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Memory o'F

Daniel Jitrriman

Ctew Meniber on
the tniiden voyage

of the R/V Atlantis

Corporation Member,

194^-79

Trustee, 19^-^ -6^^

Honorary Trustee e^

Corporation Member,

1979 -8f

Oceanog-rapher, Writer,
Editor, Fisherman, /
Educator, Mentor

Woods Hole

Oceanographic

Institution

A

HISTORY

OF THR

F I S H E

OF THE

BRITISH ISLANDS.

BY JONATHAN COUCH, F.L.S.

VOL. IV.

COI^TAINIXG SEVENTY-THEEE COLOTTRED PLATES,
FROM DKAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR.

The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein. Psalm cxi, v. 2.

LONDON:

GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COA^ENT GARDEN.

M Dt'CC LXXVII.

CONTENTS.

Carp
Barbel

Gudgeon
Tench
Crucian
Prussian Carp
Goldfish
Lake Bream
White Bream
Pomeranian Bream
Chub
Roach
Eudd
Dobule
Dace
Bleak
Graining
Azurine
Ide

Minnow
Loach

Spined Loach
Sheatfish
Pilchard
JTerring

Leach's Herring. (No Plate)
Sprat

Sardine. (No Plate)
Whitebait
Allis Shad .
Twait Shad .
Scale-finned Shad
Great-headed Sprat. (No Plate)
Anchovy-
Greater Plying Pish
European Halfbeak
Blunt-headed Halfbeak
Skipper
Garfish .
Pike .
Salmon .
Peal .
Sewen

Sea Trout .
Salmon Trout
Slender Salmon
Blue Poll

PAGE.

4

16

20

22

28

31

33

36

40

42

44

47

49

51

54

56

59

61

63

64

69

72

74

79

95

107

109

112

114

117

122

123

124

125

128

135

139

141

146

150

163

200

208

211

214

216

219

IV

COXTENTS.

Lake Trout

Common Trout

Gillaroo

Lochleven Trout

Samlet, or Parr

Willougbby's Char

Torgoch of Llanberris

Gray's Char .

Cole's Char

Alpine Char .

Smelt

Grayling

Guiniad

Vend ace

Pollan

Powan

Hebridal Smelt

Argentine

Sharp-nosed Eel

Dublin Eel .

Broad-nosed Eel

Snig Eel. (No Plate)

Ophidium Eel

Mura3ua

Conger

Morris

Greater Pipefish .

Broad-nosed Pipefish

Ocean Pipefish

Snake Pipefish

Worm Pipefish

Straight-nosed Pipefish

Hippocampus

Four-horned Trunkfish

Filefish

Pennant's Globefish

Sunfish

Longer Sunfish

Sea Lamprey

Lampern

Silver Lamprey .

Planer's Lamprey

Mud Lamprey

Borer

Lancelet

APPENDIX.

Broad-headed Gazer

Long-finned Grey or Golden Mullet

Garfish. (No Plate)

Scia)na .....

Short-finned Tunny

Silveiy Gade. (No Plate)

PAGE.

222
225
240
243
245
262
264
267
269
272
276
280
286
289
292
295
297
301
326
328
330
331
333
335
340
348
351
355
356
359
361
363
364
366
369
373
377
381
385
395
400
402
404
408
415

421

421
422
423
425
427

FISHES or THE BRITISH ISLANDS.

CYPRINIDiE.

THE CARP FAMILY.

This family, says Cuvier, is recognised by the month being
slightly cleft, with jaws in most instances without teeth, and
its border formed by the maxillary bones: the gullet furnished
with strong teeth: rays of the gill-membrane very few in
number. The body is covered with scales, and there is no
adipose fin on the back: ventral fins on the abdominal Mne.

The character assigned by Artedi is, that there are three rays
in the gill-membrane; mouth altogether smooth, and in the
gullet two hard saw-like bones on the lov/er part, and above
a single oval bone not so hard as the others, these bones
supplying the place of teeth. The air-bladder is constricted
in the middle as if tied with a cord; to which we may add
that from the hindmost chamber of this bladder is directed
forward a duct to be united to the gullet, or perhaps to the
brain. Abdominal fishes.

The bones of the gullet here referred to are in some degree
equiv^alent to the beds of teeth in the posterior portion of the
mouth in many other species; and some other kinds not closely
allied to the Cijprinid(B have somewhat similar beds, as especially
the family of Wrasses. But in the Cyprinidce, as they appear
to exercise a special office, somewhat answering to rumination,
as in addition to their situation near the entrance of the stomach,
their construction is more prominent and strong; and they are
fixed on a firm bone of a crooked shape, which gives them a
firm and defined motion, in which they act by powerful muscles.
In fact it appears certain that a real action of rumination takes
place in these fishes, although they do not possess a complication
VOL. IV. B

of stomachs as in quadnTpeds of die ruminating order; as indeed
rumination seems to take place in some of them, in which the
stomach is of the more simple form. Professor Owen remarks
that the muscular action of a fish's stomach consists of vermicular
contraction, creeping slowly in succession from the upper orifice
to the lower, and impressing a two-fold gyratory motion on
the contents; so that while some portions are proceeding to the
lower, other portions are returning towards the upper; but
only portions of digested food are permitted to pass into the
intestine. Coarser portions of the food return into the gullet,
and are brought again within the sphere of the pharyngeal
jaws. The fishes which afford the best evidence of this
ruminating action are the Cyprinoids Carp, Tench, Bream.
In them the successive regurgitations of the contents of the
stomach produce actions of the pharyngeal jaws as the half-
bruised food comes into contact with them, and excite th'"^
singular tumefaction and subsidence of the irritable palate, often
termed the tongue, as portions of the regurgitated food are
pressed upon it.

The species of this family which are inhabitants of the warmer
portions of the world, and especially those which are described
by Mr. Maclellan, as found in India, (in the second part of the
nineteenth volume of "Asiatic Researches,") are very numerous;
and so closely are they joined together in affinity of form and
habits that much difficulty has been experienced in arranging
them in lesser sections or genera. In doing this, Cuvier appears
to lay much stress on the length or shortness of the single
dorsal fin, or on its situation forward or behind; and in a less
degree on the presence or absence of barbels at the mouth,
which are organs we might suppose to be of importance, as
being fitted to some particular habits in these fishes, as we know
them to be in the family of Codfishes. ]\Ir. Maclelhm remarks
on this subject, that in none of the Barbels, Cirrhins, or
Gudgeons, nor in any of the groups which feed on plants,
shell-fish, or other objects obtained by scraping or rooting in
mud, do we find anything like a soft or sensible tongue, the
office of which is in many cases better performed by the barbs;
which organs are soft and capable of being contracted or
lengthened, as well as the loose muscular appendages to which
thev are attached.

CYPKIMD^.. 3

As it appears from an extended survey of the Carp family,
that a separation into genera on the grounds here referred to
would divide asunder some species which in other characters
appear to be closely united, it has been proposed to form the
sejiaration according to the length or shortness of the alimentary
canal, which organ varies in the proportion as the food is
found to be vegetable or animal, in the former case the entrails
being convoluted, and of considerable length, while in the latter
they are short and straight. But to an arrangement formed on
these relative proportions it may be objected, that probably in
no instance is the food exclusively vegetable or animal, and
consequently the absolute length of the intestine will not be found
so definite in the separate species as to afford a sufficient means
of distinction; to which we may add, that a doubtful example
or new species must be dissected or mutilated before its place
in the family can be ascertained; and if preserved in a museum,
its supposed generic character will be altogether lost sight of.

It may happen, however, that a division of the species, which
is built on principles that might be objected to when applied
to the whole of this extensive family, shall still be appropriate
to the comparatively few which we find in British waters; and
accordingly, we so far adopt the arrangement of Cuvier, as to
place in his genus Cyprimis, those of the British species which
he has comprised within it, and which are marked by the
possession of barbs at the mouth; while the others that do not
possess these appendages are classed in other divisions.

CAEP.

Carp, JoNSTON; TituliTS 3, Caput 6.

" WiLLouGHBY; p. 245, table 2.

Cyprinus Carpio, Linnaeus. Cuviee. Bloch; pi. 16.

" " Donovan; pi. 110. Jenyns; Manual, p. 401.

" " Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 185.

" Tahkell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 349.

This species, with all others of this family, inhabits fresh
water, in which its haunts are in lakes or ponds, or slowly-
flowing rivers; where, in common with the other British species,
it is decidedly influenced by the cold of winter, at which season
they seek to withdraw into shelter and concealment, where
sometimes they even seem to become torpid, yet as not to
be killed even by becoming frozen, and from which condition
they are restored as warmth returns to the air. Whether the
reference is to the same species we are not able to say; but
Captain (Sir John) Franklin says in the history of his first
voyage to the Polar Sea, that the fish caught in their nets
became so frozen that in a short time they formed a solid mass
of ice; and by a blow or two of the hatchet they were easily
split open, so that their entrails might be removed in one lump.
But if in this frozen state they were thawed before the fire they
recovered their animation. This was particularly the case with
the Carp ; and he has seen a Carp so completely restored after
having been frozen for thirty-six hours, as to leap about with
much vigour.

As a contrast to this it is proper to adduce the experiments
of John Hunter, which he made with two Carps, placed in a
glass vessel with river water, and subjected to a freezing mixture
made of ice and snow with muriate of ammonia, by which the
temperature was reduced to 10, and perhaps below it. In this
condition the vital heat of the Curp was suflicient to melt the

CARP.

snow, for several times in succession that it was applied; so
that at last the whole was exposed to the action of the natural
cold of the air without; and while subjected to this low tem-
perature the fish showed signs of great uneasiness. It was only
when they had exhausted their powers of life in the production
of heat that these Carps became frozen, and perhaps were dead;
for when again gradually thawed they were not recovered to
life. If we are to suppose that the fish frozen by Sir John
Franklin Avere of the same species as those of Hunter, the
only explanation of this difference of result will be that the
suddenness of the operation in the north prevented that
exhaustion of vitality which was fatal in the other.

Nor are these the only circumstances under which it shews
itself highly retentive of life; for in districts where this fish
abounds it has been usual to convey it to market in a living
state, and if not sold it is again returned to its resting place;
which may be in some cool cellar, and that for days or even
weeks together; the only caution used being to preserve the
surface of the body in a moist condition, and to feed it with
some necessary food; by which it has been known to become
plump and fat. Willoughby remarks that this fish has sometimes
been found in such strange situations as to convey the impression
that it could not have been placed there by any known means:
and this has been thought sufficient to countenance the idea
that the individuals had been produced by spontaneous generation.
The retentiveness of life thus possessed by the Carp is the
more remarkable, as it is not furnished with such a mechanical
adaptation for retaining water in contact with the gills, as exists
in some fishes; but Professor Owen supposes that this apparent
deficiency may find more than a compensation in a peculiar
development of the vagal lobes of nerves, which arise from the
lengthened process of the brain, termed Medulla oblongata. This
character is more or less displayed in some others of this family,
and especially in the Tench; and it may be that thus they
are enabled to extract and subsist on almost the minutest portion
of air which remains mixed with water after the larger part has
been absorbed into the blood; and in this faculty they exceed
almost all other kinds of fishes.

That the Carp is also naturally long lived there are sufficient
proofs, and Gesner mentions an instance where one was believed

6 CAKP.

to have attained to an hundred years; but even this is said to
have been considerably exceeded in some instances, although on
evidence that may be considered doubtful.

There is reason for supposing that the Carp was not originally
a native of Britain; and its power of living long out of water
renders it highly probable that it may have been brought to
this country, as we know it has been conveyed to others, from
very distant places. But on the other hand, Leonard Mascal
affirms that it was himself who introduced it in the reign of
Henry the Eighth; which boast could only shew that he had
conveyed it to places where it was not before known; for it is
referred to as a known, although not common, fish in the Book
of St. Albans, a portion at least of which is believed to have
been written or compiled by Dame Juliana Berners, and the
fishing portion of which was printed with the rest by Wynkyn
de Worde toward the end of the fifteenth century. It is not
unreasonable to believe that we owe the possession of this fish
in the first place to the sagacious industry of monks, who were
acquainted with it as a pleasing addition to their table, and a
variation from the more common of the inhabitants of our
streams.

It is believed to have been introduced into Ireland still more
recently than into England, and its progress from place to
place in all cases has been slow; so that it is only in recent
times it has obtained a residence in the extreme west of England;
which circumstance however, may be explained by the fact that
there are there no slow-moving rivers to suit its habits; and
the cost of forming a pond, which is essential to its preservation,
is unnecessary, in consequence of the abundance of the fish of
the sea so easily procured.

That these ponds were regarded as important in the economy
of noble and gentle houses in inland situations, at a time when
a fish diet formed a portion of the religion of all orders of
society, appears from a variety of authorities in the domestic
history of our country; and much expense was employed in
forming them, while severe laws were enacted to keep them
safe from such as sought to observe the ritual at the expense
of their honesty, or who may have coveted delicacies of which
they grudged the possession to their superiors.

The value formerly set on these ponds is shewn by the fact

CARP.

that at so early a date a*? the tTventioth year of Henry the
Third, (who was declared of age in the year 1222,) in conse-
quence of their being- so often plundered, the lords demanded
of the king the imprisonment of such as trespassed on these
waters or the parks, but without making any reference to rivers;
in which latter we may suppose the more native fishes would
be found. But the law then made availed but little; for we
find again in the third year of Edward the First, who was
crowned in the year 1274, that punishment was decreed on
such as trespassed on parks and ponds; and although it will
be admitted that there are other valuable fishes, as the Tench,
preserved in these ponds, yet, coupled with the authority of
the Book of St. Albans, we are inclined to believe that the
principal object of these thieves was to obtain this otherwise
unattainable fish; for the rivers, which are not mentioned in the
laws then made, were not in general at that time specially
protected or forbidden to the public, and would have afforded
the more common sorts in abundance; and yet, the value set
on the Carp as a luxury appears to rest much on the manner
in which it was prepared for the table; with which also fashion
must have had much to do. Izaac Walton informs us that
it was cooked with wine, spices, and strong ingredients, by
which its native taste was disguised, or its soft and watery
inanity overcome. But the more favoured luxury was its
characteristic palate, or, as fashion chose to term it, the tongvie,
of which the cost must have been the chief recommendation.
I possess a note written at the beginning of the last century
by an observant gentleman, in which he says that in the month
of June, at a dinner provided out of the proceeds of a wager,
one dish consisted of the palates of Carps stewed; for which
piece of elegancy forty-three brace of Carps were purchased.
This dish appears indeed to have been of old standing, for it
is alluded to, among other extravagances, by Ben Jonson:

"Tlie tongues of Carps, Dormice, and Camels* heels,
Boiled ill the spirit of Sol."

As it is sometimes found difficult even for the owner of a
pond, when it is thickly grown with weeds, among which Carps
seek refuge, to obtain these fish when he wants them, as is
particularly the case when the wisdom of the fish has been

8 CARP.

increased by the experience of age, the following directions,
extracted from Daniels' "Rural Sports," may be found useful:
"In May or early in June, which is the chief time of their
spawning, and when they always resort to the weeds, let a
green silk setting net, without leads, and only one float at each
extremity, be dropped in the clear water, and drive with the
wind to the outside edge of the weeds; then go in a boat
through the weeds between the net and the shore; the Carp
will fly at the noise to the deep water, and be taken with the
net, on their entrance into it, and which from its colour the
Carp does not discover in his haste to escape from the boat."
We may suppose that a net of very fine twine of the proper
tint, although not of silk, Avill be equally successful.

The formation of a pond is described by the Hon. Roger
North, and is here given because it also conveys some portion
of the history of the Carp, as it was then generally understood:
"It is the most valuable of all kinds of fish for stocking ponds,
because of its quick growth and great increase. If the feeding
and breeding of this fish were more understood and practised,
the advantages resulting would be very great; and a fishpond
would become as valuable an article as a garden. The sale of
Carp makes a considerable part of the revenue of the principal
nobility and gentry in Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony,
INIecklenburg, Bohemia, and Holstein. Particular attention should
be paid to the soil, water, and situation of a Carp pond; the
best kind are those which are surrounded by the finest pasture
or corn-fields, with a rich black mould, and soft springs on the
spot, or other running water that is neither too cold or
impregnated with acid, calcareous, selenitic, or other feraneous,
mineral particles. The water may be softened by exposing it
to the air or sun in a reservoir, or by forming an open channel
for it some distance from the pond; they should be exposed to
the influence of the sun, and sheltered from the eastern and
northerly winds.

"]3y experience it is found convenient to have three kinds of
ponds for Carp, namely, the spawning pond, the nursery, and
llie main pond; the first pond must be cleared of all other
kind of fish, especially those of the rapacious kind, such as the
perch, pike, eel, and trout, the water-beetle, and also of newts
or lizards. It should be exposed to sun and air, and be supplied

CARP.

with soft water. A pond of one acre requires three or four
male Carp, and six or eight female ones; and in the same
proportion for each additional acre. The best Carp for breeding
are those of five, six, or seven years old, in good health, with
full scale and fine full eyes, and long body, without any blemish
or wound; the pond should be stocked in a fine calm day,
towards the end of March or beginning of April. Carp spawn
in May, June, or July, according to the warmth of the season;
and for this purpose they swim to a warm, shady, well-sheltered
place, where they gently rub their bodies against the sandy
ground, grass, or osiers; and by this pressure the spawn issues
out at the spawning season. All sorts of fowl should be kept
from the ponds; the young fry is hatched from the spawn by
the genial influence of the sun, and should be left in this pond
through the whole summer, and even the next winter, provided
the pond is deep enough to prevent their suffocation during a
hard winter; then the breeders and the fry are put into ponds
safer for their winterinsr."

We suppose that this caution refers to the danger arising
from the freezing over of the pond, by which the air would
be excluded, and the fish below be in danger of suffocation.
This would apply to all kinds of fishes; but ^lian particularly
mentions fish which he terms Black Carps, and may have been
the common species, if they were not the Tench, as being caught
in the Danube, by gathering in multitudes at holes made in the
ice, when that river has been frozen over.

The quotation we make proceeds: "The second kind of
ponds are the nurseries; the young fish should be moved in a
fine calm day into this pond, in the month of March or April;
a thousand or twelve hundred of this fry may be well accommo-
dated in a pond of an acre. In two summers they will grow
as much as to weigh four, five, or even six pounds, and be
fleshy and well tasted. The main ponds are to put those into
that measure a foot, head and tail inclusive; every square of
fifteen feet is sufficient for one Carp; their growth depends on
their room, and the quantity of food allowed them. The best
season for stocking the main ponds are spring and autumn;
Carp grow for many years, and become of considerable size and
weight. Mr. Forster mentions seeing in Prussia two or three
hundred Carps of two and three feet in length, and orip five
VOL IV. C

10 CARP.

feet long and twenty-five pounds weight; it was supposed to be
about sixty years old. These were tame, and would come to
the side of the pond to be fed, and swallowed with ease a piece
of bread half the size of a halfpenny loaf. There is reason to
believe that these same fish remain to the present time.

"Ponds should be well supplied with water during the winter,
and when they are covered with ice, holes should be opened
every day for the admission of fresh air, through want of
which Carps frequently perish. It is worthy of notice that
although the Romans were at great pains and expense in the
formation of ponds for various sorts of fish, none of the Carp
family are mentioned as being preserved in them, although some
of less estimation with us were then cared for; a proof of the
little estimation in which the Carp and Tench were held by that
luxurious people.

*'Carp are sometimes fed during the colder season in a cellar;
the fish is wrapped up in a quantity of wet moss laid on a
piece of net, and then laid into a purse ; but in such a manner,
however, to admit of the fish breathing; the net is then plunged
into water, and hung to the ceiling of the cellar. The dipping
must be at first repeated every three or four hours, but after-
wards it need be plunged into the water only once in six or
seven hours; bread soaked in milk is sometimes given him in
small quantities; in a short time the fish will bear more, and
grow fat by this treatment. INIany have been kept alive, breathing
nothing but air in this way, several successive clavs."

It is a portion of the oeconomic history of this fish to record
the curious fact, that it has been castrated for the purpose of
rendering it a more delicious morsel. The following is from
the "History of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris," as
copied into the "Gentleman's Magazine:" "Sir Hans Sloane
wrote to Mons. Geoffi'oy of this Academy, and F.R.S. of
London, that a certain stranger came to communicate to him

a

secret he had found out of castrating fish, and fattening them by
that means. This person, by the great skill he had acquired
in distinguishing and breeding fish, was now able to make a
considerable merchandise of them. The singularity of the
fact excited the curiosity of this learned naturalist, and the
fish merchant ofiered to give him ocular proof of the same.
Accordingly he procured eight Carrushenti, (a kind of small

fAUP. 1 1

Carp lately brought into England from Hamburg, and which,
beyond doubt, is the Cyprimis carassms of Linnaeus.) These
were put into two large bladders filled with water, which had
been shifted once or twice upon the road. He presently cut
open one of these Carps in Sir Hans's presence, and shewed
him the ovary, with its canal leading into the part called the
cloaca. He then performed the operation of castration upon a
second by opening the ovary, and filling up the wound with
the scrapings of a black hat. The castrated Carp, being put
into water with six live ones, seemed somewhat less brisk as
to swimming than they. Then they were conveyed all together
into a basin of Sir Hans's garden, where the water is furnished
from the neighbouring river, and he believed they were
all alive when he wrote to M. Geoffrey. Mr. Tull, for that
is the name of the person, promised Sir Hans Sloane a taste
of such castrated fish the ensuing spring, assuring him that
they as much excel all others in delicacy of relish as a capon
does a cock, or a fat ox a bull. Mr. Tull has since castrated
many thousands of fish for several of our nobility, to their
entire satisfaction."

The food of the Carp is occasionally worms and insects, and
it has even been known to devour small fishes, although
this is only recorded of young individuals, and under confine-
ment. A Carp between five and six inches in length was
seen by Mr. Gurney to devour three young Minnows, each
about an inch and a half in length, as they were confined
with it in the same tank. "Zoologist," 1860. But its more
usual and preferable sustenance is vegetable; and for the
purpose of grinding this to a pulp it is provided with
appropriate pharyngeal bones, answering in some degree to
those which are found in the gullet of the Wrasses; and it
is, as we have seen, the opinion of Professor Owen that the
vegetable food is a second time subjected to their grinding
action, in the same manner as we have hazarded the opinion
that it is the case with the other family. From some
unaccountable variation of appetite, the endeavour to catch
this fish with angling is exceedingly uncertain; and in some
others of its habits it is believed to possess a large degree
of wisdom, as well in the manner by which it escapes from

12 CAKP.

danger, as in submitting to become tame and familiar when
it is safe to be so. Thus sings the poem of the anglers:

Fish have their various characters assign'd,
Not more by form and colour than by mind.
The wary Ti'out but few temptations hit;
The Perch an idiot, and the Carp a wit.

and another writer informs us, as quoted by Daniel in his
"Rural Sports,"

Of all the fish that swim the watery mead,
Not one in cunning can the Carp exceed;

which latter portion of its character is displayed in that, when
encircled by a net, if no crevice can be found through which
to pass, it will lower itself into some channel which it forms
in the bottom, that the net may pass over it; or if that
cannot be, then it throws itself over the head-rope, much in
the same manner as the Grey Mullet in like circumstances.
And again:

*o"

Learn what of late my wond'ring eyes beheld
Near the green margin of the war-famed Scheld;
Thick with enormous Carp, I saw them roll,
Called by a practised brother of the cowl.
His well-known whistle they obeyed, they sped,
In wallowing heaps and hope the promised bi^ead.
Carp shouldering Carp, th' injected morsel snap:

And the intelligence thus ascribed to this fish is borne out by
the great development of the brain, in connection also with
peculiarities in the structure of the organs of perception.
According to Professor Owen, the average proportion of the
size of the brain to that of the body in fishes is one in three
thousand; but in the Carp, according to Blunienbach, it amounts
to one in five hundred; which is the same as is found in "half-
reasoning" elephant; this extraordinary development in the Carp
existing also in the portion of that centre of intelligence termed
the prosencephalon, or which most nearly answers to the
cerebrum or seat of understanding in the higher animals. And
although the bulk of the brain taken alone may not afibrd
a just criterion of the amount of understanding in any creature,
since it is known that in the proportion as the nerves of sense
are large compared with the brain, the particular feeling to

CARP. 13

which they are adapted predominates over understanding or
reflection; yet when proportionate magnitude is added to pecu-
liarity of structure, the former must be regarded as an important
element in the display of the faculty of understanding. There
is a peculiarity in the nerves, especially those of the senses, as
of sight, taste, and hearing, in that neither of them can be
taught to perform the functions of another; and there is pre-
sumptive proof that this remark may be extended to essential
portions of the brain itself; and that it is in this the conscious
identity of every creature resides, or from which it derives its
existence, which therefore intrinsically constitutes the true dis-
tinction of species. If there be a time when the nature of any
creature appears to be substantially changed, so that the fearful
becomes bold, or the contrary, when hunger suspends the
indulgence of its appetite, and the wanderer confines itself to
one solitary spot, it is when by the temj^orary preponderance
of one specific nervous energy the action of the others appears
superseded; and this most frequently occurs at the season of
procreation ; at which time Pennant informs us that the cautious
and cunning Carp becomes so simple as to suffer itself to be
tickled, handled, and caught by any one who will attempt to
do it.

But the outward senses of this fish, as well as its inward
consciousness, are acutely alive to sensation; of which one set
of instruments is the barbels at the mouth, which in some
degree corresponds to what is also a character of the Cod family.
The pad also in the roof of the mouth is elastic and highly
sensitive, being furnished with a large number of nerves, which
are derived from the eighth pair as they arise from the brain,
and are peculiarly fitted to receive these impressions. That these
fishes are brought together by sounds is a proof of the quickness
of their hearing as well as of their knowledge of the object for
which they are made to assemble; in which particular again
they resemble the Mullets; and by dissection it is found that
their organs of hearing are not a little complex; with some
reference again to the air-bladder, which, unlike what is found
in most other fishes, is double in the Carp, as well as in the
Tench and some others of this 'family; and this doubling is
formed by means of a constriction towards its upper portion;
from the second division of which proceeds a tube, which

14 CAT?P.

passes up^^'ard. A series of small bones has been discovered
to proceed from the true organ of hearing downward, by
which it has been supposed that the elasticity of air in this
bladder may assist in perception of particular sounds.

The Carp is exceedingly prolific, and the early growth of the
young is rapid; but although capable of producing spawn in
the third year, the magnitude this fish is capable of reaching
is not attained for several years beyond this. On the continent
of Europe it has been seen of the length of five or six feet,
but nothing like this has been witnessed in Britain. Individuals
which have been in possession of both milts and roe have been
met with more frequently in this species than in any other
fish; and there are individuals which are absolutely neutral, or
destitute both of milt and roe. Nor is this the only remarkable
irregularity of structure; for I am informed by Edmund T.
Higgins, Esq., who has carefully studied these objects in various
orders of fishes, that in the Carp the otolithes (bones of the
ear) are not always alike on both sides; in fact that in some
instances they are altogether wanting on one side. The position
of these bones is also different from what is the case in other
fishes; so that the bone termed the malleus is at a distance
from another called incus, and it is serrated all round the
border. These things are worthy of notice, since they have
not hitherto been recorded.

That the Carp was known to the ancient Greeks, however
little regarded, appears from Aristotle, who particularly mentions
the fleshy pad in its palate, and the manner of its breeding, of
which he says, "Pond and river fish begin to produce usually
when five months old; (but knowing little of Trout, and nothing
of the Salmon, he is partially in error when he adds, 'they
all produce their spawn at the beginning of summer.') The
females of these kinds never shed all their spawn nor the
males their milt at once; but both sexes are always found
to contain a portion of these parts. The Carp produces five
or six times a year, under the influence of the stars." B. 6.

The Carp was inn-oduced into the south of Sweden in the
year 1560; and, together with the Tench, Dace, Roach, and
Goldfish, it has been conveyed into the Colony of Victoria, in
Australia, by the Acclimation Society of that country; where
they are likely to live and thrive.

CARP.

15

Pennant records the remarkable instance that "on fishing a
pond in Dorsetshire, great numbers of Carp were found, each
with a frog mounted on it; the hind legs clinging to the back,
the fore legs fixed in the corner of each eye of the fish," which
were thin and greatly wasted.

The example selected for description measured nineteen inches;
the body stout and thick, sloping forward from the origin of
the dorsal fin, but more suddenly from behind the head; the
snout rounded; under jaw shortest; lips soft; no teeth in the
jaws; a barb at each angle of the mouth, and a smaller one
between the angle and the snout. Eye moderate; nostrils large,
with a valve or cover; wide across the head, the body stout,
belly full and round, sloping at the vent; scales large and
well marked, the border of each with radiating lines. Dorsal
fin single, beginning above the space where the pectoral ends,
and continuing opposite the end of the much shorter but wide
anal; the latter fin being wider than long. The first ray of
both these fins short, the second long, stout, firm, toothed on
the hindmost border. Pectorals low on the body, the upper
four or five rays longest; ventrals separate, expanded; tail
concave. The general colour is golden yellow, darker on the
upper parts ; root of each scale brilliant brown.

According to Mr. Owen, the bones of fresh-water fishes are
lighter than those of the sea; and although this does not hold
good universally, another observation appears to do so; which
is, that the most active fishes possess the lightest weight of
bone, and the bones of the inactive Carp possess more density
vhan those of the active Salmon.

16

BARBEL.

Barhns, Joxston ; B. 8, Tit. 1, C. 6, Table 26, f. 6,

and TaV)le 31, f. 11.
WiLLOUGHBY; p. 259, Table Q 2.
Ctjprinus Barlus, Linn^us. Bloch; pi. 18. Donovan; pi. 29.

" Jenyns; Manual, p. 404.

Barhus vulgaris, Cuvier. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 185.

" fliiviatilis, Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 367.

The Barbel has not a few of the habits of the Carp, and
much that has been said of the structure of the organs of the
senses and the faculties of the last-named fish, will also apply to
the present species. The barbs at the mouth are even more
develojied than in the Carp, and the high condition of its organ
of hearing has been shewn by its speedily quitting a place where
much noise has been made. But its activity is greater than the
Carp is capable of; as indeed might be judged from the more
slender form of its body; and in the genial warmth of summer
when these fishes assemble in considerable troops, they delight
to stem the course of the more rapid portion of the river they
frequent, and more especially when night has set in they become
lively, with an evident display of a love of sport. But it is
otherwise when cold weather advances; on the occuiTence of
which they retire into the deeper and stiller portion of the
stream, where the high banks afford them shelter; and there,
in some secret pool, instead of being sly and watchful, they
become so dull and stupid as to show no sensibility of danger,
even to such a degree as to suffer themselves to be caught with
the hand by any one who will attempt to do it. I have been
informed that at Oxford they have been taken thus by diving;
and the numbers sometimes huddled together in favourite
situations may be judged from the fact, that Jonston refers to
Albertus as a witness that in the Danube in autumn ten cart-
loads have been caught with the hand at one time.

1 1

cq

X

c

X

~i

<

1 1

ffi

o

BARBEL. 17

Tlic food of tlie Barbel is ofieii vegetable, but it also feeds
freely on worms, insects, or any molluscous animal or substance;
in search of which it not only keeps near the bottom, as do
the larger part of fishes which possess barbs at the mouth, but
it will dig into the softer bottom of the stream. Anglers have
taken advantage of this propensity by throwing into the still
water some of their well-known soft and fat pastes, by way of
attracting these fishes to the spot a few hours before the time
they are prepared to fish for them. They may then be induced
to take a bait freely, but when hooked they are not so readily
brought to land. The Barbel is indeed, as the Book of St.
Albans remarks of the Carp, *'an evil fish to take; for he is so
strong enarmyd in the mouth that there may no weak harness
hold him." Izaac Walton relates an instance where for several
hours the fish refused to be landed, and at last made its escape;
which, according to this writer, it does by running its head
forcibly towards any covert or bank, and then striking the line
with its tail; which action has the ancient authority of Plutarch.

We learn from the "Gentleman Angler," printed in 1726,
"The two famous places to angle for Barbel about London are
at Kingston Bridge and Shepperton Pool; at the latter of which
places there is great quantity of Barbel. No Barbel by the
rules of angling ought to be killed which does not measure
eighteen inches fairly. A Barbel taken in Byfleet or Weybridge
Rivers, of twenty inches in length, will down weigh another of
the same length taken in the Thames by a pound or upwards,
and is much firmer, fatter, and better relished."

It spawns in the early part of summer not far from the bank
of the river; and the spawn, which is discharged in a string,
is entwined round some fixed object, as a stone or weed.
Jonston refers to Albertus as saying, that the parents keep
watch over the spawn after it is shed.

There is reason to believe that this fish is an original native
of British lakes and the deeper rivers; but there are several
counties in England and Scotland in which it is not found.
In some others also it may have been introduced for the sake of
variety; and it is not mentioned by Mr. Thompson among the
fishes of Ireland, nor among those recorded in Scotland in the
Boyal Publication of the Natural History of Braemar and
Deeside. It is not known in the northern portions of the
VOL. IV. D

is BARBEL.

continent of Europe, but it appears to be common in the south,
although it finds no place in the ancient works of Greek and
Roman writers. Ausonius alone among the last-named refei's to
it; but this he does in a slighting manner, as being (for the
table,) best in the failing portion of its age. Yet there is some
difference of oj)inion in this respect, and Dr. Badliam, in his
amusing book of fish-tattle, among others, sj)eaks favourably of
it; but this gentleman adds, that the i^recaution should be
taken before cooking of removing the roe, as a very small
fragment will produce serious mternal derangement. This indeed
was known at least so lon'^ since as the time of Gesner, if not
referred to in the Book of St. Albans, and has been experienced
since on numerous occasions, so that the rule regarding it
should be to abstain; and yet it is reported to have been eaten
sometimes with imjDunity. But as it is known that several
symptoms of a choleraic kind have been occasioned by eating
the generally wholesome roe of the Whiting, so it is probable
that the generally unwholesome roe of the Barbel may occasion-
ally be found safe. Life should not be risked in such a
hazardous way; nor in another matter concerning this fish,
regarding which we extract the following note from the already-
quoted Book of St. Albans, in the quaint words and antique
spelling of the writer: "The Barbyll is a swete fysshe, but it is
a quasy meete and a j)eryllous for mannys body. For comynly
he yeuyth an introduxion to ye Febres. And yf he be eten
rawe, he maye be cause of mannys dethe; whyche hath oft be
seen."

The advice here given concerning the eating of raw fish
will appear less strange when we refer to the custom of the
Israelites in the time of Moses, of eating the flesh of the lamb
in an uncooked condition; the indulgence in such a luxury
being specially forbidden (Exodus, c. 12,) in the case of the
lamb of the Passover. Again, in the book entitled "The
Governayle of Helthe," jirinted by Caxton, are these lines:

"For helth of body cover for cold tliy bead,
Eat no raw meat, take good beed tbereto."

But such a relative custom of our ancestors would not perhaps
have been remembered but for this reference to it in the case
of ihc Barbel; and yet with the light thus afforded to us, we

BARHBL. 10

believe we are able to trace it in another direction, and to
the loftiest stations in the kingdom. In the "Pictorial History
of England," (vol. ii, p. 254,) there are representations of a
repast, in the reign of Edward the Third, where a fish is
introduced, that I suppose to be a Perch; but in such a
manner as if it were intended to be eaten raw. In one of
these engravings a king is present; but only one of the
comj^any holds a knife. He seems to be the carver; and there
is not a fork to be seen that instrument beinsr of much later
invention. In our own day it has been the custom in the west
of England to eat some kind of fish with the help of the fingers
only, the only plate being a piece of bread.

The usual length of this fish is about fifteen inches, but Mr.
Jenyns assigns to it two and three feet. Where however the
practice of fishing is so general, few individuals can escape so
as to reach their utmost size. The form is moderately length-
ened, rather narrow at the back, but not greatly compressed
at the sides. Body clothed with scales of moderate size; lips
fleshy, gaj)e not wide, inferior, lower jaw shortest; no teeth,
except the usual pharyngeal teeth of this family. A pair of
conspicuous barbs above the upper li^), and one at each corner
of the mouth, from which it obtains its name. Eye rather small.
Lateral line along the middle of the side. Dorsal fin above
the ventrals, at about the middle of the length, having ten rays,
of which the second is the stoutest, and serrated; hindmost rays
shortest. Anal fin narrow, with seven rays. Tail forked.
Colour on the back greenish brown, or bluish; the sides inclined
to yellow, below white. Eye yellow; dorsal fin brown tinged
with red, as is the tail; anal fin and ventrals reddish.

go

GOBIO.

This genus resemWes Cyprinus in possessing barbels at the mouth;
but it diflers in having the dorsal and anal fins short, and in ftot
possessing those spines in front of these fins by \\'hich the last-named
genus is distinguished. The body also is more lengthened.

GUDGEON.

Gdhlo fluviatilis, Jonston; Table 26, f. 16 and 17.

" " WiLLOUGHBY; PL 28, f. 4, p. 264.

Cyprinus Gohio, LinnjEus. Bloch; PI. 8, f. 2.

" " Donovan; PI. 71 Jenyns; Manual,

p. 405.

Gohio fluviatilis, Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 186.

" " Tarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 371.

Gudgeons delight in such ot our rivers as flow with moderate
velocity over a bottom of gravel, with deeper pits at convenient
distances; in the latter of which they obtain shelter in the
colder seas>ons of the year, but as warm weather advances they
pass into the more rapid districts of the stream, and there
display considerable activity, but more by night than by day;
and especially in the search after food, in hunting for which
their open nostrils afford them quick perception; and when
an angler produces his baits they flock together in troops
with proverbial eagerness to be caught. Their small size i-
indeed an hindrance to their being regarded as a valuable
capture, although they are esteemed as a delicacy for the table,
and their readiness to take the hook is an objection with those
whose pleasure is to meet with fishes which task their skill in
the art of angling. But to the less ambitious fishing for Giulgcons
produces a good degree of excitement; and Avhen the fisli have
ceased to bite freely, from perhaps the success that has lessened

their numbers, raking the gravelly bottom of the stream, or
throwing into the water some enticing matters that shall flow
:)n with the current will attract a larger assembly which shall
renew the sport. Their food is worms, molluscous animals, and
vegetables, which they seek near the bottom in winter; but they
will not rise to a fly. It is even said that they will feed on
the carcase of a dead animal, which may have fallen into the
river.

The Gudgeon possesses the internal structure of hearing and
perception which belong to others of this family; and its nostrils
are especially open to the mingled im23ressions of smell and
taste; but its more slender form and the love of the more rapid
stream preserve it from the sluggishness which forms a large
portion of the character of the Carp and Tench.

This fish is common in many of the rivers of Ireland, but it
is not mentioned as occurring in Scotland, and it is known
only of late in Cornwall or the west portion of Devonshire; but
they thrive in some ponds at Penzance, into which they have
been lately introduced. They are well known on the continent
of Europe, but appear to be less common in Italy, although
referred to in the south of France by Ausonius. It is also
rare in Sweden, and occurs only in a few streams in the south
of that country; up which they proceed in summer, from the
aeighbouring ponds and lakes, and to which they again retreat
in the wiiiter.

The Gudgeon grows to the length of about six inches, the
body moderately lengthened, rounded, but a little compressed
at the sides, and covered with scales ; lateral line below the
exact middle of the depth, straight; upper jaw slightly the
longest, without teeth; but low in the gullet there are teeth as
in others of the family. At the corners of the mouth a barb.
Nostrils large, and a depression across the front before them.
Eye moderate. Dorsal fin a little before the middle of the
length, as long as broad, above the ventrals; anal fin shorter
than the dorsal, behind the line of that fin ; tail forked. Colour
on the back brownish, or tending to bluish green; yellowish
on the side, white below; the back, dorsal and caudal fins
usually spotted, but the fins sometimes with stripes; anal,
pectoral, and ventral fins plain. Tin rays the dorsal ten, anal
nine, pectoral sixteen, ventral eight, caudal nineteen,

TI^^CA.

CcTiER forms a separate genus for the Tench, the character of which
is, that in addition to other particulars of the genus Cyprimis the
dorsal and anal fins are short, without lirm spines to the fins; a single
pair of small burbs ut the angles of the mouthj scales on the body
very small.

TENCH.

Tinea, JONSTON; pi. 29, fig. 7.

" WiLLOUGHBY; p. 251, Table Q. 5.

Cyp7-invs Tinea, Linn^us. Bloch; pi. 14. Donovan; pi. 113.

" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 405.

Tinea vulgaris, Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 186.

" " Yakrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 375.

There can be little doubt that the Tench was known to
the ancients, since Willoughby informs us that it is occasionally
found in the Tiber ; and that it bore the name of Tinea, which
is the origin of the English designation, appears from Ausonius,
who is the only writer of his country that is known to mention
it, at least with any particular reference to its nature or habits.
And the reason of this omission appears to be that it was not
in esteem with them for the table; which was the principal
criterion by which the people of that day were accustomed to
measure the value of any object that could be eaten. But
we are referred to the writings of Cicero, from which we learn
that in consequence of some ajipearance or property in this
fish he chose to apply its name to an orator who was known
for some amusing peculiarity that could find some analogy
in the Tinea or Tench. In addition to this it may also be
suspected that the species termed the Black Cyprinus by ^lian,
an inhabitant of the Danube, and which has been referred
to A\hcn we spake of the Carp, may rather be the Tench, as

o '-A

o

TENCH. 23

the descriptive epithet may more fitly apply to the latter than
to the former.

There is reason to believe that the Tench has always been an
inhabitant of our lakes and slowly-moving rivers, in the deeper
portions of which, where weeds and mud abound, it finds
congenial haunts; and where its food of vegetables, worms, and
small fishes is easily and abundantly obtained. A slimy bottom
is especially selected, and from this circumstance, as also from
the slimy covering of its body, in which last particidar it
exceeds most fishes which possess scales, in some countries it has
received its name. It has been observed that these fishes,
which are fond of associating together, are much in the custom
of licking from each other this mucous secretion, as they also
are of nibbling any soft and fat substance, even of a wound
which may have been received in assaults from one another. This
nibbling of the raw surface has been interjDreted into an intended
healing process, and the Tench has accordingly been termed
the Physician of fishes.

Holinshed believes that he is giving a proof that this fish
is the Leach of fishes by saying "for when the fishmonger
has opened his (the Pike's) side, and laied out his rivet unto
the buier for the better utterance of his ware, and cannot make
him away at that present, he laieth the same againe into the
proper j^lace, and sowing up the wound, he restoreth him to the
pond where Tenches are, who never cease to sucke and licke
his greeved j)lace, till they have restored him in health and
made him readie to come againe to the stall when his turne
shall come about." This idea of the healing virtue of the
Tench's mouth, and not of the slimy exudation of its sides
as a modern poet has surmised, has almost amounted to a
superstition, and is referred to even in the Book of St. Albans;
but it apjDcars to have no other foundation than the love of
this fish for the substance exuding from the wound, and the
impunity with which the nibbling may be accomplished, with
some benefit, although not an intended one, to the process of
healing; but that it is less liable than other fishes to be
devoured by the Pike may be a truth, although the cause of
this exemption seems not easily explained. The Pilotfish swims
near the Shark in safety, while other fishes cannot venture to
do the same.

24 TENCH.

The Tench has much of the shrewdness ascribed to the Carp,
as well as a large portion of the animal senses possessed by that
fish. It is also sensible to the impressions of cold, and we
are informed that in the colder months it will work a hole in
the mud to shelter itself, and there lie concealed, perhaps for
a longer time than is pleasing to itself, although from the
power it jDOSsesses of extracting the minutest portions of air
from almost exhausted water, it continues to live while other
fishes must have perished. We are informed in a quotation
from Johnson's "Sportsman's Cyclopredia," that at Thornville
Eoyal, in Yorkshire, there was a pond that was to have been
filled up, for which purpose wood and rubbish had been thrown
into it for several years, so that it was almost choked up with
mud and weeds. But in November, 1801, measures were taken
to clear it out, in doing which, as very little water remained,
no one expected to see any fish, except perhaps a few eels.
Yet, to their surprise there were found nearly two hundred
brace of Tenches, of all sizes, and as many Perch. And after
the pond was supposed to be quite free, under some roots there
seemed to be an animal which was conjectured to be an Otter.
The i^lace was then surrounded, when on oj^ening an entrance
among the roots a Tench was found, of a most singular form,
having literally assumed the shape of the hole in which he had
for many years been confined. Its length from fork to eye was
two feet nine inches; its circumference, almost to the tail, two
feet three inches; the weight eleven pounds nine ounces and
a quarter; the colour also was singular, the belly being that
of a Char, or vermilion. This fish was examined by many
gentlemen, and then carefully placed in the pond; but either
from confinement, age, or bulk, it at first merely floated, and at
last with difliculty swam gently away.

This fish is not a native of the western counties of England,
nor probably of Ireland or Scotland; but as, like the Carp,
it is so retentive of life as to be conveyed easily to distant
places, it is found at present in all these districts where situations
can be found to suit its habits ; and it breeds readily where the
soil and water are congenial to it, but indeed there only. It
is of use to know that for the fertility of a pond the number
of males ought to be double that of females, and it so happens
that the sexes of this fish are readily to be distinguished by the

TENCH. 25

comparative size of tlieir ventral fins; -which in the male are
far the largest, with a stout, thick, crooked, and transversely
striated first ray. The bones also to which these fins are attached
are large, thick, and extended even to the gill openings.

Willoughby remarks, from Schenckfeld, that the Tench
spawns at the time when wheat is in blossom. The spawn is
shed at no great depth in the water, and the development of
the grains is rapid, as they were traced by M. Rusconi in
Muller's "Archives," for 1836; who observes that soon after
the application of the milt the ovum loses its spherical form, and
swells out into the form of a pear, and at the point where the
swelling begins it is surrounded with a cluster of microscopic
globules, which before were spread all over its surface. In
half an hour the pear-shaped excrescence is divided into four
globules, which in another quarter of an hour are subdivided
into eight, and after a similar period into thirty-two, which still
remain clustered together on the top of the egg. In another
half hour more globules appear, which become less in size as
they increase in numbers, and at length from their minuteness
that part of the egg to which they are attached becomes almost
as smooth as before they made their appearance. The embryo
fish is now seen in the form of a whitish transparent speck,
which is the rudiment of the backbone. The organization of
the skin then proceeds, and the embryo as it is coiled round
the yolk increases in length until the head becomes perceptible,
In forty hours from the first this embryo Tench gives signs of
motion, and in further twelve hours it has freed itself from the
skin of the egg; at which time the fish is two lines in length,
and the blood is of its natural colour. For some hours after
leaving the egg the young appear inert; lying on their sides
and unable to swim; but when the swimming bladder becomes
developed they assume their proper position and activity. The
intestines are not fully developed until seven days from leaving
the egg; and then they begin to feed voraciously, but only on
animal substances.

The narrative here given may be considered as generally
applicable to fishes of this family, and in its outline to fishes
in general; since the variation is rather connected with the
quickness of the development than the mere order of the pro-
ceeding; and in regard to quickness it is much influenced by
VOL. IV, E

26 TENCH.

the temperature of the water, which in the case here described
was above seventy degrees. The growth of the Tench afterwards
is speedy, so that in twelve months it may weigh from half a
pound to a pound; and an instance is known where a Tench
placed in a pond in six years and a half attained to the weight
of four pounds and a half which is what it most frequently
reaches in England.

We have not thought it necessary for the most part to
describe the methods used in Britain in fishing for those species
which inhabit our fresh waters, since there are numerous volumes
which treat on this subject at greater length than our space
will allow; but we copy the following from the Reverend Richard
Lubbock's "Fauna of Norfolk," because it includes a lively
picture of some particulars of the nature of this fish:

"In Norfolk there are fishermen who for catching Tench in
shallow water prefer their own hands, with a landing-net to be
used occasionally, to any other engines. The day for this
operation cannot be too calm or too hot. During the heats of
summer, but especially at the time of spawning. Tench delight
in lying near the surface of the water amongst beds of reeds;
in such situations they are found in parties, varying from four
or five to thirty in number. On the very near approach of a
boat they strike away, dispersing in different directions, and
then the sport of the Tench-catcher begins. He perceives where
some particular fish has stopped in its flight, which is seldom
more than a few yards; his guide in this is the bubble which
rises generally where the fish stops. Approaching the place as
gently as possible in his boat, which must be small, light, and
steady in her bearings, he keeps her steady with his pole, and
lying down with his head over the gunwale, and his right arm
bared to the shoulder, taking advantage in his search, of light
and shade, he gently with his fingers displaces the weeds, and
endeavours to descry the Tench in his retreat. If the fisherman
can see part of the fish, so as to determine which way the head
lies, the certainty of capture is much increased; but if he cannot,
immersing his arm, he feels slowly and cautiously about until
he touches it; which, if done gently on head or body, is generally
disregarded by this sluggish and stupid fish; but if the tail is
the part molested, a dash away again is the usual consequence.
Should the fisherman succeed in ascertaining the position of the

TENCH. SJ7

fish, he insiiniates one hand, which alone is used, under it just
behind the gills, and raises it gently, but yet rapidly, towards
the surface of the water. In lifting it over the side of the boat,
which should be low, he takes care not to touch the gunwale
with his knuckles, as the slightest jar makes the captive flounce
and struggle. On being laid down the Tench often remains
motionless for full a minute, and then begins apparently to
perceive the fraud practised upon it. The fisherman then, if
he marked more than one Tench when the shoal dispersed,
proceeds to search for it. If not he endeavours to start another
by striking his pole against the side or bottom of the boat. The
concussion moves other fish, when the same manoeuvres are
repeated. In the course of a favourable day one fisherman
will easily secure five or six dozen. The run, as it is termed,
of a Tench is different from that of a Bream or Kud. It is
not straight or extended, but short, varying, and devious.
Very often the fish halts within five or six yards of the place
it started from; and a good-sized fish is more easily taken than
a small one."

The shape of the Tench is generally thick and solid, but
compressed at the sides; its breadth (or depth) being conveyed
almost to the tail, and if our figure is less so, it is because of
the form of the individual example. In England it does not
often exceed four or five pounds in weight, but old fishes grow
to a more considerable size, esj)ecially on the continent. The
gape is moderate, jaws nearly equal, lips fleshy, without teeth;
a slight barb at the corner; the palate is fleshy only on its
posterior half. The back rises from the snout to the dorsal fin.
Eye small; body clothed with small fine scales; the lateral line
drops at first, and then passes straight to the tail. Dorsal fin
a little behind the middle of the body; as wide as long; anal
behind the termination of the dorsal; pectoral fin broad, and
the ventrals rather so. Tail straight or a little rounded. Colour
of the back and fins rich dark brown; sides fulvous brown or
yellow, lighter below. Eye red. The dorsal fin has nine rays,
the first short, and the anal has the same; pectoral fourteen,
ventral nine, caudal seventeen.

8

CARASSIUS.

"We arrange as in a separate genus those species which have the
general characters of Cyprimis, as defined by Cuvier, with an extended
dorsal fin and short anal; but the mouth without barbs, and not having
a firm denticulated ray to the dorsal and anal fins. Some appearance
of such a toothed ray may be perceived in one or two of these species,
but so obscurely as to be scarcely discernible.

CEUCIAN.

Onrassms, Willotjghby ; p. 269, pi. Q. 6 ; but he does not

distinguish it from some other species, as
Alhurnus and BnUems.
Cyprinns carassius, Linnvetjs. Cuvier. Block; pi. 11.

" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 403.

" " Yarrell; British Fishes, vol. i, p. 355.

