striking against the sand
and acting as a spring*.
On the sea-monsters we need not dwell long.
Oppian, Pliny, and iElian are the authorities for
the merman. Homo marinus, testifying as to what
he really is, and when and where he was seen.
The description of the sea-horse is given by Isidore
* See Stark's Elements of Nat. Hist. vol. ii., p 80.
36 MEMOIR OP
and P. Gyllius ; and that of the kraJcen^ the arbot%
is from Pliny and Massaria, a sea-monster of vast
dimensions, which has been noticed in the Atlantic
ocean, not far from Gibraltar.
It -svill be observed that these descriptions, though
alluding to the inhabitants of the ocean, yet really do
not refer to true fish, according to the more accurate
classification of modem times. None of these latter,
however, are omitted in this first book, the whole
receiving a full share of attention. On the other
hand, the second book or part, being composed only
of fishes properly so called, and all these being
accompanied by plates prepared from drawings made
under the author's eye, or that of his friends, these
other aquatic animals, whether mammalia, reptiles,
shell-fish, or zoophites, are wholly excluded from it.
Before, then, leaving this portion of the work, we
shall adduce a specimen or two of the account it
supplies of tnie fishes, and we shall take these very
much as they occur in the alphabetical table. The
fish called Acanthias, the AKxv6txi of the Greeks,
claims attention from naturalists, as it is the one
whose name most approximates, and which pro-
bably suggested to Artedi the appellation of his
most numerous order the Acanthopterygii, those
which have their rays or fins hard, simple, and in
form of spines ; a name which, being adopted by
Baron Cuvier, ^vill probably long retain its distin-
guished position. These acanthopterygii are the
first and most numerous order of the osseous fishes,
which are contradistinguished fi'om the ckondro2>'
HIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 37
torijyian or cartilaginous ones, the other great,
thoiigli less numerous series ; and by the simplest
and most natural suggestion, this name, whieli cha-
racterizes the largest number of osseous fishes, is
applied by our author, as by the ancients, to a fish
not of the osseous but cartilaginous series, to a
Squalus of Linnaeus, the Spinax acanthias of Cuvier,
the picked dog-fish. We are informed that the
acanthias is so denominated from its osseous spine ;
that it is of the family of sharks ; that its heart is
five-cornered ; that it has the ova near the prascordia,
over the mammae ; that it is not produced in the
channel of Negropont, between Boeotia and Eubia."
The account here supplied of one of the sturgeons,
the accijyensor, is very much of the same character.
" Its name is adopted by the Romans from the
Greeks ; it is a small fish, with a great gape, of a
triangular figure. This fish is the only one whfch
has the scales turned tow^ards the mouth. The
branchiae are four in number and simple. I^he gall
flows into the intestines. It s-svims in a course op-
posite to the current of water ; it is not often met
with. It feeds in the depths of the Pamphylian
Sea and in no other place. It has often been re-
garded the noblest of fishes, and is brought into
feasts by persons crowned with garlands, and ac-
companied Avith music." Lastly, of these true fish
we shall give the somewhat more extended account
of the common eel, anguilla. " It is long and slip-
pery ; its branchiae are four in number, simple
and small. It has only two fins ; its skin is very
38 MEMOIR OP
tliick ; its throat is small, and its stomach ; there is
gall in the liver. It does not abound in fat. No
sexual difference is to be found in them, and thev
are produced, says Aristotle, spontaneously. It
feeds on mud, weeds, and slime, and mostly during
ihe night. It attains the length of thirty feet in
the Ganges. According to Aristotle, it lives only
in clear vrater ; in lakes, rivers, and the sea also ;
't descends from rivers into the ocean, and lives sepa-
ratelyfrom other fishes. It has been disputed whether
they mutually devour each other. They become very
tame, so that, according to Pliny and ^lian, you may
supply them with earrings. Its natural period of life
is eight years, and it can live out of the water for six
days. The sea-eel is more worthy of commendation
than the fresh-water one. It is held sacred by
the Egyptians, and is sacrificed to the gods by the
Boeotians. It is exceedingly juicy. Eustachius
maintains it is the best of fishes, whilst Galen says
it is never good. Aristotle narrates the methods
by which it is captured, and observes it is the only
fish which does not float when it is dead."
These extracts describing the true fishes, and
those inhabitants of the water which are not so,
along wdth other details, will convey a tolerably
accurate idea of the first great division of Salviani's
work. It is an Ichthyological Dictionary of its time,
specifying the most important particulars knoTVTi of
each species, and referring to all previous works for
the details. Its perusal may remind the reader
•f more modern systems of natural history, and
niPPOLITO SALVIANI. 39
tliougli it cannot compete with them as to accuracy
of intbrmation and classification, it probably has
the advantage as to general interest and amusement.
Besides this principal alphabetic table, there arc
two other lists, the former of th«5 -Greek names, and
the other of the vulgar ones in modem languages,
both followed by the Latin synonymes. This shows,
at all events, the author's ambition to make his work
extensively useful. The English synonymes are
probably those he found most difficult ; and the very
imperfect list would not now prove of much use in
Britain; the names are such as these: — barbel,
chieven, macrel, perc, polard, sandilz, viver, &c.
"We now proceed to the second and larger divi-
sion of the work, which is written upon quite a
diflferent plan. Here the beautiful plates bear the
prominent part ; they follow each other according
to no system, for the time of systems had not yet
come ; and the appearance of grouping, though
apparent, is far from being closely observed. -Asso-
ciated with each plate is a minute description of the
animal : first, as of primary importance, a disquisi-
tion regarding the name and synonymes, then a de-
scription of the external character, and of its nature
and habits ; then as to the methods in which it is
caught, cured, and dressed; next what kind of nutri-
ment and other products it yields ; and finally the
diseases in which it may be beneficially employed :
" So that," says our author, " nothing is wanting in
my judgment to a perfect history of the animal."
He adds, " There are many who transfer what they
40 MKMOIR OP
read in others to their own works, without con-
sidering whether the statements are true or false,
following rather the authority of men than the
truth of history, as Pliny has done with Asistotle,
Solina with Pliny, ^lian with Oppian, &c. It has
been our determination, however, on the contrary,
to state nothing, the truth of which we had not
ascertained, and hence we have often been forced
to criticise the "writings of our predecessors, without,
however, the slightest wish to be captious." It was
this fixed determination to subject the authority of
men to that of truth, and to reject whatever was
imauthenticated and fabulous, and retain only the
little that was true, which constituted the marked
improvement of the age, and which together with
the advantageous employment of such opportuni-
ties as they personally enjoyed, raised the small
band of Ichthyologists, of which Salviani was one,
to the eminence they have obtained, and to which
they have so just a claim.
The number of species represented in the second
book amounts only to ninety-nine ; and even
this number must be reduced. Four of the most
striking and best plates represent those molluscous
animals now known under the classical appellation
of cephalopodia^ the sepia of older naturalists, and
popularly the singular cuttlefish, from which it has
been thought, we believe erroneously, that China
ink is prepared. Dismissing these, upon which
much that is curious is said, and allowing for
the two plates of the singular cetrina^ the num-
UIPPOLITO SALVIANI. 41
ber offish is reduced to ninety-four. Baron Cuvier
brings them down to ninety-two * ; which may pos-
sibly be a mistake, but more probably arises from
his having considered several plates as nothing more
than duplicates of others. Of this reduced number,
eighteen species appear to have been previously
imnamed and undescribed; and ten more, having
no Greek appellation, must have been unknown to
Aristotle and the earHer naturalists; so that, con-
sidering the small authority of Pliny and later
zoologists, a large proportion, and, in fact, a consi-
derable number was brought to notice and described
by Salviani. To a few of these our author himself
has not ventured to attach a name, though his plates
have enabled later ichthyologists to do so ; and thus
real progress was made, and the benefit retained in
our modern systems.
Thus, then, vrithout aiming at any thing like a
complete analysis, have we endeavoured to furnish
an account and specimen of this important work,
ample to an extent commensurate with the respect
we conceive due to our author on the one hand,
and to our readers on the other ; and by which the
latter may at once form a correct estimate of the
kind and variety of information they are hkely to
derive from consulting its pages. We have some-
where seen it observed concerning this volume, that
on account of the general accuracy of its plates and
description, it may be considered as indispensable
to the modem ichthyologist. Its extreme rarity
* See Diction. Biograph,
42 IMEMOIR OP
would make this statement, if literally true, not a
little distressing. It is so scarce, that for a long
time -yve were not able to lay hands upon it, nor
even to hear where a copy could be procured. It
is, moreover, true, that much of its valuable infor-
mation has been filtrated, so to speak, into Aldro-
vandi's, and other more recent treatises. In addition.
Baron Cuvier supplies on this point a valuable ob-
servation. He remarks, that as the author borrows
many of his details from the ancients, and as these
passages do not always refer to the same species,
much caution is required in consulting them. Upon
the whole, however, the classical Ichthyologist
cannot but esteem the work, and highly prize the
opportunity it affords him of clearing up many obscu-
rities which hang over the earher portion of the
history of the science.
In De Bure's " Bihlioc/raphie" No. 1716, it is
said that the Roman is the only edition of this
work ; but this statement would appear to be incor-
rect, as we find it stated in the Biographie Univer-
selle, that there was a reprint at Venice in the
years 1600-2. The volume, however, is not^^^Lth-
standing undoubtedly scarce.
Although Salviani devoted a large share of his
attention to Ichthyology and other departments of
Natural History, we are not to imagine that he
confined it to these branches of science. We have
read, that he assiduously practised his profession,
both publicly and privately, at Rome; and we
have learned, too, that he taught the class of
niPPOLITO SALVIANI. 43
physic for twenty-two years. It would like-
wise appear that he '\Trote on medical subjects.
He published, in the year 1 558, a book under the
following title, De crisihus ad Galeni censuram
liber; of which a second edition appeared in 1589.
And amidst these scientific labours he did not forget
literature, but opened up a new avenue which
dramatists, who were accustomed only to follow in
the footsteps of the ancients, might pursue, by de-
picting the vices of his time, in a comedy which
was entitled La Riiffiana^ Rome, 1554. He is
supposed likewise to have been the author of various
satirical and critical productions, which appeared
anon}Tnously at the time.
Of his more private history we have been able to
procure no gleanings. He had two sons who sur-
vived him. The elder, Gaspar, acquired very consi-
derable literary reputation, and was a distinguished
member of the Academy of Humorists*. The
younger, Salust, trod in the footsteps of his father,
and practised physic in Rome with much reputation.
On the death of Marcellus II., his successor, Pope
Paul lY. confirmed our Salviani in the several
appointments he enjoyed ; and he continued to dis-
charge their duties with the highest credit till his
death, which happened in Rome in the year 1 572.
* See Maricini, torn. xxvi. p. 449.
INTRODUCTION.
The noblest aspiration of man is his thirst after
knowledge, and his chief characteristic, the power
which he possesses of communicating this knowledge
to others by records, which not only enlighten his
contemporaries, but surviving the time in which
they were written, render the attainments of each
age subservient to those of succeeding generations, so
that not only individuals, but the race, is suscep-
tible of progressive improvement. And at no
previous period has this aspiration after knowledge
been so general and intense, or the records calcu-
lated to diffuse it so numerous — so almost over-
whelming— as at the present. Divested of the
long prevalent prejudices of the schools, the highest
talents of the age have been devoted to direct the
studies of the present and future generations from
the exciting subjects of classical lore, into a field
richly abounding with what is more properly the
business of life. They are labouring — and it is
our anxious endeavour to assist in the great task —
to make people in general ac<juainted with the laws
46 INTRODUCTION.
of their own being, physical and moral, as well as
with the characters of all the objects of nature by
which they are surrounded; — subjects which "come
home to every man's business and bosom," but
which, in an ordinary course of education as pre-
viously conducted, had met with comparatively
little attention.
But still, while the press teems with elementary
works upon Botany, Geology, and Mineralogy, in
all their branches, very few comparatively have
been devoted to the Zoological departments of Na-
tural History as far as regards its grand divisions.
Many, it is true, afford more or less accurate ac-
coimts of the habits of individual animals ; many
magnificent works have been MTitten, detailing,
with praiseworthy perseverance their external cha-
racters, and illustrating with minute fidelity, their
forn>s, spots and colours; certain organs have been
carefully noticed; and the peculiarities observed
by which species are to be distinguished. Never-
theless, the English language possesses few works
devoted to the consideration, as a Race of Beings,
either of Quadrupeds, Birds, Reptiles, or Fishes ;
Entomology is the only division of Zoology which
has been treated of as a whole. The other
branches still require full and accurate gene-
ralizations with regard both to the anatomy and
physiology — the structure and functions — of their
several tribes ; at present, the student is frequently
compelled, in order to acquire the knowledge of a
single fact relating to each, to wade through masses
INTRODUCTION. 47
of extraneous matter, the extent of which can be
known only to those who have experienced the
labour of so doing. To supply this desideratum,
>ve have commenced our Elementary Treatises upon
the structure and functions of the beings composing
the several divisions of the Zoological kingdom :
and in which, avoiding as much as possible the dry
abstractions of science, we shall endeavour to lay
before our readers a portion of what is known of
these most interesting subjects. We have chosen
" Ichthyology" for the first of our series, as being
vast in extent, and engrossing in the interest which
its study excites; involving in its pursuit consi-
derations of the greatest importance and utility,
not only as regards the place which Fishes hold in
the mighty scale of Creation, but also in respect to
their economical and commercial relations. And we
have other reasons — as will presently be seen — for
our choice. In the mean time, we offer our "Work,
with the anxious desire to lay before our readers, in
a collected and condensed form, the immense mass
of information concerning the structure and func-
tions of Fishes, which is scattered through innume-
rable works, many of which are almost altogether
inaccessible to most persons ; and also in the hope
of attracting the attention of the student to this
most interesting department of Nature, in which
he cannot fail to find unanswerable illustrations
of the wisdom, and goodness, and power of the
Creator.
In pursuance of this plan, we shall first notice
4S
INTRODCCTIOX.
PISHES, IN RELATION TO OTHER ANIMALS.
By people altogether uneducated, every animal
is regarded as a fish which is an inhabitant of
the water; and although persons somewhat bet-
ter informed do not use the term in quite so
comprehensive a sense as this, but exclude the
animals commonly called shell-fish, belonging to
those classes which are destitute of an internal
skeleton, they still commonly embrace under this
title all the inhabitants of the waters which possess
such a skeleton, and which move by fins. Even
this, however, is a more extensive sense than that
in which the word Fish is employed by Naturalists,
who confine this appellation to an animal which,
besides being possessed of the above-mentioned
characters, breathes by means of gills, and not by
true lungs, has a single instead of a double heart cir-
culating cold instead of warm blood. Now, this is not
the case with whales, dolphins, porpoises, and many
other tribes of aquatic animals ; all of which breathe
by lungs, have a double heart, aie waim-blooded,
and are, consequently, with propriety, excluded from
the class of fishes. The whale, and other aquatic
animals, resemble the mammalia in their structure
and it is, accordingly, in the same class that they
INTRODUCTION. 49
are, "with propriety, arranged under tlie general
name of Cetaceous Animals*.
It is not without some violence to our ordinary-
associations that we can divest the mind of the
idea, that the huge Leviathan, and numerous other
animals which take their pastime in the deep, are
really fishes, as we have been accustomed to regard
them; but the circumstance of their being sur-
rounded by the waters, is no better calculated to
identify them with fishes, properly so called, than
the similar analogy of birds and quadrupeds, being
both suiTounded by the air, is calculated to identify
them with each other. Nor can it be urged, as
establishing a difference in the latter case which is
wanting in the former, that birds are capable of
rising in the air, while quadrupeds rest upon the
earth ; since a similar difference may be remarked
between fishes, properly so called, and the ceta-
ceous tribes, that while the former have their abode
indiscriminately in any part of the water, the latter
are compelled — for respiration — to remain, except
for very limited periods, near the top, and even
with a part of their bodies above the surface.
By the term Fish, then, is to be understood a
vertebrated animal inhabiting the water, with a
naked body, or one covered with plates or scales ;
moving commonly by means of fins, breathing, if
we may use the term, by gills, possessed of a single
* See a former volume of the Naturalist's Library, devoted
to the history of whales, &c.
D
50
INTRODrcnON.
heart, circulating cold blood, and, in general, ovi-
parous. The skeleton of fishes is composed of
either cartilage or proper bone ; and this circum-
stance, combined mth many peculiarities in their
general structure and economy, has furnished oc-
casion for arranging the whole tribe of Fishes into
two great fami ies, CartilaginoiLs and Osseous.
Fishes, as inhabitants of a medium so widely
different from that in which man and terrestrial
creatures exist, and, in general, rapidly perishing
when withdraAvn from their native element, are
much less frequently the objects of our observation
than those animals which, as sharing with us the
vital influence of the atmosphere, and being inha-
bitants of the soil on which we ourselves rest, we
meet vA\h. at every turn, and with the forms and
habits of which we become, almost unconsciously,
more or less familiar. Tliey are rarely domesticated
m our houses ; we do not meet with them in our
walks ; they are never presented to us in our me-
nageries ; — nay, we seldom find preparations of
them even in our museums : we see them, for the
most part, only in our markets, or on our tables,
and know them chiefly but as administering to our
plates. If even we follow them to their native
Aaunts, it is too frequently in the same spirit that
we pui'sue the fluttering bird with our gun, or the
panting hare with our hounds, — in pursuit of a
barbarous sport, and w'lih. no other end in \'iew
than the gratification of vanity, in the contempla-
tion of our dexterity in hooking and torturing them«
INTRODUCTION. 5X
But are Fishes, constituting, as they do, the prin-
cipal inhabitants of by far the largest portion of our
globe, worthy of no greater attention than this?
Is their structure less wonderful, or are their habits
less interesting, than those of the animals with,
which we are for the most part better acquainted ?
On the contrary, is it not reasonable to suppose that
the investigation of the structure, and functions,
and habits of animals, so peculiarly circumstanced,
will open to us sources of admiration and delight,
as extensive as they are novel ; and, by furnishing
us with so many new associations, render us still
better informed with respect to animals, concerning
which, we may flatter ourselves, we have little or
nothing to know ?
If it be, in general, true, that it is impossible to
be thoroughly acquainted with any one department
of science without having a considerable insight
into many others, it is no where more so than in
Zoology; each department of which is connected
by so many, and such intricate links with eveiy
other, that, in order to be accurately acquainted
with the organs and functions of any one tribe of
animals, it is essential that we be at least mode-
rately well informed respecting those of all the rest.
Could we suppose a person acquainted with merely
human anatomy and physiology, however perfectly,
how circumscribed would be his real knowledge of
the structm-e and offices even of the human frame I
Thus isolated, it would be, not knowledge, pro-
perly so called, but memory. But let such a person
52 INTRODUCTION.
once condescend to study the coiTesponding parts
and actions of quadrupeds, and how vast would be
the increase, by the numberless associations thus
opened to him, of his knowledge, with respect to
things which he had previously perhaps imagined
he had perfectly understood ! Again, let him
descend to birds and reptiles, and at each step of
his progress, his acquaintance, not only with the
subjects immediately in hand, but with every thing
appertaining to the subjects of his previous studies,
will be increased almost infinitely ; — new and un-
thought of relations spring up at every turn ; —
aaalogies, numerous and striking in proportion to
the greater extent of his grasp, every where meet
him ; — and facts which he at first acquiesced in as
ultimate, and knew only as disjointed links of a
chain, of the extent and complication of which he
was profoundly ignorant, he now contemplates as
parts of a stupendous whole, and is at once de-
lighted and exalted by the contemplation. But
the goal is only in view; it is not yet attained.
Let him proceed to Fishes, or to those animals
destitute of a skeleton, and further light still
breaks in upon him; he finds, in the study of
their economy, many of his former blanks filled
up — many of his former en-ors corrected — many
difficulties removed — many just conclusions esta-
blished or corroborated — many happy associations
illustrated or extended. It may be received as
an axiom, that the less a man knows, not only the
less susceptible is he of further knowledge, but
INTRODUCTION. 53
the less he acquires by any given addition to his
stock ; a fact which, to a well informed man, be-
comes, like seed sowji upon good ground, a tree
bearing fruit, and this always abundant, in precise
proportion to the accuracy and extent of his previous
ittformation ; while it is in the hands of an ignorant
man, a barren and a useless thing. It is this inca-
pacity for forming such associations which renders
the first steps to knowledge so difficult and weari-
some ; and it is this gradually increasing capacity
for forming such associations, which renders our
progress in a short time easy and light, and at
length almost intuitive, and in the highest degree
delightful and seducing.
But are the different tribes of animals really
connected together by such intimate relations, as ,
that a knowledge of any one can always be made
subservient to the illustration of the rest ? At first
view, nothing can be more dissimilar in structure
than a quadruped and a fish. The former has its
head more or less erected on a neck fixed at an
angle with its body — it has a capacious chest
behind the neck — and it stands supported by legs :
in the latter, the head and body are in a line with
each other — it has no neck nor chest, properly so
called — and it is without proper legs, using other
organs, termed fins, in their place. Again, the
quadruped breathes by limgs, — while, in fishes,
the influence of the air is imparted to the blood and
system by means of gills ; and in the former the
heart is double, — while in the latter it is single.
54 INTRODUCTION.
These, however, can be proved to be differences in
degree, and not in kind. The main support of the
trunk, of both the quadruped and fish, is what is
termed the vertebral column, composed of a series
of small irregularly shaped bones, or vertebrae, in
the continuous canal of which is situated a prin-
cipal part of the nervous system ; and whether this
column be placed throughout on the same horizon-
tal plane, as in fishes and most reptiles, or tend
about the anterior portion of it, more or less to the
perpendicular, as in birds and quadrupeds; — and
whether the ribs be under the head, so as to lie
almost in the mouth, as in fishes, — or behind the
head, so as to cons^titute a proper chest, as in the
higher tribes of animals, the difference is merely
formal. At the anterior extremity of the spinal
column is placed the head, composed, in both qua-
druped and the fish, of the same essential bones ;
and although the cavity is relatively much larger in
the former than in the latter, this cannot be re-
garded as a fundamental distinction. Nor can those
fins of the fish, by which principally it supports
itself and moves in the water, be regarded as any
thing else than the rudiments, as it were, of the
limbs of the quadruped. Similar bones enter into
their composition, and they are attached in a similar
manner to the trunk ; and it is in the highest de-
gree interesting to notice, in how very slow and
progressive a manner these small and simple fins of
the fish rise through the insignificant legs of some
reptiles, to the more perfect and available wings or
INTHODUCTION. 56
legs of birds, and thence, ultimately, to the sturdy
members of the rhinoceros and elephant. But
surely, it may be said, the gills of fishes, and their
single heart, as contrasted with the lungs and double
heart of quadrupeds, constitute an essential differ-
ence between the two tribes. Such, however, is
not the case. Many fishes have a kind of lungs, as
well as gills, the air-bladder in some of these ani-
mals being supposed to perform functions analogous
to true lungs — and, from the form of this organ in
serpents, the transition is easy through the lungs of
other reptiles and of birds, to those of quadrujjeds.
With respect to the double heart of the qua-
druped, there was a time, during its developement,
when its heart equalled in simplicity that of the
fish, the division of it into two cavities not taking
place until its progress to maturity is considerably
advanced. The fish, then, in these respects, may
he said to constitute the primary model on which
the quadruped is formed ; and, in fact, in the rep-
tile, a kind of intermediate structure, with respect
of the last mentioned organs, prevails. The Ba'
trachian reptiles — the young fi-og, for example, or
tadpole — breathing at first by gills alone, afterwards
by both lungs and gills, and, lastly, using its lungs
alone as respiratory organs ; and the turtle and
crocodile having a heart which is neither entirely
single nor entirely double, but something mid-way
between the two. How very gradual, then, are the
steps by which, in these respects, we ascend from
the fish to the quadruped ; and the same analogies
o6 INTRODUCTION.
existing, in a still more marked decree, between
the various other organs of each, how well cal-
culated must be the study of the one, to illustrate
the nature of the other ! Nature acknowledges no
sudden transitions — she has made no animated being
isolated — none w^hich is not connected by one link
below, and by another above itself, with all the
)est — man alone, in this particular, excepted.
And while she has constructed no hnks but what
constitute a part of the great chain, extending from
the lowest animated being up to man, she has left
no gap in tliis chain into which one additional link
could have been advantageously inserted. And
who shall say that the Divine hand, which has
permitted man to be elevated so much higher than
other animals upon the same foundation, has not
permitted other beings to proceed infinitely further
still ; so that to them man is far, far more insigni-
ficant and contemptible, than to him is the veriest
worm that crawls. Can we, then, for a moment
imagine, that a knowledge of the structure of so
extensive a tribe as that of fishes, the connecting
series of links, as it were, betAveen the two funda-
mental divisions of the whole animal kingdom, the
vertebrated and avertebrated, is isolated, and cal-
culated to throw no light upon that of other ani-
mals; or that we can perfectly understand the
economy of any one tribe, so long as we remain
ignorant of the numberless points of analogy w^hich
this interesting tribe presents in relation to every
other ? And, with respect to the functions and
INTRODUCTION. 57
lm1)its of other animals, and of fislies, the analogies
are not less perfect than -with respect to their struc-
ture. The latter move in their native element as
\\ e do in oui's : they use, like all other animals,
certain means of self-defence and of attack ; they
smell, see, hear, and feel ; they furnish numer-
ous evidences of instinct, and not a few, perhaps,
in its very highest range ; they respire ; they circu-
late their fluids ; they digest their aliment ; they
perpetuate their species : and can a knowledge of
the peculiarity of the processes hy which they do
all this, be supposed to be superfluous to one en-
gaged in investigating the corresponding processes
in other forms of animated nature ? Certainly not.
