320 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
time in the sea and the other in the rivers. We find the same 
habits of life in the sea as on the land; some fish live in solitude, 
others swim in shoals, some occupy the same localities all the year, 
others congregate in vast numbers and migrate to warmer waters. 
The typical form of the fish is too well known to need 
description; it is perfectly adapted for the element which it 
inhabits, and its shape is the most favourable for gliding through 
a dense medium. 
Belonging, as we have said, to the highest class of the animal 
kingdom, their construction is very much more complicated than 
SCORPAENA, OF THE ISLE OF FRANCE, 
(Scorfena nesogallica.) 
any which has attracted our attention; yet it is remarkable that, 
throughout the very numerous species, scarcely any variation is 
made; an evident relationship runs through the whole; still, 
though their anatomical structure is so remarkably similar, their 
physiognomy is often very different. 
Whether these animals inhabit the ocean abysses, the shallows 
of the shore, or the river estuaries, whether they are scaly or 
shagreened, osseous or cartilaginous, their organic composition 
remains the same, or almost the same, in its essential elements. 
Amongst the fish, as in all other natural groups, we find 
exceptional forms, curious and strange anomalies. Some are 
corpulent monsters, round as bottles; some are as thin as boards 
and the shark represented by our artist rejoices in a head like a 
