[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS an odd shaped fish; its colour is blackish with faint red, in spots; the belly is red; it has no scales but on all sides sharp black tubercles, in shape like warts; on each side are three rows of sharp prickles, and on the back two distinct fins. It is taken in many places about England, and stares at the buyers on the stalls of the London markets. The Lump, properly so named from its unseemly shape, is about a foot in length and ten inches broad. The flesh is but indifferent.
The shape of this creature is so unlike any thing else, that it has caused several denominations according to the ideas which at first sight it created. Some call it the Sucker, on account of the curious form of its mouth; and some the Cock-Paddle. They look as if nature had figured them when in a whimsical mood, and after having exhausted all elegant shapes and pleasing outlines.
