Martin - Float fishing and spinning in the Nottingham

10 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.
the Esocidse family, to which belongs the pike; and the
CyprinidaB, or carp family, to which belong the carp, the
barbel, the chub, the roach, the dace, the tench, the bream,
the gudgeon, the bleak, and the minnow.
The structure of fish and their animal organization present
endless subjects of interest ; though they live in the water,
yet air is as necessary for them as it is for mankind. Says
one writer, "Just as our warm red blood is purified and
restored to its vital and arterial qualities by air passing
through our lungs, so is the cold red blood of fish by passing
through their gills and as ; by the process of breathing we
extract the oxygen and so vitiate the air, in like manner do
extract from it the
fish, taking the water in at their mouths,
air held in suspension, and pass it out under the gill-covers
in a vitiated state. A man submerged in water cannot extract
air enough from it a fish ; submerged in distilled water,
which is water minus air, can get none at all, and the result
is the same in both cases and as most ; anglers know, or
should know, a fish drawn down stream is simply drowned,
because the water is thus prevented entering its mouth in
the usual way and escaping through the gill-covers." This
is the reason then, I should suppose, that fish making their
way down stream for any distance travel tail first. How
admirably, too, are fish formed their elongate, smooth bodies
suiting them exactly to the element in which they live and
;
observe the fins, how well they are suited for their various
purposes.
I will just describe these fins, for an angler, or would-be
angler, ought to know at least their names : there are the
two pectoral, or breast fins the ; dorsal, or back fins (some
fish have one and some two back fins) the ; ventral, or belly
fins; the anal fin, situated between the belly fins and the
tail ; and the caudal fin, that is the tail itself. These fins
give the fish their different movements in the water; the
caudal fin gives them their chief means of getting along ;
the dorsal and anal fins effect their lateral movements ; the
pectoral fins promote their elevation and depression, while
their suspension in the water is caused by the ventral fins.
Perhaps I ought also to say that the air bladder, which is