So little was fon-fterly known of this fish that Gesner says he
could not find it had been mentioned by any writer before
Dubravius, and much uncertainty still rests upon it when
considered as a British fish; for although Pennant mentions a
fish of this name as known to himself, it is svipposed to have
been by mistake for the Prussian Carp; and Mr. Yarrell had
obtained it in a few instances from the Thames; yet this is
consistent with the belief that the species was at first introduced
among us, and that even at a recent date. This indeed is
asserted or implied in the experiments of which it was the
siibject; and of which an account is given in oar history of the
Carp. In what is there referred to the examples had been
procured from Hamburg, where the fish appears to have been
well known; for Linn?eus refers to the Acts or Transactions of
the University of Upsal, where it is called by the elder
Gronoviiis Cyprinus Hamhurger ^ as characteristic of the place
where chiefly it was found.

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CRUCIAN. 29

It is easy to suppose tliat some of these fishes which had been
obtained from the continent of Europe, where they are not
rare, may have been set free in the Thames without having
been operated on in the manner described, and there they may
have continued the race; but that the operation from which we
have an account of their introduction into England was not
such a novelty as was supposed, is rendered probable from the
lines of Sir Philip Sidney, although the operation was performed
upon another species:

We have a fish by strangers much admired,

Which caught to cruel search yields his chief part ;
(With gall cut out) closed up again by art,

Yet lives until his life be new required.

Seven Wonders of England

The Crucian, like most of the species of this family is highly
retentive of life, and in consequence may be conveyed to con-
siderable distances for the purpose of being propagated in ponds
or slowly-flowing rivers; but it will scarcely repay the expense
or effort, as it is not highly esteemed for the table, and it
never becomes equal to the Carp in size. It is said to be of
slow growth. We copy the figure of this fish given by Fries
and Ekstrom, with a large portion of their description.

In its early growth it bears some resemblance to the Carp,
but its shape is much deeper; in which particular it exceeds
the whole of this family; for its greatest depth is equal to one
half of its length. It may be further distinguished from the
Carp by the absence of barbs at the mouth. The jaws are
equal and without teeth, gape small; body thick and solid, but
compressed; the outline ascends from the snout, and more
especially from the head, to the origin of the dorsal fin; from
which again it descends in an oval to the origin of the tail.
Scales large, thirty-two on the course of the lateral line; this
line descends at first, and then straight. Eye rather small;
hindmost gill-cover divergently striped. Pectoral fin round, with
fifteen rays; ventrals also round, with nine rays; dorsal fin long,
beginning over the ventrals, wide, with a rounded outline, and
twenty rays; anal fin wide, rather short, with ten rays; the
third ray of the dorsal and anal fins, which are longer than
the preceding, thick and very finely notched; tail short, wide.

30 CRUCIAN.

nearly straight, with eighteen rays. The colour is subject to
variety; top of the head and back brown, or with a tint of
green, yellow on the sides, white or orange colour on the belly;
the fins generally dark with a tint of red. It rarely exceeds
two pounds in weight, and most frequently is less; but Mr.
Yarrcll obtained an example from the Thames that weighed two
pounds and eleven ounces.

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Gy2irinus Gihelio, Block ; pi. 12. Jenyns; Manual, p. 402

Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 358.
Carassius Gihelio, Nobis.

The Prussian Carp appears to be one of two or three species
which have been confounded together under the name of
Crucian, Carassius, or Charax; but this last name must be kept
separate, as when found in the work of Oppian it is applied to
a fish of the sea, and the word in its origin is believed to refer
to the sharp or prickly arming of the back. Whether originally
a native of England appears uncertain, but there is no notice
of its having been introduced into our ponds or deeper slowly-
flowing rivers; in which it is sometimes found in considerable
numbers. We have obtained it from the Thames where it
abounds more than does the Crucian; but its particular habits
have not been attended to, except that it is known lo be highly
retentive of life when uninjured out of the water.

This fish is said to have reached the weight of two pounds,
but the example described was much less; the length to the
fork of the tail seven inches, depth in front of the dorsal fin
one inch and seven eighths; the proportions stout and thick,
blunt over the front; wide between the eyes, mouth small, jaws
nearly equal, without teeth. Eyes moderate: body rising from
the mouth to the dorsal fin; back round. Scales on the body
large; lateral line at first high, but after sinking a little pro-
ceeding straight; with thirty-five perforated scales. Posterior
plate of the gill-covers finely striated. The dorsal fin begins a
little anterior to the line of the ventrals and ends above
the vent; its first ray short, the second strong and serrated;
anal small, its first ray serrated; tail bluntly forked. Colour

S9 PRUSSIAN CARP.

yellowish brown on the back, and so the dorsal fin and tail,
yellow on the sides, brighter below; pectoral, ventral, and anal
reddish or orange; posterior plate of the gill-cover with a tint
of blue. The dorsal fin has eighteen rays, ventral eight, anal
nine. Its distinction from the Crucian is seen in the less depth
of the body, blunter head, less elevation of the dorsal fin,
sharper pectoral, smaller anal; and in the fork of the tail.

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33

GOLDFISH.

Gyprinus auralus, Linnaeus. Cuv;er. Bloch; pi. 15.

" J>:NyNS; Manual, p. 403.

" " Yauhell; Br. Fislies, vol. i, p. 361.

This fish is a native of China, where for ages it has con-
tributed to the amusement of the higher classes by its lively-
actions in luxurious captivity, as also to the occupation and
profit of the more industrious classes by the employment it
affords them in procuring and j^ropagating the numerous varieties
of its race; for as there is no other fish which has been so long
in such a condition of trainmg, so there is none that has so
decidedly shewn such a tendency to be influenced by it in shape
and colour. We are informed ihat in that country it is a
special business to collect the spawn as it floats in the great
rivers, and to sell it to merchants who send it to different
districts of the country, to be propagated in small ponds, in
which also the fish are preserved . but for amusement also they
are kept in porcelain vessels in ihe houses of rich people. T.n
captivity they ate not juolific except in ponds suited to their
nature, of which waimth is an important particular; so that
they live and thrive in that which to our imagination seems
beyond the power of any living creature to sustain. As an
instance it is known that in manufacturing districts, where there
is a short supply of told water foi condensing the steam
employed in the engines, recourse is had to what are called
engine dams or ponds, into which the water from the steam-
engine is thrown for the purpose of being cooled; and in these
dams, the average temperature of which is about eighty degrees,
it is common to keep Goldfishes It is a known fact that in
these situations they multiply much more rapidly than in ponds
of lower temperature that are exposed to variations of the
climate. Three pairs of these fishes were put into one of these
VOL. IV. -t'

34 GOLDFISH.

daniSj where they increased so rapidly that at the end of three
years, when their progeny was accidentally poisoned by verdi-
gris mixed with the refuse tallow from the engine, wheelbarrows
full of them were taken out. In those dams Goldfish are by
no means useless inhabitants, since they consume the refuse
grease which would otherwise impede the cooling of the watei
by accumulating on the surface. Another important particular
to their well-being in a small pond is, that there should be in
some part of it a good depth of water and shelter, both for
hiding and as a retreat on the change of seasons; a chang'.. of
which all fishes are highly sensible, and none more than those
of the family of Carps.

These beautiful fishes, which bear well even close confinenient
in a glass globe, although they do not reach their full size in
it, are easily conveyed from place to place; and accordingly
we learn that some examples of them were brought from China
into England in the year 1691. But they did not become
generally known until a considerable number were also brought
in the year 1728, and presented to Sir Matthew Dekker, Lord
Mayor of London, who made presents of them to severfil
friends, by which means they became distributed through the
country. They are now well known throughout the civilized
world, although rather as the petted favourites of the house
than as naturalized inhabitants of our waters. A large portion
of those we have in England have been brought from Lisbon,
where , they are bred for sale.

In form this fish much resembles the Carp; the body deep,
moderately compressed; jaws equal, the outline rising to the
beginning of the dorsal fin; eyes prominent; body covered with
large scales; lateral line a little depressed at its origin, afterwards
straight. The dorsal fin begins opposite the middle of the
pectoral, and ends opposite the middle of the anal; the latter
short; the first ray of the former usually toothed, as is the
hindmost border of the first ray of the latter; pectorals round,
ventrals large; tail incurved. The colour from deep orange
to golden, a little lighter on the belly, but subject to variety;
the young being very dark, and when older of a bright silver,
on which account they are called silver fish; and some are
strongly tinged with pink. There is also remarkable variety in
the fins as they arc found in captivity; some being without

GOLDFISH. 35

the dorsal fin, some having it short, with three lobes on the
caudal fin, and sometimes the lower lobe of this fin is separated
into two, which are spread abroad horizontally. Linnaeus has,
in mistake, made this last particular a portion of the character
of the genus, and Gronovius supposed it to be the mark of
a separate species.

36

ABRAMTS.

The character is, that the body is deep, belly not armed with roug^.x
points, dorsal fin short and placed behind the ventrals, anal fin long,
and both without a spinous ray; no barbs at the mouth.

LAKE BEEAM.

CARP BREAM. YELLOW BREAM. COMMON BREAM.

Cyprinus Latus, Jonston ; Table 29, f. 5.

WiLLOUGHBY; p. 248, plate Q 10.

" Brama, Linnteus.

" " Bloch; pi. 13. Donovan; pi. 93.

" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 406.

Ahramis vulgaris, Cuviek.

" Brama, Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 187.

" " Yarkell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 382.

There are only some particular situations where the Lake
or Carp Bream is found, but where it meets with a congenial
soil and water, its numbers increase in a remarkable degree.
And although sensitive to the variation of seasons, there is
nothing in the climate of the United Kingdom that is hurtful
to it; for as regards cold they abound even at the most northern
parts of Norway, while with ourselves they associate in com-
panies, and are lively in the warmest summers. But neither a
swiftly-flowing stream nor pebbly bottom are suitable, and they
chiefly rejoice in still water with a bottom of soft soil, whether
in lakes and ponds or rivers. Nilsson remarks that they in
Sweden are sure to be found where the pond-weed Isoetes
lacustris grows; but slimy food, with other digestible vegetables,
serves them for nourishment, and they devour with eagerness the
paste prepared for them by anglers, by which they are attracted

LAKE BREAM. 37

to a spot where they are to be fished for, and where they seize
the worms with which the hooks are baited. Izaak WaUon
gives directions for the successful practice of fishing for these
Bream, for information concerning which we refer to the well-
known and amusing volume of this patriarch of fishermen.
They are not found in Cornwall or Devonshire. Fleming
mentions it indefinitely, as being found in Scotland; and he
qviotes Pennant as authority for its inhabiting Loch Maben;
but it seems not to be an inhabitant of the far north of that
kingdom.

Leland also says in his own quaint language that in Wales,
not far from Breckenok, in Llin Senatham; which is in bredth
a mile, and a two miles of length, and wher as it is depest a "
thirteen fadom, it berith as the principale fisch a great numbre
of Bremes, and they appere in May in mighti seniles. So that
sumtime they breke large nettes; and ons frayed appereth not
in the bryme of the water that yere againe.

By favour of the Earl of Enniskillen I learn that large
numbers inhabit the lakes of the north of Ireland; and especially
they abound in Lough Erne, Lough Mackean, and others in
Fermanagh, Cavan, and other counties; and I have been indebted
to that Noble Lord for several examples from these districts,
from which we have derived our figure and description. A
net is the instrument chiefly had recourse to in that part of
the coiintry; and as these fish are not generally in high esteem,
(and, in fact, from their numbers, when the hope is to take
other fishes, they are usually considered an annoyance,) they
for the most part fall to the lot of the poorer people, who
preserve them for use in winter.

Yet although this is the character which the Bream now
generally bears it was not always so. Chaucer speaks favourably
of it, and the value set on this fish about the year 1419 may
be learned from Sir William Dugdale, who informs us that at
that date a single fish was valued at twenty pence, when the
day's labour of a mason or master carpenter was less than
sixpence; from which was withdrawn three halfpence if his food
was supplied to him. We are told also that a pie containing
four Bream was sent from Warwickshire to a distant part of
Yorkshire at the cost of sixteen shillings; which amount included
the wages of two men for three days in catching the fish.

38 LAKE BREAM.

together witli the flour and spices for making the pie and the
charge of conveying it to its destination. (Pictorial History of
England, voh ii.) The Book of St. Albans is a further witness,
that "the Breeme" was accounted "a noble fysshe and a deyntous,"
for the taking of which particular directions were given.

This Bream is considered a very shy fish, and as their
ordinary habit is to swim in schools, Nilsson informs us that
in the season when the fishery is carried on in Sweden, in
some of the parishes near the lake where these fish abound, it
is forbidden to ring the church bells; that the noise may not
drive the fish away. Sometimes the success of this fishery is
such that from ten to forty thousand pounds of Bream have
been taken at a single haul of the net.

A reason why this fish is not regarded at genteel tables with
us is said to be, that they are furnished with such a large
abundance of small bones, which is in fact a double row of ribs
corresponding to those of the herring, shad, and pilchard; and
it is on this account that the middle portion of the body is
preferred to the rest; but in autumn, Walton says, they become
*'as fat as a hog," and then they afibrd a not unpleasant dish.

The time of spawning is about the month of May, at which
time the male is marked with rough white spots about the
head. In the "Fauna of Norfolk" it is remarked that when
preparing to spawn they roll about like miniature porpoises:
the water is discoloured by their working; here a nose appears
and there a back fin, whilst at intervals a plunge of affi-ight
amongst the multitude shews that large pike are busy. They
are a positive nuisance from their numbers in many places. If
a bow-net is set for Tench, Bream crowd in ere they arrive
and exclude them. At first the growth of the young is slow,
and they are not readily distinguished from the next species,
A. Blicca; but in the course of time they reach to a large
size, and, while a Bream of the weight of fourteen pounds is
considered of large size, Rondeletius professes to have seen an
example that measured two cubits in length, with a foot at
the greatest depth.

That this fish is retentive of life, and especially possesses
great power in resisting extreme cold, appears from an instance
mentioned by Gesner, and often since referred to. It happened
that in Poland a large number were contained in a tank, the

Lakh bream 39

water of which became frozen so entirely that not one of the
fish could be seen; but when the frost disappeared the Bream
again appeared without having suffered harm.

Length of the example from the snout to the fork of the
tail sixteen inches; greatest depth, which is about the beginning
of the dorsal fin, seven inches and a fourth. Head small; the
outline rising rapidly from the nape, and beginning to slope
downward from the dorsal fin towards the tail; the body,
exclusive of the tail, approaching to an oval Snout round,
under jaw slightly the shortest; no teeth, lips flesliy. slightly
bent up at the middle. Eyes lateral, large; nostrils open, in a
depression, high on the front, with a band or depression above
the lips from one nostril to the other. Body much compressed,
scales rather large; lateral line falling below the level of the
body. Dorsal fin elevated, behind the middle of the body,
ending nearly opposite the vent; anal fin from the vent near
to the tail, hook-shaped at the beginning. Pectoral fin rounded,
ventrals before the origin of the dorsal, and reaching to the
vent; tail forked. Colour bright yellow, darker on the back.
pale below.

Fin rays in the dorsal eleven, caudal seventeen, anal twenty-
nine, pectoral sixteen, ventral nine.

40

WHITE BREAM.

BREAMFLAT.

Cyprinus Latus, Turtou's Linnceus.

" Blicca, Block ; pi. 10.

Abramis Blicca, CaviER.

Cypj'uius Blicca, Jenyns; Manual, p. 407.

" " Yahrell; Br. Pishes, vol. i, p. 387

It was long doubted whetlier wTiat was supposed to be a
second species of Bream in our lakes was truly distinct; and
after a close examination of what was alleged to be sucli on
the continent of Europe, it remained the opinion of the learned
naturalist Gesner, that only one species could be recognised.
And the opinion thus expressed was not without some plausible
grounds, so far as regarded the fishes we have called the Lake
and White Breams; since whatever may be the assigned marks
of distinction at the fullest stage of growth, when the Lake
Bream is of a bright yellow colour, and it is of much larger
size than the White Bream is ever known to attain; yet at an
earlier stage, when the Lake Bream is only half grown, the
colour of both these fishes is so much alike, and the other
differences between them require such close examination that
we need not feel surprised if the real points of distinction are
not always detected. Yet that they were believed to be distinct
fishes in very early times appears from the Book of St. Albans,
where Bremettis are mentioned separately, as to be fished for
with some difference of baits; and that they are distinct fishes
is now generally admitted; but although whatever difference
may exist in their habits is not well known, in this respect
also some distinction must exist since there are places where
the White Bream is common, and the Lake Bream is not met
with. Mr. Jenyns points to some districts of the River Carn

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WHITE BREAM. 41

IS an instance of this, and it appears not iinlilcely that the
reverse of this is the case in some parts of Ireland.

It might have been preferable to have limited to the species
aow nnder consideration the name of Shude, which is used in
che north of Ireland for the early stage of both these fishes,
and for the latter during the whole of its existence; but we
have decided otherwise in order to avoid confusion. At
the same time it should be borne in mind that the Lake Bream
is equally white until of nearly full growth, and also that in
Ekstrom's "History of Scandinavian Fishes," the figure ot
Abromis Blicca is decidedly yellow.

Instead of giving an extended description of the White
Bream, we will simply point out those characters by which it
may be distinguished from the Lake Bream, with which alone
it is likely to be confounded; and in doing this we prefer
to select these points to which attention has been particularly
directed by writers whose opportunities of comparison have been
the greatest; as by this means we avoid those mistakes which
might be committed in confounding casual differences with such
as impress a permanent character.

The White Bream rarely exceeds the length of a foot, and
a usual weight is about a pound. Nilsson says that the outline
of the body is more arched than in the Lake Bream; but the
proportions of the younger fish are more lengthened than when
it has become older, and in that early condition it more closely
resembles the last-named fish. Both jaws are also more nearly
equal; the head large; back much compressed; over the neck a
depression, from which the arch rises to the dorsal fin, beyond
which to the tail is straight, so that the space at the tail is
wider (or deeper.) The lateral line is not so low on the body
as in the Lake Bream; scales large and thin. Colour of the
back bluish brown, sides white tinged with blue, white below;
pectoral and ventral fins reddish, other fins brownish grey.

Fin rays dorsal ten, pectoral eighteen, ventral nine, anal
twenty-four or five, caudal nineteen. Both Nilsson and Mr.
Yarrell assign to the pectoral fin three less, and to the anal
five, than in the Lake Bream, but the last-named author gives
twenty-two as the number of rays in the anal fin.

VOL. IV.

42

POMERANIAN BREA M.

Cjiprinus B'ltngcnhagii, Block ; PI. 95.

Abramis BnggenJuagii, Cdviek, Thompson.

" " Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 391.

A THIRD species of British Bream was rst annoiinced by
Mr. William Thompson as obtained by him in Ireland, and wc
shall borrow ms account of this fish, as it is contained in his
Natural History of that portion of the United Kingdom; but
it has also been foimd in England by Mr. Yarrell, to whom it
was )n-esented from the Dagenham Breach, and afterwards from
another portion of the Thames; and it has likewise been obtained
by Mr. Jenyns in Cambridgeshire. But previous to this it had
been described by the Prussian naturalist Bloch, who obtained
examples from Pomerania; from which country they had been
sent to him by a gentleman whose name he affixed to the
species, and v/ho therefore must be pronounced its first
discoverer.

It has not been recognised in any other country besides
those we have here specified; and everywhere it appears to be
a scarce species. We may suppose therefore that it is less
prolific than the others of this genus, or that it is beset with
much more formidable enemies.

Mr. Thompson's notice of it is, that it has been taken in the
sluggish Pivcr Lagan, in which the (Lake) Bream is abundant.
On inspecting the produce of a fishing-rod at the River Lagan,
near Belfast, 1 detected a Bream differing from the common
species. It agreed so fully with Bloch's description of the
Cyprinus Buggcnhagii as to satisfy me of its identity, the only
dilfcrence consisting in the number of rays in the pectoral fin,
twelve being enumerated by him, and eighteen apj)earing in the
specimen; "several of them, however, being very short may have

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POMERANIAN BREAM. 43

escaped Blocli's notice. The description drawn from my specimen:
length five inches and a half, depth an inch and a half;
head one fourth of the entire length; diameter of the eye equal
to one fourth of the length of the head; scales on the lateral
line about forty-five. Colour of the sides silvery, tinged with
blue towards the back; dorsal, pectoral, ventral, and anal fins
nearly transparent, or slightly tinged with dusky; tail pale
yellow."

An example obtained by Mr. Yarrell measured fifteen inches
in length; and it has been noticed that while the depth of the
body measures one third of the length, the thickness amounts
to one half of the depth, being the thickest of all the Breams.
The dorsal fin also is larger than in them, and the anal fin
shorter, with three ravs less in number.

44

LEUCISCUS.

With the usual characters of the family of Carps, the dorsal and
qnal fins am short; and they have not any barbs, or spines to the fins.

CHUB.

CHEVIN.

Coinlo,

Cyprinus ceplialus,

" Jeses,

Leuciscus ceplialus,
Cyprinus ceplialus,

Jonston; Table 26, f. 7.
WiLLOUGHBY; p. 255, plate Q. 10.

LlNN^US.

Bloch; pi. 6. Donovan; pi. 115.
Fleming; British Animals, p. 187.
Jenyns; Manual, p. 411.
Yabrell; British Fishes, vol. i, p

i09.

In its habits the Chub so far agrees with several others of
this family, that it is found only in rivers which possess a
good depth and supply of water; and also that it manifests
much sensibility to changes of temperature in the different
seasons. But, on the other hand, it prefers those streams in
which the water flows with some considerable rapidity along
a clean bottom of sand or gravel; and so needful to its
well-being is a supply of what is afforded by a current, that
it is not easy to keep it alive in a tank, or within the narrow
limits of a pond. It is necessary, however, that its native stream
should possess some safe and shaded pits or deeper recesses,
to which it may retreat from danger, of the slightest appearance
of which it is timidly sensible; and also where it may liide
when the sun shines hot, and during the colder season of the
year. From some causes connected with this repugnancy to still
or stagnant water, or to the want of congenial retreat, this
fish does not exist in the rivers of the north of Scotland, or in

O

CHUB. 45

the west of Ensflnncl: and if any attempt has been made to

introduce it into these districts of which, however, we have

not received any information it has not been successful. Nor

indeed, except for curiosity, is its conveyance likely to be

attempted; for the Chub does not possess a reputation as food

that is likely to induce any one to venture the task. The

Roman poet Ausonius in a few verses bestows on it this
character of being little worth, when he says:

"In weedy sands the scale-clad Chub delights;
Its sides thick-studded with sharp reed-like boiiea,
Nor can we keep its flesh beyond six hours :

in which last particular we must offer a correction to Avhat
by a slip of the pen was advanced when speaking of the Grey
Mullet. It is the Chub and not the Mullet, that in the poetry
of Ausonius bears the name of Capito. The most esteemed
portion of this fish was supposed to be the head, the stoutness
or thickness of the sides of which appear to have given occasion
to the name, as well perhaps in the English as in the Latin
language. This fish is met with in many portions of the continent
of Europe, and so far north as Sweden and a portion of Finland;
but it is not a native of Ireland.

The Chub, like the generality of the Carps, feeds much on
vegetables; but it also eagerly devours insects, and readily takes
the hook when baited with a worm or molluscous animal; but
the method of angling for it, as well as of cooking it when
caught, will be found at large in the work of Izaak Walton.
This, however, to a small extent, we prefer to give as recorded
- in the less common Book of St. Albans: "The Chevyn is a
stately fysshe; and his heed is a deyty morsell. There is noo
fysshe so strongly enarmyed wyth scalys on the body. And
bicause he is a stronge byter he hath the more baytes, which
ben thyse." We need not specify the whole of these, as they
are varied through the year; but a sample of them may be
seen in the "'yonge frogshys the three fete kitte of by the
body [a young frog having its three feet cut off close to the body,]
and the fourth close to the knee,"

The time of spawning is early in the summer.

The example described, Avhich was obtained from Yorkshire,
was in length fourteen inches, and in depth in a straight line

46 CHUB.

three inches and almost a fourth; the form stout, compressed
at the sides, wide and round over the head and back. Gape
moderate, jaws nearly equal, upper lip broad, mouth and tongue
fleshy, palate having a folded membrane; no teeth; nostrils close
together, open, in a depression. Eye moderate. Scales on the
body large and firm; lateral line descending, passing to the tail
lower than the middle of the body. Dorsal fin single, elevated,
behind the line of the ventrals, having nine rays; pectorals low,
rounded, with fifteen rays; the anal begins midway between the
root of the ventrals and of the caudal, with ten rays; tail a
little concave, with nineteen rays. The ventrals have eleven rays;
the first two firm and simple. Colour disposed to dark olive on
the top of the head, on the body dark grey with a tinge of blue,
browner above, whiter below; the scales dark at the angle. The
tail dark, anal and ventrals orange, laint on the hindmost rays
Eyes orange, reddish above.

^^j-//' J \\

u o

< >^

O O

p3

47

ROACH.

Butihts or Buhcllns Willoughby, p. 262. plate Q. 10.

Cyprinns rutilus, LiNN^tus.

" " BlOCH; pi. 2 D0N0V.\N; pi. 67.

Jejjyns, Manual, p. 408.
Leuciscus rut'dus. Cuvier. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 188.

" " Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i., p. 399.

The Roacb is said to be the most prolific of this generally
fertile family; and in spring or the early part of summer, Dr.
Parnell says that immense shoals of them are observed to leave
Loch Lomond, to ascend the different tributary streams for the
purpose of depositing their spawn. During this period, which
seldom lasts more than three days, the rivers are literally
swarming with their numbers, giving a fine green appearance
to the whole surface of the water. On this occasion every
basket and net in the neighbouring villages is immediately put
in requisition, and the thousands thus taken afford food to the
villagers for a short period. It is the general habit of this fish
to assemble in schools; but we have other evidence besides
that of Dr. Parnell for the large numbers that gather together
at this time of sexual migration; and Nilsson remarks that
the males are observed to proceed from the lakes into the
streams before the females. But it is necessary that these
streams should contain a good supply of water, with sand or
gravel at the bottom; and in these situations the young grow
quickly, although their numbers must be considerably thinned
by the depredations made on them by the Trouts, which watch
the spawning, and devour the grains. The deeper pits of
rivers are a favourite resort of the Roach, as well as the
stiller waters of ponds and lakes; and in the Baltic they are
sometimes found in bays near the land. We are not to
conclude, however, that the Roach is able to live in the salt
water of the sea, for we shall find occasion to remark, that

48 Ko.'^cii.

in some situations of this northern sea, from the flow of rivers
the water is rendered so fresh as to admit of living in it,
some species that in other countries are confined to inland
waters.

The Eoach is generally distributed throughout Europe,
except in the more southern parts. It is not known in
Cornwall, and in Devonshire only in the lake called Slapton
Ley, close to the south border of that county. Neither has
it been found in Ireland; and the little esteem in which it is
held as food has prevented its being conveyed into the many
favourable situations for it which might be found in that
country. But although in small regard for the table, it has
been held in no small esteem by anglers, as affording lively
sport from the eager way in which it takes the hook; in
doing which it has obtained a character altogether opposite
to that of the subtle Carp. "The Roche," says the Book of
St. Albans, ''is an easy fysshe to take;" but it is added, "yf
he be fatte and pennyd thenne is he good meete." To the
more ordinary baits this work closes with recommending the
"fatte of bakon."

The Roach is usually about eight or ten inches in length,
but sometimes it reaches fourteen or fifteen inches, with a
depth of nearly the fourth part of the length. The gape is
small; jaws without teeth; snout somewhat rounded. Outline
of the body rising gently to the origin of the dorsal fin,
which is above the root of the ventrals, and from thence
sloping gradually to the tail. Scales large, easily lost; lateral
line descending at first, and then proceeding nearer the
ventral border than to the back. Eye moderate. The dorsal
fin elevated, its first ray nearer the snout than to the tail; tail
forked. Anal fin behind the termination of the dorsal, and
the number of the fin rays equal in both, eleven or twelve in
number; pectoral rounded, with sixteen rays; ventrals with
nine; nineteen in the tail. Colour of the back greyish green,
sometimes with a tinge of brown; sides whitish, with a tint
of blue or reddish. Dorsal fin and tail dark; anal, ventral,
and pectoral fins red; but Nilsson remarks that in the younger
examples the eye is yellow instead of red, and the ventral
and anal fins only reddish. The air-bladder and pharyngeal
teeth possess the general characters of the family.

C O

49

EUDD.

REDEYE. FINSCALE.

Rutilus latior, vel Rubdiio fliwiatilis, Budd, Wjlloughby; p. 252, tub. Q. 3.

Cyprlnus eri/throj)1dhalm>i.s, LiNN^tus.

Leuc'iscus erythroflitliaJmus, Cuvjer. Bi.och, pi. 1.

Cypriiius erytltrophtliahmos, Donovan, pi. 40.

" " Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 188.

" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 41-J.

" " Yaekell; Br. F., vol. i, p. 412.

It appears that when Ray was engaged in editing the work
of Willoughby, above referred to, he felt some doubt as regards
a fish which was called Orfus in Germany as to wliether it
miffht not be the same that in England was called Rudd or
Redeye; and when afterwards he published his synopsis this
doubt had become settled into a feeling of certainty. But this
doubt or mistake of the illustrious Ray was carried further by
Dr. Fleming; who not only represents the Rudd of Willoughby
and Ray as the Orfus of Germany, but also that this Rudd is
different from the species called the Redeye. The Orfus is
truly a distinct species, but it has not been recognised in
Britain,

For the most part the Rudd frequents the same natural
districts as the Roach, where they are both found; and it is
suj)posed to have much the same habits. But it is worthy ol
notice, and not easily accounted for, that the former fish is
common in many pai'ts of Ireland, while the true Roach is
not known in that country, although supposed to be so because
the Rudd has usurped the name. They do indeed bear some
resemblance to each other; but the distinction of form between
them may be made with little difficulty; and, if closely ex-
amined there is little doubt that the characteristic habits and
appetites of each would also be found far from the same.

The food of the Rudd is worms, molluscous creatures of
several kinds, and vegetables; but as it requires a good depth

VOL. IV. H

50 RUDD.

of -water, with sheltering pools, it is not met with in districts
where the flow of water is rapid and turbulent. Although,
therefore, it is generally distributed through the more level
counties of England, it is not a native of Cornwall, and I
find it mentioned as uncertain in a list of the fishes found in
the neighbourhood of Weymouth, kindly communicated by
William Thompson, Esq., of that place, although the Roach is
plentiful there. Nilsson observes that it is found in the south
and middle portions of Scandinavia, where it appears to display
more sociable habits than others of this family, so as to be
found mingled with them, especially at the time of spawning.
This function is entered upon in the beginning of summer, at
which time the male assumes a different appearance, by a
particular roughness of the skin; and the spawn is shed
among the weeds of the pools

This fish is in considerable esteem for the table.

In spite of the dangers to which it is exposed^ the Kudd
is known to have reached the weight of two pounds; but our
description is taken from much smaller examples; of which
we select a couple in order to make a more definite comparison,
Where the length was nine inches, the depth at the ventral
fins was two inches and five eighths; the form rather stout,
but compressed; snout gently rounded, gape narrow, under
jaw a little the shortest; no teeth; eye moderate, nostrils in
a depression The outline ascends at first gently over the
head towards the dorsal fin; in one specimen in a circular
form, in another rising more suddenly behind the head. The
body clothed with scales of moderate size, lateral line descending
at first, and then near the lower border straight to the tail,
forty-three pores along this line. The dorsal fin is behind the
line of the ventrals, and opposite the space between these and
the anal, its first rays much the longest, becoming shorter
gradually to the last; anal fin not so long as the dorsal; the
tail forked. The colour in one example bluish green on the
back, the sides tinged with blue, white below; the cheeks
tinged with yellow; eyes bright red All the fins tinged with
red, the dorsal fin and tail dark near the border. In another
example the general colour was brown, darker on the back;
eye reddish brown; fins dull red, darker on the dorsal fin
and tail.

c

O r-

51

DOBULE.

Grksling, of the Germans, which Artecli supposes; to he the

same with the Gudgeon.

GiHslagtne, Willoxjghby; p. 263, pi. Q. 1.

Cyprinus Dohula and G. Grislagine, Linnaeus.

Bloch; pi. 5.
Bohule Boach, Yarkell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 397.

Leuciscus Dohula, Cuvier.

Cyprinus Dohula, Jenyns; Manual, p. 409.

The Dobule is so rare with us as to have boon taken only
once in Britain. We must, therefore, seek for its history, so
far as it is known, from the continent of Europe; from whence
it is fortunate that we are able to communicate some information
npt generally known among ourselves, but by which we may
disentangle the confusion respecting it which has hitherto prevailed
among naturalists. Artedi was the first to confound together
two supposed species, which, according to the evidence of later
authorities, are distinguished only by difference of age, or that
small variation which is marked by a slight change in the
number of rays in the fins; and in this he is followed by his
friend Linnaeus; who makes it the distinction between the
Cyprinus Dohula and C Grislagme, that the former is marked
by ten of these rays in the dorsal and anal, while there are
eleven in the C. Grislagine ; although in the latter also Artedi
assigns to the dorsal ten only.

We owe the correction of this mistake in the first place to
Nilsson; who informs us that the example described by Mr.
Yarrell under the name of Dobule Roach, and which is the
Cijprinus Dohula of Bloch, was the early stage of the Cyprinus
Grislagine of LinntEus; and this is also confirmed by Dr.
Reisinger, in his Ichthyology of Hungary, who finds it in the
Danube; and from him we copy the particulars which he gives

52 DOBULE.

of its food and breeding. He says that it frequents the clearer
waters of the hikes and streams of that river, where there is
a bottom of stones or gravel; and it feeds on worms and
vegetables. The roe is of a greenish tinge, and is shed copiously
in April and May. The flesh is white, soft, and full of the
small bones common to this class of fishes.

The Dobule is strictly a fish of the north of Europe; and
Nilsson says it is in Sweden confined to the streams and lakes
in the middle and north of the province of "Wermcrland; and
that it should travel to Britain is not the least remarkable portion
of its history.

Mr. Yarrell himself took this example while engaged on the
Thames in fishing for Whitebait with a net; and as it is not
unlikely it may occur again, perhaps with some diflercnce of
appearance as regards age and growth, to enable observers to
be certain of the species, we give descriptions as they are con-
tained in the works of the writers we have mentioned; as also
that of Mr. Yarrell in the fourteenth volume of the Linncan
Transactions, to which are added some notes obtained from
examination of what we have believed to be specimens of the
same procured from the continent; but the latter are produced
with the expression of some doubt. It is proper to add that
the reviewer of Mr. Yarrell's work, in the first volume of the
"Magazhie of Zoology and Botany," on the authority of Dr.
Parnell, informs us that this fish has also been caught in the
Cumberland rivers; but no further particulars are given.

Nilsson describes this fish as measuring seven or eight inches,
which answers to the length of the figure given by Ekstrom.
The form lengthened, the height and length of the head one
fifth of that of the body to the middle of the tail fin; the
outline little arched, and not much compressed at the side.
Nose prominent and blunt; mouth small. Lateral line a little
bent, with about fifty mucous spores. Number of scales across
the middle of the body twelve; the lateral line on the eighth
scale. Anal fin with eleven rays, of which eight are bi'anched.
The colour brown above, silvery on the sides, white below.
Dorsal fin the colour of the back; lower fins white, with a
tinge of red, and sometimes all red.

The description of Dr. Rcisinger is, that it measures eleven
or twelve inches, with a weight from one to two pounds; the

DOBULK, 53

body lengthened, narrow, the back round; head blunt, roundish,
broad above; nostrils above the line of the eyes; eyes large.
Jaws with seven teeth in a double row; lower jaw a little the
shortest. Lateral line curved downward, dotted with yellow
points; (which may answer to what Willoughby says, that this
line is "citrine," or faint yellow; but he adds that above it is
a black stripe which passes from the eye to the tail, which is
also represented in his figure.) Colour on the top of the head
dark ash; eyes yellow, and in the young white or silvery, with
a green spot above; the body above darkish green or yellow;
below white, with a tint of blue. Scales of moderate size,
spotted on their borders with black. Eye yellow, and in the
younger examples, which are the C. Grislagine of Linneeus, this
and the fins are white; in the older, or true Dohiila, the dorsal
is greenish, with eleven rays; the anal with eleven rays, and
ventral with nine rays, both red; pectoral yellow, fifteen rays;
caudal bluish, eighteen rays; the vertebrae forty.

Mr. Yarrell's example was only six inches and a half long,
and, he says, being a young male fish, was slender in proportion
to its length. The general colour dusky blue on the back,
becoming brighter on the sides, silvery white beneath. The
lateral line descending from the upper angle of the operculum
takes a course along the side parallel to the curve of the belly;
scales of moderate size; dorsal and caudal fims dusky brown;
pectoral, ventral, and anal fins pale orange red; head rounded
and blunt; upper jaw the longest, the under jaw shutting within
it; nostrils pierced on the upper side of the head, rather nearer
the eye than the upper lip; irides orange; cheeks and operculum
silvery white; first ray of the dorsal fin rising half way between
the anterior edge of the orbit of the eye and the end of the
fleshy portion of the tail, the first ray short, the second the
longest, the last ray double; of the anal fin also the first ray
short and the last ray double. Number of fin rays the dorsal
nine, pectoral sixteen, ventral nine, anal ten, caudal twenty.

INIy own notes are, that the air-bladder is large, and of its
two divisions the last fills a large portion of the cavity; bent
forward and fastened near the vent; a small thread passes up
to the base of the skull from this second division ; so small that
if not sought for it might have escaped observation.

54

DACE.

Dart,

Cyprinus leucism.s,

Leuciscus vulgaris,

WiLLOUGHBY; p. 2G0, table Q. 10.
LiNN^crs. Bloch; pi. 97. Donovan; pi. 77.
Jenyns; Manual, p. 410.
CuviER. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 187.
Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 404

The Dace is a lively and active fish, of sociable habits, and
prefers a clear stream which flows over a clean gravelly bottom,
with an abundant supply and depth of water. In the cold
and darker seasons of the year it keeps close to the bottom, near
shaded banks; but in bright and warm weather it rises
to the surface, where it is ever ready to seize a fly, and,
contrary to what is usual with others of this family, it will
even leap after it in the manner of the common Trout. It is
also freely ready to take a bait near the ground, and is there
fished for with worms, maggots of several kinds, and artificial
pastes. The time of spawning is in April and May, and in
some rivers it increases abundantly; but from some cause not
easily understood there are many streams in which it is not
found. Thus it is not kTiown in Ireland or Scotland; but in
Cornwall, where no other of this genus besides it and the
Minnow is a native, I have traced it to a branch at least of
the Tamar which flows by the town of Launceston. It is
only moderately valued as food. Walton sums up the character
of this fish by saying that Roach and Dace are much of
a kind in matter of feeding, cunning, goodness, and usually
in size.

This fish grows to the length of eight or nine inches, with
proportions much resembling those of the Roach, the body
not being so deep as in the Rudd; and it may be best
described by comparison with the former fish. The under jaw

- 1

" o
o

DACE. 66

is very slightly the shortest; head rather small; eye moderately
large. The outline rising very gradually to the dorsal fin,
which is further back than in the Roach: its origin a little
behind the root of the ventrals, and having nine rays, as have
also the ventrals. The hindmost rays of the dorsal are long,
although not equal in length to the first. Scales on the body
rather smaller than on a Roach of the same size. Lateral
line at first descending, and then straight to the tail, with
fifty-two perforated scales; anal fin not greatly expanded, with
ten rays; pectorals somewhat pointed, having seventeen rays;
the tail forked, with twenty-one rays. The usual colour dark
bluish, but sometimes brown; the sides lighter, with numerous
lines running along the course of the scales. Dorsal fin
yellowish, with a dark cloud on its anterior edge: the other
fins pale.

56

BLEAK.

Bieali,

Cyprinus alhurnus,

a it

Leuciscus alharnus,

WiLLOUGHBY; p. 263.

LiNN^us. Block ; pi. 8.
Donovan; pi. 18. Jenyns; Manual, p. 414..
CuviEK. Fleming; Br. Animals, -p. 188.
Yakrell ; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 419.

The Bleak is a little lively and sportive fish, and is found
in a large proportion of the rivers of the midland counties of
England, in company with some others of the smaller species
of this family, although it swims generally at a higher elevation
in the water than they. But although perhaps as widely
distributed as any of them, it is not a native of Ireland, and
doubt exists as regards Scotland also. Sibbald is quoted by
Fleming as assigning it to that portion of the United Kingdom,
but it appears that the last named Scottish naturalist had not
for himself a knowledge of the fact. It is not known in
Cornwall or Devonshire; but is common on the Continent of
Europe, and Nilsson says they abound in Sweden, as they do
indeed in every situation in which they exist. We may
conclude, therefore, that this fish is exceedingly prolific, as
they are also social in a high degree; for they commonly keep
in considerable schools, as they play at the surface or seek for
food; and as they eagerly seize such insects and worms as
come in their way, they offer easy sport to young anglers.
The j)oet Ausonius notices this when he represents his Alburnos
as affording "prsedam puerilibus hamis," a prize to the hooks
of little boys.

They shed their spawn early in June, in shallow water; and
Nilsson observes that the oldest and largest are the first to
perform this function. At this time, he says, the water seems
alive with them; and the young ones are of quick growth from
the eg^. Contrary to what is known of several of the larger

m

>
O

X
o

liLKAK. 57

species of this family, the Bleak dies quickly when caught, and
its flesh is quick to putrify.

As food this species is not much thought of, but a value
has been attached to it from a remarkable invention of which
it has been the subject, in the formation of fictitious pearls;
the particulars of which I find related by Dr. Badham, in his
*'Fish Tattle," at greater length than by any other writer within
my reach. It is the brilliant white lining on the inner surface
of the scales that has been employed for this purpose; and the
manufacture was first ventured on at Venice; where the true
pearls were held in the highest value, as they were in Rome
at the time when the last-named city was at the height of its
greatness. The glittering pigment was dropped into thin hollow
glass globules, where it adhered to the surface by means of a
pearly varnish; and by the purchase of these it became easy
for people of limited wealth to rival the pride of the higher
and richer classes. This however was not long tolerated by the
government, and the practice of thus imitating the true pearls
was forbidden. But greater liberty was allowed in Paris, where
the art was re-invented or introduced; and from whence it was
conveyed into England and other countries; but where at present
it appears to be generally neglected. In London we are told
that the cruelty was practised of depriving these fish of their
scales, and then turning them again into the river. We are
not aware that fish so treated can ever regain their natural
covering, so that if it were intended to catch and rob them a
second time the effort would be unsuccessful.

This fish attains the length of about six inches, with a depth
at the ventral fins of about one fourth of the length of the
body, exclusive of the tail. The snout is somewhat pointed, and
the lower jaw a little longer than the upper; the head small
in proportion to the body. The lateral line gradually slopes
down to about the origin of the ventral fins, and from thence
backward low down and straight; scales easily removed. The
dorsal fin is behind the middle of the body and above the
vent; behind this fin and the anal the body becomes narrow
to the tail.

As tliis species bears some resemblance to the Dace, a few
notes of the difference between examples of each sort of equal
size, laid side by side, will enable an observer to distinguish
VOL. IV. I

5^ BT.EAK.

between them. Thus, the snout of the Dace is less sharp, and
the lower jaw not so much protruded. The dorsal fin is
somewhat nearer the tail in the Bleak, and when laid down
the end of the dorsal is over the middle of the anal, where,
as in the Dace, this fin reaches only to the root of the first
ray of the anal. The upper rays of the pectoral fin reach
almost to the vcntrals, which is not the case in the Dace; and
the ends of the divisions of the tail are much pointed. The
colour of the Bleak is light brown or greenish, the sides and
below brilliant white; the fins dusky. In the dorsal fin are
ten or eleven rays, in the anal eighteen to twenty, pectoral
sixteen, and in the ventral nine.

< o

59

GRAINING.

Leucisciis Lancastriensis, Yareell; Linn. Transactions, vol. 17, p. 6.

British Fishes, vol. i, p. 406.
' Jenyns; Manual, p. 411.

The earliest notice of this fisli was given by Pennant, but
perhaps from want of opportunity for examination it amounted
to little more than assigning its provincial name and the situation
in which it was found; and it remained for Mr. Yarrell to make
us acquainted with the greater portion of what is known of its
habits, and the marks by which it is distinguished from the
kindred species. These particulars were originally contained in
a paper printed in the Transactions of the Linna^an Society, as
quoted above, and from which most of what we shall say of
it is derived; to which I add that at the time when that paper
appeared I was indebted to the kindness of that gentleman for
coloured figures of this species, and also of the Blue Roach or
Azurine, presently to be described.

But although the Graining had remained to so late a date
unknown to naturalists, it is not scarce in its own limited
districts in the northern counties of England. Indeed they are
said to be abundant in the River Alt, and some other branches
of the Mersey, where they afford much sport to fishermen, who
fish for them in the same manner as they do for Trout. They
take a fly as readily as they do a worm, Mr. Thompson also
obtained examples of the Graining in the River Learn near
Leamington, and at Guy's Cliff, in Warwickshire.

To prevent mistakes, as the examples believed to be of this
species were of a different colour from what has been described
by Mr. Yarrell, that of the body approaching more nearly to
Shaw's description, we shall adhere closely to the description
given by the former gentleman; adding only the remark, that

60 ORATNTNG.

the fishes of this family and of fresh-water generally are prone
to change their colour when dead, and kept out of their element
sufficiently long to be conveyed to a considerable distance; and
that those I have seen were of a decidedly blue colour along
the back. The Azurine also, as they came to my hands, were
one of them drab coloured, and another a fine blue.

Mr. Yarrell's desci-iption is, that although similar to the Dace
in shape, it is distinguished from it by being still more slender
in form. The Graining has the top of the head, the back, and
upper part of the sides of a pale drab colour, with bluish red,
which is separated from the lighter coloured and inferior parts
by a well-defined boundary line; the irides yellowish white;
infraorbital portion of the head, operculum, and sides shining
silvery white, tinged with yellow; all the fins pale yellowish
white; the lateral line descending from the upper angle of the
operculum by a gentle curve to the middle of the body, thence
to the centre of the tail in a straight line; the scales of
moderate size, marked with numerous concentric striae and
prominent radiating elevated ridges; whereas in the Dace the
radiating lines on each scale are produced by grooved depressions.
The central portion of each scale in the Graining is brighter
than its sides, thus producing the appearance of shining longi-
tudinal lines through the whole length of the body. The head
is small, depressed, cheeks flat, line of the back but little
elevated. The dorsal fin begins exactly half-way between the
nose and the end of the fleshy portion of the tail; the first ray
short, second longest, last double, nine in all. The mouth
small, without teeth; eye large, nostrils nearer the eye than
the nose, gill rays three; ventral fins on a vertical line but
little in advance of the anterior portion of the dorsal fin, with
ten rays; the anal fin commences, on a vertical line, immediately
under the termination of the dorsal fin rays when that fin is
depressed, and has eleven rays; the first of these rays short,
the second longest, the last double. The fleshy portion of the
tail long and slender, the rays deeply forked, nineteen in
number. This fish does not often exceed the weight of half
a pound.

v,\

'MaMmff

S >

p; O

ID X

N O

61

AZURINE.

BLUE KOACH.

Leudscus Ccernleus, Yarrell; Trans. Linnean Sop., vol. 17, p. 8.

Eritisla Fishes, vol. i, p. 416.
Cyprinus Coeruleus, Jenyns; Manual, p. 413.

The Azurine, or, as it is locally called, tlie Blue Roach, is
so far a scarce fish that it was unknown to naturalists until it
was examined by Mr. Yarrell; and so much concerning it as
that gentleman was able to describe was inserted in a paper
published in the Linnsean Transactions, as above referred to.
It appears, however, according to Agassiz, to be an inhabitant
of some of the lakes of Switzerland, and I have reason to
believe that I have obtained it from some other river of
England besides that which is mentioned by Mr, Yarrell, but
of which I omitted to take a note. The only foundation for
doubt is, that while the shape of the body and the situation
of the dorsal fin is the same with Mr. Yarrell's figure, the rays
of that fin do not exactly correspond; and after a long con-
veyance the colour of the back was dark umber, pale yellow
on the sides, and cheeks yellow. It is deemed best therefore
to have recourse to a coloured figure of this, which was a gift
from its first describer at the time when it was announced as
a newly-known species. Its habits are said to be much like
those of the Chub; and especially it is highly retentive of
life.

In shape this fish resembles the Rudd; but as regards colour
it is distinguished by having the upper part of the head, the
back, and sides, a slate blue, passing into silvery below, and
both shining with a metallic lustre; whereas in the Rudd the
lower part of the body is a golden yellow. In the last-named fish

62 AZIIRINE.

the fins are always of a fine vermilion colour, but in the Blue
Roach they are white. The head is small and depressed, the
back arched; dorsal fin far behind, oeginning half-way between
the posterior edge of the eye and the end of the scaly portion
of the tail; half-way also between the first ray of the ventral
and the anal fin, with nine or ten rays, the last double. The
snout blunt, mouth small, without teeth. Pectoral fins long,
reaching nearly to the origin of the ventrals, with sixteen rays.
From the vent the body becomes much more slender; anal fin
with twelve rays, the last ray double; caudal fin forked, with
nineteen rays.

That nothing may be omitted as regards this little-known
species, I add my notes as taken from an examjole in my
possession. The length four inches and three fourths, depth
one inch and a fourth at some distance before the dorsal fin;
the slope forward, beginning at the furthest third of the pectoral,
and descending rapidly forward. Gape narrow, jaws nearly
equal; eyes large and much in front. Body compressed,
diminishing backward from the front of the dorsal and from
the vent. The anal fin begins oj^posite the termination of the
dorsal. Pectorals low; ventrals rather large; scales also large.

n o
o

63

IDE.

Cyprinus idns, Linn.5;us.

Leuciscus idus, Cuviek. Bloch; pi. 36.

" Yabrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 395.

The only authority for placing this species among British
fishes is Stewart, in his "Elements," etc., who says that an
example was obtained from the mouth of the Nith by Dr.
AValker , but it has not since been recognised, and its claims
therefore must be regarded as doubtful. It is minutely
described by Artedi under its Swedish name of Id, and also
by Ekstrom, who says it is common in Scandinavia, as far
north as Lapland. It also wanders into the bays of the
Baltic Sea, where the water is known to be much more fresh
than in the open ocean. Several of the fishes of this family
do so, and it is just possible that this species may have done
the same.

64

MINNOW.

MINMIS. PINK.

Varitis or Pfioxinus Icevis, Jonston.

Phoxinus, Willoughby; PI. 28, 1, p. 2G8.

Cyprhms phoxinus, Linn^us. Donovan ; PI. 60.

" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 415.

Leucisciis fhoxinus Cu\aEK. Block ; p. 8, f. 6.

" " FLEiiiNG; British Animals, p. 188.

" ' Yaekell; British Fishes, vol. i, p. 423.

It appears from the writings of Jonston and Roncleletius that
some other species has been confounded with our well-known
Minnow, and that the Phoxinus and Varius of ancient authors
are to be regarded as distinct; so that it becomes in some
degree uncertain whether the remarks that will be extracted
from Aristotle with reference to its habits, are applicable to
one er the other; although indeed we suppose they may be
more correctly referred to both. The Plioxinus, which is termed
Squamosus or tlie Scaly, may belong to the genus I.( iciscus,
and has been supposed to be the fish denominated by Linnaeus
Cyprinus hipiuictatus ; but it is beyond doubt that the Varius
of Rondeletius is our Minnow.

As its name implies, this fish is the smallest of the British
species of this family. It appears also to be the most exten-
sively distributed, and yet it is remarkable that it was not
originally a native of the Irish rivers; its introduction into
that island not having taken place at a much earlier date than
the beginning of the present (nineteenth) century, and it is
not, even at this time, to be found in many situations that
appear well fitted to its nature. But where it has been con-
veyed it multiplies as freely as in England. In Scotland also

1. MINNOW.
O A C H. 3. S P I N B D L O A C H.

CXCIX

MINNOW. 65

it is common, and in some districts of this j)ortion of Britain
it is the only one of the family of Carps which inhabits the
rivers.