Let us cease, then, to regard fishes as standing, as
it were, alone in the creation, and constituting a
tribe of uninteresting beings, the study of the eco-
nomy of which is meagre in itself, and has only a
very remote and obscure bearing on that of any
other department of Natural History. Nature —
'* Acts not by partial, but by general laws."
And these laws can never be fully understood,
so long as they are contemplated only partially — so
long as any tribe of created beings, and especially
so extensive and important a tribe as that under
consideration, is excluded from the account.
'■Q
INTRODUCTIOX.
THE NATURAL HABITAT OF FISHES
>vill next claim our attention. — As the earth
is the natural inheritance of maramiferoUs ani-
mals, of birds, and of reptiles, — so that of fishes
alone, of all the vertebrated tribes, is in the wa-
ter; and as in the extent of their dominions they
fai* surpass terrestrial animals, so, in the anti-
quity of their possession, and in the uninterrupted
tenure by which they have held it from the begin-
ning of time, they are still our superiors. While
yet " the fowl that flies above the earth," and " the
cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth,"
were uncreated, the waters had brought forth abun-
dantly, and every living denizen of the seas and
rivers existed; and when, subsequently, " the
waters prevailed upon the earth," and " all flesh
died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and
of cattle, and of beast, and of creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth, and every man," the
aquatic tribes were still unscathed in this their
native element, and continued to take their pastime
therein.
Among the vertebrated animals, fishes alone,
•with the exception of the immature young of cer-
tain reptiles, can be said, with strict propriety, to
INTRODUCTION. /lO
dwell in the water, as their natural and only habi-
tation ; for although the cetaceous tribes, or whales
and porjjoises, which, as we have already observed,
are not so much fishes as great beasts of the ocean,
are constantly in the water, it is only the bulk of
their bodies which is so ; a part of the top of their
heads being often kept above the surface, or brought
there at short intervals for the purpose of respira-
tion. The cetaceous animals breathe air like our-
selves; which air finds access to their lungs by
by means of holes, called spiracles^ situated on the
the top of their heads — although, in other respects,
quite corresponding to the nostrils of other animals.
In like manner, many other maramiferous animals,
as the various species of seals, — the morse, or sea-
horse,— the hippopotamus, — the otters, — and the
New Holland Ornithorynchi, with many others,
are more frequently in the water than out of
it. The same is also the case with many of the
wading and diving birds; while, among the rep-
tiles,— the turtle, and the crocodiles, &c., make it
nearly their sole habitation. Still no one of these
animals is competent — for the same reason as
prevents the cetacea from so doing — to remain
under water beyond a period more or less limited ;
and thus the crocodile, which seldom leaves the
immense rivers of tropical countries, — subjected by
nature to its rule, — remains, in general, floating on
the surface of the water like a large piece of timber,
maintaining its respiration without impediment, and
ready, at the same time, to seize on such hapless
60 INTRODUCTION.
victims as thii-st, or any other occasion, may bring
to the banks.
On the other hand, fishes live, and move, and
have their being permanently in the water; and,
so far from requiring an occasional change of the
medium by which they are surrounded, are, in
general, soon destroyed by being removed into the
air. It is requisite, indeed, that the water in which
fishes reside be charged with a certain proportion of
air, otherwise it could not minister to their respira-
tion ; but it is still through the water that air is in
them subservient to this function ; and they can no
more breathe the air, unless water be its vehicle,
than terrestrial animak can breathe it in that state
of admixture.
It is true, indeed, that some fishes, particularly
those popularly called " Flat Fish," such as the
turbot, the halibut, the sole, the plaice, and the
flounder, may be said to inhabit rather the mud
and sand at the bottom of the water, than the
water itself; and the same is the case with the
great loche (Colitis fossilis)^ a native of GeiTaany,
which seldom quits the mud, except on the approach
of stormy weather — hence it has sometimes been
used as a kind of living barometer; as also with
the fossile silure f Silurus /ossilisj, a native of the
Indian lakes, from the muddy bottom of which it
is sometimes dug up in the same manner as the
great loche ; and hence the specific name fossilis,
by which both are distinguished. Other fishes,
again, as the laimer, or sand-eel (Ammod^/tes
INTRODUCTION. 61
tohiamiSy^ and the dragon- weever (Trachinus
dracc)^ lie, in general, wholly or partially covered
with sand ; the former often at the depth of a foot
or more, with its slender body rolled up into a
spiral form. Under these circumstances, however,
the fishes in question are not wholly removed from
the influence of the water which is above them ;
and they can therefore be regarded as inhabitants
of the water only, though completely immersed in
the mud and sand at its bottom.
But there are also fishes which are capable of alto-
gether deserting, for a time, their natural element,
and becoming temporary denizens of the earth and
air. Thus, eels are well known frequently to crawl
along the grass, during the night, from one piece
of water to another; and, if we can credit every
thing that is printed, we have still more extraor-
dinary tales reported, such as rooting up seeds and
pease in their tract, and nestling under hay-ricks
to avoid the cold* ! And the soldier loricaria
(Loricaria callitJdhys)^ a native of Surinam, is
described by Marcgrave, as not only making its
way over land to a deeper stream, when that
which it inhabits becomes too shallow, but even
sometimes burrowing under ground for the same
purpose ! We thus find fishes, at one time, crawling
over the ground like snails, — and, at another, bur-
rowing under it Hke moles ; but what shall we say
to fishes climbing trees like the sloth, or even flying
through the air? There are few fishes, indeed,
* Abertus magnus.
62 INTRODUCTION.
whicli display the former propensity; but such, is
the case with the red sparus f Spams sigillatus),
a native of India, about the size and figure of a
perch, and it Avas accordingly formerly known by
the name of the climbing perch, or Perca scandens.
Attention to this previously unknown fact was
drawn, in 1791, by Lieutenant DalsdorfF of Tran-
quebar, in a Latin letter addressed to Sir Joseph
Banks, and published in the third volume of the
Linnasan Transactions. He caught the fish in a
broad fissure of the bark of the Borassus Jlahelli-
formis — a species of palm — at the height of about
five feet from the ground; and it was still busy in
making progress upwards, when its course was ar-
rested by the ruthless hand of the Naturalist. The
fact, that many fishes are capable of rising from the
water, and of maintaining, for some time, a kind
of flight through the air, is more generally kno'WTi.
This is most remarkably the case with the fish
commonly called, par excellence, the flying-fish,
the Exoceti of system atists, and of which several
species have now been discovered. Nevertheless,
as the only surrounding medium which ministers
to the well being of all other vertebrated animals,
at least in a state of maturity, is the atmosphere,
so that which supports, for an indefinite time, the
life of fishes, is the water*.
The solid parts of the bodies of most fishes are,
like those of the bodies of animals in general, some-
* See a more particular accoimt of these organs, when wo
come to treat of the " locomotion" of fish^gs.
INTRODUCTION. 63
what heavier than water, their hones, for e^anjple,
generally sinking in this fluid ; consequently, had
Nature not provided them with a sufficient supply
of some substance lighter than water, by which their
tendency to sink in this fluid, at least at all ordinary
depths might be counteracted, it would have re-
quired a constant effort on their parts to keep
themselves at any given level. This tendency is
accordingly provided against, in a great measure,
by the quantity of fat with which fishes are in
general furnished, and which, being very nearly m
such proportion to the soHd parts as to bring their
body, collectively taken, to about the same specific
gravity as that of the water which they inhabit,
supersedes in them the necessity of making any
efibrts, except for the purpose of changing their
situation. It is well known of how oleaginous a
nature is the flesh of many fishes commonly used
at table — the salmon and eel, for example ; and in
the internal parts of fishes, in general, the quan-
tity of fat is still more remarkable. The gall of
many is little else than a kind of oil; and the
enormous quantity of this fluid which may be
obtained from the liver of the basking shark, the
fod, the ling, with several other fishes, is suf-
ficiently well known; it is said, that the liver
of a single basking shark frequently affords seven
or eight barrels of oil. Fishes have no true lungs,
which, to all the terrestrial and aerial tribes of
animals, as always containing a considerable quan-
tity of air, are one great source of buoyancy ; but
64 INTRODUCTION.
in place of lungs in this capacity, many fishes are
provided witli an organ commonly kno^vn as the
air or swim-bladder, to which they owe more, in
this respect, than most other animals do to their
lungs. The principal use of this bladder, however,
appears to be, not so much that of rendering the
body of fishes uniformly buoyant, but to modify
this buoyancy as occasion may require.
It is for the same purpose of diminishing their
specific gravity, that the cetaceous tribes — the bones
of which, unlike those of most fishes, are in general
lighter than water — are furnished with a prodigious
quantity of fat ; for it must be remembered that they
require, not merely to be kept at any given level be-
low the water, but to be raised again to the surface,
as often as in the pursuit of their prey, or from any
other cause, they had dived below it. This is a prin-
cipal use of the enormous quantity of oil which is
found in these animals, contained, in most part, in
what is called the blubber, immediately under the
skin, and constituting the train-oil of commerce. The
cetaceous animals, also, have no proper air-bladder ;
but their lungs, which are generally continued in
an elongated form along the spine, instead of being
confined, as in the other mammiferous animals, to
the plane of the proper chest, serve, in some mea-
sure, as a substitute for that organ.
Fishes are of nearly the same specific gravity as wa*
ter, and consequently they have little or no tei>
dency, at any given level, either to rise to the surface,
or sink to the bottom, but can move either upwards
INTRODUCTION. 65
or downwards with equal facility; whereas the
natural tendency of the cetaceous tribes and of
birds being always to the top, and that of the rest
of the raammiferous animals and of reptiles to the
bottom, the two former experience comparative
difficulty in sinking, and the two latter, equal diffi-
culty in rising in the fluid. Independently, then,
of any other causes, they cannot, on this account,
be said to be so much in their natural element,
when surrounded by this medium, as fishes are,
nor to be at all upon a par with them, in their
claim to be considered inheritors of the waters.
We alluded just now to the possession, by most
fishes, of an organ called the air or swim-bladder,
sometimes familiarly known by the name of the
sound. Every body must have noticed, near the
back-bone of the herring, and other fishes, a shin-
ing, pearly-looking membrane, almost enveloped
by the roe or milt of the animal. This is the
organ in question ; and it is of this organ, as found
in the sturgeon, the carp, the ling, the burbot, and
many more fishes, when dried and prepared by
certain processes, that the substance called isinglass
is manufactured ; and the same part of the cod,
when salted or cui'ed, forms a well-known favourite
dish for the table. The air-bladder consists of a
membraneous pouch, more or less tubular, situated
along the lower part of the spinal column. It is
simple in the majority of fishes which possess it,
fig. 1. of the salmon, but in some, as among the
Cyprinidce^ it is double, fig. 2. of the chub ; that is
E
66
INTRODUCTION.
to say, it consists of an anterior and posterior portion,
communicating by a narrow neck : in others, as the
Scicena umhra, &c., it is arborescent, or branches
in the manner of a tree ; and it also assumes other
INTRODUCTION.
67
forms, as those represented in our third wood-cut.
In general, its cavity is without any partitions, as
already stated ; but in some members of the genera
Diodon and Tetrodon, tribes remarkable for their
uncouth globular form and prickly surface — as well
as in the genus Silurusy and in the sword-fishes
fXiphiasJ, it is sub-divided in the manner of the
lungs of reptiles, so that its interior has a cancel-
lated, or honey-comb appearance. This correspond-
ence of the air-bladder of fishes and the membra-
neous lungs of reptiles, is a po-vverful argument in
favour of the doctrine of those who represent all
6S INTRODrCTIOX.
animals as formed essentially upon the same model,
and regard the air-bladder of fishes, and not their
gills, as analogous to the lungs of the superior
tribes of animals; the gills of the former, in the
mean time, being considered as having no corres-
ponding organ in the latter, in their mature state,
although they are always met with in one stage of
their progress towards maturity. The air-bladder
of fishes is either a perfectly blind pouch, without
any communication with the contiguous organs, or
it has an opening into it, called the trachea, either
from the gullet or from the stomach. It appears
quite blind in many species of the genus Scicena^
just alluded to, as well as in the perches. On the
contrary, it communicates with either the gullet
or the stomach, in the sturgeons, salmon, pike,
perch, chub, &c. ; and, in the cod, this com-
munication is sometimes effected by two distinct
passages. In most fresh water fishes, it is found
to be filled with the gas called nitrogen, or azote,
which is comparatively light, and is one of the
ingredients of common atmospheric air; while in
those inhabiting the salt waters, it contains car-
bonic acid gas, which is considerably heavier than
the former, and is one of the gasses commonly
evolved during the progress of combustion and fer-
mentation, as well as by the respiration of terrestrial
animals.
The air-bladder is not met with in all fishes.
It appears to be wanting among the cartilaginous
tribes, in the lampreys and myxines whicli are
INTRODUCTION. 09
found cmomonly in the mud at the bottom of the
water, and in the rays ; and among the osseous
fishes, it is wanting generally in the flat fishes, as
the turhot, and the rest already mentioned as inha-
bitants rather of the mud at the bottom of the
water, than of the water itself — ^in the launce or
sand-eel, already likewise alluded to, as inhabiting
the sand rather than the water — as well as in the
European angler (LopMus pkcatorius ) ; which,
again, is one of the fishes described as in the habit
of burying itself in the soil, while lying in wait for
its prey. It appears to be wanting also in the
anchovy, the leaping blenny, the gudgeon, the
flying scorpaena, the sucking-fishes, the mackerel,
and many others. It wiU hence be observed, that
there is no precise correspondence between the
habits of fishes, as accustomed to remain at rest
at the bottom of the water, or to glide through
its bosom, and the absence or presence in them of
an air-bladder ; since, while, on the one hand, not
a few of them elsewhere spoken of, as found com-
monly in the mud or in the sand, are furnished
with this organ, many of those, on the other hand,
above specified as destitute of it, are still accustomed
to move freely through the water.
The principal use of the air-bladder of fishes,
appears to be that of increasing or diminishing their
bulk, without changing their absolute weight, and
thus of modifying their specific gravity as circum-
stances may require; and it is probably owing to
the circumstance of fresh water being lighter than
7C INTRODUCTION.
salt water, that a lighter gas, such as nitrogen, is
requisite to such fishes as inhabit the former, while,
to those which live in the latter, a hea-vder gas, such
as carbonic acid, is adequate for the purpose. They
are thus enabled to rise or to sink in the water
without much muscular exertion ; all that is re-
quired being, in the former case, to distend the
organ in question, — and, in the latter, to contract
it : but in what manner they effect this change in
its volume is not very well understood. The com-
mon impression is, that the air-bladder, in its
ordinary state, is subjected to a certain uniform
pressure by the contraction of the contiguous
muscles ; and that it is by reUeving it from a part
of this pressure, by relaxing these muscles, and
thus allowing of a rarefication of the air which it
contains, that fishes rise in the water; whereas,
when they desire to sink, they contract these
muscles to a still greater degree than usual, by
which means this air i?, in a corresponding degree,
condensed. Upon these principles, the actual quan-
tity of air contained in the air-bladder may be pre-
sumed to be at all times the same, and this may
possibly be the case in those fishes in which the air-
bladder does not communicate with the neighbouring
passages ; but in those in which such a communica-
tion exists, it is obvious that any compression of
the bladder will not merely condense the air, but
expel a portion of it through the mouth or over the
gills ; and there must consequently be some means
by which such air is renewed, independently of any
INTRODUCTION. ^\
supply of it from the atmosphere, since, otherwise,
a fish which had once sunk below the water hy
expelling a portion of air from its air-bladder, could
never have risen again by the help of this organ.
Further, the character of the contained gas, at
least m the salt-water fishes, is such, as to be in-
compatible with the idea that it is derived from the
atmosphere, which, abounding as it does in nitrogen,
contains a very insufficient quantity of carbonic acid
gas ; nor can it be derived from the water, in either
the fresh-water or the salt-water fishes, since water
is destitute alike of nitrogen and of carbonic acid,
at least in any thing like what may be supposed to
be a sufficient proportion for this purpose. It is
manifest, therefore, that at least such fishes as
expel at intervals a portion of the air from their
air-bladders, must have the power of renewing it
by a process going on within themselves — in other
words, that they form this air from their blood, by
a process called secretion, in the same manner as
they form their gall, or any other of their natural
fluids ; nor will the suddenness with which such air
must be presumed to be frequently formed, occur as
an objection to this doctrine, to any one who reflects
on the almost instantaneous effect of certain emo-
tions of the mind exciting in man a copious flow
of tears, or bathing the whole body in perspi-
ration,— efi'ects which are confessedly the results
of secretion. This was the opinion of Dr. Monro
and Mr. Hunter, respecting the source of the air
within the air-bladder of fishes; and the former
72 INTRODUCTIOX.
has even presumed, that a certain red, fleshy-
looking substance, which is often found within
it, acts in the manner of a gland, and secretes
from the blood the air which it contains. It
seems fair to conclude, then, that at least a
great number of fishes rise in the water by means
of their air-bladder, not by removing from this
organ a part of its accustomed pressure, and thus
rarefying the air which it contains, but by deposit-
ing more air within it ; and that they sink in the
water, not by condensing this air, as the result of
the increased pressure to which they subject the
air-bladder, but by getting rid of a portion of it :
and if this be certainly the case in so many fishes,
analogy would render it probable that it is so in
all; and that the only difference between those
which have, and those which have not a passage
from their air-bladder, is, that in the former the
pressure exercised directly expels the air, while, in
the latter, it promotes its absorption. It has been
contended, that the floating of fishes after death is
a proof that they rise in the water, during life,
merely by relieving the air-bladder from its ordinary
pressure, and not by any active process ; but this
argument is very fallacious, since fishes in general,
unlike the cetaceous animals, which are naturally
lighter than water, do not float till some time
after death ; and, when they do so, it is as the
result of a quantity of new gasses formed in their
body by putrefaction, precisely as occurs with man
and terrestrial animals in general. Besides, if it
INTRODUCTION. ^3
was owing to the distention of their air-bladder that
fishes floated after death, they should not, as they
usually do, turn belly upwards under these circum-
stances— the air-bladder being above their centre of
gravity — but should present themselves in their
ordinary posture. This circumstance seems to be a
sufficient proof, that the gasses which occasion the
floating of fishes after death are formed principally
in the organs contained in the belly, which are, in
all animals, among the first to putrefy ; and some
fishes, such as the Diodons and Tetrodons^ or por-
cupine fishes, employ sometimes the device of
swallowing air when they wish to inflate their body,
and thus to raise their bristles in self-defence;
which air, passing into their stomach, renders the
belly, in spite of their air-bladder, which runs
along the spine, the lightest part of their body, and
they always assume, accordingly, the posture of a
dead fish as it floats upon the water.
But by whatever immediate means the air-bladder
of fishes is either expanded or contracted, there can-
not be any reasonable doubt that it is by means of
changes in the volume of this organ, and, conse-
quently, of the whole body of the animal, that such
fishes as are possessed of it are enabled to rise and
sink in the water with little or no muscular effort
In proof of this it is sufficient to observe, that in
these fishes the power of rising in the water is quite
lost if the air-bladder be perforated, or otherwise
incapacitated for retaining air; and that they are
equally incapable of sinking in this fluid if the
74 INTRODUCTION.
volume of contained air is considerably expanded.
It was established by experiment, many years ago,
by the celebrated naturalist Ray, that, after pricking
the air-bladder, fishes were no longer able to rise in
the water, but remained constantly at the bottom,
like so many of the other tribes which are naturally
destitute of this organ; and fishermen are at pre-
sent in the habit of availing themselves of this
knowledge, by adroitly pricking the air-bladders of
the cod, and other fishes, as soon as they are
caught, for the purpose of keeping them at the
bottom of their well-boats, and thus of preserving
them fresh for the market. On the other hand, it is
equally well known, that if fishes have remained long
near the surface of the water, exposed to a scorching
sun, which produces a great rarefication of the air
contained in their air-bladder, they are no longer
capable of sinking in the water, but are obliged to
remain at the top, till the cool of the evening has
again condensed this air, and reduced the bladder
to its usual volume, rendering buoyant some other
part, at the expense of those by which their vital
functions are maintained.
With respect to those fishes which are destitute
of an air-bladder, and which, nevertheless, rise
freely in the water, they can eff"ect this only by an
effort, although a very slight effort may be con-
ceived to be sufficient for the purpose. This is
performed, in the ray tribe, by means of their enor-
mous pectoral fins, the motions of which act up-
wards and downwards, upon precisely the same
INTRODUCTION. 75
principles as a bird rises in the air ; and in most
other fishes, under these circumstances, by means
of either these fins or the tail. It is true, the tail
of fishes, in general, being placed upright, and not
flat, as it is in the cetaceous tribes, and moving
from side to side, and not upwards and downwards,
is calculated, not so much to raise them in the
water — as that of the cetaceous tribes does — as to
propel them forwards in a horizontal line ; but it
must be remembered, that some of the fishes which
are destitute of an air-bladder, for example, most
of the flat fishes, swim, not on their bellies, but
on their sides, so that their tail, in fact, lies flat
upon the water, its motions are perpendicular, and
it is, consequently, as well adapted for raising
them in this fluid, as that of the cetacea. The
circumstance of these tribes swimming on their
sides, is a corroboration of the opinion, that one
use of the air-bladder is to keep the back of those
fishes, which possess it, uppermost. It does by
no means follow, however, that fishes, destitute
of an air-bladder, may not have other equally
effectual means of keeping the back uppermost
in their motions through the water. In the
eel-shaped lampreys and myxines, the imperfect
cartilaginous spinal column is probably as light,
or lighter, than the aggregate of the other parts;
in the rays, the same motions which raise them
in the w^ater, necessarily keep the back upwards;
and in the other fishes, above enumerated, as
wanting an air-bladder, it is easy to conceive
76 INTRODUCTION.
that the motions of their spine, or of their several
fins, may be abundantly instrumental to the same
end. It is a very vicious line of reasoning which
leads us to the question, that any alleged object is
effected, in certain animals, by any given organ,
because the same object is, in other animals, ef-
fected without it.
The same organ, which to man is the instrument
of touch, is, to the quadruped that of support —
to the bird that of flight — to the fish that of
swimming ; whereas touch, which is in man seated
in the hand, is, in other mammiferous animals,
seated sometimes in the root of the whiskers, some-
times in the snout, sometimes in the tip of the
wings, sometimes in the tail ; while, in the duck,
its seat is the bilL
It is probable that all fishes, with very few
exceptions, rise occasionally to the surface of the
water ; but to what depth they are capable of de-
scending with impunity, remains undecided. It is
universally known, that the atmosphere exercises a
pressure on every thing exposed to it, which goes
on, progressively increasing from above, doAvnwards,
so that it is the greatest at the surface of the earth ;
and that the water exercises a similar pressure,
which, in like manner, becomes progressively
greater from the top to the bottom of the mass,
so that it is the greatest in immediate contact
with the base of the reservoir in which it is con-
tained.
But although near its surface, water exercises
INTRODUCTIOX. 77
very little more pressure on things immersed in it
than air does, we must keep in mind, that as it
becomes deeper this pressure becomes, in a cor-
responding degree, increased, till, at the depth of
thirty-four feet — the height of a column of water
is equal in weight to that of a corresponding
column of the whole atmosphere — it presses upon
bodies immersed in it with the weight of two
atmospheres, and so on progressively for still
greater depths ; and it has accordingly been found
by experiment, that at very great depths, the
pressure is such as to drive in the most firmly
fixed corks of bottles, and to flatten the most
solid pewter vessels, which have been exposed
to it.
Now, it is reasonable to beheve, that fishes would
be materially injured by being subjected to any-
thing like such pressure as is competent to produce
these efi'ects. Among the cetaceous tribes, the great
northern whale, on being harpooned by the fishermen,
sometimes descends, by strong muscular efforts,
to such immense depths, that its body must have
been exposed to a pressure equal to that of many
atmospheres; but it is not with impunity that it
does this. On the contrary, on rising again to the
surface, as it is sooner or later obliged to do to take
breath, it is found frequently to spout blood from
almost every outlet of the body, as the result of the
inordinate pressure to which it has been subjected,
or rather, perhaps, as the result of a return to the
ordinary pressure, after having been exposed to a
78 INTRODUCTION.
pressure so enormous. Those who descend in
diving-bells, also, to great depths — ^since, of course,
the pressure made upon their bodies, in these cir-
cumstances, by the air which surrounds them, is
always equal to that made upon this air by the
water which is in contact with it — are often found
to spit blood, and to manifest many other marks of
disturbance of their functions, upon rising again to
the surface of the water.
It seems, then, fair to conclude, that it is only
to a certain depth below the surface of the water
that fishes can descend with impunity ; and that,
universally diffused as they may be in pools and
most rivers, it is only within a certain determinate
range of the ocean that they are capable of existing.
This circumstance is not sufficiently often reflected
upon, when we unhesitatingly represent fishes as
living upon the water-plants which grow at the
bottom of the deep, and describe every thing that
is thrown into the water as becoming indiscrimi-
nately their prey. In all likelihood, the supposed
water-plants, growing in many parts of the ocean,
never come within the reach of fishes, at any rate,
till they have become separated from their parent
stalks; and the substances thrown overboard, in
many cases, soon pass beyond it, unless they are
adroit enough to seize it by the way. There may
be, undoubtedly,
" a thousand fearful wTecks —
A thousand men that fishes gnaw upon,
All scattered in the bottom of the sea,"
INTRODUCTION. 7^
but it is, perhaps, requisite for this purpose, that
the sea be not too deep for them ; and the sugges-
tion, accordingly, of Mr. Pennant and others, that
some fishes, which are destined at certain seasons
to migrate, are, at other times, buried in the vast
profundity of the seas, is not a very probable one ;
at least, we know, that the greater number of
fishes congregate principally in shallow waters, and
about coasts ; and that, when farther from the
shore, it is chiefly over sand-banks, such as those
of Newfoundland and the Dogger-bank, that they
are met with. Is it conceivable that the herring,
for example, should exist unscathed, as has been
supposed, under a pressure of 683 fathoms of water,
which has been proved to be the depth of some
parts of the sea between Iceland and the north of
Norway ; or under that of more than 780 fathoms,
to which depth the water, a little further north, has
been sounded, without finding a bottom ? Whe-
ther the animal could ever reach these depths, by
the most energetic efforts, may be very reasonably
questioned ; but that it could long hold its station
there, and that in full possession of all its functions,
appears to be most improbable. We shall now
proceed to the manner and the organs by which
fishes move through their native element, or
80 INTRODUCTION.
THE LOCOMOTION OF FISHES.
