228 



RIBAND-SHAPED. 



ground, or occasionally seeking cavities among rocks for 

 shelter, thus render them liable to be left dry by the retiring 

 tide, or destroyed by the force of waves dashing them against 

 such opposing substances ? The combination of great length 

 with extreme tenuity of body, by diminishing the quantity 

 of muscle, and at the same time preventing its being brought 

 into concentrated action upon a single centre of motion, must 

 necessarily leave them at all times much at the mercy of the 

 currents, amid which they may wriggle or float, but against 

 which they are evidently incapable of swimming with and 

 vigorous effort : by their struggles in the ocean, they cannot 

 fail to become speedily exhausted, and they are rejected by 

 the waves like inanimate matter, upon any coast toward which 

 the winds may have driven them. All observers agree that 

 the tsenioid fishes are decidedly pelagic. 



The vignette below represents the head and tail of this fish 

 of enlarged size. 