We learn that it is known in Sweden and Norway, and
supposing it to be the Phoxinus mentioned by Aristotle and
Pliny, it occurs in Macedonia or Greece; although it is not
recognised in Italy by Risso. In some of the smaller streams
in Cornwall it is not found; but in many of the isolated ponds
or pools on the wilder downs of that county they abound;
although it seems difficult to imagine in what manner they can
have been conveyed thither; and the ponds themselves are
distant from any river, so that they appear to be supplied with
water only from the draining of the surrounding soil or the
occasional fall of rain. But, besides the Minnows there is found
in these solitary ponds a fine species of Trout, which nearly
resembles that of the Loe Pool, in the same county; and to
these the Minnow can furnish a sufficient supply of food, while
the manner in which itself manages to obtain subsistence has
escaped observation. These pools must be of ancient date, but
in appearance they are nothing more than the excavations made
by miners in remote times in their search for tin.

In the flowing streams inhabited by this fish it is necessary
there should be some deeper recesses into which it may retire
from the influence of the colder seasons, to which it is highly
sensitive; but in sunmer it is active and frolicsome in shallower
water over a gravelly bottom; where numerous companies are
seen enjoying themselves in sport, unconscious of the danger
which besets them from ravenous enemies, which rush su.ddenly
among them, while such as are so fortunate as to escape are
dispersed in all directions. Perhaps the Trout is their most
destructive foe, and no more enticing bait can be employed to
entice that fish to its own destruction; but indeed there are
few of the predaceous fishes which inhabit fresh water that do
not prove themselves formidable enemies to this little fish; for
in the earliest stage of its existence there are larvae of insects
which prey upon it; so that if it were not exceedingly prolific,
the race itself would be in danger of becoming extinct.

But to counteract this extremity of hazard, Aristotle has
remarked that the Phoxinus begins to breed almost as soon as
it has come into existence, which is only an exaggeration of

VOL. IV. K

66 MINNOW.

what belongs to fishes in general; for, contrary to what takes
place in creatures that are higher in the scale of nature, almost
all fishes breed long before they have reached their full extent
of growth. Yet among Minnows there are found more males
than females, and the season of spawning, which is in the
midd.'.' of summer, appears to be short for each individual;
although an observation of Aristotle, which appears to be
confirmed by the experience of others, is sufficient to shew that
the younger fishes may have produced a progeny sufficient to
provide a second growth before the expiration of the same
season. As the colder weather approaches they certainly cease
to breed.

The spawn is deposited in sandy ground, and in a very
short time the young escape fi-om the egg; but at this early
stage of existence, as enemies are numerous, they are said to
seek concealment from danger by burying themselves in the
sand. As it is known also that they are not usually to be
discovered in the colder months of the year, it is to be supposed
that at this season some similar mode of concealment or shelter
is again resorted to.

Naturally the Minnow is a timid fish: as it may well be
where every inhabitant of the stream is a dangerous enemy.
But it may be rendered tame without difficulty, and in a tank
it will take food from the hand, and even attend on the
motions of a friend. In the river it readily seizes a bait, and
will even hold it so fast with the jaws as to suffer itself to
be thiis lifted out of the water. And when not disturbed it is
amusing to see them assemble in order to devour some dead
animal substance, which may even chance to be the body of
one of their own species. They arrange themselves in the form
of a ring, which has been compared to that formed by the
petals of a flower, with their heads lov,'er than the level of
their bodies; and in this situation no one jostles another. But
however peaceable among themselves, the circle must not be
broken into by a stranger; for on the approach of such the
most powerful of the company will quit his station to drive
him away; while his place is kept vacant by his companions
until his return to the feast.

The Minnow seldom exceeds three inches in length; the
shape solid and robu-st, but lengthened in proportion to the

MINNOW. 67

depth, ;md moderately compressed. The snout rounded, undei
jaw a little the shortest, nostrils large and open; eyes large;
summit of the head broad, body rounded over the back; scales
scarcely perceptible. The first ray of the dorsal fin at the
middle, as measured from the snout to the fork of the tail,
with nine rays, but also T\'ith a first ray very short, making
ten; the last two from one root. Anal fin beginning about
opposite the last ray of the dorsal, with seven rays; tail wide
forked, with nineteen rays; pectoral pointed; ventral nine rays.
Colour of the top of the head and back daik green, with darker
bars, plainly visible in some, less so in others; a yellow line
from the upper part of the gill-covers to the tail; cheeks yellow:
faint yellow or whitish on the belly; fins generally pale yellow,
a dark spot at the root of the tail. In some specimens a dark
brown line from the eye to the mystache; and in the breeding
season the under parts a lively pink. The breadth across the
head with a narrowing towards the mouth is the best proof
that this fish is the true Phoxinus of Aristotle; whose name of
it, as signifying ''formed like a top." is a])plicable to such a
shape.

(iS

COEITIS.

The head small; mouth without teeth, but with barbs on the lips.
Body lengthened, with small scales. Three rays in the gill membrane,
the aperture small; ventral fins far behind, and above them a single
.small dorsal fin. Abdominal fishes.

This family, which with us bears the name of Loach, is aberrant
from that of the true Carps, and appears to make an approach to that
of Silurus, thus uniting together species which in their general aspect,
as well as in habits, appear at first sight to have little in common.
Besides the presence of barbels at the mouth, which assimilates them
generally to the true Carps, Barbel, and Gudgeon, they also possess
the strongly-toothed pharyngeal bones, and an air-bladder separated
into two lobes; which latter is indeed scarcely to be discerned,
because besides its being of very small size, it is enclosed within a
double bony case formed by the third and fourth vertebrae, whereby
it is kept almost concealed from view. It is placed immediately over
the entrance of the mouth from the gullet, and was only discovered
by the skilful dissection of an anatomist; and its ofiice appears to be
more closely connected with the organ of hearing than with the more
ordinary function of suspending the body in water. It appears from
an observation by Mr. Maclelland in the "Asiatic Researches," that
the bones of the ear discovered by Professor Weber, as referred to by
Blumenbach and Professor Owen, (which in some of this family
connect the air-bladder with the organ of hearing in the brain,) in
the Loaches occupy the situation of this doubly-lobed vessel; and it
points out the near connection between the Siluridce and the Loaches,
that the air-vessel of the former is situated in the same relative
situation.

This family of Loaches is also distinguished by an abundant supply
of mucus on the skin, secreted from innumerable but obscure sources,
which are not confined to the lateral line, as in the generality of
the Ci/prinidce, but are scattered over the whole surface; and the use
of which is that it not only renders them more difficult to be laid
hold of, but also answers an important purpose in the animal
oeconomy by preventing the escape of fluids necessary to their existence ;
a remark which will apply to many other fishes besides the Loaches.
From experiments made by Dr. W. F. Edwards, brother of Dr. Milne
Edwards, it has been found that when a Chub and Gudgeon had
been wiped dry and ^weighed alive, although their gills continued to
beat until they were dead, yet by that time they had lost by
evaporation, the one a fifteenth, and the other a fourteenth of their
whole weight; and other species suff'ered in about the same proportion.
But an example in w^hich the body was immersed while the head
and gills were exposed to the air, remained alive for nine hours and
twenty minutes; and how long the Carp will continue alive, and even
increase in bulk, when wholly enclosed in wet moss, or frequently
dipped in water has been akeady noticed.

69

LOACH.

Cohitis flitviatilis harhatulci, Willoughby; p. 265, Table Q. 8.
" harhatula, Linn^us. Ouvier. Block ; PI. 31, f. 3.

" Donovan; PL 22.

" ' Fleming; British Animals, p. 189.

" *' Jenyns; Manual, p. 416.

* * Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 427. It

has been supposed to be the Eedo
of the Poet Ausonius.

The LoacTi is generally distributed throughout the United
Kingdom, and over a large part of the continent of Europe,
up to the far north of Scandinavia; but it does not appear to
exist in wanner countries, although several other species of the
same family are known in India. But even among ourselves
it does not inhabit all the streams which might be supposed
suited to its nature; and whilst a preference is given to clear
water which flows with some degree of rapidity, it is most
frequently met with in the narrower branches of a river rather
than in the wider and deeper stream. It keeps chiefly at the
bottom, where it lies concealed beneath a stone, or resting at
ease upon it, waiting for prey with the barbs which encircle
its mouth extended; and the quick sensibility with which they
are endowed, may be judged from the nerves with which they
are furnished, and which are of larger size than those which
provide the eyes with sight. Soon after these nerves have
come from the brain, at about the hindmost corner of the eye,
each of them divides into a pair of branches, the lowermost
of which proceeds to the corner of the mouth, while the upper
goes to the snout, and probably to the barbs. And that the
nostrils also are possessed of acute sensibility is proved in that
when the experiment has been made, this fish has been seen
to have followed its food by the scent, so as to have discovered

70

LOACH.

it when intentionally concealed from the mere influence of
sight and feeling.

But it is for the most part only by daylight that the Loach
reclines listlessly at the bottom, concealed or in an apparently
waiting posture; for it is a nocturnal fish, and when darkness
has concealed its movements, it assumes habits of active energy,
whether in seeking its prey or escaping enemies; and of the
approach of the latter, or the feeling of any unusual motion,
its instinctive watchfulness presently puts it on its guard. When
kept in a tank its boisterous attempts to extend its rambles
have been so powerful and persevering as to be heard far off,
and have caused it to throw itself over the wall of its prison;
and this is especially the case at the approach of or during
remarkable changes of wind and weather. Nor ought this
sensibility to atmosj)heric changes excite surprise ; since, besides
the experience of anglers in the river, fishermen on the ocean
know that at considerable depths many sorts of fish are quickly
sensible of the same influence, as dis]>layed in their motions of
activity and ajDpetite; and it is only in the sui^position of the
sensition excited in them by electric changes in the atmosphere
that this can be accounted for. This fish is also observed to
ascend from the bottom to the surface, and again to descend
many times in succession; and on these occasions it is probable
that it takes in and swallows portions of air; not, however, into
its diminutive air-bladder, but into its stomach; from which it
passes through the bowel to be discharged in the form of
carbonic gas; in which proceeding it has been remarked that
the intestine appears to perform a function which in creatures
of the land is more particularly the duty of the lungs.

The Loach will take a bait, and notwithstanding its small
size it has been pronounced delicious food; so that for the use
of the table in some parts of Europe it is carried to market
alive. And connected with this, as already, in sj^eaking of the
Barbel, we have referred to a practice in remote times of eating
it uncooked; in some parts of our own country a great stretch
of this morbid apj)etite is said to be sometimes indulged in, by
swallowing the Loach while still alive. But when this sort of
mistaken craving is indulged in, the devourer should at least
be cautioned to observe the advice of E-ondeletius, in not
mistaking the Armed Loach, next to be described, for the

LOACH. 71

smooth-cheeked species; and thereby become liable to the penalty
of suffering a laceration of his throat, as the struggling victim
may be urging his passage into his stomach.

This fish sheds its spawn in April and May.

It rarely attains to five inches in length; the head rather
depressed, sloping from the eyes, which are small, to the snout;
the front moderately rounded. The mouth arched, gape small,
jaws weak, upper lip with six barbs, a pair of which are at the
corners of the mouth. The body lengthened, round at first,
afterwards compressed, slightly deeper at the origin of the dorsal
fin, but behind this nearly equal to the tail. Lateral line nearly
straight. The surface covered with slime; scales little percep-
tible, not in regular order, and none on the head or throat.
Origin of the single dorsal fin about half-way between the snout
and origin of the caudal fin, with nine or ten rays. This fin
is immediately above the ventrals, and ends before the origin
of the anal; which last fin is by Mr. Yarrell described as having
six rays, and by Nilsson as furnished with nine. The ventrals
have nine; pectorals large, round, with thirteen rays; the tail
wider than long, straight or round. The colour is prettily
varied; the back more or less a darkish green, with dark
brown blotches and stripes; below pale yellowish white. All
th'e fins have a tendency to yellow; dorsal and caudal, and
partly the pectoral, with stripes of brown.

72

BOTTA.

This genus was constituted by Dr. John Edward Gray for the
reception of those Loaches which possess a spine on the fore part of
the face, a little behind the nostrils. The other characters are the
Same as in the genus Colitis.

Several of these fishes are thus armed in India, but tliere is only
one in our own country.

SPINED LOACH.

Colitis Taenia, LiNN^us. Ouvier. Bloch: PI. 31, f. 2.

" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 417.

Gohitis Taenia, Fleming; British Animals, p. 189.

Botia Taenia, Yarrell; British Fishes, vol. i, p. 432.

Among the older naturalists there is much confusion in
distinguishing this species from the more common Loach; and
indeed so far as regards their habits little is known of the
particulars in which they differ; the principal being that this
Spined Loach keeps in more muddy places, and is more inclined
to shelter itself within the soil. It is also more retentive of
life. Although it is well known on the continent, it has not
yet been discovered in Ireland; and in Britain it has been
recorded in only a few rivers, although perhaps on closer search
it may be found in several others. The counties of Nottingham,
Wilts., Cambridge, Warwick, and, I believe, Gloucester, are
mentioned as containing this fish, but it seems not to find a
home in any very rapid streams.

The use of the remarkable bifid spine on the superior portion
of the face, which constitutes the principal generic character,
and seems to-be moveable at the will of the fish, is uncertain;
but perhaps it may be employed in the way of defence after
the manner of the more powerful instrument that arms the

SPINED LOACH. 73

posterior portion of the head of the Weever. A figure of this
fish obtained by myself from nature appears to be too small to
afiEbrd a satisfactory likeness; and therefore we borrow a copy
from Bloch, of what appears to be the usual size of the fish.
Nor does a lengthened descrij)tion appear necessary in order
to distinguish it from the unarmed species already described.
It is relatively of a more slender form, as is implied in the
trivial name of Tcenia, or the Tape; but the situation of the
fins and barbs is the same. The fins are a little smaller and
narrower, the barbs scarcely so long, and the snout is slightly
more projected. The sharp and doubly-pointed spine, which
forms the principal character of this fish, is a ready mark of
distinction, but it is to be remarked that it may lie so closely
pressed down as not to be readily discerned.

Doubly-pointed spine.

VOL. IV.

74

SILURFS.

The body depressed and roauded on its anterior part, compressed
behind; mouth wide, with several long barbs; gill membrane with
rays not less than four; no scales on the head or body. A single
narrow dorsal fin; the first ray of the pectoral armed with a strong
spine; caudal fin separate. Abdominal fishes.

SHEATFISH.

SLY SILUTIUS.

Mustela barbata, Jonston; Table 28, f. 7.

Willoughby; p. 128, plate H. 5.
SUuriis glanis, Linn^us. Cuviek. Block ; pi. 34.

" " . Yaeuell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 461.

The Wels, Dr. Gunther; Fisherman's Magazine,

No. 8, p. 365,

There appears little reason to doubt that the Silurus of
Pliny, (B. 9, c. 15.) and consequently the Glanis of Aristotle,
is the same with the Silurus glanis of Linnseus; but it is still
uncertain whether it has ever been found in the British Islands.
From the enormous size it sometimes attains it could not have
remained with us without having been discovered, and therefore
if found at all, it could only have been as a wanderer from
the Continent of Europe, in the larger rivers of which it is
known, although not in abundance, for it is said to be not
exceedingly prolific. In the Danube, and the larger rivers of
the north of Europe, it is well known; but it is more rare in
Sweden, although it is met with even in Norway. According
to Nilsson, in these northern countries it never reaches the
same size as in Germany. Pliny says it is a fish of the Nile,
and also of a lake out of which the Nile flows: a remarkable

SHEATFISH. 75

anticipation of modern discovery; and it is also found in some
other rivers of Africa, and in Asia, But the question arises
whether this fish is capable of living for a short time in the
open sea; and it scarcely amounts to an answer to this, when
it is said that it has been occasionally found in the Baltic, for
it is known that the water of that inland sea is much less salt
than that of the ocean, and in its upper part it is almost
entirely fresh.

It is affirmed, however, that the Sheatfish has been taken in
an Irish river; but the example was not seen by a scientific
naturalist, nor was a figure of it drawn; and therefore it is
for the assistance of future observers that we extract what Mr.
Thompson has recorded of the facts of the case. "That this
species has in a single instance been taken in Ireland I am
disposed to believe, on the following testimony: On inquiry
(October, 1840,) of William Blair, who has for many years
been fisherman, etc., at Florence Court, whether he had ever
met with any rare fish, he described an extraordinary one, of
which he could never learn the name, that he took twelve or
thirteen years ago in a tributary of the Shannon, near its
source, and about three miles above Lough Allen. His des-
cription was so graphic and particular that Lord Enniskillen,
on hearing it, immediately suggested its applicability to the
Silurus; and on Yarrell's figure being shewn to the intelligent
captor of the specimen, he at once identified it as in all
respects representing his fish, except in the head and mouth
not being large enough. Professor Agassiz, who was jDresent,
on being appealed to, stated that these parts were certainly
not represented of sufficient size in the figure. The fish was
seen struggling in a pool in the river after a flood, and "with
the long worm-like feelers from its mouth;" and its general
appearance was looked upon as so hideous, that the jjersons
who first saw it were afraid to touch it. The specimen was
at least two feet and a half in length, and eight or nine
pounds in weight. Although unfortunately lost to science, it
for two or three years or until the skeleton fell to pieces
adorned a bush near the scene of its death. The species was
not known as an inhabitant of any of the neighbouring waters
by the persons of the district. The distribution of the Silurus
glanis on the Continent of Europe is somewhat anomalous, as

76 SHKATFISH.

I leain from M. Agassiz. In Central Europe it is found in
the lakes of Neuchatel, Bienne^ and Morat only: in no other
lakes or rivers connected with the Rhine does it occur. It
inhabits the rivers flowing into the Baltic and Black Sea."
("Natural History of Ireland," vol. iv.)

The ancients appear to have paid much attention to the
habits of this fish, which they called Glanis or Lagnis.
Aristotle says that the female altogether neglects the care of
her spawn and the young, but that the male watches over
and protects them; and that in about forty or fifty days they
are able to shift for themselves. He adds, that this fish is
stupified with loud thunder, and that as food the female is
better than the male; both are to be rejected when the female
is large with spawn.

Whether this fish was ever in remote times an inhabitant of
English rivers may also be regarded as uncertain: but Mr.
Higgins informs me that he found undoubted relics of the
pectoral defence bone of this fish, in a bed of clay, under
a layer of peat, at Leasowe, in Cheshire, while engaged in
searching for fossil remains. I find also, in an extract from
Lloyd's "Scandinavian Adventures," that through the indefati-
gable exertions of Mr. George Berney, of Morton, in Norfolk,
"the Silurus was last year (1853) introduced into England,
and consequently is now included in our fauna;" but how far
this attempt has been successful does not appear. To assist
future observers the likeness of this fish is copied from Bloch,
and our description chiefly from Willoughby, with additions
from Olaus Wormius and Nilsson, the former of whom has
represented its character as being slow in its actions, sly and
all-devouring; and it is said that it has even been known to
swallow a child of the age of seven or eight years.

It has been known to attain the length of ten or eleven
feet, and is recorded to have weighed one hundred and fifty-
six pounds, and, according to Bloch, it has even reached the
enormous weight of seven hundred and fifty pounds, after the
entrails had been removed; but it is said by Nilsson to be
rarely longer (in Sweden) than four feet, with a weight of
fifty pounds. The head is flattened and wide, the body
rounded on the fore part, compressed towards the tail; belly
tumid, and capable of great distension; the mouth wide; gape

SHKATFISH. 77

large; jaws rough with teeth; on each corner of the upper
lip a long stout barb, which in the younger examples reaches
as far back as the vent; below the lower jaw four barbs of
less dimensions. Eyes small, protruding; gill-openings large;
the skin smooth and tough. A single narrow dorsal fin,
situated above the pectorals, with from three to five rays;
pectorals round, armed in front with a firm bone that is
toothed on its hindward border, eighteen rays; ventral fin
with sixteen; the tail round, with eighteen rays. The colour
above dark brown with a tint of green, more or less spotted
with black; the belly yellowish, dusky and mottled. The
air-bladder is divided through its length.

78

CLUPEID.E.

THE HERRING FAMILY.

The character is that the upper jaw has on each side a
long, wide, slightly bent mystache, or free maxillary bone, which
is not furnished with teeth. The body covered with scales;
the belly ridged, with pointed scales differing from those on
the body; gill membrane with eight rays. A single dorsal fin;
the tail forked.

In their general appearance the fishes of this family bear
much resemblance to the Lake or E-iver Breams; but they
differ in the form and dimensions of the mystache, and
especially in the saw-like keel of the belly. Inwardly also
the characteristic pharyngeal bones in the family of Cyprinidce
are lost; and the ClupeidcB for the most part are without any,
or they are so faintly marked as scarcely to be discerned. The
remarkable shape of the air-bladder is also exchanged for a
long and narrow tube, both ends of which are drawn out into
a thread, the hindmost of which in the Herring extends to
the vent. Of all fishes they have the most slender and
numerous bones; so that along the lower part of the body
the ribs reach to the forked scales, by the aid of which the
muscles of the sides become more firmly sustained; and there
is also a double row of hair-like bones between these ribs and
the upright processes of the vertebrse, by the help of which
the actions of the muscles of the back are rendered more
energetic. They are abdominal fishes.

o

O
O

79

CLTJPEA.

Ofvier assigns to a separate genus the species of this family which
have the maxillary bones or mystache arched above, and capable of
being divided lengthwise into separate pieces, and by the aid of
which the gape can be considerably modified. From the kindred
genus Alosa it is distinguished by the absence of a decided cleft in
front of the upper jaw, which is caused by a separation of the
intermaxillary bones. From the genus Encrasicholns it is separated
by the projecting snout and long cleft of the mouth of the latter.

PILCHARD.

Harengus minor, sive Pilchardus, Willotjgiiby; p. 223, pi. P. 1.
Clu^pea pilchardus, Cuvier. Donovan ; pi. 69.

" " Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 182.

Jenyns; Manual, p. 436.
" " Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 169.

' " " Turton's Linnaeus. The Swedish

naturalist confounded this fish
with the Sprat.

The Pilchard is one of the commonest fishes in the western
districts of England and the south of Ireland, and, as regards
numbers, the most abundant in its season; but its range is
not extensive, and it is only as a rare wanderer that it is
known eastward beyond Devonshire, or on the north beyond
the Bristol Channel. But we read of the taking of a consid-
erable school in the year 1122, so far up the Biver Dart as
Totness Bridge, whither they had been driven by a herd
of Porpoises; and Dale, who wrote a history of Harwich,
reports their having been caught on the coast of Essex. Dr.
Parnell is also a witness to the occurrence of this fish in the
Firth of Forth, and its Scottish name of Garvie Herring is
proof of at least its casual occurrence in other parts of that
kingdom.

80 PILCHARD.

Of its distribution in the south of Europe we are not able
to say anything, until it is rendered certain whether the Pilchard
be the same hsh with the Sardine of the coasts of Spain and
the Mediterranean: a question concerning which we will offer
a few remarks when we enter on a description of the fish as it
occurs in our own seas. But it is to the coast of Cornwall, and
the shores of Devon bordering on that county, that we must
look for the history of this fish, and the value of its fishery;
and if we do not refer also to the south of Ireland for the same
purpose, it is because the subject has not been there attended
to in the manner its importance demands. It is in the dis-
tricts just named that the Pilchard is to be regarded as a
native, for it is there they propagate, and may be found at all
seasons. There also they perform their migratory motions,
which, with an approach to regularity, are yet attended with
such variety as to stamp their habits and motions with the
character of capriciousness, and which belongs also to the
other species of this family in such a manner as to constitute
for all of them a common likeness. The same remark was
made so long ago as in the time of the poet Oppian, who,
under the name of Chalkis, refers to a fish which his translator
supposes to be no other than our common Pilchard.

"Pilchards and Shads in shoals together keep,
The numerous fry disturbs the mantling deep;
No home they know, nor can confinement love,
But, fond of hourly change, unsettled rove;
Now choose the rocks, now seek the wider seas :
No place can long the restless wanderers please.
They soon grow weary when they ouce enjoy;
And pleasure will, as soon as tasted, cloy."

And i"hvis it haj)pens, that although it is known when the
season of the fish's arrival is come, so little is certain of the
time when the schools will approach a particular district, that
the fishermen are kept in daily suspense, and their individual
success from year to year becomes a matter of great uncertainty.

The usual course of the movements of the Pilchards is that
they seek the deeper water of the nearer portion of the
Atlantic in the colder season of the year; and that they axe
then at the bottom is often known by their being found in
the stomachs of the larger fishes which are caught with lines

PILCHARD. 81

at that season. Large numbers have then gone beyond the
reach of the longest Imes; for they are seen to rise to the
surface when the season changes, at a still more considerable
distance west or south of the Sciliy Islands. But such seclusion
is not always sought; and it is in our notes that schools (in
one instance believed to contain a thousand hogsheads) have
come within the reach of drift-nets, and even of scans, in
January, February, and March. Usually, however, at this
season they are more scattered, or in smaller companies, and
it is supposed that their subordinate motions are by drawing
nearer the land by day, and passing into deeper water at
night. The reason of these occasional early assemblages may
be that the time of spawning in the spring has become per-
manently early, for it is far from an unusual occurrence that
many sorts of fishes shall anticipate or delay the more ordinary
seasons of their race; but in April and May they are habitually
prepared to shed their spawn, which they now do at a further
distance from land, and over deeper water than is the case at
the warmer season of autumn, when again, early or later, they
perform the same function, although we do not feel assured
that they are the same fishes which thus perform the duty of
procreation on both occasions. The number of males usually
exceeds that of females, and sometimes they do so to a large
extent; but mingled with them are many that have no en-
largement of the milt or roe, and some also which appear to
be of both sexes united.

I have reason to suj^pose that the spawn is shed at the
surface, and mingled with it a large quantity of tenacious
mucus, in which it is kept fioating while it is obtaining the
vivifying influence of the light and warmth of the sun, by the
influence of which the development is considerably hastened,
as we know to be the case with many other kinds of fish.
My notes on this subject are, that presently after spawning, a
sheet of jelly, enclosing myriads of enlarging grains of spawn,
has been seen to extend several miles in length, and a mile
or more in breadth, over the surface of the sea, and which
has been of the thickness of brown paper, and so tough as
not to be readily torn in pieces. In about a couple of days
this connecting mucus became decomposed, and the ova then
sunk to the bottom of the vessel in which they had been
VOL. IV. M

82 PILCHARD.

placed; but, being thus removed from their natural situation,
they did not pass through a further process of development.

There seems to be no reason to doubt that these fishes
require two, and probably three years to enable them to attain
their full growth; and the occasional preponderancy of numbers
of the young above the old will tend to explain some unusual
circumstances which at times have occurred to the great disap-
pointment of the fishermen, and which otherwise appear
unaccountable. Thus the fish which may be caught at one
time will be of such diversity of size as to imply a great
difference of age in the individuals; but for several years in
the early part of the present century, the larger portion of
the schools consisted of fish of such diminutive size as to be
able to pass through the small meshes of the scans, which,
therefore, were eminently unsuccessful. At this time the
larger fish must have taken an unusual direction, and the
difference of numbers that were caught under these circum-
stances was so great, that, Avhereas the average quantity
supplied for exportation in each year has been given, by good
authority, as thirty thousand hogsheads of fifty gallons each, in
the year 1829 there were only five hundred hogsheads.

That a capricious search after food may exercise an influence
on the wanderings of the Pilchard is probable; but some
uncertainty still exists concerning the nature of its usual suste-
nance, and it is only by supposing it to vary at different times
that we can venture to account for the considerable difference
which exists in its health and condition at different times, and
especially at the seasons of its spawning in the spring and
autumn. At the former they are so destitute of oily matter as
to be of little value, so that the taking them is chiefly for the
supply of bait for taking other fish, and nothing is so suc-
cessful for this purpose. But when they appear towards the
end of July, and until the season of spawning after the equinox,
their condition is very different, and none of this family can
by many degrees be taken in comparison with them. It is
commonly believed that at this time their food consists of the
seeds or early growth of sea vegetables, in supposed search of
which they have been seen in large numbers quietly searching
at the bottom in a small depth of water. On examining the
stomach it is not usual to find anytliing besides a pulpy mass

PILCHARD. 8^3

of what may be vegetable substance; but animal forms have
also been discovered, and on one occasion, in the middle of
summer, when multitudes were caught in drift-nets, as they
were seen actively engaged in some pursuit close to the surface,
an examination laid open the existence of vast numbers of a
small shrimp-like creature, on which they had been feeding to
repletion. On another occasion the stomachs of several were
found to contain examples of the mackarel midge; and I have
been informed that instances have been met with in which a
Pilchard has taken the fisherman's hook. The rarity of such
an occurrence may perhaps be explained by supposing that
the size of the hook or bait, rather than want of appetite in
the fish, is a hindrance to its being more frequent.

The roe of some kinds of fish may also be the occasional
food of the Pilchard; as I have been informed by a gentleman
who resided several years at Croisic, in France, that it is the
custom with French fishermen to scatter the salted roe of fish
about their (drift) nets, in order to attract the Pilchard into
them, and that he had seen this spawn in the stomachs of the
fish thus caught. I have learned also from the British
consul at Brest that the use of the salted roe of fish is uni-
versal on that coast for the purpose of attracting the Pilchard
into the nets; and hundreds of tons of the roe of the Cod
and Ling are imported into that country for this purpose. It
is scattered in the direction of the nets with a ladle, and the
stomachs of the Pilchards are found to be filled with this food.

There cannot be a doubt that the fishery for Pilchards is
of ancient date, and the regard in which the fish was held
appears from its having been admitted into heraldry at a time
when coats-of-arms Avere of great importance; but I find no
mention of it in public documents before the age of Queen
Elizabeth, when we find that the drying of Pilchards was
among the monopolies granted by authority to some courtiers,
the clamour against which so moved public indignation as to
cause their surrender. But from this time the fishery is
known to have so far attracted the attention of the public as
to become the subject of particular laws, the special enactments
of which afljord proof that the methods of conducting it were
different in some considerable degree from those practised at
present, as well as the manner of preparing the fish for u

84 PILCHARD.

foreign market. The use of seans is probably of great antiquity,
and is spoken of by Carew as well known at the conclusion
of the seventeenth century; and from the MS. accounts of the
merchant Treville, at that date it appears that the fish exported
to France and Italy was obtained chiefly if not solely by using
them. But there is reason to believe that under the name
of sean a different sort of net was employed from that which
now bears the name. Thus, in a map contained in Norden's
work, "Speculi Britannige Pars," A. D. 1728, two ground seans
are represented in operation, one enclosing the other, and with
one end of the outer sean held by a man who stands on the
land, while the landward end of the enclosed sean is held by
one who is a short way in the water. The further end of
each net was termed the pole end, from a pole which kept
it upright or spread out; but this is no longer used, although
the name is still continued for the sean of much larger size
and otherwise formed now in use. These distant ends are
shewn in the plate as drawn along by two boats, one a little
in advance of the other, and each of them managed by a
couple of men; while two other boats are within the curve
formed by the seans, as if directing the proceeding, and
perhaps keeping back the fish, that they might not escape by
the only opening, until the whole is safely drawn to the land.
The importance of employing two concentric seans will be
seen when we know that the meshes were wide enough to
allow the escape of large numbers of the fish; and it was not
until the year 1605 (at the beginning of the reign of James
the First) that a mesh was rendered legal, termed the
Dungarvon Mesh, which should be sufficiently small to retain
all the fish, and yet prevent any of them from becoming
entangled in the mesh; which latter circumstance, if it were
to happen, would be destructive of the whole adventure.

In the former mode of fishing here referred to, it appears
that the fish were drawn on shore at the nearest beach, which
must often be on the land on which neither the fishermen
nor the purchasers of the fish had a right to intrude, and
much quarreling was likely to be the result; to obviate which,
in the year previous to the date above given an act was
passed which made it lawful for Balkers, Condors, Huers,
and other fishermen, in pursuance of their calling, to go upon

PTLCHARD. 85

high hills and grounds without being guilty of trespass:
and it also permits other persons to attend the seans or nets
for the purpose of landing or carrying away the fish thus
caught. Persons, however, who came thither out of mere
curiosity were subject to a penalty for their intrusion.

There still remain many local appearances which shew that
the fish thus caught were not always carried away, but were
salted and prepared for exportation at the places where they
had been brought to land; but there is also evidence to
shew that the quantity thus caught could not in any individual
instance have been large, while the fishermen must have been
often tantalized at observing the large abundance of schools
which obstinately maintained a position at a somewhat greater
distance than in their method of proceeding they were able
to reach.

It is within the extent of our information, derived from
aged fishermen, and reaching back to more than a hundred
years, that some considerable changes have taken place in the
times at which the larger bodies of these fish have come to
our coast, and which appear more unaccountable than the
merely capricious movements pursued in ordinary seasons, but
which must have considerably influenced the methods pursued
in the fishery, and especially on its success. Thus for upwards
of thii'ty years at the middle of the last century, the most
successful portion of the fishery was carried on after the
autumnal equinox, and consequently by drift nets, since the
seans could scarcely be then exposed to the risk inevitable
from the stormy weather, and the long and dark nights. But
towards the end of the same century a change took place,
and the principal success was from the beginning of August
to the end of September, when a large increase took place in
the number of seans, and a profitable fishery was experienced
by all of them. It is now again found that after a nearly
equal extent of time, the winter fishery along the southward
coast is alone or chiefly successful, and a diminution in the
number of seans is the necessary result. There are not at
this time more than a fourth part so many as were in use
fifty years ago; and it is certain that it was not the withdrawal
of the bounty alone that caused the lessening of the number.
But when in the summer the fishery is about to begin, it

86 PTLCHAKT).

sometimes happens that immense multitudes of fish will collect
far from land, with an evident intention to proceed towards
the shallower water. An instance of this was met with in
the month of July, at forty leagues in a south-west direction
from the Scilly Islands; and so large and dense was the
assemblage that the course of the ship was supposed to have
been obstructed by them, and some were taken up by merely
dipping a bucket among them. More usually, however, they
do not assemble in large bodies until they have been for a
time in the neighbourhood of the coast, and it is then that
they assume the arrangement of a mighty army, with its
wing,s stretched out parallel to the land; while the numberless
smaller bodies of which it is composed are continually shifting
their position, joining together and separating again. There
are three stations occupied by this body which have great
influence on the success of the fishery; one of which is
eastward of the Lizard Point, and reaches to the Bay of
Bigbury, near the Bolthead, in Devonshire, beyond which
little success attends the fishery, although at Dartmouth some
efforts are made towards it. A second station is from the
Lizard to the Land's End; and the third is on the north
coast, where the principal station is at St. Ives. It is common
for one of these districts to be full of fish while few are to
be seen in either of the others; but late in the season the
schools often change from one district to another, or pass in
succession along all the shores of a county. It is at this late
season especially that they shew themselves at St. Ives, where,
therefore, they are not usually expected until October or
November: but when they come it is in immense multitudes,
and usually from the eastward; a circumstance which is ac-
counted for by the supposition that from the west they have
been influenced by the course of a current that has taken a
circuit of the coast bounded by the shores of Ireland, Wales,
and the north of Devonshire.

In the ordinary season of the fishery the subordinate move-
ments of the smaller bodies are much influenced by the tide,
directly against the current of which they do not proceed;
and the large extended body will sometimes remain at a
distance from the land, although parallel with it, for several
weeks, and then suddenly, as if by general consent, approach

PlLCHARJl. 87

close to the shore, perhaps without the movement having been
noticed until the fish have reached it. It is at this juncture
that the principal opportunity is afforded for the successful
prosecution of the fishery with scans.

One method of conducting the fishery for Pilchards is by
drift or driving nets, the outfit of which consists of a number
of netSj which varies according to the means of the fisherman,
and in consequence of the size of his boat; but a usual
equipment may amount to twenty, of which each net measures
in length from eighteen to twenty fathoms: so that what is
termed a string of nets may reach three quarters of a mile.
These nets are fastened to each other in length, and to a
head line, along which is placed a row of corks; and another
line runs loosely along the middle of the nets to afford addi-
tional strength in rough weather, or when the nets are drawn
loaded with fish. These drift nets have hitherto been made
of hemp, of which the finer the quality the better; but
within a few years a preference has been given to cotton
nets, which do indeed become worn out in much less time,
but yet are believed, coupled with their lower cost, to produce
a greater profit by talcing a far greater abundance of fish.

A set of these nets is carried on board the boat, which,
on other occasions, is employed in the hook or other usual
method of taking fish; but an addition is commonly required
to the ordinary amount of the crew; for in turbulent weather,
with a favourable capture, it requires no small degree of
strength, as well as length of time, to lift the dripping burden
from the rolling waves over the gunwale. The nets are cast
or shot at about the going down of the sun, for the fish will
not enter the meshes in broad daylight, and they are drawn
on board, or hauled, in two or three hours. It is usual also
to shoot them again as morning approaches, as the dusk of
twilight is found to afford the best prospect of success, rather
than deep darkness, which may be explained by the fact that
the brilliancy of the briming is at that time less conspicuous.
The nature of this appearance will be explained when we
are describing the fishery with scans; but in a dark night,
under its influence every thread of the nets appears as il on
fire, and thus is rendered a terrifying object to a timid fish,
e from the end of the string- of nets is fastened to the

rop

o

88 PILCHARD.

bow of the boat, to be shifted to the quarter when the nets
are hauled; and the whole thus stretched out is left to float
with or across the tide without the sails being set, except in
very calm weather, when a little headway is necessary, in
order to keep the nets from becoming folded together. Within
a few years an improvement has been made in the arrange-
ment of the nets, by which they have been rendered more
effective, and also those hazards avoided to which they had
been exposed by becoming entangled in the keels and rudders
of ships. It consists in diminishing the number and size of
the corks along the head line, and in placing cords of the
length of two or three fathoms at proper distances, with a
stout buov of cork attached to each. By this means the nets
are sunk beyond the reach of ships, and to a depth sufficient
to reach the fish as they swim below, even when none are
otherwise to be discovered. This method of reaching the fish,
at whatever depth they swim, has long been in use on the
coast of Norway in the taking of Herrings.

The other mode of conducting the fishery for Pilchards is
by scans, for the fitting out of which two principal boats are
provided, each of which is about forty feet in length and ten
feet wide at the beam. The first of these is termed the scan
boat, and is furnished with a scan that is about two hundred
and twenty fathoms in length and twelve in depth; but these
proportions are varied in different districts; and the whole is
buoyed up along the head-rope with corks, and weighed down
at the bottom with leads. The second boat is the volyer or
follower, which carries a scan of from a hundred to a hundred
and twenty fathoms in length, and eighteen at its greatest
depth. In form, as well as in extent, this, which is termed
the tuck scan, is different from the former, or stop scan, its
middle portion being shaped into a hollow, or hunt, as best
fitted to the use for which it is designed. A third boat,
much smaller than the others, is called the lurker. The crew
of a sean consists of eighteen men, with commonly a boy,
and of these seven are assigned to each of the larger boats,
while the remaining four, including the master seaner, belong
to the lurker. On some parts of the coast another individual
of no small importance is termed the huer, and on his skill
in discovering the presence of the school, and the direction

PILCHARD. 89

in wTiicli they are proceeding, in a great measure depends
the success of the adventure. It is his duty to place himself
in some commanding situation, and by well-known motions to
direct the proceedings of the men afloat; and in the west of
Cornwall^ especially on the north, the fishery could not be
conducted without him.

While the fishery lasts the master has the entire command
of the adventure; and beginning usually about the 1st. of
August, the boats proceed to some well-known sandy bay,
and cast anchor, keeping a good look-out for the appearance
of the school. This is expected to appear at the decline of
the day, and is discovered either by the rippling of the
surface, the leaping above it or stoiting of the fish, or by the
colour of the water; Avhich latter, where the sandy bottom is
bright, becomes well marked. The master first proceeds in
the lurker to the place where these appearances shew them-
selves, in order that he be certain of the magnitude of the
school, with the direction it is taking, coupled with the state
of the tide, and the freedom of the bottom from rocks.

The fish are alarmed at noise; and the firing of a heavy

gun at the distance of twenty miles has been known to cause

the fish to sink, and thus disappoint the labour of the

fishermen. All the proceedings are therefore directed by

signs, and when the circumstances are thus known to be

favourable, a warp from the end of the stojj scan is handed

to the crew of the volger, whose duty it is to keep it taut^

while the lurker preserves its station near the fish, to observe

their motions, and point out to the sean boat the space to be

enclosed. The sean boat at this important period is rowed

by four men only, the other three being employed in throwing

out or shooting the net; and so active is the strength exerted

on this occasion, that this large quantity of net, rope, cork,

and lead is thrown into the sea in less than five minutes.

The sean thus thrown overboard at first forms a curved line

across the course of the school; and while the larger boats

are engaged in warping the ends together, to enclose the fish

as in a pond, the lurker takes its station at the opening in

order that by dashing the water with the oars the fish may

be kept back from the only place where their escape is at

this time possible. When the ends of the sean are thus

VOL. IV. N

90 PILCHARD.

brought together, and fastened with cords, if at the same time
the quantity of fish is great, and the sea is rough or the tide
strong, it is further rendered secure by heavy grapnels, which
are carried off from it in the direction from which the danger
is to be feared.

Such is the manner in which the sean is employed in first
securing the fish in many places; but it varies in different
stations, and more especially in the west and north of Cornwall.
In these latter districts the generally light colour of the
bottom enables the huer on the hills to discern the situation
and motions of the school much more clearly than is the case
on the eastmost borders, and on this account his services are
the more highly important; and on the north coast, in
addition to the usual sean, there is another net of about half
the length of the former, which is called a stop-net, and is
carried by another boat; and which, when the seaners begin
to shoot what may be termed the principal sean, the second
boat also throws out in the opposite direction. In some cases
two of these secondary nets are employed, and even three, by
which means the circle is completed in much less time and
in a larger compass than if only one net were employed; and
when the body of fish is large, as it often is at St. Ives,
where this method of employing scans is chiefly practised, it
is only thus that they could be effectually secured. It is also
only under very favourable circumstances, and with considerable
risk, that the fish thus enclosed in the circle of the net can
be warped, as they sometimes are, from the situation in
which they were first found into shallower water; but from
this account of the proceedings of the fishermen it will be
seen that it is not more difficult to take a thousand hogsheads
than a much less number; the only difference being, that with
the larger body the sean is regularly moored, while with a
small quantity this is unnecessary. It may even be said that
the taking of the larger body is the most easily effected; for
as its movements are more slow, its course is less liable to be
changed through any alarm.

When the evening is closing in, and in preference when the
tide is low, preparations are made to take up the fish; and for
this purpose the principal sean is left undisturbed, while the
volyer passes within the enclosure and lays its sean, termed the

riLcjtAnn. 91

Tuck, round tlie former on the inner side; and then the latter
is drawn together so as gradually to contract the space and
raise the fish to the surface. When disturbed they become
exceedingly agitated, and so great is the force derived from
their numbers and terror, that the utmost caution is necessary
to prevent their bursting the net or sinking it; while to hinder
their return back again from the tuck sean into the larger space
of the stop-net, men are employed at the open place in plunging
stones which are suspended from ropes, and drawing them back
again. It will be understood, from what indeed we have already
remarked, that in these proceedings none of the fish can become
entangled in the meshes of these scans; and the small size of
the meshes thus rendered necessary to the success of this fishery
was made legal for taking Herrings, Pilchards, Sprats, and
"Lavidnian," by an act of the third year of James the First,
(ch. 12.)

When the fish thus enclosed in the bunt of the tuck-sean
have been brought to the surface, where they are almost dry,
the seaners proceed to fix themselves in pairs across the gun-
wales of the boats, and with flaskets to lade the fish on board;
while what is contained in the stop-sean, and has not been
gathered into the tuck, is left to a future opportunity. It is
one principal mark of a good master seaner that he forms a
correct opinion of the quantity enclosed within the stop-sean,
and that he is able to take from it with the tuck-sean only
just so much as his boats can receive, and that can be properly
disposed of in the cellar for that day. And in this his judgment
is much assisted by the extent which he perceives of the bri-
ming; which is the term bestowed on the light which proceeds
from numerous minute animals, chiefly molluscous, that abound
throughout the sea at this time, and have become excited to
produce it by the fear arising from the actions of the terrified
fishes. In a dark night every mesh of a sean can be distin-
guished to a great depth by the effulgence proceeding from
these creatures.

Many are the advantages which arise from this practice of
taking up only a portion of the fish at separate times; for the
whole can be salted in a proper condition without undue fatigue
or expense, or injury to the fish by incipient putrefaction. The
sean also is preserved from being broken, and the principal

92 PILCHARD.

body of fish from being killed by strangulation or their own
struggling weight: in which case the whole would be lost
together with the sean, since no human force would be able to
raise to the surface a thousand hogsheads of Pilchards after
they were dead.

The work of curing the fish is performed by women; by
whom they are piled up in careful order against the walls of
the cellar: a layer of fish alternately with a layer of salt; and
in this state they remain for thirty days, during which the oil
and brine are suffered to drain from them into pits prepared
for the purpose. The fish are then taken out and sifted, by
which means the dry salt is separated from them; after which
they are carefully washed, and placed in regular order in casks,
each of which measures fifty gallons, and the staves of which
are placed together with crevices, so that the oil with which
they abound may on pressure readily escape. As these casks
stand upright, a stout circular board is laid on the open end,
and on this pressure is made by means of levers, to which
heavy weights are attached; and the fish being thus repeatedly
pressed down and the casks refilled for the space of nine days,
and until the weight of the barrel is four hundred and seventy-
six pounds, they are finally closed up and marked for
exportation. It may here be noticed that the excellent natur-
alist Ray committed a singular mistake in the account he has
given of the manner in which Pilchards were cured; but which
may be accounted for and excused by the consideration that
at the time of his visit to St. Ives, which was on the 1st. of
July, he could not have seen the work in operation. He
represents the pressing of Pilchards as efifected by laying boards
along the surface of "the bulk," (as "he conceives,") and "so
press the fish equally." His informant appears to have thought
the employment of a barrel so much a matter of course as not
to require to be noticed, and the naturalist omitted to inquire.

When the fish thus pressed are in the best condition eight
or nine gallons of oil have been obtained from a hogshead; and
so large a quantity is to be explained by the fact that not only
are the entrails coated with fat, but the muscular structure of
the body also; in which circumstance this fish differs greatly
from the Herring, the oil of which is only obtained from the
entrails; but the quantity of oil from the Pilchard diminishes

PILCHARD. 93

very greatly after the month of September. The oil obtained
from the Pilchard has been found to contain a larger amount
of greasy matter than that from any other kind of fish; and is
of much value in some sorts of mechanical employments. This
practice of obtaining the oil by means of simple pressure is
referred to by the county historian Carew, as being in his day
a comparatively modern invention; and the common belief is
that at a remote date the fish intended for exportation were
preserved by being smoked; of which the name of fumado, by
which they are now known, is a proof, for this word is only
applied to Pilchards that are sent to a foreign market. The
fish prepared for use at home are deprived of their heads and
entrails, and thus kept in salt or brine; in which condition
they form the winter stock of almost every family in the middle
and lower condition of life.

In a long series of years the average quantity of fumadoes
sent abroad yearly may be thirty thousand hogsheads; but on
some rare occasions it has much exceeded this, and has amounted
to sixty thousand; but on the other hand, in the years 1821
and 1822, the quantity respectively was little above two thou-
sand and five thousand hogsheads. It is the drift-net fishery
which for the most part supplies the consumers of Pilchards in
our own country; and the amount caught by them may perhaps
be equal to what is taken in scans. In the latter the largest
amount caught at one time has amounted to three thousand five
hundred hogsheads; which was at St. Ives in the month of
November; but at the same place ten thousand hogsheads have
been enclosed in the scans in one day, although not immediately
brought to land. As an hogshead contains from two thousand
five hundred of these fishes, to perhaps three thousand, it thus
happens that the enormous multitude of thirty millions of living
creatures have been secured at once from the ocean for human
sustenance. From thirty to forty thousand is regarded as a
favourable capture by drift-nets, of not very frequent occurrence;
but the more frequent capture of a smaller number affords a
sufficient remuneration to the fishermen.

This lengthened notice of a popular and important fishery
might have been still more extended; but for other particulars
we refer to several communications that are to be found in the
Reports of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, and the

94 PTLCHAHn.

Papers by Mr. Richard Quiller Couch, in the "Zoologist" for
1847.

The ordinary size of a Pilchard is about ten inches in length,
with a depth of one inch and three fourths; but it has been
seen of the length of fourteen inches; plump and moderately
compressed, with the body covered with scales that are easily
lost. The head a little flattened on the top, nostrils nearer the
snout, under jaw a very little the longest, no perceptible teeth;
a broad circularly-formed niystache, which passes back to the
front of the eye, which organ is moderately large. The gill-
covers are formed of numerous plates, the hindmost with diverging
rays passing downward. Along the belly a firm ridge or series
of peculiarly-formed scales; and those at the union of the head
and body are obscurely striated; the others simple. The single
dorsal fin is placed at the centre of gravity of the fish, with
eighteen rays; anal fin narrow and far behind; pectoral near
the termination of the hindmost gill-cover, and not reaching
opposite the first rays of the dorsal; the rays sixteen; ventral
fins with short wings, and eight branched rays; the tail deeply
divided, with twenty-two perfect rays. Colour of the back
greyish blue, more blue or green in the younger examples; the
belly white; sometimes pink tints on the sides; a golden spot
sometimes on the upper part of the gill-cover. Sometimes for
a whole season they are found with a row of spots on the sides,
as in the Scadina, fAlosa Finta,) as is remarked by Willoughby;
but these spots appear as if caused by disease, the fish thus
marked being less than the usual size, soft in texture, and unfit
for being cured. Our supposed Sardine is also commonly thus
marked. Individuals have been seen having no dorsal fin.
and also with the tail of twice the usual size.

%

1 1

t '

1 I

pfi

o

o

IB

x&

HERRING.

Harengus, Jonston; PI. i, f. 6.

WiLLOuGHBY; p. 219, Table P. 1.
Gluxyea Harengus, Linn^us. Cuviek. Blocii ; PI. 29.

" " Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 182.

" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 435.

" ' Yarbell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 183.

In habits as well as in shape the Herring bears much
resemblance to the Pilchard, but its range is extended further
to the north; so that it has been seen at rare intervals even in
Iceland; although the Missionary Egede, who was familiar with
that country, had not met with it there. They also abound on
some occasions along the east border of North x'^merica, up to
the coast of Behring Strait, and were found by Sir John
Franklin in Bathurst's Inlet; while they exist, perhaps in large
numbers, on the west coast of the same continent, and again
on the east side, in Delaware Bay, where a fisherman informed
me he had been engaged in securing great quantities which
were attracted to the boat by a light; and so numerous were
the multitudes thus drawn together, that it was not found
necessary to employ any other means of taking them than what
is termed a hand or keep-net with which to lade them on
board.

It has been questioned whether this fish exists in the
Mediterranean, and it appears that no direct mention of it can
be traced to the ancient Greek and Roman writers; but their
silence on this subject is of little value, from the small degree
of discrimination they shew in reference to fishes which bear a
near resemblance to each other; and we further know that there
are some species scarcely rare in that sea, of which they have
not left us any notice. Dr. Gulia has not met with it at Malta,
but Mr. Dodd, in his Natural History of the Herring, informs

96 ' HERRING.

US that he himself had caught some examples near the coast oi
Algiers, and the Russo-German naturalist Pallas assures us that
they abound, sometimes in large schools, in the Black Sea and
Sea of AzofF, as also in the Caspian. It is worthy of record
also that at an early portion of the present century some
fishermen of Cornwall were employed by the Russian authorities
in teaching the fishermen of the Russian coasts of the Black
Sea the manner of ordering nets in drift fishing; in doing which
among a large number of Herrings was found one solitary
Pilchard; which circumstance however at least proves the exis-
tence of the latter in the Black Sea. It should be remarked
further that the Herrings of the Black Sea are said to differ
from those of our own shores in the proportions of the head,
and in the teeth, Avhich on closer examination may mark a
separate species.

