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XVI. Fishes.

THE Ocean is the great receptacle of fishes, comparatively few being found in fresh water. The number to which names have been given is, according to Linnæus, above four hundred; but of these, from the element they inhabit, our knowledge is limited. The history of fishes, therefore, has little in it entertaining; and, as it is impossible to render any description very intelligible without the assistance of numerous plates, we shall confine our attention to a very few of the more remarkable.

Most fishes exhibit the same external form, sharp at either end, and swelling in the middle, by which they are enabled to move with greater celerity and ease. The fins, by which they direct their course through the water, receive their names from their situation. The dorsal, or back fins, of which there are often more than one, and the anal, or vent fin, assist in steadying the body of the fish; the pectoral, or breast fins, support the head, and sometimes along with the ventral, or belly fins, assist in propelling the animal; and lastly, the caudal fin, or tail, which constitutes the chief impelling power, on being moved from side to side, in the same manner nearly as a man impels a boat by a single scull-oar over the stern, enables the fish to dart forward with the greatest velocity. In the inside of the fish, and close to the back, is the swim, or air-bladder, the use of which has long been the subject of dispute; some asserting that, from its situation, it merely assists in keeping the body in its upright position; and others, that besides this, by contracting or dilating the bag, and thereby diminishing or increasing its specific gravity, the fish is enabled the more easily to sink or rise in the water. The gills are the organs by which they breathe; by these the animal separates the vital air from the water which it inhales, and again throws it out, after this process, by the gill-openings. In the history of fish, nothing is more astonishing than their reproduction. In the roe of a cod the number of ova or eggs has been found to amount to nine or ten millions, and in a sturgeon, to the incredible number of one hundred and fifty thousand millions; and it is calculated that

the young of a single herring, if allowed to multiply unmolested for twenty years, would occupy a space equal in bulk to ten such globes as the earth on which we live.

Of the inhabitants of the deep, those of the shark kind are the most formidable and voracious. Of this numerous and terrific tribe, the White Shark is the largest, being from twenty to thirty feet long. The mouth is enor mously wide, as is the throat, and capable of swallowing a man with great ease. But its furniture of teeth is still more terrible; of these there are six rows, amounting, it is said, to one hundred and forty-four in number, hard, sharp, and pointed; while others assert that the number of rows is uncertain, and that they increase with the age of the animal. When the shark is at rest, the teeth lie quite flat in his mouth; but when he prepares to seize his prey, he erects all his dreadful apparatus, by the help of a set of muscles that join them to the jaw; and the animal he seizes dies instantaneously, pierced with a hundred wounds. He is furnished with great goggle eyes, which he turns with ease on every side; his skin is rough, hard, and prickly; being that substance which covers instrument cases called shagreen. No fish can swim so fast as he; and with such amazing powers for destruction, he would quickly unpeople even the ocean; but, providentially, his upper jaw projects so far beyond his lower, that he is obliged to turn on one side to seize his prey, and this causing some delay, permits his intended victim sometimes to escape. His organs of smell are extremely acute, enabling him to discover his prey at a considerable distance, even during the night. They follow vessels for hundreds of miles, to pick up whatever may fall or be thrown overboard, and shoals of sharks have been seen in the wake of a slave ship, eagerly watching for the bodies of those unfortunate creatures who had died through disease or confinement. They have even been seen to leap out of the water to seize a corpse before it was lowered into the sea, to the height of nearly twenty feet.

The shark is sometimes captured by baiting a large hook with a piece of beef or pork; but the Negro adopts a bolder and more dangerous method. Armed only with a knife, he fearlessly plunges into the water, swims forward to encounter his foe, and just as the shark turns on

his side to seize him, he plunges his weapon into his belly, and by repeated stabs at last succeeds in conquering this dreaded monster of the deep. The fish is then dragged to the shore, where he affords a noble feast to the adjacent villages.

The Torpedo is remarkable for the unaccountable power which it possesses of benumbing the limb, and sometimes the whole of the body of the person who touches it. The sensation it thus communicates has been compared to that received from the shock of an electrical machine; but how this effect is produced remains a mystery. Its body is of a circular form, sometimes about two feet in diameter;-usually of a brownish colour above, and white below; and weighs about twenty pounds;-but some have been found to weigh between seventy and eighty.

