The number of fishes that are produced every year is astonishingly great, and it is necessary that it should be so, as the large fish must prey upon the smaller ones; for fishes are not like terrestrial animals, some of which live entirely, and others partially, on vegetable productions, and they can only feed upon each other, or on other animals which inhabit the waters. Fishes are divided into two great classes, the first of which includes all the ordinary fishes, or those which have a bony skeleton; while the second class consists of the cartilaginous fishes, or those in which the place of bones is supplied by gristle, and among which, strange to say, are included some of the most ferocious monsters of the deep. The first class is subdivided into two orders, one of which comprises those fishes which have spiny fins, the rays of which consist of straight sharp-pointed bones; and the second contains those fishes which have soft fins, the rays of which are frequently branched or jointed as in the skate.
BONY FISHES WITH SPINY FINS.
The serranus, which is sometimes caught on the Cornish coast, is perfectly hideous when out of the water, as the spasm which seizes it when it is taken, never passes off, and it is found long after death in a state of rigidity and contortion, with the fins preternaturally erect.
The anthius is a beautiful fish of the Mediterranean, of a ruby red colour, changing into gold and silver, with yellow bands on the cheeks. "This fish appears to have been known to the ancient writers; and it was regarded as sacred by the divers for marine productions, from a fond belief that no dangerous species would approach its haunts. When an individual happened unfortunately to be caught by the fisherman's hook, it was supposed that its companions immediately severed the line by means of their sharp spines."
The weever or sea-cat, sometimes called chanticleer or sting bull, measures about twelve inches in length, and is frequently caught on the Cornish coast; but when taken, it should be handled with great caution. "I have known," says Mr. Couch, "three men wounded successively in the hand by the same fish, and the consequences have been in a few minutes felt as high as the shoulder; and such is the dread which is entertained of this fish, Mr. Yarrell informs us, that our own fishermen invariably cut off the back fin and the side spines before they bring them on shore: the French have a police regulation, by which their fishermen are directed to cut off all the spines before they expose the fish for sale; and in Spain there is a positive law, by which fishermen incur a penalty if they bring to market any fish whose spines give a bad wound, without taking them off." It is curious enough, that the peculiarities of the weever are alluded to in a poem on the Rivers of England, published in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
The mailed-cheek fishes are among the most frightful of the smaller inhabitants of the deep, with the exception of the gurnards, which are rather handsome, particularly the common species, which is of a bright red above, and silvery white below. A kind of gurnard, called the piper, resembles the common species in colour, but it derives its name from a remarkable hissing sound which it produces when caught, by expelling air through its gills. It is found occasionally on the British coast.
The common flying-fish of the Mediterranean is nearly allied to the gurnard, and it is different from the flying-fish of the Atlantic ocean. In fact, there are several fishes which have the power of flying for a short distance, from their side-fins being furnished with a membrane sufficiently large to support the weight of the fish. The flying gurnard is extremely common in the Mediterranean, where it is pursued by the bonitos and dolphins, and from which it endeavours to escape by vaulting into the air, where other dangers await it from the gulls and other similar birds. It must be observed, however, that though it is able to raise itself into the regions of the air, it is by no means capable of a continuous flight, "for the utmost it can do is to describe an arch over the surface of the water, extending to a distance of about 120 feet, and sufficiently elevated for the fish to fall on the deck of a large vessel."
The river bull-head or miller's thumb (Cottus gobio) is found in almost all the fresh-water streams of Europe. This fish is remarkable for the large size of its head in proportion to its body, and hence it takes both its popular names, as its head is supposed to bear some resemblance to a miller's thumb, which is always remarkably large from the habit the miller has of trying the fineness of the flour between his thumb and finger. In Russia this fish is used by some as a charm against fever, "while others suspend it horizontally, carefully balanced by a single thread; and thus poised, but allowed at the same time freedom of motion, they believe it possesses the property of indicating, by the direction of the head, the point of the compass from which the wind blows. In Switzerland the children spear the river bull-heads in shallow water, as they move from the stones under which they hide."
The father-lasher and the sea-scorpion are two other species of cottus. The first takes its somewhat singular name on account of its habit of giving quick and repeated lashings with its tail when thrown on the sand. When touched, it distends its gill-covers, sets out its numerous spines, and assumes a most threatening appearance; but if put into a tub of fresh water, it dies immediately. The sea-scorpion is often confounded with this species, as its habits and general appearance are similar; but it is a much smaller fish.
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The armed bullhead, or pogge, is sometimes called the sea-poacher, from the great activity and eagerness with which it seizes the aquatic insects and small crustaceous animals which constitute its food. It is seldom more than five or six inches long. The head is large and very bony; and the body is defended by eight rows of strong scaly plates, so that it may be said well to deserve its name of armed bullhead, as it appears as if clothed in a coat of mail.