But although common, and at times abundant, on the west
coasts of England and Ireland, it is in by far the largest
numbers in those parts of the British Islands and the north of
Europe, where the Pilchard is rarely or never seen. Thus it
is known in the White Sea of Russia, and down the coasts of
Norway and Denmark; and on the opposite shores of the
United Kingdom a fishery for Herrings has been followed
beyond record with eagerness and success; while at the present
time it forms, both as regards the quantities taken and their
quality as food, as important a fishery as any in our own
kingdom, or in Europe; as also it must be allowed that from
the capricious motions of the fish it is to be classed among the
most precarious. For many of the particulars of this uncertainty
we are indebted to the copious treatise on the History of the
Herring, by Mr, John M. Mitchell; but the influences which
lead to the local changes in its places of resort, and the vari-
ations of the season, with the differences in the goodness of its
flesh and of the size of individual schools, appear to be matters
beyond the powers of human scrutiny to explain. That the
difference of season in which the Herring resorts to different
portions of our own coasts, is not immediately under the influence
of latitude or climate is certain, since in many cases it is earliest
in the further north, and in others the reverse; but on the
whole there is the observed regularity, that the spawn is shed
twice in the year, of which that of the autumn is the most

HEEKTKG.

Alii
^1

conspicuous; but the season of either of these is often extended
or delayed beyond what may be considered the more regular
time; from which cause it happens that in the opinion oi
fishermen they may even be said to be in spawn throughout
the whole of the year: and it is often in the end of December
they are engaged in this office of nature. There cannot be
a doubt that many of the subordinate actions of this fish are
regulated by this innate propensity of nature; and it has been
well remarked by those who have had the wisdom to discern
the hand of the Author of Providence in His works, how
great is the blessing thus bestowed on man, in supplying him
with abundant and excellent food at the time when it is
best fitted to his use. Nor is it an objection to this that
the movements of these fishes while with us are apparently
uncertain, and that they do not remain in any district for
more than a few days. In men the virtues of vigilance,
patience, and skill are thereby called into exercise, as the
same are demanded indeed in some degree in every other
pursuit which men must follow for their daily bread.

We are informed that at Stornaway, in the Scotch Isle of
Lewis, the Herring fishery begins on the 20th. of May, and
the law forbids its earlier commencement; but the 1st. day of
Junie is thought sufficiently early in the north of Scotland,
whilst off Shetland they are first fished for at the beginning
of July, and other large schools do not shew themselves before
November and December. On the east coast of Scotland they
chiefly abound from SejDtember to October, but are taken
onward from November to January; and Dr. Parnell remarks
that they will remain for two or three weeks at the mouth of
the Firth of Forth before they ascend; but they abound on
the coasts of Dunbar and Berwick in June, July, and August,
when scarcely a single Herring is to be seen higher in the
Forth. In the west of England they are caught in the most
abundance from about the end of September to November, but
sometimes, as in the years 1S63 and 1864, they are also in good
quantity through January and February; and there are years
when large numbers of the best quality are caught in July
and August; but it seems certain that in the generality of
these instances the schools which thus shew themselves are
either of diflferent age, the progeny of diflferent parents, or
VOL. IV. O

98 herr:ng.

under different circumstances of spawning. "We cannot venture
to draw any conclusion from such variations with regard to
the extent of their wanderings when they have disappeared
from our view. The only probable conjecture regarding it is
that in their ordinary habits they only pass from the deeper
water to the shore, to return to the former again immediately
as the great duty of spawning is accomplished. On the whole,
the general constancy of this fish to the British coast appears
not the less worthy of notice, since we are informed that as
regards Sweden and a portion of Denmark, they have long
ceased to appear in districts where once they were known and
welcomed; and although, if we could look back to a much
greater distance of time, the visits may have been more
unusual than the departure, yet in this respect also this alter-
nation of habits bears a resemblance to what we have already
noticed in the Pilchard. Thus we are told that in Loch
Roag, in the Island of Lewis, the scarcity or absence of the
Herring and its abundance have taken turns at intervals of
from thirty to forty years; and at Cromarty, says Mr. Mitchell,
a very extensive fishery was carried on from 1690 to 1709,
and in 1707 an immense shoal was thrown (or rather ran
themselves) on shore in a little bay to the east of the town,
so that the beach was covered with them to the depth of
several feet; but, strange to say, they left the Firth in a single
night, and no shoals again made their appearance for more
than half a century.

We have already said that without doubt a principal impulse
which drives the Herring to our shores is the instinct of
shedding its sj^awn; and it seems certain also that such
individuals of these fishes as are in an equal degree of for-
wardness in the preparation for this function, are collected
into one company; in proof of which it was observed, that
early in January, 1864, not far from Plymouth, all that were
caught in drift-nets on one day, to a large amount would be
shotten, while an equal number on the day before or after
would be full of roe; and the fishermen had good reason to
notice this, as the price of each capture differed considerably.
I am informed that no Pilchards are found to be mingled
with these assembled bodies of Herrings, although it is common
to find Herrings among a collected body of Pilchards.

HEKRING. 99

In these schools there are many more males than females;
and how prolific they are is shewn by the incalculable numbers
that are taken from the sea by human industry, which in
Scotland alone amounts annually, on an average, to about five
hundred thousand barrels prepared for exportation, besides a
large consumption at home; and this must form only a moderate
proportion of what is taken in other parts of our own country.
It is probable, further, that the multitudes which in every
stage of their existence fall a prey to the ravenous inhabitants
of the ocean are still more considerable: for when only just
escaping from the egg they are watched for and devoured by
the many small fishes which have, only a little before, themselves
been exposed to the same fate. When of larger growth they
are the food of fishes near the shore; while later in life they
are the victims of Dogfishes and Sharks, Blowers or Physeter
Whales; and fishermen are guided where to shoot their nets
by gannets, which sail aloft in the air, and with piercing
sight discern their prey at no small distance beneath the
wave. With instinctive judgment the bird rises to a height
that in its fall shall carry it to a sufiicient depth, and then
with half-closed wings it drops with headlong plunge upon its
prey, and rarely returns to the surface without the prize.

But in addition to these causes of destruction, which may
be regarded as unavoidable, there are others which are caused
by ignorant human agency, and which, therefore, are so much
more to be deprecated. We are informed that on one occasion,
near the end of August, when the fishermen of Dunbar had
discovered that a school of Herrings were in the act of
spawning near the land, they let down their nets close to the
ground, by which large numbers were taken, and when drawn
into the boat the spawn was found to flow from them in great
abundance; and yet after this the fishermen continued the
same thoughtless conduct. And the evil result of such un-
seasonable waste has been shewn in another instance on the
coast of Norfolk, where an enormous quantity of the fry was
caught in the spring in those bags of net called stow-nets;
and for three years afterwards the numbers of Herrings in
the autumn in that neighbourhood were so small that fishermen
scarcely thought it worth their while to employ their time in
fishing for them. If we could suppose, that, like many migrating

100 HERRING.

birds, and the Salmon in the sea, Herrings were led instinctively
to return from the deep water to the place of their birth,
much of the obscurity which (as we have seen) hangs over
their motions would be removed.

It has been confidently believed that the spawn is shed
near the surface, and not far from land, although where the
water is deep, close to the rocks, there is reason to thini
that it may take place at the distance of a few miles; but il
is Mr. Mitchell's opinion, supported by his own observation
and that of a Russian observer, that this function takes place
close to the bottom on hard or rocky ground. To the foregoing
account, therefore, we add: "We have fully ascertained that
the shoals generally fix in one locality for depositation, and
that immediately after spawning the Herrings proceed to sea.
The proper incubation is as follows: The female remains
quiescent at the bottom. The whole of the roe is at once
deposited. The milt, thoroughly ripened in the male, has
become changed from a solid mass to a liquid of the colour
and consistency of cream: the roe, although placed in the
briny flood, becomes a firm united mass, somewhat larger than,
but similar in shape to the roe in a full Herring. This
lifeless mass, or egg-bed, has the power of adhesion: it grasps
the stones, the rocks, the sea-weed, etc., so firmly that we have
found it difficult to remove or separate it until the mass was
dried or dead. In fourteen days, or perhaps three weeks, the
young are seen in great abundance near the shore, of a very
small size; in six or seven weeks more they are observed to be
about three inches in length, and it is likely that they attain
to full size and maturity in about eighteen months." In the
early stage of growth they keep together, and so close to the
shore that many of them are left in pools by the ebbing of
the tide, a circumstance we have not noticed as happening
to the Pilchard; their movements, also, are as if actuated by
a common impulse. But all the circumstances we have men-
tioned have a tendency to lessen their numbers, so that we
may well wonder how it is that the race itself is not
extinguished.

Lacepede says that in North America the spawn of the
Herring have been carried by the inhabitants and deposited
at the mouth of a river which had never been frequented by

HERRING. 101

that fish, and to which place the individual fishes from these
spawn acquired a habitude, and returned each year, bringing
with them probably a great many other individuals of the
same species: a circumstance which seems to countenance the
supposition we have already made, and might be followed
elsewhere with advantage.

The appetite of the Herring is ready to exercise itself on
a large variety of food; but it may be questioned whether in
this, as in other instances, its eagerness or indifference as
regards particular sorts may not be influenced by the state ol
the constitution in the quiescence or development of the milt
and roe. It seems certain that it feeds on entomostraca and
the younger or smaller crustaceans, which people the waters
in numbers beyond calculation; but it also devours creatures
of a larger size, since young fishes of several sorts, with the
smaller Launces of the length of a couple of inches, have been
found in their stomachs, and even the grains of roe and young
examples of their own species.

That considerable numbers are taken with a rod and line all
round our coasts is well known; but although the Herring is
said to leap sometimes above the surface after a fly, it is to
be doubted whether what is made to imitate a fly on the
hook is not regarded by it rather as some young fish;
and it is even known to seize the bare hook if made of a
white and shining material. Several hundreds of Herrings have
been taken at one time in this manner, and a large number of
hooks on one line let down into a school have brought up a
fish on every hook; but it is said that this manner of fishing
has only been successful when employed between sunrise
and sunset. A singular instance has been related where there
was found in the stomach of a Herring a copper farthing
token, in size a little less than a shilling, and marked of the
date 1757. As marks of distinction in their actions between
the Herring and Pilchard fishermen inform me, that the
former seldom springs from the water, or stoits, except when
driven or alarmed; but the Pilchard does it often, and appa-
rently through wantonness. When alarmed, as they are easily
by noise, these fish will rush along to the distance of five or
six feet, as marked by the briming; but the Pilchard does

102 HERRING.

this more rapidly than the Herring. When alarmed the rush
of the Mackarel is much further than either of these fishes.

There is proof that this fish was from the earliest times in
estimation as food by the highest orders of society, as well as
by the lowest; while in its salted or smoked condition it was
among the principal of the stores which necessity compelled
them to lay in for their winter stock of provisions; and the
smoke of their dwellings, before the common use of chimneys,
however irksome in other respects, afforded an important conve-
Wency for the last-named process of preserving the fish. There
were not only religious considerations that demanded the frequent
use of fish as food, but it was also a variation from the diet
of salted flesh, in times when the scarcity of fodder compelled
even the richest persons to kill and salt their cattle at the
approach of winter; at which season, from defective cultivation,
they were only able to keep alive so many as would secure
the stock for the succeeding year. As an instance of the ordinary
use of the Herring in a noble family, we are told in the
Northumberland Family Book, that there was appointed for the
breakfast for the Earl and his Lady, besides other things, as a
quart of beer and a quart of wine, two pieces of salt fish, six
baconed Herrings, four White Herrings, or a dish of Sproits;
these baconed Herrings, no doubt, being what we now know
as smoked or red Herring. And in the time of Henry the
Third, when the Princess Margaret was married to the Duke
of Brabant, and the royal couple were about to sail to that
country, among the other provisions furnished to the ships were
ten thousand six hundred and fifty-two Herrings, with two
hundred and ninety-two Cods and two barrels of Sturgeon.
Again, in the year 1429, the Duke of Bedford sent five hundred
carts loaded with Herrings to victual the army which was
besieging Orleans and the neighbouring towns; and when the
French attacked this convoy they were defeated.

In Ochlanschloeger's poem, "The Gods of the North," the
following reward is oftered by Skerner to the ferryman to carry
him across a river:

"If thou wilt ferry me o'er the wave,
I'll give thee oat-cakes and Herrings beside."

I

HERRING. 10c

And tliis reward the ferryman regards as of high value
"Thou talk'st like a Lord of wealth and power."

The Herrings must have been carried with him as food, as he
actually gives them on the spot to the giant ferryman.

In Blount's "History of Strange Tenures of Land," we are
told that in the charter of the town of Yarmouth, which town
has ever been famous for its share in the Herring fishery, the
corporation are required to send a hundred Herrings, baked
in twenty-four pasties, to the Sheriffs of Norwich, who were to
deliver them to the Lord of the Manor of East Carlton. And
at the same time Eustace de Carme and others, who probably
were the same Sheriffs, are said to have held thirty acres of
land by the service of carrying to the king, wherever he should
happen to be in England, twenty-four pasties of fresh Herrings
at their first coming in. But in still more ancient times they
formed an important source of income; for Sir Henry Ellis
informs us in his Introduction to Domesday Book, that Hugh
de Montfort's manors in Suffolk yielded numerous rents of
Herrings; and the manor of Beccles, in that county, in the
time of King Edward the Confessor, yielded thirty thousand
Herrings to the Abbey of Saint Edmond, and in the days of
the fii'st William this number was increased to sixty thousand.
But the Abbey of Saint Edmondsbury was not so fortunate;
since in the fourteenth year of Edward the First, the expen-
diture of the monks in the fast of Lent for Herrings was
25., when the yearly expenditure of the kitchen for food in
general, including other fish, was 520., and a fat ox was
purchased for four shillings.

That we may not further extend this referenci* to ancient
customs, we come down to Tusser, who says

Let Lent, well kept, offend not thee,
For March and April breeders be;
Spend Herring first, save salt-fish last,
For salt-fish is good when Lent is past.

The most usual manner of fishing for Herrings does not differ
greatly from that already described, as employed in the open
sea for Pilchards; but the meshes of these drift-nets are a
little larger; the distance being allowed of an inch and a quarter

104 HERRING.

from knot to knot, while those of the Pilchard-net are an inch.
Great exactness in this respect, however, should not be de-
manded, since by the operation of barking, the twine will contract
to the extent of three meshes in a yard; and that of cotton
more than in ordinary hemp ; on which account when quite new
a larger dimension must be reqviired, which will permit many
fishes to pass through, or less than the extent exacted by law
as allowing for the contraction produced by use. According to
the circumstances of weather, or the light of the night, these
nets are sunk more or less deep; and for this purpose there
are buoys placed along the head-line at regular intervals; and
in Scotland especially these buoys are often made of inflated
skins; and even strong globular glass bottles have been used,
at least in the north of Europe; and occasionally small weights
are placed on the lower border to keep them properly down.
These nets are shot across the course of the tide, and consequently
athwart the course which the fish are proceeding; and they are
lifted on board by the aid of a capstan two or three times in
the course of the night; for it is only in moderate darkness
that these fish will enter a net, since at other time their sight
is sufficiently good to discern the snare, and they are afraid to
approach it.

The size of the boats employed in this fishery varies mucb
in different places, and, consequently, the number of men in
each; but it would be tedious to take notice of the practice
of every station, and therefore we confine ourselves to that of
Yarmouth, which is, and ever has been, the most important
seat of this fishery in the United Kingdom. These boats are
luggers, with three masts, and of a burden from twenty to
fifty tons, with a crew of twelve men and a boy, whose wages
are in proportion to the success they meet with; this being
the only plan on which success in any fishery can be secured.
The nets are about a hundred in number, and each of them
eight fathoms in length, with a depth of five fathoms; and as
when well loaded with fish no human efforts would be sufficient
to lift the mass over the gunwale of the boat, a portion of
the crew are employed at the capstan, while the rest are
engaged in shaking out the fish into the proper compartment,
and arranging the nets in order. As, from the general shal-
lownefs of the water near the land in the north of England,

HERKING. 106

and the belief that the largest Herrmgs are to be found at
a distance from the coast, the fishery is often pursued at a
considerable distance, from which, consequently, the return to
shore cannot be speedy, it is the custom to sprinkle tlie
newly-caught fish with salt, by which means also they are in
the best condition for being smoked, for which process the
largest fish are always preferred.

There is another mode of fishing for Herrings, which is
conducted on a much less extensive scale, and which is
founded on the knowledge that these fish often come near
the shore, where, especially in rough weather, it would not
be safe for a drift-boat to follow them. It consists in moorinsr
a few nets without their being attached to a boat; but we
believe that on several accounts this practice is not sanctioned
by the law; as, we may venture to say also, however ancient,
ought not to be those fixed erections or stations termed yairs
and cruives, on the beach, within which the fish are kept
enclosed when the tide has ebbed and left them dry.

It appears that a scan of some sort is employed on the
coast of Ireland, but, as described, is much less skilfully
contrived than the Pilchard scan of Cornwall; and if in
general use it would interfere greatly with the success of the
drift fishery, by contracting the space within which the latter
could be emj)loyed. We believe also that not long since
ingenuity has contrived to render the trawl effective in the
fishery for Herrings, by using it somewhat on the principle of
a moving stow-net. The gaping and enormous bag is sunk
to the proper depth by a rope, and in this condition is
carried along among the hosts of fish by the moving vessel.
This method of fishing ought not to be practised within a
limited distance from the older forms of fishing with drift-nets.
In the great work of Duhamel on fislieries a lengthened
account is given of the various ways of catching Herrings
along the coasts of Europe, but none of them are superior to
the methods practised in England.

Contrary to the custom of Cornwall as regards the Pilchard,
where, except those which are sold to the public for family
use, every master of a boat cures his own fish, in Scotland
and the north of England the produce of the night is disposed
of to professional fish-curers; and upwards of a hundred
VOL. IV. ' P

106 HERKING,

pounds in a week for a considerable time has thus been
paid by one individual: a circumstance of no small importance
to those adventurous fishermen who have come thither even
from the extreme west of Cornwall to reap this harvest of
the sea in the north.

It would require a very extended notice if we were to
enter into a minute account of the proceedings of this fishery
at its different stations in the United Kingdom, and the methods
of preparing the fish for the home and foreign market; but
we the rather forbear because the whole of what might be
advanced is to be found in Dodd's "Essay towards a Natural
History of the Herring," Brabazon on the "Fisheries of
Ireland," and Mitchell's work already referred to; together
with a paper by Dr. Mac Culloch in the "Journal of the
Royal Institution" for 1824. This fishery has also been the
subject of much (and not very wise) legislation; but we
content ourselves with saying that at present it is with us
in a condition of much prosperity, since from Scotland alone
there is exported annually, on an average, five hundred
thousand barrels, of which each one holds four hundred and
eighty fish; and in Galway almost thirty thousand hogsheads
have been cured in bulk in a single year: a remarkable
contrast to the time when, as we glean from some ancient
documents, a portion of those which were consumed in Britain
were imported from foreign countries.

When we consider the never-ceasing war that is carried on
against this race of fishes, it may be supposed that few of them
can be so fortunate as to reach the full size of which they are
capable. But there was an individual which chanced to obtain
the length of about seventeen inches, while our more moderate
sized example measured only twelve inches to the fork of the
tail, with a depth of two inches and a half. The lower jaw
protrudes beyond the upper: teeth minute, and a few in front
)f the palate; gape expansive; mystache broad, curved, reaching
opposite the middle of the eye; the upper jaw, with the mystache,
lifts upwards on a hinge. Nostrils nearer the snout; eye
moderate, inclined to oval; head on the top less flat than in
the Pilchard; gill-covers in several divisions, without diverging
rays on the hindmost. Scales rather large, easily removed.
Body less plump than in the Pilchard, and with much less fat

leach's HliURING. 107

between the muscular fibres; although something of this apijcars
in the finer fish caught about July. The dorsal fin is behind
the centre of gravity, with nineteen rays, the first very short.
Pectorals placed close below the hindmost gill-cover, having
fifteen rays; ventrals beneath the dorsal, having nine rays, with
a free scale at its root, half its length; anal fin wider than in
the Pilchard, with sixteen rays; tail forked. Colour of the
back dark bluish, a tinge of pink often on the sides, silvery
below; behind the top of the head tinted yellow; fins semi-
transparent; along the belly a ridge, with scales not easily
counted. The air-bladder is silvery, long, and slender; much
more slender forward to the base of the skull, where it ends
between two projecting processes, to which it is joined by two
diverging sets of fleshy fibres; posteriorly it reaches close to
the vent; and in its course it receives a lengthened and slender
tube from the end of the stomach, the use of which seems
uncertain. It is the same in the Pilchard.

LEACH'S HERRING.

Clupea Leacliii, Yarkell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 193.

Mr. Yarrell was of opinion that he had ascertained the
existence of a species of Herring that was diflferent from the
common kind, and of which he gave the character, that "it
was found heavy with roe at the end of January, which it does
not deposit till the middle of February. Its length is not more
than seven inches and a half, and its depth near two inches;"
and in proof that the time of spawning and difference of the
quality of its flesh are decisive marks of a difference of species,
a quotation is produced from the Essay on the Herring, by
Dr. Mac CuUoch. In Mr. Yarrell's further description of this
fish, besides dwelling on the greater comparative depth of the
fish, he also mentions the dorsal fin as somewhat anterior to
the place it occupies in the kindred species; and the number
of vertebrae as being fifty-four, whereas in the Common Herring
they amount to fifty-six.

108 leach's herring.

But while placing much dependence on these particulars as
marks of distinction, this eminent naturalist does not appear to
have been avare of the fact, which has been noticed by nu-
merous observers, that the exact magnitude, minuter proportions
of shape, and quality of the flesh in the Common Herring are
so very different, even in districts not very distant from each
other, that none of them can be regarded as signifying a different
species. The diflference in the season of spawning, on which
Mr. Yarrell appears to build so much, is even of less importance,
since it will vary in different schools within very narrow limits;
as we have already recorded in our History of the Common
Herring; and the season of 1864 is not the only one in our
notes, in which the immense body of fish, from at least
the coast of Norfolk to Cornwall, has been large with
spawn from the end of the preceding year to the beginning
of March. The greatest depth of the body in examples of
about the length mentioned is not of uncommon occurrence; so
that while other portions of the description apply as closely to
the Common Herring as to this supposed new species, the
difference in the number of the vertebrae is all that remains
for consideration; on which particular I feel much satisfaction
in having obtained the assistance of Dr. John Lowe, of Lynn,
in Norfolk; from whose communication I quote the following
particulars: Of nine specimens selected for examination, in
two the vertebrae numbered fifty-four, in four the number was
fifty-five, and in three fifty-six. I have myself counted fifty-
two. The number of fin-rays also is liable to variation; and
as regards the exact position of the dorsal fin in reference to
the ventrals, it is also of a variable character; as in some when
suspended by it the fish becomes almost vertical, but it also is
known to vary with the age of the fish, and the proportion
of the depth of examples to the length has varied almost in
the same proportion. With these observations we are driven
to the conclusion that Leach's Herring cannot on the evidence
given be received as a separate species.

oi

o

o

a-

109

SPEAT.

Apliya phahrtca, Eondeletitjs.

Clupea sprattus, Arteui. Linnaeus.

Yaurell; Br. Fislies, vol. ii, p. 197.
Jenyns; Manual, p. 435.

WiLLOUGHBY was SO far misled concerning tliis fisli as to
regard it as the early condition of tlie Herring and Pilchard;
but although Artedi definitely distinguished it from both these
fishes, in this he was only so far followed by his friend
Linnceus, that he makes the Herring to be a separate fish
from the Sprat, without noticing the Pilchard as distinct from
both. But after such evidence, with the opportunities of
inquiry within his reach, it appears remarkable that Dr.
Fleming continues the error of Willoughby, by still supposing
the Sprat to be no other than the young of the above-named
fishes. How little the true Sprat is known in the Mediterranean
appears from E.isso, who supposes it to be the same with the
Sardine, which fish more closely resembles the Pilchard, although
probably also distinct from it.

The Sjjrat is known in the German Ocean and the Baltic,
and from thence round the British Islands, as along the coasts
of France, as also in the west portion of the Mediterranean,
as I learn from a private communication of Dr. Gulia, oi
Malta; and wherever it occurs it is a social fish like other.-
of this genus. Dr. Parnell remarks that "they are found
in the Firth of Forth through the whole year, and like
many small animals appear very suscej)tible of cold. During
the warm summer months they are seen sporting about in
large shoals in every part of the Forth." But although at
times abundant in the west of England, it is found there less
frequently than on the more eastward coast of the kingdom.
It also disappears there more completely than the before-named

110 SPRAT.

fishes in its season of absence, and is not looked for until a
little after midsummer and towards autumn, after which it
becomes abundant, and continues to be caught through the
winter; but its time of appearing varies in different places
and in different years, and the same uncertainty appears to
exist in regard to the season of spawning, which, however,
occurs in summer, and probably late in the autumn also. It
appears, however, that the young fry are not so well known
as those of the Herring and Pilchard; but in July and
August they have appeared in multitudes of the length of
two inches or a little above it, and are preyed on by many
kinds of fishes, which pursue them in all directions along
the surface, and before which they fly as a flock of sheep
before dogs: but a mass of floating sea-weeds affords them a
welcome refuge from their persecutors.

I have not heard of an instance where this fish has been
caught with a hook, which may be because its mouth is too
small for such as are usually employed at sea; for there is no
reason to suppose that it is less ready to seize its prey than
others of its race. But the usual manner of fishing for them
is with an enormous bag-net, made with small meshes, which
according to law must not be less than half an inch in
measure from knot to knot; and this net, called a stow-net,
is forbidden to be used at any time between the 10th. day
of November and the 10th. of February; but ground-seans
for Sprats are legal between the 1st. of November and the
1st. of April. The mouth of the stow-net is kept open
against the course of the tide by a coviple of beams, one
above the other, at the height of about six fathoms; and they
thus remain suspended from a boat in such a manner that as
the fish are carried along with the tide they are driven into
a gulf from which there is no return. A few of larger
size and of the better quality are sometimes caught in drift-
nets; and the quantity altogether thus taken is enormous,
thus affording a cheap and esteemed food in many places on
the coast, and especially, although not solely, to the poorer
classes of the British Metropolis, for they come to the table
even of the rich.

But it is not always for food that the fishery is conducted
for Sprats, for we believe they are not prepared for exportation;

SPRAT. Ill

and although some are preserved by smoking, in some measure
as the Herring is prepared, and they are even imported from
abroad in that condition. Yet the quantity taken sometimes
very much exceeds the sale for any of these purposes; and
it has therefore grown into a common practice to purchase
them for manuring the land, and the nets have even been
put to sea with no other view than thus employing the
produce. Sprats are not usually sold by number or Aveight,
but by measure. The nets are employed at from close to the
land to the distance of about three miles, and the price
varies from sixpence to eighteen-pence the bushel. Mr.
Mitchell informs us that in December, 1861, in Scotland,
when Sprats were abundant, they were sold at from two
shillings and sixpence a bushel, at a time when the price of
Herrings was five shillings the hundred.

A large Sprat may be five or six inches in length, but the
more usual size is tliree or four inches; the body compressed,
deeper than in the Herring and Pilchard, but tapering forward
towards the head and mouth. Under jaAv longest, both having
very small teeth; mystache running back to the eye; top of
the head flattened; eye rather large. Gill-covers as if divided
into several pieces. Scales on the body easily lost. Along
the belly a ridge with prominent serrations, the segments
thirty-five to the vent, which structure will distinguish the
Sprat from the young of the Herring and Pilchard, even by
the sense of feeling: but other marks are that the scales are
more easily removed, the colour less bright, and with less
reflections of tints when taken from the water. The dorsal
fill also is nearer the tail, with eighteen rays, of which the
first is short, and the two last united; the pectoral pointed,
with eighteen rays; anal narrow; ventrals with eight rays, and
not having a separate wing; tail forked, with eighteen rays.
Colour light blue on the back, all besides silvery, except that
sometimes on the sides it is yellowish; the fins tinted with
yellow. The number of vertebrae forty-eight or forty-nine,
which is less than is counted in the Pilchard or Herring.
Cuvier says that the yellow on the sides occurs only in the
season of spawning.

It is to be observed that the relative position of the dorsal
fin of this fish is not always as pointed out by author? Dr.

112 SARDINK,

Parnell says the dorsal fin commences exactly half M'ay
between the point of the lower jaw and the end of the middle
caudal rays, but INIr. Yarrell represents it as commencing
half way between the point of that jaw and the end of the
caudal rays; and I have found in a fish of the length of five
inches and a half, that from the middle rays of the tail to
the line of the first ray of the dorsal was three inches. The
origin of the ventral fins is before that of the dorsal, and
these first-named fins have in several instances the wing or
separate scale, the absence of which therefore cannot be taken
as a character. "When not deprived of its scales the colour
and tints are also sometimes beautiful.

SARDINE.

Clupea Sardinia, Cuviee. Risso. Bloch; pi. 29, f. 2.

CuviER says of this fish, it is so much like the Pilchard
that the only perceptible difference is its inferior size: and a
persuasion of their being only varieties of each other has
prevailed widely, although, as Swainson observes, it is not easy
to believe that fishes which differ so much in their range, and
in some degree in habits, as the Pilchard and Sardine on the
one hand, and the Herring and Baltic Membras on the other,
can be respectively the same. I have supposed that in some
instances they may have been confounded together, as Duhamel
certainly has done; and Dr. Gulia has shewn that in the
Mediterranean three separate species are known by the name
of Sardina, one of which, the Clupea auro-vittata of Swainson,
has probably been taken in England. But the following
record in my notes is deserving of attention, as leading to
further inquiry, both as regards the distinction of species,
and the occurrence of the Sardine in Britain. In the year
1843, six hogsheads of (Pilchards) taken, the fish about six
inches long, and multitudes are so small as to pass througii
the meshes of the drift-nels. They are marked with spots along

SARDINE. 113

the sides, which grow faint and disappear as the colours fade.
Compared with a Pilchard of the same size I find the marking
of the head different; the plate encircling the eye on its lower
part and under being much narrower, and guttered on the
lower margin, where the Pilchard is plain. These small fish
now abound at all distances from land, and in consequence all
the fish in fine condition that were found a week or two before
have disappeared.

The Sardine is common on the south coasts of France and
Spain, and through the Mediterranean, where it forms the
subject of extensive fisheries. They are also imported from
thence into Britain; having been deprived of the head, boiled
in oil, and inclosed in small tin boxes, which are carefully
soldered to exclude the air; and it is worthy of notice, as
forming an opposite character from that of the Pilchard, that
the Sardine is in its best condition in the spring, and not in
the autumn. The Sardine appears to be the only fish of this
family, except the Pilchard, that has the dorsal fin at the centre
of gravity.

Captain Cook found it at Nootka Sound, on the west coast
of North America, where the natives preserve it by smoking;
and I have been informed by sailors that they have obtained
what they supposed Pilchards, as also their enemy the Hake,
further to the south along the same coast.

VOL. IV.

114

WHITEBAIT.

Clupea alhn, Yauuell; Br. Fipbes, vol. ii, p. 202.

" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 436.

" laiulus, CuviER.

The notice of the public was first directed to this little
fish as forming a delicious article of food; but it remained for
Mr, Yarrell to decide that it is a distinct species, and not, as
had been supposed, the yourg of some one of the well-known
species of the Herring family, and particularly of the Allis Shad.
It was also believed that it did not exist elsewhere than in
the Thames, where a fishery was carried on to supply an extensive
demand from the people of London; who had rendered it
fashionable to go in parties to the taverns on the banks of the
river to feed on this luxury, with, it must be added, such other
accompaniments as might render the treat a rather expensive
one. What had begun among the more obscure classes of the
Metropolis, in the course of time extended to those of the
highest rank; and it becomes an incident in the history of this
fish to trace the progress of this upward-tending indulgence.
From the persons already referred to, it first extended to some
gentlemen who had been appointed Commissioners for the
management of the afi^airs of an expanse of water, which had
broken in on the low ground from the Thames, at Dagenham;
and who, once a year, made it a custom to have a friendly
meeting and dinner, of which this fish formed an important part,
at what was called the Breach house; and to which they invited
their particular iricnds, together with the principal ministers of
the crown. Thus become a mark of gentility, it grew into
a practice for all the inhabitants of the city who can afford
the expense to indulge in the excursion down the river; and
it is a sign of the conclusion of a session of Parliament when

WTIITF.HAIT. 115

the ministers of the Cabinet go down the river in state to
indulge in this relaxation.

The Whitebait has not been recognised as an inhabitant of
the open sea, although for about half the year it is there only
it could be found; and it cannot live even for a short time in
fresh water. Yet it seems to delight in what is brackish, and
in it a fishery is carried on with a small net, somewhat on the
principle of the stow-net for sprats, being suspended from the
side of a boat in the tideway in a small depth of water. This
net is kept open against the current with rods, and is not
lifted out of the water when the fish are to be taken on board;
but as it tapers and is only shut at the end with a cord, this
portion is opened and the fish removed from time to time, after
which the net is again left to float on the current. These fish
usually begin to come up on the tide at the end of March,
or early in April; but in the year 1864, they were caught
at the very beginning of March, and the fishery does not end
before the conclusion of September.

It was formerly supposed that the Whitebait was the early
stage of the growth of the Allis Shad, which then was also
confounded with the Twait; and Donovan has represented this
latter for the former. It was also believed that it was to be
found only in the Thames, which last supposition could be
regarded in no other light than as inconsistent with the former,
since the Shad was known to shed its spawn in several of
the other rivers of England. But the belief of its being only
met with in the Thames is now also known to be an error;
and Dr. Parnell discovered it to be not rare in the Firth of
Forth, while in the south and west it has been obtained in
Devonshire and Cornwall. I have been favoured with examples
from the Exe, by Dr. Scott, of Exeter, and have also obtained
them from the Fowey, in Cornwall; and there is scarcely a
doubt that if looked for they might be found in every important
river in the British Islands. Cuvier says they also exist in
Germany, but we conclude that they are limited to districts
where the climate does not extend beyond the borders of moderate
heat and cold.

The time of spawning is supposed to be in and through the
summer; and the very young are mingled with the more fully
grown, so long as they continue to be caught in the river, a

116 WHITEBAIT.

circumstance which seems to shew where the roe is deposited.
A large AVhitebait has measured six inches in length, but they
do not usually exceed four inches: proportions of the body
nearly like those of the young herring, but a little deeper in
comparison with the length, and more compressed than in the
Pilchard; also more slender towards the tail. Under jaw longest,
the gape full; teeth scarcely perceptible when fresh from the
water, but existing in the jaws an oval row on the tongue;
also round the palate and along the vomer; the mystache
extending to a line even with the centre of the eye. Where
the gill-covers come together on the throat they form a sharp
edge. Eye large; above the upper jaw a depression, from which
the outline rises gradually to the beginning of the back; and
when the fish is in good condition the elevation goes on to
the beginning of the dorsal fin. Scales on the body large and
closely set, but easily lost; and an obscure ridge of scales in
eighteen sections from the throat to the vent. Dorsal fin behind
the centre of gravity, with seventeen rays, the first ray a little
anterior to the ventrals; the latter with eight rays. Anal fin
narrow; tail forked, with nineteen rays; pectoral with seventeen.
Colour along the back bluish or a rather dark ash green, which
does not descend on the sides. All besides pearly white, but
in some examples, as in those from the Exe, slight yellow on
the sides. This description, and especially as regards the teeth,
will serve to distinguish this species from the early growth of
those with which it might be confounded; but a lens may be
required in order to discover them. There is also no indentation
in front of the upper jaw, as in the Shads.

p
<

1 i

: g

<;

117

- ALOSA.

This genus is distinguished from Chipea by a recess in the middle
of the line in front of the middle jaw ; and however sligh.t the mark
by which they are separated, it is convenient as pointing out a family
which differs in its habits from those of the genus Clupea, as now
defined.

In almost all fishes in which the tail is forked, the upper and lower
divisions act in some raeasui'e as separate fins, their action being often
in opposite directions; but in the Clupece, or Herring family, the separation
of the lobes is particularly conspicuous; and in the genus Alosa it is
still wider, the separation being marked with a difference of structure;
at which part there are two peculiar fan- shaped rays, which must have
a different function from those above and below. At this part the
body is only moderately covered with scales genei'ally; which renders
the structure of our scale-tailed species the more remarkable. The air-
bladder is long and slender, and the tube which connects it with the
vent is even more slight than in the Herring.

ALLIS SHAD.

SCADINA. ALEWIFE. DAMIN HERRING.

Sliad, WiLLOUGHBY; Plate p. 8, f, 2, Agone, and p.

227, but he confounds this species with
A. finta, the Twait Shad; as do many
others.

Clupea alosa, Cuvier. Jenyns; Manual, p. 438.

Alosa vulgaris, Yarkell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 213.

This species is widely distributed in the moderately temperate
regions, and in the Mediterranean appears to have attracted
attention at an early date; as it is noticed, under the name of
Thrissa, generally by the writers on Natural History among
the Greeks and Romans.

118 ALLTS SHAD.

Of the Tricbaios, Thich is our ShaJ, Aristotle says, B. 8, C.
13, that it enters the River Ister, or the Danube, and then,
where this river divides into branches, it passes down into the
Adriatic Sea; and in proof of this his argument is, that it is
seen to enter the river, and is not known to come out of it
again; whereas in the Adriatic they are not known to enter,
but are caught as they come out. Aristotle could not have
been acquainted with the geography of the higher portion of
the Danube, and he may have given credit to the error
contained in the received accounts of the proceedings of the
Argonautic expedition; where instead of what really happened,
which evidently was, that in order to escape pursuit the ship
was conveyed across the Isthmus of Perecop, from the west side
of which the adventurers sailed along by the mouth of the
Danube into Greece, it was believed that they had gone up
that river, and by some other branch had passed down to the
Adriatic; a supposition which in somewhat later times gave rise
to the further absurdity of believing that Ulysses had gone from
Troy to the distant region of Italy, in his endeavour to reach
his home in a Greek Island. It is plain that this wanderer
had gone into the Black Sea in his endeavour to escape the
danger threatened to his fellow warriors; and it is there the
dangerous islands, from which the Argonauts had so narrow an
escape, were his Scylla and Charybdis, and another island was
the home of his Circe, where Medea had learnt her skill in
sorcery. But the Roman Pliny, in a later age, had become
acquainted with the geography of these regions; and therefore
while he copies the Natural History of the learned Greek, he
is compelled to add, that the passage of this fish from the
Danube to the Adriatic was by subterranean channels; for he
was aware that it accomplished at all it must be by a way not
known to observation. Indeed, it does not appear probable
that the Shad is at all accustomed to ascend to the higher part
of this river; since Dr. Beisinger, in his account of the fishes
of Hungary, does not mention this species as coming within
his knowledge. They avoid turbulent streams or rapid currents,
unless for a short way; but whether foul or clear is of small
consequence.

It was also known to the Egyptians by ascending the Nile
from the sea, and it is common along the coasts of Europe up

ALLTS SHAD. 110

to the north of England, but it is not mentioned by Nilsson
as occurring in Sweden; although the Icindred Twait Shad is
found there. And this circumstance of its absence so far to
the north agrees with the observation of Aristotle, that the
Thrissa was not an inhabitant of the Euripus, as not being
able to bear the cold. It is probable that what brought it into
particular notice in ancient times, in addition to its habit of
passing up the larger rivers from the sea in the spring, and
soon again disappearing from view, was its supposed disposition
of being particularly liable to the impression of sounds; especially
such as are of a pleasing nature. It was the popular belief
that they might be brought together by music; which opinion
is recorded by ^lian and other writers, and strongly counte-
nanced by Rondeletius in his own experience; and it was further
supposed that they were so affrighted with the roar of thunder,
as to be driven by it back again from the river into the sea.
There has always been a diversity of opinion about the
quality of this fish as food; but this is known to depend on
the place where they are caught, and the length of time they
have been in the river; for when taken in the sea they are
little valued, and the multitude of small bones with which the
flesh is studded, is sufficient to banish all pleasure in eating
it when there is no delicious taste to counterbalance the
annoyance. It was in this condition that Ausonius prefers to
call it by its more vulgar, but now recognised name, and
pronounces it as notoriously unfit for any other table than that
of the common people; "who does not know those frizzing,
sputtering fish on every poor man's grate!

Quis nou norit

Stridentesque focis opsonia plebis alausasP"

But in some rivers a change of quality is soon effected, and
then it is esteemed a fit repast for the epicure. Those of largest
size are said to be found in Spain and the south of France,
but the most delicious of the foreign rivers are those of Italy,
and especially of the Tiber. In our own country the Severn
has long possessed the character of affording Shads of a high
degree of excellency, for which a regular fishery is carried on,
of so much value that it forms one third, or, according to some
evidence, an half of the profit derived from the fish of ail sorts

120 ALLIS SHAD.

that is there taken. The season is in April and May, and the
improvement in quality is quickly after the fish have entered
the river; where they are caught in nets, of the length of about
two hundred yards, with a mesh of three inches; and from
seventy to eighty dozen have been caught in a night, at which
time the fishermen are chiefly at work; for the Shad is a shy
and timid fish, and might not be easily enclosed in a net by
day.

It spawns in about the first half of June, and for this purpose
they do not proceed very high up the river; it being very
uncommon to find them so far up as Worcester; the chosen
situations being shallow and rocky, and the proceeding is con-
ducted at night, at which time the fish may be heard to make
a rattling noise, as if beating the water with their tails.
Presently after this the quality of the flesh suffers much change,
and they speedily leave the river for the sea. It is to be
observed, however, that I have found the roe of large size in
the first days of February, fully enlarged in April, and also at
the end of June. When at sea they are sometimes caught with
a line by those who are lohrfftng for Pollacks; the bait being
either the Mud Lamprey, or a slice cut from the side of a
Mackarel; but it has been also caught in a trammel, which
shews it sometimes to swim near the bottom.

This species is said to reach the length of three, and even
four feet, but this must be where it is not often caught, and
in consequence where it has had time to reach its full stature;
and a Shad of half that size is what is mostly met with in
England. In shape it difi^ers from the Herring in being deeper
in the body, and one from which our description is taken, and
which was caught in the Severn, measuring fourteen inches and
a half in length, was three inches and a half in depth. Head
and body compressed, the latter covered with rather large
scales to the root of the tail. Jaws equal when closed, but the
latter protruding a little when the mouth is slightly opened;
teeth obvious in the upper jaw, on each side of the recess in
front, and also further on the sides; none in the lower jaw or
on the tongue. Mystache running back to the hindmost line
of the eye, narrow at first, then broad, broadly channeled, the
border plain. Nostrils in a depression nearer the snout than
the eye. Eye moderate; plate on the top of the head flat. The

ALLIS SHAD. 121

gill-covers adorned with branched lines perhaps mucous ducts.
The usual hooked serrations along the line of the belly. Dorsal
fin over the ventrals, with twenty rays; the first two short;
pectorals eighteen; anal fin narrow, twenty-one rays, the last
two from one root; ventrals nine rays. Colour of the back blue,
upper portion of the head brown; light golden tints on the
gill-covers and about the upper parts round the eye, tints of
blue and pink reflect on the sides, silvery below; a large
black spot close behind the upper border of the gill-covers.
Pharyngeal bones very slightly rough.

VOL. JV

TWAIT SHAD.

MAID.

Shad, WiLLOUGHBY ; p. 3, f. 1, p. 227, but he confonnds

tlie two now recognised species together.
Clupea alosa, LinnjEus. Bloch; PI 30. Donovan; PI. 57.

" finta, CuviEE. Jenyns; Manual, p. 437.

Alosa finta, Yakrell ; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 208.

This species so nearly resembles the Allis as to have been
confounded with it until Cuvier established some definite marks
of distinction; the chief of which are the existence of some
teeth in both jaws of the Twait, and that it is ornamented with
a row of rather large spots along the sides from the gill-covers;
whereas in the Allis there is only one spot, and sometimes
none. In most other particulars they resemble each other,
except indeed that the Allis is a little the thickest, and the
Twait never reaches the size that is sometimes attained by the
kindred species. Their habits are much alike, but the Twait
is known further north, and is reckoned among the fishes of
Scandinavia. It is also mentioned by Risso as a native of the
Mediterranean, and in Britain, where it occurs, it is in more
abundance than the Allis; but I have not known it to take a
hook, althoiagh I suppose it to be the species from the stomac i
of which Dr. Fleming informs us he took three Herrings. It
enters rivers in spring, and is taken in the Severn at the same
time with the Allis; but it is in much less esteem than that fish
for the table.

In what I suppose to have been an example of this species,
instead of a row of large dark spots, I have noticed a scattered
row of small spots irregularly placed on the sides.

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SCALE-FINNED SHAD.

Alosa Squamopinnata, I^obis.

Two species only of the family of Shads have been supposed
to be found on the coasts of Englanct and of Europe; but the
fish I now introduce to the notice of British naturalists will be
found different from the preceding species in so many particulars,
that I am compelled to believe it a distinct species. The skin
of it, with a figure, was sent to me from Bristol, by E. T. Higgins,
Esq., where his attention was directed to it as it lay in the
market; and our representation is taken from this only known
example. But as when it came into my possession the colour
had much faded, it has been judged best to give it in the
plate with only so much of its native hue as then remained on it.
Its length was one foot four inches; the depth a little more
than three inches, the proportionate length therefore exceeding
that of the Allis and Twait Shads. The scales also were much
larger; but the more remarkable particulars are the peculiar
distribution of the scales on the pectoral and caudal fins, in
the former of which a larger series lies on its root, and extends
over about half its length. On the tail the surface is generally
covered with small scales, except the outermost ray above and
below; and on the middle rays the scales are much larger
than on either side. The pointed scales along the lower line
of the body were not easily counted because of the large scales
which overlapped them, but with some care we have represented
them. These prominent points between the ventral fins and
vent were fourteen, and there was the same number of ribs
between the throat and ventral fins. On the back also the large
scales conceal the roots of the rays of the dorsal fin. A large
portion of the scales of the body had been lost; but enough

124 GREAT-HEADED SPRAT.

remain to shew that there had not existed a row of spots as
in the Twait; nor could any teeth be discovered in the jaws.
The lower border of the mystache was not rough or toothed.
Number of fin- rays in the dorsal seventeen, anal twenty-four,
ventral ten. Scales prevented the counting of the pectoral and
caudal rays.

It becomes a question whether this fish has been overlooked
by naturalists and is new to science, or whether it be a variety
of the Allis Shad, from which species however it differs in
too many particulars to permit us to allow of its being no other
than a casual variety. The discovery of a second example would
settle this question.

GREAT-HEADED SPRAT.

Clupea ynacrocephala, Swainson.

It was the opinion of Mr. Swainson that he had discovered
in the River Mersey, where it existed in some abundance, a
distinct species of Clupea, which he denominated by the name
quoted above; but although many years have passed, no naturalist
has hitherto recognised it, or even referred to it in any manner.
We notice it here in order to shew that we have possessed
examples from the same neighbourhood, which have answered
nearly to Mr. Swainson's description; the chief difference being
that we did not observe "a few curved teeth in the palate;"
and there could not be a doubt that they were different from
the Common Sprat; but it did not appear quite so certain that
they were not in an early stage of the growth of one or other
of our well-known Shads, and probably of the Allis Shad; the
heads of both the Shads seeming to be decidedly larger in
proportion to the body at an early date, than in the full-grown
condition of these species.

125

ENGRAULTS.

The snout projecting; mouth opening backward considerably beyond
the eyes; mystache long and straight. Twelve or more rays within
the gill-covers, the opening wide. Abdominal line Avithout the projecting
hooked scales as in Clupea and Alosa.

ANCHOVY.

Encrasicohis, Willoughby; Table p. 2, f. 2. p. 226.

Clupea encrasicolus, LinNjEus. Donovan; pi. 50.

Engraulis encrasicholus, Ouviek. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 183.

Yakrell; Br. Fishes, vol. 2, p, 217
" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 439.

The Anchovy has been best known in Britain as forming an
esteemed relish when brought pickled and preserved from the
Mediterranean, where a successful fishery has been carried on
for taking them from remote times. This fishery is referred to
by ^Elian, who says that on one occasion so large a school was
taken that fifty fishing-boats were loaded with the produce; and
he adds that the Anchovy is prolific, very timid, and so fond
of keeping in considerable bodies that it is not easy to cause
them to separate, even by force. The same account is given
by Oppian, with some tendency to poetical exaggeration; and it
is probable he is referring to even the same remarkable instance
as that given by ^lian, when he describes the taking of a
large quantity with a ground-sean; but it is worthy of notice
that whilst the simple narrative of the first-named writer repre-
sents them as prolific, the poet adopts the popular opinion of
their having their origin from the froth of the sea.

The Anchovy is not numbered with the fishes of Madeira
by Mr. Lowe, but Dr. Pappe obtained it at the Cape of Good
Hope; and on the north of our own country Mr. Peach has

1S6 ANCHOVY.

procured it from Herring nets at Wick, in Scotland. It is
found also in the Baltic, and by Nilsson along tlie coasts of
Scandinavia. Fabricius also reports from Greenland that he had
found examples in the stomachs of seals, and that they are
caught in Davis's Straits at a long distance from land. In the
westmost portion of the British Channel these fish are often
taken in drift-nets employed in the fishery for Herrings and
Pilchards; but this is only when they are sufficiently large to
become entangled in the meshes as these chance to be doubled
together, and there is sufficient evidence to shew that if nets
of finer twine, with meshes of proper size, were employed,
sufficient might be taken on the coast of Cornwall to supply
the full amount of what is consumed in our own country, the
whole of which, as sent to us from the Mediterranean, has been
so much as, with a tax on the importation of twopence in the
pound, to bring into the exchequer year by year the sum of
1,764. As regards the time when these fish are near us, I
have met with an example in March from the stomach of a
Mackarel; in summer they are found at St. Ives, in the ground-
seans employed in catching Launce. Mr. Dillwyn mentions
them at Swansea in June, and they have been found heavy
with spav/n in September, as also in November, and sometimes
they are seen so late as December. But it is only in the
Mediterranean, which they are supposed to enter from the
Atlantic for the purpose of shedding their spawn, that a fishery
is carried on with the expectation of profit; the principal
adventure being with drift-nets, to which the fish are attracted
with artificial light, which is kept burning in an iron framework
for the purpose. Duhamel describes at considerable length
the fishery for Anchovies in the Mediterranean; the most
successful method being to attract the fish by means of a
light, and then to shoot a net at some distance round the
boat that bore it. This plan was pursued with several boats
in succession through the night, for even in moonlight it did
not succeed.

The largest Anchovy I have seen measured eight inches in
length; the sides and cheeks compressed, but round over the
back; the whole length to the fork of the tail about six times
and three foiirths of the depth. Upper jav/ projecting much
beyond the lower, gape widf^, mystache slender, passing much

ANCHOVY. 127

behind the line of the eye, sometimes notched along the upper
edge; under jaw narrow, pointed; teeth in both^ the tongue
slight, pointed, firm; passage of the gills forward in the mouth.
Eye large, towards the snout; nostrils open. Dorsal fin behind
the line of the ventrals, with sixteen rays; anal narrow; pectoral
low and small; ventrals also small. Tail forked. Colour blue
on the back, lighter on the sides, silvery white below ; sometimes
there are crimson tints about the head and iris of the eye; the
cheeks yellow. It is necessary to distinguish this species from
another which has been confounded with it, but which is marked
by a shorter snout and rounder profile. This last has not been
recognised in Britain.

