Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/268

254 than in other fishes. The deep orange colour of the flesh of the Salmon and Char depends on a peculiar oil diffused through the cellular sheaths of the fibres. The muscular fasciculi [bundles] of fishes are usually short and simple; and very rarely converge to be inserted by tendinous chords. The proportion of myonine [or muscular tissue] is greater in fishes than in other Vertebrata; the irritability of its fibres is considerable, and is long retained. Fishermen take advantage of this property, and induce rigid muscular contraction, long after the usual signs of life have disappeared, by transverse cuts and immersion of the muscles in cold water: this operation, by which the firmness and specific gravity of the muscular tissue are increased, is called ‘crimping.’” The Cod is observed to thrive in the confinement of ponds, which are either naturally or artificially hollowed in some parts of our rocky shores, and into which the sea has access at high tide. Other marine fishes, such as Haddock and Whiting, different sorts of Flat-fish and Skate, are also kept in these vivaria, and found to do well. They are fed with Sprats, the young and unsaleable of other fishes, shelled mollusca, and any animal offal, all of which is greedily devoured. On the Hebrides, and the adjacent coast of Scotland, there are several marine stews.

The following description of such a saltwater fish-pond, communicated to the New Sporting Magazine, will be read with interest, as everything that illustrates the habits and instincts of marine fishes is valuable. The pond is situated near the Mull of Galloway, on the west coast of