The sea-locust resembles the sea-scorpion in its general appearance, but it has a strong spine on its cheek, which it projects when offended, so as to make it a dangerous weapon, though in a state of repose it is scarcely perceptible. It is on this account that the generic name of the fish is Apistus, from a Greek word signifying perfidious. This apistus is one of the flying fish, and, when the sea is agitated, it occasionally falls into ships. As it is the only flying-fish of the Red Sea, and is extremely abundant along those desert coasts over which the Israelites wandered so long, it has been conjectured that the food mentioned in Exodus, and translated by us quails, was, in fact, the fish in question.
Nearly allied to this fish are several others so hideous that it is wonderful how any human beings can ever have had the courage to eat them. One of these is, indeed, so exceedingly frightful that even the negroes at the Isle of France have christened it the sorcerer. At first sight, indeed, no one would consider it a fish, but rather suppose it to be a mass of corrupted jelly. Its head and body seem enveloped in a bag of thick soft spongy skin, warted and wrinkled all over and irregularly spotted with various tints of brown and grey, which last is sometimes changed to black; but all the tints have a dingy and muddy appearance, and the fish has always a glutinous and disgusting feeling to the touch. The eyes are so extremely small as to be scarcely discernible in the large cavernous head. This frightful creature lives a long time out of the water, and, in fact, it is extremely difficult to kill it. The inhabitants of the Isle of France regard it rather as a reptile than a fish; and they fear what they call its sting, that is, the wound inflicted by its spines, more than snakes or scorpions.
It seems strange that the beautiful little sticklebacks should be classed with fishes so hideous as those just described, and yet, when they are closely examined, there will be found many points of resemblance. They have hard cheeks covered with plates of mail, and strong spines with which they fight each other with terrific fury. In other respects they are beautiful little creatures; the males having green backs, which shine with metallic lustre, and beautiful crimson bodies, with lovely little fairy-like fins, which look as if they were made of gauze, and flutter with inconceivable rapidity when the little creature is pleased. One that was kept by Miss Charlotte Perry, at Godalming, had a very singular habit. He was kept in a glass vase, like one of those used for gold fish, and he was supplied every other day with fresh duck-weed, which, as soon as he obtained it, if the sun shone warmly on his glass, he spread out as a kind of umbrella, but when the sun went in, he collected it together at the bottom of his glass and used it as a kind of bed. When several sticklebacks are kept together in one glass they fight tremendously, and those that are killed, if examined closely, will be found fearfully lacerated by the spines of the survivors. Most of the sticklebacks are river fish, and are natives of Great Britain, but one species, the fifteen-spined stickleback or sea-adder, is found in the sea, on the coast of Norway, as well as in the Baltic.
The common maigre, or umbrina, is generally found in the Mediterranean, though it visits occasionally the British Channel. It is eaten, and was formerly considered a great delicacy for the table. There is nothing very remarkable in the appearance of these fishes, but it has been noticed that when they are swimming in shoals, they utter a peculiar sound, so like the purring of a cat, that some strangers, who were in a boat in which one was deposited, could scarcely be persuaded that they had not a cat on board. The noise may sometimes be heard at the depth of twenty fathoms; and it is recorded that, on one occasion, three fishermen, guided by the sound, dropped their nets so successfully as to secure twenty fine fish at one single throw. The two hard bones usually found just within the sides of the head are remarkably large in these fishes, and were supposed in the olden times to possess medicinal virtues. They were called colic-stones, and were worn round the neck, mounted in gold.
The drum-fish is nearly related to the maigre, and makes a still more extraordinary sound. Mr. John White, an American lieutenant, who, in 1824, published a Voyage to the China Seas, relates, that, at the mouth the river Cambodia, he and his crew were greatly astonished by a combination of the most extraordinary sounds they had ever heard, and which seemed to proceed from the sea around and beneath the vessel. These sounds resembled a "combination of the bass of an organ, the sound of bells, the guttural cries of a large frog," and the twanging strings of a gigantic harp. For some time they formed a complete chorus, so loud that the vessel seemed to tremble at the din, but in proportion as they ascended the river the noise diminished, and finally ceased altogether. On appealing to the interpreter, he informed Mr. White that this extraordinary music was produced by a troop of fishes of a flattened oval form. Humboldt heard similar noises in the South Seas, of which he was unable, at the time, to ascertain the cause; but they were no doubt produced by the fish in question. The scientific name of the fish is Pogonias, and one species of it is found in North America.