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GREATER FLYfNG FISH. 129

specimen given to me by its possessor, Mr. John Fox, of
Plymouth, I have no hesitation in believing it to be the Greater
Flying Fish referred to above. But if any doubt could remain
it must be set at rest by the examination which I had an
opportunity of making of one which had thrown itself on the
quay at Plymouth, and which came immediately into the hands
of the gentleman who then possessed it. In the month of
October, 1849, another of these fishes was left by the tide in
Stonehouse Pool, in the harbour of Plymouth; and it is at
this time preserved in the museum of the Institute at that
town.

The faculty of flying, or rising aloft to a considerable height
in the air, is such a remarkable character in fishes, that it has
always excited attention in those who have observed it, and
who have considered it an amusing incident, which served to
lessen the tediousness of a long voyage over an expanse of ocean
that is little diversified by other occurrences. But although to
a casual observer it has an appearance not much unlike the
corresponding action of a bird, and it has been more closely
watched by attentive students of nature, it still remains doubtful
whether the flight is to be ascribed solely to a vigorous
impulse, impressed by the muscular power of the tail on the
water, with perhaps the help also of the ventral fins, or whether
some sustaining motion of the expanded pectoral fins may lend
assistance in seconding the action of the other fins as it passes
through the air, in addition to the gliding motion which, by
its peculiar structure, is proper to it, and prevents a sudden
fall or abrupt descent, until in the course of a lengthened
journey it again alights obliquely on the wave. It has been
the latest decision of naturalists that the impulse obtained by
the action of the caudal fin, as it quits the sea, is the cause
of all that is observed in the air; but there are some consider-
ations which, in adopting this opinion, have scarcely been taken
into account; and some of the actions of these fishes appear to
imply that the expanded fins are not without their use in
modifying and impelling, as well as sustaining the flight; in
probable support of which opinion. Captain Tuckey, in his
Voyage to the Congo, remarked a movement of the fins of a
fluttering kind as they rose from the surface.

The observations we give are from several sources, some of
VOL. IV. S

180 GREATER FLYING FISH.

which are derived from books, but others have been obtained
from original and attentive observers who have many times sailed
across the widest expanse of ocean; with the drawback, however,
that it is probable the remarks have in either case been made
on different species of this family; for it is far from certain
that the kinds of Flying Fishes which are known to naturalists
are all that exist in nature. Still however, as there is a general
agreement in the mode of flight of all that has been observed,
our notes on this subject can scarcely fail to be applicable to
that one which is the special subject of our consideration.

Flying Fishes are generally gregarious, and it will sometimes
happen that when perhaps not greatly alarmed, they will do
no more than scatter themselves widely along the surface of the
sea; but even when prepared to rise into a lofty flight, they
will first take two or three shorter leaps before the stronger
effort is made; and then the buoyant creature is carried so high,
that it has been known to come in contact with the sail of a
ship at the height of forty feet. Humboldt is of opinion that
this is not always for the purpose of escaping from enemies;
for they are seen to move onwards by thousands straightforward,
and always in a direction opposite to that of the waves.

The time during which the flight has lasted has been measured
as amounting to thirty seconds, and an observer has informed
me that he believed it to be nearly a minute; during which
the distance passed over has amounted to two hundred yards
an enormous extent to have been executed by a single leap;
and so much the more worthy of remark, as that the strength
of this little fish has been so little exhausted by it, that on
falling on the sea it has been seen to rise instantly again in
two or three successive fiights of somewhat diminished distance,
Swainson has observed that in rising they sometimes fly off in
an obliquely angular direction from that v. uich they took at
first, as if they were under an influence by the wings and tail
after they had mounted above the water; and we know how
slight is the flutter to be noticed in the wings of many birds,
where no doubt is entertained that a sustaining and guiding
power is in operation, separate from that which only suspends
them in the air. The mechanical structure of the pectoral
organs, presently to be described, will lend some support to
this suggestion; and the want of power to vary the course of

RT^EATEIl FL^VING FISH. \,]\

flight either upwards or sideways, will offer little difficulty to
this view of the case, when we recollect that in the most
rapidly-flying birds the course for the most part is influenced
by the tail, which in the fish can have no material effect in the
air. It should not be forgotten that an hindrance to a more
extended flight in these fishes has been supposed to arise from
increasing dryness, and consequent stiffness of the fins, from
the heat of the air as it exists in the climates where these
fishes are chiefly met with. But examination shews that such
is not the case; for such of them as have fallen on board of
ships in the warmest and driest regions, are found to have
maintained the softness and flexibility of the membrane of their
fins for a longer time than is occupied by their utmost flight.

A more probable cause why contact with the water is sought
after a lengthened flight, or in the midst of it, is the need of
renewing the moisture of the gills for the purpose of breathing;
while another effort at escape is forced upon the persecuted
animal, by the appearance of some eager foe that may have
watched its progress through the air, and is waiting to receive
it into its jaws. Nor does the air itself afford a certain refuge
from its enemies; for there it is watched for by the albatross
and frigate bird, with several others; the formidable beaks
of which are employed usually in the descending curve of the
fish's fiight. It is usual in merchant-ships to spread canvass,
with outriggers over the side, at night to receive such fish as
may spring from the water, and strike against the ship. In
the morning it is the duty of the boys to examine this trap,
and sometimes a considerable number are thus obtained as a
welcome dish for the table. Amusement is also afforded by
making a not very exact likeness of this fish, but with expanded
wings; and this is hung from the bowsprit, so as that in the
motion of the ship it may at times be dipped for a moment
below the surface; and to seize it in its descent the eager
Bonitoes rush forward to their own destruction.

Within a definite range the species of this family are great
wanderers, but, according to Risso, the Greater Flying Fish
pursues in the Mediterranean a regular migration; in the course
of which they arrive in schools in the neighbourhood of Nice,
in May, in their progress eastward, and continue for about a
month; Dr. Gulia also recognises it at Malta. It does not

132 GREATER Ff.YING FISH.

appear that they are at any time caught with a hook; and
their food is supposed to be the very small molluscous and
crustacean animals which are known to abound at times in every
part ot the ocean.

I have possessed an example which measured twenty inches
and a half in length, but that which furnishes the description
is only sixteen inches, and as Rondeletius remarks, excluding
the fins, the general form bears a near resemblance to that
of the Grey Mullet The head wide, flattened between the
eyes, which are large; the mouth wide across, but the gape
small; lower jaw beyond the upper, teeth in both scarcely
perceptible; nostrils close before the eye. The body round
and wide across the back, compressed at the sides, more com-
pressed and slender towards the tail. Scales rather large, with
a separately marked line of them passing low down on the
sides from beneath the root of the pectoral fin, to the root
of each, ventral. These do not form the lateral line, which,
however, is only faintly marked. The first plate of the gill-
cover passes backward below in a blunt angle. Pectoral fins
wide, high on the body in proportion to other abdominal fishes,
and in the example described nine inches in length, with fifteen
rays, which are thin and branched, but broad, and the thin
edge in contact with the membrane; the membrane also thin,
and I am informed that when newly from the water it is
transparent. These fin-rays lengthen to the fourth. Ventral
fins long and wide, with six rays, the first short and wide, and
when stretched back it reaches so far as to cover the beginning
of the anal, in which particular, among others, this species is well
distinguished from the Lesser Flying Fish, {.E. volitans,) in
which these fins are comparatively small, as also placed more
forward on the body; although not so much so as is generally
represented in published figures. The third and fourth rays of
these fins are the longest, and they admit of great expansion.
Dorsal fin far on the hind part of the body, high at first, then
narrower, and the last rays lengthened. The anal begins opposite
half the length of the dorsal, of the same shape, and they end
opposite each other; the rays of both simple. The tail forked,
lower lobe longest. Colour bluish grey, or dark on the back,
pale blue on the sides, white below.

The structure of the organs of flight in these fishes, and

GREATER FLYING FISH. 133

particularly at their union with the body, is exceedingly inter-
esting, as might be supposed from the use to which they are
applied. Owen remarks that the bone equivalent to the radius
in higher animals is of enormous size; but the description is
given more at length in a paper on E. volitans, by Thomas
Brown, in the sixty-eighth volume of the "Transactions of the
Royal Society," (Part the Second for the year 1778.) He says,
the united ends (of the rays of the pectoral fin) are grooved
or hollowed, to receive a ridge or protuberance of the scapula,
(or blade bone,) forming a joint of little motion except backward
and forward, allowing the fin in one case to lie close to the
side, and in the other to form an acute or right angle with
the body, but without being necessarily expanded; (and thus
the size of the fin is not a hindrance in rapid swimming.)
From near the backbone downward to the bottom, where it
ends in a point behind the gillsj the body is strengthened on
each side with a flat bone; both firmly united together at the
place where narrowest, but as they become wider upward they
grow hollow on the side next the body; and towards the gills
the edge on each side is turned outward, so as to form a lodg-
ment for a strong muscle; and on the hindward part is the
articulation with the fin. Close above the joint, the bone he
ternis the scapula is hollowed in the shape of a crescent, in
order to allow the passage of a tendon from a small muscle
which lies in its lower part next to the body of the fish. The
upper part of the ridge which forms the joint, and is received
by or articulated with a fin, is somewhat enlarged and round;
and over it the strong tendon, which is bound down by a liga-
ment, together with some fibres of the muscle lodged under the
inverted edge of the bone, is obliged to pass; and then passing
over the joint, becomes inserted into the root of the uppermost
and strongest fin-ray; and near the same place, a little way
beyond the joint, is also inverted the tendon which passes along
the semilunated part before mentioned of the scapula as over
a pulley. These two muscles have their action upward, but
in opposite directions; and thus the fin becomes expanded and
raised; while the lower portion of it is kept down by an
opposing influence on the hindmost and lower muscles of the
body. There are other muscles also of smaller size which
cause this fin to move backward and forward; and the whole

iSi GREATER FLYING FISH.

apparatus of flight is so applied to the other organs of the
body, that the scapula and fin with all the appliances of muscular
structure can without difficulty be divided, except at the upper
part, from the other muscles which form the foremost portion of
the body of the fish; for the connection of the former is only
constituted by a portion of cellular membrane. The eye of these
fishes is so formed and placed as to take in extensive but not
distant vision ; and the muscles which move the eye are more
distinct, firm and strong, than is generally the case in fishes.
The air-bladder is large.

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HEMIRAMPHUS.

Abdominal fishes, the body lengthened; the upper jaw very short in
comparison with the lower, and formed by the intermaxillary bones.
Lower jaw of considerable length, with teeth only so lur as it meets
with the upper jaw.

EUKOPP^AN HALFBEAK.

EUROPEAN HEMIRAMPHUS.

Hemlramplius, Couch, in Trans. Lin. Soc, vol. xiv.

" EuropoBus, Yakrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 450.

Report for 1847, of Nat. Hist. Society of
Penzance.

(I

Many years ago, while engaged in taking Prawns in the
harbour of Polperro, a small fish was observed at the surface
of the shallow water with such an appearance of action as seemed
unusual. It was easily caught, and on close examination
appeared to be very different from any that had been known
hitherto in England. The example was scarcely an inch in
length, and therefore might well be judged to be in an early
stage of existence; but as the figure was made out, it was
described in a communication to the Linnean Society, as above
quoted, as belonging to the only genus then recognised in which
such fishes were arranged by Linnaeus. But a doubt rested
on the subject, in consequence of the fact that only a single
example had been met with in any part of Europe, and this
of very small size; and it was urged that the parent fishes must
before this have been discovered, if such had ever come so
near us, as the existence of so young a one would appear to
imply. Several years had passed after thi^ first discovery

136 EUROPEAN HALFBEAK,

without anything further having come to light, when the original
supposition appeared to be confirmed in an accidental research
on the coast of Essex, reported by Dr. Clark, of Ipswich, by
which a considerable number of similar fishes were obtained;
some of which were sent to Mr. Yarrell, and from which a
figure and description were derived, as contained in the second
edition of his "History of British Fishes." Again on a later
occasion, Mr. William Laughrin, A.L.S., of Polperro, obtained
a sight of a considerable number of these fishes, similar in size
to those mentioned by Mr. Yarrell, as they were in active
movement in one of those large pools on our rocky coast, which
are alternately left and covered with the tide; and he amused
himself in watching their actions, sufficiently near to be assured
of the exact form of these fishes, although he was not in
possession of means by Avhich to obtain them.

But in addition to this I have been favoured with a com-
munication from J. S. Martin, Esq., of Weymouth, who kindly
sent me two examples, which I have closely examined, and of
which I took a figure with a description, which will be brought
into connection with that of another presently to be mentioned
of much larger size, of the taking of which I shall presently
give an account. Mr. Martin informs me that the two sent
were a portion of eight examples which were obtained alive
in the Isle of Wight, in the month of August; and although
six of them died soon, two of them lived for a time, and one
survived for a week, during which it swam in a lively manner
at the surface of the wafer among floating seaweed, with the
appearance of enjoying the bright sunshine. These examples
were about two inches in length; but even at this size it has
been supposed they might be no other than an early stage of
the growth of the Common Garfish; for some naturalists were
not at all disposed to believe that any one species of a usually
tropical family could have come habitually to the British coast;
and even to an eastward part of it for the purpose of shedding
its spawn, and that too without the parent fishes having been
discovered; and the difljerence of length in the upper portion
of the jaw was judged to be only the primitive condition of
that organ in the well-known British fish. The fact that these
little Halfbeaks were found to have their bones of a green
colour, like those of the Garfish, was supposed to add much

EUROPEAN HALFBEAK. 137

probability to this supposition; but the question has been set
at rest, first, by the discovery of the young of the Garfish of
no larger growth than the smallest of the Halfbeaks referred
to, but with the upper jaw of the fully proportioned length
of the full-grown fish; and again by the discovery of an example
of much larger, and we believe, adult growth, in which the
disproportion in the length of the jaws was more decided than
even in such examples as had before been met with. From
this example also it will be seen how it happens that a fish,
whose habit it is to keep at a distance from land, cannot have
been taken in nets, the meshes of which are of the usual size
for other fishes.

It was on the 11th. of September, in the year 1847, that
some driving boats were at the distance of four or five leagues
from land, in weather inclined to be stormy, when a wave broke
into one of them; and when the first rush of water had subsided,
a fish was found to have been thrown on board, which was
immediately wrapped in a piece of cloth; and it was brought
to me as soon as the boat had reached the land. As regarded
it there could not be a mistake, although this example differed
in the length of the protruding jaw from such as I had seen
before; and it is from this example that our figure and description
are derived; with the addition, as we have said, of some notes
from others already referred to.

The length was three inches and a half, the general figure
slender, as represented in the plate; from the angle of the
mouth to the point of the lower jaw one inch and about an
eighth, which is a longer proportion than in other specimens
I have seen, and in Mr. Yarrell's figure of another of my own.
The eye large and silvery; head flat; angle of the mouth
depressed, but the gape straight anteriorly; nostrils large, in a
depression close in front of the eye; upper jaw short, pointed,
with teeth along its length; lower jaw furnished with teeth
only so far forwards as corresponds with those of the upper
jaw; beyond this plain, without a furrow. The teeth are
perpendicular to the jaws, straight, not very closely set, long
for the size of the fish, but not of regular height. Lateral
line straight. Colour of the back bluish, separated from the
side by a defined line; side and belly silvery. Pectoral fins
high on the side, somewhat lengthened and slender; in which
VOL. IV. T

138 EUROPEAN HALFBEAK,

it differs from those of the Garfish, which are proportionally
shorter, wider, and not pointed; the fin-rays nine. Dorsal and
anal fins far behind and opposite, reaching to the origin of the
tail; but in the examples received from Mr. Martin, the anal
was a little in advance of the dorsal; rays in the former nineteen,
in the anal twenty-two. Tail concave. In Mr. Martin's fishes
the upper jaw was arched or humped where it joined the head,
which was not the case with other examples. The elevated
line of scales which passes along the border of the belly on each
side in the Garfish is not visible, even with the aid of a lens,
in this Halfbeak.

The special use of the remarkable formation of the jaws in
this fish can only be guessed at; but the observations of Mr.
Swainson seem to be appropriate: "It is a remarkable circum-
stance that we have a genus of birds equally unique in its
own class, where the mouth is similarly constructed; in Rhyncops,
or Skimming Terns, the upper jaw in fact is considerably shorter
than the lower; and these birds skim along the surface of
the sea to feed upon those minute animals which are only to
be found there. This well-authenticated fact throws considerable
light upon the probable habits of these fishes," which we are
led to believe, "habitually feed much in the same manner." It
was particularly noticed in the little example while alive that
the upper jaw only was seen to move.

139

BLUNT-HEADED HALFBEAK.

Hemiramphus obtusns, Zoologist, January, 1848.

" " List of British Animals in the

British Museum, 1851.

In the summer of the year 1841, I discovered, swimming in
a pool of the rocks, where they had been left by the tide,
several of the little fishes presently to be described, and of
which we give a figure; and an account of these examples was
read before the Linneean Society in the following year. I have
not seen any fishes like them since the time here mentioned;
but in the year 1846, some of a similar kind were obtained
from a pool in the Mount's Bay, near Penzance by my late
son Richard Q. Couch; and an account was given of them, with
a figure of my own specimens, in the "Zoologist," as above
referred to. My impression at the time was, that they were
the young condition of some unknown species; but I have not
been able with any probability to assign them to any kind of
fish known to naturalists; and the account is here given in the
hope that future observation will throw some further light on
the subject.

The length of my own specimens was half an inch; the
head proportionally large, wide across; body slender; eye large,
and the snout in front of it short and abrupt; upper jaAV arched;
under jaw stout, projecting to a considerable extent, but in some
specimens more than others; the point declining, and the sides
not appearing to be formed of parallel rami of the jaw, but
rather of a cartilaginous substance; vent placed posteriorly; body
equal from the head to this point, but tapering thence to the
tail; lateral line, so far as it could be distinguished, straight;
dorsal and anal fins single, posterior, opposite each other; the
latter beginning close behind the vent, and both reaching nearly

140 BLUNT-HEA.DF.r) HALFBEAK.

to the tail; their membrane at first broader, but narrowing in
its progress; pectoral fins and tail round. Ventral fins small,
and very obscure to be seen only in the larger specimens.
The colour in different specimens varied greatly from dark
with a tint of green, to yellowish green and cream-coloured,
with specks.

141

SCOMBERESOX.

Both jaws sleuder, and extended to considerable length; furnished
with slender teeth. Scales on the body, and a line of them of
keeled structure along each side of the belly. Several sepai'ate small
fins above and below between the dorsal and anal fins and the tail.
Abdominal fishes.

SKIPPER.

SAURY. SKOPSTER. MACKAREL GARRICK. HALIOU.

A.GUS minor, Jonston; Table 15, f. 15.

Saurus acuhus similis, Rondeletius.

Lacertus vel Saurus, Willotjghby ; p. 232.

Esox saurus', Turton's Limifeus. Donovan; pi. 116.

Scoynheresox saurus, Cuvier.

" " Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 184.

" " Yarbell ; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p, 446.

" Gamperii, Risso. Bloch. Schneider; pi. 78, 2.

Belone saurus, Jenyns; Manual, p. 419.

This is a migratory fish, which comes to our coasts at the
beginning of summer, and my earliest notes of its appearance,
from the information of fishermen at the opening of the British
Channel, are between the first week in June and the end of
that month; and soon afterAvards they spread themselves in
companies round the United Kingdom, up to the most northern
districts, where, in calm weather, they may be seen to afford a
considerable degree of amusement to an observer. It may
happen that the first appearance of this fish is announced by
its presence in the shallow water of some of our harbours, in
the pools of which it may be left by the ebbing tide, and it
has been sent, with an inquiry as to its name and rarity, from
a portion of a river so high that the water was fresh; but

14:2 SKIPPER.

they usually keep in the open sea, where they are continually
in motion, in doing which they are exposed to the fate, as in
some degree they exhibit the habits of the Flying Fish, for
which it is probable they have been mistaken by observers
who have had no more than a general knowledge of the
habits of these species. They are followed and persecuted by the
Porpoise, and the more swift and energetic Tunny and Bonito,
which appear to devour many of them; and in their eagerness
to escape multitudes are seen to mount to the surface, to
which the particular construction of the pectoral fin is well
fitted to guide them, and there they crowd on each other as
they press forward. Under the impulse of terror they spring
to the height of several feet leap over each other in singular
confusion, and then again sink out of sight. But the pursuers
again shew themselves, and they mount again, and rush along
the surface for more than a hundred feet in a continued
effort, without the body for a moment being lost sight of,
and, as it would appear, by the instant but repeated touch
on the water of the pectoral fins, and those which lie along
the under part of the body.

It is this rapid and straightforward action which has procured
for this fish the name of Sea Mouse, and which is so well
described by the Greek writers Opj^ian and -3^1ian, as practised
by a fish they have called Hierax or Hirax, the (Sea) Hawk,
that I have come to the conclusion of its being the species
formerly understood by that name. Referring to the creatures
of the ocean that are able to fly, the Greek poet comjjares
together the Flying Cuddle Fish, Sieve, or Kteuthis, Sea
Swallow or Chelidon, and the Hirax, or Sea Hawk.

When ravenous foes pursue they conscious rise,

And court the kind protection of the skies.

Far on unfeathered wings the Sieves are borne;

Sea swallows lower fly. * * *

But cautious Hawks, tho' winged, will nearer keep,

And, hovering, o'er the wavy surface sweep.

They rinse their moisten'd wings as close they skim,

Both elements enjoy, and, flying, swim.

Oppian.

And ^lian, B. 9, C. 45, so nearly says the same thing, that it
might be supposed one of these writers had copied from the
other. The Hierax, says he, is accustomed to raise itself so

SKIPPER. 143

little above the surface, that it is hard to say whether it swims
or Hies. But, he adds, it is not ahvays thus; and the Skipper
will sometimes spring aloft to the height of perhaps a couple
of yards, and thus pass over an arch of thirty or forty feet:
and although this is very much less than that which is passed
over by the Flying Fish, already described, yet when we con-
sider that there is no extent of wing to sustain the flight, the
effort itself of reaching and passing over such an elevation
must be regarded with surprise.

It was the opinion of the older naturalists that this flsh was
everywhere rare. Willoughby had never an opportunity of
seeing it, and Rondeletius only as a curiosity sent to him, but
of which he has given a characteristic figure. But these fishes
sometimes come to the coasts of Cornwall and Devonshire in
very large numbers; so that many thousands have been taken
at once in a sean; but as they usually swim near the surface,
they are at the present time taken in smaller quantities than
formerly, in consequence of a difference in the manner of
employing drift-nets for Pilchards. At no distant time these
nets were made to float close to the surface, where they were
exposed to frequent injury from the passage of ships over them;
but at this time they are suffered to sink to the depth of two
or three fathoms, which seems to be beloAv the general range
of these fishes. In the course of one year of the season,
when Pilchards were sought for, the schools that appeared
proved to consist of none but these Skippers, to the extent of
several thousands at a single shoot of the sean or nets; for,
contrary to their usual habits when in a body, they came near
to the land; and it was the opinion of the fishermen that such
an antipathy exists between these fish and Pilchards, that the
presence of the former is an hindrance to a successful fishery
of the latter. About the middle of autumn these fish again
leave our coasts, and the latest I have any notice of was at
the end of November, at which time they have become decidedly
fat. As food it is not to be despised, and the taste is said
to bear some resemblance to that of the Mackarel.

Repeated examination of the stomach shews that the food of
this fish consists of a great variety of materials. Sometimes it
consists of entomostraca, or such small crustaceous animals as
are in an early stage of the larger crustaceans, and which

144 SKIPPER.

abound through the warmer seasons of the year; but I have
also found pieces of small red sea-weeds, and even of the marine
vegetable Zostera marina, with small stones; and as this Zostera
is not known to grow anywhere out of harbours, in which
fresh water mingles with that of the sea, it is to be concluded
that this fish sometimes comes to such a situation in search of
food. In a rare instance it has also been taken with a hook,
where the bait was made to imitate a living prey; and a
description of the jaws will shew that they are not ill calculated
for seizing an active object, and to hold it fast.

The usual length of this fish is from ten to about eighteen
inches; the body slender, deepest opposite the beginning of the
back. In the example from which our figure was taken, Avhich
measured ten inches and a half from the point of the lower
jaw to the fork of the tail, the depth in a straight line was
one inch; but in its fattest condition the depth is nearer the
ventral fins. The head slopes forward from the nape; eye
rather large; and in the example described the jaws projected
before the eyes two inches and a half, the lower a little beyond
the upper. This is sometimes described as turned up, but
most frequently it ends straight, and sometimes it occurs turned
a little downward. There are teeth in both jaws, but in the
upper they are singularly placed; very small, numerous, close
set, and spreading along the edge, so as to resemble on a small
scale the teeth along the border of the Saw-fish Shark; and as
when the lower jaw moves downward, an influence is exerted
on the upper, so as to raise it as on a hinge, the grasp is
wider than at first sight may appear; in this respect bearing a
near likeness to the structure and use of the same parts in the
Garfish. Nostrils in front of the eyes, placed in a recess of
firm structure, resembling a mystache. A row of seventeen
blue dots along the margin of the first gill-cover, which, on
close examination, are seen to be pores. The body covered
with scales of rather small size; and along each side of the
belly a row of them of difterent form, as there is also in the
Garfish, and less conspicuously in the Flying Fishes; the use
of which is to serve as a point of support for muscles, from
which additional strength is exerted for those lively actions by
which all these fishes are distinguished. The pectoral fins are
email, pointed at the upper part, and so constructed as to give

SKIPPER. 145

the head an upward direction with a slight effort when swimming
in haste; the rays thirteen or fourteen. Dorsal and anal fins
far behind, and opposite, eleven or twelve rays in each; ventral
fins a considerable distance before the vent and anal fin, with
eight rays; and behind the dorsal and anal fins are finlets, which
vary from five to seven in number; tail forked. The scales
are easily lost, and then the skin appears more or less of a
deep green; but when unhurt the back is a fine blue, the
belly silvery tinged with blue; and from the upper line of the
gill-covers to the tail there passes a broad line of silvery white.

VOL IV.

u

146

BELONE.

The ventral fins abdominal. ioay lengthened, slender; both jaws
lengthened, slender, with teeth along their sides. Dorsal and anal fins
far behind, and no finlets. A line of raised scales along each side of
the belly.

GARFISH.

LONGNOSE. HORNBEAK.

Acits Oppiani, Acus alia, Jonston; Table 15, f. 17.

WiLLOTJGHBY; p. 231, Table P. 2.
Esox helone, LiNNiius. Bloc]i; pi. 33.

Donovan ; pi. 64.
Belone vulgaris, Cuviek. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 1 84.

" " Jenyns ; Manual, p. 418.

" " Yakrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 442.

On the coast of Cornwall this fish is common at all seasons,
as also m the Mediterranean, and more sparingly, according to
Mr. Lowe, at Madeira; but as spring advances it extends its
wanderings northward, so as to be known along the borders
of Scotland, Sweden, and Norway, in Avhich latter country
Nilsson says it is a common remark that when the Garfish
appears in spring it is a sign of a dry summer. In the north,
however, its visit is only transitory, and it returns to the south
in winter.

But wherever found it is a restless and wandering species,
and having a quick digestion of food, it is always prepared
to seize a bait, which it grasps with a peculiar action of its
protruded jaws, j)i"esently to be described; but as the action
of swallowing is not usually so sudden as in many other kinds
of fish, when the boat is passing on rapidly under sail, the

S 3

^ o

GARFISH. 147

prey becomes torn from it in a manner well known to fisher-
men. But when again the hook is felt in the gullet, the
Garfish does not seek to escape by darting away, but, as if
conscious only of the annoyance from the restraint of the line,
it will mount to the surface, even before the fisherman dis-
covers that he has had a bite; and there, with its body partly
out of the water, it struggles with the line in a variety of
active contortions.

The feeding of this fish appears to be indiscriminate, for
whatever of an animal kind it can seize and swallow; but it
feeds also on a black fly which alights on the sea in fine
weather, and sometimes its stomach is filled with them. I have
taken Herrings of about one third the full growth from their
stomachs, a single one in each; for it will not hold more, and
the passage is straight to the vent.

There are times also, when the sea is calm and smooth, that
it may be seen engaged in solitary amusement at the surface,
or perhaps many together, by leaping again and again over
some floating object, as a rod or straw; or it may thrust itself
bolt upright out of the water, to fall back again in an apparently
clumsy manner. It is an amusement with fisherboys to throw
some slender stick to the Garfish, when it will execute a variety
of evolutions about and over it as it floats.

The roe is of full growth from the beginning of January to
about Midsummer; and Nilsson says that the season of spawning
is three times in the year, but not with the same individual
fish. The largest spawn first, and so in succession to the
youngest. We have already shewn, when speaking of the
European Halfbeak, that in their early stage the young may
be distinguished from those of that fish by some decisive marks;
and they appear to be of quick growth, so as to be from six
to nine inches in length by the month of October.

On the east and south coasts of England there are fisheries
for the Garpike, with nets, which are shot by night from small
boats; but which are received on board a larger boat that
attends them, if the weather becomes stormy. But this fish is
not much valued as food; although it meets with a sale in
London and some of the larger towns, and where known it is
as welcome a dish as some that are elsewhere highly valued.
Among fishermen it is for the most part cut in pieces and

148 GARFISH,

used as bait. Perhaps the strong and disagree?,ble smell that
proceeds from it when newly caught, may be the reason of its
being little regarded for the table.

This fish attains the length of about thirty inches, but the
example described measured only twenty inches, and the greatest
depth, which was at the ventral fins, an inch and a half. The
jaws protrude beyond the eyes three inches and a half; upper
jaw more slender than the loAver, and not quite so long. The
two branches forming the lower jaw are united by bone, which
is crossed with rough bony bars; and the upper jaw is equally
united into one, but without bars. Two rows of teeth in the
upper jaw, of which the inner row is much the most prominent;
in the lower jaw a single row. In the mouth a fleshy pad in
front of the tongue, which with the remarkable structure of
the nostril, in a pit, with a free fleshy process and large
nerves passing thither, shew it to be of quick sensation after
prey. Eye large; upper part of the head hard and bony.
Body moderately compressed, with scales, and a ridge of them
of peculiar form passing along each side of the belly through
the whole length; acting as a point of support for muscular
effort. The body becomes more slender opposite the dorsal and
anal fins, which are far behind and opposite each other; more
expanded at their origin, and ending short of the tail, which
is forked. Pectoral fin short, upper rays longest; ventrals
distant before the vent and front of the anal fin. The colour
brilliant blue on the back, slight tints of blue on the fins, all
besides brilliant white.

The articulation of the jaws is characteristic. The upper jaw
is joined to the frontal bone by a strong ligament, which admits
of free motion. A process of this upper jaw also passes down
to the angle of the mouth; being covered by a mystache formed
of a bone corresponding to what anatomists term the os unguis.
The interior part of this process is joined by a ligament to the
raised edge of the lower jaw; this ligament also admits of free
motion. But the proper articulation of the under jaw is below
the eye, to what from that circumstance perhaps may be called
the temporal bone, but which is the first or lowest gill-cover.
The eflfect of this structure is, that the depressing action of the
lower jaw is the cause of the lifting of the upper jaw; and
that, too, to a greater extent than the lower, by a kind of

GARFISH. 149

action not common to many fishes. The simplicity of this
structure for grasping is equal to its effectiveness.

The bones of this fish are of a light green colour, which
some naturalists have supposed to be produced by the action
of boiling in water. But it is the same when the fish is alive,
as it is also in the European Hemiramphus, and, as Mr.
Owen informs us, in the Lepidosiren. It in reality resides in
some minute channels that pass through the bones for the purpose
of nourishing them. Professor Owen further remarks that this
is the only known fish in which a cup and ball joint is found
at the ribs; all other fishes having two cups, which meet at
their rims, with fluid interposed between them.

I have met with a curious irregularity in the formation of
the lobes of roe, which were of no more than half the usual
length, but four in number instead of two; and one of them
at least had no communication with the common outlet, but
seemed to communicate with the entrail.

150

ESOX.

The snout protruded, broad, and somewhat flattened; gape wide, the
palate, throat, and sides of the lower jaw thicklj- armed with prominent
teeth. Body lengthened, dorsal and anal fins single, far behind and
opposite each other. Abdominal fishes.

PIKE.

JACK.

Liicius, JoNSTON; Table 29, f. 1. Willoughby; p. 236.

Table p. 6.
Esox lucms, LiNNiEus. Cuviek. Bloch; PI. 32.

Donovan; PI. 109. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 184.
" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 417. Yareell; Br. Fishes,

vol. i, p. 434.

The Pike has been long popularly known as cliaracterized
by an eager and almost indiscriminate appetite, accompanied
with great boldness in all that relates to the satisfying of its
cravings; and numerous stories illustrative of this are recorded
in books of Natural History, We will quote a few of these,
from writers that are less accessible to readers in general, in
order to shew this predominant disposition of what has been
termed the tyrant of the lake and stream; and in which its
voracity equals, if it does not exceed, even that of the generality
of Sharks; although from its more limited powers and opportu-
nities it does not usually display them on the higher animals
or man. The naturalist Jonston quotes Rondeletius as saying,
(what I do not find in my copy of that author, A.D. 1554,)
that a friend of his had stopped on the border of the Rhone
that his mule might drink, when a Pike seized the animal by
the lower lip, and held it so fast, that as the animal started

M o

PIKE 151

backward the fish Avas lifted out of the water and secured.
Another of these fishes was known to have seized the foot
of a young woman as she held it naked in a pond.

A more modern instance of similar ferocity is given from
Mr. Pennell's "Angler Naturalist," as quoted in the "Athenfeum;"
and the half-starved condition of the fish in this case will help
us to understand the influence which was at work in the other
instances, to drive these fishes to the remarkable manifestations
of boldness reported of them: A young gentleman, "aged
fifteen, went with three other boys to bathe in Inglemere Pond,
near Ascot race-course, in June, 1856; he walked gently into
the water to about the depth of four feet, when he spread out
his hands to attempt to swim; instantly a large fish came up
and took his hand into his mouth as far as the wrist, but
finding he could not swallow it, relinquished his hold, and the
boy turning round, prepared for a hasty retreat out of the
pond; his companions who saw it also scrambled out as fast as
possible." He "had scarcely turned himself round when the
fish came up behind him, and immediately seized his other
hand crosswise, inflicting some very deep wounds on the back
of it; the boy raised his first bitten and still bleeding arm, and
struck the monster a hard blow on the head, when the fish
disappeared." Seven Avounds were dressed on one hand, "and
so great was the pain the next day, that the lad fainted t\Adce;
the little finger was bitten through the nail, and it was more
than six weeks before it was well. The nail came off, and the
scar remains to this day. A few days after this occurrence one
of the woodmen was walking by the side of the pond, when
he saw something white floating." It was found to be a large
Pike in a dying state, and he brought it to the shore, "and
the boy at once recognised his antagonist. The fish appeared
to have been a long time in the agonies of death, and the body
was very lean and curved like a bow. It measured forty-one
inches, and died the next day. There can be no doubt the
fish was in a state of complete starvation. If well fed it is
probable it might have weighed from thirty to forty pounds."
In Dr. CruU's "Present State of Muscovy, (1698,)" mention is
made of a Pike that when taken was found to have an infant
child in its stomach.

A more ordinary occurrence has been the seizure of ducks

152 PIKE.

and half-grown geese as they swim; and even a couple of
young geese, Avith a waterhen, were found in the stomach of
one of these fish. It has also been known on some occasions
to seize and devour one of its own species almost as large as
itself. When this occurs, however, the whole body of the prey
cannot be received at once into the stomach; and the devourer
has been seen with the tail and a portion of its victim protruding
from its mouth, until by the dissolution of a part, there is room
afforded for the remaining portion to be in turn subjected to
the powers of digestion. With such perpetual craving it may
be supposed that where they exist the defenceless inhabitants
of the river are enormous sufferers from their depredations; and
so rapidly do they pursue the anxious flight of their prey, that
Jonston was himself a witness to a Pike's having thrown itself
into a boat in the eagerness of the chase. But notwithstanding
the voracity which so strikingly distinguishes this fish, we are
not to conclude that it does not exercise some degree of choice
in its food, or that some amount of fear or caution does not
mingle itself with its boldness.

The frog is a favourite morsel; so that it has been said there
is no croaking in that department of a pond where the Pike
seeks concealment; but it will not touch a toad, or if on some
particular occasion the fish has ventured to swallow it, the
hateful morsel is presently thrown up; as it is known to do
also with other disagreeable food. It is generally believed that
it abstains from seizing the Perch, and also the Stickleback,
through fear of the bristling spines with which these fishes are
armed; and it is said to abstain also from the Tench, as if
from some dislike of the slimy covering of its skin; but this has
been ascribed to the higher motives of love or gratitude, a sort
of feeling little likely to be felt by it, notwithstanding poetic
authority in its support; and indeed more prosaic observation
asserts the opposite of such a self-restraint.

In the "Zoologist" volume for 1853, p. 4125, the Rev. W. T.
Bree says that he "turned into a pit fifty-seven small Tench
and upwards of three score Crucian Carps; and not a great
while afterwards, having discovered the presence of Pikes in
this piece of water, a net was employed, with which three of
that species were taken, which weighed respectively about three
pounds, two, and a pound and a half; but all that remained

PIKE. 153

of the other fishes which had been placed in this pond were
one Tench, that weighed a pound and a half, and eight Crucians
of about a pound each;" and he adds, "I cannot have the
smallest doubt that the Pike devoured the fish that were missing,
and these nine that remained only escaped because they were
rather too large for these Pikes to swallow." But in addition
to this, the same gentleman remarks, that in fact the Pike is
doubly destructive of Tench, as well as of other fish, "not only
devouring such as are of a size suitable to the capacity of his
jaws and stomach, but also by seizing, mutilating, and finally
destroying others which are too large to be so disposed of."

The formidable array of teeth in the mouth of the Pike must
present an eflfectual barrier to the escape of any prey when
once it has been grasped within the jaws; but this armature is
of further use in crushing the life from the creature that is
seized; and then it is conveyed away to a retreat, in order to
its being passed into the stomach in a more deliberate manner.
The usual haunts of the Pike are in the stiller waters of
slow-floAving rivers, and ponds where weeds are growing; in
which situations it lies in wait for any tempting prey that may
come withiir sight, and from Avhich it makes excursions in
search of any living thing that may satisfy its hunger. On this
it rushes with a violence well described in an extract given by
Dr.' Badham, in his "Fish Tattle," from which we quote it:
"Shrouded from observation in his solitary retreat, he follows
with his eye the motions of the shoals of fish that wander
heedlessly along; he marks the water-rat swimming to his
burrow, the ducklings paddling among the water-weeds, the
dabchick and the waterhen leisurely swimming on the surface;
he selects his victim, and, like the tiger springing from the jungle,
he rushes forth, seldom indeed missing his aim; there is a sudden
rush, circle after circle forms on the surface of the water, and
all is still again in an instant;" and in this manner it sometimes
happens that a pond is almost, wholly deprived of its most
valued inhabitants, the solitary Pike being left, like some human
tyrants, to reign and starve in gloomy grandeur over a kingdom
destitute of inhabitants.

This fish is known in almost every part of England except
Cornwall; and the lake or pond of Slap ton Ley, in Devonshire,
is the only part of that county in which I can find it has
VOL IV X

154 PIKE

been taken. I have received it from the north of Ireland,
through the kindness of the Earl of Enniskillen; and Mr.
Thompson mentions several lakes in that kingdom in which it
abounds. It is recorded also as a native of several rivers in
Scotland. Over the larger part of the continent of Europe it
is well known, and it is in abundance throughout Sweden and
Norway to a high degree of latitude; where in the latter
country, according to Linna'us, it is caught and preserved to
serve as a principal portion of the subsistence of the poor
people in winter. And although it is strictly a fish of fresh
water, so that it can only live for a short time, and in a sickly
condition in that which is altogether salt, it is also found in
the upper portion of the Baltic, where the water is sufficiently
diluted to allow it to thrive. Spain is not wholly without the
Pike, as has been said by some; and it is an inhabitant of the
temperate and colder regions of Asia, even so far as China, as
also in America. It seems therefore a matter of surprise that
this fish is scarcely mentioned, if at all, by the ancient writers
of Greece and Rome; in the former of which we meet with
no reference to it; and in the latter, if it be the Esox mentioned
by Pliny, his only notice of it is, that in the Rhone it has been
known to weigh a thousand pounds; which assertion, derived
perhaps from popular report, is sufficiently wide of the probable
truth as to encourage the doubt of its being the fish now known
by the same name. Yet as a native of the Tiber it must have
been known to the people of Rome; but their writers seem
generally to have disregarded the natural living habits and
instincts of the inhabitants of the waters, and to have viewed
fishes as worthy of notice only so far as they ministered to
the luxuries of the table, or again as they contributed some
occult qualities to the impostures of medical magicians, who
abounded in the city, and to the absurd pretensions of whom
the higher classes of ancient Rome were accustomed to lend a
willing ear. Ausonius, writing in the fourth century, mentions
it as a fish of the Moselle; but this he does only to record a
commonplace piece of wit, in reference to its vulgar name of
Lucius; which signified one that was born in the early morning
light, or, as interpreted, under favourable circumstances, and
it was therefore greatly valued by the Romans, for having been
borne by many illustrious men of that empire; in contrast with

PTKR. 155

whom it appeared absurd to apply it to a fish of such little
estimation.

It has been supposed that the Pike attains the age for
spawning in three years, and that the youngest deposit their
roe at the earliest season of the year, which may be in February
or March; after which at successive intervals those of middle
age and the oldest succeed them; the whole season continuing
for about three months. These fish are very prolific, and we
derive from Nilsson the following account of the probable
comparative numbers of the grains of spawn to be found in
fishes of the two extremes; comprising some whose living is
procured from vegetables chiefly, or insects, and the ravenous
devourer of the full-grown inhabitants of the fresh-water. Thus
on the authority of Lund, there have been obtained from a
Pike which weighed thirty-five pounds, two hundred and seventy-
two thousand one hundred and sixty grains of spawn; from a
Carp of the weight of three pounds, two hundred and thirty-
seven thousand; and from a Tench of the same size, three
hundred and eighty-three thousand two hundred and fifty. For
a Salmon he reckons a thousand for every pound of its weight;
but for the most part fish of fresh-water are less prolific than
those of the sea.

The place of depositing the roe is not the same with the
haunts of this fish at other seasons; but a regular migration
takes place at the breeding season, in search of such smaller,
more rapid, and clearer streams as will suit their purpose; and
in doing this they will overcome difficulties that ask no little
exertion. The spawn is shed on the cleanest weed, and presently
afterward the parent fish return to the weedy nooks of the pond
or river, in which they maintain their station during the remainder
of the summer. It has been thought that the object of the
parent Pikes in seeking for retired brooks in which to shed
their spawn, has been to secure their helpless young ones from
the depredations of other fishes, on which in turn they are
destined to subsist; but if this were the motive their care avails
but little; for the number of Pikes which reach maturity bears
only a small proportion to the grains of roe that are shed. It
is more probable, however, that they are guided by instinctive
feeling to choose a purer water than that of their usual haunts,
and a mixture of proper temperature with brighter light; the

156 PIKE.

influence of which latter on the development of the smaller
animals is well known. The young are produced in about
thirty days, and their growth is rapid, but it is much slower
as they advance in years, and yet without ceasing up to a
considerable age; the full extent of Avhich appears to exceed
that of any other known inhabitant of the waters.

Lord Bacon supposed this fish to live for about forty years, and
it has been reported to have been known to reach a hundred;
but even this lengthened date must yield to the account given
by Gesner, who says that in the year 1497, a Pike was caught
in a lake or pond near Hailbrun, in Suabia; and attached to
its gill was found a brass ring, of which a small part was still
bright and shining, and of which he gives a figure with the
inscription engraved on it. This was in Greek, and a translation
of it is, "I am the first fish that was placed in this pond by
the hand of Frederik the Second, Governor of the World, on
the 5th. of October, 1230;" from which, adds this writer, we
conclude that this fish had reached the age of two hundred
and sixty-seven years. From the size of the ring, as given in
the before-named figure, it is to be supposed that when placed in
the pond it was not a small fish; and if it had not then been
caught, there appeared a likelihood of its continuing still to
live on for a considerable time. The diameter of the ring
exceeded three inches and a half, with a breadth at the border
of one fourth of an inch; and on its side was another ring one
inch and five eighths in diameter, by which it appears to have
been attached to the fish; while on the other side were fastened
six round drops of metal as large as peas, each of which is
fastened to the border of the principal ring by a short stem.

No small amount of curiosity has been felt in reference to
the fact that Pikes have sometimes been found in newly-made
ponds, where it is not known that they can have been introduced
by human hands; and very diflferent opinions have been advanced
to explain the circumstance. Gesner ascribes it to the stork,
which he supposes to have devoured the spawn of the fish,
which afterwards has passed through the body of the bird
undigested, and has come to life after it has been discharged
into the water. In a report of the Meeting of the British
Association for 1845, we are told that the then Bishop (Stanley)
of Norwich, P.L.S., related several facts which went to shew

PIKE. 157

that grains of the roe of Pikes were deposited in the thatch
of a cottage, where they remained for some years; and then,
when this thatch had been thrown into a dry ditch, that
afterwards was filled with rain, young Pikes were seen to be
produced. It is certain at least that Pikes of some moderate
size will leave the river or pond in which they have lived,
and travel over land to some other water; but this alone cannot
account for the fact that these fishes in a very early stage of
existence have been found in these newly-formed pieces of
water, to which, from their very small size, Ave cannot suppose
them to have travelled over land.

Much difference of opinion has existed in regard to the value
set on the Pike for the table; so that while in some districts
it has been highly valued, in others it has been thought scarcely
worthy of notice. But this will not be deemed stransre when
we consider the effect produced on the generality of fishes by
the difference of food, of water, and even by the colour of the
soil; and their health is also much influenced by the season
of the year; for the Pike is said to be in a high condition
only through the summer, from June to October. That it was
known and greatly valued in England at a time far preceding
that in which Leonard Mascal is reported to have introduced
it, may be seen in the Book of St. Albans; and it is mentioned
also by Chaucer. It was also thought of sufficient importance
in the reign of King Edward the First as to be made, with
other fishes, a subject of that king's legislative meddling; and
a further proof of the value set on the Pike, in company with
Bream, is seen in an enormous feast given by Archbishop
Neville, at his entlironation in the reign of Edward the Fourth,
when six hundred and eight of these fishes, conjointly, were
set before the guests, together with twelve porpoises and seals;
but no other fish, properly so called, was thought worthy of
the notice of the guests. It is probable however that the high
price fixed on it at that time is to be considered rather as a proof
of the prevalence of fashion than of the general esteem in which
it was held; and it is further probable that it was the cost
and skill bestowed on feeding it for the market, as we shall
presently shew, that enhanced the price above that of many
other fishes.

We have it on the authority of Gesner and other writers of

158 PIKE.

that age, that it was usual to cut open the belly of this fish
to the extent of two or three inches, in the same manner as
we have noticed of the Carp, in order to display to the
purchaser its well-fed condition; and in this state it was pre-
served alive in the market, to be restored to its native element
if a sale were not effected. It was under these circumstances
of its being thus returned that the Tench was supposed to act
as the physician, and by licking the wound to cause it to heal
speedily. So lately as the time of Willoughby and Ray we
are told that captive Pikes were kept in coops or wooden
frames afloat in the river at Cambridge, in order to be fattened
and in constant readiness for the market; and the price of one
that was full grown, and thus in good condition, might amount
to twenty shillings, although a Pike of smaller size would be
sold for as many pence. I possess a memorandum of a Pike
which, in March, 1752, was caught in Devonshire, in what the
writer calls Slatton Pool, and which may be supposed the lake
termed by Montagu, Slapton Ley; the length of which fish
was two feet and nine inches, the weight nineteen pounds, and
for which the price demanded Avas three crowns and a half.
Three shillings were offered for it and refused; but on the
following day it was sold for half a crown. But while the
flesh of this fish may be deemed wholesome, and by some a
delicacy, it has been said that the roe is dangerous food, and
by some it has even been pronounced poisonous. We can
readily believe that on some constitutions, and as an unusual
food, it may act with considerable violence; but Linnseus, in
his travels (Lachesis Lapponica) in Lycksele Lapland, informs
us that it constitutes a part of the ordinary diet of the people
of that country; where "the spawn is dried, and afterwards
used as bread, dumplings, and what is called vailing a sort
of gruel made by boiling flour or oatmeal in milk or water.
The livers are thrown away, being supposed to cause drowsiness,
and pain in the head, when eaten." The Pikes are dried by
these people to serve as an important part of their subsistence
in winter.

We forbear to speak of the methods employed in fishing for
the Pike, since these may be found at sufficient length in books
devoted to the art, from Izaak Walton in his various editions
down to the latest date of such publications; which the gentle

PIKE. 151)

angler is never tired of reading and practising. But there is
a trait in the habits of this fish which seems to require notice,
as it has a bearing on a portion of the nature of all fishes,
whether of the river or the sea.

The Pike is observed sometimes to remain asleep in some
quiet part of the stream, with such an entire suspension of its
senses, that opportunity has been taken of snaring it with a
noose, and thus lifting it on shore. This fact is more worthy
of notice, as the proof generally of the existence of sleep in fishes
appears very doubtful; and at least, if it exists at all, it is
conducted in them in a different way from what we perceive
in all other classes of animals.

The Shark, Dolphin, and Pilot-fish will attend the devious
motions of a ship for very long distances through a succession
of numerous days and nights, without appearing to flag in their
exertions, or to mistake the course of what they follow; which
circumstances cannot be explained if during this time their
consciousness of external objects had been suspended, or they
had been asleep in the manner of other creatures. We can
imagine it possible indeed that separate portions of the brain
may fall into a state of sleep alternately, while others remain
awake; but the apparently more probable supposition is, that
their sleep is a condition somewhat resembling what we know
of' human somnambulism; in which state the external senses
are partially awake, while rest has fallen on some important
portions of them. There are instances where men are known
to have acted with vigilant intelligence in some particulars,
while much of their outward consciousness in other matters has
been suspended; and so it may be with the inhabitants of the
water; but the subject deserves more attention than it has yet
received. This suspension of vigilance in the Pike as a proof
of sleep is the more remarkable, as at other times its faculties
are greatly on the alert, and its sense of hearing in particular
is more acute than in the generality of fishes.

When suffered to reach its full size the Pike has been found
of the length of five or six feet; and the aged individual
mentioned by Gesner is said to have measured nineteen feet,
with the weight of three hundred and fifty pounds. But the
usual magnitude even of a large fish is much less than this,
and WiUugiiby thought it deserving of record that he liad

160 pixE.

been present at the taking of an example which weighed thirty-
two pounds. In contrast with this, however, in Ireland a fish
of from twenty to forty pounds is not uncommon in the market ;
and I have been informed on good authority that at Castle
Coole lake in that country a Pike was obtained which was
not less than sixty pounds; and from the nobleman who
communicated this fact I further learn than an example had
been seen which was of the weight of seventy pounds. A note
is given in the "Magazine of Natural History," of a Pike taken
in Loch Lomond in Scotland, that weighed seventy-nine pounds;
and to go still higher, in the supplement to Daniels' "Pural
Sports," there is an account of the capture in the river Shannon
of one that weighed ninety-two pounds. It was observed to
have chased several Perch, which to save themselves from so
formidable a devourer, had thrown themselves on the shore;
but in its eagerness it had itself rushed into such shallow water
as did not allow of its retreat.

