FROG-FISHES. 173 



considerably in advance of the pectorals. These 

 latter then, representing the fore-legs of quadru- 

 peds, are in the Frog-fishes so formed as to bear 

 no slight resemblance, both in form and function, 

 to feet. The bones of the wrist on which the 

 fin is jointed are greatly lengthened, and pro- 

 jected beyond the skin of the body, and so closely 

 resemble the bones of the fore-arm (the radius 

 and the ulna), as to have been mistaken for them 

 by a distinguished naturalist. The ventrals have 

 a similar structure ; and both are palmated in 

 such a manner as to present a resemblance to the 

 webbed foot of an aquatic fowl. The freedom 

 given to the fins by their protrusion and their 

 form enable them to be used as hands and feet ; 

 and the facility with which these fishes can crawl 

 by means of their mimic limbs, we have personally 

 witnessed in a little pelagic species of Anten- 

 narmSf that inhabits the fields of floating weed 

 in the gulf-stream of the northern Atlantic. 

 Over the broad yellow surface of these floating 

 fields, that look like parched meadows, the little 

 Frog-fish crawls and disports itself, pushing aside 

 the tangled stems with its foot-like ventrals, and 

 clambering hither and thither with the energy and 

 freedom of a quadruped. 



But the power of crawling out of the water 

 would be of little avail to a fish, unless it were 

 endowed at the same time with some faculty by 

 which its respiration could be maintained during 

 its absence from the water, its breathing medium. 

 In order to extract the oxygen needful for 

 the revivification of the blood, it is indispen- 

 sable that the minutely ramified filaments of the 

 gills, the breathing organs, be kept moist, for 



