§ II Cartilaginous Fishes
Sometimes grows to the length of eight or ten feet, and has been found to weigh five hundred pounds. It has a long, slender, pointed nose, small eyes, and a small mouth destitute of teeth, placed beneath and unsupported by the maxillæ; so that when the animal is dead, the mouth remains always open. The body is covered with five rows of large bony tubercles, and the under side is flat; it has one dorsal fin, two pectoral, two ventral, and one anal. The upper part of the body is of a muddy olive colour, and the under part silvery. The tail is bifurcated, the upper part being much longer than the under. Sturgeons subsist principally on insects and marine plants, which they find at the bottom of the water, where they mostly resort.
The Sturgeon annually ascends our rivers in the summer, particularly those of the Eden and Esk; and when caught, as it sometimes is, in the salmon-nets, it scarcely makes any resistance, but is drawn out of the water apparently lifeless. One of the largest Sturgeons ever caught in our rivers was taken in the Esk a good many years ago: it weighed four hundred and sixty pounds. This fish is found in most of the rivers in Europe; it is also common in those of North America, and especially in the lakes and rivers of Northern Asia.
The flesh of the Sturgeon is delicious; and it was so much valued in the time of the Emperor Severus, that it was brought to table by servants with coronets on their heads, and preceded by music. In London, every Sturgeon that is caught in the Thames is presented by the Lord Mayor to the Sovereign. The roe, when preserved with salt and oil, is called caviar, and is a favourite dish with many persons; the best is made in Russia. The flesh is also pickled or salted, and sent all over Europe. So prolific is this fish, that Catesby says the females frequently contain a bushel of spawn each; and Leeuwenhoek found in the roe of one of them no fewer than one hundred and fifty thousand million eggs!
“Increasing still the terrors of the storms,
His jaws horrific arm’d with threefold fate,
Here dwells the direful Shark.”
The Shark differs from the whale in not being one of the mammalia. It is cold-blooded, and does not suckle its young. It has no lungs, and its mode of breathing is like that of other fishes, except that its gills are fixed, and the water escapes by five apertures on each side. The body of the Shark is elongated, and tapers gradually from the head to the tail, or is very slightly dilated in the middle. Its muzzle or nose is rounded, and projects very much over the mouth, the nostrils being situated on the under side. The male shark is smaller than the female, and differs from it in appearance, in possessing two elongated appendages, one of which is attached to the hinder edge of each of the ventral fins. The purpose which these appendages are intended to serve is not known. Some of the Sharks produce their young alive, and others lay eggs contained in horny cases of an oblong shape, with long tendrils at each of the four corners. After the young Sharks are hatched, these curious cases are often washed on shore, and are called mermaids’ purses.
The bones of the Shark are like gristle, and very different from those of most other fishes. Hence all the fishes with bones similar to those of the Shark are placed in a separate order, and called cartilaginous fishes.
The White Shark is sometimes found weighing nearly two thousand pounds. The throat is often large enough to swallow a man; and a human body has sometimes been found entire in the stomach of this tremendous animal. He is furnished with six rows of sharp triangular teeth, which amount in all to a hundred and forty-four, serrated on their edges, and capable of being erected or depressed at pleasure, owing to a curious muscular mechanism in the palate and jaws of the Shark. The whole body and fins are of a light ash-colour; the skin rough, and employed to smooth cabinet work, or to cover small boxes or cases. His eyes are large and staring, and he possesses great muscular strength in his tail and fins. Whenever he spies, from the deepest recesses of the sea, a man swimming or diving, he darts from the place, up to his prey, and if unable to take in the whole, or snatch away a limb, he follows for a long time the boat or vessel in which the more nimble swimmer has found a safe and opportune retreat: but seldom does he let any one escape his jaws, and get off entire. Sir Brook Watson was swimming at a little distance from a ship, when he saw a Shark making towards him. Struck with terror at its approach, he cried out for assistance. A rope was instantly thrown; but even while the men were in the act of drawing him up the ship’s side, the monster darted after him, and, at a single snap, tore off his leg.
We are told that, in the reign of Queen Anne, some of the men of an English merchant-ship, which had arrived at Barbadoes, were one day bathing in the sea, when a large Shark appeared, and was rushing upon them. A person from the ship called out to warn them of their danger; on which they all immediately swam to the vessel, and arrived in perfect safety, except one poor man, who was cut in two by the Shark, almost within reach of the oars. A comrade and intimate friend of the unfortunate victim, when he observed the severed trunk of his companion, was seized with a degree of horror that words cannot describe. The insatiate Shark was seen traversing the bloody surface in search of the remainder of his prey, when the brave youth plunged into the water, determining either to make the Shark disgorge, or to be buried himself in the same grave. He held in his hand a long and sharp-pointed knife, and the rapacious animal pushed furiously towards him; he had turned on his side, and had opened his enormous jaws, in order to seize him, when the youth, diving dexterously under, seized him with his left hand, somewhere about the upper fins, and stabbed him several times in the belly. The Shark, enraged with pain, and streaming with blood, plunged in all directions in order to disengage himself from his enemy. The crews of the surrounding vessels saw that the combat was decided; but they were ignorant which was slain, until the Shark, weakened by loss of blood, made towards the shore, and along with him his conqueror; who, flushed with victory, pushed his foe with redoubled ardour, and, by the aid of an ebbing tide, dragged him on shore. Here he ripped up the bowels of the animal, obtained the severed remainder of his friend’s body, and buried it with the trunk in the same grave. This story, however incredible it may appear, is related in the History of Barbadoes, on the most satisfactory authority.
