men to a vessel of water, along with an eel of three inches in length, and it speedily attacked and swallowed its companion head foremost, but, owing to its great comparative bulk, only partially, the tail remaining suspended from the mouth, so that it was at last obliged to disgorge its prey, though half digested. "The effect of the passions on the colour of the skin in the species of the genus Gasterosteus is remarkable, and the specimen now spoken of, under the influence of terror, from a dark olive with golden sides, changed to pale for eighteen hours, when it as suddenly regained its former tints. ""* We know not whether, when the latter change occurred, the fish was placed in a vessel of a different colour, but the former alteration may probably be accounted for on a principle well known to naturalists, in accordance with which an almost instantaneous change takes place in the colour of a fish when it either moves spontaneously between two beds of differently coloured ground or gravel, or is transferred from its native haunts to any earthen vessel. Dr. Stark has well shewn that these changes are effected in connection not only with the colour of the inside coating of the vessel, but with the intensity of light to which they may be otherwise exposed. Whatever the physical cause of this may be, the final effect is alike admirable and obvious, in securing them from too inquisitorial observation in shallow rivers, or on sandy shores.

* Couch's MS. as quoted by Mr. Yarrell, BRITISH FISHES, i. 89. We may add, on the authority of Dr. Johnston of Berwick, that this is one of the few fishes which makes a nest.

IN conformity with a preceding intimation, we shall devote an occasional paragraph to such of the sea fishes, in their order, as afford the angler any recreation. Of these is that valuable table species just named. It may be captured, time and place suiting, with a strong rod, and coarse tenacious line, baited with almost anything to which it is possible to give a life-like motion,—a sea gull's feather, a strip of leather, a piece of fish, of flesh, or,- -as we once had occasion to try,—an inch or two of scarlet ribbon. A favourite and successful bait is that called a lask, which consists merely of a long slice cut from one mackerel and swallowed by another, upon the principle, probably, that "it is not lost which a friend gets." This lure is cut thickest towards the hook, and tapers backwards, that it may vibrate vivaciously when drawn through the water. The angler must be in a sailing boat, and the boat under the influence of a fresh breeze. "The line," says Mr. Couch, is short, but is weighed down by a heavy plummet; and in this manner, when these fish abound, two men will take from 500 to 1000 in a day. It is singular that the greatest number of mackerel are caught when the boat moves most rapidly, and that even then the hook is commonly gorged. It seems that the mackerel takes its food by striking across the course of what it supposes to be its flying prey.

* Scomber scombrus, Cuv. and Val.

A gloomy atmosphere materially aids this kind of fishing for mackerel.”

This species is one of the most beautifully coloured of our fishes, but is too well known to need description. It is widely spread throughout the seas of Europe, and occurs at different periods along different portions of our British shores. On the Cornish coast it sometimes appears as early as the month of March, but the fishermen of Lowestoffe and Yarmouth do not reap their chief harvest till May and June; and during these months, besides being abundant, they are best conditioned. As an article of food they are in great request, although certain constitutions find them heavy or even unwholesome. We need scarcely say that they must be eaten very fresh,-few fishes tainting sooner than mackerel. It was in consequence of their being so unfit for keeping, that the practice was first allowed in London, so far back as 1698, of their being cried along the streets for sale on Sundays, an unandrewagnew-like custom, which, we are sorry to say, is still continued. The success of this fishing exceeded all precedent in 1821, during which season the take of sixteen boats in a single day (30th June) amounted to £5,252. The Messrs. Pagets have stated the calculation to be, that in the season of 1823, about 1,420,000 mackerel were taken in the vicinity of Yarmouth. So abundant were they at Dover, as to be sold at the rate of threescore for a shilling. The usual weight of a well-sized fish is about two pounds. They are sometimes heavier, but the

largest individuals are not the best for the table. Though a well-known species along our Scottish coasts, the mackerel is by no means so abundant with us in Scotland as in England. It usually makes its appearance at the mouth of the Firth of Forth in June, confining itself for a few weeks to the vicinity of the Bass rock, and extending in the course of July to Prestonpans, and across to Largo, Buckhaven, and Wemyss. A few stragglers are occasionally found as high up the Firth as Queensferry. We have already alluded to the singular fact of the common mackerel having no swimming bladder, although that organ is found in several closely allied species, What necessity of nature, asks Baron Cuvier, can require it in the one and not in the other? What can have produced it? These are great problems (of no easy solution), both in the study of final causes, and the general philosophy of nature.

The preceding species terminate the British angler's list of the acanthopterygian fishes, distinguished as an Order by the first portion of the dorsal, or the first dorsal, if there are two fins of that kind, being always supported by spinous rays, and where some similar spines are also found in the anal fin, and at least one in each of the ventrals. But in the following species, all the rays are soft, with the occasional exception of the first of the dorsal,

* Dr. Parnell, "On the Fishes of the Firth of Forth."-WERNERIAN MEMOIRS, vol. vii.

or of the pectorals. They form the malacopterygian order of naturalists, of which our first species is

This fish, like the preceding, is asserted to have been introduced into England by Leonard Mascal, a gentleman of Sussex, early in the 16th century; and in good company, if there is truth in the old distich,

Turkies, carps, hops, pickerell, and beer,
Came into England all in one year.

The carp is, however, mentioned as a dayntous fysshe though scarce, by Juliana Barnes, in the year 1496. It attains to a prodigious size in the waters of the south of Europe, and in the Lake of Como is said sometimes to weigh 200 pounds. The largest of which we have any precise account is that mentioned by Bloch. It was taken

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