In the preceding chapter we detailed the principal
means by which fishes, on the one hand, preserve
their level in the water which they inhabit, and, on
the other rise, and, within certain limits sink in
this fluid, according to circumstances. These pro-
cesses are, or may be all, in a great measure
passive ; but those by which these animals effect
their various locomotions, otherwise than perpendi-
cularly upwards or downwards, by which they
creep along, or into the mud or sand at the bottom
of the water, or, even deserting their natural ha-
bitat, crawl along the grass, or climb trees, as well
as those by which they perform their various evo-
lutions in the water, leap occasionally from its
surface, and even skim for some space through the
air, are strictly active, and fall now to be considered.
It is not, indeed, improbable, that some fishes,
like the duck-weed and star-grass among plants,
and the sea-blubber, and many other invertebrate
tribes, among animals, may be moved in the water
principally ]>y the currents and tides, or by the
winds ; but the number of those in which loco-
motion is otherwise than active, is certainly very
small.
The chief organs of locomotion in fishes are the
INTRODUCTION. 81
spine and the fins, including, under the latter
term, the tail ; but, to understand clearly the func-
tions and motions of these parts, it will be necessary,
first, shortly to notice the mechanism and structure
of the skeleton and muscles. The spine, or verte-
bral column, to the extremity of which the tail, or
caudal fin, is attached, is by far the most important
organ in the locomotion of fishes. The other fins,
analogous to the extremities of the higher animals,
being used, and only much developed under parti-
cular circumstances, never possess the firm and
sturdy, or active structure, which are requisite,
and enables birds and mammalia firmly to support
themselves in another medium. Those limbs, or
fins, then, in fishes, are used more for the purpose
of direction than of progression ; and even in the
prodigious manner in which we shall see that some
of them are developed, we do not find that there is
a corresponding power imparted. The spinal co-
lumn, then, is expanded upwards and downwards ;
and the muscles of the trunk, which almost all
assist in its movements, are placed in numerous
transverse strata along the sides, with strong ten-
dinous fascia between, and the whole are disposed in
longitudinal layers, directed alternately in dijfferent
directions.
The spine, in general, consists of numerous
small irregularly shaped bones or vertebras, of a
rounded form, from which proceed several projec-
tions or processes ; and they are familiarly known
to present the appearance of a shallow cup, with
p
82 INTRODUCTION
one or more handles. Those placed nearest the
head, are called abdominal — for fishes have no neck
or chest, properly so called. They have the sharp
process pointing obliquely upwards from the body
of the vertebra, and, in general, two projecting
outwards from its sides.
Connected with the upper spinous process, of
more or fewer of the abdominal vertebree, and on
the same line with it, is a short bone, called the
interspinous bone ; and connected, again, with this
last, is another longer bone, still in the same line,
and it is this which supports the dorsal fin. On
the other hand, the two transverse processes have
each connected with them a long curved bone,
encircling a great part of the bulk of the body like
a half hoop, and commonly mistaken for the ribs
of the animal ; but, if they are to be so called, they
should at least be distinguished by the name of
abdominal ribs; for the true, or thoracic ribs, or
those corresponding to the ribs of man and the
higher classes of animals, are placed very far for-
wards, and almost under the lower jaw of fishes,
and have no direct connexion w^th the spine.
These reputed ribs are wanting in most of the rays,
and in the cartilaginous fishes in general, as well as
in the Diodons, Tetrodons^ and several of the osseous
fishes ; but they are a well-kno-vvn source of annoy-
ance to those eating the herring, and numerous
other fishes commonly brought to table. The rest
of the vertebras of the spine, or those situated
nearest the tail, are called, from this circumstance,
INTRODUCTION. 83
caudal; and have each the same kind of upper
spinous process, often with its appendages, the
interspinous bone, and the ray, of the fin still
called dorsal, as the abdominal vertebrae. Instead,
however, of the two transverse processes, and their
appendages the abdominal ribs, which characterize
the abdominal vertebras, the caudal vertebras have
a second spinous process, with two roots, pointing
obliquely downwards from the body of the vertebrae ;
and, connected with this lower spinous process,
exactly in the same manner as the corresponding
parts are with the upper one, a second interspinous
bone, and a ray of the anal jin^ lying near the tail
of the animal, and on the opposite surface of the
body from the dorsal. The caudal Jln^ lastly, or
what is commonly called the tail of fishes, is an
appendage, like a portion of the dorsal, and the
whole of the anal fin, to the caudal vertebrae ; to
the upper and lower spinous processes of which it
is attached, almost directly in the axis of the
spine, forming, in appearance, a kind of fan, moved
by powerful flat muscles. It will hence be obvious,
that the dorsal fin, the anal fin, and the caudal fin,
are, in fact, only appendages to the spinal column
of fishes; the two former being, in reality, de-
velopements of the spinous processes. These are
used chiefly directing ; and, from their position,
except in giving greater power to the rapid motion
of the body from side to side, are not directly
employed in progression or turning.
Where the bodies of the individual vertebrae of
84 INTRODUCTION.
fishes are applied to each other, there is a deep
conical cavity, commonly with a small hole in the
centre ; and this hole is, in many of the cartila-
ginous fishes, so large, that the bodies of their
vertebrae represent almost one continuous tube.
These cavities are filled, in the living animal, with
a soft jelly-like matter, which extends, also, for
some little space, beyond their rims, being kept
in its place by a tough elastic membrane. The
fluid amounts, in some of the larger fishes, to some
pints, between every two vertebrae ; and such is the
pressure exercised upon it by the membrane by
which it is immediately invested, that, if this be
suddenly punctured in the skin, as noticed by Sir
Everard Home, the liquid is projected with a force
sufficient to carry it four or five feet high. Nothing
could possibly have been better adapted than this
part of the structure of the spine of fishes, to
ensure free motion, and to protect the surfaces of
the bone from injury when so continually plied.
The bodies of each vertebrae, in fact, move, as it
were, laterally on each other, by means of so many
interposed elastic balls. This motion is almost
entirely from side to side ; from the form of each
bone, and the presence of the upper and under
spinous processes, it must be obvious, that motion
in any other direction would be superfluous, while,
if it had been permitted, more important uses must
have been sacrificed.
In the motions of all fishes^ the spinal column
is an essential assistant, and may be said to be the
INTRODUCTION. 85
acting power which regulates the motions of the
fins, which are only accessaries. In all the long
finake-formed species it acts an important part ;
and although, in the eels and lampreys, the power
of the posterior extremity in the water is increased
hy heing bordered by a narrow fin, yet the motions
of these fish, when they hare to travel over portions
of land, or any dense weeds, which is very fre-
quently the case, are conducted entirely by the
spine, the finny border being there quite unneces-
sary. Our first Plate, illustrating a curiously
marked species, will illustrate this ; — it is
86
THE BANDED OPHISURUS.
Ophisurus altemans, QuoY and Gaimard,
PLATE I.
Two specimens, only, of this curiously marked fish,
seem to have been procured during the voyage of
Freycinet, of no great size, hut remarkably conspi-
cuous, from the regular and decided banding and
spotting with which the body is marked. The
ground-colour is of a delicate bluish-giey ; the bands,
amounting from thirty to thirty-two, of a deep rich
brown, and having from one to two round spots
occasionally placed in the intervals ; and the Na-
turalists who describe it, are of opinion that these
spots and bands become more numerous with the
age of the fish. The motion of this fish is described
to be very slow, and, looking at its form, we can
easily understand that will be very smooth and
gliding. The banded Ophisurtts was discovered on
the coast of the island of Guam.
There are a few other fishes also, whose ap-
pearance has gained for them such titles as Ophi-
surits and Ichthyophis^ where a bounding fin is
totally wanting to the body, and where the motions
a
o
■•M
o
THE BANDED OPHISURUS. 87
are entirely conducted by the spine. The form of
these fish is very similar to that of a snake, as their
names imply ; and even the pectoral fins are ex-
tremely small in proportion, compared with those
of fishes having the same lengthened form. These
and the true eels can move very rapidly through the
water, hut when undisturbed upon the bottom,
their motions have more the aspect of crawling
than of swimming.
We shall now notice, with more detail, the cases
of the various fins, as they are connected with the
spinal column, and as instrumental to the loco-
motion of fishes. And we shall first describe the
tail, or caudal jin, as by far the most important
organ in active progression; for, in rapid move-
ments through the water, it must be at once per-
ceived that the fish could not possibly move any of
its fins so as to act as propelling powers, for if,
at any period, they projected at angles from the
sides of the animal, they would materially ob-
struct its motion. The tail, in the greater number
of osseous fishes, consists of a series of jointed rays
fixed to flat bones, which are, again, articulated to
the last joint of the vertebral column. These rays
are connected by a web, and ordinarily exhibit a
flat fan or paddle; and it is the elongation or
shortening of these rays, with the form of the in-
tervening web, which occasions the almost endless
variation which we see in the shape of this organ.
The structure which is most conducive to a swift
motion, as well as to the power of keeping up a
88 THE BANDED OPHISURUS.
rapid progression for a length of time, is a Innated,
or crescent form, having the breadth and depth of
the curvature in certain relative proportions : that
which we see in the common trout and the salmon ;
that of the pilot-fishes is also near this proportion.
These fishes have the power of very rapid and long
sustained motion in the water, and immense power,
as we shall afterwards see, of surmounting obstacles
in their courses. The migrations of the salmon,
and its ascending rivers filled with rapids and water-
falls is famiharly known ; while the power of
swift and long-sustained motion will be exemplified
in the genus Namrates, or pilot-fishes. In both of
which, we see this powerful form of tail combined
with the tapering, yet solid, construction of the
body, and which altogether combines those pro-
perties in their highest developement. To illustrate
this, we have added a figure of the
^
2 -d
o
89
INDIAN PILOT-FISH.
Naucrates Indicus^ Lesson.
PLATE IL
Pilote Indian, Naucratus Indicus, Less. — Voyage par Du-
perrey, i. page 157, pi. xiv.
This species of Naucrates was discovered, during
the voyage above quoted, on the coasts of New
Ireland. It is of an elegant and graduated form,
having the tail, however, rather more forked and
swallow-like than this member in the Salmonidw^
where we consider the form nearly at perfection
for swift and long-continued motion. The colours
are not bright, but are chastely shaded; and the
markings on the tail are bold and conspicuous.
When the tail begins to diverge, from that now
illustrated, either by the rays in the centre being
elongated, as in the Eleotris lanceolatus, fig. 1, launce-
tailed goby, or in Lonchurus ancylodon of Schneider,
fig. 2, or by an excess or prolongation of the lateral
rays, as in the forms, are immediately diminished.
We pass through every gradation of form between
these two extremes; and when we examine those
fishes where a great power of locomotion does not
90
INDIAN PILOT-FISH.
become so important to their economy, we find
most extraordinary forms occurring. As an organ
of defence, and furnished with strong armour, it is
often a most formidable weapon, as we shall notice
in its proper place ; and in fishes whose defence is
not so requisite, we see it triftircated, as in some
of the Cyprinida3y the well-known gold-fish, for
example. In the singularly formed sun-fishes,
shown in
\
x""
4
pq
91
THE SHORT SUN-FISH.
Orthagoriscus Tnola, Schneider.
PLATE in.
The rays of the fin stretch round the whole pos-
terior part of the fish, where it acts the part of a
tail. This fish, and another species, has heen oc-
casionally taken on our coasts; and, Mr. Yarrell
remarks, have gained their name both from the
shape and the brightness of the skin. Notwith-
standing their occurrence, however, we know little
of their manners, or how the tail influences their
motions. It is known and recorded to lie, and
perhaps to sleep, with the head out of the water,,
and is supposed to keep near the bottom, and to
feed on sea-weeds; and when taken, Mr. Crouch,
says, it makes powerftd but awkward attempts to
escape*.
In the genus Trachypterus (Cuv. and Valenci-
ennes), the member is most remarkable, as indeed
cire the whole fins, both in their form and struc-
ture ; but the form will be best understood by our
figure of
* Yarrell, ii. p. 352.
92
SPINOLA'S TRACHIPTERUS.
Trackypierus Spinolce, Cuv. and Val.
PLATE IV.
A small species of extreme rarity, found in the
European seas; M. Risso procured it near Nice.
Tlie remarkable position and form of the fins, on
the upper part of the head, seems rather to belong
to the dorsal than to the caudal fin.
In some other fishes, again, one of the lobes of
the tail is prolonged into a slender filament equaling
the whole length of the fish, and of which it is
difficult to conceive the use. This may be observed
in the Loricoria cirrhosa, Schneid. In another fish,
Sty'eporus chordatus, Schneid., remarkable for its
whole form ; the extremity extends nearly tyn.ce the
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»ii.>OLAS TRACHIPTERUS. 03
length of the the fish. Among the cartilaginous
fishes, it is often more an organ of defence than of
locomotion. The sharks use it as a powerful rud-
der ; but in the various genera of rays, where it is
always nearly the length of the fish, it is often
strongly armed, in addition to being fiimished with
small adipose fins, and in some it is prolonged to
an enormous length, as in the Raga Jlagellum of
Schneid. The form is generally not very elegant,
neither are the colours brilliant; but our annexed
Plate, while it exhibits the general form of the tail
in this race, will also exhibit an exception to the
generally dull colouring which prevails among
tnem.
94
HALGAN'S SFINE-TAILED RAY.
Trygon Halgani, Lesson.
PLATE V.
I'rygon lymna. — Riippell, pi. xiii. fig. 1.
This species of ray, so very distinct from most of
its congeners by the bright spotting which adorn its
upper surface, seems to have been known and de-
scribed by several travellers, or there may be one or
two species which are closely alhed by their form and
markings ; for the figure of Riippell represents two
spines on the tail, whereas Lesson's fish has only one
of these organs of defence. It is a small species ; the
general size of the species being only about six inches
in length, to which may be added about eight inches
for that of the tail ; the spine is placed about the
middle of the tail, is flattened at the base, and at the
point is finely barbed, which would cause it to inflict
a dangerous wound. The upper part of the fish, or
back, is thickly marked "vvith azure spots, as we
have endeavoured to represent, and which beauti-
fully relieves the pale uniform tint which otherwise
covers it. Lesson and the expedition met with
Halgans ray very abundant in the Bay of Ofiack,
--it
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halgan's spine-tailed ray. 95
111 the isle of Waigou, and also in New Ireland.
They furnished food for a great portion of the ex-
pedition during their stay at these islands.
Almost every one is aware that a boat may be,
with certainty, urged forwards by what is called
sculling ; that is to say, by means of one oar passed
over its stem, and continually mov in the water
from side to side. Now it is precisely upon this
principle that the tail of fishes, moving from side
to side, operates in propelling them forward. It is
evident that the oar, on the one hand, and the tail,
on the other, in this alternate lateral motion, is
continually displacing a quantity of water great in
proportion to the length of the instrument em-
ployed, and consequently to the sweep which it
makes in its oscillations ; and it is by the resistance
which the water makes to this displacement by the
oar or tail, in coming from its extreme sweep to
the axis or mesial plane of the boat or fish, that
either is urged onwards.
It will easily be understood why Nature has been
so soUcitous to remove from the portion of the spinal
column, by which the tail of fishes is moved, every
possible cause of obstruction to its free lateral
motion — why it is not burthened by the same kind
of ribs which are connected with the anterior por-
tion of the spine — why all the viscera are placed so
far forward — and why, lastly, there is either no
pelvis at all, or, at any rate, only a rudimentary
one, and, in general, unconnected with this part of
the body. The movements of the tail are only, or
96 LOCOMOTION OF FISHES.
chiefly lateral in fishes; and, of course, in those
which swim, as the majority of them do, on their
belly, it moves in the water from side to side;
whereas in those which, like the osseous flat fishes,
swim on their sides, it moves upwards and down-
wards ; but its eficcts are, of course, precisely the
same in urging the animal forwards, except that, in
the latter case, the animal advances in the diagonal,
intermediate, not between a force urging it to the
right and another urging it to the left, but between
a force urging it downwards and another urging it
upwards. On the other hand, in the cetaceous
tribes the movements of the tail are only or chiefly
perpendicular ; so that, in them, swimming as they
do on their belhes, the tail moves upwards and
downwards, and they are urged forwards, therefore,
on precisely the same principles as the flat osseous
fishes while swimming on their sides.
Nor is the tail of fishes employed merely as an
oar to effect their progress in the water, but also as
a rudder to direct it ; the slightest continued incli-
nation of this organ to the right side, for example,
while the body is still in motion, necessarily deter-
mining the direction of the course of the animal in
the same degree to this side, the resistance now
offered by the water to the course of the animal
directly forwards being greater on this side than on
the other ; and the same thing results if the fish
move the tail through a greater sweep, or with more
force, from right to left, than in the opposite direc-
tion. And if either this inclination of the tail to
LOCOMOTTOX OF FISHES. 97
the right side be sufficiently long-continued, or the
sweep and force with Avhich it moves from right to
left sufficiently exceed that with which it moves
from left to right, the animal will wheel completely
round, or may be even made to revolve upon the
same horizontal plane, as upon a pivot driven verti-
cally through its centre of gravity. Now, it is
exactly on the same principle that the flat osseous
fishes, which have no air-bladder, use their tail,
not only in swimming in a straight line through the
water, but also in rising and sinking in this fluid ;
for the same loss of balance in the motions of a tail
moving from side to side as w^ould turn an animal
to the right or left, in those of a tail moving verti-
cally, will, of course, depress or raise it. And it is
thus also that, in the cetaceous tribes, the necessity
of an air-bladder is superseded ; since, when they
desire to rise in the water, all that they have to do
is to strike a few smart blows with their tail down-
wards, when their heads are necessarily carried in
an opposite direction ; and when they wish to sink,
a few similar blows with the tail in the upward di-
rection, at once serves to bury their heads beneath
the waters.
But the tail of fishes is useful to them still in
another capacity, besides that of either a paddle or
a rudder, since it is chiefly by means of this organ
that they are enabled to leap out of the water ; and
the height to W'hich some of them are capable of
thu'S bounding into the air is astonishing. From
the enormous basking-shark to the minute stickle-
98 LOCOMOTION OF PISHES.
backs, this power seems to belong to the greater
number of fishes ; and to be exercised sometimes in
sport, at others to avoid their enemies, to reach
their prey, to escape from confinement, or to over-
come obstacles during their migrations. Thus the
haddock, when pursued by the dog-fish, or other
voracious fishes, is observed frequently to leap for
an instant out of the water ; and it is, as pressed
by the pursuit of their numerous enemies, that the
various kinds of flying- fishes — of which we shall
speak more fully presently, as not rising into the
air, but of maintaining for some time a continuous
course therein — spring out of their natural element.
Many fishes, also, which feed on insects fluttering
over their heads, are enabled to reach them only by
these means ; and the rising of the trout out of its
stream, for this purpose, is well known to anglers.
The silvery trichiurus, a taper-shaped fish, inhabit-
ing the lakes of South America, India, and China,
not unfrequently takes such surprising somersets
after its prey, as to fall into vessels which are acci-
dentally passing at the time. Other fishes, again,
as the mullets and the carp, are observed frequently
to escape in this way from the nets by which they
have been environed, a whole shoal of them some-
times vaulting over, one after another, Hke a flock
of sheep over a fence. This circumstance, "with
respect at least to the former, was known to
Oppian —
The mullet, wlien encircling seme's enclose,
The fntaJ threads and treacherous bosom knows;
LOCOMOTION OF FISHES. 99
Instant he rallies all his vigorous powers,
And fjiithftil aid of every nerve implores ;
O'er battlements of cork up-darted flies.
And finds from air th' escape the sea denies.
But the feats of fishes, in this way, are most re-
markable during their migrations, if any obstacles
are opposed to their determined progress. Under
these circumstances the little stickleback, the in-
habitant of almost every pond, river, and marsh, is
capable of bounding from the water, perpendicularly,
to a height of eighteen or twenty inches ; equal in
force to what would be required to project a man
into the air to a height of fifty or sixty feet. There
is no fish, however, the vaulting of which, in the
course of its migrations, is so celebrated as that of
the common salmon. It is very generally known
that, as the spa'svning-time approaches, these ani-
mals pass in shoals from the sea and ascend the
rivers; and, in their course, have frequently to
make their way over cataracts, the obstacles offered
by which would appear to be insurmountable.
Such are those of Pont Aberglastyn, among the
hills of Snowdoun, of Leixlip on the Tivy, in South
AVales, and of Kenneth, near Dublin ; all which
the salmon every year surmount, and, having at-
tained the even water beyond them, quietly pursue
their march towards the sources of the river. There
are several of these falls which are celebrated as
salmon leaps, the fish having to make great exer-
tions to overcome their height, and making several
attempts before they can surmount them. The
100 LOCOMOTION OF FISHES.
height of the actual leap which they can take has,
however, heen much exaggerated ; for unless there
be parts in the fall where the fish can attain a tem-
porary resting-place, and gain another spring, they
cannot surmount a cataract of any great height : in
some places, these temporary resting-places are
taken advantage of to take the fish by various
contrivances. And it is on record, as an appendage
to one of the princely monasteries of old, that a
pot was placed in such a position near the fall, and
supplied with fael, as sometimes to receive the fish
which missed their leap, and which, falling into
the vessel, caused a bell to be rung, and themselves
intimated, that they might soon be placed on the
dinner-table.
Another fish, almost equally celebrated as a
voltigeur, is the sturgeon (Acipenser sturioj^
which, in its migrations up the American rivers,
is often observed to leap to the height of several
yards perpendicularly from the surface of the water,
falling back again with so much violence, as some-
times to sink the small canoes of the Indians ; who,
accordingly, stationing themselves in larger boats,
frequently employ this means of capturing it.
Next to the tail or caudal fin, the pectoral fins
in fishes are of most importance in their locomotion.
These comprise, in a rudimentary form, the same
parts as are met with in the arm, fore -arm, wrist,
and hand 'of man, — and the ventral fins, in a still
more rudimentary form, many of those which are
found in the inferior extremity ; and as the former
LOCOMOTION OF FISHES. 101
are all supported in man by the blade-bone and
collar-bone, and the latter by the bones of the
pelvis, so there are corresponding bones, in most
fishes, for the support respectively of the pectoral
and ventral fins. It is true, the correspondence of
these parts in fishes and in man — the lowest and
the highest tribes of vertebrated animals — is so
obscure, that, if the comparison be made abruptly,
no sort of resemblance will perhaps be traced ; but
if we are content to follow, in our investigations,
the same order which Nature has followed in her
w^orks, and to advance, by progressive steps, from
the lowest to the highest links of the chain, we
shall at once recognize the analogy, and shall be
compelled to acknowledge that all the parts above-
mentioned, as corresponding in fishes and in man,
are really constructed upon the same model. The
analogy, however, between the pectoral fins of
fishes, and the anterior or upper extremities of
the higher classes of animals, is far more striking
than that between the ventral fins and the poste-
rior or lower extremities ; and, indeed, the ventral
fins are in general of a size so disproportionate to
that of the pectoral, and sometimes placed in so
unusual a situation, as on the same plane with, or
even nearer to the snout than the latter, that it is
difficult at first to reconcile ourselves to the idea
that they correspond to legs. It is a principle,
however, in tracing the correspondence between
the several parts of different animals, to disregard
altogether size and situation, as constituting no
102 LOCOMOTION OF FISHES.
essential distinctions, provided any analogy exist
in elementary structure ; and that such an analogy
is maintained, in the case under consideration, is
unquestionable.
The blade-bone or scapula of fishes in general,
is a somewhat broad and flat bone, attached some-
times to their spinal column — although without
forming a proper appendage to it, and sometimes
to the bones of the head ; at other times it is, as in
man, buried in the substance of the flesh, about
the shoulders, without any proper attachment to
either. With this are connected long spines, cross-
ing over the front of the neck, so as in general to
meet their fellows of the opposite side, and to
constitute arches below and behind the arches
formed by the lower jaw and lingual bones : and of
these, one corresponds to the collar-bone, or cla-
vicle, of the higher classes of animals; and the
other, which in fishes is called the coracoid bone,
to the merry- thought, or furcula, which is proper
to some reptiles and to birds. In this respect,
then, fishes are in advance of the mammiferous
animals, for the latter has no coracoid bone, or
furcula, but only the rudiments of it, in what is
called the coracoid process ; and many of them, for
example all those wdth hoofs, are destitute also of a
clavicle. But if fishes are before us in the develope-
ment of these bones, they are, in the same degree,
behind not only mammiferous animals, but reptiles
and birds also, in the next bone, or that corres-
ponding to the arm-bone, or humerus of man,
LOCOMOTION OF FISHES. 103
"whicli, in most fislies, is quite rudimentary ; so
much so, that the two bones of the fore-arm seem
to be in general almost directly connected with the
scapula, no proper bone being interposed between
them. The shoulder-joint, therefore, and the
elbow-joint of fishes, are, in general, almost one
and the same. The two bones of the fore-arm are
the ulna and the radius ; which two bones are, in
some few fishes, so constructed, as to roll with
tolerable freedom on each other, exactly in the
same way as they roll on each other in man, in the
action of rotating the hand; and it is by this
means that they have the power of changing the
direction of the flat part of their pectoral fin, during
its play in the water; a power which, as we shall
presently find, is so conducive to the full use of
this organ. These two bones, however, are firmly
united together in most reptiles, in all birds, and in
many quadrupeds ; so that here, again, certain
fishes have the advantage of many of the superior
tribes of animals. To the ulna and radius are
attached the several bones of the wrist, quite cor-
responding to those of the wrist of man ; and from
these, again, proceed the long radiating bones,
equally corresponding to those of the hands and
fingers of man, and constituting, with the mem-
brane extending between them, all that is seen, on
a superficial view, of a pectoral fin, and all in
which such a fin is vulgarly supposed to consist.
