230 Dr. Mac Culloch on the Changing 



let, together with " lupos, auratasque," two fishes of which 

 we are not now able with certainty to assign the names. 

 He farther alludes to others which he has not named, as 

 being dulcis aquae tolerantia." He then passes from the subject, 

 as of too familiar a nature to require a more detailed notice ; 

 a stronger proof than even his enumeration would have been, 

 of the facts which I have thus attempted to support from his au- 

 thority, and of the established existence of a practice which we 

 have lost, and appear, very strangely, to be unwilling to revive. But I 

 must refer your readers to the original, for the whole of this 

 curious chapter, as the translation of it would inconveniently 

 prolong this paper. 



The merely temporary naturalization to our lakes and ponds in 

 the case of sea fish, would be no light acquisition to the gastrono- 

 mer who might desire to have turbot before the season, or to 

 reserve it at five shillings for consumption, when the price has 

 risen to three guineas. If the cod chooses to live in the fresh 

 lake of Stromness-voe, there is no reason why we should not keep 

 them in our own gardens till the day of jiving a dinner comes 

 round, or why Mr. Groves should not render the Serpentine a park 

 for surmullets, instead of allowing it to be consigned to frogs and 

 tadpoles. It is to be hoped that the Fishmongers' Company will 

 take these matters to heart, as in duty bound ; and that, in the 

 progress of perfectibility, even the odious canal in St. James's 

 Park may become a repository of turtles, instead of what it now is, 

 a Stygian nursery of Malaria and his black host. 



There is a subsidiary question arising out of these speculations 

 respecting the convertibility of the habits of marine animals, highly 

 interesting to geology, and on which it will not be out of place to 

 say a few words, although unfortunately not much solid informa- 

 tion can be procured respecting it. This relates to the power 

 which many, perhaps all of the vermes inhabiting shells, possess 

 of residing indifferently in fresh or in salt water. 



It is well known to geologists that with respect to many, if not 

 all of those deposits supposed to have been formed, like that of 

 Paris and of England, under fresh water, the question mainly rests 



