CHAPTER XXIV.. A Gossip on Fishes--Including the Rockling, Smooth Blenny,

A GOSSIP ON FISHES--INCLUDING THE ROCKLING, SMOOTH BLENNY, GUNNEL FISH, GOBY, ETC.

Punch's address to the ocean--Old blue-jackets and the 'galyant' Nelson--The ocean and its inhabitants--Life beneath the wave--Fishes the happiest of created things--A fishy discourse by St. Antony of Padua--Traveller's ne'er do lie?--The veracious Abon-el-Cassim--Do fishes possess the sense of hearing--Author's experience--An intelligent Pike fish--Dr. Warwick--The Blenny in its native haunts--A 'Little Dombey' fish--Anecdote--The Viviparous Blenny--The Gunnel fish--Five-bearded Rockling--Two-spotted Goby--Diminutive Sucker-fish--Montagu's Sucker--The Stickleback--Its nest-building habits described--Conclusion, 327