Dr. Crull, already quoted, mentions an example which
measured five feet in length; but although we have been
favoured with specimens of almost a yard in length by the
kindness of the Earl of Enniskillen, our description is taken
from one that measured only sixteen inches. The general shape
lengthened, moderately compressed, round over the back, more
slender and compressed behind the dorsal and anal fins, which
fins are far behind and opposite each other; the beginning of
the dorsal a little in advance. Snout protruded before the
eyes, depressed, becoming thinner towards the mouth; a large
and strong mystache, which extends opposite the eye. Head
flat and wide; under jaw longest, gape wide; teeth slight on
the curve in front of the upper jaw with a vacancy at the
symphysis; but a very formidable arrangement within a long,
sharp, thickly-set bed round the palate, separated from those
in front of the upper jaw by a fleshy curtain. Teeth on the
middle of the palate (vomer;) tongue rough; under jaw with
less prominent teeth in front, but large, long, firm, and sharp
a little incurved at the sides; a formidable arrangement, from
which no living thing that enters can hope to escape. Eyes
prominent, with a row of obvious pores behind it; pores aho
round the under jaw; nostrils wide. The body covered with
scales; some also on the checks behind the eyes, which also

PIKE. 161

are prominent in lines high on the side, runninof to meet each
other along the middle of the back. The scales on the belly-
appear as if sunk in the skin, and separate from each other.
The gill-covers extend considerably backward. Lateral line
little perceptible at first, straight. Dorsal fin with eighteen
rays, of which the fourth is the longest ; anal also with eighteen,
the first three or four very short; the colour of both yellowish,
with strongly marked black rays; pectoral fins low, under the
throat, round, yellow; ventrals abdominal, but much anterior
to the anal, yellow with a white border. Caudal fin broad,
forked, with eighteen rays, the main stem of each of which
gives off branches only on one side, which is that, above and
below, which is directed towards the middle of the fin. Colour
of the top of the head and back dark brownish green, yellowish
green on the sides, with scattered yellow spots; white below;
a broad band from the front of each eye; and other bands
from below pass forward, converging to the sides of the snout.
A remarkable structure in the eye of this fish, discovered by
Mr. Drummond, (Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. ii,)
appears to shew a special power of regulating distances in sight,
and in no British fish are the three bones of the ear (Otoliths^
on each side so decidedly visible.

VOL. IV.

162

THE SALMON TRIBE

This family forms the genus Salmo of Linnaeus, and is
characterized by the insertion of the mystache, or true maxillary
bones, on each side of the snout or intermaxillaries, by a hinge;
by the armature of the mouth, where the jaws and border of
the mystache are furnished with teeth, as are generally the roof
of the mouth, with also two rows along the sides of the tongue;
and also by the presence of tv/o fins on the back, of which the
hindmost is small and destitute of rays. In this last particular
the fishes of this family stand alone among the fishes of Europe;
but there is something like it in some Indian species; as of the
genus Pimelodus , which in this respect forms a link between
the genus Salmo and the apparently very different genus Silurus.
The armature of the mouth is less a mark of the extensive
family of Salmons and Trouts, as there are some aberrant sub-
genera which have teeth less visibly in the jaws, or are altogether
without them; but all are abdominal fishes, and within the body
the air-bladder communicates with the gullet by means of a
tube, the opening of which is clearly visible. As no visible
nerve is seen distributed to the rayless fin on the back, this
part seems to be only possessed of common and not specific
sensation.

By Cuvier this extensive family is divided intr several
genera, of which on many accounts the first stands conspicuous.

o

X

o
o

ms

SALMO.

A LARGE portion of the upper jaw formed by the mystache, which
has teeth along its edge; teeth also on the intermaxillary bones, round
the palate and in front of it; a double row on the middle line or
vomer, and on the tongue. Ventral fins abdominal, opposite the middle
of the first dorsal; the rayless fin opposite the anal. Internally, the
air-bladder communicates with the gullet by an obvious duct.

SALMON.

Sahno, JoNSTON; Table 23, f. 1, Table 31, f. 12.

A Salmon, Willoughby; p. 189.

Sahno salar, Linn/eus. Ouvier. Blocii; PI. 20.

Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 179.

Jenyns ; Manual, p. 421 .

Yarkell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 1.

Fisherman's Magazine, Vol. i. No. 4.

((

<

ft

The Salmon's praises to my verse belong,
King of the streams and glory of our song.
He claims the rivers and he claims the seas,
Those for his summer's joys, his winter's these.
Now in the storm he stems the mountain waves,
And now the thundering cataract he braves;
Ti\'y or Wear; when remeant from the deep,
Renew'd in vigour he essays the leap;
Then springing with a bound surmounts the height,
Dashes the foam and glories in his might.

Anqlehs.

Among the fishes of usual occurrence in the British Islands
there does not exist a family of which the minuter particulars
of its Natural History, or even the precise distinction of species,
is so little agreed on as that of the Salmon; and this state of
ignorance, whether in scientific observers or in fishermen, is the
more to be wondered at, as all the species are known to pass
a large portion of their lives at no great distance from places
of human resort; where also they have been long the subject

164

SALMON.

of interested notice, in consequence of having been from a distant
date regarded as an esteemed dish for the table, as well as an
important article of trade; and these united circumstances have
paused the Salmon to be the subject of a large amount of, it
must be alloAved, very unsatisfactory, if not contradictory, official
inquiry and legislation.

It is additionally remarkable concerning the most valuable of
\his family of fishes, the Salmon itself, that the portion of its
nistory which is passed in the more immediate neighbourhood
of man has been far from the least obscure; and that too,
although it has been the subject of much research and experiment.
This state of uncertainty, however, especially as regards the
flistinction of species and the variety observed in their habits
in different places, may in some measure be explained by the
fact, that at the time when Salmon have been engaged in
depositing their spawn, or soon afterwards, the same or a closely
neighbouring spot has been chosen by individuals of a different,
although kindred species; or that otherwise by the operation of
violent floods, the eggs of more than one species have been
mingled together; and in consequence of this the spawn of
different kinds have become the subject of the same training.
It is certain also from observation that in the early stages of
their growth the marks of distinction between the species are
so obscure, that the most attentive observers have found them-
selves at a loss in endeavouring to lay down such as they could
depend on for separating them; and the difficulty is increased,
that as each one advances in groAvth its form and colour are
in continual change.

It was in consequence of these combined causes of uncertainty
that when large numbers of the young fishes were caught in
the river, and marked without discrimination, and afterwards
set at liberty, that the confusion was made still greater, by
taking them again as the Salmon, Sea-Trout, Bull-Trout, and
even the Common Trout; of all of which no doubt is felt that
they are distinct species. To keep clear of such mistakes as
these, recourse has been had by later enquirers to more undoubted
methods of research; the beginning of which has been to procure
the impregnated roe immediately on its being shed, or even to
press it from the body of the living fish, and then to pour
upon it the vivifying fluid of the male; after which it has been

SALMON. 165

conveyed to a pond or pool of running water, where the fol-
lowing stages of development and growth might be traced from
day to day. Our knowledge of some of the habits and changes
of the young of the Salmon has been thus extended; but with
this arises the belief that from some perhaps scarcely perceptible
infliicnces arising from the small degree of deviation to which
they have been subjected in their removal from the natural
action of the river, as regards its depth, the nature of the soil,
and other causes, including an unnatural manner of impregnation;
the regular course of development has been interfered with; and
as experience proves that the Salmon, perhaps more than any
other fish, is thus liable to be influenced, it may in this manner
be explained why it is that a portion of these young fishes should
be ready to pass out of the fresh water early in the first year
of their existence, while others of them, and it would appear,
almost if not altogether exclusively, the males are not ready for
this emigration before the second, or even the third year of
their age.

As bearing on the same subject, it seems highly probable
also that much difference will be found to exist between rivers
not far distant from each other; and which from the variation
of times in which they are visited by the fish are termed early
or late; a knowledge of the causes of which is yet obscure,
and to study them fully would demand an acquaintance Avith
the peculiarities of every river in the kingdom. We shall have
occasion to shew that in the rivers of the south and west of
England no such delay is known in the departure of the young,
as is reported in the north; and as it is also certain that some
causes have operated to produce in different rivers considerable
variation of shape and bulk, in addition to the season of
emigration; as well as that also a retardation of growth has
been effected to and beyond the third year by artificial means,
the conclusion seems unavoidable, that there is some special
circumstances which produce these variations, and that they may
be obviated when the subject is better understood.

But there is a limit to every degree of variation in a living
animal; and amidst the large amount of its changes there exists
a sub-stratum of regularity of habit and action, which is derived
from an intrinsic conformation of its parts, of which the nervous
organization is the chief; so that, as we know the nerve of

168 SALMON.

do not consist of an incongruous multitude. By some of these
the land is reached at a distance from their ultimate destination,
so that they will have to pass along towards it by the windings
of the shore; and their actions then are frolicsome, by often
leaping out of the water to the height of three or four feet,
and falling back again on their side without appearing to make
a progress, or desiring to do it. But it has been often noticed
that, however strange it may be they should find out each
other, those only have become associated which belong to a
single river; towards which they hold their way in some
regular order, while each lesser division of which the hosts
consists is so well acquainted with, and attracted to its own
branch of the stream, that if not forcibly driven out of its
course, it will quit the larger body, or pass by some inviting
streams, to enter the favourite district in which it first saw
the light; a circumstance the more surprising when we call to
mind the early age at which many of them left it and their
various wanderings afterwards in the ocean. It has been observed
that the fish of two rivers which even lie near each other,
when coming from the sea, are not accustomed to unite into
one assemblage, but that they arrange themselves and proceed
onward in separate hosts. But when these companies have
reached the mouth of the river they arc often found to linger
there; and then it is especially that they find enemies waiting
for them, in the Grampus, Porpus, and Seal, Avhich inflict
upon them no small terror as well as devastation. A cause of
this delay may be a want of a sufficient quantity of water in
the river, at a time perhaps when a warm season has brought
them onward prematurely; and even the appearance of the sky,
whether bright or gloomy, will have an influence. The prospect
of a fall of rain is soon acknowledged and acted on; for it is
surprising to perceive how quickly fish become aware of atmos-
pheric changes, or even the prospect of them. But the hindrance
may continue for a week or two, until a fresh rush of water
excites them, and then they pass rapidly upward to the genial
depth of the flowing stream.

According to the very precise account given us by Bloch,
Salmon are accustomed to enter a river in two ranks, which
form two sides of a triangle; and the stoutest fish, which is
usually a female, leads the march, while at about a fathom

SALMON. 169

behind her are two others ; and in this order they proceed with
all the others following, without being turned aside by any
ordinary obstacle. This author says that the females go first,
and next to them the stoutest males; so that if the fishermen
begin by catching only small males, they conclude that the chief
body has already passed on.

These fish give a preference to the middle current of rivers
where they are not deep, unless when the weather is cold
and boisterous; and a rapid river with a clean bottom is a
favourite resort. Fishermen notice that they do not at this
time swim deeper in the water than about six feet, and as
they go up an estuary it is with the flowing tide, which
carries them free from many obstructions; but if the current
turns before they have made a satisfactory progress they turn
backward with it, by which it may haj)pen that they fall into
danger, more especially from fixed nets planted there to inter-
cept them, and within which they are left at the ebb tide to
be taken up at leisure. This turning back of the Salmon at
the ebbing of the tide is the more remarkable as when advanced
beyond it the downward current of fresh water has not the
same influence, nor even the violence of a cataract, against
the force of which they seem to delight in leaping with a
perseverance that is wonderful, and commonly with success.
In this progress upward, however, their energy is not without
intervals of rest, during which they continue in some deeper
pool for two or three days, as if to recruit strength for another
effort. The number of fish sometimes comprised in the host we
have described may be guessed from the quantity that has been
taken at a single haul of a net, and that even when the net
has been of the ordinary moveable sort. Dr. Bathurst says,
in his "Notes on Nets," that fourteen hundred and fifty-two
were thus caught; and this amount has been far exceeded in
some instances, when what we believe to be the more effectual
or destructive nets have been employed. We are thus told
that two thousand five hundred were secured at one time in
the River Thurso; and in the Ribble, in the year 1750, three
thousand five hundred of good size were taken at one catch,
but it is not said in a single net, although it is probable
they formed only one assemblage

We cannot vouch for the constant occurrence of such a
VOL. IV. Z

168 SALMON.

do not consist of an incongruous multitude. By some of these
the land is reached at a distance from their uUimate destination,
so that they will have to pass along towards it by the Avindings
of the shore; and their actions then are frolicsome, by often
leaj^ing out of the water to the height of three or four feet,
and falling back again on their side without appearing to make
a progress, or desiring to do it. But it has been often noticed
that, however strange it may be they should find out each
other, those only have become associated which belong to a
single river; towards which they hold their way in some
regular order, while each lesser division of which the hosts
consists is so well acquainted with, and attracted to its own
branch of the stream, that if not forcibly driven out of its
course, it will quit the larger body, or pass by some inviting
streams, to enter the favourite district in which it first saw
the light; a circumstance the more surprising when we call to
mind the early age at which many of them left it and their
various wanderings afterwards in the ocean. It has been observed
that the fish of two rivers which even lie near each other,
when coming from the sea, are not accustomed to unite into
one assemblage, but that they arrange themselves and proceed
onward in separate hosts. But when these companies have
reached the mouth of the river they arc often found to linger
there; and then it is especially that they find enemies waiting
for them, in the Grampus, Porpus, and Seal, which infiict
upon them no small terror as well as devastation. A cause of
this delay may be a want of a sufficient quantity of water in
the river, at a time perhaps when a warm season has brought
them onward prematurely; and even the appearance of the sky,
whether bright or gloomy, will have an influence. The prospect
of a fall of rain is soon acknowledged and acted on; for it is
surprising to perceive how quickly fish become aware of atmos-
pheric changes, or even the prospect of them. But the hindrance
may continue for a week or two, until a fresh rush of water
excites them, and then they pass rapidly upward to the genial
depth of the flowing stream.

According to the very precise account given us by Bloch,
Salmon are accustomed to enter a river in two ranks, which
form two sides of a triangle; and the stoutest fish, which is
usually a female, leads the march, while at about a fathom

SALMON. 169

behind her are two others ; and in this order they proceed with
all the others following, without being turned aside by any
ordinary obstacle. This author says that the females go first,
and next to them the stoutest males; so that if the fishermen
begin by catching only small males, they conclude that the chief
body has already passed on.

These fish give a preference to the middle current of rivers
where they are not deep, unless when the weather is cold
and boisterous; and a rapid river with a clean bottom is a
favourite resort. Fishermen notice that they do not at this
time swim deeper in the water than about six feet, and as
they go up an estuary it is with the flowing tide, which
carries them free from many obstructions; but if the current
turns before they have made a satisfactory progress they turn
backward with it, by which it may happen that they fall into
danger, more especially from fixed nets planted there to inter-
cept them, and within which they are left at the ebb tide to
be taken up at leisure. This turning back of the Salmon at
the ebbing of the tide is the more remarkable as when advanced
beyond it the downward current of fresh water has not the
same influence, nor even the violence of a cataract, against
the force of which they seem to delight in leaping with a
perseverance that is wonderful, and commonly with success.
In this progress upward, however, their energy is not without
intervals of rest, during which they continue in some deeper
pool for two or three days, as if to recruit strength for another
effort. The number of fish sometimes comprised in the host we
have described may be guessed from the quantity that has been
taken at a single haul of a net, and that even when the net
has been of the ordinary moveable sort. Dr. Bathurst says,
in his "Notes on Nets," that fourteen hundred and fifty-two
were thus caught; and this amount has been far exceeded in
some instances, when what we believe to be the more effectual
or destructive nets have been employed. We are thus told
that two thousand five hundred were secured at one time in
the River Thurso; and in the liibble, in the year 1750, three
thousand five hundred of good size were taken at one catch,
but it is not said in a single net, although it is probable
they formed only one assemblage

We cannot vouch for the constant occurrence of such a
VOL. IV. . z

170 SALMON.

regular arrangement of this army as is described by the
Prussian naturalist, since, if it at all exists, it must be liable
to be broken up by the multitude of enemies and dangers to
which these fish are exposed, and of which man and his
engines are not the least formidable. But after they have
entered the river it is uncertain how long they keep together
since through the summer they are found single or in small
parties, and accessions are made in continued arrivals, until, as
the autumn advances, the newly-arrived fish present a different
aspect, and are urged on towards a diflferent object. It has
been contended that of all the fish which come into fresh
water from the early months of the year none return to the
sea until they have shed their spawn, which function for the
most part is only performed in the winter, or from about the
month of November to January, although in some instances,
and in particular districts, it may be so early as the latter
part of September, or as late as in March. But there does
not appear any proof of this long continuance of the individual
adult Salmon in rivers, and the contrary seems more highly
probable. Thus it is admitted that in a short time after it
has entered the river an unfavourable change as regards its
plumpness and delicacy as food is perceptible; and so speedily
is this produced that some observers profess to be able to
detect it in a few hours, and it is allowed to be visible after
a few weeks, by which time also the parasitic animal which
in the sea had fastened itself to the skin has fallen from its
holdfast. But if so hurtful a change has taken place as can
be discerned in this short space of time, we can scarcely
suppose that the same fish will remain in such a healthy state
for many succeeding months as is necessary to a successful
effort of spawning, being also during that time exposed to a
succession of the same depressing influences. We add, that
there appears no means by which we can feel assured that a fish
which is known to be in perpetual movement has not retraced
its course to the sea, to be replaced by a new arrival, Avhich
circumstance is the more probable as it is known that the
fixed nets employed at the entrance of rivers do just as fre-
quently intercept those which may be coming down as those
which are only moving up and down with the tide. It seems
certain, also, from repeated observation, that after its arrival

SAT.MON. 171

within the influence of fresh water, the Sahnon, or its earlier
condition of Grilse, does not increase in growth; and yet by
careful examination it has been proved that the individual fish
which have been weighed in September are of twice the bulk
of those Avhich have been taken in July. This is shewn by
a table in the "Quarterly Review," (No. 226, p. 417, April,
1863,) and that the examples were not the same fish admits
of no doubt, since the larger fish of the last-named date were
bright in colour, as Salmon are when they leave the sea,
whereas when these or the Grilse have been long in the
river the colour becomes of a much darker hue, and the
surface is charged with a greater abundance of slime. It also
affords no small degree of support to the opinion that those
Salmon which ascend rivers in the early part of the year do
not remain in fresh water to its close, that in the rivers of
Cornwall, and, for the most part, in Devon, where, unless
prevented by a flow of water from copper mines, there is often
a run of fish in the early months of the year, none are met
with as the summer proceeds, nor do the young return in the
form of Grilse, as in the rivers of Scotland. In none of these
western rivers except the Tamar, and in this last but rarely, to
be accounted for by the depth of water which floats a mighty
navy, have I heard in a long series of years, (except in a
few instances in the Fowey,) of a Salmon being caught from
the early months of spring until towards the end of August.
A very few only have returned late in August or in September,
and it is only from October to the beginning of December
that they have been in such numbers as to deserve the attention
of fishermen.

It is chiefly in the last-named month that the milt and roe
are enlarged, and it is the opinion of many that it is at the
earlier stage of this natural process when the fish is in its
highest perfection, as well of form and colour as of delicacy
for the table. It is at this time also that it becomes the
earnest endeavour of these fish to pass upward in the stream
as quickly and as high as possible; in which last particular
they are not satisfied until they have reached some place near
the head, where the water is shallow, and runs with a steady
force over a bottom of sand or gravel, in which situation
there are natural advantages as well for the parents as the

172 SALMON.

young; and in obtaining these the dangers incurred, and the
difficulties to be surmounted, are lightly regarded, so that the
length of the journey, which may extend to several hundreds
of miles, seems only an addition to the pleasures of the
adventure. The difficulties that are met with are produced by
obstacles which sometimes are natural, perhaps in the shape
of cascade that may be formed of a rush of water from the
almost perpendicular height of a dozen feet or more; and
strenuous are the efforts which the Salmon is seen to put
forth, to make good its Avay upward from the deepened pool
below.

Dr. Fleming says, in his evidence before a Committee of the
House of Commons, that he has seen them leap up over a fall
of thirty feet; but the spring out of the water itself seldom
exceeded eight or ten feet; which must be considered enormous
when we consider the impulse necessary to effect it in a fish
of many pounds in weight; and he has also seen them leap
over a dry rock so as to drop into the water behind it. We
believe that sometimes a leap from below into the torrent as it
falls Avill still enable the fish to surmount the difficulty; but
more frequently this is without success, and the struggling
creature is carried back again, if not, indeed, intercepted by a
contrivance, referred to by Linnaeus, of placing a basket in a
situation to receive it, when hurried backward after an ineffectual
struggle. It appears however that this failure of success is not
always a proof of weakness; but it may be caused by the
oblique direction in which the fish has fallen on the descending
torrent, so that its side or shoulder became exposed to the force
of the stream, which then it was not able to resist. The tail
is the important organ with which these efforts are made, and
when we examine its intimate structure we cannot fail to be
impressed with the belief that this organ was especially formed
for the purpose to which we find it thus applied; for in the
generality of osseous fishes, if not in all besides this, the broader
plates of bone to which the rays of the tail fin are attached,
are placed opposite the termination of the vertebral column or
backbone; but in the Salmon family this is not the case. On
the contrary, the line of the joints of the vertebrae is lengthened
out so as to be extended iipward; by which means these caudal
plates of bone are arranged and fastened along the lower border

SALMON. 173

of ihe joints; by which contrivance additional power and
flexibility of the bones and muscles are provided, together with
II high degree of complex action in the impulse.

When the season has been deficient in rain, and the level
of the water is therefore low, the difficulty in springing to the
higher level is so much the more increased; and this is especially
the case, as some considerable depth of water is required tO
serve as a foundation for the impelling power that is to secure
success. It is then that the full extent of its exertion is called
for, as it is described in the lines we have placed at the beginning
of our history of this fish; and forcibly also by Ausonius in
the description of his favourite river:

Nor will I pass the glistening Salmon by,
With crimson flesh -within, of sparkling dye :
An hidden impulse first disturbs the stream
That silent flows; then upward darts the gleam
At middle water: and the bounding fish
Strikes with his quivering tail, in earnest wish
To dart aloft.

Great has been the admiration of observers as they have
watched this proceeding of a morning or in the evening, which
are the principal seasons of exertion, while the repeated efforts
will sometimes last for a considerable time, in consequence of
repeated failure. But besides the natural obstructions here
referred to, there are others which owe their existence to human
contrivances, with the direct intention indeed of preventing the
further ascent of the fish, in the selfish hope of making a spoil
of the whole of these inhabitants of the river, without any
consideration of the injury to be sustained by the brood, or
the indignation felt by the dwellers on the banks above.

But in many instances a different spirit has been shewn,
and wiser claimants of the right of fishing have provided means
by which the fish may pass upward without the necessity of
exhausting their energies in vain endeavours to leap above the
artificial obstruction. This is effected by hewing a path in
the rock, or building a sloping passage in a zigzag course,
termed a ladder; with resting places, by means of which these
active fish may find no difficulty or delay in the ascent; with
the advantage also that the people who live along the upper
portions of the river by obtaining a share of the profit, may

174 SALMON.

become enlisted on the side of protection to the spawning fish,
instead of destroying them.

It is the season of passing upward of the emigrants in the
spring and summer, that forms the harvest of the proprietors
of the river fisheries in the northern portion of the United
Kingdom; and omitting for the present those methods of
catching Sahnon, which come under the nature of commerce,
now is the time AA^hen the angler seeks his principal employment
and pleasure; an extended account of which we find it unne-
cessary to give, both from the space it would occupy in our
pages, and also because it is so well accomplished by writers
who have made it the special object of their volumes; but of
these perhaps the most pleasing and satisfactory that has come
within our notice is by a gentleman, who takes the name of
Ephemera, but who is said to be otherwise knoAvn as Edward
Fitzgibbon, Esq. We may judge of the eagerness with which
this sport is followed, when we read the frequent announcement
of the temporary liberty of fishing to be let at rent for prices
which must render the ri^^er more profitable to the owners than
is the land through which it flows. It is bargained for in
proportion to the number of rods intended to be used; and
150 are demanded for the privilege of fishing with four of
these rods on a specified stream; with the addition, that those
who use them must be of one family. In another part of
Scotland the thrifty owner of the right of fishing demands for
each clay's amusement with two rods twelve shillings and
sixpence, with the surrender to him of the fish caught, or one
guinea if the angler shall retain what has fallen to his rod. It
has been remarked that at these prices every Salmon that is
taken Avill have cost S or 4 to the fisherman; but this is an
erroneous estimate, and, on the other hand, the health acquired
and the amusement obtained after long confinement amidst other
pursuits, and in the confinement of a city, are to be considered
as the proper equivalent for all the cost that is expended in
the sport. It is to be regretted however that by the appro-
priation of almost every river in these districts, little space is
left for the benefit of the casual and less wealthy angler; and
even the more distant rivers of Sweden and Norway have been
sought out and appropriated for the same purpose and at a
similar cost.

SALMON. 175

But the energy and excitement with which the sport of
fishing for Salmon is accompanied, are well shcAvn in the
following narrative, which is extracted from an Irish authority,
but is not the less authentic on that account: The River
Shannon is known for the large size of the fish which frequent
it; and it was one of the largest of these which fought a battle
with three fishermen, and after a long contest came off con-
queror. With the first of these the contest lasted for five
hours, during which he was worked three miles down the
stream, until at last in the approaching darkness he became
faint with fatigue, and then a companion took his place. The
second combatant fared little better; for although he boldly
kept up the conflict for eight hours, at the end of that time
he found himself seven miles further down the river, with the
day just breaking upon him, and with as little chance of a
triumph as when he began. A gentleman residing near the
river became informed of this extraordinary proceeding, and
hastily rising from his bed, he proceeded to the field of fight;
where he gave the angler a pound bank-note for the rod and
chance of success; and without doubt this was gladly accepted,
as well for its own sake as a relief from the fear of discomfiture.
By several leaps the fish had shewn itself a worthy prize,
and the third combatant entered on the work with spirit. For
four miles further, and nine successive hours, the struggle
lasted, until at last with a desperate plunge the rod was broken
close to the reel, and the whole was carried off into the sea.
The time occupied in this struggle was twenty-three hours,
and the space travelled over was almost twenty miles. It is
known that if a fish in passing up a river becomes wounded
or much terrified, it seeks its safety by returning to the sea,
from which again it may not speedily come into the same
stream.

But the season comes when the Salmon must deposit its
spawn, and this is found to be everywhere in the months of
winter; for although in a few instances it has been noticed
as occurring as early as September, and again as late as
March, these are exceptional cases, and the larger number
are known to enter on this function from the middle of
November to the following January. This is the time when
good policy in an especial manner should be directed to the

176 SALMON.

protection of these fish, as much with reference to the interest
of the fisherman as of the public; for at the time when
companies of these fish have met together in the early part of
the year, in the manner we have already described, and to
which we shall again refer, for the purpose of passing into
fresh water, their association appears to be that which may
be denominated colonization, which binds them only to the
community, and not to individuals; but towards the close of
the year their union is more select and sexual, and, we may
add, important; and in forming it it sometimes happens that
fierce encounteis take place among the males while choosing a
partner, in doing which it would appear that a strongly
expressed sentiment has had an influence in forming the
choice; and in every instance, on the land as in the sea, the
rivalry is found among males and not in the females. The
anger thus excited has sometimes led to the vengeful destruction
of the vanquished, but when the alliance is formed the
partners proceed without delay to search out a situation best
adapted to the deposit of the precious seed, and the safe
rearing of the expected progeny. In such a place the water
must flow in a moderate current that is neither shallow nor
deep, and it should be as near the fountain-head as is consistent
with these conditions, with a bottom of gravel or sand, which
must not have been newly laid or lately meddled with.
More than one couple may chance to choose the same neigh-
bourhood but they keep apart; and the first portion of the
work is to form such a channel as shall be of the depth of
a foot or more, but the manner of accomplishing this has
been represented difierently by different observers. In the
"History of the Salmon," by Ephemera, it is affirmed that
the snout is made to perform an important part in the
operation, by ploughing up the ground in order to its
removal; but this is discredited by others, and there is no
doubt of the office of the tail, which becomes excoriated by
sweeping aside the gravel so that the current may remove it
out of the way, and again by covering over the deposit. The
course of this channel is made directly against the stream, and
the work is not accomplished in one effort, but the grains
are shed into it at intervals, so as to require several days, or
even a fortnight for the completion, the cause of which is

SALMON. 177

that the whole of the roe is not ripe for expulsion at the
same time. The male follows up the work of his mate by
shedding on her spawn the fertilizing fluid; and as the parents
thus proceed the further progress of excavation is so contrived
as to cause the sand to cover in succession the deposited
treasure, Avhich readily falls to the bottom. When all is done
the surface is made level, so that none but an accustomed
eye would be able to discern where it is the fish have been
at work.

It may be that the way in which the Salmon deposits its
spawn shall vary to some extent according to the situation;
but the method pursued in Scandinavia, if correctly described
in Mr. Lloyd's adventures in these regions (vol.' i,) on the
authority of Mr. Alexander Keiller, as he says, after continued
observations for five years, is so different from anything that
has been recorded in this country, that we can scarcely refer
it to the same species. He says that the larger Salmon
always appear first in the spring, and as the summer advances
the fish are much smaller, but in autumn heavy fish again
shew themselves, which, however, he supposes not to be fresh
run from the ocean, but that they have remained hitherto
in pools low in the river. In the Save they begin to spawn
about the first days in November, and so continue through
the" month. The female deposits her eggs in comparatively
still water, shoal, from six to eighteen inches deep, and
immediately above a rapid. It is commonly supposed that in
conjunction Avith the male, the female Salmon scrapes a hole
or furrow in the bed of the river, in which to deposit her
eggs, and that afterwards, and as a protection from their
numerous enemies, they cover them over Avith gravel; but
such is not the fact, at least in the Save. The male has
nothing to do with this part of the work; and the ova,
instead of being dropped into a cavity, are deposited on a
comparatively smooth surface. When in the act of spawning
the female retains its natural position. Her belly is near the
ground, at times, indeed, probably to rest herself, touching
it. The process of dropping her eggs appears to be slow.
When a few are collected she turns on her side, waves the
flat of her tail gently downwards to the roe, but lifts it up
again with great force, by which suc-li a vacuum is caused as
VOL. IV. 2 A

178 SALMON.

not only to raise the eggs from the ground, and thus to
distribute them in the stream, but to throw up a mass of
dirt and stones, the latter not unfrequently of very considerable
weight. When the spawning has once commenced it seems
that the male can no longer retain his milt, nor the female
her roe, the emission continuing under all circumstances. This
has been often noticed even long after death. The specific
gravity of the roe is but little greater than water. After the
female commences spawning he has never but on one occasion
seen the male in actual company with her. His station at
that time is at the distance of six or seven feet, directly in
her Avake; and the only apparent part he takes in the gene-
rative proceeding is by the deposition of his milt, which of
course becomes mixed with the eggs of the female as the
stream drifts them past him. Several fishes of other kinds, of
Avhich the Trout is the chief, are waiting at a greater distance
to seize on the spawn which may drift so far. Other males
Avait for the same female, but it is the business of the first to
drive them away, in doing which furious battles are often the
result.

T}ut such as we have already described is the more frequent,
as it appears the more natural course of this proceeding,
which, however, is often broken in upon by human interference;
for while the unsuspecting partners in the toil are earnestly
occupied with their Avork, and their attention is thus diverted
from , their own safety, some prying bipeds have sought them
out Avith the intention of obtaining all they can lay their hands
on of the victims; and that too not only in defiance of the
laAV, but also of what is represented as a kind caution from
other fashermen, Avhose employment has been successfully carried
on loAver doAvn the river, but has noAV been comjDelled to cease
for the season. In consideration of the health of those Avho
live near the higher banks of the river, and A^dio might be
induced to capture and make a meal of these fish at the time
when they are engaged in shedding their spaAvn, the important
fact is widely proclaimed that the Salmon has now become
uuAA'holesome ; and therefore that these depredators had better
abstain from food Avhich may endaiiger their lives. We must
assign the reproachful name of poachers to those destroyers of
the fishes at this important season; but these men have feasted

SALMON. 179

on these fish too often to feel an apprehension of danger to
then- health from the cause assigned; and therefore they have
no fear of proceeding to obtain the prize by first alluring them
within reach with a burning torch, of course in the hours of
darkness, and then piercing the male with a trident spear.
The sexes are readily distinguished, even in the water; and
when deprived of her mate, the female will go into the deeper
pools in search of another, which she obtains by meeting Avith
one not yet engaged; or perhaps by displaying superior attrac-
tions she draws away some one that had been already affianced
to another. But her second partner shares the fate of the
first, and when no other can be obtained, herself becomes the
final victim. Unfortunately, however, this is not all, nor even
the worst of these injurious proceedings; for somewhat early
in the seventeenth century a fisherman of the name of Barker
had made a discovery in the art of angling, which he com-
municated first to a noble patron, and then to the public; and
which consists in salting and drying the roe of the Salmon, to
be taken at the very time when it is ready to be shed. From
experience he pronounces this to be the best bait for Trout
he had ever used, and to be good also for several other sorts
of river fish. Each female Salmon is supposed to produce four
or five pounds of this valued roe, which is made into a paste,
and sold at from one to two shillings the pound, and even more;
so that the capture of a spawning Salmon is no contemptible
affair to a poor man, who may gain more in an hour in this
way than by the ordinary work of a week.

But notAvithstanding the condemnation which must fall on
these proceedings, which go far to destroy the prospects of
future seasons, and the wealth of a nation, the complaint comes
with a bad grace from those who have contributed to the
destruction, by indiscriminately entrapping in the lower districts
those fish which might have made their way upward in an
earlier season, and thus supplied the wants of the people above,
and at the same time filled up the requisite number of breeding
fish, and rendered the slaughter of them unnecessary.

Before the comparatively modern inventions which have been
stimulated into existence by the demands of fashion and luxury,
the Salmon-spear was deemed an honourable weapon, and as
such had been taken into their coat of arms by fiunilies of

180 SALMON.

distinction; but probably it was then used as affording an
evening's party of amusement rather than for mere profit; and
in this manner it was practised Avith less injury to ordinary
fishing than even the usual sweep or drag-net. At least we
are told that in remote times there were places at which Salmon
were so abundant, that it was a matter of covenant between
the master and servants that they should not be fed on this fish
oftener than three times in a week. Dr. Fuller, who wrote his
"Worthies of England," in the reign of Charles the First,
mentions this under the section of Herefordshire, but he appears
to regard the report as no more than a joke. Such however
was not the case, and in a book on the agriculture of Berwick,
by Kobert Kerr, it is said that "formerly servants stipulated
with their masters that they should not be compelled to make
frequent meals of Salmon." In the work "Notes and Queries,"
for May, 1857, there is also a quotation from Coursell's "History
of Gloucester," where, speaking of the House of Lepers in that
city, he says, "it was a standing condition of apprenticeship that
the apprentice should not be obliged to eat Salmon more than
thrice a week, the object being to render him less liable to the
leprosy, which after the crusades in the middle ages was a
formidable disease, that was supposed to be brought on or
aggravated by the eating of fish." But if this fact, which
affords so strong a contrast to what is known in our day, seems
remarkable, it will appear less so when we consider the difficulty
which then existed of conveying to a market any large quantity
of fish as often as it might be caught; but more especially,
that the Salmon which were the subject of this bargain were
either pickled or smoked after being salted; and therefore hard,
and scarcely to be digested. Such must have been the case
where fear could be expressed of their producing such a disease
as leprosy; and in this condition the Salmon could not have
been a more agreeable food than any other salted fish, and
scarcely equal to some of the more common kinds.

But before we quit the subject of illegal or irregular fishing,
I will mention another method, which has been practised chiefiy,
if not solely, in Ireland, and for the knowledge of which I am
indebted to an individual who has practised it; and although
it may be that I am divulging what might more properly be
kept concealed, yet on the other hand the knowledge itself may

SALMON. 181

have a tendencj'' to procure the defeat of a practise which must
in a high degree be injurious. The class of persons who in
that country are depredators on rivers, are in the habit of
rendering the fish stupid, and the Sahnon especially, by means
of a plant which they gather and bruise by stamping on it
near the bank; and thus simply prepared a small basketful is
placed in the flowing stream, where it is found sufficient to
infect the water and stupify the fish to the extent of several
miles. The poisoned fish rise to the surface, and may be taken
with the hand; but they are not at all the less fit for food.
I learn from Sir W. J. Hooker's "British Flora," vol. i, that
this plant is Eapliorhia Hiherna, which grows to the height of
two feet, and produces flowers in June; but those who may
wish to prevent injury to rivers from this cause, may easily
obtain their object by preventing its growth.

Everywhere the Salmon is a prolific fish, but the quantity
of roe is prone to vary according to the age and bulk; and
some observers have gone so far as to assign a certain weight
of one in proportion to the other; each pound of fish implying
a thousand in number of the grains of spawn, a number which
probably is much below the mark. Willoughby says that the
Salmon requires six years to attain its full growth, and at the
River Ribble, which he particularly mentions, the successive
yearly stages were so well marked, that at each season it
received the separate names of Smelt, (or Smolt,) Sprod, Mort,
Forktail, Half-fish, and Salmon; but some supposed that in
three years they reached their full extent of size. It is probable
they are capable of increase of bulk long after this, although
in some rivers more than in others; but in our own country
there are few so fortunate as to escape for several years the
various snares that are set for them, and from this cause the
roe must be proportionally less in quantity than formerly, even
from the same number of fish.

In what is properly the natural history of the Salmon, as
of two or three others of this family, there are to be noticed
some curious variations of instinct and power, by which actions
of an opposite kind are brought alternately into exercise. Thus
at tlie earliest stage of its existence it would die if immersed
in salt-water, but soon afterwards it is impelled to go to the
sea, in which it grows rapidly; but however congenial this may

182 SALMON.

be for a time to its nature, in no long time for the most pai't
it is again impelled to press its course up the stream in spite
of hindrances; and yet again a change takes place, and the
same individual is equally eager to retrace its course. That
there is a necessity for these alterations of action is seen by
appearances of the fish which are subject to them; but in their
nature they are too obscure to be comprehended by us; although
we become aware of the existence of causes which hasten or
delay them in the instance of individuals.

It was an early opinion, which is also supported by the
authority of Rondeletius, that the spawn of the Salmon was
shed and hatched in the sea; but late experiment has proved
that the presence of salt-water is fatal to the development into
life of the fertilizing property of the milt, as also of the
impregnated egg if it come in contact v/ith it. It is also shewn
in the "Intellectual Observer," (April, 1864,) by the Rev. M.
J. Berkeley, that in a sluggish flow of fresh water or in a tank
the grains of roe are exposed to the danger of becoming covered
with a parasitic growth of vegetable fibres of several species,
which deprive them of the power of further development; and
this important observation may assist us in accounting for some
of the mishaps which have attended the attempts that have been
made to bring to life and educate the young fish which have
been taken from their native beds, and placed in tanks or
artificial beds. The presence of slime or mud is hurtful to the
egg or newly-developed young; and it is the opinion of observers
that the grains are injured if they lie in the gravel so near
as to touch each other.

But when escaped through these various dangers much
difference of opinion has been expressed in reference to the
length of time during which the grains may remain buried
in the gravel, and consequently how long it is before they
manifest the active powers of their existence. Nilsson says
that in Sweden this is an hundred and thirty days, and in
Scotland it has varied from an hundred to an hundred and
forty; but so considerable Ct difference as this may fairly be
judged to be connected with the warmth or coldness of the
climate and season ; and from this we are at liberty to conclude
further, what is also shewn by observation, that in still warmer
districts, especially from the south and farthest west of

SALMON. 183

England, a much shorter time will be sufficient for the
pur^,ose. It is known accordingly that the roe of this fish
has been developed into life in these last-named districts
within the space of sixty days; and in proof of this hastening
influence of temperature Dr. Knox procured grains of roe
which had lain in the sand for a hundred and sixteen days,
but had not yet shown signs of becoming hatched; yet when
these were placed in a bottle, with their native water, and
brought into a warm room, the actions of life very soon
displayed themselves. It is to be observed, however, that
when thus hastened on, and the regular course artificially
interfered with by a sudden application of heat, or too high
a degree of it, the very young fry are much less likely to
survive it. Dr. Davy found a temperature above seventy
degrees, and up to eighty, to be certainly fatal to the eggs
of fishes of this family, as also of some other fishes. In Mr.
Shaw's experiments on the breeding of Salmon, when the
temperature of the stream he employed was at thirty-nine
degrees, and of the main river from which the breeding
Salmon were taken thirty-three, with that of the atmosphere
thirty-six, the embryo after fifty days was seen to be able to
move under its covering; and it escaped from the egg Avhen
the temperature was at forty-four: but the whole of this
implies a far deeper degree of cold than is the average of
rivers at the same season in the south-west of England. Mr.
Shaw remarks that the "ova which for a time previous to
being hatched had been almost daily in my hands for inspection,
did not appear to suffer at all from being handled. When I
had occasion to inspect the ovum I placed it in the hollow
of my hand, covered with a few drops of water, where it
frequently remained a considerable time without suffering any
apparent injury." But afterwards he admits that it shewed
an increase of activity from the heat of his hand, and the
variation of temperature thus produced would probably lead
to injurious consequence, although the young at last seemed
capable of surviving longer than Dr. Knox supposed. This
last-named gentleman found sometimes that they had quitted
the gravel by the 1st. of April, but at other times it was not
for upwards of a fortnight after this; while on another occa-
sion Sir Francis Mackenzie made the experiment, on the

184 SALMON.

23rd. of November, of pressing some grains of roe from a
female, and milt from a male, which were placed with others
that had been deposited voluntarily, and to these more were
added at the beginning of December; but although thus shed
at different times all of them shewed very visible signs of life
at one date the following 19th. of February. On the corres
ponding day of March these young fish had increased much
in size, the degree in which they had advanced being visible
according to the temperature of the weather. On the 22nd.
of that month the eyes were plainly to be seen, and for a
considerable time afterwards, as in the generality of fishes,
they were proportionally of large size. In some of these
young the outward covering had burst, leaving the bag which
contains the nourishing contents of the egg and abdominal
organs still attached to the throat, where it forms the larger
portion of the bulk; but as the yoke becomes absorbed these
organs also become gathered up closer into the proper cavity,
and in the present instance this was accomplished on the 18th.
of April, when the fish had grown to three fourths of an
inch.

A lengthened account of the development of the embryo is
given, among others, by Ephemera; but to be more brief,
before the length is attained as we give it, the body is
slender, and when not entirely extricated from the egg the
tail is bent down into a curve; and afterwards, for a time,
what at last becomes the adipose fin, is long and united to
the tail, and the latter being joined also to the anal fin the
whole resembles much more what is the natural structure of
the eel, excluding the rays, than what afterwards is changed
into the proper character of the Salmon. At this time also the
head is round and blunt, with a depression before the eyes,
and the lower jaw is rather the shortest. But changes are in
rapid progress, and as the fish becomes able to move about,
the growth increases, and there is a display of marks of colour
on the sides; which assume the form of bars from the back
downward; a condition that is common to several species of
this family, and so long as it exists it is exceedingly difficult,
if not impossible, to distinguish between them. The existence
of these bands on the side has caused the young fish which
bear them to be termed Parrs, and it is received as a truth

SALMON. 185

in many places, that all which bear these signs will assuredly
at last become Salmon, or some other of the larger species of
this family.

AV^e leave the consideration of this question until we come to
treat of another species of the same tribe; but in the true
Salmon these bands are usually in no long time superseded by
a diffusion over the surface of a brilliant silvery tinge, which
appears to reside in a new order of scales; and when this takes
place a new instinct is manifested, under which fresh water
becomes irksome, and even inju.rious, and these little fishes hasten
down to the yet untried waters of the sea; and yet, even at
this time there appear to be some materials Avhich are necessary,
but not always provided. They loiter in considerable numbers
in the pools of rivers where with eagerness for food multitudes
are caught by anglers who fish for them with a worm or fly,
until at last a welcome fall of rain removes the difficulty; so
that where of an evening they have been caught freely, on the
following morning, in May, not one is henceforward to be found.
It has been noticed that while thus passing downward in fresh
water, these young fish prefer to keep near the border; but on
coming into the salt they pass into the deeper part, and soon
after they disappear from human sight, and go we know not
whither. Such as we have here represented has been generally
understood to be the natural course of proceeding of the young
of the Salmon, from the time of their quitting the egg to their
passage into the sea; and such may safely be pronounced the
ordinary case in the south and western portion of our island;
for none in any stage of growth of the true Salmon can be
recognised in the rivers of Cornwall and Devon during the
summer, except perhaps that in the Tamar a few examples of
full size may appear at that season.

But since the practice has been adopted of breeding the
young Salmon in ponds prepared for the purpose, it has been
observed that while a portion of the young fish have passed
through the changes we have described in the course of a single
season of spring, there are others which have vmdergone them
so slowly as to have remained in what is termed the Parr state
for a whole year, or even for two or three before they have
attained that condition which prompts them to migrate to the
sea; and even further than this, that in their diminutive, although
VOL. IV. 2 B

18n SALMON.

it cannot be said their very young condition, they are said to
have aspired to pair with a full-grown female for the continuance
of the race; a Parr of five or six inches in length producing
so much of the milt as will I'ender fertile a quantity of roe
that is more than equal to the bulk of its own body. It is
known indeed, or believed, that some of these Salmon Parrs, at
least in the north, will remain in fresh water through the summer,
while others of the same brood have emigrated; but the causes
of this are still undetermined. It is, however, an established
fact that when confined within a narrow range, the growth of
fishes generally will be stinted to the dimensions of their dwellings;
and it is further certain that every unnatural condition has an
influence on their development, and perhaps more especially on
those of the Salmon family; which circumstance may go far to
account for some remarkable changes of structure and deficiencies
that we shall have to point out in the history of the Trout.

We hesitate, therefore, at present to adopt the conclusions
which appear to prevail on this subject, as if they were of
universal application; and we may be excused the rather for
these doubts, since some attentive observers of the experiments
on which these conclusions have been built, have shewn a
remarkable aptitude in changing their opinions on apparently
insufficient grounds, and several of the experiments which have
been prominently put forward are pronounced by others as
eminently mistaken or inconclusive.

As . illustrative of these remarks, some young Salmon were
kept in a fresh-water lake in Norway for five years, and so
much was their growth stunted by this confinement, that at the
end of that time each one weighed only one pound and three
quarters. Placed in a large lake after a few years some of them
grew to weigh three pounds and a half, and others five pounds.
Sea Trout similarly kept were of still slower growth. Mr.
Brown, to Avhom reference will again be made, makes some
mention of a young Salmon which remained in the fishpond
for five years, of which three had passed before it had acquired
the shining scales; but he does not assign any cause for this
delay, nor does there any appear in the case of a Trout,
presently to be mentioned, except the single fact of confinement
within a very limited space.

It is curious that the habits of the Salmon while at sea are

SAT,MO>\ 187

scarcely at all known, nor the extent of its wanderings; so that
however numerous if this fish were not accustomed to search
out our rivers, we shoukl scarcely be aware of its existence.
In the course of many years I have only been informed of a
very few instances of the taking of Sahnon with a bait in the
open sea, and those not many miles from land; in a single
instance also I was a witness to the finding of the posterior
half of this fish in the stomach of a Skate caught at a considerable
distance. But as the Skate does not bite its prey, so as to
separate it into portions, my conclusion was that a Shark had
first bitten all it could grasp, and the remainder had fallen
within reach of the Skate. Beyond these instances I know
not of any record of the existence of the Salmon in the deeper
water of the ocean, although its haunts must be there when
out of sight. Nor do we possess much better evidence of the
nature of its food while in the sea, until it approaches within
a small distance of the shore; although from its plump and
healthy appearance, joined, when in an eai'ly stage of its existence,
to its rapid growth, this must be procured in abundance; and
the armature of the mouth sufficiently shews that it is fitted to
seize something of a substantial nature. Dr. Knox has expressed
his belief that this food consists principally of the eggs of
star-fishes, and others of the class Echinodermata ; but the
quantity of this must be too small and precarious for the
sustenance of thousands of these fish. Their stomach is often
found entirely empty, but young Herrings and Launces have
been discovered in it, and the latter in sufficient abundance to
shew that it forms a favourite diet. Sir William Jardine says
there is no better bait for an old Salmon than a young Samlet;
and it would be amusing to suppose that after the Parr had
served the purpose of a husband, the next step would be for
him to form a meal for his hungry partner.

But it is to Dr. Cobbold, F.L.S., we owe (in the Journal of
the Linngean Society, vol. vii,) a more particular account of the
contents of the stomach and bowels of the Salmon, although
indeed these remarks were made on it when taken in fresh
water. He says, that in its usual condition the stomach is
coated internally with a consistent white mucus of great tenacity.
Ill ten instances only, from February to September, did remnants
of fishes occur, and in all these nothing remained but vertebral

188 SALMON.

columns, cranial and other bones, with the denser tissues, as
the lens, etc. The number of bones in several cases shewed
that these fishes had enjoyed a most ample repast, since they
belonged to species from eight to ten inches in length. Some
pieces of cartilage, skin, and pigment cells seemed to belong
to Smelts, but most of the vertebrae belonged to larger fishes.
The other kinds of food found in the stomach consisted of
fragments of small fresh-water Crustacea, with a portion of a
Shrimp in one or two of these fishes; and an occasional piece
of insect cuticle. Accompanying a quantity of mucus, which is
found in the intestines, is a number of white or yellowish masses,
which are gritty, and consist of calcareous crystals; of which
the origin is an interesting question, but it is not influenced
by the kind of food. The skeleton of the Salmon being of
small specific gravity, and deficient in earthy matter, it may be
that the excessive elimination of salts keeps down the specific
gravity; or the circulating fluid by this means may so adapt
the bones to the varying density of the salt and fresh water,
that their specific gravity is in accordance with the medium in
which they swim. The rapidity and power of digestion in this
fish are extraordinary; and the true state of the matter seems
to be, that the Salmon when in fresh water feeds rarely and at
intervals, but not from want of voracity. There is abundance
of parasitic animals in the entrails of this fish. I was informed
by Mr. Bewick, the eminent engraver on wood, that when a
gentleman of Newcastle had lost a gold ring from a boat on
the Tyne, he was so fortunate as to recover it from the stomach
of a Salmon which was purchased in the market at Newcastle.
But whatever be its food, it is noticed that this fish soon declines
in growth and the quality of its flesh in fresh water; but it is
then successfully fished tor with large artificial flies, which must
be of gorgeous and glaring colours; and these beyond doubt
are viewed by the fish as native inhabitants of the stream rather
than of the air, as is proved by the manner in which it is
necessary to employ them; which is by causing them to sink
below the surface, and there kept in motion unlike that by
which the Trout is enticed to leap after a fly.

It has been questioned how soon it is after going down to
the sea, before the young of the first season, or of the second
if they have remained so long in fresh water, are induced to

SALMON. 189

ascend again into the river; and there appears reason for sup-
posing that they differ in this respect according to the state of
the weather, especially its tendency to wet; the particular habit
of the variety of each district, whether early or late; but more
particularly according to the bulk or stoutness they have acquired;
which latter particular so operates on their condition and feelings,
as to urge them on to the fresh water as a relief; while those
which are not so well fed are disposed to remain longer where
they are.

But that some of these young ones which left their native
stream when only four or five inches in length, with a weight
not exceeding an ounce and a half, have returned soon with
an almost incredible advance in size has been proved by manifold
observation. Mr. Brown, in his account of the experiments at
the ponds at Stormontfield, informs us that a young Salmon
carefully marked, which weighed a little less than two ounces,
went down to the sea on the 24th. of May, and was taken on
its return on the 7th. of July, when its weight was three pounds;
and another of the same brood that was caught July the 31st.,
weighed nine pounds and a half. According to some experiments
by Daniel Ellis, Esq., reported in Jameson's "Philosophical
Journal" for 1828, some young fish were carefully marked in
April, as they v/ere passing downward, and five months after-
ward, when they returned, the weight of each was eight pounds.
And although the growth is less rapid after this time, it was
sheAvn that in thirty-three months of their life the advance had
been nearly at the rate of one pound and an ounce for each
month. In the "Zoologist" we have an account of some which
were hatched from the egg in sixty days, and going down the
river in May, when some of them weighed an ounce, and others
only half that weight; after two months one of them that had
been carefully marked measured twenty-four inches in length,
with a weight of five pounds and a half; and others were of
the weight of eight pounds.