It is not peculiar to fishes, however, to have a
great part of these anterior extremities concealed
104 LOCOMOTION OF FISUES.
under the common covering of the body ; such ser-
pents as have the rudiments of these extremities,
have not only the greater part of them, but often
the whole, so concealed ; and in no animal, in fact,
is the whole so completely exposed as in man.
Generally speaking, then, we observe the most
perfect structural analogy between the apparently
rude and insignificant pectoral fin of the fish, and
the upper extremity of man; there is, indeed, a
point in the transition, through the various tribes
of animals, from the one to the other, as in the
case of the dolphin and other cetaceous tribes,
where we cannot tell whether the member may be
called, with more propriety, a fin, or a hand and
arm ; and that organ of man, so noble in form, and
so exquisite in structure, which is at once the
source of his most delicate perceptions, and the
instrument of his sublimest works; — that organ,
which is so often folded in love, or stretched in ado-
ration, is fundamentally the same as the coarse
flabby web which hangs from the neck of an obscure
fish, and serves merely to assist its course, or main-
tain its station in the water. In this member of
fishes we perceive almost as much variation of
form as of the tail. The usual form is that repre-
sented on the accompanying cut, and prevails in
all those possessed of swift or long-sustained mo-
tion; it is often proportionally elongated, and is
also sometimes much spread out, or broadened at
its tip. In a few fishes it is altogether wanting,
and in about an equal number it is nearly only
LOCOMOTION OF FISHES.
105
rudimentary, or very small. In the Cotti^ or bull-
beads, it becomes very much developed at the tip.
and becomes broadened by a wide and thin mem-
brane intervening between the rays. In Trigla^
or the gurnards, it continues the broadened form
and wide membrane, but adds length to its breadth ;
in Trigla fasciata^ Schneider, it is more than half
the length of the fish. In some of our native species
it is of great expanse, and, in addition, is adorned
with the brightest and most brilliant colours. In
another curious tribe of fishes it is singular and
scarcely less developed ; in the Pegasus draconis it
appears like two little fans extended from the side,
as if the fish were about to fly. In a foreign species,
gurnard, which we shall represent, the pectoral fins
are very beautiful.
106
THE NEW ZEALAND GURNARD.
Trigla kurnu, LessoK.
PLATE VL
Trigla kumu, Lesson. — Voi/. de la Coquille, plate xix. rol. u.
page 214.
This beautiful species was found abundantly in the
bays of New Zealand by the expedition of Duperey,
where it was used as food by the natives, and
brought on board by them in abundance. It is not
a large fish, reaching only a length of from fifteen
to eighteen inches, and is in form rather slender.
The dorsal fins are relieved by the strong rays being
of a dark yellowish-red, the intervening webs pale
rose colour. The upper part of the fish is of a
brownish-red, rather abruptly broken in the middle,
below which it is of a shining silvery hue. The
pectoral fins are very large and roimded ; they are
of a brilliant emerald-green, broadly bordered >vith
azure blue round the extremity, and having an oval
patch of velvety-black upon the interior edge, which
is beautifully relieved with snow-white spots. In
another fish, forming a distinct, but nearly allied
^enus, the pectorals are also of extreme size. This
is
1
I
01
O
J 07
THE ORIENTAL DACTYLOPTERUS.
Dactylopterus orientalis, Cuv. & Val.
PLATE VIL
And whicli, along with the Sciena volitans and a
few others, were said to fly above the surface of
the waves. There seems, however, no authority
for any thing farther than a leap, which the large
fins enable them to sustain for some time. It has
been taken on the coast of the Isle of France.
Among the Scorjywnce and Exoceti, or flying-fishes,
where the develop ement reaches its utmost extent,
the power is occasionally used as affbrding a means
of escape from impending danger, through the
medium of another element. In the Scorpcence,
the whole apparatus of fins presents extraordinary
developement, and that of the pectoral often reaches
beyond the insertion of the tail. This is the
structure of the S. volitans of the Indian seas ; and
the web which connects the rays is cut into, or
divided for half its length, so as, with little power
of imagination, to resemble the quills in the wing
of a bird. None of these species, however, appear
to leave their native element, although the appella-
103 THE ORIENTAL DACTYLOPTERUS.
tion of " volitans" and some others of nearly similar
signification, has been applied. It is in those fishes
only to ■which the name of " flying-fish," par ex-
cellence^ has been given, that use their pectoral fin
for the purpose of a temporary absence from the
waters, exemplified by the
COMMON FLYING-FISH.
Eococetus voliians. Pennant.
PLATE Vin.
Of which specimens appear occasionally to have
been met with on the British coasts, though cer-
tainly only of occasional occurrence. There are
several species, possessing nearly an equal develope-
ment of those fins which seem to occur in different
ranges of latitude, and not to stir beyond their
bounds, with as much regularity as we find in the
distribution of the other vertebrated classes. By
many authors, this power of the Exoceti has been
pourtrayed as actual flying, that is, propelling
themselves forward by the motion of their fins or
wings, after they had risen from the waters. The
later and most to be credited testimonies go mostly
to confute this ; and it seems pretty evident, that it
is the first impulse or spring from the water which
is the propelling power, and that the breadth and
volume of the fins supports them so long as the
moisture continues : a very interesting account of
the manners of one of these fishes will be found in
Mr. Bennett's Wanderings, and the above, we be-
110 COMMON FLYING-FISH.
lieve, is the conclusion to which he arrives. From
fifty to one hundred yards is sometimes passed over
by this leap or skim^ rising considerably above the
water, and performing in the leap an arc of a
circle.
In the rays or skates, and some allied genera of
cartilaginous fishes, the parts analogous to the pec-
toral fins are also much developed, but they are
used more as a vast flapper to raise the fish from
the bottom, or to bury it in the sand or mud, than
as a powerful locomotive organ ; this will be bet-
ter understood by referring to Plate Y. page 94.
They are not, except that their outline is more
angular, very unlike the flat osseous fishes — for
example, the flounder ( Pleuronectes maximusj;
but nothing can be more dissimilar in their struc-
ture and general economy. When we look upon
the flat part of the latter we see the animal in
profile, and the extreme boundaries of the body,
between the snout and tail, are formed by the back
and beUy, the dorsal and anal fins. On the other
hand, when we look upon the flat part of the
former, it is either the back or belly that we con-
template; and the outline of the body, between
the snout and tail, is formed partly by the two
ventral, but chiefly by the two pectoral fins. These
are attached by all enormous scapular arch running
do\Mi each side of the simple fin of the animal, and
supporting the proper bones of the arm, from which
proceed innumerable jointed rays, or fingers, com •
posed, like all other parts of the skeleton of carti
VENTRAL FINS. 11]
laglnous fishes, of cartilage, and not of bone. It
is principally these rays of the pectoral fins, and
the flesh upon them, that are eaten at table ; in
other words, it is the enormous hand of the animal
chiefly on which we regale ourselves. The pectoral
fins are very rarely wanting in fishes ; but such is
the case with the lampreys and a few others.
The ventral Jlns assist the pectorals, and are
of use in turning and balancing the fish, but in
their office are entirely subordinate. They are
supported by the pelvis in the same manner as
the scapula and clavicle support the pectoral fins.
The bones of this part are extremely imperfect, and
quite unattached, in the osseous fishes, to the
spine, apparently for the purpose, as already re-
marked, of leaving that portion of the spinal
column, by which the tail is moved, as free from
incumbrance as possible. The two rude bones of
which it consists are situated sometimes before the
pectoral fins, sometimes opposite to them, and
sometimes behind them ; and they may be either
attached to the bones of the head or to the sca-
pular arch, or quite unattached to any part of the
skeleton. With these pelvic bones are, in general,
directly connected the long radiating bones corres-
ponding to the instep and toes of the higher tribes
of animals, no trace being commonly visible of the
intermediate thigh, leg, and ancle bones, which are
met with in the latter, although the previously
named portions are quite sufficient to establish the
structural analogy of the ventral fins of the fish
112
RUDIMENTARY FORM OF THE
with the posterior or inferior extremities of the
reptile, the bird, the quadruped, and man; upon
the same principle as even the claws of some kinds
of serpents, already alluded to, are received as ana-
logous to the arms, and the extremities of some
kinds of lizards are admitted as analogous to both
arms and legs. Fishes even rank before the ceta-
ceous tribes in this respect, since few of the latter
present any rudiments of posterior extremities at
all.
In many fishes the ventrals are very much deve-
loped in length, but scarcely ever to the extent,
or to the same comparative breadth with the pec-
toral fins. They are long in the dories (Zeus.)^
also in the genus Platax. In some other genera,
again, as Trichopus^ Osphrommus^ and Calisa,
they are longer than the fish, but consist of only
a single ray or filament.
In some of the Lophii anglers they have almost
the appearance of the paws of a quadruped, and in
VENTRAL FINS. 113
the harlequin-angler, they are more like a kind of
feet than fins; so much so, that in the original
delineation of this animal by Margrave, in his de
scription of Brazilian Fishes, it is represented as
squatting on these fins, almost in the manner of a
frog or toad upon its haunches. M. Renaud. in-
deed, in his History of Fishes, tells us, that he
knew an instance of this fish living for three days
out of the water ; and, in the mean time, trotting
about the house, on these fins, like a dog upon its
legs ! The ventral fins are, like the pectoral, of a
comparatively large size in rays, which, unlike those
fishes which rely most upon the motions of their
tail for progression, have their pelvis attached to
their caudal vertebrae ; and these fins, accordingly,
co-operate with their pectoral fins in perfecting the
rhomboidal form which their flat body so generally
presents. The ventral fins are very often entirely
wanting in fishes. This is the case with the eel
tribe^ which, from this circumstance, are called by
Linnaeus Apodal fishes, or fishes destitute of feet.
The ventral fins of fishes in general lie commonly
flat in the water, in whatever position the animal
may be, and perhaps conduce rather to depress tho
belly than to efi'ect any other specific purpose : the}
may likewise co-operate with the pectoral fins i?
preserving the balance, as well as between one side
of the body and the other, as between its anteric
and posterior portion. In some fishes, as the lump
(Cyclopterus lumpus)^ there is formed of the
united ventral fins a kind of sucker, by means of
H
114 DORSAL FIN.
which the animal adheres strongly to any thing in
contact with it ; hut to this suhject we shall have
to recur presently. The deficiency of ventral fins,
as well in so many fishes, as in the cetaceous tribes
in general, would go to prove that their use is not,
at any rate, a very important one.
The remaining two fins which we have still to
"notice, stand in a difi*erent direction from those we
have already illustrated, being perpendicular to the
centre of the body, and are employed as balances
only, not as organs of progression, or of sinking
und rising ; they are, nevertheless, in some species,
developed to an extraordinary extent. The dorsal
fin is of very varied form, either composed of a few
spines only, or it is continued for the whole length of
the fish ; it is either single, double, or triple ; and it
possesses a degree of consistence so very difi'erent in
different species, as to have given occasion, first to
Ray and Artedi, and more recently to the late illus-
trious Naturalist, the Baron Cuvier, to constitute
this a leading distinction between two of the largest
families of fishes — the Malacoptert/gii^ or those in
which this organ is comparatively soft, and the
Acanihopterygn^ or those in which it is hard and
spinous. Generally speaking, it is most fully deve-
loped in those fishes which inhabit the most stormy
seas, while those which are found in comparatively
still waters, have this organ much smaller and
weaker; but there are many exceptions to this
remark. In some fishes, also, it forms a powerful
organ of nrotection from the strength of the spines ;
DORSAL FIN. 115
and, in a few, it is capable of being raised and
depressed as an oflPensive weapon, and inflicts a
wound creating great pain. Examples of expanded
developement may be seen in the members of the
old genus ChcBtodon, among the dories, and in a
very beautifully marked tribe, the Acanthuri; in
these, the longest rays are often continued for an
enormous length in the form of filaments. This
will be seen in our representation of
116
THE HORNED ZANCLUS OR CH^TODON.
Zanclits cormttus^ Cuv. & Val.
PLATE IX.
Chaetodon comutus, Ltnn. Block Le Tranchoir cornu, Cm\
and Vol.
This curious and prettily marked fish is not of rare
occurrence, and has been frequently met with by
navigators and naturalists who have visited the
seas around the Molucca islands, Sandwich isles^.
Celebs, &c. &c., and is found not only in the
Pacific, but also in the Indian oceans. The ge-
neral form is that of the ChoBtodons^ a numerous
and gaudily marked family, and from which it
was separated by Commerson. From the gi-eat
length to which the rays of the dorsal rays some-
times extend, it is named by the inhabitants of the
coast of the Isle of France, '•'' Jil en dos." The
little protruding-Uke horns which project from the
front, have gained for it the appellation of " cor-
nutus" and its singular form has rendered it an
object of superstition to the natives, who return
it again to the waters with mai'ks of reverence. It
05
M
<
THE HORNED-ZANCLUS OR CH.ETODON. 117
^, however, an excellent and esteemed fish, having
the flavour of turbot, and often reaching a weight
of from twelve to fifteen pounds. Our Plate will
give an idea of the banding and colouring which
mark its skin.
An extraordinary developement of both the anal
and dorsal fins will also be seen in the
118
ARGUS PTERACLIS.
Pteraclis ocellatus^ Cuv. & Vau
PLATE X.
These fishes have more than double the expanse of
their surface in the dorsal and ventral fins, and one
is at a loss to perceive for what purpose this im-
mense developement is necessary ; at the same time,
we must confess our entire ignorance of their habits
and economy. It had been supposed that they
were enabled to support themselves for a short
period in the air, but this is not confirmed by any
observations; and we do not see how such could
take place in the perpendicular position of the fish.
Two or three species only are known, and oiu: pre-
sent one is of extreme rarity. Mons. Cuvier and
Valenciennes took their specimen from the stomach
of another fish. It was procured on the Mozam-
bique coast.
In the Histiophori or sword-fishes, where the
passage through the water is extremely rapid, and
which possess great strength, the dorsal fin is very
large. So is it also in another curious fish, a
native of the Madeira seas — Alepisaurus ferox. In
iM^v,
1 ^^)/, *
di
o
<
§
o
ll<
^
'X
'■3
I-'
JJ
C
>
ARGUS PTERACLIS. 1 1 9
the beautiful genus of the Salmonidw, composed of
the grayhngs of British Ichthyologists, we have
this member more than ordinarily dereloped. Our
next Plate will show this, and, at the same time,
exhibit it in a fish which is otherwise near the
proportions of the morfe active species, and those
which perform long journeys or migrations.
120
BACK'S GRAYLING.
Thymallus sirjnifer,
PLATE XL
Coregonus signifer, BaclCs grayling ; Richardson in Frankliii's
Journal^ and in Noriliern Zool. voL iii. pi. 88.
The beautiful dorsal fin of this handsome species is
so conspicuous, that it has been noticed by the natives
dwelling on the banks of its streams, and, in their
language, signifies " wiry-like fin." It inhabits the
rocky streams that flow through the primitive
country lying between Mackenzie's River and the
Welcome*. It was found only in the clear waters,
and, Richardson says, delights in the strongest
streams, taking eagerly at the artificial fly, and,
w^hen hooked, tugging strongly, and requiring as
much dexterity to land safely as a trout six times
the size. "We do not see clearly the organs from
which this great power arises, except in the large
size of the dorsal fin ; for, in our idea of the use
which we have assigned to this fin, we look upon it
as incapable of using much exertion. There is, how-
ever, no other organ to which to refer it ; and if it
* N. Zool. vol. vi.
- :&^-
Mi!) ^/^' t' ii <
i
back's grayling. 121
is referable to it, in those other fishes which have
it so much, and often so curiously developed, the
power, when known, may probably be in the ratio
of its size. The colours of this grayling are beauti-
ful, but chaste; above of a lavender-purple, be-
neath greyish, with white spots; but the chief
adornment is the large fin, of a graceful curving
'^ form ; it is of a blackish grey, but is relieved by
transverse rows of Berlin-blue spots.
Chcetodon vespertilio will also exhibit great de-
velopement of this series of fins. It is not a very
uncommon fish, and has been many times figured.
There is scarcely any fishes which approach the
Pteraclis and this in the immense developement of
the organs in question ; and, in the last, they give
to the fish collectively almost the appearance of a
half-moon, of which the extremities of the dorsal
and anal fms, pointing backwards, constitute the
horns. The principal use of the dorsal and anal
fins of fishes, regarded merely as ministering to
locomotion, appears to be that of poising those
animals, and preventing them from continually
reeling over to one side during either their station
or progression in the water. The air-bladder, it is
true, in most fishes, running as it does along the
spine, tends to keep this part uppermost under
ordinary cii cumstances ; but this provision would
have been insufficient to counteract the influence
of the waves and conflicting currents, without the
additional security afibrded by the dorsal and anal
fins, whichj by the saHent angle which they form
122 DORSAL FIN.
with the body throughout a great part of its length,
and the broad area which they present laterally to
the water, must obviously oppose a much greater
resistance to any rotatory motion of the animal oc
its own axis, than any which it experiences in its
motions either upwards or downwards, forwards or
backwards. They thus operate in the same manner
as the keel of a ship, and serve to keep the animal
steady in its course ; and, for the same reason that a
flat-bottomed boat rolls with every wave, and can keep
its course at all only in very quiet waters, so a fish,
from which these fins have been removed, reels
continually to the right and left, and is able to
preserve any thing like an equilibrium only by
keeping its other fins in constant motion, as a man
does his arms when balancing himself upon a tight-
rope. But the dorsal and anal fins of fishes have
an advantage which the best constructed keel can
never possess; and that is, that their area and
tension can be increased, within certain limits, in
exact proportion to the necessity for greater secu-
rity, the spines on which they are built being
raised by proper muscles, which are under the
controul of the animal, so that it has but to call
these muscles into a greater or less degree of action
to expand or relax the fins to the precise point that
is required. It is thus that we may imitate Nature
in our contrivances, but we can never approach
her except at one or two removes; and the
meanest and most insignificant of her works gives,
every hour, lessons of mechanism to the most expert
LOCOMOTION OF FISHES. 123
of human artificers, of which he may make a
hunghng copy, but after the exquisite perfection of
which, he pants and toils in vain.
As connected with the station and locomotion o\
fishes, it is incumbent upon us to say a few words
of the means by which many fishes are enabled to
keep themselves stationary in the water, in defiance
of the tendency of tides and tempests to dislodge
them from their place. This of course might, in
all cases, have been done by a muscular efifort on
the part of the animal, calculated to counteract this
tendency, and such is indeed the means by which
fishes in general contrive to keep their station in
the most turbulent and rapid seas ; but the neces-
sity for such a waste of muscular power has been,
in some cases, superseded by other contrivances.
Thus the lamprey maintains its post among the
stones at the bottom of the water chiefly by means
of its tubular lips ; the sucking power of which —
that is to say, the degree of pressure with which, by
forming a vacuum within, they are capable of
making the surrounding medium bear upon them —
is so great, that the animal might be raised out of
the water with a stone of ten or twelve pounds
weight attached to them. The pressure of the
atmosphere, it is sufficiently well known, is equal
to fifteen pounds for every square inch of surface ;
and that of the water will be of couise greater than
124 LUMP FISH.
this, in proportion to its depth. In this respect,,
then, the lips of the lamprey serve the animal not
only as an organ for taking food, like the tubular
lips of so many of the invertebrate tribes, parti-
cularly insects, but also as a kind of arms for
clinging to contiguous objects; and the same is
perhaps the case also with the sturgeon, the lips of
which, situated, not at the extremity of the snout,
but altogether under it, are somewhat similar in
structure to those of the lamprey. Other fishes,
such as the lump-sucker ( Cyclopterus lumpus)^ a
native of the northern seas, have the power of ad-
hering to rocks by means of a small oval and
concave membraneous disc, which is surrounded by
a fleshy margin fringed with thread-like appendages,
situated at the lower part of the body, and composed
apparently of their united ventral fins. In the in-
terior of this they form a vacuum, and adhere,
therefore, like the lamprey, upon the principle of
suction ; and the power with which they do so is
sometimes surprising, considering that the animal
is rarely more than a foot and a half long. " We
have known," says Mr. Pennant, " that on flinging
a fisli of this species, just caught, into a pail of
water, it fix itself so firmly to the bottom, that, on
taking the fish by the tail, the whole pail was
lifted, though it held some gallons, and that with-
out removing the fish from its hold." But the fish
which possesses, in the most remarkable degree,
this power of suction, is that which is called, par
txcellence^ the sucking-fish, forming the genus
REMORA, OR SUCKING-FISn.
125
]26 REMORA, OR SUCKING-FISH.
Echineis, natives of the Mediterranean, Atlantic,
and Indian oceans. It is a small fish, seldom
exceeding a foot in length, and either of a uni-
formly brown colour, or black above and white
below. Its characteristic mark is a large oval and
flattened membranous disc, which has several trans-
verse serrated bands forming cavities, in which
are cartilaginous plates situated at the top of the
head. It is by means of the retraction of these
cartilages, by proper muscles adapted for the pur-
pose, that the animal forms a series of vacua, and
thus exerts the singular adhesive power by which it
is distinguished — so singular, that it was classed by
the ancients among the occult qualities of Nature,
since they idly imagined that this little creature had
force enough, by adhering to the keel of a ship, to
stop her progress when under full sail. A marvel-
lous account is given of its operations in this way
by the credulous Pliny, from whom the following
is an extract, as translated by Holland : — " The
current of the sea is great, the tide much, the
winds vehement and forcible, and, more than that,
ores and sailers withall to help forward the rest, are
mightie and powerfull : and yet there is one little
sillie fish, named Echeneis, that checketh, scometh,
and arresteth them all : let the winds blow as much
as they will, rage the storms and tempests what
they can, yet this little fish commandeth their fiirie,
restraineth their puissance, and maugre all their
force as great as it is, compelleth ships to stand
still : a thing which no cables be they never so big
REMORA. OR SUCKING-FISH. 127
and able as they will, can performe. She bridleth
the violence and tamest the greatest rage of this
iiniversall world, and that without any paine that
she putteth herselfe unto, without any holding and
putting backe, or any other meanes save only by
cleaving and sticking fast to a vessell : in such sort
as this one small and poore fish is sufficient to resist
and withstand so great a power of both sea and
navie, yea and to stop the passage of a ship, do all
what they can possible to the contrarie." He goes
on to say, that it was this little fish which stayed
the progress of Marc Anthony's ship, in the naval
engagement between him and Augustus Ceesar, and
caused the defeat of the former ; and that Caligula
once suffered a similar accident, which was the
harbinger of his downfall. In the latter case, ac-
cording to our author, " So soon as even the vessell
(and a galHaie it was, furnished with five banks of
ores to a side) was perceived alone in the fleete to
stand still, presently a number of tall fellows leapt
out of their ships into the sea, to search what the
reason might be that it stirreth not ? and found one
of these fishes sticking fast to the very helme : which
being reported unto Caius Caligula, he fumed and
fared as an Emperour, taking great indignation that
so small a thing as it, should hold him back perforce,
and check the strength of all his mariners, notwith-
standing there were no fewer than foure hundred
lustie men in his gallie that laboured at the ore all
that ever they could to the contrarie." And, if
Naturalists could be thus easily imposed upon with
128 REMORA, OR SUCKING-FISH.
respect to the marvellous powers of the EcJiineus^ it
is not surprising that these powers sliould have
formed a theme for the wonder-losing poet.
The sucking-fish beneath, with secret chains,
Clung to the keel, the swiftest ship detains.
The seamen run confused, no labour spared,
Let fly the sheets, and hoist the top-mast yard.
The master bids them give her all the sails
To court the winds and catch the coming gaJes,
But though the canvass bellies with the blast,
And boisterous winds bear down the cracking mast,
The bark stands firmly rooted on the sea.
And will, unmoved, nor winds nor waves obey ;
Still, as when calms have flatted all the plain.
And infant waves scarce wrinkle on the main.
But although the sucking-fish possesses no such
powers as are here attributed to it, the force with
which it attaches itself to any substance with which
it comes into contact is very remarkable. Com-
merson produced a kind of temporary palsy of his
thumb, by exposing it for a short time to the sucking
operation of the shield of this animal ; and they are
separated with the greatest difficulty from the sharks
and fishes to which they are frequently found,
many together adhering, having attached themselves
probably for the purpose of profiting by the more
rapid power of motion possessed by other fishes. It
is vulgarly supposed that the sucking-fish accompa-
nies the shark for the purpose of directing him to
his prey, or of warning him of approaching danger ;
and hence it has been sometimes called the sharks
REMORA, OR SUCKING-FISH. 129
pilot. It appears that this propensity of adhering
to other fishes was formerly tm-ned to account by
the Indians of Jamaica and Cuba, Avho used this
animal, or rather one of the same genus (Echineis
naucratesj, in catching fish, as hawks are em-
ployed in taking other birds. " They kept them,"
says Mr. Bingley, " for the purpose, and had them
regularly fed. The owner, on a calm morning,
would caiTy one of them out to sea, secured to his
canoe by a slender but strong line, many fathoms
in length ; and the moment the creature saw a fish
in the water, though at a gi'eat distance, it would
dart away with the swiftness of an arrow, and soon
fasten upon it. The Indian, in the mean time,
loosened and let go the line, which was furnished
with a buoy which floated on the surface of the
ocean, and marked the course the sucking-fish had
taken; and he pursued it in his canoe, until he
perceived his game to be nearly exhausted. He
then, taking up the buoy, gradually drew the line
towards the shore, the sucking-fish still adhering
mth so inflexible a tenacity to his prey as not
easily to be removed." A similar employment of
the latter species of sucking fish is said, by Com-
merson, as quoted by Lacepede, to be still very
common about the coasts of Mozambique, where
they use it principally in taking turtles. For this
purpose a ring is fastened round the tail of the
animal, to which a long cord is attached ; and thus
secured, it is allowed to approach the turtles, as
they lie sleeping on the water, to the breast of one
1
J 30 REMORA, OR SUCKING-FISH.
of which it soon attaches itself, and it is thus easily
drawn ashore.
