the kind permission of the owner, I selected
half-a-dozen of the finest, intending to have a
fry, never having tasted such a regal dish.
These victims were placed in a basket, and
left all night in a cellar. The next day, their
panting gills proclaimed that life was not yet
extinct. I placed them in a tub of water;
and, in a few minutes, all but one recovered
their spirits and swam about, as though
nothing had happened: thus escaping the
frying-pan to spend the remainder of their
days in a glass bowl.

There are some fish who feed upon living
prey, and yet have not the power to pursue
them. As the spider weaves her web to entrap
her winged prey more active than herself, so
does the Devil or Angler fish resort to
stratagem to satisfy his voracious appetite.
The next time the reader sees one exposed at
Grove's shop in Bond Street, London, which is
not unfrequently the case, we advise him to
stop and examine it. Upon the head are two
long slender appendages: the first of them—
broad and flattened towards the end, and
having, at this dilated part, a shining silvery
appearance—is articulated to the head by a
peculiar joint, resembling that between two
links of a chain. There are numerous muscles
attached, by which the fish is enabled to
move it in all directions. The second fishing-
rod—as it may be properly called—can be
moved, only in backward and forward direction.
Digging a hole in the soft mud, this
wary fisherman conceals his body, and then,
by moving his baits about, attracts the
wandering and unsuspicious small-fry. When they
are collected in sufficient numbers, this sea-
monster suddenly jumps from his hiding-place,
and entraps them in his capacious jaws,
which are admirably formed for his purpose.

The Torpedo, the Cramp or Numb fish, as
it is justly called, is another instance of a fish
procuring its food without pursuit. It has
been provided, by kind foresight, with a sort
of galvanic battery, by which it is enabled to
arrest, and obtain for food, the more active
inhabitants of the deep. There have been
lately added to the Museum of the College of
Surgeons, in London, some splendid wax-
models of this wonderful apparatus. If the
reader inspect them, he will never become
a laughing-stock to the fishermen who catch
these fish. They place a living specimen on
the sea-shore, and invite the stranger to try
the curious experiment of pouring a stream
of water upon it. He does so; the fish gives
a powerful shock which is received in the
arm of the experimenter, who then fully
understands, from his sensations, why it is
called the "Numb Fish."

Many modes are used by man to capture
fish. An old receipt is, to put so much
lead into a glass vessel as will make it sink;
upon the lead strew some herbs; and on the
herbs place some live glow-worms. Draw
this vessel from one side of a stream to the
other. The fish, attracted by the light, will
follow it, and be easily secured by a landing-
net. There is a mode of attracting perch,
used by anglers in some parts of England,
which is but little known. It is, to place into
a narrow-necked decanter or water-bottle,
some live minnows, and sink it to the proper
depth. The minnows cannot get out, and the
perch, not understanding the nature of glass,
flock around the bottle, endeavouring to get
at its contents. The angler then baits his
hook with a live minnow, and fishes in the
neighbourhood of the decoy. This ingenuity
is generally rewarded with good sport.

Another decoy used by fresh water fishermen,
when fishing for what are commonly
called white fish, is to cut off the crusty
bottom of a common loaf, and pass a string
through the centre. When sunk in the
water, the fish will feed on this in safety,
and being thus put off their guard, will
readily swallow the pellet of dough enclosing
the hook. There is another more curious
and more modern way of fishing, at present
practised by not a few persons. What does
the reader think of an iron hammer as a bait?
To lay the foundation of some new works in
the island of Alderney, divers are employed;
these men, enclosed in their India-rubber
armour, see strange sights at the bottom of the
ocean. The fish, and no wonder either, at first
are alarmed at the unwonted apparition, with
its huge glass goggle eyes; but, soon recovering
confidence, approach to satisfy themselves of
the real nature of the intruder. The monster
raises his hammer which he has brought
with him to quarry the rocks; the curious
fish come up and inspect it; while doing so,
they receive a sudden knock on the head which
stuns them; and, when they recover their
senses, they find a bit of string through their
gills, and themselves prisoners tied fast to
the India-rubber monster.

On one occasion, a diver had a fight
under water with one of the rightful
inhabitants of the rocks, which he was so
unceremoniously breaking up. A huge Conger eel
suddenly started from his favourite hole and
furiously attacked the destroyer of his home.
A short but severe combat, between the eel
and the man, ensued; but a well-directed
blow of the hammer soon settled the question
against the eel.

HISTORY IN WAX.

"IT is natural," says Emerson, "to believe
in great men." My own belief is sincere;
there have been great men, and, possibly,
there are some still. I do not go quite so far
as the American philosopher when he
observes: "If the companions of our childhood
should turn out to be heroes, and their
condition regal, it would not surprise us;" for it
certainly would surprise me very much if
Snobbins, who was my fag at school, should
ever earn a statue by his heroic deeds; or
if Grubber, who was always being rapped on