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LONGEVITY OF FISHES. 



Our knowledge of the instincts, habits, and other properties 

 of fishes, is, perhaps, more limited than any other branch of na- 

 tural history. Those animals that breath the air, browse the herb, 

 or skim along the sky, may be captured, studied, and in a great 

 measure correctly described by us ; but fishes, although we have 

 devised means for ensnaring them, and in a manner invited them 

 from the secret and oozy caverns of the briny deep to become 

 voluntary victims to our hook and line, yet the nature of the ele- 

 ment in which they live, move, and exercise all their various fa- 

 culties, prevents us from studying their specific differences, and 

 noting with fidelity all the most interesting details of their natural 

 history. 



There is every reason for believing that the Ocean contains an 

 infinitely greater number of inhabitants than the earth, and that 

 the few species with which we are acquainted, bear no comparison 

 to the vast numbers that are fixed to the rocks, burrow in the sand, 

 that swim or crawl along the bottom of the sea and escape our 

 observation. Vast numbers of the finny tribes are migrating, and 

 periodically visit different coasts, like many kinds of the feathered 

 race ; others again, dwell in certain localities which they never 

 quit, and many kinds are actually fixed to the marble rocks, and 

 have no power of locomotion. Ichthyology is a science which 

 opens to the philosopher an extensive but an uncultivated field, 

 here the student of natural history may roam among unculled 

 flowers! What a fund of useful information might be collected 

 by the well informed and zealous naturalist residing on the sea 

 shore, and how much might be added to our very limited stock 

 of knowledge relative to the natural history of fishes ? We trust 

 that the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge will under- 

 take this task, and by their exertions add something to this branch 

 of natural history. 



It has been suggested, that fishes, living in an element of com- 

 paratively equal temperature, having strong digestive powers, 

 possessing softness of structure and flexibility of frame, ought to 

 live to a great age, provided they escaped the snares of man, and 

 the attacks of their natural enemies : this point is not very easily 

 determined; we cannot altogether judge of the age of fishes by 

 tlieir magnitude. Naturalists have hinted at several methods by 

 which the age of captured fishes might be determined, but very 

 little faith can be placed in their accuracy. It is only when fishes 



