652 



A HISTORY OF 



ruped in their formation than any others, so 

 they can bear to Jive out of their own element 

 a shorter time. In general, when taken out 

 of the water they testify their change by 

 panting more violently and at closer intervals, 

 the thin air not furnishing their gills the proper 

 play ; and in a few minutes they expire. 

 Some indeed are more vivacious in air than 

 others ; the eel will live several hours out of 

 water ; and the carp has been known to be 

 fattened in a damp cellar. The method is by 

 placing it in a net well wrapped up in wet 

 moss, the mouth only out, and then hung up 

 in a vault. The fish is fed with white bread 

 and milk ; and the net now and then plunged 

 into the water. The animal, thus managed, 

 has been known not only to live for a fort- 

 night, but to grow exceedingly fat, and of a 

 superior flavour. From this it would seem 

 that the want of moisture in the gills is the 

 chief cause of the death of these animals ; and 

 could that be supplied, their lives might be pro- ; 

 longed in the air, almost as well as in their 

 own element. 



Yet it is impossible to account for the dif- 

 ferent operations of the same element, upon 

 animals that, to appearance, have the same 

 conformation. To some fishes, bred in the 

 sea, fresh water is immediate destruction : on 

 the other hand, some fishes, that live in our 

 lakes and ponds, cannot bear the salt water. 

 Whence this difference can aris^, is not easily 

 to be accounted for. The saline quality of 

 the water cannot properly be given as the 

 cause ; since no fishes imbibe any of the sea's 

 saltness with their food, or in respiration. 

 The flesh of all fishes is equally fresh, both in 

 the river, and in the saltest depths of the 

 ocean ; the salt of the element in which they 

 live no way mixing with their constitution. 

 Whence then is it that animals will live only 

 there, and will quickly expire when carried 

 into fresh water ? It may probably arise from 

 the sup j rior weight of the sea-water ; as from 

 the great quantity of salt dissolved in its com- 

 position, it is much heavier than fresh water, 

 so if is probable it li^s with greater force upon 

 the organs of respiration, and gives them their 

 proper and necessary play : on the other 

 hand, (hose fish which are used only to fresh 

 water, cannot bear the weight of the saline 

 flui I, and expire in a manner suffocated in the 

 grossness of the strange element. 



But though there are some tribes that live 

 only in the sea, and others only in fresh 

 water, yet there are some whose organs are 

 equally adapted to either element ; and that 

 spend a part of their season in one, and a part 

 in the other. Thus the salmon, the shad, the 

 smelt, and the flounder, annually quit their 

 native ocean, and come up our rivers to de- 

 posite their spawn. This seems the most im- 

 portant business of their lives ; and there is 

 no danger which they will not encounter, even 

 to the surmounting precipices, to find a proper 

 place for the deposition of their future offspring. 

 The salmon, upon these occasions, is seen to 

 ascend rivers five hundred miles from the sea; 

 and to brave not only the danger of various 

 enemies, but also to spring up cataracts as 

 high as a house. As soon as they come to 

 the bottom of the torrent, they seem disap- 

 pointed to meet the obstruction, and swim 

 some paces back : they then lake a view of 

 the danger that lies before them, survey it 

 motionless for some minutes, advance, and 

 again retreat ; till at last summoning up all 

 their force, 'hty take a leap from the bottom, 

 their body straight, mid strongly in motion ; 

 and thus most frequently clear every obstruc- 

 tion. It sometimes happens, however, that 

 they want strength to make the leap; and 

 then, in our fisheries, they are taken in their 

 descent. But this is one of the smallest dan- 

 gers that attend these adventuring animals in 

 their progress : numberless are the methods 

 of taking then) ; as well by the hook, as by 

 nets, baskets, and other inventions, which it 

 is not our business here to describe. Their 

 capture makes, in several countries, a great 

 article of commerce; and being cured in 

 several different manners, either by salting, 

 pickling, or drying, they are sent to all the 

 markets of Europe. 



As these mount up the rivers to deposite 

 their spawn, others, particulary the eel, de- 

 scend the fresh water stream, as Redi assures 

 us, to bring forth their young in the sea. 

 About the month of August, annually, these 

 animals take the opportunity of the most ob- 

 scure nights, and when the rivers are flooded 

 by accidental rains seek the ocean. When 

 they have reached the sea, and produced their 

 young, for they are viviparous, they again 

 ascend the stream, at different times, as oppor- 

 tunity offers, or as the season is favourable or 