Amidst a sufficiency of other evidence to the same purpose,
we add only that of Sir William Jardine, whose authority on
this subject is beyond dispute. He says it has always been a
subject of doubt whether the fry returned to the same river
as Grilse in the same season in which they descended. "I
have had no doubt of this for several years, but it was very

190 SALMON.

difficult to prove. In the Tweed I have killed Grilse early in
the season so small as only to weigh two pounds, and seen them
gradually increase in size as the season advanced; the intermediate
size, however, between the fry and the tAvo-pound Grilse was
wanting. During the two years in which the fisheries of
Sutherland have been in the possession of the Duke, a set of
experiments have been instituted by his factors, one of which
leaves no doubt upon the subject. Last spring several thousands
of fry were marked in the different rivers, among others in the
Laxford and Dinard, on the west coast. In the Laxford the
first Grilse (marked in April as fiy) returned on the 25th. of
June, and weighed three pounds and a half. Many others were
got during the season from this weight to six pounds and a half,
returning to the river where they were marked, which was
known by a particular mark being used in each, and shewing
that a return to their breeding-ground was as frequent, or rather
as constant as among the higher animals. The size and weight
exactly agree with that of the Grilse upon their first running
elsewhere, and I think that very few attempt to enter the
rivers before attaining the weight of three pounds."

But all the fish which have gone down to the sea are not
found to return in a proportionate time; and in the north at
least a succession of them continues through the greater part
of the summer, with an increase of size in the new comers; so
that by the months of August and September, they are often
found to be nearly twice as large as those of the early months.
Some of these, Avhile continuing in the condition of Grilse, have
been known to attain the weight of fourteen pounds; but
perhaps the most remarkable instance of rapidity of groAvth on
record is given on the authority of the Duke of Athol, (which
we copy from the "Quarterly Review," April, 18G3.) The
fish marked was first caught as a Grilse at forty miles from the
sea on the 31st. of March; at Avhich time it weighed exactly
ten pounds. It went doAvn to the sea, and returned again in
the short space of thirty-seven days, when it was again caught;
and being carefully Aveighed, the Aveight Avas found to be tAventy-
oue pounds and a quarter. It has been repeatedly proved by
marking the fish, that Avhen a Grilse had gone down to the
sea, it ahvays returns with all the characters of a Salmon. It
is also an acknowledged fact that the fish of any age which

SALMON. 191

have gone down to the sea will, unless under very extraordinary-
circumstances, return to the river of thei>- birth; while the
guiding influence in doing this is beyond our poAvers to com-
prehend. But in the work by Ephemera, already referred to,
we find an instance of this, which illustrates this habit in a
manner beyond what we could have supposed:

Loch Shin is a large piece of water in Sutherland, from
which proceeds the River Shin, "noted for its Salmon fecundity."
The loch itself is supplied with water from four rivers of
moderate size, but in which, before the year 1836, *'not a
Salmon was ever seen, though many were in the habit of
entering the loch." But in the year now mentioned, Salmon
were caught in the River Shin shortly before the breeding-
season, and conveyed to the four rivers above; in each of which
some of them spawned, and from that time each of those rivers
is furnished with fish, and each of them with its own, Avhich
pass by and beyond the stations which their ancestors frequented
to enter the higher rivers, of which they are now the natives.
The fish which thus pass up the stream from the sea are
readily distinguished from such as have been long in fresh water
by their brilliant colour, which in no long time subsides into
a darker hue; but although the growth appears to be presently
arrested, it is without decrease of strength or activity; for it is
in the experience of anglers that a Grilse which has been
longer in the river will put his tackle to a more severe trial
than a Salmon of larger size that has only lately arrived. It
has further been noticed of late that there are Salmon and
Grilse which do not quit the sea through the summer, although
others of probably the same brood press towards the fresh
water; and further, that there is no small number which do
not seek to breed when others of the same age are performing
that function; and why this is so we scarcely venture to guess;
but these circumstances tend to explain how it happens that
there are fish in high condition in many rivers, and in some
much more than others, at times when the generality are far
otherwise. The natural history of many rivers is closely con-
nected with this, and the interests of fishermen greatly so; but
it is probable that a really barren Salmon, except of unnatural
formation, does not exist; as also it seems certain that there
are some in which the procreative impulse only revives with

192 SALMON.

intervals of a year or two, and in some instances at an unusual
season of the year. Fulness of habit or plumpness, or repletion,
has certainly an important bearing on the spring and summer
tendency to emigration^ independent of the merely sexual
impulse; and it is one effect of fresh water that the excess is
soon abated, even when that water is of the purest kind; but
when soiled with what flows from mines of copper and lead,
it is so offensive not to say fatal, that these fish soon learn to
seek safety in other haunts. Such is the case when the stream
is polluted with what flows from some manufactories; and it
was shewn by evidence before a Committee of Parliament, that
where a river has become foul from tar or coal-gas, the flesh
of a Salmon caught in it has become so infected although the
fish itself did not appear to be out of health that even the
smell from it was offensive at the table.

An interesting portion of the history of the Salmon is con-
nected with the attempts which have been made to propagate
it by artificial means; which consist in obtaining the roe from
beds in the river in which it had been shed spontaneously; or
by pressing from the living fish the roe and milt, and placing
them in pools of running water prepared for the purpose. They
become developed, and the young are fed with prepared food,
chiefly animal liver reduced to pulp, until they are ready to
emigrate to the sea. It is by these means that several rivers
which had been overfished and obstructed, and thus robbed of
their native inhabitants, have recovered what they had lost; and
in pursuit of what we must thus denominate an experiment, a
considerable amount of knowledge has been thus acquired of
the nature of the Salmon, where we were before altogether
ignorant The practice began in France by the ingenuity of
two humble fishermen, named Gehin and Remy, of an obscure
village called La Bresse in the Department of Vosges, and
they first applied it to the propagation of Trout. The subject
was presently taken up by the Government of that country; but
it was made known among ourselves by one who wrote under
the name of Piscarius; since which it has been adopted among
us with success. Much effort has also been exerted to convey
the Salmon to the British Colonies, in the southern hemisphere,
and especially to Tasmania; whither the eggs have been con-
veyed, enclosed in ice, and with so much success as is implied

SALMON. 193

in that they have been hatched into activity; but with what
further result as yet remains uncertain.

We feel no surjirise in being informed that the Salmon
frequents the rivers of Kamtschatka; but it is also said to be
common, and even in abundance in the Caspian Sea; if it be
indeed the same species with our own. It is in season there
in May, and in Mr. Frazer's Travels we are told that it is
rarely caught east of Resht in that sea, but it is well known
on the Avest and north-west shores.

The value set on the Salmon in this country, whether fresh
or in salt, has always been considerable, although Polydore
Virgil does not name it among our articles of trade; but we
find it so from several incidents, and the strictness of the laws
concerning it at an early date. Thus, in the fourteenth century,
and perhaps long before, we are told in the life of the famous
Thomas a Kempis, as written by his friend Franciscus Tolensis,
that the love of that pious writer for the Book of Psalms was
compared by his brother monks to their love for Salmon; for,
adds the biographer, it is an exceedingly delicious fish; and
that in some places it was scarce and bore a high price was
a subject of complaint in the fiftieth year of Edward the Third,
appears from a petition then presented to the Crown, in which
it was prayed that whereas the Salmon and other fish in the
Thames were taken and destroyed by engines j^laced to catch
the fry; which fry was then used for feeding pigs, a law might
be passed to take up all the trunks (tous les trynks) between
London and the sea, and forbid them for time to come; also
that no Salmon be taken between Gravesend and Henley
Bridge in winter; that is to say, between the Feast of the
Finding of the Cross and the Ej)iphany; and that the river
guardians suffer no net but of large mesh. The petition (which
is in French) concludes thus "awaiting which, most redoubtable
Lord, if it shall please Your Highness thus to make order for
the next three years, all your people repairing to London or
bordering the river, shall buy as good a Salmon for two shillings
as they now get for ten." (Notes and Queries, 1855.)

But it appears there was an omission in the recommendations

of this petition, or the crime may not have begun to operate

at this time ; for we are informed in Moule's "Heraldry of

Fish," that in remote times an offering of fish had been, and

VOL. IV. 2 C

194

SALMON.

that for several centuries, claimed and allowed to the Abbot of
St. Peters in Westminster, on the plea that when Saint Peter,
according to the legend, had come and consecrated that church,
he made a grant to the convent of the tithe of all the Salmon
caught in the Thames, to the same extent as the present juris-
diction of the Lord Mayor; which is from Yantlett creek to
the bridge at Staines; and among the many causes that have
been assigned for the scarcity of Salmon in the Thames in more
modern times, not the least of them was believed to be, that
the fishermen had left off making this accustomed offering. A
cause not altogether unlike the above has also been assigned by
Dr. Boate, in his "Natural History of Ireland," for the diminished
quantity of Salmon in that country. He says that before the
Revolution in the year 1688, this fish was plentiful and cheap;
but since that event, to which this author ascribes all the natural
calamities of his count)y, gentlemen have complained that Salmon
had become scarce and dear; but he does not add that the
fishermen complained of not obtaining greater success or better
remuneration.

That in the reign of Elizabeth a Salmon at table was
accounted a matter of fashion, in which a person of ordinary
rank might be tempted to ape the rich and the great, appears
ffom a scene in the tragedy of '^'Othello," although it seems
incongruous to place the reference in the mouth of one to
Avhom the fish could scarcely have been known; but it is
represented as an instance of good sense in a woman, that in
her wisdom she was never so frail as to change the more
useful although homely Cod's head at her table for the tail
of the fashionable Salmon. But the price of Salmon rose
gradually in different parts of the kingdom, and with it the
rents of the larger fisheries in the north of England and Scot-
land, until the latter have amounted to a princely income. So
long since as about the year 1730, I find in a MS. Journal
that in the market at Plymouth two pounds of Salmon and
fifty shrimps (prawns) were purchased at the cost of six shillings;
but as a contrast to this, I find in the same Journal, with the
date of 1761, "The Saltash fishermen, with two nets, catch'd
eighty-five Salmon over against Warren Point; forty- five in
one net and forty in the other; they may not have such
another draught lor the whole summer. For two of these

SAT.MON. 195

Salmons, at twopence per pound, one for the servants, as being
cheaper than meat, 4s. 9f/." A common price at present is
from two shillings up to four shillings the pound. The
highest price on record is that of a Salmon which weighed
nineteen pounds, and which, in February, 1809, was sold for
a guinea the pound; a freak of ostentation that was rather
caused by a craving to be talked of than to satisfy the
appetite.

As a subject of curiosity we will only glance at the laws
which at a distant date were made to regulate the trade in
Salmon when brought from out of the kingdom, of course in
a pickled or salted state. In the year 1423, the second of
Henry the Sixth, it is ordered that "the buttes of Samon
comyng be wey of merchandise into this land out of straunge
countrees, and also in this land ymade, shulden be of cei ,in
mesure;" and that among the strange countries Scotland had
long held a principal place appears from an Act of Parliament
of the thirty-first of Edward the Third, (1357,) where the fish
brought from thence are termed Salmon of Berwick, the con-
veyance from which place to London at that time could not
have been effected with fish in a fresh condition. It appears
further, from an Act of the twenty-second of Edward the
Fourth, (1482,) in which the right of fishing in the Tweed is
let on farm to the merchants and freemen of Berwick, with a
monopoly of the Salmon, that the packing of Salmon in
barrels was further regulated by the same Edward, and also
by Henry the Eighth, by whom the monopoly was continued;
so that Camden was warranted in saying that in ancient times
Salmon were the chief commodity of Scotland.

The principal cause which reduced this trade to insignificance
was the contrivance by Mr. George Dempster of packing the
fresh fish in ice, by which means, and the aid of the railroad,
instead of a sailing vessel they are now sent to the metropolis
only a little less firm and fresh than Avhen they were caught.
The fisheries of Ireland are at present in a prosperous condition,
of which we take the example of the River Foyle, from which
were sent away in one year of not extraordinary abundance
eighty thousand Salmon. In May of the year 1831, there
reached Billingsgate, from the River Spey, in Scotland, seventy
boxes of iced fish, of which thirty were (Salmon) Trout, the

196 SALMON.

take of three days only, and these were sold for one hundred
and forty pounds. Mr. Mayhew ("London Labour," etc.) says,
hat the quantity of Salmon and Salmon Trout sold at
Billingsgate in one year was twenty-nine thousand boxes,
with fourteen fish in each box, making four hundred and six
thousand fish in all, of the weight of three millions four
hundred and eighty thousand pounds. There is little doubt
that many of these Trout were sold as Salmon, since so
different a fish as the Coalfish has been so sold to an ignorant
purchaser.

The Salmon was not known to the Greeks in ancient times,
and is scarcely recognised by Roman writers, by whom
generally it appears to have been held in little value, even at
a time when luxury reigned to the utmost among them. Pliny
mentions it (B. 9, C. 32,) but only as being much esteemed
by the people of Aquitania, in Gaul; and yet many of his
countrymen must have been long acquainted with it in the
rivers of Britain, where they had been peaceably settled from
a distant date. Ausonius is the only other Roman writer
who mentions the Salmon, which he does in his characteristic
poem on the River Moselle, and from whom we learn that
the people there were aware of the distinctions which separate
some species of the same family, and especially between the
Salmo and one which he terms Salar, although modern
writers have chosen to consider the names at least as applied
to the same fish. The Ancient British name is given in a
MS. in the Cotton Library as Ehoe, as also by Pryce in
Cornwall, and by Pennant, on the authority of Richard
Morris, Esq., Gleisiedyn, Eog and Maran; but although not
British, the modern designation is not derived from a Greek
or Roman root, and will rather be found in the name of
the River Salmona, which passes into the Moselle, where this
fish was found in abundance, and from whence perhaps the
name was brought into our country by men who had been
acquainted with the Salmon in both these regions. That the
speci'^s was the same appears from the lines of the poet, a
portion of which has been already quoted:

Nee te puniceo rutilantem viscere Salmo.

Fish of the bright red flesh, the Salmou called.

SALMON. 197

The Salar is sufficiently distinguished by being named separately,

Purpureisque Salar stellatus tergore guttes.

With purple spots his back is sprinkled o'er
In Starlike forms.

There is little added to this meagre account by Sidonius,
"when he terms these fishes "rapacissimae Salares" the very
ravenous Salars; but naturalists are in error, although our
illustrious and generally accurate countryman Ray is of the
number, (in his "Dictionarium Trilingue,") when they judge
the Salar to be the Common Trout. This last is distinguished
by Ausonius under the name of Fario:

Ambignus,
Amborum medio, Fario intercepte subaevo.

Fario, a doubtful kind,
Between the two, as stopped in middle age.

It is probable that either the Sea Trout or the Peal is
the Salar of the poet, and we know that the word Fario
is derived from a source Avhich is neither Latin nor Greek;
but it is the name of the Trout to the present day, and
probably was the provincial name of the same fish in the
country of Ausonius. When he calls it ambiguous, it should
not be understood as of a more doubtful species than the
others, but as forming a natural link of affinity between
them: on which subject the ancients held opinions long since
given over to oblivion; for it was commonly believed that in
all cases where creatures of apparently similar races bore some
near resemblance, their likeness was produced by a mingling
of the breeds, a kind of natural selection, the supposition of
which is of no modern date. We believe that a figure of the
Salmon will be found stamped on some Samian or ancient
Roman pottery, as represented in the "Intellectual Observer"
for November, 1864, where even the young is shewn with
the bag of the egg attached to the throat; no small proof that
there were some in remote times who studied these things.

The weight of the Salmon was formerly much greater Avith
us than we are likely to see it again, at least while means are

198 SALMON.

SO industriously employed to take it in its early growth. The
average weight appears to have been about forty pounds, and
the largest known to Nilsson was forty-four pounds, with a
length of four feet two inches; and this fish was sufficiently old
to have lost all the teeth in the vomer, except those in the
front. But heavier examples are on record in Britain: in
February, 1826, a Salmon caught in the Tweed weighed fifty-
eight pounds; its length four feet, the girth two feet four inches
and a half; other examples have weighed sixty, seventy, seventy-
four, and eighty, the latter mentioned by Mr. Lloyd; and the
largest of all, given by Mr. Yarrell, eighty-three pounds. The
general shape is moderately lengthened and compressed, but
plump; head comparatively small, more slender in front, the
gape large; in the male the point of the lower jaw is bent
upward, and particularly so at the season of spawning; a cavity
in front of the upper jaw to receive it. Teeth in the upper
jaw strong, separate, with a vacancy in front; in the lower
jaw thicker; teeth also along the border of the mystache; on
the tongue in two lengthened rows, strong, hooked; also round
the palate and along the middle, (vomer,) but these latter appear
to become less in number, or altogether lost in age. Eye small,
low down, near the angle of the mouth; nostrils at one third
of the distance from eye to snout. Body covered with scales
of moderate size; lateral line straight. First dorsal fin about
the middle of the body, fieshy at the base, the adipose fin
begins- opposite the middle of the anal; pectorals round, first of
the ventrals opposite the middle of the first dorsal; tail broad,
and its border a little waved. The colour varies with the
season, but tends to a steel blue; upper fins the colour of the
back, lower fins pale; belly white, a few scattered spots some-
times on the body; the colour less brilliant soon after leaving
the sea, and the skin more slimy. Near the time of spawning
the sides have a tinge of pink, and the cheeks are often streaked
with vellow and faint red. In the dorsal fin thirteen or fourteen
rays, the pectoral fourteen, ventral nine, anal eleven, caudal
nineteen.

The exact proportions of the body differ not a little in fish
of different rivers, and also according to the sex. To examine
this more closely, Nilsson obtained at one time a male and
female of the same size; and he found the head of the former

SALMON. 190

to be four and seven tenths of tlic length of the body, which
measured forty-seven inches from the snout to the border of the
tail; from the snout to the beginning of the dorsal fin the
same as from the ending of that fin to the border of the
scales at the root of the tail; and from the commencement of
the dorsal to the adipose fin the space is double that from the
adipose fin to the border of these scales; the adipose fin is
over the anterior edge of the anal. The operculum and sub-
operculum taken together form a circle. Number of scales from
the dorsal fin to the lateral line twenty-five; from thence to
the ventrals twenty-two; and in a row between the adipose fin
and lateral line twelve to fourteen. In the female fish the
number of scales was less than in the male, although the body
is higher; the head occupied five parts and one third of the
length of the body. Artedi counted fifty-six vertebrae, but Mr.
Yarrell more than once counted sixty. The colour of the flesh
is found to be caused by the presence of a peculiar oil.

goo

PEAL.

SALMON PEAL. BULL TROUT?

This fish is to be distinguished from one that is called the
Salmon Peal in the fish shops of London; which is an early
stage of the Salmon.

Sahno Trutta, Linnaeus. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 180.

The Scurf, Bull Trout,

Trutta Salmonata, WiLLorGHBY; p. 193. Jenyns; Manual, p. 423.

Salmo Trutta, Yaekell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 77.

The Peal in its habits bears much likeness to the Salmon,
as it does also in no small degree in form; but with this
there exists also so much contrariety, that it has been observed
where one abounds the other becomes scarce; and if from any
cause, except indeed from that which is too common in some
parts of England, the presence of mineral water, or the refuse
of poisonous manufactures in the river, the Salmon is driven
to forsake it, this fish presently resorts to it in increasing
numbers; but they for the most part quit it again if Salmon
again become abundant.

When speaking of the Salmon it was remarked that the
place of resort of this tribe of fishes when at sea is scarcely
known; but less uncertainty exists as regards the wanderings
of the Peal, since so early in the spring as March or April,
and still more frequently in May it is often caught, but usually
as single individuals, in the drift-nets shot for INlackairel at
about the middle of the entrance of the British Channel; where
it is in the course of migration towards the land, and nearer
to which it approaches as the season advances. As these nets
are made to float at but a small depth where the water is

J I I

< M

H O

PEAL. 201

above fifty fathoms, we conclude that this fish swims near the
surface on such occasions; as it does also in summer near the
land, when drawing near the accustomed river; in which
situation it is fished for with a moored and floating net. Not
unfrequently also it takes a bait far out at sea, when the line
is kept in motion, as in whiffing for Pollacks; and it even
seems to be then eager for prey, which the Sea Trout never
is, and the Salmon rarely.

An example caught at a considerable distance from land in
the same net with Mackarel, had its stomach filled with very
small fishes, on which also the latter had been gorging them-
selves. There is reason to believe, however, that in the Peal,
as in most of the Salmon tribe, digestion is quickly performed,
so that the stomach is usually found empty. When this fish
has reached the coast it soon passes into the river, and in
some cases they enter in considerable numbers, bearing with
them the same kind of parasitic animal as the Salmon, but
which soon quits its hold as in that fish. The rivers where
they prefer to resort are often such as from their limited depth
the Salmon may hesitate to enter, but so far as observation
extends, a strong enticement seems to be that the entrance is
floored with gravel or sand. It also appears that they will
readily spring above a moderate fall of water, but of course
with inferior powers to the lordly Salmon; and the inducement
for thus seeking the flowing stream is probably the same as
that which influences that fish; which we suppose to be the
state of obesity or fulness that has been produced by an abundant
supply of nourishing food. But the larger proportion do not
continue in fresh water longer than about the middle of August,
although in a few instances they have remained to September;
and during this time they may be fished for with a worm or
fly; but they are more usually sought after with a draw-net.

It is among the most remarkable circumstances connected
with the history of this family of fishes, that among some of
the species the proportion of the sexes varies in a very great
degree; and we find this noticed so long ago as in the time
of Willonghby and Ray, by whom it is said that the Branlins,
or Fingerlins, are all of them males; and Mr. Dillwyn, in his
work on the Fauna of Swansea, observes that "Mr. Talbot has
found in his streams at Margain that the Bull Trout are
VOL. IV. 2 D

202 PEAL.

always male and the Sewin female, from which he has con-
cluded that there is no more than a sexual difference between
them." But, (setting aside for the present this last surmise,
and the further question about the Branlin, whether it be
what is now termed the Salmon Parr, or the Parr of the
Sea Trout, or, again, the Samlet, of which it would be still
surprising if none but males are to be met with, in the
numerous examples of the Peal which I have obtained in a
long succession of years, as well from far off in the ocean as
the river,) I have not been able to ascertain the existence of
a single male, and that, too, although the search has been
made under favourable circumstances, and with the offer of a
considerable reward to a professional fisherman who possessed
an exclusive right to a fishery where these fish were taken in
abundance in their season. But an accidental circumstance
has removed my doubts as regards the sexes of this fish.
There was a pool in the western branch of the Looe River,
close below the head of an ancient weir, above the barrier
of which these fish were not able at this time to throw
themselves; and at this place on the 22nd. of January, when
the cold was severe, a considerable number of Peal were
discovered as they were engaged in stirring up the gravel
with the evident purpose of shedding their spawn, and that,
too, without there being a single Salmon in the river. The
whole, or greater part of these were caught with a net, and
then the roe was found to be running from some of them,
and ready to be shed in all. Myself examined ten of
them, and the remainder, amounting to twenty in all, were
examined by others. They varied something in colour from
their ordinary appearance in summer, being a little darker,
and a few were almost bronzed at the sides; but all were
females, and there was only one male found among them,
which, however, had its tail excoriated, like that part in the
females, as having been engaged in the same work of stirring
the gravel for the reception of the spawn. This male fish,
which from its associations I cannot but conclude to be the
true male of the Peal, was yet sufficiently distinct to warrant
a distinct description. It was called by the fishermen a Bull
Trout, and had its under jaw hooked, as in the male Salmon,
the head more clumsy than in the Peal, the spots large,

rT!AL. 203

round, not cruciform, reddish. A remarkable difference was
in the adipose fin, which in the female Peal is less, and not
so far back. In this male it reached to near the base of the
tail. It is worthy of notice that Sir Humphrey Davy, in his
"Salmonia," records something not unlike this, but in the
opposite direction. In the month of October he obtained a
considerable number of Sea Trouts, and all of them were
males; but this may have been only a separation of the sexes
in the course of migration, as was the case with a goodly
number of Charr, kindly sent to me from Ireland by the
Earl of Enniskillen, to whom I have been indebted for much
assistance in the course of this work, and all of them were
found to be males, as were an equal number caught at the
same time and sent to the British Museum.

I have not been able to obtain satisfactory information con-
cerning the early stages of development of the Peal, nor of the
descent of the young to the sea; but there is a fish, well known
in some streams in the west, by the name of the White Trout,
and of which I have no doubt of its being an early growth
of the Peal; in which opinion I am confirmed by the authority
of Sir AVilliam Jardine, whose acquaintance with the fishes of
the Salmon tribe is generally acknowledged. But there can be
no doubt that when this smaller fish shews itself it is not earlier
than about the end of its first year; and what forms a singular
portion of its history, it is regularly found in some, perhaps
small, numbers, in rivers where the full-grown Peal, its supposed
parent, is not known to enter or breed. If even we may
suppose that some examples of the adult fish have entered their
own river and shed their spawn considerably earlier than the
time when we have traced them to do so, for irregularity in
this respect is not uncommon in all sorts of fishes, it can
scarcely be believed even that the progress of the young can
have so greatly outstripped that of the young Salmon, as to
have reached the length of from four to six inches in the
month of January, as I have known these to have done; although
more frequently they begin to be caught in March, and from
thence onward to May, in company with the Trout. After the
last-named month they are found to have left the fresh water,
and as we may judge, to seek a change of food in the depths
of the sea, from which just at this time the full-grown fish are

204 PEAL.

rising to proceed in the contrary direction. That these White
Trout are not the same with those which bear the same name
in Scottish rivers the Salmo albus of naturalists is certain;
and in only one instance, where the example was of unusual
size, have I ever seen a few grains of roe in them. The usual
length is about six inches, the form closely like that of the
Peal, and they are easily distinguished by the brilliant whiteness
of the scales; on the back a slight tint of blue or green, with
faint dots in some instances, and occasionally a tinge of pink
on the adipose fin.

It may be useful to be aware that the Peal is able to live
in the confinement of a pond of fresh water. Four of these
fish were taken in a river with a net, and presently conveyed
to a nc.,ly-enclosed piece of water of no large dimensions;
and after thirteen months they had not altered in any particular.

The Peal under several names is known in considerable
abundance through the whole extent of the British Islands,
although perhaps with some variation of form and colour, as
is the case with the Salmon and others of this family; but
there appears much .difficulty in assigning to this, and indeed
most of the other species, the names given by the writers of
the continent; the reason of which we suppose to be, that there
exist several kinds of the Salmonidce which are not yet clearly
defined; so that not a few which have hitherto been judged
to be only varieties will at last be discovered to be distinct
species.

From communications received from several districts in the
north of our island we have reason to believe that this, under
a variety of names, is as widely distributed as any of the
same family. An example has been obtained from Robert
Embleton, Esq., of Chathill, in Northumberland, under the
name of Hirling, f Sahno albelhis,J which measured eleven
inches in length, and closely resembled the Peal of Cornwall;
and I owe to the same gentleman, among other valuable
communications, the substance of a paper by Sir William
Jardine, Bart., which is contained in an early number of
"The Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club."
This gentleman says, "This fish I consider to be the S. albus
of Fleming, the Herling or Hirling of the Scotch side of
the Solway Firth, the Whiting of the English side, and by

which name it is also known in the Eden and the Esk, the
Phinnock of the north and west of Scotland, the White or
Phinnock of Pennant, and the Silver White of Tweed tacksmen.

In the Solway Firth they commence their approach to the

mouths of the rivers about the middle and towards the end

of June, if the season has been remarkably dry, and perhaps

a few days earlier if there has been much rain. From this

time they continue running till about the end of August,

when the greater part of the shoal is either past or taken.

The height of the run, however, may be said to be about

the last weeks of July, and their numbers at this time are

almost incredible. In the rivers they are caught with the

common sweep-nets, in the Firth by the stake-nets of small

mesh, or, as they are called, Herling houses. Many hundreds

are taken at once in each inclosure at every tide, and the

whole neighbourhood is for a short time supplied with them.

This abundance, with little exception, seems general wherever

they are found.

They enter the fresh waters for the great business of
spawning, and I have observed that in the larger rivers the
great body of the shoal leave the main stream and seek the
smaller tributaries, and very few remain where the water
continues strong and heavy. The spaAvning commences earlier
than that of the Salmon," (which my own observation has
already shewn not to be the case in Cornwall,) "is of course
sooner finished, and by the end of February almost the whole
of the old fish have returned to the sea. The young T have
never been able to see; it is probable, however, they are
hatched earlier, and make their way to the salt water when
of small size; and three or four months is a sufficient interval
for them to have obtained the size and weight of their first
appearance in the following June. It may be noticed as
remarkable in the history of this fish, and at variance with
the habits of the other British Salmons, that from the return
of the old fish, or Kelts, to the sea, not an individual is seen
till the appearance of the great shoal; a few days before, as
stragglers appear, and they are the signal of preparations being
commenced for their destruction; but in the intervening four
months, between March and the end of June, they are never
to be met with;" a circumstance better explained by the

206 PEAL.

Cornish fishermen. "In this respect," says this learned natu-
ralist, "they more resemble the Coregoni, which are completely
gregarious, and also the Herring, to which I believe the
above-mentioned genus leads. The fish in the Solway very
seldom reach two pounds in weight upon their first arrival;
half a pound and three quarters is a common size; afterwards
the greater proportion average from one pound to a pound
and a half. One of the most marked appearances of this fish
is the great proportional breadth of the back, and the peculiar
greyish green of the upper parts. This colour appears very
conspicuous when seen before the water has completely ebbed
from the stake-nets, when the fish swim near the surface, and
when small Sea Trout are mixed with them the contrast is at
once perceived. The distribution of this fish in Scotland, as
far as it can be with certainty traced, is pretty extensive; the
south and west coasts, however, seem to possess the greatest
abundance. Commencing at the Solway we meet it in great
abundance as far as the Dee at Kirkcudbright, from thence
we lose it at Loch Awe, at Loch Etian in Argyleshire, from
thence it is common along the whole of the west coast;" but
beyond this the Baronet appears uncertain of its existence.

A usual length of the Peal is about fourteen inches; the
general proportions much like those of the Salmon, but the
head is stouter, and consequently the snout is not so slender;
the eyes also proportionally larger; the nostrils a little above
a line drawn from the eye to the snout, while those of the
Salmon are more directly on that line; the gape less wide;
sharp teeth in the jaws, mystache, round the palate and along
the vomer; in the latter a double row, alternate, and complete,
while in the Salmon of moderate age they are often wholly
or partly deficient. Teeth in the tongue strong and hooked,
but commonly not in opposite pairs. Lateral line straight, with
one hundred and twenty mucous pores. Dorsal fin well
developed, with twelve rays, anal longer than in the Salmon,
ten rays; tail a little waved, while a Salmon of the same size
has it forked; and even the White Trout of six inches has
this fin less forked than the Salmon of a foot. Pectoral fin
round. Gill-covers more oval than in the Salmon; their colour
pale yelloAV or bluish, with shot-like spots. Colour along the
head and back greyish blue, shining white below, with small

PEAL. 207

blotches formed by the darker crossings of the scales; dorsal
fin spotted; ventrals with nine rays, caudal nineteen.

Convictions are not unfrequent, for taking Salmon with too
small a mesh in the open sea, when the only proof has been
that the Peal has been thus caught; and that too at the only
season when this could be caught, and with the only net that
could take it.

208

SE WEN.

Silver S\lmon, besides names common to it with other fish.

Salmo Cambricus, Donovan ; pi. 91.

It has been a commonly-received opinion, adopted without
much inquiry, that the Sewen is only a variety of the Peal,
and by many also that both these fishes are no other than an
early stage of the Salmon, but modified perhaps by particular
circumstances; and there is reason to believe that in many
instances these species, and also the Sea and Salmon Trouts,
have been confounded together; an unfortunate circumstance,
as we have already hinted, for many poor fishermen, who have
been convicted and severely punished for fishing with too
small a mesh for the Lord of the River in the open sea,
when, in fact, none such could have been caught, and they
were only in the hope of obtaining the smaller and less
valuable fish. A portion of this mistake has arisen from the
confusion of names by which these fishes have been designated,
for it appears that in many places the Peal is called a
Sewen, and the Sewen a White Trout or Peal, while the
Salmon in its younger state may pass for either of them.
But after having carefully examined these fishes, for the
opportunity of doing which I am indebted to Edmund T.
Higgins, Esq., I have come to the conclusion that the SeAven
is a distinct species, as Donovan also thought, and in this
light we treat of it accordingly.

In Wales it is the general belief that this fish is not found
anywhere but in that portion of the United Kingdom; and
even there it is said that it is only met with in those rivers
which run towards the west. It seems probable, also, that its

1-^ I (

-^ I I
m 1 I

o

H

SEWEN.

209

ranare at sea is as limited as when in fresh water; for there
are one or two rivers on the north borders of Devon and
Cornwall, into which, as it comes along the opposite shores of
South Wales, it might be supposed at least sometimes to find
its way. Yet such does not appear to be ever the case, although
a transfer of the breeding fish, as has been accomplished with
the Salmon, would probably be successful, and thus a highly-
delicious species might be made to have a more extensive
range. That it has not excited more general attention is to
be explained by a remark made by Sir Joseph Banks to Mr.
Dillwyn, that it was of too delicate a structure to be conveyed
to the London market, where hitherto it has not been seen.

On inquiring among fishermen well acquainted with this

fish, I learn that they ascend their favourite rivers to spawn

in autumn, and the roe is deposited usually in October and

November, in rocky ground, not in such shallow water as the

Salmon; but beyond this the particular situations and mode

of development have not been closely attended to. The young

go down to the sea in March and April, at Avhich time they

possess the common character of the family, in bearing a

resemblance to the early growth especially of the Peal or

White Trout, from which, and the young of the Salmon,

which are clothed with the silver scales, they are then not

easily distinguished. As hoAvever these young of the Sewen

are said to weigh in early spring a couple of ounces, or

more, it may be questioned whether the fishes to which these

remarks apply may not be in many instances the growth of

the beginning of the second year, confounded with those of

an earlier growth. It seems certain, at least, that early in

July an emigration of larger fish takes place, but whether

they remain until they spawn, or how many return to the sea

before or without spawning seems uncertain. Mr. Dillwyn and

his friend Mr. Talbot had remarked that males had not been

discovered among those which bore the name of Sewen; but

this is corrected by many of the fishermen, who report that

the male is just as common as the female, and they add that

this fish readily takes a bait, especially in the form of an

appropriate fly, which is seized with a leap and plunge, and

with the habit also that when the hook is felt, instead of

running off" with a tight line, it rushes often towards the

VUL. lY. 2 E

210 SEWEN.

fisherman with the prospect of breaking loose with a jerk, in
which its strength is exerted to advantage.

The Sewen is said to attain the weight of twelve, or even
sixteen pounds, but half that size is more common; and it is
best described by reference to the Salmon or Peal, with both
of which it has been confounded. As compared with either of
these it has a stouter head, and a deeper body; a larger eye,
which, as compared with the Salmon, is proportionally nearer
the snout. The under jaw is rather more protruded; in the
jaws and vomer the teeth are more like those of the Peal than
of the Salmon. Scales on the body much smaller than in a
Salmon of equal size; and the portion of the body bearing
scales more lengthened outward toward the border of the tail;
the false rays of that fin springing nearer the adipose fin than
in the Salmon or Peal. Lateral line straight. Pectoral fin
longer and rounder in proportion than in an adult Salmon, or
than in Donovan's figure. Adipose fin smaller; but this may
only apply to the individual; anal fin much longer, passing
nearer to the tail; whereas in the Salmon and Peal it ends
just opposite the adipose. Tail incurved, with longer rays than
in the Salmon. Colour fine blue along the upper parts, silvery
below, with pale pink spots of small size. Dorsal fin with
dark spots: none on the gill-covers; anal fin yellow; the flesh
pink.

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211

SEA THOUT.

GREY TROUT. BULL TROUT. SEA TRUFF. PUGTROUT,

Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 71. Jenyns ;. Manual, p. 423.
Fisherman's Magazine, vol. i, (No. 6.)

This fish is generally, but irregularly distributed throughout
the United Kingdom, but it is only at intervals that it is met
with in anything like abundance, and then only in the rivers
of the north of England, Scotland, and in Ireland. Comparatively
only a few shew themselves, and those of the smaller size, in the
summer, although we are told that in July and August, 1864,
which was a remarkably dry season with deficiency of water in
the rivers, they were in large numbers in the Tweed, so as to
be much more abundant than the Salmon, this latter fish being
through that summer remarkably scarce. The Sea Trout is said
to breed in the autumn, but this is doubtful as a general
habit, from the fact that the usual time at which they enter the
rivers from the sea for breeding is not earlier than November,
and an example taken in the Fowey river in Cornwall, from
which our figure and description were taken, obtained on the
third of December, had the grains of roe of large size, so that
one of them which was measured was the fifth of an inch in
diameter.

At the time of the migration of this fish, as fishing with a
rod is little practiced and nets are not in use, the interest it excites
is less than is felt for some other kinds, and its habits in
consequence are less observed; but we believe that in passing
up the river they do not put forth such efforts to get up to the
higher stations, or overcome difficulties, as the Salmon is known
to do, and that the roe is shed in somewhat deeper water Yet

SJ12 SEA TROUT.

it has been taken in a smaller stream than the Salmon would
willingly enter, although probably it was not there for the purpose
of breeding. Mr. Thompson was the first to notice this fish
in Ireland, wher^, however, it is not rare, although most abundant
in the north, and he mentions examples of the unusual size of
sixteen pounds. They have also been caught with a line on that
coast at some distance from land; but I have never obtained
it from nets shot in the sea in the manner or under the
circumstances in which the Peal is often caught.

The food found in the stomach of the Sea Trout has been,
two species of the Launce, with some vegetable substance, and
in the river it will take a fly. This is particularly the case with
the young when in the spring they are ready to go down to
the sea; and at this time they are marked on the side with those
bands which give the denomination of Parr to the young fishes
of two or three species of the Salmon family which are marked
with it. Indeed the young of the present species are made to
contend with those of the Salmon and Salmon Trout, for the
character of being pre-eminently the Parr of the rivers.

This is one of the fish which under the equivocal name of
Trout is sent to London from Scotland in company with the
Salmon, but it is less esteemed for the table than that fish. From
experiments made in the lakes of Norway it appears that the
Sea Trout will propagate when confined to fresh water, but
after several years it did not reach the size that is common in
situations where its habits of migration have not been interfered
with.

The example described measured only thirteen inches, but
this fish grows to double that length; the body moderately
lengthened, plump; from the snout to the centre of the eye
one inch; to the margin of the gill-covers two inches and a
half; diameter of the eye nine twentieths of an inch. Jaws
equal when closed, mystache even with the hindmost border of
the eye. Teeth along the margin of the jaws, and round the
palate; a double row along the middle of the palate, (vomer)
in alternate order. Tongue nearly square in front, with two
rows of incurved teeth. Eleven rays in the gill-membrane.
Dorsal fin at the centre of the body and of gravity, or as
quaintly expressed by the Cornish local historian Carew, when
Trouts are of middle growth, they are "eygall peized twixt either

SEA TROUT. 213

finne;" with twelve long rays and a few short; the pectoral
fourteen rays; anal nine, also the ventral, with the usual concealed
wing; the caudal nineteen, the border slightly hollo Aved, usually
straight. Upper part of the head dark green, cheeks yellow,
as are the eyes; hindmost gill-cover with shades; pectoral fins
yellow; back dark, the sides yellowish, belly white. Spots on
the body not uniform nor with a halo, but marked with sectional
lines, a few on the gill-covers, more on the back and sides,
some on the dorsal fin. The flesh red.

214

SALMON TROUT.

Salmo Trutta, LiNNiEUS. Bloch; PI. 21. Cuviek.

" " Yaurell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 77.

" ' Jenyns; Manual, p. 423.

Among writers of considerable eminence there has been much
difference of opinion as regards this fish, compared with the
Peal, Sea Trout, and Salmon; with one or other of which, and
as we shall find, some others, it has been confounded; as they
have also been with one another. But it has been our endeavour
to separate them in a manner that we suppose the least liable
to mistake; although in doing this we shall represent more
species than are usually acknowledged by naturalists; and yet
in some particular or other of the distinctions we lay down, we
find ourselves supported by authorities it will not be easy to
gainsay. But it is in regard to the habits of these separate
species that we meet with the greatest difficulty; since in the
observations which have been made on that subject, we do not
feel assured of the species which has been studied, and the
information collected from distant districts becomes thereby
subject to a large degree of uncertainty.

In our OAvn country the Salmon Trout is more a fish of the
north than the generality of this genus; for although it occurs
in the sovith and west of the kingdom, and our figure was taken
from an example that was obtained in the west of Cornwall,
yet there it is not to be regarded as common; whereas in
Scotland it is equally abundant with the Salmon, as it seems
to be also in Ireland ; where Mr. Thompson found it in the
markets in the spring, but of the usual small size of that
season. He does not give the date of one which weighed upwards
of seventeen pounds. It is sent to London in company with
the Sea Trout, under the common name of Trout; and when
in season it is little inferior to the Salmon.

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SALMON TROUT. 215

This fish feeds on the Launce, Avhich, unfortunately for
themselves, are a favourite diet with all the migrating kinds of
the Salmon family. But they feed also on crustacean animals,
and even on some species of confervas, or river weeds. In the
river they are taken with the worm and fly; although, as being
the Fordidge Trout, of which an account is given by Izaak
Walton, its taking a bait in the river is strongly questioned,
and this patriarch of angling was not in the habit of fishing
w^ith a fly. He represents the flesh of this species to be
decidedly white, but Mr, Jenyns says its colour is red: all
agree in its being highly valued at table.

The Salmon Trout might be mistaken for the Salmon in
some of its varieties, as well from its size in comparison with
the ordinary growth of the latter, as its general shape; and yet
in its aspect there appears a marked difference between them.
This species is comparatively stouter, and carries its bulk more
closely to the tail. The front also appears sharper; the gape
scarcely so large; eyes somewhat larger and nearer the snout.
Teeth in the vomer in a longer row, and not so prone to be
shed with the advance of ase. Border of the srill- covers more
produced above the pectoral fin, which fin is also more pointed;
dorsal more extended, its first rays scarcely so far advanced;
ventrals more pointed; as are the first rays of the anal, and
also proportionally longer than the following rays. According
to jSIt. Yarrell, the articulation at the base of the last dorsal
fin ray is exactly half-way between the point of the nose and
end of the tail, but I find it a little nearer the head; the
anterior edge of the adipose fin half-way between the base of
the last ray of the dorsal fin and the end of the tail. Colour
of the upper parts and tail dark, with a tinge of blue; with,
in the example described, some broad patches at the beginning
of the back, of a lighter colour; a tinge of pink on the cheeks
and along the sides; whitish with a tinge of yellow below; a
green dash behind the eyes; a strong tinge of red on the adipose
fin. Some rather small shot-like spots on the gill-covers; many
irregular crossed marks along the sides; ventral fins very light.

In a fish of this species from Sweden the rays of the dorsal
fin were fifteen, of which the first was very short, the third
the longest; anal twelve, the two last from one root; ventral
nine, caudal twenty, pectoral fifteen.

216

SLENDER SALMON.

Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society for 1S59.

Salmo HacJio, Fleming; Britisli Animals, p. 179, which he

makes the same with the Bull Trout.
Salmo gracilis, Nobis.

In the Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society,
here referred to, is an account of the taking of a fish which,
in reliance on what Fleming has described of one exceedingly
similar, was referred to a species of Salmon known as a native
of the Danube by the name of Hue or Huech, and in Hungary
as Huho or Huhko; but since the publication of the paper on
the Cornish Salmonidce, as mentioned above, I have learnt from
Dr. Gunther that the characters assigned to our fish will not
apply to the Hucho of Germany and Linnaeus; and that this
last-named species is not found anywhere even in Germany,
except in the Danube and its tributary streams; to which Dr.
Reisinger adds, that it is not common in any part of Hungary.
It is evident that the figure of the Hucho in the work of Bloch,
pi. 100, is not nearly like our fish; and the more indifferent
one copied by Willoughby from Get.ner is still less like it. We
are therefore compelled to conclude that our fish, presently to
be described, must not be referred to any known species of the
continent of Europe.

The example from which our figure and description were
taken was caught in the harbour of Fowey, in the month of
January; and it has since been sent to the British Museum.
But the figure was taken when it was fresh from the water,
and a copy of it was communicated to Mr. Yarrell; whose
opinion of it we give in justice to that gentleman, in his own
words: "Many thanks for your drawing of the female Salmon

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SLENDER SALMON. 217

with yonv letter, and kind remembrance of me. T have a skin
of a Salmon that would have been a good match for your
female. This was a Salmon that had been detained in a fresh-
water pond rather more than three years, and he had in that
time become in form more like an eel than a Salmon. I have
also in my drawer a specimen of a Salmo Trutto almost as
much elongated, but I had no opportunity of ascertaining any
cause for this change, but probably, as in the case of your
fish, destined to live in a river, the water of which did not
suit it."

It is not generally safe to differ in opinion from that excellent
naturalist, and especially in reference to fish of fresh water;
but on the present occasion it should be remarked that the
known circumstances were very different from those that were
thus suggested. So far from having suffered from long confine-
ment, the effect of which on the true Salmon is highly
suggestive, this example was caught when it had just then
come from the open sea. The River Fowey also is not polluted
with poisonous water from mines, as are many other streams in
Cornwall; and further, at no great distance of time before this
a specimen distinguished by similar characters, presently to be
described, was taken in the Looe, under the same circumstances;
and it should be further observed that at that time the last-
named river had not suffered from the copper and mundic water
which now flows into it. As regards the rarity of this fish,
with us of the west it does not appear to be less common than
the Salmon Trout itself; and on Dr. Fleming's authority I do
not hesitate to say, that however thinly scattered, it has been
met with more than once at the two extremities of the united
kingdom.

The length of this fish was two feet four inches and a quarter;
from the snout to the border of the gill-covers (all measured
in a straight line) five inches; girth round the body, which
was little compressed, and nearly round, one foot one inch and
a quarter. Teeth in the upper jaw anu mystache strong,
scattered, and incurved; a row round the palate, incurved towards
the palate; none in the vomer, nor did it appear there had
ever been any. The colour dull, with a tendency to blue, and
a tinge of pink along the sides. Rather numerous blackish
spots, with radii in three or four rays, and no light border
VOL. IV. 2 f

^18

SLENDTSR SALMON.

round tliem. We observe, however, that in some species of
this family, the radii of these spots are formed by the overlying
of some bright scales across one or two dark ones; thus permitting
only a portion of the dark to appear. Fin rays of the dorsal
fifteeir, the first very short, fourth the longest; pectoral fifteen,
ventral ten, with a separate wing; caudal eighteen. The aspect
of this fish and markings of its head differ from those of the
Salmon. The usual parasitic animals of the Salmon when coming
from the sea were not found on it.

^19

BLUE POLL.

?

WHITLING. HERLING. PHINOCK. BLUE COCKS f

Snhno alius, Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 180.

" " Jardine; Edinburgh New Phil. Journal, 1835.

Much difference of opinion has existed as regards this fish,
as of so many others of this tribe; for while some eminent
writers have viewed it as only an early or intermediate stage of
some other species of this family, and of the Salmon in particular,
other observers of no less authority have expressed their belief
that however the name may be applied there is a distinct species
to which it should pre-eminently belong. The mistakes which
have been caused by these contradictions have sometimes led to
the error of applying the habits of some of these fishes to the
natural history of others, and a further result not unfrequently
has been, that unjust and oppressive legislation has been brought
into action. This has especially been the case as regards the
fish now under consideration, as well as also that which we have
already described under the name of Peal; but although in the
earlier stages of their existence these fishes are not readily
distinguished from others of the Salmon tribe, nor any of the
migratory species from each other, yet when they have reached
maturity there are characters to be discerned by which with
little difficulty they may be definitely known; and measured by
these we have no hesitation in expressing the persuasion that
the Blue Poll, or Phinock, is distinct from every other.

Willoughby has remarked, page 192, that sometimes under
the influence of a strong north-east wind there comes from the
north to our rivers an unrecognised kind of Salmon, called by
fishermen the Blue Cap, from a broad patch of blue on its
head; and he further says that the sight of a single one of

220 BLUE POLL.

these fishes was hailed as a sign of success, in the large number
that was to follow. No description is given by which we might
be certain of the species, but we suppose it to be the fish we
are about to describe, since it is the only other one known
among us that is not mentioned by this author. In the west of
the kingdom the name of Blue Cap is applied by some fishermen
to the Salmon in the first year of its growth, and thus it answers
to what is known in the north of England by the name of Grilse;
but the fishermen are prepared to acknowledge another fish with
this name as a separate species, of examples of which we offer
a figure and description obtained from the river Looe, in Cornwall;
where it is known to anglers, but at this time scarcely to be
obtained, as its visits from the sea are only made during the
prohibited months of winter. Indeed, in the western counties
the numbers at any time are but small; but we learn that in
the Camel, which opens on the north of Cornwall, towards the
entrance of the Bristol channel, in its season it is in sufficient
abundance to have formed an object of attention to fishermen
before a law existed which laid a penalty on the taking of them.
From some unknown cause they do not increase in the rivers
with which we are acquainted, but they are in large abundance
in the north of England, and in Scotland Sir W. Jardine found
them in the summer in much greater numbers than any of the
other species of the Salmon tribes. We suppose they frequent
the rivers of Ireland also; but they have not yet been
distinguished from the kindred species in that kingdom.

In common with the other fishes of this family the Blue
Poll sheds its spawn in December and January; but sometimes
as early as October. It is said that the proportion of the sexes
is unequal, there being more males than females; but both of
them unite their efforts in forming a channel for the reception
of the roe; which channel is less deep than that of the Salmon,
and not so long. The young of this species are called Skirlings,
but we suppose that this name is not strictly confined to them,
but is common to several species. It appears certain that the
adult Blue Poll does not enter the Cornish rivers in the summer,
although the want of a sufficient flow of water cannot be
assigned as an hindrance to a fish of such comparatively small
size. After spawning, we believe that they have all gone
down to the sea before the end of February, or early in March.

BLUE POLL. 221

We nre informed that the female Blue Cocks are often sold
for Salmon, and both sexes are highly valued for the table.
A female fish, which had spawned, was taken with a fly on
the 4th. of March; and when first hooked it is its habit to
leap out of the water, as the Peal is known to do, but contrary
to the custom of the Salmon. The example here referred to
measured fourteen inches and a half in length, which seems to
be about the usual size; the form slender, depth in front oi
the dorsal fin two inches and five eighths; gape considerable,
teeth in the vomer, and otherwise as in others of this family
From the snout to the border of the hindmost gill-cover three
inches and six eighths. Eye large, nostrils close together. On
the border of the second gill-cover a mark as if serrated; the
whole head rather stoiit in proportion to the body. The dorsal
fin begins six inches and three eighths fiom the snout, with
fourteen rays, the first very short, the third longest, last rays
extended; anal eleven; ventrals nine; tail a little concave, with
twenty rays, with a row of eleven or twelve short side rays;
termination of the body at the tail a little crenate. Lateral
line with ducts of which I was able to count one hundred and
twelve. Colour of the back blue, light on the top of the head,
green on the cheeks, a yellowish portion behind the eye; eye
golden; brilliant white on the sides and belly; dorsal fin greenish
pale blue; border of the adipose fin slight red; spots on the
sides and dorsal fi.n not well defined; larger spots on the
hindmost gill-cover, very small behind the eye. Air bladder of
good size, posteriorly attached to the vent, and forward
lengthened to the gullet, where it opens with a visible aperture,
as in others of the genus. The skin much tougher than in the
Peal. In another example, which appears to have lately spawned,
there was no tint of green; brilliant blue on the hindmost part
of the head; dorsal fin rays twelve. It differs from the Peal
in being more slender, the eye larger, the open nostril nearer
the eye than to the snout, contrary to what is found in the
Peal; pectoral fin longer and not so wide.

