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78 covered by an extension of the common skin. The muscular apparatus is most apparent in the Mullet, the nervous portion most conspicuous in the Cod. These appendages are to them, I have no doubt, delicate organs of touch, by which all the species provided with them are enabled to ascertain, to a certain extent, the qualities of the various substances with which they are brought in contact; and are analogous in function to the beak, with its distribution of nerves, among certain wading and swimming birds, which probe for food beyond their sight; and may be considered another instance, among the many beautiful provisions of Nature, by which, in the case of fishes feeding at great depths, where light is deficient, compensation is made for consequent imperfect vision."

The Striped Surmullet is occasionally taken in great abundance: the eminent zoologist just cited mentions five thousand taken in one night in Weymouth Bay, in August, 1819; and ten thousand sent from Yarmouth to the London market in one week, in May 1831. Their presence, however, is precarious; sometimes they become quite rare, where a day or two before they were abundant; other spots at the same time becoming the favoured scenes of their resort. They are principally taken with the trawl-net, which drags along the bottom of the sea.