The method of employing suckers, in attaching
themselves to solid substances, is not peculiar to
fishes, some other maritime animals, as the cuttle-
fish, using such suckers very extensively ; and the
force with which it is capable of adhering to rocks
by this means has been already alluded to, when
we were speaking of the muscular power which
it occasionally, at the same time, exerts. These
suckers (wood-cut, fig. 1.) have the appearance of
little cups ; and, with them, the numerous • long
arms of the animal are so plentifully studded, that
their united power must be enormous.
But, besides the principle of suction, some fishes,
such as the eel, seem to secure their footing, at
least when on land, by another contrivance, being
supported, under unfavourable circumstances, by
the viscidity of the fluid with which their body is
smeared ; in the same way as the garden-snail em-
ploys, for this purpose, in addition to the vacuum
formed by its foot, the mucilaginous matter on the
surface of this organ. It is thus that eels contrive
to ascend the smoothest posts of flood-gates, and
other perpendicular surfaces arising from water;
projecting first the heads and a part of their bodies,
and keeping these closely in contact with the wood,
till the mucilaginous matter has become sufiiciently
inspissated to give them a firm hold, when they ad>
vance Mgher and higher by the motions of their
spine, till they reach the dam above, frequently at
ORGANS OF OFFENCE AND DEFENCE. 131
tlie height of five or six feet. The process is, in
some respects, like that of climbing trees by the
Spar us ; but it differs from the latter, in requiring
the additional security afforded by the viscid surface
of the body of the animal, vv^hich, in the other case,
is superfluous.
The next portion of the Natural History of Fishes
which will claim our attention, is the means which
have been provided to them for attacking and se-
curing their prey, and for defending themselves
against the many foes which, in their turns, mu-
tually prey on each other. These may be termed
the organs of offence and defence.
Fishes have not been provided with the same
variety of organs of offence as we observe in the
higher classes of the animal kingdom ; in their
means of defence however, diversified provisions
appear. As the parts concerned in both these
purposes are most naturally associated with the
integument, which is itself, even when least com-
plicated, an organ of defence, it is found conve-
nient to treat of all these at the same time. As
illustrative of the organs of defence, it will be
proper, therefore, to take a survey of the skin or
general envelope of the body. The skin varies con-
siderably in character even in fishes ranking in the
same group ', in all, however, it adheres very firmly
to the subjacent parts, and is in none so loose as to
DC susceptible of the motion which is observed in
132 ORGANS OF OFFENCE AND DEFENCE.
mammalia, by means of the muscular expansion,
termed panniculus carnosus. No trace of such a
muscular expansion exists in fishes. This fact is
worthy of attention, as in generalising on the sub-
ject of the hypodermal muscular system, in the
animal kingdom, an opposite yiew is often sug-
gested. For example, the hypodermal or sub-
cutaneous muscular system, as contrasted -with the
skeleton muscles, is often represented as commencing
almost in a rudimentary state in man, under the
form of the slender sub-cutaneous muscular ex-
pansion on the fore part and sides of his neck,
termed platysma myoides, as growing in importance
in the mammalia imder the term of panniculus
carnosus^ it enables the animal to make the whole
skin quiver, so as to shake off insects, and reaches
a greater importance in many of them, for example,
in the hedge-hog, and a great proportion of the
Edentates. In the first, it forms a species of cap,
resting on the back of the animal in its ordinary
state, yet so constructed, that it is capable of enve-
loping the extremities and whole body, when, on
being attacked, it assumes the well-known form of
a ball. Finally, that this hypodermal muscular
expansion attains its extreme developement, as we
descend in the scale of animals, until at last in the
avertebral tribes, the mollusca, the Crustacea, and
insects, it constitutes the whole of the muscular
system ; all the active organs of locomotion in these
being inserted into the integuments. This state-
ment, then, is true only when it receives an im*
ORGANS OF OFFENCE AND DEFENCE. 133
portant limitation. The chain of deyelopement
is not unbroken through the orders of animals, from
man down to the mollusca, Crustacea, and insects ;
the developement takes place at two extremes, the
middle point between which is occupied by the
order of fishes, in which this expansion is entirely
deficient. In birds, the same muscular expansion
attains but a trivial importance; and, of the rep-
tiles, the Ophidia, or serpents, alone show faint
traces of it.
Some popular writers on comparative anatomy
have made a statement liable to mislead, connected
with the same organ, in representing the globular
form assumed by the Diodons and Triodons^ and
the erection of the numerous spines with which the
surface of their bodies is beset, which happens when
they are in danger, as analogous to the erection of
the spines of the hedge-hog when it gathers itself
into a ball. The analogy so far holds, that in the
case of both the spines become erected as organs of
defence when any danger appears ; but in the fishes,
the distension of the skin is produced by a general
enlargement of the whole body, consequent on the
reception of air into the crop or first stomach ; while,
in tlie hedgehog, the erection of the spines is pro-
duced by the action of the muscular organ before
referred to, an appendage of the panniculus car-
nosus.
To return to the skin itself, in this order of ani-
mals, it has httle of a fibrous character, approaching
more to the mucous texture ; its tissue is by no
134 ORGANS OF OFFENCE AND DEFENCE.
means close, the pigment is often pearly, and the
epidermis, if it be not entirely deficient, often very
slender.
In all its modification of form and accessaries,
however, whether by the appearance of strong
armour to resist attack, or by mucous and viscid
lubrucations to facilitate escape, the skin is the first
and most important organ of defence. And the
most remarkable appendage of this integument in
fishes is the scales ; they dificr from hairs and fea-
thers in having no generating bulbs — nor have they
the same character as the scales in the Edentates,
Dasypus^ Manis, Chlatnpporus, &c., or in reptiles.
More or less firmly adhering to the skin, they are
shut up free in a species of pouch much flattened,
and formed by a pinching up of the rete ^nucosum
and its vascular tissue. To permit their separation
and escape, this pouch must be torn. They appear
to be produced by the internal surface of this vas-
cular pouch, and to become excessively flattened,
each composed of homy lines meeting in an apex,
and derived from a more or less extended base, ac-
cording to the form of the scale, and that is very
variable*.
It is commonly asserted that all fishes have
scales — but in some they are not discoverable by
the eye, and in others they do not appear in the
fresh condition of the skin, but only when it has
become dry. Under the former description fall the
hag (Mwine glutinosa)^ and the lamprey (Fetro-
* Op. cit. i. 144. ,'
ORGANS OF OFFENCE AND DEFENCE. 135
myzon marinus)^ which form a connecting link
between fishes and molluscous animals ; also the
lump-fish or sea-owl (Cyclopterus lumpus)^ which,
like the two former, has the power of adhering to
bodies by the suction of its mouth. Under the
latter come the common eel ( Anguilla vulgaris)^
the conger (Murcena conger)^ the blenny (Blen-
nius viviparusj, one of the osseous fishes which
produce living young, and most of the Siluri.
Another description of fishes is that in which the
scales are not distinct, yet in which the skin is not
slimy and viscous, as in those above referred to.
In these the epidermis is smooth, and placed over
nacreous pigment. This is exemphfied in the
mackarel (Scomber scomber )y the blade-fish (Tri-
chiurus Upturns )^ the Stylephorus argenteus^ and
the stickleback ( Gasterosteiis aculeaJtus),
But the form which should be regarded as the
normal character of the skin in fishes, may be il-
lustrated bj our figure of
136
THE EDIBLE LETHRYNUS.
Lethrynus esculentus, Cuv. & Val.
PLATE XII.
A GAUDILY marked fish of tte Indian seas, in whicli
the body is uniformly covered "with scales ; and we
shall find other examples of the same structure in
the great majorty of the abdominal and thoracic
tribes, as the salmon, herring, carp, perch, gilt-
head wrasse, and the like.
In some fishes, again, the covering of the body,
or of the integuments, favour more the character o$
large regular plates than of scales, to which we
usually associate the distribution of imbrication, or
lopping of one over the other, and in their compo-
sition are more or less of an osseous nature. Under
this head come the Lepisostevs ossetts, many spe-
cies of Trivia or the gurnards, of the Cottus or
hard-heads, of the genus Silurus, and even of the
Gasterosteus or stickle-backs ; but in a very marked
manner in some of the extinct genera, whose remains
have been preserved, and the scales yet, from their
hardness, retain their entire form, and even the
minuter parts which served to hook or join them
together. But there is yet a more complete ossifi*
i), 'kil^Mli
g 2
s
Pi
THE EDIBLE LETHRYNUS. 137
cation of the skin, if it may be so termed, observa-
ble in some fishes ; this consists of osseous pieces, or
at least of pieces very hard, of a mucoso-homy tex-
ture. They are without any imbricature, and their
imion is by the margins, and is very variable. Some
of them, put together with the utmost geometrical
precision, form a cuirass of great strength, which
acts as an admirable defence against their asso-
ciates, except such as possess the strongest and
most powerful jaws and teeth. Many of the Syg-
nathi and their allies exhibit this; among our na-
tive fishes the Cotti will show it, and the C. cata-
phractes^ or mailed bull-head, is an excellent
example; while among the sturgeons, and their
allied genera, we see it in various stages of deve-
lopement, from a line of plates defending a part of
the body, to a complete and close suit of strong
armour.
138
MAILED PERISTEDION.
Peristedion caiaphractum, Lacepedk.
PLATE Xin.
Shows a powerfully defended fish, somewliat re-
sembling the sturgeons, yet belonging to the family
of the gurnards. It inhabits the Mediterranean,
and is described as frequenting rocky coasts, and
swimming with gi'eat velocity ; and its strong ar-
mour may perhaps be intended as a defence against
the rough shores it may have to encounter during
storms, or its rapid progression. It is, moreover,
strongly armed with the spines on its head and
cheeks, and with the two prolongations of the
snout, which project forward, and sometimes are
broken by the force with which they seem to be
used against some objects of the deep.
The subject of the next Plate mil also show an
extraordinary view of the distribution of the inte-
gimients ; it is the
K CD
■" 4':'i-;t
139
ARMED MONOCENTRIS.
Monocentris comutus^ Schneider.
PLATE XIV.
In this singularly formed fish, of, so far as we
know, very harmless habits, we have a form of no
elegance, and an exterior covered with very strong
and rough plates, besides an array of blunt spines
from the upper and under surface, which would
render it an unsatisfactory mouthful even to the
most voracious. It is a native of the Japanese seas,
but appears far from being common ; and we know
little of its economy, by which to judge what its
strange covering is particularly intended for. The
spines, which M. Cuvier and Valenciennes describe,
are only about ten inches in length, which agree
nearly in size with those previously described by
Thunberg.
In another tribe of fishes, the plates, as we have
already observed, were placed with the utmost
regularity. The
140
SPOTTED OSTRACION.
Ostradon cuhiciis, Block.
PLATE XV.
Will illustrate this form. In the small group of
fishes which have received the title of Ostracion,
the covering is remarkably hard, and is composed of
numerous pieces or compartments joined with the
greatest regularity, and often with a mathematical-
like precision in hexagonal plates. This covering
is discontinued at the tail, which is free for a short
space, and shows the necessity for this organ to be
placed so as to be capable of voluntary action. The
Spotted Ostracion is not an uncommon fish in the
Indian seas, and is said sometimes to reach a foot
in length. In the Isle of France it is esteemed for
its flesh, and is kept in artificial ponds, where it
becomes tame and famihar.
Besides these forms of the skin, there is exem-
plified in many cartilaginous fishes a peculiarity in
the existence of the tubercules, usually pointed,
ind having some resemblance to scales, but more
or less perfectly osseous, and are implanted deep to
adhere firmly. To this form belongs the tubercules
,!- V
A H
/
PM !j
SPOTTED OSTRACION. 141
on many of the rays, the small, but rough and very
hard points on the skin of the sharks, which both
afford a substitute for the file of the cabinet-maker,
and, when polished, exhibit a beautiful material
often made use of in various neat articles of every-
day utility. To these, also, may perhaps be added,
the calcareo-comeous spines of the Diodons and
Telraodons^ which are placed with comparative
regularity, and, from their strength and hardness,
and the sharpness of their points, must be a species
of defensive organ most efficient.
142
PORCUPINE DIODON
Diodon hystrijc^ Bloch.
PLATE XVI.
Represents this structure. These fish are harm-
less inhabitants of the ocean, and possess a power
which is an indispensable accessory to render effi-
cient the weapons which have been thus allotted to
them. When undisturbed, or making their way
through the waters, their form is longitudinal, and
the spines lie flat on the common integument ; but
on the approach of danger, or upon sudden alarm,
they can inflate the body nearly to the form of a
globe, which places the spines erect and stiffly set,
and renders them, in truth, a most formidable re-
sistance against every aggressor. The species which
we represent frequents the seas of the tropics, and
is said to feed on the cricstacea and- echinodet^inata.
The wounds of the spines are by some considered
poisonous, or to leave a painful and mflammatory
wound, and which may act in the same manner
with the pricks from the spines of the Trackini
on various constitutions.
In addition, however, to these provisions for
defence which are liberally furnished to those spe-
-^;<i^^*^
^^^^^^^^^^^'■l^v -
7^
PORCUPINE DIODON. 143
cies which roam openly, and do not naturally conceal
themselves among rocks or the forefcts of sea-weeds,
or among the mud and sUme of the bottoms, there
are many species which have different and accessory
parts of the form strongly knotted and spined, and
which we can scarcely view in any other light than
as accessory parts of defence. Thus many of the
PercidcG have their gill-covers strongly spined and
serrated. The first and second rays in the dorsal
fin of the same family are often also very strong and
rough ; and every one accustomed to fish for the
rommon perch of the British lakes and rivers, must
nave observed the powerful manner in which these
are erected, when the fish is first raised from the
water; it is evidently used instinctively as a de-
fence, and by this means it is one of the few species
which we can keep in company with the pike. The
heads of the Cotti are all strongly armed with spines,
with which they are able to wound severely, by
turning or wriggling. Such is also the case with
the Scorpoence, and the Triyla or gurnards. In the
weavers, forming the genus TroLchinus^ they are
exhibited in the
144
RADIATED WEAVER.
Tra€hi7ms radiatus, Cuv. & Val.
PLATE XVIT.
A NATIVE of the Mediterranean, and found on the
coast of Naples, and also on the southern shores of
France ; it has never, however, been found on
the British coasts, though it is possible it may have
yet been overlooked. The first dorsal fin is a for-
midable weapon, apparently possessing some dele-
terious quality communicated by the wound, inde-
pendent of the mere prick, and acting difi'erently
on different constitutions. This fin is almost
always carried flat, or level with the back ; but
on alarm, or on being trampled on, for they bur-
row in the sand, it is suddenly raised, and, from
the great muscular power which accompanies the
action, often inflicts a severe puncture, which, in
some individuals, in a few minutes after, causes
a severe burning pain, with inflammation of the
part around. In several of the continental markets,
a penalty is exigible if this fish be brought for
sale without these fins being removed. The spines
on almost all the species of sticklebacks ( Gasteros-
teus), perform the same ofiice of defence, and can be
erected at pleasure. Several of the spines are only
'ifY'- oh .If
%
I
^ i
H tS
•vM
RADIATED WEAVER. 145
from a Jine and a half to two lines In length;
but such is the muscular power possessed, that it is
with difficulty one of the spines can be pressed
do^vn, so long as the fish survives.
Spines, in some form or other, appear the most
ordinary manner in which a weapon is provided.
In those fishes we have alluded to, they have ge-
nerally been farnished by some peculiar modifica-
tion of other parts of the structure used for necessary
purposes ; but in a great many species we shall find
the same kind of weapons placed on different parts
of the body. What an admirable defence the
jagged back and tail of the thorn-back skate affbrds ;
while in some of the same family we find the tail
armed with a long spine, sometimes plain and some-
times seri'ated ; an example of the latter structure
will be found in our Plate V., and it occurs in very
many other genera; in many of these, we are
inclined to believe that the tail can be wielded, and
a wound inflicted.
Some of the dog-fish, forming the genus Spinax^
of the family of the sharks, have also very strong
and beautifully rounded spines; these are placed
sometimes at the posterior base of the dorsal, and
sometimes near both first and second dorsal fins ;
and it is possible that with these a wound may
be given designedly. A good example of this
form of defence may be seen in our native Spincca
acantkias, also in many foreign species, and which
we may further illustrate by a closely allied fish,
the
K
146
BLAINVILLE'S PIKED DOG-FISH.
Spinax Blainvillii^ Bonapartb.
PLATE XVIII.
Acanthias Blainvillii, Risso. — Spinax Blainvillii, Spinoroio
comune, Bonap Icongrophia della Fauna Italica.
A NATIVE of the Italian shores, confounded with
the Linn^an S, acanthias^ and distinguished from
it chiefly by the relative proportion of its different
parts. It seldom exceeds two feet in length.
In a few genera of osseous fishes we have spines
inserted into various parts, very frequently just
before the junction of the tail with the body; in
some they are several in number, in others they are
single only. The genus Acanthurus is so named
from the presence of three such spines ; and in the
beautiful
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147
YELLOW-BELLIED ACANTHURUS,
Acanthurus hepatus^ Bloch.
PLATE XIX.
It is well marked. This fish is a native of the seas
of India, is adorned with a distribution of rich
colours, and is armed at the base of the tail with
a spine of considerable length.
In the genus Batistes also, we see a somewhat
similar defence, numerous rows of hooked spines
being placed near the tail. The
PORT PRASLIN BALISTES,
Bcdistes praslinoides. Lesson.
PLATE XX.
Baliste praslinoide, Lesson, pi. ix. fig, 3. page 117, vol. ii.
Will exhibit this. It is a fish met with by the ex-
pedition of the Coquille at Port Praslin, in New
Ireland, of an oblong form, and reaching in length
about eight inches ; it is armed near the tail with
three rows of crooked spines. Our figure will show the
beautiful tints which adorn this species, remarkable
both for its sharp armature and brilliant colours,
Little or nothing is otherwise known regarding it.
In the genus Ostracion^ again, these spines are
placed in various positions, and are both very strong
and sharp. In the
.48
HORNED OSTRACION,
Ostradoyi cornutus^ Bloch.
PLATE XXI.
Tavo are placed as horns, and in the same situation,
and two are placed posterior to the ventral fins. It
is one of the oldest known species, is found on
the shores of the Isle of France and Java, and is
mdely distributed in the Mediterranean. In another
very singular fish, the O. turritus^ the " Chemeau
7narin" of the French naturalists, the back rises
triangularly up, and a strong spine surmounts the
summit; two others are placed perpendicularly
above the eyes ; while, on the lower surface of the
fish, four others, strong and bent, defend it. Al-
though these spines are not moveable, and cannot
be used as an active defence, they must present
awkward impediments to other fishes seizing, or
attempting to swallow them.
These curious furnitures may all be placed as
organs of defence, few of them being ever used
either to secure their prey or as offensive weapons :
but before leaving the conformation of the skin, we
must shortly advert to its colours. In many in-.
HORNED OSTRACION. 149
stances the accommodation or keeping, as it were,
of the colours of the skin to the materials of rock
or sand by which the animal is surrounded, harmo-
nises, and is unconspicuous to the fishes which look
for prey among their own tribes ; at other times the
colours are so vivid and brilliant, or the exterior is
marked with spots of silver and gold, which may
act as an attraction to lure some of the weaker
species within reach of predatory fishes ; at least,
the vivid colours in the plumage of several birds
have been hinted at as being attractions for the
various insects, which afford food for many ; and if
such be the case, it is more than probable that the
inhabitants of the deep may be coloured, as many
of them are, for a similar purpose. We may per-
haps add to these the defence which the most
singular and grotesque figures of some species would
afford, by inspiring terror or disgust ; and we give
the figure of a curious little fish, which will both
show an extraordinary form, and a considerable
array of spined or knobbed projections. It is the
150
FOUR-HORNED ASPIDOPHORUS, Cuv. & Val.
Aspidophorus quadricomis,
PLATE XXII.
The specimen is in the British Museum ; and little
more seems to be known regarding it, than that it
was taken on the coast of Karatschatka.
The pigment of the skin in fishes, corresponding
to what is termed the rete mucosum in human ana-
tomy, as offering the most lively play of colours,
from the most delicate silveriness to the brightest
golden hues, deserves some mention.
Every colour, and almost every shade and mix-
ture of colours, are exemplified in the surface of
fishes; yet these colours are often as fleeting as
they are glowing. Often they become changed, or
disappear with the life of the animal ; and some-
times the mere removal of it from its natural ele-
ment destroys all its splendour. It is universally
observed in fishes, that the superior part, which is
exposed to light, is more vividly coloured than the
inferior, which indeed is most commonly pure
white ; and even in those fishes, as in the pleuro-
nectes^ which swim on the side, the colour is con-
fined to that which is presented to the light.
■i'p
o
FOUR-HORNED ASPIDOPUORUS. 151
These focts naturally lead to the expectation, whiclx
experience verifies, that the fishes of intertropical
seas, on which a more intense light falls, should
exhibit more vivid colours. Not a few of our fishes,
even in northern regions, exhibit very bright tints,
as the gilt-head (Sparus auratus)^ the common
salmon (Salmo salar)^ the mackerel (Scomber
scomber); but for the most vivid colours we must
look to more genial climates. The golden-carp
(Cyprinus auratus), so much prized, is thought
to be a native of China, where it is kept in porce-
lain vessels in the houses of the rich for ornament.
The genus Coryphena^ which contains numerous
species, is distinguished by the beaut}'^ and varying
play of its colours. The
152
ATLANTIC CORYPH^NE, OR DOLPHIN,
CoryphcBna equisitis, Linn-eus,
PLATE XXin.
Will exhibit the general form of these fishes, and
the colouring so remarkable for the variation of its
tints ; a play of vivid green and gold and silver being
spread over it in various lights, and " changing as
it dies," keep up in this one also the well known
ancient traditions. It is a native of the Atlantic
Ocean, and has been taken off the coast of South
America, and in the vicinity of St. Helena. These
fishes often follow in the wake of vessels, and being
agile and swift in their movements, when swim-
ming near the surface in the lustre of a clear and
brilliant sun, display their colours in the most
varied manner. They are, according to our ac-
counts, extremely voracious, feeding on the flying-
fish, which, in troops, either are passed through, or
follow the vessel, and at the same time they eagerly
seize whatever falls or is thrown from it.
Two other species have been termed, firom the
variety and vividness of their tints, the sea-peacock
and the blue-fish. But the species best kno'vvn is
the dolphin of sailors.
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153
DOLPHIN OP THE ANCIENTS.
CoryphcBTia hippuris.
PLATE XXIV.
Although we have applied the name of Dolphin of
the Ancients to this species, it is probable that that
described by the poets may have been different.
Some very closely allied species, and possessed of
even more brilliancy of tints, being met with in the
seas whence they were most likely to procure or
see the celebrated fish. This may be of trifling
consequence in a scientific point; and we intro-
duce the figure as the supposed fish to which the
" dolphin" was applied.
The name Coryphmna^ from «o§y<pj}, top, was
applied to this species, as indicating the crest it
bears on the cranium. It is an active voracious
animal, and greedily pursues the flying-fish, which
constitutes its favourite food. It is about five feet
long, as elegant in form as brilliant in the colours.
It is the most brilliant inhabitant of the sea,
more particularly when it is eager in the pursuit of
its prey at the surface, and the undulations of its
large dorsal fin throw off the reflexions of its vivid
154 DOLPHIN OF THE ANCIENTS.
hues. Above it is silvery-blue, with markings of
deeper azure, and reflexions of pure gold; the
lower parts are citron-yeUow, marked with pale
blue ; the pectoral fins are partly lead colour, partly
yellow; the ventral fins are yellow on the under
surface, and black above; the anal fin is yellow;
the insides are of bright golden. Its colours vary
and fade after it is taken out of the water, so that
but a faint notion of its original brilliancy can be
formed from the inspection of the dried specimens
preserved in our Museums.
But though possessing this splendid brightness of
colouring, and far-famed for it in ancient story,
there are perhaps other fishes which, from the de-
cided marking out of their brilliant hues, and the
contrast in which they are sometimes placed in
regard to each other, are more striking, and have
attracted much attention.
The Spari, Labri, Scari^ Chcetodons^ Acanthurt^
&c., all present numerous examples ; and as one,
we have selected the
155
PAINTED LABRUS,
Labrus /ormostis, Bknnet,
fLATE XXV.
A rare native of the Ceylonese seas, where it is
taken on account of the nutritious quality of its
flesh ; it is said to frequent rocky situations, and is
remarkable for the very regular crimson markings
near the tail.
