Phys.—You mentioned, among the fish for dinner, the laveret: I never heard of this fish before.
Hal.—It is a fish known in England by the name of shelley, or fresh water herring; in Wales, by that of guinead; in Ireland, by that of pollan; and in Scotland, by that of vengis. In colour it is most like a grayling, but with broader and larger scales: it is common in the large lakes of most Alpine countries, and is known at Geneva by the name of ferra; and I believe that the salmo ceruleus, or wartmann of Bloch, or the gang-fisch of the lake of Constante, from a comparison that I made of it with the ferra, is a variety of the same fish. It sometimes is as large as 2lbs.; and when quite fresh, and well fried or boiled, is an exceedingly good fish, and calvers like a grayling. The laveret of different lakes has appeared to me to vary in the number of the spines in the fins. One, brought me from the lake of Zurich, 13 inches long, and 8 inches in girth, had 12 spines in the dorsal fin, 15 in the pectoral fins, 11 in the ventral, 13 in the anal, and 18 in the caudal. The gang-fisch, from the lake of Constanz, which was of a bluer colour, but, I think decidedly, only a variety of the same fish, was 7¾ inches long, and 4 in girth, had 12 spines in the dorsal fin, 15 in the pectoral, 11 in the ventral, 12 in the anal, and 18 in the caudal. A laveret, from the Traun See, had 12 spines in the dorsal fin, 17 in the pectoral, 13 in the ventral fin, 12 in the anal fin, and 24 in the caudal fin. One from the Hallstadt See was a larger and broader fish, but did not differ from the laveret, of the Traun See, except in having two spines less in the tail.
Poiet.—Is this fish ever taken with the line?
Hal.—I believe only with nets. It feeds on vegetables; and in the stomachs of those I have opened, I have never found either flies or small fishes.
AT TABLE.
Orn.—Now the hucho is dressed, and on the same table with other species of the salmo, I perceive his peculiarities more distinctly; and, in addition to those you have mentioned, he appears to me to have a stronger upper jaw, and a larger projection of bone below the orbit of the eye.
Hal.—He has; and you will find a similar character in the pike and perch, and, I believe, in most fishes of prey; and the use of it seems to be, to strengthen the fulcrum of the lever on which the lower jaw moves, so as to afford the means of greater strength to the whole muscular apparatus, by means of which the fish seizes his prey.
Poiet.—These fishes, then, are analogous to the predatory animals of the feline genus, which have this part of the head exceedingly strong; and it is here that the craniologists or phrenologists fix the organ of courage: does not this extensive chain of analogies offer an argument in favour of this long agitated and generally unpopular doctrine?
Phys.—In my opinion, it offers, like most of the facts which have been brought forward to prove the truths of the view of Gall and Spurzheim, an argument rather unfavourable, when thoroughly and minutely examined.
Poiet.—How?