Had nature allowed this fish to seize his prey with as much facility as many others, the Shark tribe would have soon depopulated the ocean, and reigned alone in the vast regions of the sea, till hunger would have forced them to attack and ultimately destroy each other; but the upper jaw of this devouring animal, is so constructed as to offer, by its prominency, an impediment to the Shark’s easily seizing his prey; and consequently when on the point of catching hold of anything, he is obliged to turn on one side, which troublesome evolution often gives the object of his pursuit time to escape. The flesh of this fish is of a disagreeable taste, and cannot be eaten with any kind of relish, except the part near the tail.
Twenty different species of this family are known, and the number of different families of the Shark tribe is very great.
The Greenland Shark, (Selachus Maximus,)
Is another very voracious species; and one extremely difficult to kill. It is the great enemy of the whale, and devours the bodies of those left by the fishers. Its teeth are very small, pointed, and numerous. The snout is short. It is sometimes known as the Basking Shark.
Are so excessively voracious, that they are altogether fearless of mankind. They follow vessels with great eagerness, seizing with avidity everything eatable that is thrown overboard; and have sometimes been known to throw themselves on fishermen, and on persons bathing in the sea. As, however, they are much smaller and weaker than most of the other Sharks, they do not always attack their enemies by open force, but generally have recourse to stratagem. They, consequently, conceal themselves in the mud, and lie in ambush, like the ray or skate-fish, (also one of the cartilaginous fishes,) until they have an opportunity of successfully attacking their prey. On the coasts of Scarborough, where haddocks, cod, and Dog-fish are in great abundance, the fishermen universally believe that the Dog-fish make a line or semicircle to encompass a shoal of haddocks and cod, confining them within certain limits near the shore, and eating them as occasion requires: they are therefore considered very destructive to this fishery. The flesh of the Dog-fish is hard and disagreeable; its skin, when dried, is made into the well-known shagreen, and from the liver a considerable quantity of oil may be extracted. Shagreen is also made from the skin of other cartilaginous fishes.
The Hammer-Headed Shark, (Zygæna Malleus,)
Is a very curious kind, having a transverse head like that of a hammer, with an eye at each extremity; and the Fox-Shark, or Thresher (Carcharias vulpes), is remarkable for the enormous length of the upper lobe of its tail, with which it is able to strike with tremendous force. This fish is one of the great enemies of the whale.
Is a species of the Ray, which was long disregarded in this country as a coarse, bad-tasted food, but which now appears upon our best tables. It is still, however, disregarded in Scotland and the north of England, where its flesh is principally used as a bait for other fish. On some parts of the continent, where these fish are caught in great abundance, they are dried for sale. The best season for Skate is the spring of the year. The body is broad and flat, of a brown colour on the back, and white on the lower side: the head is not distinct from the body, so that this fish and all belonging to this genus are apparently acephalous, or without a head. The peculiar form of this fish is owing to the large size of the pectoral fins, which extend from the head to the base of the tail, and are very wide in the middle, and so, combined with the sharpness of the snout, give the fish the shape known as rhomboidal. Dr. Monro has remarked, that in the gills of a large Skate there are upwards of one hundred and forty-four thousand subdivisions, or folds; and that the whole extent of this membrane, whose surface is nearly equal to that of the whole human body, may be seen by a microscope to be covered with a network of vessels, that are not only extremely minute, but exquisitely beautiful. The tail of the Skate is long, and generally prickly. The mouth is, as it were, paved with teeth, which are flat, and nearly square in shape. In the full-grown male the centre teeth are pointed, at least in some species. The eggs deposited by the female Skate are very similar to those laid by the shark, being in the shape of a square bag, with two horns at each end as here represented.
In this horny case the embryo is contained, and grows till it has acquired strength enough to burst through its prison. The colour of the bag is maroon, and the substance like thin brown parchment or leather. The female begins to drop these singly in the month of May, and continues to do so for several months, to the number of two or three hundred. In some parts of Cumberland they are called, by the common people, Skatebarrows, on account of their resemblance to the barrows which are carried by two men, and used for the conveyance of goods, &c.
The Skate sometimes attains a very large size. Willoughby speaks of one so huge that it would have served one hundred and twenty men for dinner. Some naturalists are of opinion that these fishes are the largest inhabitants of the deep, and that only the smallest of them come near the surface of the water, the biggest remaining flat at the bottom of the sea, where an unfathomable deep secures them against the wiles of man.
Nine species of the Skate or Ray are found on the British coasts.
