2b FISHED 



to run about and is even said to be capable of a kind 

 of education. 



Air is, indeed, necessary to every kind of fish, 

 and particularly when the atmosphere is warm, most 

 of our Lacustrine species sport on the surface for no 

 other purpose. But in high latitudes the fresh water 

 species have almost invariably a power of surviving 

 exclusion from air when accompanied with cold, such 

 as occurs periodically, when ice covers the waters 

 and gradually increases, till in some places the fish 

 are nearly or entirely enclosed in it. When the frost 

 sets in, they at first dechne the bait and come to air 

 holes in the ice, but rarely ; as the cold increases, it 

 is found useless to attempt to fish ; for they sink in 

 the deepest water, and become torpid until the ap- 

 proach of spring, when they are again eager to bite 

 at the air holes cut open for that purpose. In the 

 St. Lawrence, however, which is seldom without 

 some natural openings through the ice, the fish are 

 more lively, and are sometimes speared by the 

 Indians ; and it is asserted, that, during hard frosts, 

 when drawn from beneath it, they freeze into a solid 

 mass of ice in a moment, and are almost as fragile ; 

 yet that they will revive even after many hours, if 

 they are carefully placed in water of a proper tem- 

 perature. Experiments tried about New York on 

 this subject, have not been crowned with success, 

 because it was believed, the frost which suspended 

 aninlation was not sufficiently intense. That ice in 

 the stomach even of a reptile will not destroy life, is 

 admitted in the United States, where rattle snakes 

 are not unfrequently found in the winter, torpid, and 

 with their food undigested and completely frozen 

 within them ; yet liable to become vivacious with 

 the least increase of temperature, and digestion 

 recommencing as if no suspension of the animal 

 functions had intervened. These phenomena are 

 therefore common to many species of fish, to several 

 serpents, as well as to Tritons. All these varieties 

 of powers and habits in fish, as in other animals, are 