The epidermis exists most unequivocally in those
fishes in which the surface is smooth, without being
viscid, as in the mackerel and sword-fish ; in other
fishes, the mucosity of the surface in a great mea-
siu*e supplies its place. And as the abundance of
this mucosity varies very much in different fishes, it
is to be inferred, that the apparatus by which it is
generated exhibits a corresponding variation. Ac-
cordingly the hag, the lamprey, the blenny, the
eel, both the common and the electrical, and vis-
cous fishes in general, present on the head, the
jaws, and along the lateral line, a greater or smaller
number of holes, or rounded pores, systematically
arranged, which have been looked on as the source
of this viscosity. It is, however, by no means
156 PAINTED LABRUS.
certain that such is the only use of these pores ; or
supposing that they are concerned in producing it,
there are, nevertheless, evidences, that the whole
external surface of the skin is employed in the
secretion, which is, in fact, a fluid epidermis.
There is still another property possessed by a few
fishes, which, though not connected mth the struc-
ture or appendages of the skin, will naturally rank
among the organs of defence, and should be men-
tioned before we begin to notice those more properly
employed in attack or offence. We allude to the
electric power possessed by the torpedo, gymno-
tus, and a few others. It is perhaps the case, that
this curious power is sometimes used as a mode of
benumbing the prey which come within the range
of the stroke, particularly by the torpedo, which is
a sluggish and inactive fish, and possesses the
manners, in a great measure, of the rays ; as an
organ of defence, however, it is known to be most
powerful, both against enemies of its own kind, or
the contrivances wrought by the hand of man. Any
animal, or even substance, coming within its reach,
and producing alarm, is immediately subjected to it,
and the stroke being communicable, though other
conducting substances intervene, not being in actual
contact is no safeguard, and has afforded a subject
for the poet to dilate on, while of old a certain su-
perstitious awe was conveyed with it. Its immense
power, in some species, is very remarkable; and
the spirited account of Humboldt, which we intro-
duced into our First Volume on Ichthyology, where
PAINTED LABRUS. 157
it is used to capture the wild horses of South Ame-
rica, will he read with interest.
The species which possess this property are
mostly of clumsy or disgusting form, particularly
the torpedos.
GALVANI'S TORPEDO,
Torpedo Galvani, Risso,
PLATE XXVI.
Will show their form. According to our latest
British Ichthyology, the torpedo occurring on the
British coasts has scarcely been properly identified
with those of the continental seas ; but that which
we have given to represent the form is one of the
most powerfully supplied with galvanic influence.
The fishes in which these electrical organs have
been unequivocally discovered, are, as before men-
tioned, the electric ray (Raja torpedo)^ now the
torpedo proper, the electric eel (Gymnotus electri-
cusj, the Silurus electricus, the Tetrodon electricus,
and the Trichiurus electricus, or Indicus, as it is
termed by some naturalists.
Carus declares the electric organ in these fishes
158 TORPEDO GALVANI.
to be distinctly of a muscular nature, consisting of
numerous strata, cells or prisms formed by tendi-
nous partitions, and filled with a thickish gelatinous
fluid. The same anatomist adds, — " As a great
number of nerves (but few vessels) are distributed
to these cells and strata, and as the activity of the
organ depends upon those nerves, it is at least not
improbable that the nervous power accumulates in
the cells, whence it can be voluntarily discharged,
in the same manner as it is capable of being collected
in muscles, in order to produce their contraction*."
It was before noticed, that there is a peculiar
developement of the spinal chord in those fishes
which possess the electrical power ; and it should
be added, that in Spallanzani's experiments on the
electric ray, it was found that the activity of the
shock was always proportioned to the energy of the
vital powers at the time, and that the section of
the nerves of the organ efiectually destroyed this
property in the animal.
The organs of offence or attack in fishes may be
said to be very limited ; a few possess weapons of
peculiar structure and formidable appearance, and
are said occasionally to use them in wanton attack ;
but as they are few in number, so is their actual
usage but comparatively little known. We are not
* Cams' Comparative Anatomy, by Gore, vol. i. p. 345.
See also, for information on this subject, the experiments
of Matteucci, detailed in various scientific periodicals for
1837 and 1838.
WHITE SHARK. j 59
aware of battles among species taking place as among
animals dwelling upon land, nor of struggles for su-
premacy during the season of amours ; but if these
more frequently take place in the hidden recesses
of the ocean, they may, with a few exceptions, be
carried on by the assistance of the tail and of the
teeth. The latter are the great predatory organs
among all the rapacious fishes, and the great pro-
portion of these continues living one on another — a
strong upon a weaker race. We have their struc-
ture in almost every variation. In the greater pro-
portion they are used only for seizing and securely
holding their prey, without assisting in any man-
ducatory process. In a few they crush the harder Crus-
tacea and molusca before they are swallowed ; and
by still fewer they are placed low in the gullet, and
act by muscular contractions on the food as it passes
down, or perhaps may for a short period be retained
within their power.
The shark tribe has for ages been a fruitful
source of terror even to man. Of these the white
shark (Squalus carcharias) is the most noted.
His means of offence lie in the size of his mouth,
the strength of his jaw, the numerous teeth with
which his mouth is armed, and in the extreme
vigour and rapidity of his motions. An erroneous
accoimt is usually given of the teeth of the shark :
it is said that the interior rows of teeth lie flat while
the animal is in a state of repose, and that they be-
come erected when it prepares to seize its prey.
The truth is, that the outer row of teeth is alone of
^60 "WHITE SHARK.
any use to the animal ; the other rows are a provi-
sion or resource against the breaking of those of the
outer row, and till this happens they remain flat in
the mouth, incapable of being erected; as soon,
however, as a tooth in the outer row is broken, as
frequently must happen, owing to the force with
which the animal closes his jaws, often on hard
bodies, the tooth immediately within becomes
erected, and advances forward with the line of
the outer row, to supply the place of that which
was destroyed.
The annexed wood-cut will show the general
distribution of the teeth in the jaws of these vora-
cious fishes, and the figure on the accompanying
plate that of the general form adapted for rapid
passage through the water by a swift and gliding
motion, and an activity and grace in making turns
in pursuit of its prey.
M
H
161
WHITE SHARK.
Charcharias vulgaris.
PLATE XXVII.
The white shark is supposed to have a particular
predilection for human flesh — this it would be diffi-
cult to establish ; and perhaps all the points in its
history, which serve to countenance such a suppo-
sition, are sufficiently explicable, on the assumption
of an extreme voracity, such as belongs to many
fishes not so well provided with the means of gra-
tifying it at the expense of man. When a man
unfortunately comes within reach of a shark, he is
fortunate if he escape with the loss of a limb, to
sever which is, for this voracious creature, but the
work of a moment. Yet many stories are current,
some of which deserve credit, of man having suc-
cessfully encountered sharks in their own element.
The plan of attack depends on the knowledge of the
mode in which the shark seizes his prey ; to do this
the animal is obliged to turn on its side, and while
it is assuming this attitude, some daring spirits
have succeeded in plunging a knife into its body,
so as to escape threatened destruction, or avenge
L
162
WHITE SHARK.
the death of a friend. The teeth in the various
forms of this family are all most formidable weapons,
remarkably sharp, hard and cutting ; and in some
of the larger species, of such size as entirely to
preclude the possibility of escape with life, to any
creature which is so unlucky as to come within
their grasp.
Many other fishes possess a very powerful forma-
tion of long and sharp teeth, as in the accompanying
cut of the head of Lonchurus ancylodon, Schn. In
none are the teeth comparatively more formidable
than in the common pike, the shark of the British
waters ; in specimens of this fish, of from twenty to
thirty pounds weight, they are as large as those of
a cat, and the whole of the roof of the mouth,
the tongue, and arches of the gills are so thickly
set, that, when every circumstance is considered,
this provision is more ample than in any other
fish. Many of the spari have ven^ strong and
sharp teeth ; in some other forms, again, the teeth
TEETH OF FISHES.
163
construct, as it were, the edges of the mouth, and
consist of large bent plates, having the appearance
of a parrot's bill (see cut). In the Anarichas lupus^
or sea-cat, they are thickly set, and, though rounded
on the tops, are so hard, as to leave a mark on the
hardest substances vs^hich have been seized hy the
fish in the struggles of death. In the rays, again,
they cover the lips like a pavement, are blunt, and
very regularly set, but from the muscular power
which acts on them, they are beautifully adapted
for crushing the hard shell-fish on which these
tribes subsist. In all their modifications, however
formidable, we do not know them in any other
'164 SAW-FISHES.
light but as organs for seizing their prey. When the
fishes are taken by any artificial means, they will be
roused, often successfully, to cut the line or cord
which hold them, and any object placed within
the jaws is firmly seized and held ; but this cannot
be viewed in the light of voluntary attack.
The saw-fishes indicate unusual provisions for
ofiensive warfare. These are closely allied to the
sharks, and several species have been discovered.
The upper jaw is prolonged into a projecting flat-
tened snout, the greatest length of which seems to
be about six feet. On the lateral margins of this
snout are set, horizontally, numerous sharp pikes
similar to teeth, which exhibit a formidable edge,
and if wielded with force must be a most powerful
and dangerous weapon. The true teeth of the ani-
mal are placed on the jaws, somewhat similar to
those of the rays and some sharks.
The Pristis antiquorum is one of the largest
species, growing to the length of from fifteen to
sixteen feet; at least such is the size of the speci-
mens hitherto met with. The general colour is a
dull grey, growing paler as it approaches the under
parts, where it is nearly white. The wood-cut
will show the form of the snout, or saw, which the
small size of our other figure scarcely details, suf-
ficiently.
SAW-FISHES. 165
Snout of P. Antiquorum, Lath.
(M
The saw-fish is said to be one of the most formi-
dable enemies of the whale tribe. Though so much
smaller, it attacks and even overcomes the Green-
land whale. It seems probable, however, that one
saw-fish is unequal to such a victory, and that
several usually attack the whale in concert. Mr.
Yarrel, in his recent work on British Fishes, refers
to an account of a combat, on the west coast of
Scotland, between a whale and a company of saw-
fish, aided by an auxiliary force of thrashers ; the
sea was dyed with blood from the stabs inflicted
in the water by the serrated snouts of the saw-fish,
while the thrashers, watching their opportunity,
struck at the unwieldy animal as often as he rose
to the surface for breath. We shall illustrate this
form farther by the
166
CIRRATED SAW-FISH.
Pristis drratus, Latham.
PLATE XXVTII.
P. cirratus, Lath. — Trans. Lin. Soc. ii. p. 28 L fig. 28.
A NATIVE of the New Holland seas, and apparently
yet not very common ; its principal characteristic is
the presence of two cirri on each side of the snout
or saw. The spines of the saw are irregular, three
smaller or shorter ones being placed between each
larger. The mouth, where the true teeth are
placed, is furnished with five rows of minute, but
very sharp teeth. The colour is a pale brown,
shading below to white.
The srvord-Jishes present another formidable ar-
mature, which is capable of being employed with
immense force. They have been separated into
two subdivisions, both armed with the elongated
snout or sword, as it is popularly called, but differ-
ing in the want of ventral, and in the forward posi-
tion of the dorsal fins, and to them has been appHed
the name of Xiphias, or sword-fish; while the
others, by which we shall illustrate the form, has
the dorsal fin large, while the ventral fins are re-
presented by long and slender filaments. Another
name has been given to them, the
n
w
H
<
i^^/
167
INDIAN HISTIOPHORUS.
Histiopliorus Indictis.
PLATE XXIX.
Brought, according to Cuvier and Valenciennes,
from India by Banks, and from the Red Sea by
Eherenberg, will serve as an illustration. The form
is rather graceful, and this is heightened by the
ample dorsal fin. Species have been taken seven
or eight feet in length, and, according to those
naturalists who have seen the fish newly taken, the
colour is of a brownish-red on the upper parts ; the
body is covered with large an lengthened scales.
The sword-fishes are of mild and gentle manners,
living chiefly on marine vegetables, and seldom
attacking other animals, except in self-defence. On
such occasions they become bold and active, main-
taining fierce combat with powerful whales, and, as
has been alleged, even with the crocodile; when
thus engaged, they inflict wounds not less deadly
than those given by the saw-fish, as the weapon,
though not serrated, is of much harder consistence.
The Xiphias gladius inhabits the Atlantic, from
the northern ocean to the south temperate zone,
168 COMMON SWORD-FISH.
and also the Mediterranean. It attains the length
of fifteen, or even twenty feet, the sword being then
four or five feet long ; this sword is merely a pro-
longation of the snout covered with skin, and
flattened into a sword shape. Though this pro-
jection is far from being sharp, either on the mar-
gins or at the point, yet, when urged forward by
the rapid motion of the animal, it has been kno^vn
to pierce a thick plank of wood. This fact, referred
to by Pliny in ancient times, has often been called
in question ; but it appears to be sufficiently authen-
ticated by recent instances, a piece of plank, con-
taining part of the snout of a sword-fish, is exhibited
in the British Museum. Several instances of this
fact are mentioned by Cuvier and Valenciennes;
and specimens are preserved, in the Museum at Paris,
of the sword imbedded in parts of vessels, which, it
is considered, the fish had mistaken for some large
whale, or other marine animal, which they had been
in the habit of attacking.
Nature has furnished a great proportion of fishes
with a more than ordinarily powerful array of teeth
which are used to secure their prey, but not, we
think, almost ever as either defensive or offensive
weapons ; and we have seen very formidable weapons
in the sword and saw-fishes. There are, however,
other modes of securing their prey for which suitable
provision has been made; a very curious one is
observed in the family of ChModon^ a tribe of
fishes remarkable also for their often singular forms
and for the beauty of their colouring. Those pos-
INDIAN HISTIOPHORUS. 169
sessing the curious property we are about to describe,
and where the jaws are elongated, have been placed
in a sub-genus by Cuvier and Valenciennes, under
the title of Chelmon.
The singular mode in which one of this genus,
the Chcetodon rostratus or jaculator^ strikes down
its prey, will excuse a few words of digression
here. It approaches with gentle caution to within
a few feet of the animal it seeks to make prey of ;
it then projects a drop of water from its mouth at
the insect with an aim so unerring as seldom fails to
bring it down, and secures it from escape. This
species has been kept in a vessel of water for the
purpose of examining more narrowly this unusual
mode of overcoming its prey. If an insect be fixed
on the edge of the vessel, or held on the end of a
stick within reach of the missile drop, the fish goes
on repeating the discharge, as the insect does not
fall, while it hardly ever misses its aim. On these
occasions it seems to be provided with a large supply
of water, as it perseveres for a considerable time in
projecting drops to the distance of four or five feet,
without any appearance of taking in a fresh supply.
Another example of this singular structure used
in securing their prey is seen in the
170
LONG-BEAKED CHELMON.
Chelmon longirostris^ Cuv. & Val.
PLATE XXX.
It is found in the Indian ocean, around the coasts
of the Society Islands, and the Isle of France. The
form is not particularly elegant, but the colouring
is remarkable from the decided marks of black on
the sides of the head. It appears to be a rare
species ; and we have copied Yalenciennes* figure,
with the view of directing attention to the better
ascertaining of the manners generally, and the
mode in which it uses the provision of its beak.
I
«5
0-
171
ON THE
ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
Even from remote antiquity the seas have furnished
an abundant supply of food for man, and the fish-
eries there carried on give employment to no incon-
siderable part of the population of the entire globe.
When we consider the extraordinary fecundity of
many kinds of fish, and indeed, of most of those
which are used as food, one is at no loss to account
for the immense shoals in which they swim, and the
myriads which people every sea, lake, and river,
" affording," as Mr. Barrow observes, " an inex-
hausible harvest, ripe for gathering at all seasons of
the year, without the labour of tillage, without ex-
pense of seed or manure, and without the payment
of rent or taxes." Accordingly, the fisheries in this
country have all along received the attention due to
them by Government, and statutes have been enact-
ed for their extension and promotion. One of the
measures from which the most important results
were anticipated, was the giving of bounties to those
engaged in the fisheries, and although this certainly
172 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
had the eflfect of increasing the quantity of fish pro-
duced, yet it is very questionable whether that re-
sult was attended with ultimate success. Although
the bounty system is now discontinued, and the
number of those engaged in the fisheries much re-
duced, yet, according to Mr. Barrow, the value of
the entire annual produce of the foreign and do-
mestic fisheries of Great Britain is as much as
jE8,300,000 ; and, although the accuracy of this
estimate is disputed, and even by a most competent
judge* reduced to less than one-half, yet the fisheries
must ever be regarded as an important source of
national wealth. Besides giving employment to
some, and contributing to the necessities of others,
the British fisheries may be considered as a nursery
in which are reared a large portion of our finest
seamen, furnishing a ready supply from which to
recruit the navy and the merchant service.
The Dutch owe much of their prosperity to the
fisheries, and so do the Americans, always noted for
their enterprise and the zeal with which they carry
on their undertakings. The French, too, and many
other nations, carry on this branch of industry to a
greater or less extent.
Perhaps the esteem in which fish is held as food
(in this country at least) cannot be better illustrated
than by attending to the fact, that 120,000 tons of
fish are annually imported into the metropolis alone,
and in order to procure this supply, whole fleets of
vessels are employed, manned by their thousands of
* Maculloch.
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 173
not merely British, but even Dutch and French
fishermen, bringing fresh fish, such as cod for in-
stance, from a distance of many hundred miles, as
from the coasts of Scotland, and even from Nor-
way.
From the class of fishes are procured not only
articles of food within the reach even of the poorest,
but luxuries and delicacies to be seen only at the
tables of the rich, although few would now-a-days
be inclined to go the length of some Roman epi-
cures, who are known to have given upwards of
£80 for a single fish, one too of no great size, and
held in light esteem at the present day. Besides
these, isinglass or fish glue, as well as the caviare
of commerce, are both obtained from the sturgeon,
and a kind of shagreen is prepared from several
fishes of the shark family. The scales of some
species are used in the manufactm'e of artificial
pearls, and excellent oil is got from the liver of
many others. Fishes are sometimes used by the
farmer as manure, but only when very abundant,
and besides, those which are generally employed for
this purpose, are from their small size unfit for food,
and would otherwise be useless. Lastly, among the
economical uses of fishes it will be proper to include
the pleasure afforded by angling, although both Dr.
Johnson and Lord Byron have denounced this pur-
suit as at once absurd and cruel, and would fain
condemn all its votaries from the days of Isaac Wal-
ton downwards, as at best but cold-blooded mortals,
devoid of the better feelings of our nature. Yet it
174 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
is regarded by many, and we think with justice, as
a dehghtful pastime, the source of much enjoyment.
To enumerate merely, all, or even the greater
part of those fishes which are used as food by man,
would be a task not easily to be accomplished ; we
shall, therefore, and in strict accordance vdih the title
at the beginning of this chapter, confine our obser-
vations to a few of the most important in an econo-
mical point of view. Accordingly, we may begin
with the cod, as it is, perhaps, upon the whole, the
most important.
Before the discovery of the immense supply of
cod to be found on the northern coasts of America,
the principal fishery was carried on off the coasts of
Iceland and Norway, as well as the Orkney, Shet-
land, and Western Islands. A great part of the cod
taken on our own shores is eaten in a fresh state,
and vessels have been constructed in which the fish
are brought alive from a considerable distance, to
supply the markets of our large cities, especially
the metropolis. But it is on the great banks of
Newfoundland and Labrador that the cod fishery is
carried on to its greatest extent, by the Americans,
British, and French, but especially the former. Here
the cod is found in immense shoals, and indeed this
is hardly to be wondered at, when we consider that
nine millions of eggs have been found in the roe of
a single individual of this species. A few yeeirs ago,
it was calculated, that about ten thousand British
seamen were employed in the Newfoundland fish-
eries, independently of perhaps an equal number on
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 175
shore, engaged in preparing the fish. Cod is there
preserved in two ways, and is called respectively
green^ or pickled^ and dried cod. Most of the dried
fish exported from Newfoundland by British sub-
jects, is sent to Spain, Italy, and other Catholic
European countries ; the rest goes to the West Indies
and Great Britain.
The British Government have now discontinued
the plan of giving bounties to those engaged in the
cod fishery, but the French, as late as 1829, in
which year 400 ships were sent out by them to pro-
secute this fishery, gave bounties to the amount of
^60,000. In order to describe the manner in which
this fishery is conducted, we cannot do better than
give an abstract of an account by Mr. Audubon of
" Cod Fishing at Labrador." The American vessels
used for this purpose, are commonly either schooners
or " pickaxes," of about one hundred tons or so,
manned by twelve men ; and each vessel is provided
with a small boat for every two of the crew. The
wages of the fishermen vary from sixteen to thirty
dollars a month, and spirituous liquors are seldom
allowed on board. The baits used, are at first mus-
sels salted for the purpose, then capelins, and often
the flesh of gannets, and other sea-fowl. The vessel
being in a convenient harbour, at three o'clock in the
morning the boats proceed to the fishing banks
several miles ofi", and anchor in a depth of from ten
to twenty feet. Each man has two lines, and the
fish ai*e unhooked when drawn up, by throwing
them across a bar of iron. The boats, after being
176 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
filled, return to the vessel, and the fish are thrown
on deck hy means of a pole armed at the top with
an iron hook. The hoats again return for more fish,
of which Mr. Audubon calculates, each boat may
procure 2000 per diem, and, in the mean time, the
men on board proceed to clean the fish, which they
do in the following manner. One breaks off the
head, throws it overboard, and rips up the belly.
His neighbour tears out the entrails, separates the
liver, which he throws into a cask, and casts the
rest overboard. A third person separates the back-
bone, and throws the fish into the hold, where others
are busy in salting and packing the whole. Such of
the fish as are intended to be dried, are, after being
salted, laid side by side in the sun, and allowed to
remain thus exposed for some time, after which
they are piled in heaps, the process being now
completed. When the capelins approach the shore
to spawn, the cods follow them in prodigious shoals,
and immense numbers of the latter are caught in
seines and other nets, although this mode of pro-
cedure is prohibited by law, a large proportion of the
fish thus taken being altogether useless from their
small size. Finally, Mr. Audubon considers, that
whatever be the means of the fishermen, if the
season is favourable they are generally well repaid
for their labour, and he has knoA^Ti of individuals
engaged in this fishery who procured an indepen-
dence in the course of perhaps ten years.
The cod is caught on our own coast by means of
long lines, which are always shot across the tide.
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 177
and allowed to remain for about six hours. The
hooks are placed at regular distances along the line,
baited with mussels, limpets, or other shell fish, and
sand eels are sometimes used with great success for
the same purpose. At other times, the fishermen
use hand lines, of which one man is able to manage
two, each with a couple of hooks, and in this way,
Mr. Yarrell mentions, eight men have been known
to take eighty score of cod off the Dogger Bank, in
the course of a singlf day.
The value of tho cod, as an article of food, both
in the fresh state and when dried, is too well known
to require any comment. In Iceland and many
parts of Norway, it forms, perhaps, the principal
food of the inhabitants ; also in Sweden, where it
has been fished for ever since the middle of the
14th century. The liver, which is large, furnishes
oil of excellent quality, and to give an idea of the
extent to which it is used, we may mention, that in
1829, the Labrador and Newfoundland fisheries
yielded oil of the value of about .£18,000. By the
Icelanders and NorTv^egians, the heads, as well as
the bones, are given to their cattle as food, and good
isinglass is made in Iceland from the swimming
bladder. The tongue is considered a delicacy, and
the gills are used as bait. In fine, ahnost all parts
of this fish are useful to man.
Many other species of the cod family, besides that
just mentioned, furnish food more or less excellent
for man. Of these we shall enumerate the most
important. Though of smaller size, and perhaps
M
178 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
inferior to the cod, the haddock, Morrhua ceglejinus,
is much prized as an excellent article of food, both
when fresh and in the dried state. It is taken
abundantly on all our shores, especially on the eas-
tern coasts, and is fished for in the same way as the
cod. The haddock is said to be in best condition
in the months of November and December, as well
as in June and July. The whiting, Merlangus vul-
garis^ is a much esteemed and delicate fish, found
on all our coasts, but the greatest numbers are taken
in the winter months, when large shoals approach
the coast to spawn. It is sometimes eaten in a dried
state, but is preferred when fresh. When of small
size, being then known by the name of sillock or
podley, the coal-fish, M, carbonarius, is considered
as a delicacy, and even equally so with the preced-
ing, and at certain seasons forms a principal part of
the food of the poorer classes in the Hebrides and
Orkney islands. When of large size, it is generally
salted or dried, and is at best but a course fish. It
is, however, sometimes very abundant, and Mr. Couch
says, that on the Cornish coast, he has known four men
to take with the rod and line twenty-four hundred
weight of this fish in the course of a very few hours.
The pollock, M. Pollackius, is another coarse insipid
fish when of ordinary size, found in Britain, North
America, Asia, and the Indies, and, according to Dr.
Richardson, " very good bread" may be made from
the roe. The hake, Merluccius vulgaris, though
found in all the northern seas, is in this country
most abundant on our southern coasts, where it is very
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 179
destructive to the pilchard, a fish to be afterwards
mentioned. Off the coast of Waterford the hake is
so abundant, that one thousand have been taken with
the Hne by six men in the course of a single night.
It is also fished for in the Mediterranean, and is
usually salted and dried, but little being eaten in the
fresh state. The ling. Lota molva^ and the tusk,
Brosmius vulgaris^ are two other large and coarse
fish, taken on our own coast, principally among the
northern islands, and a great portion of what is there
procured is exported to Spain and other CathoHc
countries, where they are eaten in large quantities
during lent. The oil obtained from the liver of
the former fish, besides being used by the poorer
classes in many places for ordinary purposes, has
been rather extensively employed internallyj in cases
of severe rheumatism, and often with great success
but it is said, that a person who has taken it, for
some time continues to exhale a disagreeable odour.
The air-bladder, or sound of this fish, is used for
the same purposes as that of the cod. The diffe-
rent species above-mentioned, constitute, collectively,
what is called the white fisheries, which give more
permanent employment than almost any other.
