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by the flexibility and vigorous activity of their tails s 

 with which they shoot through the paths of the sea, 

 swifter than a vessel with all its sails. But we arc 

 lost in wonder at the exquisite contrivance and deli- 

 cate formation of Iheir gills : by which they are ac. 

 commodated, even in that dense medium, with the 

 benefits of respiration ! A piece of mechanism this, 

 indulged to the meanest of the fry : yet infinitely 

 surpassing, in the fineness of its structure and ope. 

 ration, whatever is curious in the works of artj or 

 commodious in the palaces of princes, 



