Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/172

158 a salt water mill-pool at Looe, which contains about twenty acres; and the larger ones, having looked about for a turn or two, often return by the way they had come. When, however, the return of the tide has closed the gates, and prevented this, though the space within is sufficiently large for pleasure and safety, the idea of constraint and danger sets them on effecting their deliverance. The wall is examined in every part; and when the water is near the summit, efforts are made to throw themselves over, by which they are not uncommonly left on the bank, to their own destruction.

"When, after being surrounded by a net, two or three have made their escape, and the margin of the net has been secured, and elevated above the surface, to render certain the capture of the only remaining one, I have seen the anxious prisoner pass from end to end, examine every mesh, and all the folds that lay on the ground; and at last, concluding that to pass through a mesh, or rend it, afforded the only, though desperate, chance of escape, it has retired to the greatest possible distance, which had not been done before, and rushed at once to that part which was most tightly stretched. It was held, however, by the middle; and conscious that all further effort must be unavailing, it yielded without a further struggle to its fate.

"The Grey Mullet selects food that is soft and fat, or such as has begun to suffer decomposition; in search of which it is often seen thrusting its mouth into the soft mud; and, for selecting it, the lips appear to be furnished with exquisite sensibility of taste. It is, indeed, the only fish