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BONY FISHES WITH SOFT FINS.
The carp is a fresh-water fish, and it is perhaps the least carnivorous of its class, as it can subsist on grains, grass, or even on mud. These fish are very long-lived, and though they eat abundantly when they have plenty of food, yet they can subsist an astonishing length of time without nourishment. In the winter, when they assemble in great numbers, and bury themselves among the mud and the roots of plants, they often remain for many months without eating. They can also be preserved alive for a considerable length of time out of the water, if care be taken to moisten them occasionally as they become dry. Advantage is often taken of this circumstance to transport them alive, by packing them among damp herbage, or wet linen; and the operation is said to be unattended with any risk to the animal, especially if the precaution be taken to put a piece of bread in its mouth steeped in brandy! The Dutch preserve carp by suspending them from the roof of a damp apartment in a bag-net filled with moss, which is continually kept moist; and they are fed with vegetables and bread steeped in milk,—a mode of treatment by which they are not only kept alive, but actually thrive and fatten. The fecundity of these fishes is very great, and they live to an extraordinary age, some being said to be known to have lived 150 or even 200 years. The gold-fish is a kind of carp.
The pike is one of the largest of the fresh-water fishes, as specimens have been found from five to nine feet in length; and one is even said to have been found nineteen feet long, which weighed 350 pounds, and was 235 years old. Pikes are proverbially voracious. "It is," says M. de Lacepede, "the shark of the fresh waters; it reigns there a devastating tyrant; insatiable in its appetites, it ravages with fearful rapidity the streams, the lakes, and the fish-ponds which it inhabits. Blindly ferocious, it does not spare its species, and even devours its own young; gluttonous without choice, it tears and swallows with a sort of fury the remains even of putrefied carcasses." A singular instance of the voracity of this fish is related by Johnston, who asserts, that he saw one killed which contained in its body another pike of large size; and the latter, on being opened, was found to have swallowed a water-rat. The pike is found in all the fresh waters of Europe, Asia, and North America; but it seems to flourish most in temperate climates. The gar-fish or sea-pike is very long in proportion to its breadth, and its bones are remarkable for their fine green colour.
The true flying-fish, or the flying-fish of the ocean, (Exocetus) belongs to this division, but, like the flying gurnard and other fish of the same kind, it is not capable of a continuous flight, and it has not the power of rising farther in the air than it can reach at its first leap. In fact, the principal use of the fins is to support the fish in the air like a parachute, after it has leaped from the water, a power similar to that which the whale and several other fishes are known to possess. In the tropics, the flying-fishes cannot sustain themselves so long as they can in colder regions, as the power of flight depends principally upon the length of time which the pectoral membrane can retain its humidity; and as this is soon evaporated in the heat of the tropics, the membrane becoming dry loses its buoyant power, and the fish falls. In moist weather, on the contrary, the fish can sustain themselves in the air for a considerable time; and "in the night numbers of them may be seen by the phosphoric light they emit, marking their arched passages in apparent streams of fire." Even by day, all voyagers, ancient and modern, agree in the delight which they seem to have experienced in watching the flight of the flying-fish; and Bose, in particular, describes the flying-fish as sometimes rising in hundreds, and even thousands, around his vessel, and darting over the waves in all directions, scouring away, as Coleridge has beautifully said with regard to another class of animals, like a Tartar troop over the wilderness.
THE FLYING-FISH.
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The common salmon, though so well known, has many curious facts in its history. One of these is, its annual visits to a river to deposit its spawn; and another is, the curious manner in which, when on these expeditions, it sometimes throws itself out of the water in order to ascend a cascade. It is a singular fact attending these annual migrations, that the same salmon, which are known by particular marks, are found to visit the same rivers for several years in succession; as one would think that the instinct which leads them to fresh water would make them indifferent as to which they chose.
The lump-fish or sucker is very unwieldy, and as it possesses few means of defence, it generally remains at the bottom of the sea among the rocks. It thus becomes an easy prey both to seals and sharks, and large spots of oily matter are often seen on the surface of the sea above the places where lump-fishes have been seized and devoured. Their skins are also sometimes seen floating empty on the surface of the waves. The lump-fish is one of the very few fishes which appear to take some kind of interest in their young. The unctuous-sucker or sea snail, which is a kind of lump-fish, is remarkable for not only dying, but actually dissolving, soon after it is taken out of the water. It is a British species; but there is another kind which is found in the northern seas, the flesh of which is so bad that even dogs will not eat it.
