Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/175

Rh Mullet swim in large shoals, roving from place to place, near the surface of the sea. When the fishermen perceive an unusual rippling of the water, they recognise in it a shoal of fishes; and if it have a peculiar blue appearance, they know the shoal to be Mullet. They are chiefly caught with the seine. Large quantities are sometimes taken. Mr. Thompson states that on the 1st of May 1838, seven hundred weight of these fishes were caught at a single draught, and on the same night, nine hundred-weight were secured by the crew of another boat. Mr. Couch has heard of two tons' weight being taken at one time. All of these statements refer to the Thick-lipped Mullet. A Mullet is considered large if it weigh five or six pounds; but ten or twelve pounds are sometimes attained, and one is mentioned by Mr. Thompson, which weighed fourteen pounds and three-quarters.

This is a vast assemblage of small and unimportant fishes, scarcely any of which are of the least value to man, and of which the great majority possess little beauty to recommend them to notice. Some of them, however, are distinguished by peculiarities of instinct and of habit, of very high interest to the philosophical student of nature. The Prince of Canino, in his last conspectus, elevates this group into the rank of an Order, including in it the Frog-fishes, which we shall consider next after the present, as well