We shall now consider the salmon fishery, which
in Britain is principally carried on in the Scotch
and Irish rivers. Unfortunately, however, its value
has diminished fully one-half of late years, owing to
the scarcity of fish, which is accounted for in various
ways, some attributing it to the great increase in the
180 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
number and kinds of water-machinery, others again
to the prevailing use of lime as a manure, of which
part is carried down by the floods, and destroys the
fish ; but it is now generally considered as owing to
the enormous extent to which poaching is carried
on during close time, when the breeding fish can
easily be destroyed. In order to protect this noble
fish, which has justly been considered as private pro-
perty, as much so as the difibrent kinds of game,
various statutes have been enacted by Government,
and these now in force fix the duration of close
time between August and January, according to the
circumstances of different rivers.
The salmon is caught in our rivers and estuaries
in nets of different kinds. What are called stake
nets, are used in friths, estuaries, and the mouths of
rivers, and are constructed by fixing a line of stout
poles in the mud or sand, at a place of easy access
at low water; between these poles is stretched a
strong net, conducting to a labyrinth in which are
enclosed such fish as come in contact with the
meshes. This kind of net is often carried far
out to sea, sometimes employing several miles of
netting. Salmon are taken at the mouth of the
Forth, above Alloa, in bag-nets, which are dropped
into the stream or current of tide from a kind of
stage or platform run out from the bank. Whenever
a fish enters, a man in readiness pulls up the net
and secures it. Many fish are caught in yairs^
somewhat similar in construction to stake nets,
although on a much smaller scale, and sometimes
ON TUE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 181
constructed of wicker work instead of netting. But
perhaps more salmon are taken by what is called
the coble and net fishery, than by any other method.
This is carried on in large streams, such as the Tay
and Tweed, in the following manner : — A small boat
of a peculiar construction, called a coble, managed
by a single man, and carrying at the stern a long
net, one end of which is fastened to the shore, is
rowed out into the stream ; the net, which is heavily
weighted, sinks to the bottom, and is kept nearly
perpendicular by means of large floats in its upper
margin; and, as the boat proceeds, the net continues
dropping into the water, describing, by the time
the coble reaches the shore, a complete semicircle.
The whole net is then dragged to the bank, some-
times by the assistance of a windlass. Higher up
the rivers, weirs are formed, by building a dyke
across the stream, generally one of small size ; in this
dyke are several apertures, leading to enclosures of
different kinds, called cruives, into which the fish
enter, and are taken out at convenience, being
unable to find an opening through which to escape.
The salmon is also taken on the flats of the Sol way
Frith, by means of funnel shaped nets fastened to a
pole, which are used during the ebbing and flowing
of the tide. In the Welsh rivers, salmon are fished
for with a kind of trammel net, from small boats
called coracles, carrying each a single man *. There
* Salmon are sometimes taken by means of loose nets, in
the meshes of which tlie fish are filled and easily taken.
About five years ago nearly 800 were taken at one hawl in s
182 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
are, besides, some other contrivances for netting
this fish in common use in various parts, which it
would be needless to mention. Many fish are killed
during the period when they ascend to the stream
heads fi^r the purpose of spa"\vning, by means of
what is called a leister or waster, an instrument
somewhat similar to a harpoon, or perhaps still more
so to a trident. Salmon are speared with this in-
strument by torch-light, and the fish, which are
sometimes of very large size, though often unhealthy
at this season, bewildered by the imusual glare of
light, ^and the splashing in the water, are easily dis-
covered, and followed from pool to pool, till an
opportunity of striking them is afforded. Besides
these methods for destropng salmon, no small num-
ber is annually taken by the rod, and this kind of
fishing has probably now arrived at the highest pitch
of perfection. Angling for salmon (in the Tweed at
least) is allowed for a month after the net fishing
has closed for the season.
The greater part of the salmon taken in the Scotch
rivers is sent to the London market, principally
packed in ice ; comparatively little is sold in the
neighbourhood of the fishing stations, and much is
dried, pickled, or otherwise preserved.
In many parts of North America it is very plen-
tiful, being annually exported from Newfoundland
alone, of the value of, in 1815, £14,000. This
bay on the east coast, probably by a net of this kind. Dr.
Young relates an extraordinary capture of 1452 salmon by
Bome Irish fishermen in the year 1776, at one drag of a single
net.
i
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 183
valuable fish is now A'ery rare in the United States,
where it was formerly abundant, in consequence of
the number of steamers plying on all the navigable
rivei-s. It is now confined, we are informed, to the
north-eastern states alone. In the arctic regions,
the salmon occurs in such profusion, that 3378 were
taken at one haul in the month of July, and Sir
John Ross obtained a ton weight of salmon from an
Esquimaux in exchange for one or two knives *.
The whole of the numerous species composing
the family SalmonidcB^ may be regarded as furnishing
food, excellent in its kind, for man, but none of
them, in this country at least, are of equal impor-
tance, in an economical point of view, with the
salmon which we have just treated of at consider-
able length. One species, however, well known as
the salmon trout, is so abundant in the Scotch rivers,
aifd attains such a large size, as to be frequently
sold for the young salmon, although much inferior
according to some. " Two hundred are frequently
taken at a single draught of a sweep net, and three
hundred have occasionally been counted." In fact,
the different kinds of trout, and other salmoni-dae in
this country, are better known as affording amuse-
ment to the angler, than as food for man. There is,
* The Norwegian rivers have long been known to produce
salmon of superior quality, and from the nature of the streams
in which they are found, the mode of taking them varies con-
siderably from those in common use in this country. But,
from want of space, we shall not stop to enumerate them,
however interesting they may be.
184 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
however, one exception. It is a small fish, the
smelt or spirling, Osmerus esperlanus^ found abun-
dantly on the British coasts, and much esteemed as
a delicacy. It is generally taken in greatest plenty
at the mouths of large rivers, or in estuaries, as well
as on sandy shores, in small nets, and always com-
mands a ready sale.
We shall now proceed to give an account of the
fishery for the mackarel. Scomber^ scomber.
This beautiful fish annually visits our coasts in
immense shoals, and its fishery gives ample employ-
ment to thousands in the spring and summer months.
It is said to be in best condition in May and June,
and should be eaten when very iresh, as it can be
kept in a fit state for food only a few hours.
Mackarel are caught either with the hook and
line, or by the drift-net, the latter being generally
preferred, as by it larger numbers may be taken.
The net in question is 20 feet deep by 120 feet in
length, and the size of the mesh is usually about
two and a half inches. As many of these nets as
are at hand are joined together by a strong rope,
and thrown out when the fishing vessel is in full
sail. The whole extent of netting, which not un-
frequently exceeds a mile in length, properly sus-
pended by corks, but without any lead to sink it,
being shot out, the boat is fastened to one end of
the drift-rope, and rides as it were at anchor, the
strain of the vessel keeping the net in a state of
extension. In the morning the whole of the nets
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 185
are hauled in, and the fish, which during the night
had got entangled in the meshes, are taken out and
conveyed to shore, generally hy other boats, leaving
the fishermen to resume their fijrmer occupation.
By means of these nets astonishing numbers of
fish have been taken in a single night ; thus, Mr.
Yarrell states, that on the 30th of Jime, 1821, the
value of the catch of sixteen boats from Lowestofie
amounted to <£ 5,252.
Mackarel are also caught by a species of angling,
by a line heavily weighed and fastened to a stout
rod, while the vessel is under rapid sale. The bait
used is either a portion of a small fish, even the
mackarel itself, or else a piece of scarlet cloth, which,
strange to say, is for them at all times a deadly
bait. Tv 0 men, in this way, it is said, may capture
from five hundred to a thousand fish in the course
of the day. That the mackarel fishery is of con-
siderable importance may be concluded from the
circumstance, that off the Suffolk coast alone this
fish is taken of the annual value of £10,000, and
that too in the space of only six weeks. The macka-
rel, though considered a somewhat dry fish, is never-
theless held in high repute, and, when the take is
considerable, on account of the short time it will
keep fresh, is sometimes sold at a very low rate.
Thus, although in Scotland, where it is rarely so
plentiful as a little farther to the south, it is seldom
within the reach of the poorer classes, yet in Nor-
folk, during last summer, we saw abundance hawked
186 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
about at the rate of two a penny, though this is far
from being the usual price.
In North America, especially off the coasts of
Labrador and NeAvfoundland, mackarel of different
species, however, occur periodically in prodigious
shoals, and their arrival is eagerly looked for.
A fish nearly allied to the preceding, the tunny,
Thynnius vulgaris^ was well knoA\Ti and highly
prized by the ancients, having constituted from the
earliest ages, according to Dr. Neale, a gi'eat source
of riches and commerce to the nations inhabiting
the shores of the Mediterranean, and, in fact, being
the principal food of the people of Bithynia. We
shall have occasion to speak of it at greater length
hereafter.
We may now pass on to the consideration of the
herring fishery, and there is perhaps no one fishery
in any country which has come so much under the
attention of the legislature, or given rise to so much
speculation. Fishing \dllages were built, and com-
panies w^ere formed, w^hich were all eventually un-
successful in their objects. Then, soon after the
commencement of the present century, a fishery
board was established by Government, and a bounty
was given, not merely on the tonnage of the vessels
employed in the fishery, but also on the number of
baiTels produced, which bounty on the latter, for
eleven years, was equal to half the value of the her-
rings as sold by the fishermen. This bounty of four
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 187
shillings a barrel, naturally held out great induce-
ments to begin the business of herring curing, and
gave rise to much speculation. The fishery -was of
course extended, and the number of herrings pro-
duced much increased. By and bye the bounty
was gradually diminished, and, in 1820, entirely
done away. The policy of this measure is unques-
tionable, as henceforth the supply Avill be more pro-
portioned to the real demand.
The Dutch have been long engaged in this fishery,
which, at one time, was said to have given employ-
ment to one-fifth of the whole population of Hol-
land. Though this estimate is now generally con-
sidered to have been overrated, yet no doubt much
of the prosperity of that country then depended on
the fishery in question, and it is even now a pro-
verbial saying, that " Amsterdam is founded upon
herring bones." The Dutch have always been ac-
knowledged as superior in the art of curing herring
to any other nation, and their herrings, not many
years ago, brought double or even treble the price
of the British article in every European market *
The British fishermen, though long encouraged by
a bounty from Government, as before mentioned,
yet failed in producing an article which can compete
with the Dutch herrings, and for obvious reasons.
The Dutch carry on the fishery at sea, and from
* One grand object of the fishery board was to attempt
bringing the British herrings to a level with those of the
Dutch, but they signally failed in accomplishing that object.
188 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OP FISHES.
the small quantity whicli their vessels are capable
of containing, in order to cover the expense of fit-
ting out, and ensure some profit to themselves, can
only do so by preparing their few barrels in a very
superior way, more as a delicacy than a staple
article of food. The British, again, fish in the neigh-
bourhood of their o^ah coasts, and the immense
numbers of fish which they take can only be either
disposed of when fresh, or cured by them in the
most expeditious way, and their profits are insured
by selling a large quantity at a very lo w rate.
The value of the herring fishery in this country
has been long progressively increasing. The fisheries
in the north of Scotland, for instance, have been of
immense benefit to the neighbouring counties, and
have opened up a mine of wealth not easily to be
exhausted. Thus, according to the Parliamentary
reports of that date, in the year ended on the 5th
April, 1819, the astonishing quantity of 340,660
barrels was landed from the fishery and cured, and
of this, 227,162 barrels were exported from Great
Britain, chiefly to Ireland, the continent of Eui'ope,
the West Indies, and even to Calcutta. Of this
quantity only one twenty-second part of the whole
was taken by English fishermen, the rest was the
produce of the Scottish coast, the little town of
Wick furnishing nearly one-fifth of the whole.
The herring is taken in drift nets somewhat simi-
lar to those employed for mackarel and pilchards,
and much judgment is required in laying them to
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 189
the greatest advantage. A dark niglit is generally
most successful, and the drawing the nets in the
morning is said to present a very animated scene.
Herrings are eaten hoth -when fresh, pickled, or
dried. In the fresh state, in towns in the neighbour-
hood of the sea, the consumption is at times enor-
mous, for the herring furnishes a very cheap article
of food to all classes. We recollect seeing this fish,
a few years ago, sold in the streets of Edinburgh,
for several weeks, at the rate of twelve for a penny.
In this country the best pickled herring are con-
sidered to be those from Lochfine, on our west coast,
and this is owing, not so much to the greater atten-
tion there paid in curing them, as to their original
superior excellence and larger size.
Another fish belonging to the valuable family of
herrings, the pilchard, Clupea pilchardus^ though
not quite so large as the herring, is yet of great
importance in an economical point of view, when
we consider that the average value of the pilchards
taken annually, in Cornwall alone, is between
£50,000 and £60,000. In 1827, the total amount
of capital invested in this fishery was £441,215,
giving employment to upwards of ten thousand per-
sons, fishermen and others.
This fish is met with in various parts of the
European seas, as on the coasts of France, but
especially those of Cornwall and Devon, where there
is an extensive pilchard fisheiy during the months of
August and September. As far back as the days of
Elizabeth, statutes were enacted for the protection
190 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
of this fishery, and there was, until lately, a bounty
of 8s. 6d. on every hogshead exported.
Pilchards are caught with scans or drift nets, but
principally with the former. By means of one or more
scans, each of which is 360 feet in length and 36
in depth, a shoal is enclosed ; then the bottom of the
net is drawn together by a pecuUar contrivance, and
the fish, thus prevented from escaping, are taken
out at low water in small bag nets. Sometimes,
according to Mr. Yarrell, the quantity enclosed is so
great, that a week may elapse before the whole can
be conveniently disposed of, a part being taken up
every night. Seven thousand hogsheads, or about
twenty-four millions and a half of pilchards, are said
to have been taken at once from a single shoal, wliich,
however, may cover an extent of several square miles.
Drift-nets, as we said before, are also used for the
same pui'pose, and several are joined together when
required, sometimes extending three quarters of a
mile. The most successful time for using them is
during a hazy night, with a slight swell or breeze.
The nets are drawn soon after sunset, and again
before morning, and it is considered a moderate
capture if from five to ten thousand fish are taken
in a single night.
Such as are intended for exportation are pickled,
and afterwards packed in barrels by means of great
pressure, which reduces the bulk of the fish to one-
third of what it formerly was, and during this pro-
cess, there is obtained a coarse but pure oil in the
proportion of three or four gallons from a hogshead
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OP FISHES. li)l
of fisli. The mixture of oil, blood, and pickle,
which exudes from the immense heaps into which
the fish are piled before undergoing the process of
pickling, is used in large quantity in the neighbour-
hood as manure. The fish itself, when very abun-
dant, is sometimes used for the same purpose, though
not to the same extent as the next species to be
mentioned. It is said that a single pilchard is suffi-
cient to manure a square foot of land.
Besides furnishing fresh food for the poorer classes
in the neighbourhood, pilchards are exported, it is
said, to the annual amount of £50,000, principally
to the West Indies, along with herrings, for the use
of the slave, or rather negro population there.
The sprat fishery in this country is carried on
during the winter months, after the termination of
the herring season. This fish, the Clupea sprattus
of authors, is principally taken in estuaries, and
elsewhere, in large bag-nets of a peculiar construc-
tion, fi'om what are called stow boats, on the
Kent, Essex, and Suffolk coasts. The quantity
taken is sometimes enormous;, and the greater part
is used to manure the land, forty bushels being
required to the acre. Sprats, moreover, are not
unfrequently, despite of their small size, eaten in
great numbers, being sometimes excessively cheap,
and in Edinburgh, for instance, this fish, there
kno"v\Ti by the name of garvie-herring, is occasionally
haAvked about in carts at a very low rate.
A large species of herring, the shad, Clupea alosa,
is found to enter certain of our rivers at stated
periods, for the purpose of spa^ATiing, at which time
192 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
great numbers are caught, principally, it is said, in
the Severn. It is then much tiner than ^vhen taken
in the sea, and the flesh more delicate. It is taken
in almost all our northern seas, even the Caspian ;
but is more abundant in North America, and there
of more importance to man than elsewhere.
The white-bait fishery, as carried on in the Thames,
is one of peculiar interest, not to say productive of
considerabls benefit to those concerned, on account
of the esteem in which it is held by the Londoners,
who resort in vast numbers to Blackwall, Green-
•wich, and other places where it is most abundant,
to enjoy a fish dinner in certain taverns of white-
bait notoriety. According to Mr. Yarrell, white-
bait, Clupea alha^ are taken in long bag-nets from
vessels moored in the tide-way, and the fish are taken
out by untjdng the end of the hose, and shaking it
into the boat.
As this fish has lately been discovered, among
other places, about Queensferry, and in the Solway
Frith, where it has not been disturbed, its fishery
in these places might be turned to some account, as
remarked by Dr. Pamell, who was among the first
to discover it in the localities just mentioned.
"We shall now pass on to consider another series
of fish, the Pleuronectidw of naturalists, or flat-fish,
the taking of which is called the flat-fishery.
The plaice, Platessa vulgaris, is held in high esti-
mation for the table. " It inhabits sandy banks and
muddy places in the sea." It is often taken with
lines, but, in the south of England, where it some*
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 193
times occurs in such extraordinary abundance that
Mr. Yarrell has kno^^^l great quantities of plaice,
averaging three pounds weight each, to be sold at
one penny per dozen, it is caught in trawl-nets,
whenever such can be used. On the Norwegian
coasts, where the sea is remarkably transparent, this
fish is often taken of very large size by a short
spear with a line attached, which is dropped down
upon them, and not only the plaice, but many other
kinds of flat-fish are thus secured.
The mud-flounder, P.Jlesus^ is another very com-
mon fish, although much inferior in quality to the
preceding. Sandy or muddy bays, or inlets, but
especially brackish water at the mouth of rivers,
which it sometimes ascends a considerable way dur-
ing floods, produce this fish in the greatest abun-
dance, and its capture is attended with little or no
difficulty, as hardly any kind of bait will come amiss
\o it. In the Thames, vast numbers are caught in
nets of a peculiar kind, so constructed as to enclose
and secure all the fish within a limited space.
We now pass on to one which sometimes attains
an enormous size, it is even said that three or four
hundred pounds is no very unusual weight for the
fish in question. It is the halibut, Hippoglossus vul-
garis^ but unfortunately this large fish is not much
esteemed, " its flesh," according to good authority,
" though white and firm, is dry, the muscular fibre
coarse, with but little flavour," and, stiange to say,
*' the head and fins are said to be the best parts." This
fish is more common farther to the north than in
N
194 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
Britain, and is very plentiful, for instance, on the
great banks of Newfoundland, where Mr. Audubon
informs us, only the side-fin and the part adherent to
that organ, are used. It is said, on good authority,
that 160,000 halibut are annually imported into New
York alone, yielding about 16,000 dollars, at only
2 cents per pound. The halibut is generally taken
with the line, but we have known it harpooned off
the Norfolk coast, although for mere amusement, for
this practice is by no means general.
The turbot. Rhombus maximus, is the most prized
of all the fishes belonging to this family. This fine
fish is not so abundant in Scotland as it is still far-
ther south, and the best are generally supposed to
be taken on the Flemish banks. Pennant describes
the extensive turbot fishery which was in his time,
and probably still is, carried on off the Yorkshire
coast near Scarborough. The lines used are about
thi-ee miles in length, with nearly three thousand
hooks. They ai'e laid across the tide, and allowed
to remain for six hours before being hauled. But
the turbot is found in greatest plenty on the various
sand-banks between the eastern shores of England
and the coast of Holland. It is here that the Dutch
fishermen carry on their great turbot fishery ; and
this has been so well described by Mr. Barrow, that
we shall abridge his account of it.
This fishery begins about the end of March, a
few leagues to the south of Scheveling, but, as the
warm weather comes on, the fish gradually advance
to the northward, followed by the fishermen, who
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 3 95
continue to take them until the middle of August,
>vhen they are found on some banks off the mouth
of the Elbe. At the beginning of the season the
drag-net is used, which brings up not only turbot
but many other flat-fish in great abundance, but, as
the season advances, and the fish retire to deeper
water, where the net cannot be used with advan-
tage, recourse is had to the hook and line. The
lines used for this purpose are sometimes three miles
in length, and the number of hooks on each varies
from six to eight hundred, each baited with a small
fish, which requires to be very fresh, and such as
are of a bright colour are generally found to answer
best. To prevent lines of such immense length from
being shifted, or even carried away by the tide,
large masses of lead, or sometimes small anchors,
are attached to them. The Dutch are said to have
drawn not less than £80,000 a-year from the turbot
sent by them to the London market, where it seems
to be preferred.
The Dutch are said to furnish about one-fourth of
the whole supply of this fish sent to London, besides
what is purchased from them at sea by our own
fishermen, and thus brought to market free of duty,
which otherwise is £6 per boat. In the Channel
the French carry on a rather extensive turbot fishery,
the greater part of the produce of which also enters
cur markets. According to Mr. Yarrell, the number
of turbot brought to Billingsgate in the course of
Iwelve months, was 87,958.
The only other flat-fish used as food which we shall
1 96 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
mention, is the sole, Solea vulgaris^ ■which is in
season almost the whole year round, and whose flesh
is considered of excellent quality, being " firm and
white." Soles are taken principally by the trawl-
net, and in such plenty, that 80,000 baskets of this
fish were sold in Billingsgate market alone in one
year.
Two kinds of fresh water eels are to be seen in
the shops, but their consumption is limited. They
are caught in the Thames and other rivers, where
they abound, in traps of wickerwork, which stop
many of the fish in the autumnal months, in tbeir
periodical migration to the salt water. Many are
killed by means of a long three-pronged spear, which
is thrust down into the mud from a boat, and only
those of pretty large size are thus taken, as the
smaller ones escape between the prongs. We have
seen another method of catching eels practised on
some of the English rivers, by a man in a small boat,
with a stick and line in each hand, at the end ol
the line there is a large bunch of worms, strung upon
thread or worsted, and tied in a bunch. It requires
some dexterity to lift the eels into the boat before
they slip off, as no hook is used to detain them.
This is a very successful way of fishing. The prin-
cipal supply of eels to the London market is derived
from Holland, whence they are brought over in well-
boats.
The conger eel, Conger vulgaris^ frequents out
rocky coasts in various places, and is so abundant
in Cornwall, that, according to Mr. Couch, it is not
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 197
uncommon for a boat, with five men, to bring on
sbore from five hundred-weight to two tons of this
fish, all taken in the course of a single night. It is
taken by lines, and the bait most successful is a
small fish. The flesh is not held in much esteem,
except by the lower classes, who make a virtue of
necessity, but this is probably in a great measure
owing to the unprepossessing appearance of the fish
itself. It is sometimes dried, and large quantities
are said to have been exported to Spain and other
catholic countries. When dried in a particular man-
ner, the flesh used formerly to be ground or grated
to powder, and in this state was employed to thicken
soup.
The sand-eel, Ainmodytes tohianus, and the sand-
launce, A. lancea, which are both very abundant on
our sandy shores, are objects of great importance to
the fishermen, as furnishing a bait much in request
for taking many of the larger fishes. From their
habit of burrowing in the sand, they can easily be
procured at low-water by means of a rake of a pe-
culiar construction. We have seen the strong sickles
with teeth, that are used for cutting sea-weed,
employed with great success in scratching up sand-
eels, which are also caught, acccrding to Montagu,
in nets with remarkably small meshes, when a shoal
is discovered at sea, and seven bushels have been
taken at a single haul. Though of such small size,
yet they are very delicate ea,ting, and vast numbers
are consumed in summer by the natives of the
•Hebrides.
198 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
From the livers of several kinds of dog-fish of the
genus Spinax^ a good oil is extracted, although this
is not done on the large scale, and in some parts of
the country, as the Hebrides and Orkney islands,
the fish themselves are eaten when nothing better is
in the way. The larger species of shark, which are
occasionally taken on our coast, are generally valu-
able captures, from the quantity of oil procured from
the liver by boiling, and in this way, from a basking
shark, twenty-six feet in length, mentioned by Pen -
nant as having occurred off Anglesey, 156 gallons of
oil were obtained. This leads us to mention various
species of ray, better known in this country by the
names of skate, thornback, &c., the large wings or
fins of which are much esteemed.
We had occasion to mention, about the beginning
of this chapter, that the scales of several species are
used in the manufacture of artificial pearls, and for
this purpose, in Britain at least, the white-bait, for-
merly mentioned, and the bleak, Cyprinus alhurnus,
are best adapted. Properly speaking, it is not the
scales of these fish, but the silvery pigment which
gives them their lustre, that is used in this manu-
facture, which, however, is by no means carried to
the same extent now that it was a few years ago^
when, as Dr. Lister states, a manufacturer in Paris
used, in a single winter, thirty hampers of hleak.
The mode of procedure is as follows : The scales are
well washed, and then allowed to soak in water,
when, after a time, the colouring matter is found at
the bottom of the vessel. This pigment is then dis-
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 199
solved in caustic ammonia or hartshorn, and inject-
ed into hollow glass balls, with a minute aperture,
and of the requisite size and form, and after the
hartshorn has evaporated, the glass is left coated in
the inside with the pigment, which gives it a pearly
lustre. Sometimes wax is poured in to render them
heavier, and complete the operation.
In this country, of late years, the scales of the
perch, Perca vulgaris^ of the roach, Cyprinus rutilus^
and a few others, have come into use with the fair
sex, being used by them in different kinds of fancy
work.
Having now enumerated the principal species of
fish which furnish food to man, or serve as objects
of commercial interest in this country, we may per-
haps be expected to make some general observations
on so important a subject. But this task has already
been accomplished by abler hands than ours, and for
information on this head it will only be necessary to
refer to Mr. Barrow's article on the " Fisheries," in
the ninth volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
In the mean while, we may state the conclusions he
arrives at, after viewing his subject in all its bear-
ings.
