Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/178

164 is a truly formidable creature, attaining the length of seven feet, and its hideous, broad, cat-like face, and its wide grinning mouth, bristling with stout sharp teeth, give it a most revolting aspect, while it is endowed with a strength and a ferocity conformable to its appearance. "It is remarkably strong, very active, and equally ready to defend itself or attack an enemy. It often enters the fishermen's nets for the purpose of plundering them of the entangled fish; and when the fishermen attack it, and it cannot dart through the net, it fights like a lion. They maul it with hand-spikes, spars, and such heavy timber as they may have in the boats; but even when it is landed, and apparently dead, they are not quite safe from its bite." Its teeth resemble the canines and molars of quadrupeds, and their strength is so great as to break down and crush the hardest shells, and even stones. The flesh is excellent, yet such is the prejudice with which its ferocious face and long slimy body are viewed, that the common people turn from it with disgust.

2. Gobiana. These are remarkable for having the ventral fins fully developed, and united, either for their whole length, or at their bases, into a single hollow disk, shaped more or less like a funnel, analogous to that of the soft-finned Cyclopteridæ, formed in the same manner, and applicable to the same use, that of a sucker, whereby they affix themselves to rocks and other substances. The rays of the dorsal (of which there is either one or two) are flexible. The gill-aperture is small, and these fishes can in consequence live a long time out of the water. Some of these