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The remora or sucking-fish of the Mediterranean is remarkable for the flattened disk which it bears upon its head, and by means of which it can adhere to any other body which may chance to fall in its way with considerable firmness. The disk is composed of a certain number of transverse cartilaginous plates directed obliquely backward, which are moveable in such a manner that the fish can create a vacancy between them, added to which they are toothed at the end; so that partly by suction, and partly by these hooked teeth, the fish can fix itself securely either to rocks or floating bodies. These fishes are most common in the Mediterranean, but one was taken near Swansea in 1806 attached to the back of a cod-fish. There are several other kinds of remora, but that which is best known is called the Indian remora, and it is said to be used along the coasts of Mozambique for catching turtles. For this purpose, a ring is first fastened round its tail, and then a long cord is attached to the ring. "When thus accoutred, the remora, placed in a vessel of seawater, is carried out in a boat; and as soon as the fishermen perceive a sleeping turtle, they row gently towards it, and throw the remora into the water with a sufficient length of cord. It seldom fails speedily to attach itself to the unconscious turtle, which, by the tenacity of its adherence, is immediately drawn towards the boat and captured."
THE REMORA, OR SUCKING-FISH.
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Eels, as is well known, are of an elongated shape, with a thick, smooth, slimy skin. Though eels are generally so well known, many people are probably not aware that they are often in the habit of leaving their fresh water lakes or ponds in the night, and frequenting meadows, for the purpose of preying on slugs and snails. They easily move on land, wriggling through the grass with a motion resembling that of a snake. It is also said that, from the month of November till the end of January, if the frost is not very serious, eels migrate towards the sea. Mr. Jesse, who states this fact, adds, that they do this to deposit their roe, and that the young eels in spring make their way back up the rivers with such eagerness, that at "the locks at Teddington and Hampton, the young eels have been seen to ascend the large posts of the flood-gates, in order to make their way past them, when the gates have been shut longer than usual. Those which climb first generally die, and stick to the posts; others, which get a little higher, meet with the same fate, until at last a sufficient layer of them is formed to enable the rest to overcome the difficulty of the passage." "Near Bristol," he adds, "there is a large pond, immediately adjoining which there is a stream. On the bank between these two waters a tree grows, the branches of which hang into the pond. By means of these branches the young eels ascend into the tree, and thence drop into the stream in such numbers that the tree sometimes appears quite alive with these little animals." It must be observed, however, that though no doubt Mr. Jesse's observation is correct, and eels do occasionally migrate towards the sea to deposit their spawn, they do not always do so, as they are frequently known to breed in ponds. The conger eel grows to the length of six feet or more, and is as thick as a man's leg. It is extremely voracious, and it is not unfrequently found within the carcasses of dead animals, on which it has been evidently feeding. It is also said in some cases to attack swimmers, by coiling round them and biting them severely.
The electric eel (Gymnotus electricus) has the extraordinary power of giving electric shocks to any creature who may touch it, whether a man or beast. These curious fishes abound in the stagnant pools near the town of Calabozo in South America, and the Indians are well aware of the danger of encountering them when their powers are unexhausted. "They, therefore, collect twenty or thirty wild horses, force them into the pools, and when the fish have exhausted their electric batteries on the poor horses, they are laid hold of without difficulty. The horses at first exhibit much agitation and terror, but they are prevented from leaving the pool by an enclosing band of Indians, who goad them with bamboos whenever they attempt to escape." "The eels," says Humboldt, when he is describing a scene of this kind, "stunned and confused by the noise of the horses, defended themselves by reiterated discharges of their electric batteries. For some time they seemed likely to gain the victory over the horses and mules; and these were seen in every direction, stunned by the frequency and force of the shocks, to disappear under water. Some horses, however, rose again, and, in spite of the active vigilance of the Indians, gained the shore, where, exhausted with fatigue, and their limbs being benumbed by the electric explosions, they stretched themselves out upon the ground." "After this commencement," continues Humboldt, "I was afraid that the sport might end very tragically; but the Indians assured us that the fishing would soon be finished, and that nothing is to be dreaded but the first assault of the gymnotus. In fact, whether the galvanic electricity is accumulated in repose, or the electric organ ceases to perform its functions when fatigued by too long-continued use, the eels, after a time, resemble discharged batteries. Their muscular motion was still equally active, but they no longer had the power of giving energetic shocks. When the combat had lasted a quarter of an hour, the mules and horses appeared less affrighted; they no longer bristled up their manes, and their eyes were less expressive of suffering and of terror. They no longer were seen to fall backwards; and the gymnotes, swimming with the body half out of the water, and now flying from the horses instead of attacking them, began themselves, in their turn, to approach the shore." The gymnotus is by no means fierce or voracious, and its electric organs are the only instruments by which it can either procure its prey, or defend itself against alligators and other animals.