FISH.
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order vermes, mollusca. It does not attain the size of the orbus major, being seldom found more than five inches in length, but it is covered with sharp prickles, and can equally inflate itself when angry. The flesh is eaten with oil, vinegar, and pepper ; and in flavour resembles the lobster. This fish was known to the ancients, who esteemed it a royal fare, when dressed with mead, parsley, turmeric, and mint. The trumpet-fish, or fistularia, is a genus of the order of abdominales. It measures about 18 inches in length. The snout is cylindrical, like a trumpet, from whence its name ; the jaws are at some distance from the eyes, which are very bright, and the body tapering to the tail. Its principal food is small fish and marine worms. The hippocampus, or sea-horse, is another surprising little animal, never exceeding in length nine inches, and about the thickness of the little finger. The formation of the head is very much like that of a horse—from whence its familiar name—the snout is a kind of tube, with a hole at the end, which it can open or shut at pleasure. The eyes are bright and jut from the head ; behind them are two fins, of the shape and appearance of a horse's ears, and above them two orifices for respiration, through which it can spout up the water in a similar manner to the whale. Down the back runs a line of short, stiff hairs, like the mane of a horse., which falls off when the animal is dead ; and the whole body is composed of rings with intermediate prickles. It belongs to the cartilaginei order. The ancients considered it extremely venomous, even to the slightest touch, but like many other assertions, it is ill-founded, for I have handled many of them and received no hurt. Some of the hippocampus are of a dull chesnut colour, others of a dark grey ; when swimming, they compress their tails, and raise themselves with an undulating motion, which gives them the appearance of a miniature horse cantering. The toad-tish is another curious little denizen of the deep, of the same dusky hue as the toad—from whence its