&2^

LAKE TROUT.

In Ireland, Buddagh the Grey.

Prfhnn ferox, Jakdine. Jenyns ; Manual, p. 425.

" " Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 110.

This fish was little known to any except anglers until of
late; and appears to have been first distinguished as a separate
species by Sir William Jardine; but when we have heard of a
fresh-water Trout as exceeding fifteen or twenty pounds in
weight, we may venture to conjecture that the examjole referred
to Avas the great Lake Trout. It is strictly a fish of the north,
and is confined to the larger lakes or pieces of water, as well in
Shetland, as the more distant parts of Scotland. Nilsson mentions
it among the fishes of Sweden; and through the kindness of
the Earl of Enniskillen I have obtained examples from the
north of Ireland, where it is even common in places in which
there is sufficient space for it to rove and feed; for it is to
be observed of this species, as of several others of this family,
that in a more limited space they are shorn of their full pro-
portion of bulk and vigour. It is thus that some examples
which, through the kindness of J. iSIorrison, Esq., M.P., I
obtained from Malham Tarn, in Yorkshire, the size was much
less than those from Ireland. They are found also in the
Llyn y Bugail, or Shepherds' Pool, in Montgomeryshire; and
it is to be remarked that in both these last-mentioned instances
the pool or lake is on high ground, as if the degree of elevation
was required to be an equivalent for the more northern situation
of the Scottish waters.

This is a formidable fish, as well from its size, in which it
is equal to the Salmon, and much superior to the general run
of that fish, as from the formidable armature of its mouth, in

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LAKE TROUT. 223

which it outdoes all its tribe. Its ferocity is equal to its weapons,
and when seized by it no ordinary inhabitant of the water can
hope to escape; so that next to the Pike it is the most for-
midable of the inhabitants of at least our British lakes and
rivers. With such eagerness of hunger, the supposition may
well be that this fish will fall a ready prize to the fisherman;
and as its food is the fishes of its native waters, and a Trout
of no small size is a ready bait, such might be the case, but
that, like others of this family when of full growth, the Lake
Trout is shy or cautious; so that although it may perhaps rise
to a fly, as more commonly it seeks its prey only by night, it
is more usually taken with lines, which are laid for it at that
season. When the hook has been swallowed it becomes ex-
ceedingly furious, and no small strength is required in the line
to secure it. For the table it is not highly esteemed.

It produces its spawn at about the same time with others of
this family; and for this purpose they leave the deeper water
of the lakes in which they usually reside; but they do not
proceed upward in the rivers which feed these lakes to any
considerable distance, and presently after performing this im-
portant function they return. We may suppose that the influence
of light, which is obtained best in the shallower water, is of
advantage in the development of the young of this species, as
well as others of this family.

I 1-earn from the noble Earl already mentioned, that he has
taken this fish in Lough Eck of the weight of twenty-eight and
thirty pounds, and Mr. Thompson mentions it as exceeding even
this; but the example described, which was obtained at the
beginning of December, weighed only fifteen pounds; the length
two feet four inches and a half; the body stout and thick,
carrying its breadth and thickness backward to the adipose fin.
Head large, flat on the top, snout projecting before the eyes,
ending blunt. Jaws equal, gape large, mystache passing con-
siderably behind the eye. Teeth strong, sharp, the points
directed inward, distant from each other; those on the mystache
continued through the whole length, with an interruption in
front of the upper jaw; strong recurved teeth round the palate;
a single row along the vomer, and a strong row across in front
of the vomerine row, but distinct from it, and also appearing
distinct from the side row of the palate Sirong incurved teeth

S24 LAKE TROUT.

in the lower javr, and witliin on each side near the front a short
separate row. Tongue fleshy, with a double row of not very-
large teeth. Being a male there was the kipper or turned-up
process on the front of the lower jaw, but not so high as in
the Salmon; and it was received into a cavity in the upper
jaw. Nostrils above the level of the line from eye to snout;
scales on the body round, those along the lateral line shining;
origin of the dorsal fin one foot and an inch from the snout;
adipose fin large, and not far from the tail; its upper part
widest. Width of the tail eight inches, and at its root three
inches and a fourth; the border might be called straight, except
that there is a small point at the corner above and below;
pectorals rather wide, the upper rays curved. The colour along
the back and upper part of the sides dark, tinted with blue,
as are also the dorsal fin and tail; cheeks yellow, covered, as
is the body, very thickly with round dots; none on the belly;
pectorals and ventrals yellowish; anal dark. A tinge of purple
on the sides, where the scales shine as if pearly. The dark
spots on the body are also spread over the dorsal fin and tail;
and even on the lower portion of the transparent cornea (of
the eye.)

In an example from Malham Tarn of much less size, the

muscular structure appeared more decided; the tail broader and

more round; dorsal and anal fins more developed; a more

decided tinge of yellow along the sides; the adipose fin reddish;

and the spots proportionally larger, with a warm tinge.

In a comparison of several examples, Mr. Thompson found
permanent differences between the sexes; the teeth being con-
siderably stronger in the male; the distance from eye to snout
greater; and the form of the operculum is different, that of tlie
female approaching in roundness to that of the Salmon. In
some instances the spots in the male have a pale circle of dull
orange round them.

I found the fin rays of the dorsal to be twelve, anal ten,
pectoral thirteen, caudal twenty.

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COMMON TROUT.

SHOT.

Truita fluviatilis, Jonston; Table 26, f. 1.

WiLLOUGHBY; p. 199, Table, N. 4.
Salmo fario, Linn^us. Cuvier. Block ; PI. 22 and 23.

" " Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 181.

" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 424.

" " Yarkell; British Fishes, vol. ii, p. 85.

The Trout is the commonest fish of our rivers the most
widely distributed, as well as the chief object of amusement
generally to the angler; and in the comparison of it with the
Salmon it is only as the chase of the hare is different from
that of the fox. The catalogue of books which have been written
on the art and pleasure of fishing for it has amounted to a
volume; and seldom does a season pass without the addition of
a new one, or a new edition of one that is old; for anglers
are almost as fond of talking or reading of their art as of
practising it. Under such circumstances the history of the
Trout has a strong claim on our attention; and so much the
more as this fish is liable to a wide extent of variation in
its appearance and habits; both of which are believed to depend
on the situations in which they are found; as regards the water,
whether it be swift or slow, clear or otherwise; and also with
reference to the kinds of food, and even the degree of light,
shade, and shelter; with respect to the last-mentioned of which
influences we shall presently refer to the observations of the
Swedish naturalist Nilsson; and taken together the whole of
them afford an illustration of the powers which are in constant
exercise to modify all but the essential characters of this fish.
It is this liability to change, in some degree in shape, but
VOL. IV. 2 G

226 COMMON TROUT.

especiall}' in colour and habits, which has suggested the question
whether there may not be more than a single species in our
rivers; but to this for the present we hesitate to return a con-
fident answer. Cuvier and Bloch are supposed to have made
mistakes in this, and we prefer to follow the example of
Willoughby and Sir William Jardine in considering the several
appearances in which they differ as signs of variation only. In
truth, we do not feel ourselves competent to decide at what
point the line of distinction as regards species in this case should
be drawn ; since within the sphere of our own observation we
have been witness to changes that have appeared to alter the
identity of some varieties of this fish, while we have been
confident of their being the same individuals; and we have
known others that from apparently long-continued existence in
one sort of form and colour, might be regarded distinct, but
which under change of external circumstances have returned
to a near resemblance of the usually common type.

We take in the first place as our example the Common Trout
of our rivers and brooks, the history of which is without
obscurity, and by comparison with this the habits and forms of
other and perhaps more doubtful kinds will be better understood.
The Common Trout is a fish of much activity, and delights in
clear and rapid streams, with a preference for such as flow over
a clean and gravelly bottom. There it swims, usually and
especially in cloudy and cold weather, low in the Avater where |i

the river is not deep, and with its head against the current it
maintains its station, perhaps near some eddy, with a watchful
eye for every moving object. A worm or small shell-fish is
acceptable, and it leaps eagerly at a fly that for a moment may
stray or settle on the surface; but Avhen larger grown it gives
a preference to a small fish, and an unfortunate minnow, one of
many in a sportive assemblage that are unconscious of fear or
danger, is a temptation not to be resisted. It also watches the
spawning of the Salmon to devour the roe in spite of the
vigilance of the parents, and gorges itself with the helpless young
ones as they shoAv themselves above the gravel, within the shelter
of which they had long lain hid; but here, as with the imitated
minnow, their eagerness leads them to their fate, for the angler
supplies hin self with the coveted material as one of his most
attractive baits. We have not thought it necessary to enter at

COMMON TROUT. 227

any considerable length on the subject of the amusement of
angling, as that has been treated of in so many volumes;
but although medicated baits have been long neglected or
discarded by British fishermen we will venture a reference to
one mentioned by Bloch, as we have no recollection of having
seen it referred to by any English writers. It is formed of a
mingling together of castor and camphor with the aid of heat,
and while yet in a melted state a piece of linen is dipped in it
and kept for use, a slip of it being wrapped about the hook.

The practice of fishing with a fly has been thought almost
peculiarly English, and of ancient date in this country, and
Duhamel in France copies all that he has to say of it from
Walton and Cotton; but in both these particulars there is reason
for doubt. The "Book of St. Albans" gives some directions for
what it terms "dubbing," a practice referred to by Izaak Walton,
and which in some distant degree bears a likeness to the modern
method of fly-fishing. But neither does this dubbing with a fly
obtain a principal place in this old treatise, the very little of
which appears to limit it to "Fysshynge wyth an angle," or
earthworm; nor was the patriarch of the art, Izaak Walton, much
better versed in it, for it is to his friend Charles Cotton we are
chiefly indebted for what afterwards grew to be a new phase in
the art. And again, although it is often said that the Trout
was unknown to the ancients, or unrecognised by them, there is
evidence that not only was it common and fished for in Macedonia,
(as in the lakes of Italy,) but that the method of taking it with
a fly was in use in the former country.

Aristotle had spoken in a cursory manner of a fish, the name
of which is read as Thrissa, but which the learned Gesner
supposes to be more properly Thrassa and Thratta, and that it
was the same with the Trout; and that the fish itself must have
been known to that eminent philosophic naturalist, himself a
native of Macedonia, is clear from a narrative of iElian; although
of the name of the fish, as being local, the latter expresses his
ignorance. He savs "I have received information of the following
method of catching fish in Macedonia. In the river Astroeos,
which runs between Berneea and Thessalonica, there are fish
which are ornamented with spots of diflferent colours, but the
names they bear are best learnt from the people of Macedonia^
Their food is the flies which Irequent that river; and these flies

228 COMMON TKOUT.

differ from any that are found elsewhere; for they are not only
unlike bees and wasps, but they unite in themselves the likeness
of all these insects. The people of that country call them hippuri
horseflies; and as they fly near the surface of the water they
are easily discerned by the fish, which therefore glides gently to
the place where their shadows fall, and, just as a wolf snatches
a sheep from the flock, with a gulp it seizes the fly, and instantly
plunges with it into the depth of the stream. This has been
noted and copied by the fishermen, but with some variation, for
they do not employ the natural fly, which will scarcely bear
the handling, but they imitate it by art. A small quantity of
purple wool is wrapped round the hook, and a couple of wings
are added from yellow neck feathers of a cock. The rod and
line are each four cubits long, and this contrivance, when skilfully
cast on the stream, is found eminently successful." (Hist, of
Animals, B. 15, C. 1.) It was in Germany, and there only as
far as we are informed, that fishing for Trout Avas formerly for-
bidden to all but the privileged, and in some States the penalty
was the loss of a hand.

Within a certain range of temperature, from the far north
of Europe, and perhaps of America, as also in brooks high
up towards their source in lofty situations, to so far south as
Italy, the Trout is a common fish even in places where no
other fish is found. Sir John Malcolm discovered it in a stream
of a mountain in Aderbijan, a province of Persia; and Bishop
Heber observed it in the Himalayan Mountains, although it
does not exist in the lower districts of India. On the other
hand Captain Parry found it, or a kindred species, in a lake
in Melville Island, where the temperature falls to minus 55.
But everywhere its habits vary with the season; for when
young and in summer it prefers the shallows; but as the sun
loses its power it retires to the deeper water, and shelters itself
under the protection of some overhanging bank, or the knarled
root of some projecting tree; of which it is the belief of
anglers the most likely to be chosen is the willow. To this
the older fish resort on the appearance of danger; and from
this they do not often wander far away; for, contrary to their
habits when young, the aged Trout is nocturnal, and it is by
night that its courage enables it to sally forth with eager and
even ravenous appetite, to seize Avhatever it finds in motion.

COMMON TROUT. 229

and is able to overcome. A rat or frog is not at this time
an unwelcome prey. In summer, however, and when no better
shelter is near, a casual hiding-place, at least to those of no
large size, is beneath a stone in water that is not deep; and
in this situation they are sometimes caught by a practise which
Willoughby seems to intimate as only known in England.
There is reason to suppose this fish feels even a pleasure when
a tickling action is felt by the motion of fingers, as they are
gently pressed along the under portions of its body; for it
remains still until an opportunity is afforded of grasping it at
the gills, and thus securing the capture.

The roe is shed on the approach of the colder months; and
for this purpose these fish proceed upward to the more retired
and shallower brooks, and as near as may be to their source.
It is covered with sand or gravel in miniature imitation of the
actions of the Salmon; but the grains are developed in a
shorter time than are those of that fish. In a course of obser-
vations referred to in the "Zoologist" for 1855, it was observed
that from the time of bursting the egg to the full development
was fifteen days; but before this, and afterwards, they are
exposed to devastation similar to that which when a little grown
they inflict on others; and it has been remarked that the
Minnow is one of the principal devourers; but the injury thus
inflicted on the race is soon afterwards repayed with vengeance.

The growth of the young Trout is speedy, but much of this
depends on the sort of food that comes in their way; and we
may judge that the bulk which they at last reach will greatly
depend on what they obtain, of quality as well as quantity,
at their outset in life; for sometimes there are districts in the
same river where the fish are found of larger size than in
any other part of it. In a set of trials made by Mr. Stoddart,
examples were placed in three separate tanks, in one of which
they were supplied with worms, in another with living Minnows,
and in the third with those small dark-coloured water-flies which
are to be found moving about on the surface under banks and
sheltered places. The Trouts fed with worms grew slowly, and
had a lean appearance; those nourished on Minnows, which,
it was observed, they darted at with great voracity, became
much larger; while such as were fattened upon flies only,
attained in a short time prodigious dimensions, weighing twice

230 COMMON TROUT.

as much as both the others taken together; although the
quantity of food swallowed by them was in nowise so great.
We think that the mingling of these sorts of food would have
been still better; but it is known that the circulating juices
or blood of many insects possess chemical properties very different
from that of the higher animals; and the influence of which on
creatures which feed on them must be stimulant as well as
nutritive. Cantharidine in a species of beetle, a strong acid
in ants, and ammonia in millepedes are familiar instances
of this; and the minute flies, (E?7ipedes,) which in a winter's
gleam people the sunbeams, would be frozen to death if their
blood were not composed of a fluid more powerful in resisting
cold than a mixture of milk and water, or the blood of a mouse.
But the young Trouts soon scatter themselves through the
river, and everywhere shew themselves ready to take a bait or
rise to a fly; but ready also to be scared by any passing object.
In this indeed their course is often remarkable; for they will
remain without fear close to the wheel of a mill while it is
dashing round, and the water falls in a cataract; and they
will even spring towards it when alarmed; but the sight of the
human figure or other moving object will terrify them greatly.

The Trout does not recover its health and appearance very
speedily after spawning; and yet, in Cornwall at least, it has
not unfrequently been caught with a fly in good condition in
January and early in February; but it is probable that these
examples had not shed the roe at the usual season, as is the
case also with, at least, the Salmon; and it may be such as
these which have been found ready to perform this natural
function early in July; as we have known them.

Nilsson appears to think it strange that the Trout is never
in the open sea in the Baltic, while so many other fresh-Avater
fishes are known to leave the rivers and pass into it; but this
remark will not apply to the Trouts of our own streams, which
have been noticed many times in the month of May to be
quitting the river for the deep Atlantic. To satisfy myself of
this I have procured an opportunity of having them taken in
the sah-water with a net; and a well-grown Trout has been
brought to me, that was caught at a considerable distance from
a river or fresh-water. Under such circumstances a material
alteration takes place in the colour of the fish, which becomes

COMMON TROUT. S3 1

of a rich dark brown, with an aggravation of the other
characteristic tints. It is believed that these migratory examples
in no long time return to their native river; at which season
again their appearance is so changed that they have been judged
a distinct species; and we believe that they are the same which
Dr. Knox has denominated the Estuary Trout.

It is not easy to ascertain the age to which a Trout may
reach, and Lord Bacon assigns it a limited date, but without
giving any evidence on the subject. We know the dangers
to which all of Salmon family are exposed; so that few
of them can be supposed to live out half their days. But an
exception has been made in two or three instances in favour
of some examples of the Trout; and we are informed that a
farmer near Pontypool had a fish of this kind captive in his
well for twenty-seven years; during which time it had not
increased in size. And this is exceeded by one mentioned by
Daniel, in the Supplement to his "Rural Sports," which is
recorded to have lived for twenty-eight years in a well at
Dumbarton Castle, and which was the weight of a pound when
first conveyed thither; but even this is greatly exceeded by an
instance mentioned by Mr. Yarrell, where a Trout is said to
have lived at Broughton, in Furness, for fifty-three years.

Daniel's account of this fish of Dumbarton Castle may be

thought interesting by those who have not had an opportunity

of seeing the original work. He says that "the Garrison of

Dumbarton Castle, in Scotland, was thrown into general

lamentation by the sudden loss of its oldest veteran, who had

served therein, a general favourite, for the long period of

twenty-eight years." It was "a Trout, which having been caught

by an officer in the river Severn, was put into the garrison

well, that flows to the surface, where in time it became so tame

as to receive its food of bread from the hands of the soldiery,

in the water. When first taken it weighed little more than a

pound, and it never afterwards increased in size." The instance

here given was a case of solitary, and therefore might be supposed

unnatural confinement; but the same writer mentions an instance

where a Trout of large size had been known in a district of

the Clyde for almost twenty years, during which "it eluded

every artifice that the ingenuity of the sportsman had devised"

for taking it. It at last left its usual haunts in consequence

232 COMMON TROUT.

of the shifting of the gravel of the river, but there is no record
of its having ever been caught.

The following narrative, derived also from Mr. Daniel, will
not only amuse, but serve to shew that a moderate degree of
confinement will not limit the growth of the Trout, nor interfere
with its appetite. Mr. Toomer had built a stew in which he
fed many Trouts, one of which, that weighed three pounds and
a half, had been caught in the river at a small distance, and
its size and strength soon enabled it to become the master of
all the others that were in the stew before him. In about a
year this fi.sh, which had received the name of Fuller, and was
an object of particular attention, had grown to about nine pounds,
five of which had been added to his weight between March
and October, at which latter date its length was twenty-seven
inches. Its appetite was great, as was its activity; and the
body was beautifully spotted. The food, which was not always
abundantly bestowed, was worms, minnows, or the entrails of a
calf finely chopped, but unless much pressed by hunger it neg-
lected them by day. It is at an hour before dark that it begins
to move about, and then Fuller begins to exercise his tyranny
over the rest. He chooses to feed alone on the food thrown
to him, and not at all in haste; but when he looks round, all
the smaller Trouts dart off into their hiding places, at which
time he sails round to see that they have all withdrawn, and
he repeats the circuit at every little interval of his feeding.
About a hundred and twenty-five minnows formed the complement
of a meal, and, in devouring these, woe be to any one of the
smaller tribe that ventured to intrude; except, indeed, a single
favourite, which he appeared to have selected for a companion.
It was only when the feast had ended that others were permitted
to scramble for what was left. The greatest amount of activity
was when the wind was brisk. Fuller's fate was at last
unfortunate in being stolen from the stew.

It is scarcely necessary to say that the Trout is highly
esteemed for the table; but there is great difference according
to the situation in which they are caught.

Instances have been reported not unfrequently of the very
large size to which this fish has sometimes grown; but in the
generality of cases it is probable that this is a mistake, which
has arisen from confounding it with the Lake Trout: and the

'

COMMON TROUT. 233

error may have been committed the more readily, because that
large and voracious fish is found to be an inhabitant of some
districts, where from its limited size it had not been suspected
to be found. We will not venture to say how seldom it is
that the Common Trout will weigh more than a dozen or fifteen
pounds; but an example of seven or eight is usually sufficient
to excite curiosity, and those of two or three pounds are of
more frequent occurrence. The authority of the Prussian
naturalist Bloch is good for a large part of the continent of
Europe; and he says that the usual length of the Trout is
about a foot, with the weight of half a pound, and one that
amounted to eight pounds was thought to be of such extraor-
dinary size as to be a fit present for the Elector of Saxony.
But examples of larger size than this are scarcely uncommon
in England, where yet they are fished for with eagerness; and
Sir Humphrey Davy, in his "Salmonia," quoting Lord Dedun-
stanville's edition of "Carew's Survey of Cornwall/' says that
when some small river Trout, in length two inches and a half,
were placed in a newly-made pond, in the second year some
of them were about twelve inches in length; in the third year
one measured sixteen inches, and in the fourth year one had
grown to twenty-five inches. But the shape is much alike in
all these instances, except as the examples are better or worse
fed; and yet there occurs such a variety of aspect as to raise
the belief that differences exist between the fish of different
waters to such an extent, that a practised eye may be able
to pronounce from what district each individual has come.
And this is the case where beyond question the variations are
of one distinct species; for we leave the more obvious variations
which have given rise to doubts for subsequent consideration.
In the example we select for description, which measured a
foot in length, the head and body are moderately compressed,
the head proportionally small, the outline rising from the head
to the dorsal fin, and gradually falling again to the tail; the
body covered with small scales; lateral line straight. The jaws
equal when shut, gape moderate; the mystache reaching back
to about the middle of the eye, armed with teeth, as are also
the jaws, round the palate and along the vomer; a prominent
double row along the tongue; all sharp, incurved. Eye of
moderate size, rather larger than in the full-grown Salmon or

VOL. IV. 2 H

{234 COMMON TROUT.

Peal; nostrils about half way between the eyes and snout.
Beginning of the dorsal fin five inches back, with twelve rays,
decreasing in length; pectoral rounded, with thirteen rays;
ventrals close to each other, nine rays; anal ten, the two last
from one root; the tail wide, concave, the upper and lower
portions rounded, twenty-two rays. The colour varies with the
colour of the ground, and also with the health; the back
yellowish or reddish brown; cheeks and sides grey, or a rich
yellow, white below. Gill-covers often sparely spotted, as is
the dorsal fin, of the colour of the back; anal yellowish; but in
both these fins, and almost invariably the anal, the first ray has
a white border, becoming broader upward; sometimes dark at
the dorsal; pectoral yellow; the adipose fin bordered with red.
The sides studded with dark spots; red spots along the lateral
line, and some above and below, each spot Math a light-coloured
border or circle. It is material to remark, as distinguishing
closely -allied species, that the vertebrae of the Trout have been
counted as fifty-six, and the cseca, or processes at the beginning
of the intestine, under fifty in number; and the stomach itself
has a membranous character, by which among other things it
is distinguished from the Gillaroo.

In the several varieties of the Trout mentioned by Sir William
Jardine, or otherwise observed, it is instructive to notice the
accompanying influences of soil, elevation, degree of light and
shade, and also the nature of the food on which the varieties
are chiefly fed, and to which we have already referred; and all
of which, with their combinations, will effect material changes
of colour on the surface and within the flesh; as they will also
on the configurations of particular organs, even, as we shall
have occasion to point out, to a considerable amount of abnormal
structure; or, as it is commonly expressed, of monstrosity. And
this effect is rendered more considerable, so as to become even
hereditary, by the circumstance that these fish in their usual
habits are not able commonly to mingle with others of a different
stream; so that by breeding only among themselves, a peculiarity
once obtained is likely to become a permanent character of the
race or district.

Sir William Jardine remarks in connection with the fish
which he describes as his first variety of the Trout, and which
he found iu Loch Craigie, in Sutherlandshive, that the country

COMMON TROUT. 235

round that lake is formed of black and white granite; the
bottom of the loch of large boulders of granite gravel, or fine
sand; and, except at the edge of one or two small bays, no
indication of moss appeared. The colour of the water was clear
sienna brown, and more limpid than that of any of the lochs
of the same district. The fish were of good size, and in form
came near to the accepted idea of symmetry in a Trout;
remarkable for the small size of the head, arched back and
great depth; the colours were of the highest brilliancy, the
upper parts of a rich brown, the lower half and belly a deep
golden orange, the spotting numerous but ill-defined, and often
of a cruciform shape; the flesh high-coloured.

We notice this description more particularly, because on some
wild downs in the parish of Luxulian, in Cornwall, there are
large pools in a granite district, in which there are Trout much
like those of Loch Craigie, and probably from the operation
of a like cause. These pools are in an open country, and have
the appearance as if they had been formed by some ancient
workings for tin, and are not connected with any river; so that
it is not easy to form an opinion how it ha^ happened that
any fish could have had access to them. I^tinnows exist in
these pools, and probably constitute the principal food of these
orange golden-coloured Trout. However, there are in the same
pools some Trout of a larger size and different form, as well
as colour, so as to raise the supposition of their being a different
species. The first-named have the anterior margin of the dorsal
fin and also the adipose red; the upper and lower portions of
the tail not rounded, and both the margins red; with no
light line on the anterior border of the anal. In the larger
fish there is not a mark of red either on the body or fins; a
slight tinge of yellow on the cheeks, and on the body some
crossly-marked spots; points of the tail rounded; anterior border
of the anal faintly white.

The second variety noticed by Sir William Jardine is found
in Loch Shin, which is of great extent and depth, on a lower
level than Loch Craigie, although only three or four miles from
it. The bottom is for the most part rocky, gravelly, or sandy,
but to a great extent its banks are mossy, and the water is of
a very deep brown. The Trout were in a good condition, but
remarkable for the lengthened and graceful form of the body

236 COMMON TROUT.

and members; the head lengthened, rather attenuated towards
the nose, the fins all lengthened, very sharp-pointed and powerful,
the dorsal rising high in front; first ray of the anal fin double
the length of the last; tail deeply forked, the outer points turning
inward and sharp; form of the scales under the microscope
longer in proportion, and considerably narrower than in any of
the others. The colours not so brilliant as in the first, but
beautiful, shading from a deep olive brown to greyish yellow,
the spots large and distinct, round, in a pale field.

The third variety is from a small alpine loch upon the
Benmire range, at a very considerable elevation. It is situated
in a tract of moss, but the bottom is rocky or gravelly, the
water rather transparent but of a dull tint, the rock of the
surrounding country limestone. Compared with either of the
former the distinctions of shape were very evident; head very
round, nose blunt; the length to the extremity of the gill-covers
proportionally great, body very thick, deep and round; fins thick
and muscular, the lower ones rounded at the extremity; tail
square. The ground colour deep purplish olive, shading from
greyish to golden yellow, the whole, including the fins, glossed
over with a rich shade of pale purple; the upper parts and
gill-covers thickly spotted with well-defined round sepia-coloured
spots, some placed in a pale space; below the lateral line
thinner and more scattered; the flesh red and firm.

A fourth variety is generally of small size, and very plentiful
in the district of Assynt, in Sutherland, where every narrow
valley has a large number of lochs of various extent; and in
a large extent of country the fish resemble each other: rather
thickly formed, fins of moderate length, tail much forked; the
upper parts of a rich olive brown colour, a bright yellow beneath ;
the upper two thirds of the body, gill-covers, and dorsal fin
thickly covered with large round black spots in a pale circle;
on the ridge of the back these spots are often united.

The fifth variety is from a series of lochs between Richkonich
and Laxford, and in the river Laxford, which issues from Loch
Strach. The body comparatively short, but remarkably deep, the
fins very short, rounded and muscular, and of a Tench-like shape,
diff"erent from any of the others; the head remarkable for its
great length. Colours not brilliant; the spots large, but widely
asunder; the flesh white and soft. From the remark that the

COMMON TROUT. 237

fishermen on the Laxford term this variety the Loch Trout, and
distinguish it from "the commonly marked Trout of the river,"
and also that the osteology of the head of the larger specimens
differs from the other Trout of that river, we might suppose
it a distinct species.

In the male Trout we always find the head in front of the
eyes more lengthened out than in the female, and in full-grown
fish of both sexes the tail is often nearly straight. In some
rivers also the head is remarkably round and blunt, but we
have usually supposed the species to be the same when within a
limited range; in other particulars the adipose fin is bordered
with red, and the only example of a doubtful kind within our
knowledge was in the large examples from the pools in
Luxulian already mentioned. Bvit how great a change may be
caused by circumstances appears from the Trout of the Loe
Pool, near Helstone, in Cornwall. This fish is mentioned by
the local historian Dr. Borlase, and had long been celebrated
for its size, beauty, and excellency. Perhaps its size has been
exaggerated, but I have been favoured by John P. Rogers,
Esq., M.P., the proprietor of this lake, with the sketch of an
example, a draAving of which was taken on account of its size
and appearance when caught in fishing with a fly, in the year
1774; and which measured along the curve of the body twenty-
eight inches in length, and sixteen inches in girth, with the
weight of eight pounds and three ounces. I possess also a
coloured drawing of an example of much less size, but taken
several years since, when the fish was in its principal excellency;
and from these evidences I find that the form was that which
is most admired in the Trout, with the head small, the back
elevated, and the whole appearance plump. The colour a rich
pink on the sides, deeper on the back; the flesh like that of
the Salmon, and for the table in the highest esteem, as may
be concluded from the fact that so long ago as the time of
the Saxon King Athelstan it was deemed worthy of royal notice,
so that land was held by the tenure of keeping a boat on this
lake for the royal amusement. And this reputation of the
Loepool Trout continued until within a few years, when a change
passed over it, and the water and filth from a tin mine was
permitted to flow into it; first with the effect of diminishing
the proper food of the fish, and then reducing it to the

2-S8 COMMON TROUT.

condition, as regards size, colour, and goodness, of the most
ordinary inhabitants of our streams.

But there are other effects to which the Trout is liable from
local situation and influences, and far less easy to be accounted
for; since they involve a material interference with the structure
of important organs, to such an extent as seems scarcely com-
patible with its existence. The first we shall mention is
represented by a figure in Mr. Yarrell's work, vol. ii, p. 108;
where the upper jaw is deficient, while the lower jaw is of the
usual length. In other particulars this fish does not differ from
other Trouts; the most remarkable circumstance concerning it
being, that it is not a merely casual deformity of an individual,
but is common in lakes or pieces of water which lie at some
considerable elevation in hills of great height. Such is the case
in a small loch called Loch Dow, near Pitmain, in Inverness-shire;
and a variety closely resembling it is found in Lough na
Minna, in the county of Clare, in Ireland. This latter lake is
on the top of a mountain, nearly seven hundred feet above the
level of the sea, and four miles from it; and there are other
deficiencies of structure, which are chiefly or solely seen in
lofty situations, which we have seen recorded, or have ourselves
been witness to.

So long since as the times of Giraldus Cambrensis, in the
twelfth century, it had been noticed that in the Llyn y Cwn,
or Pool of Dogs, in Wales, there was a Trout which, I suppose
not invariably, was deficient of the left eye; and the same Avas
said of the Perch and Eel, which were found in the same
water. Strange as this may appear, we learn from Mr. Hansard's
"Trout and Salmon Fishing in Wales," that as regards the
Trout, the fact has been confirmed by a fisherman of that
neighbourhood, as also by the Hon. Daines Harrington .

A Trout with a remarkable distortion of the spinal column
into an arch at the situation of the adipose fin, is also reported &

from the same lake; and Dr. Fleming says that the same occurs }

in the River Eynion. in Cardisranshire. I have also obtained
it from Caldew, in Cumberland, where they are common; and .}.

in these examples, of which two were sent to me, the head i

appeared unusually large; the hump or elevation was above the
anal fin, which had only nine rays; and the adipose fin stood
on the top of the arch, the body being again bent down at

COMMON TROUT. ?39

the tail; the upper rays of this fin longest, nineteen in all;
its action in a depressed direction; and the arrangement of
bones at its root not as in other Trouts; the line of the vertebrae
so arched as to cause the distortion. But a more remarkable
distortion or deficiency is frequent in a Trout which is found
in Malham Tarn, in Yorkshire, for the knowledge of which
and the possession of examples I am indebted to W. Morrison,
Esq., M.P. The situation is on a hill twelve hundred and fifty
feet above the level of the sea; the rock near is limestone, and
the water clear. The fish are termed Silver Trouts, from the
brilliancy of their appearance; but there is another species in
the same water, Avhich I have no doubt of being the Lake
Trout, (' Salmo ferox,) of which the. colour has a strong
impression of yellow. This Silver Trout is of the ordinary
growth of its species, and is in good condition; but the
deficiency consists in the entire absence of the posterior plate
of the gill-cover, sometimes on one side and at others on the
other; and in a specimen sent to me this deficiency was on both;
so that in every case the fibres of the gills are bare and open
to the water. About one in four or five of the Trouts caught
in this place are found with this deformity; notwithstanding
which the fish bore no marks of having been subject to any
inconvenience, and were in good condition. Among the casual
malformations a Trout was caught in Cornwall which had a
second or smaller head, wliich appeared projecting from this
natural part; and Mr. Yarrell mentions one, in which there
was both a separate head and tail. Deformed Trout, some of
them like those already mentioned, are also recorded by Mr.
Thompson, in his "Natural History of Ireland;" so that in fact
there is no fish so liable to these irregularities of structure as
the Trout.

210

GILLAROO.

GIZZARD TROUT.
Gilla/roo Trout, Thompson ; Nat. Hist, of Ireland, vol. iv, p. 154.

The Gillaroo is usually set down as a variety of the Common
Trout, from which the ordinary supposition has been that it
is only distinguished by a particular firmness, or gizzard-like
structure of the coats of the stomach; and it has been further
believed that this thickness of the stomach is caused by its
habit of feeding on shell-fish or other hard substances. Of the
particular structure of this organ we shall presently give an
account; but the alleged cause appears the more doubtful, as
it is found in this fish in its very young condition, and the
ordinary Trouts which inhabit the same rivers, and at least
occasionally devour the same substances, are without this par-
ticular form of the organ. It appears that the fishermen are
well able to distinguish between the Gillaroo and the Common
Trout; and, for myself, (having been favoured by the kindness
of the noble Earl of Enniskillen, whose promptitude in fur-
nishing me with supplies of this and other fishes of Ireland
demands my earnest acknowledgments,) from a close examination
of them I feel no hesitation in expressing my opinion that
this is a distinct species from the Common Trout; and in this
it is a satisfaction to find myself supported by Mr. Thompson
in the work above referred to. That the instinct of this fish
may lead it to feed more freely on river shell-fish than the
Common and Lake Trouts which frequent the same rivers, is
highly probable; and it is probably better able than they
to crush and digest them; but it also takes freely a fly
and worm, and it is to be regretted that its other more
peculiar habits have not hitherto been closely studied. It is

X

c
c

< X

J o

GILLAROO. 241

acknowledged, however, as a delicate fish for the table; and,
as in some rare instances, it has been suffered to grow to
twenty-four pounds, it may sometimes rival even the Salmon
in the esteem of the epicure.

That eminent physiological anatomist, John Hunter, remarks
of the stomach of this fish that it cannot justly be ranked as
a gizzard, as it is sometimes described, since it wants some of
the most essential characters of that organ, which are a power
and motion fitted for grinding, and the horny cuticle. But
the stomach of the Gillaroo is more circumscribed than that of
most fish better adapted for small food, and endued with
sufficient strength to break the shells of small shell-fish, which
will most probably be best done by having more than one in
the stomach at a time, and also by taking pretty large and
smooth stones into the stomach, which will answer the purpose
of breaking, but not so well that of grinding. But this
stomach can scarcely possess any power of grinding, as the
whole cavity is lined with a fine villous coat, the internal
surface of which appears everywhere to be digestive, and by
no means fitted for mastication. The stomach of the English
Trout is exactly of the same species with that of the Gillaroo,
but its coat is not so thick by two thirds. To this Professor
Owen adds, (Lectures, part 1, p. 234,) that "it is the ascending
or pyloric half of the bent or siphonal stomach that has its
muscular parietis unusually thickened, by which it is enabled
to bruise the shells of the small fluviatile testaceans that
abound in the streams in which this variety of Trout is
peculiar." It has been believed that this Trout is confined to
Ireland, where, indeed, it is so generally distributed, that it
would be superfluous to specify any particular rivers or lakes;
but I am informed by Charles W. Peach, Esq., who has long
resided at Wick, that it is found also in Scotland, at least in
a small loch near Inchnadamff Assynt, in Sutherland.

Of two examples laid side by side, one was more slender
towards the tail than the other; but the one selected for
description measured ten inches in length, whereas instances
are mentioned where this fish has measured nearly thirty
inches, with a weight of about twenty pounds; but compared
with the Common Trout it is always far stouter, and much
more robust. Depth of the specimen in front of the dorsal

VOL. IV. 2 I

24^ GILLAROO.

fin two inches and a half, rising higher at the back, and
deeper at the belly than the kindred species, compared with
which also the under jaw is shorter and more feeble, the
jnout more obtusely rounded, the setting on of the pectoral
fins thrust more forward under the plate which borders the
gills, and which is turned up to give them place; the pectorals
and ventrals also proportionally longer; the anal rather smaller;
the tail less expansive. As regards colour, it is probable that
the Gillaroo is as much liable to variation as the Common
Trout; but the specimens under notice nearly resembled each
other. On the head broAvn, bluish brown along the back;
higher portion of the sides tinted with pink, verging into
yellow, and on the belly white. Cheeks yellow, as are the
pectoral, anal, and ventral fins; the dorsal dusky, with black
spots and pale anterior border; adipose fin dark, with a black
spot, but without a red border, as in the Common Trout. Mr.
Thompson mentions some bright red spots on this fin, but he
says nothing of a red border or a diffused redness. Vermilion
spots are scattered over the sides, with no particular reference
to the lateral line: there are also numerous dark spots on the
cheeks and along the back, but none of these spots are
encircled Avithin a light border, as usual in the Trout. The
teeth strong on the tongue; the palatine teeth wide at the
base, and pomted, those on the vomer irregular; a narrow
veil in front of the palate. The fiesh a rich salmon-colour.
On attempting to preserve the skin it was found to be softer
than in the Trout, and to stretch more readily; but this might
arise from the length of the journey before it came into my
possession.

o

1>

o

o

O
O

:^4S

LOCHLEVEN TEOUT.

Balmo C<ecifer, Parnell; Memoirs of Wernerian Society, vol. vii.

" " Yarrell; British Fishes, vol. ii, p. 117.

It has been supposed that this is one of the many varieties
in which the Common Trout is prone to appear, as influenced
by differences in water and food, of which aheady we have
given an account; but observers who have been well qualified
to form an opinion, of which we refer to Dr. Parnell, Mr. Yarrell,
and Sir John Richardson, have confidently decided that it
is a distinct species; and from several particulars which they
have brought forward in support of this conclusion, we feel
no hesitation in adopting their decision; and so much the rather
as it is shown that there are abundance of the ordinary Trout
in the same waters, exposed to the same influences, but from
which the species above mentioned are readily to be distinguished.

But although this fish has obtained its name from a particular
lake or district, to which indeed it was formerly believed to be
confined, we are not to conclude that it is not to be found
elsewhere, although perhaps in these kingdoms it may not be
known out of Scotland. Dr. Parnell's description was from a
specimen which measured a foot in length; the head rather
more than one fifth of the whole length, including the caudal
fin; the depth between the dorsal and ventral fins less than the
length of the head; gill-covers produced behind; end of the
maxillary (mystache) extending as far back as the posterior
margin of the orbit; teeth stout and sharp; vomerine teeth
passing along the whole way of the palate, thirteen in number.
Dorsal fin placed half way between the point of the upper jaw,
and a little beyond the fleshy portion of the caudal extremity
of the body, with twelve rays; the third the longest. Tail
concave, with twenty rays; anal ten; pectoral tv/elve, ventral nine.

244 LOCHLEVEN TROUT.

Scales small and well fixed. Colour of the back deep olive green,
the sides lighter, round dark spots on the gill-covers and sides;
also on the dorsal fin, none of them with a lighter border.
Anterior border of the dorsal and anal fins plain. Compared
with the Common Trout, there is a considerable difference in
the number of caeca or appendages to the beginning of the
bowels, there being from sixty to eighty in this fish, and only
about forty-six in the Common Trout; and it is on this account
that the specific name of ccecifer, or cceca-bearer was bestowed
upon it. But there are other, and striking differences between
this fish and the Common Trout, as that the pectoral fins are
pointed, those of the latter fish rounded; the body without red
spots. In the Lochleven Trout the rays of the tail are propor-
tionally much the longest, and the upper and lower portions
more pointed. Colour of the flesh deep red.

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05

245

SAMLET, OR PARR.

PARR. BRANLIN. PALMER TROUT. TROTTER. HIPPER.
FARTHING TROUT; AND SEVERAL OTHERS.

Sahno SalmuluSf W[lloughby; p. 192, Table N. 2.

" " Yarrell; Br. Pishes, first edition, vol. ii;

but not the figure, which is too sharp and
protruded before the eyes, and too high
on the back.

It has been long a question whether a little fish much
resembling the Trout, and known by a variety of names in
different places, but pre-eminently of late by that of Parr, is a
distinct species, or an early condition of the Salmon; or at least
whether it is produced by some one or more of the migratory
species of the Salmon family. Several circumstances connected
with the appearance and habits of these last-mentioned fishes
have contributed to these doubts; some of which are still far
from being settled, in spite of the efforts of several close observers,
and the numerous experiments which, to all appearance, have
been carefully conducted; but of which some appear to have
had no further effect than the increase of the confusion that
already existed.

It is known that the larger species of this family are accustomed
to deposit their spawn in the same rivers, at the same season,
and for the most part under circumstances not much unlike;
in which case when an inquirer has endeavoured to watch
their development, and the changes natural to them in the
course of their growth to maturity; and for that purpose has
removed the roe from its native bed, and placed it in artificial
or strange circumstances, it will not appear remarkable if former
doubts have not been removed, as concerns the conclusions that
were drawn, or the new opinions which were advanced. As

246 SAMLET, OR PARR.

against these it waa urged that it must be lield uncertain
whether the roe thus removed liad all been shed by the same
species; and also whether the strange, and perhaps unnatural,
circumstances in which they had been placed, and which Mr.
Shaw allows to have been different so far as the important
point of temperature was concerned, and probably as regarded
food also, may not have materially influenced the subsequent
appearances and habits. And these doubts will appear to be so
nmch the better founded, since from some of these experiments
it has been concluded that the Sea Trout and Bull Trout are
the same species with the Salmon; the contrary of which is
admitted by every student of nature.

But this probable mingling of the eggs is not the only, nor
even the principal cause of the confusion in which the subject
has been involved. It is known that in the early stages of their
existence the young of several species of this family bear so near
a likeness to each other, and especially in what must in this
case be regarded as the important character of a series of dusky
bands along their sides, that eminent naturalists have declared
their inability to distinguish them. It is only at somewhat
distant periods of their growth, and not by merely an increase
of size, that specific marks of their individual nature make their
appearance, and others disappear; and these changes may be
hastened or greatly delayed through the operation of circum-
stances, which hitherto appear to have been little understood
or thought of; and we are again given to see a source of some
of the fallacies adopted from experiments that have been made,
by collecting together the young fishes of similar appearance
in a river, and setting a mark on them by cutting off the
adipose fin, or punching the gill-covers; with the view of
ascertaining, not only whether after their migration they return
to their native stream, to which extent the trial has been
successful; but also as regards the sameness or diversity of the
species; in relation to which inquiry the want of discrimination
at the outset has of course been fatal.

But whilst these experiments 'have failed to establish the
opinion they Avere at first believed to support, the more carefully
laboured observations of Mr. Shaw have been trusted to in
support of the belief, that the fish known by the name of Parr
is no other than a particular stage in the growth of the Salmon;

SAMLET, OR TARR. 247

and that its being found in rivers through the year, or at least
the greater portion of it, is only because there are considerable
numbers of the fish thus marked, of the progeny of the Salmon,
which from causes yet unknown, are slower than others of the
same deposit, in passing through their natural changes, even to
the extent of two or, as it may happen, three years. So fre-
quently, and, it would appear, unconsciously have these bands
been dwelt on as a proof of identity of species, and so powerful
has been the operation of Mr. Shaw's language and experiments
on the minds of some eminent naturalists, that at last the bands
themselves, without reference to any other supposed marks of
distinction, have received the appellation of Parr; and it is on
this account that in treating of the species now under consider-
ation, we have judged it best to jilace this disputed denomination
in the second place, and only as a synonym; and to distinguish
the fish we hold to be distinct by its also ancient name of Samlet.
The question at present therefore is not whether the young of
the Salmon, and we may add of some others of the same family,
may not remain in fresh water for more than a year, during
which they may bear on the sides a series of dusky marks at
this time, denominated Parr-bands; but whether there be not
also a distinct species which bears those marks, and which by
something like arrested development, is never deprived of
them.

Mr. Shaw's perseverance in conducting his experiments, and
his honesty in stating the doubts he felt as regards some of
his observations, are deserving of great praise; but his conclusions
in some particulars appear to be far from satisfactory, and, as
regards the true nature of a fish he terms the Parr, the
question appears to be just exactly where he found it. It
appears that after the confinement of a year, these Belted
Salmon were permitted to follow their inclination in passing
into the river ; but it is far from being shewn, or indeed
rendered probable, that these were the same fish that were
afterwards obtained in the river with enlarged milts, or that
they were certainly of the same species. The bands themselves
were no proof of this; and hence it is exceedingly questionable
whether any of these diminutive examples could have been
engaged in preparing the ground for the reception of the roe,
an ofiice in which the male Salmon is always expected to

248 SAMLET, OR PARIl.

assist his mate; and still less is it shewn that the roe of any
Salmon has ever been rendered fertile by the milt of a Belted
Parr.

It is said that the Samlet or Parr is not found in any other
rivers than such as are frequented by the Salmon; but if this
were true it would only amount to presumptive proof, and
would argue as much in favour of some other species as of
the Salmon. But extended inquiry has shewn that the Samlet
is not in every case an inhabitant of rivers frequented by this
king of fishes, nor does the latter invariably frequent streams
where the Samlet abounds. Dr. Knox is confident, ("Lone
Glens of Scotland," p. 81,) that "Parr are not found in the
Kale, in Roxburghshire, nor in the Tyne, in Haddingtonshire,"
both of which are frequented by Salmon; and Mr. Young, of
Invershin, who is a competent authority on the subject,
informs us that there are streams in Scotland where Parrs are
found, although neither the Salmon nor Salmon Trout has
ever entered them; and such is the case also in the west of
England. The Camel is a river of Cornwall which opens on
the north coast of that county, and there is an arm of it
which is separate from the main stream by a bank which is
sufficiently wide to prevent the passage of any fish that might
attempt it. Salmon, therefore, are never seen in any portion
of this separate channel, but Samlets are found in it in
abundance at all seasons of the year.

In a "Perambulation of Dartmoor," by the He v. Samuel
Row, Vicar of Crediton, it is said, "Mr. Spence, of Mutley,
has for some time been occupied in investigating the process
of the growth of the young Salmon, so as to test the assertion
of Mr. Shaw, that the Parr is the young of the Salmon at
one period of its growth. For this purpose he has been
supplied weekly with fresh fish from the neighbouring rivers,
from February to August, 1847. On examining his collection
I find that he has obtained fishes distinctly retaining the
characters of the Parr during the whole of the months of
July and August, at which time it is generally understood
that the young Salmon of the previous year have lost those
marks, and have acquired their silvery coats, and gone down
to the sea as Smolts; at the same time the Pinks of the year
are increasing in size, being in August about five inches long.

SAMLET, OK PARR. 249

retaining their lateral markings, and instead of being silvery
are yellowish in colour, like the Trout; hence it follows that
this is a distinct fish from the Salmon. In this case an
opinion opposed to that of Mr. Shaw would seem to be a
necessary consequence."

Observations to the same purpose are contained in the work
of Dr. Knox, already referred to, but they are too copious
for our pages. We prefer, therefore, to give a single para-
graph, (p. 87,) which shews, indeed, as we are ready to
acknowledge, that the natural history of the true Parr or
Samlet is not well understood, but which a23pears decisive of
the fact that it is not the same with the Salmon in any
^tage of its growth. "Examine, as I have done, hundreds
and hundreds of the true Salmon Smolt, w^hile descending the
rivers, sparkling with their silvery scales, and obviously 'Salmon
in miniature,' towards the ocean; and the roe and milt will
constantly be found at their minimum, that is, mere threads.
And yet, after all these have left the river for the ocean, we
almost immediately find the Parr with the milt or male
organs in the highest state of development. If these were
smolts not yet sufficiently grown, how comes it that their
brothers of a year older growth, as is said, have left the
river with the milt at its minimum, leaving behind them
cheir younger brothers with the same organ at its maximum?"
That the Samlet is indeed to be found in some rivers in
every month of the year admits of no doubt; and from a
desire to investigate the subject still further, in the first week
of January I procured from the Lerryn branch of the Fowey
Piver a basket of Sahnonidce, of which the Samlets and
Trouts were in about equal numbers. The Trouts were in
good condition, but none of them displayed any development
of the roe or milt; and such also was the case with those
Samlets which were less than five inches in length, of which
there were several. But in those Samlets which measured
more than this, or about six inches, the milts in the males
were large enough to fill the cavity, and it is remarkable that
of this I found in each only a single lobe. If this should on
further search be found a character of the species, there would
be no further doubt of their being distinct, for in the Salmon
these organs are in two lobes; but I hesitate in expressing
VOL. IV. 2 K

S50 SAMLET, OR PARR.

an opinion on this point, as such a peculiarity could scarcely
have escaped the notice of other observers, and in this instance
it may have been only a casual malformation, and no oppor-
tunity offered itself of following up the inquiry. It is certain
however that in no case do the males possess the bent-up
lower jaw which is so characteristic of the full-grown Salmon
when the milt is enlarged; and in consequence the sexes are
not to be readily distinguished. Such a one, however, I
handed over to Mr. William Laughrin, A.L.S., for examination;
and he afterwards assured me that the roe was considerably
developed.

In support of the opinions already expressed, we add the
authority of Ephemera, already referred to, jointly with that of
his friend Mr. Young, together with a description of what we
believe to be the true Parr or Samlet, as compared with the
Trout and young Salmon, as opportunity has been afforded us.
Ephemera observes of his figure of the young Salmon of four
inches in length, that "it resembles the little Trout called the
Parr, but its fins are much longer than those of that little fish,
and its whole shape is much less perfect. Not observing those
marks of distinction has led to the confounding of Salmon fry
with Parr; calling them indeed 'Parr,' as Mr. Shaw and his
followers do; whereas the Parr is a distinct adult fish, of the
river Trout species;" to which is added by Mr. Young, "a
full-grown Parr is the length of a Salmon fry of nine months
old; but its fins are little more than half the size of those
of the fry. It is fuller and darker in the body, and in form
like that of a well-shaped Common Trout. Its cross bars or
finger-marks, as they are commonly called, lie closer together
on the body than the transverse bars do on that of the Salmon

fry."

Sir William Jardine has defined the differences between the
Samlet and the Common Trout, of the latter of which the
former was once as confidently believed to be a variety as by
many it is now believed to be of the Salmon, But comparing
the latter with it when of equal size, I find the front of the
Samlet more blunt and round; the eye differently placed, as
not so low and near the gape; gill-covers differently formed in
their outline; pectoral fins more rounded. The vomerine teeth
are also differently placed, and extend further back towards the

SAMLET, OR PA.R11