VI The Affections of Fishes 1 8 1 



keeping a sharp look-out over the well-doing of 

 what, if physical formation be a guide, were their 

 most undoubted progeny. I watched both old and 

 young as they sculled to and fro within two or 

 three yards of me in the hope of discovering to 

 what use they put those most preposterous noses, 

 and particularly hoped that the youngsters would 

 have let me into the secret as they floated quietly 

 over the sand, and might or might not have been 

 feeding on small molluscs and crustaceans, after the 

 manner of some of their ferocious-looking cousins, 

 the sharks. But no ! I could not see that that most 

 curious organ was utilised in any way as a dinner 

 provider ; nor with all my watching have I ever 

 been able to discover its present use, whatever its 

 past may have been. Has any one? The whole 

 history of the saw-fish is very interesting as far as it 

 is known, and I know of no better place for its 

 completion than Florida. There are plenty of 

 American and English visitors who could add 

 immensely to the pleasure of their winter trip by 

 collecting contributions towards it. These instances, 

 rapidly becoming more numerous, of the existence 

 of what may really be called the higher affections 

 amongst the fishes, are of the highest importance in 

 the history of the living world, both from a physical 

 and material point of view. I wonder what were 

 the "sea-trout" our friend caught in Florida? I 

 used to be sent out to catch trout, and I caught 

 them, but to me they looked like a species of striped 



