54 CLASS XIV. 



ebb-tide with a spade, as in some parts of Zealand*. Salarias 

 alticiis climbs over the rocks by the aid of its fins, and leaps four 

 or five feet when attempted to be taken. That many fishes, 

 swimming on the sm-face of the water, often make short leaps into 

 the air, is known to all : the flying fishes [Exoccetus], noticed above, 

 can leap full twenty feet whilst flapping with their large pectoral 

 fins. 



Fishes, in respect of their residence, may be divided into such 

 as inhabit the sea, and others fi-esh-water, although some, as we 

 have lately said, migrate from the sea to rivers and from these to 

 the sea. The number of species that dwell in the sea is, how- 

 ever, much larger than those in fresh water, and is to the last 

 probably as 3:1. Most of the fi-esh-water fishes are found 

 amongst the soft-finned {Malacojjtenjgli) in the families of the 

 Salmonacei, Stluroidei and Gyprinoidei, of which the last is 

 especially abundant in species ; amongst the Acanthojpterygii the 

 number of fresh-water species may be stated as certainly less than 

 the thirtieth part of all the known species. On the whole the 

 physical distribution of fishes is bounded by narrower limits than 

 that of the other animal species. As a rule, no fishes are found in 

 hot springs, in which many other animals frequently live, although 

 a species of Cyprmus {Leuciscus thermalis) has been found in the 

 Island of Ceylon in a hot spring of 50° centigr. On high mountain 

 levels, where there is often a luxuriant vegetable growth, and where 

 many birds and insects live, only a few fishes are found in the rivers 

 and ponds, as the EremopMlus Mutisii in the river Bogota, 8000 

 feet above the level of the sea. In the brooks on the highest 

 Altaic mountains no fishes are found. Some fishes live in sub- 

 terranean lakes. 



The geogTaphic distribution of fishes indicates some general 

 results which agree with those presented by molluscs (see above, 



^ The Dutch reader will here recall probably the well-known romance of Bellamy, 

 and the lines : 



Dan gaat dejeugd met spade en ploeg 

 Naar't hreede vlalcJce strand, &c. 

 Anabas {Perca scandens), an Indian fresh- water fish, not only quits the water, accord- 

 ing to Daldorf and John, but even climbs the palms upon the bank, by aid of the 

 spines on its gill-covers. Other writers, however, and especially Hamilton Buchanan, 

 contradict these statements. 



