A HISTORY OF FISHES IN GENERAL- 



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OF FISHES IN GENERAL. 



CHAPTER CXXXVI. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE ocean is the great receptacle of fishes. 

 It has been thought, by some, that 11 fish are 

 naturally of that salt element ; and that they 

 have mounted up into fresh water by some 

 accidental migration. A few still swim up 

 rivers to deposit their spawn ; but of the great 

 body of fishes, of which the size is enormous 

 and the shoals are endless, those all keep to 

 the sea, and would quickly expire in fresh 

 water. In that extensive and undiscovered 

 abode, millions reside, whose manners are a 

 secret to us, and whose very form is unknown. 

 The curiosity of mankind, indeed, has drawn 

 some from their depths, and his wants many 

 more : with the figure of these at least he is 

 acquainted ; but for their pursuits, migrations, 

 societies, antipathies, pleasures, times of ges- 

 tation, and manner of bringing forth, these are 

 all hidden in the turbulent element that pro- 

 tects them. 



The number offish to which we have given 

 names, and of the figure, at least, of which we 

 know something, according to Linnaeus, are 

 above four hundred. Thus to appearance, 

 indeed, the history of fish is tolerably copious ; 

 but when we come to examine, it will be 

 found that of the greatest part of these we 

 know very little. Those qualities, singulari- 

 ties, or advantages, that render animals worth 

 naming, still remain to be discovered. The 



history of fishes, therefore, has little in it en* 

 tertaining : for our philosophers hitherto, in- 

 stead of studying their nature, have been em- 

 ployed in increasing their catalogues ; and 

 the reader, instead of observations or facts, is 

 presented with a long list of names, that dis- 

 gust him with their barren superfluity. It 

 must displease him to see the language of 

 science increasing, while the science itself has 

 nothing to repay the increasing tax laid upon 

 his memory. 



Most fish offer us the same external form ; 

 sharp at either end, and swelling in the mid- 

 dle ; by which they are enabled to traverse 

 the fluid which they inhabit, with greater 

 celerity and ease. That peculiar shape which 

 nature has granted to most fishes, we endea- 

 vour to imitate in such vessels as are designed 

 to sail with the greatest swiftness ; however, 

 the progress of a machine moved forward in 

 the water by human contrivance, is nothing 

 to the rapidity of an animal destined by na- 

 tureto reside there. Any of the large fish over- 

 take a ship in full sail with great ease, play round 

 it without effort, and outstrip it at pleasure. 

 Every part of the body seems exerted in this 

 despatch ; the fins, the tail, and the motion of 

 the whole back-bone, assist progression ; and 

 it is to that flexibility of body at which art 

 cannot arrive, that fishes owe their great velocity 



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