The Sturgeon, though one of the largest of fishes, is yet one of the most delicious, and, at the same time, one of the most harmless. It usually attains the length of eighteen feet, and weighs about five hundred pounds. It is an inhabitant of the ocean, and, like the salmon, ascends rivers for the purpose of depositing its spawn. In the Wolga, the Danube, and the Rhine, it is caught in great numbers; as also in some rivers of North America. Though strong in the water, no sooner is its head raised above the surface than it becomes quite spiritless, and tamely suffers itself to be dragged on shore. Its flesh, besides being eaten fresh, is prepared in various ways for food, being salted, dried, and marinated, that is, pickled with vinegar and sweet herbs. It affords a useful oil, and produces great quantities of the finest description of that valuable article, isinglass; and its roe is made into a substance called caviare. Instances are not unfrequent of small ones being caught in the Thames; and on these occasions it is usually presented either to the Sovereign or the Lord Mayor.

The Sword-Fish has received its name from the lengthened form of its upper jaw, the extremity of which is prolonged in such a manner as to resemble a sword. This fish is extremely large and powerful, being from twelve to eighteen feet in length: of its amazing strength the following facts are sufficient evidence. Van Schouten, who circumnavigated the globe in the beginning of the seven

teenth century, states, that "a great fish, or sea monster, having a horn like an elephant's tooth, except being full and not hollow, struck the ship with such great strength, that it entered into three planks of the ship, two of green and one of oaken wood, and into a rib, where it turned upward, to their great good fortune." And in the year 1725, in refitting his Majesty's ship Leopard, the shipwrights found in her bottom part of the sword of one of these fishes. It had penetrated through the sheathing, which, was an inch thick, passed through three inches of plank, and beyond that four inches and a half into the timber. The workmen declared it impossible, with a hammer of a quarter of a hundred weight, to drive an iron pin, of the same form and size, to the same depth, in less than eight or nine strokes, whilst this had been effected by only one. To account for this attack on these inanimate masses, it is to be remembered that the sword-fishes, naturally waging war with whales and the larger kinds of Cetacea, may very likely mistake the hull of the vessel for the enormous body of one of these huge creatures

XVII. Fishes continued.

THE Dorado, by sailors erroneously called the Dolphin, is chiefly found in tropical climates, and is at once one of the most active and most beautiful of the finny tribe. It is about six feet long; the back all over enamelled with spots of a bluish green and silver; the tail and fins of a gold colour; and all have a brilliancy of tint, that nothing but nature's pencil can attain: the eyes are placed on each side of the head, large and beautiful, and surrounded with circles of shining gold. Of all others, the FlyingFish most abounds in the same seas, and as it is a small animal, seldom growing above the size of a herring, it is chiefly sought by the Dorado. The latter having a full complement of fins is enabled to cut its way through the water with amazing rapidity. On the other hand, the Flying-fish, being furnished with a pair of pectoral fins longer than its body, is able to fly for some time with great velocity. The Dorado, darting to the surface in pursuit of his prey, at first leaps from the water with

a velocity little short, as it would seem, of that of a cannon ball; then rising and falling he appears to stride along the sea with fearful rapidity, while his brilliant colours sparkle and flash in the sun with great splendour. The Flying-fish thus hotly pursued rise to the height of about twenty feet, and at one stretch will fly above two hundred yards in little more than half a minute; then occasionally dropping into, but merely touching the surface of the sea, they renew their flight with additional vigour, but at length losing strength and confidence, they fall, one after another, into the Dorado's jaws as they light on the water, or are swallowed up instantly afterwards.

The Salmon is a fish so well known, that any description of its form and colour is unnecessary. They are inhabitants of the sea, but at stated periods ascend rivers, sometimes as far as five hundred miles, to deposit their spawn. In their progress they will surmount many obstacles, and will even spring up cataracts to a considerable height. Having arrived at suitable spawning ground, the salmon pair and proceed to the shallow gravelly fords, where they furrow out a bed, sometimes ten or twelve feet long, by working up against the stream with their snouts. Here the spawn is deposited and covered at the same time, and remains for several months; after which the young fry appear, scarcely an inch in length, and for a time connected with the egg. According to the older writers, these betake themselves to the neighbouring pools, where they increase to two or three inches in length; they then descend to the sea, and return shortly after as grilse, with the more aged individuals. But, from some experiments lately made, it is confidently asserted that, previous to their migration to the sea, they assume the form of pars, in which state they are known, and continue for one year, when they become smoults, after which they proceed to the sea, and return as already mentioned. The salmon is caught in various ways, principally by nets and the rod, which latter method has now become a very fashionable amusement.

The Gymnotus, or Electric Eel, resembles a large water serpent, and is from five to six feet in length. They inhabit several streams in South America, abounding in the Amazon, the Oronooko, and its branches. The Indians,

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