CODS AND HADDOCKS.
Take, for instance, the Cod’s bill of fare. “It is to the stomach of this species,” says Edward, “that I am most indebted for many of the rarest of the testaceous and crustaceous specimens that I possess. I will only mention what I have myself seen: crabs and lobsters of almost every description (except Homarus vulgaris, which I have never yet found), from the prickly Stone Crab (Lithodes maia) up to the hard Parten (Cancer pagurus), and the larger the better. Shells of every sort, particularly Fusus antiquus and Buccinium Undatum; no matter whether inhabited by their original possessor, or by a hermit in the form of a Pagurus,—it is no obstacle to the voracious Cod. Shrimps, fish-lice, sea-mice (Aphrodita aculeata), sea-urchins, with now and then a starfish; ‘Dead Men’s Paps,’ as they are called here (Alcyonium), and Actinias—no matter what they may be attached to, whether a shell or a stone,[44] provided these are not themselves fixtures,—all are gulped by this most unceremonious fish. The eggs, capsules, or purses of the Dog-fish (Scyllium) and the Skate, with the roe and the ova of other species, particularly when deposited on seaweed; the Algæ and the Zoophytes also walk down the Cod’s gullet, so that nothing may be lost. As for the Holothuridæ or Sea-cucumbers, few if any of them escape. Now and then fragments of the Medusæ are swallowed; feathers, with the remains of sea-fowl; and, on one occasion, the skeleton of a partridge, with the wings, feet, legs, and head adhering. Pieces of pewter and of cloth occasionally; and once a cluster of beech-nuts, with part of a domestic fowl. As for fish!—why, the fish does not swim that the Cod, when hungry, will not attack, and, if successful, swallow. In short, nothing seems to come amiss. But this outline of the Cod’s bill of fare does not include all that the animal preys upon and devours. It is enough, however, to show its epicurean propensities. The Cod is extensively fished for along this part of the coast, and may be termed the poor man’s salmon. Great numbers are salted and dried, and in that state are sent to the southern markets. The Haddock, like the Cod, is extensively taken, and largely cured and forwarded south. Like the Cod, the stomach of this species is also a rich mine for the Naturalist, as the reader may already have anticipated from the foregoing list.”[45]
APPEAL TO THE FISHERMEN.
In order to obtain all these products of the sea, Edward went round among the fishermen from Crovie to Portsoy, and pressed them to help him in his researches. He told them that many an object of great interest to Naturalists was daily thrown away. Though it might be of no use to them, it might prove of great use to science. “Oh!” said the fishermen, “we canna tell what the fellow wants: we get so muckle trash upon our lines. Are we to keep it all?”
“Yes,” replied Edward, “keep it all. Lay it carefully aside, and I or my daughters will call for it.” A few of the fishermen did what Edward told them to do; but the others “couldna be fashed.”
Edward published his advice to the fishermen in the Banffshire Journal. “How little trouble,” he said, “would it be for any fisherman who might find a rare fish, crab, shell, or zoophyte, or such like object attached to his lines, to get it examined and named, so that its occurrence might be recorded. This could be done, and then he could, if so minded, dispose of it to the best advantage. Or what great ‘fash’ could it be for them to keep the cleanings of their lines for a like scientific purpose?
“It is quite astonishing what amazing numbers of minute creatures are at times to be found amongst the refuse of only one boat’s lines. No one would believe it, except those who are in the habit of carefully examining such things. The ocean is, as it were, one vast and boundless expanse of life, and the inhabitants thereof about as numberless as the sands by the sea-shore. I have myself, and that too under the most disadvantageous circumstances, picked off from a dead valve of Cyprina Islandica nine distinct species of shells, three different kinds of starfish, and five separate sorts of zoophytes, besides worms and a number of other parasitical animals. Yet this is nothing to what is at times to be met with; and yet such things are, I may say, all but universally thrown away for no other or better purpose than that of being trod upon and destroyed. I will now, in order to show the truthfulness of my statement, enumerate a few of the objects which have thus been cast aside by those who had brought them on shore, but which were again picked up by my gleaners, and thereby redeemed, as it were, for a time from destruction, by being deposited in my collection:—Anomia patelliformis, Circe minuta, Venus casina, Venus fasciata, Tellina proxima, Tellina crassa, Mangelia linearis, Pentunculus glycimeris, Psammobia tellinella, Astarte compressa, Corbula nucleus, Emarginula reticulata, Thracia villiosulca, Chiton lævis, etc. etc.
“Now, I don’t say that these are all new species, but I say that they are amongst the rarest of our shells. The two first named are, if I mistake not, new, not only to us, but new to this northern part of the island. In works on Conchology, no mention is made of either having been previously found on the shores of the Moray Firth, although they are not unfrequent on other parts of the British coast.”
THE FISHERMEN HELP HIM.
The fishermen of Macduff helped him greatly. Amongst the rare fishes caught by them were the Sandsucker (Platessa limandoides); the Small Spotted Dog-fish (Scyllium canicula); the Blue-striped Wrasse (Labrus variegatus), a very rare fish; a specimen of the Cuttle-fish (Loligo vulgaris), the length of which was four feet, with a splendid Gladius of above fifteen inches long. In enumerating these fishes brought to him by the fishermen of Macduff, Edward asked, “What are our own Banff fishermen and those of Whitehills about, that they never bring in any rare objects of this sort? Do they never get anything attached to their lines worthy of notice—worthy of a place in a Naturalist’s cabinet, or in a corner of the Museum? Why won’t they help us? Just because of their want of Will. They, like many more, go about in what might be termed a state of daylight somnambulism; that is, with eyes and ears both open, and yet they neither see nor hear of any of these things.”