Resembles the Skate in its general appearance; the principal difference consists in the latter having sharp teeth, and a single row of spines upon the tail, while the former has blunt teeth, and several rows of spines both upon the back and tail. A Thornback was caught near the island of St. Kitt’s, in the year 1634, which measured twelve feet in length, and nearly ten in width. It is sometimes eaten in England, but as its flesh is inferior to that of the Skate, it is generally sold at a low price. The young ones, however, which have the denomination of Maids, are delicate eating.
This curious fish is capable of giving a violent shock, like that produced by the electrical machine, to the person who handles it. The body is nearly circular, and thicker than any other of the Ray kind, and is sometimes so large as to weigh between seventy and eighty pounds. The skin is smooth, of a dusky brown colour, and white underneath. The ventral fins form on each side, at the end of the body, nearly a quarter of a circle. The tail is short, and the two dorsal fins are near its origin. The mouth is small, and as in the other species, there are on each side below it five breathing apertures.
The shock imparted by the touch of the Cramp-fish, as the Torpedo is vulgarly called, is often attended with a sudden sickness at the stomach, a general tremor, a kind of convulsion, and sometimes a total suspension of the faculties of the mind. Such power of self-defence has Providence allowed this lumpish and inactive fish. Whenever an enemy approaches, the Torpedo emits from its body that benumbing shock, which incapacitates the other instantly, and it thereby gets time to escape. Nor is it merely a means of defence, but an advantage in other respects, for the Torpedo thus benumbs its prey, and easily seizes upon it. The animals thus killed are also supposed to become more easy of digestion.
Is very voracious, and feeds upon all kinds of flat fish, as soles, flounders, &c. It is often caught on the coasts of Great Britain, and of such a size as to weigh sometimes a hundred pounds. This fish seems to be of a middle nature between the rays and sharks, and is called by Pliny the Squatina; a name which seems to bring this species near that of the skate. Its head is large; the mouth has five rows of teeth, which are capable of being raised or depressed at pleasure. The back is of a pale ash-colour; the belly white and smooth. The shores of Cornwall are often frequented by this fish, but its flesh does not deserve to be praised, being hard, and of a very indifferent flavour.
It is supposed to have acquired the name of Angel-fish, from its extended pectoral fins bearing some similarity to wings, certainly, as Mr. Yarrell has remarked, not for its beauty; and of monk-fish, from its rounded head, appearing as if enveloped in a monk’s hood. The skin is rather rough, and is used for polishing, and other works in the arts. Mr. Donovan says that the Turks of the present day make shagreen of it.
This fish is found in the European and Atlantic seas. Its body is flattened anteriorly with four or five branchial openings below on each side; two spiracles behind the eyes; no anal fin; the head prolonged into a depressed bony beak, with strong pointed spines on each side; the lips are rough and sharp like a file, supplying the place of teeth. With its formidable weapon, which resembles a toothed saw, this fish attacks the largest whales, and inflicts very severe wounds. The colour of its body is of a greyish brown above, and paler below; its length about fifteen feet, the saw being about a third of the whole.
The Lamprey belongs to the last family of cartilaginous fishes, and is one of the lowest in the scale of vertebrated animals. It grows to the length of about three feet, although the British species, with which we are best acquainted, seldom exceeds twelve inches. To avoid the constant muscular exertions necessary to prevent their being carried away by the current, they attach themselves by the mouth to stones or rocks, and hence are called Petromyzon, Stone-suckers. The Lamprey, although no longer maintaining its ancient repute, is still considered a delicacy; those taken in the Severn being preferred to all others. Henry the First, as is well known, died of a surfeit of them; and in the reign of Henry the Fourth their importation was encouraged by immunities. The Roman epicures prized this fish so highly, that they bestowed the utmost care, and expended enormous sums in rearing them. Pliny tells us that Lucullus formed a fish-pond of such extent, that the fish it contained were, at his death, sold for four million sesterces. These polished barbarians sometimes threw a slave into the ponds where they kept their Murœnæ, or Lampreys, and considered that by this means they fattened the fish and gave them a superior flavour.
A cartilaginous fish, which in its general appearance bears a near resemblance to the Lamprey. Its colour is dusky bluish above, and reddish towards the head and tail; its length from four to six inches. The Hag-fish is remarkable for its total want of eyes; its mouth is of an oblong form, with two beards or cirri on each side, and on the upper part four. On the top of the head is a small spout-hole, furnished with a valve, by which it can be closed at pleasure. A double row of pores extends beneath the body, from one extremity to the other, which on pressure exude a quantity of viscid fluid, which, when attacked by large fish, the Hag throws out, so as to cloud the surrounding element in such a manner as to render itself invisible to its assailants. “The habits of this fish are highly singular: it will enter the bodies of such fishes as it happens to find on the fishermen’s hooks, and which consequently have lost the power of escaping its attack; and gnawing its way through the skin, will devour all the internal parts, leaving only the bones and the skin. If put into a large vessel of sea-water, it is said in a very short space to render the whole water so glutinous that it may easily be drawn out in the form of threads.”