File:Four feet, wings, and fins (1879) (14594926980).jpg

Identifier: fourfeetwingsfin00mask (find matches)
Title: Four feet, wings, and fins
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Maskell, A. E. Anderson- Mrs
Subjects: Zoology
Publisher: Boston, D. Lothrop and Co
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ng the fish would get away she had givenher line a spasmodic jerk, only to feel an eel switch-ing its cold body about her neck. She was nearlyfrantic with fright. Frank sprang to her rescue. It is nothing but an eel! Let me get it off thehook. Youll never do it in the world. Well, I de-clare, if he hasnt swallowed the hook clear down!Ill have to cut his head off to get it. Let the hook go, and the horrid creature, too,exclaimed May, in great excitement. Ill never fishagain as long as I live. Nonsense ! exclaimed Frank. Eels are just asgood as cat-fish. Its a horrid water-snake, exclaimed May. Thevery meaning of the word eel is * serpent. Yes, smiled Grace, but this is an eel of theAnguillidcB family, a fresh-water fish with pectoral,anal and dorsal fins. Then if you will examine himclosely you will find scales imbedded in his thick,soft skin. He will be a delicious morsel for our sup-per, ugly as he looks. The ancients were very fondof eels. They were deified by the Egyptians, and 442
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Ska-Serpknt (02:)hisnra). THE FISHING PARTY. made much account of by the classic Greeks.There were the MurcBua and Lamprey that figuredso conspicuously on the tables of the Romans.They are found in the Mediterranean sea. TheOphiseridcB family, the snake-eels, are distinguishedby the tail ending in a round fin without a point. Cousin Grace, did you ever see a sea-serpent) asked Frank. No; but they are a species of the Ophiseridafamily. What, the snake-eels 1 asked Frank, in surprise. Yes; why not.? Why, I thought a sea-serpent was somethingimmense — say a hundred feet long. There has often been great agitation in variousparts of the world over an imaginary sea-serpent.Hundreds testified to having seen these monstersfollowing in the wake of ships; but when sailorswere bold enough to thoroughly investigate, the sea-monster was often discovered to be no more thanfloating sea-weed. There is a real sea-serpent,however, but it belongs to the same family, genus atleast, as the snake-eel. Th

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