From Beeton's Brave Tales, Bold Ballads, and Travels and Perils by Land and Sea by Samuel Orchart Beeton, 1872.

"Tommy on exhibition," from St. Nicholas magazine, 1877.

Despite a worldwide moratorium on using mermaids as bait, countries like Norway, Iceland, and Japan take advantage of loopholes and "scientific mermaid bait programs" to justify their use of these endangered creatures.  From St. Nicholas magazine, 1908.

From Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition by John Gabriel Stedman, 1806.

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"'Help me, somebody!' said I, taking up a large fish."  From Dicks' English Library of Standard Works, 1884.  As Lioness Magazine says, "Be careful how much you take on."

The old-time euthemism "Golly gee whillikers" is of ambiguous etymology, but we've traced it back to this 8-pound fish who went by the name of "G. Whillikens."  From Heston's Hand-Book by Alfred Miller Heston, 1902.

The only way to fly, from The Sanitary News, 1886.

An illustration from When Life is Young by Mary Elizabeth Dodge (1894).

Q: If the card game Pokemon has its own theme tune, why not Go Fish?

"The sough of the ocean," from Southerly Busters by Ironbark, 1878.

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An illustration from The Jorrocks Edition by Facey Romford (1892).

Here's a precursor to the deadly salmon mousse in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, from Humorous Poems by Thomas Hood (1893).  The caption reads: "Don't sup on that 'ere Cod."

An illustration from The Mahatma and the Hare: A Dream Story by H Rider Haggard (1911).  The caption reads: "My! Isn't she a beauty?"