Mr. Barrow considers the real cause of the back-
ward state of the British fisheries as simply arising
from the want of a steady demand for their produce,
and not, as has generally been alleged, from a defi-
ciency in the supply. He states, that the use of
fish is scarcely known in the interior, so that in the
inland and midland counties, " the labouring classes
200 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF PISHES
scarcely know the taste of fish," although all are
agreed in regarding that article of food as of the
highest importance, not only from its quality, but
also from the low rate at which it might he supplied.
The metropolis, moreover, absorbs a great part of
what might otherwise be sold elsewhere, as may be
seen from the following table, which shows the
quantity sent to the London market in six days,
from the 19th to the 24th of June inclusive.
Salmon 253| boxes.
Turbot 3,153 individuals.
Mackarel 131,700 do.
Whitings 31,175 do.
Soles 164 bushels.
Maids and Plaice 1,045 do.
Besides fresh codfish, skate, haddock, and other fish
in smaller quantities.
There are many species of fish, of common
occurrence in this country, which, although not of
sufiicient importance to be regarded as objects of
commercial interest, yet deserve some mention here
as furnishing amusement to anglers, many of them
requiring considerable skill in order to effect their
capture.
At the head of these has always stood the salmon,
whose economical history, hoAvever, we have already
considered at length, and shall merely observe, that
to such a degree of perfection has the capture of this
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 201
fish been brought, that it is now no very uncommon
feat for some heroes of the rod and line to pull out
a salmon of thirty pounds weight by means of a
hook attached to their fishing tackle by single gut.
Fishing for salmon with the rod, is permitted in the
Tweed for a month after net fishing is given up for
the season in that river. All the species of trout
are also fished for in this country, and so abundant
are they, in the north especially, that almost every
stream and lake which they inhabit, has a variety
peculiar to itself, and differing from others, as much
in the excellence of its flesh as in colour and shape.
The most remarkable of these, and one of the largest,
is the great loch trout, Salmo ferox^ found in some
of the larger lakes of Britain, and angling for this
fish has been described as the ne plus ultra of pisca-
torial sport, but with what justice, we leave others
to determine. Perhaps the most delicate of all our
trouts is the Lochleven species, S. ccecifer parnel^
of which a large quantity finds its way into the
Edinburgh market, and we understand it has already
come into considerable repute in London, where,
however, the supply is very limited indeed.
The large size which the pike sometimes attains,
conjoined with his well-known voracity, renders this
fish a great favourite with sportsmen and anglers.
Pike may be easily shot when in shallow water, in
the heat of summer, as then, if not disturbed, they
will remain for hours together in the same position,
and so near the surface as to afford an easy mark
even to indifferent shots — like ourselves ! They are
202 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
generally, however, caught with lines, and one kind
of apparatus called a trimmer, and in some places a
ligger is very successful in taking, not only this fish,
but large perch also. By using this, which is a
common line, with a large pike -hook attached, rolled
round a piece of wood or bunch of rushes allowed
to float about, Mr. Yarrell relates that a friend of his
CMTi took, in the course of four days fishing in Nor-
folk, 2i">6 pike, weighing altogether 1135 pounds.
Pike of enormous size have been taken in some of
our Scotch lakes by the rod and line ; one caught
by trolling, by Colonel Thornton of sporting cele-
brity, in Loch Awe, after a struggle of an hour and
a quarter, weighed fifty pounds, but a pike of still
greater dimensions was taken in a loch in Galloway,
of the enormous weight of seventy-two pounds, and
this, in all probability, may be considered as the
largest fish ever killed with the rod. It rose, we
believe, at an artificial fly. The pike, especially
when of moderate size, is considered by some as
superior even to salmon. This is, however, a mere
matter of opinion. Though we are very sceptical
on this subject, to do the pike justice, we seldom
tasted a more delicious fish. Considerable quanti-
ties are sold in London and in other large cities in
the south of England, and they bring a high price.
Almost all the British Cyprin'idce are (more or
less) objects of interest to the angler, but, as food,
they may be regarded as rather insipid than other-
wise. There are some exceptions, however ; among
others, the tench, C thica^ and the carp, C carjno,
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 203
which are reared in many places in fish-ponds for
the purpose of supplying the London market. The
former has been introduced of late years into Scot-
land for economical purposes, but we believe the
experiment has not succeeded so well as was anti-
cipated; the latter, on the contrary, is so easily
managed in a state of captivity, that it has been kept
for months and years together out of the water, en-
veloped in moss or other similar substance, moistened
now and then, and placed in a damp cellar. It is
fed by the hand, and not only keeps in good health,
but is said to " thrive uncommonly well." The
roach and dace, as well as the bream and others,
are all familiar to anglers, affording, strange to say,
more amusement in their capture than satisfaction
in eating them afterwards ; for, as we said before,
their flesh is insipid, and, moreover, often savours
strongly of mud, when taken in a place where that
article abounds *.
* Among the modes of destroying fish not usually men-
tioned in books, are two, which may be worthy of notice,
though certainly not of imitation. By dissolving in water a
substance called cocculus indicus^ the l)erry of a plant used in
medicine, the fish in the vicinity become stupified, in a yery
short time rising to the surface, and in this state may easily
be taken with a landing net. This practice, which is illegal,
we have, however, seen on two occasions, and on one of these,
a large shoal of roach and dace was completely intoxicated by
this drug, and all the larger ones picked out at leisure by two
persons in a boat. Lime water is used in some places to destroy
fish, especially in deep pools on rapid streams, and it is re-
lated, that in the county of Kerry, a kind of spurge is used
by the peasantry for the same purpose as cocculus indicus^
which latter is much used in some countries of the east, where
the plant grows.
204 ON THE ECONOMICx\.L USES OF FISHES.
Having now considered such of the fishes which
in this country are used hy man for economical pur-
poses, as appear most worthy of notice, and treated
of them as far as is consistent with the plan of this
work, little now remains to he done before briefly
mentioning, and, in many cases, merely indicating
such species as are valued by the inhabitants of
other parts of the globe. Such a sketch, however,
must, from its very nature be exceedingly imperfect,
as in order to do any thing like justice to that sub-
ject, whole volumes would be required, and could be
written without at all exhausting the various sources
of information on this head.
The two hard bones found just within the sides of
the head in fish, and called, from analogy, ear bones
or ear stones, though, correctly speaking, not so,
were formerly, as procured from the Scicena aquila^
the umbrina of the Romans, in high repute as
charms. Even in the days of Belon, according to
that author, they were considered as infallible in
preventing and even curing several maladies, espe-
cially colic, hence they were best kno^vn by the
name of colic stones. In order to secure the benefits
of this panacea, it was believed, that unless they were
received as a gift, they had no efi*ect. If purchased,
they immediately lost all medicinal properties, — this
we can easily understand. The fish producing them
is excellent eating ; it is abundant in the Mediter-
ranean, and sometimes wanders to our own shores.
Many fishes, formerly highly esteemed by the
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 205
ancient Romans, and celebrated by their poets, are
now-a-days little tbouglit of, though still as abun-
dant as ever. Among these are the surmullet, or
red mullet, Mullus barlatus, taken also on our
southern coasts, and the murcena^ a fish nearly allied
to the conger, formerly treated of, but which is, even
to this day, an article of considerable importance in
various parts of the Mediterranean.
Shagreen, of inferior quality, hoAvever, is obtained
from the skin of several species of rays and dog-fish,
but the best is obtained by subjecting the hides of
the horse and ass to a peculiar process, best under-
stood in Turkey, from which country it is exported
to most parts of the civilized globe, and used for
covering cases of difi'erent kinds, especially those for
mathematical instruments. From the skin of the
Raja sephen^ a native of the Red Sea, is procured a
beautiful kind of shagreen, the galluchat of the
French, which is often tinged with blue, green, or
red, and afterwards polished, when it is used for
covering telescope cases and other similar articles.
In China, another species of ray furnishes a mate-
rial which is employed for making scabbards. The
skin of many fishes, which have that texture suffi-
ciently rough for the purpose, is used in Britain
and abroad for polishing wood, and Pliny mentions,
that the Romans were in the habit of using a sub-
stance of this sort for the purpose of polishing both
wood and ivory. The angel-shark, perhaps, affords
the best, and this appears to have been the kind
used by the ancients.
206 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
The tunny fisheries in the Mediterranean are still
objects of great importance, though their value has
much diminished since the days of the ancients.
They are now principally carried on by the Sicilian
fishermen, who export a considerable quantity of
the fish in question in the dried state, chiefly from
Palermo. The tunny, although sometimes of enor-
mous size, is taken in nets of a peculiar construction,
of great strength, and of such size, that, according to
Scillius, twenty vessels might be filled by a single
cast. The numbers of this and other fish which
pass through the Bosphorus, in performing their
periodical migrations, is said to be absolutely in-
credible, immense numbers, principally young tun-
nies, being then taken with very little trouble.
The sword-fish, Xiphias gladius, mentioned in
a former part of this volume, is another fish highly
esteemed by the Sicilians, who take it in rather a
singular manner. A man, stationed either at the
mast-head, or perched on a neighbouring rock, gives
notice to his comrades when a fish is seen. They
immediately make for the spot, and strike the sword-
fish with a harpoon, to which is attached a long line,
by which their prey, after being exhausted by a
struggle, sometimes of several hours duration, is at
length drawn on board. The ancient manner of
taking this fish, as described by Strabo, appears to
be quite the same as that which we have just de-
scribed. The fish, when taken, is generally cut in
pieces, and salted for future use, as comparatively
ON THE ECONOMICxVL USES OF FISHES. 207
little is eaten fresh, being little relislied in that
state.
Another fishery of considerable importance, car-
ried on in the Mediterranean, is that for the anchovy
Engraulis encrasicolus. It belongs to the valuable
family of the herrings, and is used extensively as
food by the inhabitants of many of the countries of
southern Europe. In Britain it is well known as
contributing to form one of our most admired fish-
sauces, which bears its name. As a proof of the
extent to which it is used, we may mention that the
duty alone on the quantity imported into Britain,
was, two or three years ago, £1500 per annum. A
large proportion, however, of the so-called anchovy
sauce used in this country, is prepared from the
white-bait, the fishing of which in the Thames we
briefly described a few pages farther back.
In the Mediterranean, the anchovy is caught
during the summer months, and is said to be chiefly
taken at night, the fish being attracted by the glare
of a large fire from a raft or fishing-boat. Such of
the fish as are not eaten when fresh, are pickled
much in the same manner as herrings, and packed
in barrels, being then ready for the market. Red-
coloured salt is sometimes employed to pickle them,
and anchovies thus preserved, are considered as of
finer flavour than those cured in the usual way with
common salt.
The African fishes of economical use to man, are
exceedingly numerous ; but a mere catalogue of
208 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
empty names is almost all that could be given were
one SO inclined, and that could hardly aflPord a cor-
rect idea of anything but the number of species so
employed. The many noble streams which traverse
the coimtry are in general stocked with fish, and
none more so than the far-famed Nile. Probably the
two best flavoured fish found in that river are the
Lates Niloticus, one of the perch family, described
and figured in a former volume of this work, and
the Polypterus lichin — the latter of which is rare
At the Cape, the neighbouring rivers are said to be
singularly devoid of fish, but the seas around amply
make up for this deficiency. " I was present," says
M. Adamson, " at a very extraordinary capture of
fish, made in March, i.750, on the coast of Ben,
within a league of the island of Goree, by the com-
pany belonging to one of the East India ships, which
had anchored in the road. They had only a net of
about sixty fathoms, which they threw at a venture
into the sea ; for they were not so lucky as to espy
any of those shoals of fishes : yet they had such
enterprising success, that the shore was covered, the
whole length of the net with the fish they caught,
though the net was in a bad condition. I reckoned
part of them, and judged that they might in all be
upwards of 6000, the least of them as large as a fine
carp. There you might see pilchards, rock-fish,
mullets, or gull-fish, of different sorts; molebats,
vAth. other fishes very little known. The negroes of
the neighbouring village took each their load, and
the ship's crew tilled their boat till it was ready to
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 209
sink, leaving the rest on the sea-shore. In any other
country such a capture of fish would, without ail
doubt, pass for a miracle."
Along the East Indian coasts lAany species are
much used as food by the natives and Europeans.
Among these are the mango-fish, Polynemus para-
discus^ well known in Calcutta, where it is eaten
fresh, and also when salted and dried ; the Scomber
leopardus^ or leopard-mackarel ; a fish analogous to
the sole of Europe, the zebra-sole, Pleuronectes zebra;
and a small fish called by the natives bumbalo, but
the scientific name of which we are unable to ascer-
tain, which, in a dried state, furnishes an important
article of commerce, and is said to form a principal
article of food among the lascars or Indian sailors.
The Ganges and other large rivers of India are well
stocked with abundance of edible fish.
But perhaps the most important fish which we
might mention as occurring in Asia is the sturgeon,
several species of which, but chiefly, it is believed,
the Accipenser huso, yield the isinglass of commerce.
Sturgeons ascend the rivers in the northern seas at
certain seasons, in vast numbers, for the purpose of
spa>vning, and their fishery is then of great impor-
tance. The principal sturgeon fishery is carried on
in the rivers which are connected with the Caspian
sea, and the fish are generally taken in weirs or
chambers, analogous to those for catching sahnon,
used in many parts of Scotland. The process for
making isinglass was long kept a secret by the
o
210 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES
Russians, who still enjoy a monopoly in tlie trade,
although a fish glue, sufiicient for ordinary purposes,
may be procured from many fishes of common oc-
currence on our own coasts, especially the cod. For
the purpose of making isinglass, the sounds are cut
open when fresh, well washed^- and divested of their
thin outer membrane, and then exposed for a short
time to the air, being afterwards formed into rolls
about the thickness of a finger.
It is said by an English traveller, who saw the
Russian sturgeon fisheries on the Caspian, that all
the fish taken are thrown away, and allowed to rot
on the ground, after the only parts considered of
use, the sounds and the roe, have been preserved.
Their flesh, however, is in this country considered
excellent, and wdienever sturgeons occur on our
coast, which not unfrequently happens, they always
command a ready sale. One species, indeed, when
properly cooked, is said to resemble delicate veal in
no ordinary degree.
Isinglass is extensively employed by brewers and
others, for the purpose of clarifying malt-liquors and
wines. It is also formed into a mild nutritious jelly
by being boiled in milk, and is sometimes used
medicinally. This jelly is the blanc-mange of our
tables A solution of isinglass, with the addition of
some balsam, and spread on black silk, constitutes
the court-plaster of the shops. Besides this, the
substance in question may be used instead of glue
or gum-arabic, and is preferable to either in many
respects
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 211
Another substance called caviare is procured from
the sturgeon. It is the salted roe of that fish, formed
into a soft mass, or into cakes, and is much esteemed
as food by the Russians, who, besides, export it in
considerable quantities to this and other countries.
For our part, we only wonder that any but a Rus-
sian stomach can bear it *.
Fresh water fishes are probably found no where
more plentiful than in the great rivers and lakes of
the Celestial Empire, and it is said, that no nation
on the earth puts in practice a greater variety of
modes for catching fish than the Chinese. Some
of these are very ingenious, and quite in accordance
with the general character of the whole nation^:
One plan of fishing is pursued with great success,
and Avith little trouble, on moonlight nights, in long
and narrow boats, attached to which, on each side,
is fastened a plank, covered with shining japan, and
nearly touching the water. The fish are attracted
to the spot by the light of the moon's rays as reflect-
ed from the burnished surface, and great numbers
are taken which have either actually leapt into the
boat, or got upon the board.
A species of qormorant, a kind of sea-bird, well
known as an expert diver, and which feeds on fish,
is domesticated by the Chinese fishermen, and used
* "We had almost forgot to mention, that there is yet
another economical substance ptocurcd from the sturgeon,
for " the ligamento-cartilaginous cord which pervadps the
spine, constitutes a Russian delicacy, named ve&u/a.''''
212 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
by them in their avocation. Small boats and rafts
of a peculiar kind are used in this kind of fishing,
and each man, so employed, is the ov^Tier of about a
dozen of the birds in question. On a given signal,
the birds, which have often a ring fastened loosely
round the neck to prevent their swallowing their
prey, plunge into the water and seize any fish they
are able to master, bringing it to the top, where
the fisherman is in waiting to receive the produce of
their industry. If the fish be very large, and too
much for a single bird to manage, one of his fellows
is sure to come to his assistance.
The Chinese sometimes secure large fish by shoot-
ing them with arrows, having a string attached.
But, perhaps, the most curious trait of the Chinese
fishermen, is their singular practice of hatching the
eggs of fish under fowls ! Ihis, however incredible
it may seem, is nevertheless well authenticated.
As it would be unnecessary to indicate the dif-
ferent species used in China as food, on account of
their number, we shall merely refer our readers who
wish for information on this subject, to a volume
on China in the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, and
conclude by stating, that a great proportion of the
population of that densely peopled country, live prin-
cipally upon fish.
The natives of the innumerable islands with which
the Indian and Pacific oceans are studded, have
been noted, ever since their discovery by Europeans,
for the skill and dexterity displayed by them in
fishing, and many of their instruments, however
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 213
nidely formed, are, to say the least, often as efficient
as those of more civilized countries. The wooden
and mother-of-pearl hooks, used by the natives of
the Sandwich and other isles, are still preferred to
those of iron in many instances.
A voyager describes the fishing-tackle of two In-
dians engaged in fishing for the halibut, somewhat
as foUows : " Their hook is a large simple piece of
wood, the shank at least half-an-inch in diameter,
that part which turns up, and which forms an acute
angle, is considerably smaller, and brought gradually
to a point. A flat piece of wood, about six inches
in length, is neatly lashed to the shank, on the back
of which is neatly carved the representation of a
human face." Their lines were no less coarse when
compared with those of Europeans, being construct-
ed of sinews or intestines of animals. He adds,
that his boat's crew, of seven men, was completely
beaten in fishing by these poor savages, and found
it more profitable to buy from them than fish for
themselves.
The fisheries carried on in North America are
both numerous and extensive, as may be conjec-
tured from their produce, which of three, the cod,
mackarel, and herring, in the United States annually
amount to the sum of more than a milHon of dol-
lars, nearly one-half of which is derived from the
cod- fishery. As we have already despatched these
above-mentioned fisheries, at least as conducted in
Britain, a notice of the fresh- water fish used as food
214 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
by the inhabitants of the dreary regions to the north
of the states may not be out of place.
Among the numerous members of the perch family,
inhabiting the northern regions, and many of whi<;h
will be found described and figured in a former
volume of this work, devoted to the Percidce, the
huron or black-bass, Perca nigricans^ is the most
notable. It is considered the best fish that is found
in the great Canadian lakes, and is easily captured
with almost any bait, even a white rag trailed after
the boat, in this latter respect resembling the
mackarel.
The pike, Esox lucius^ exactly similar to that
found in Britain, according to Dr. Richardson,
readily takes a bait in winter imder the ice, and is
then an important resource to the Indian hunter
when the chace fails him. Salmon ascend the St.
Lawreace as far as Lake Ontario, and before the
war, there was an extensive salmon-fishery at the
head of the lake. The Salmo Scouleri is a large
species of trout, or rather a true salmon, found on
the north-west coast of America in such abundance,
that sixty were killed with boarding-pikes, by a few
men in a small brook, in a very short time. " Du-
ring the summer," says Dr. Richardson, " the north-
west Indians reside near the coast, or the banks of
rivers where the salmon is abundant, and occupy
themselves in curing the fish for winter use. They
cut two long and broad slices from each side of the
fish, and eat them like bread." In New Caledonia,
the natives are said to eat the roe of this fish, mixed
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 215
with rancid oil, wliicli, in their estimation, gives the
savoury morsel additional flavour. The smell alone,
is said, by a traveller, to be so nauseous, as to prevent
any but a native from partaking of it, unless severely
pressed wilh hunger.
Of another kind of salmon, named afterwards
S. Rossii, 3378 fish, whose aggregate weight was
six tons, were taken at one haul of a small seine on
the coast of Boothia Felix. Hearne describes the
number of Coppermine salmon in the river of that
name as almost incredible. Another exquisite fish,
known among the natives by the strange name of
attihawmeg, the Corregonus alhus of more civilized
systematists, is much esteemed by those residing in
the fur countries. It is taken in great abundance
during the winter in gill-nets, which are stretched
under the ice, between two holes, which are kept
constantly open for the purpose of inspection. This
fish, when frozen, will keep in that state without
any other precaution for a whole winter, though the
fresh ones are always preferable.
Sturgeons of immense size are at times found in
myriads in some of the North American rivers, which
they enter for the purpose of spawning.
The fish found in the seas of the northern regions
of America, are neither so numerous or important to
man as the firesh-water species just-mentioned, with
the exception of the cod and one or two others.
The capelin, Mallotiis Grcenlandicus^ in Labrador, is
principally used as bait for cod, although farther
north, when diied, it " forms so important an article-
216 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES.
of food in Greenland, that it has been termed the
daily bread of the natives." The voyager Hakluyt,
so far back as 1578, writes " of these (capelins)
being as good as a smelt, you may take up vcith a
shoye-net as plentiftdly as you do wheate in a shovell,
sufficient in three or four hours for a whole citie."
It is imported in the dried state into this country,
though the quantity is inconsiderable. Another fish,
the Greenland bull-head, Cottus Grcenlandicus^ is of
no less consequence to the natives, who, besides, are
exceedingly fond of it, eating even the roe, and that
in a raw state. Dr. Richardson relates of the methy,
Lotha maculosa, that " when well bruised and mixed
with a little flour, the roe can be baked into very
good biscuits, which are used in the fur-countries as
tea-bread." Two species of mackarel, the Scomber
grex, and vernalis, are at times very abundant, and
their vast shoals carry plenty to the shores they chance
to visit. The halibut, as mentioned before, is often
taken on the American coast, but the fins alone are
eaten ; at least, in general, such is the case. There
are extensive shad fisheries in the United States,
especially in the neighbourhood of New York, where
the greater part of those caught are taken in per-
manent erections for the purpose, which stop them
in their passage up into fresh water. The sheep's
head, or, in more scientific language, the Sargus
avis, is a favourite fish in America, where it visits
the coasts in large shoals during the summer and
autumn. Its principal fishery is off the coasts of
New York, and thousands are sometimes taken at
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 217
a single cast of the large nets used at some places.
The fish, immediately upon their capture, are packed
in ice, and sent to the New York market, where
they have been known to sell as high as at £^
sterling for one of large size, although the usual
price of the sheep's head is about a dollar. This fish
is pretty generally considered throughout the states,
both by epicures and others, as an. almost sans
pareil, and Dr. Mitchell, who has written much on
American ichthyology, is of the same opinion.
The swimming-bladder of the weak-fish, Otholi-
ihus regalis^ is convertible into good glue, and,
according to Mitchell, as good blanc-mange is made
from it as from the isinglass of the sturgeon. But
it would be useless to enumerate more of the Ameri-
can fish useful as food or commercial articles, as we
have already devoted to their consideration more
space than was intended ; suffice it to say, as afibrd-
ing an idea of the number of edible species in the
United States, that one hundred and seventy are
described as being brought to the market of New
York alone.
Several kinds of fish are said to be poisonous, but
their poisonous properties have not been properly
investigated, and, until this is done, and the causes
on which they depend well ascertained, our know-
ledge of this subject must be considered as very
vague indeed. The symptoms of fish poisoning are
stated to resemble cholera in a striking degree,
although it is not so fatal in its consequences. The
218 ON THE EC05r0MICAL USES OF FISHES.
poisonous qualities of certain fishes appear to be
induced periodically, and are probably connected
with their kind of food at the time, although the
causes on which these anomalous properties depend
are at present wholly unknown, notwithstanding the
many hypotheses which have at different times been
proposed for their explanation The most probable
of these, and the one best sustained by facts, ascribed
the developement of the poison in question to an
impregnation with copper, but this is now considered
as untenable. Not le:S so is that thcorj'- which
traced the poisonous effects to the process of putre-
faction, for, however fresh the fish may be, fatal
consequences have resulted from eating of them. In
the West Indies, the most poisonous fish, and the
one of which the deleterious properties have been
investigated with most success, is a kind of herring,
the yellow-billed sprat, Clupea ihyrsa^ which, though
at times considered as excellent food, and much
esteemed by the negroes, yet is at certain periods,
and when taken in certain situations, so poisonous,
that a single mouthful, though immediately ejected,
has been known to cause death *- Several AVest
Indian fishes become p )isonous in the same way,
and among others the baracouda, Perca major ^ which,
however, is supposed to owe its poisonous properties
to the yellow- billed sprat, upon which it s>me times
feeds. When fislies of doubtful excellence as food
are taken within the tropics, it is customary to boil
them along with a silver coin, and if the silver be
* Dr. Ferguson, Edin. Med, and Surg. Journal.
ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 219
not tarnislied, the fish, it is supposed, may be eaten
at once with perfect safety. But this diagnosis is
by no means infallible.
In this country, it is very seldom indeed that
poisoning is occasioned by unwholesome fish, al-
though the mussel, and perhaps other shell-fish,
when found in certain localities, have frequently
caused fatal accidents to such as hare eaten of them.
Thus, not many years ago, in the town of Leith,
upwards of thirty people were seriously affected by
eating of some mussels attached to a piece of timber
in the docks, and of that number, two died.
The treatment, in cases of fish-poisoning, which
appears most successful^ is the immediate exhibition
of emetics and purgatives, to get rid of as much of
the poison as possible, followed up by stimulants,
such as ammonia, spirits, or ether, to prevent the
excessive debility, or even paralysis of the lower
extremities, which shortly comes on.
With this we may conclude our account of the
economical uses of fishes, and, we hope, not without
having shown that the finny tribes are not less use-
ful to man as food, than interesting to the naturalist
from their diversified structure.
FINIS.
EDINBURGH :
PRINTED BY W. H. LIZARS.
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