CLASSIFICATION OF FISHED 



devoured On a particular occasion, the Emperor honoured 

 Pollio with his company, at a brilliant entertainment, at which a 

 slave unfortunately happened to break a costly crystal vase. 

 The unfeeling master, in a paroxysm of fury, exclaimed to the 

 other attendants, "Away with him to the Muraenae.'* The poor 

 wretch, almost dead with horror, fell at the feet of the Emperor, 

 beseeching that he might be permitted to die some death less 

 terrible ! Astonished at the sudden and strange circumstance, 

 Augustus made speedy inquiry into this extraordinary mode ot 

 punishment, and when he fully understood the savage cruelty, 

 disposition, and practice of Pollio, ordered at once, all the remain- 

 ing vessels broken before his face: directed the reservoirs to be 

 filled up, gave freedom to the plead ing slave, and only consented 

 to spare the life of the murderer, his master, in consideration of 

 his former regard." Natural History <>f the Fiskes of Massa- 

 chusetts, by Jerome V. C. Smith, M. D. 



Modern' times have not witnessed similar follies; but neverthe- 

 less, for many maritime people, fishing has not been the less a 

 source of great wealth. At one period, which is not very remote 

 from our own, this branch of industrv employed one fifth of the 

 total population of Holland, and in the herring fishery alone, that 

 country covered the whole North Sea with her vessels. In 

 England, it subsisted a co isiderable number of good and hardy 

 sailors, and even in France, where it is of less importance, there 

 are from thirty to forty thousand fishermen, about one third of 

 whom venture as far as the coasts of Iceland and Newfoundland. 

 And in the United States a very large number of people derive 

 their living from the various fisheries. 



37. The immense Cuss OF FISHES is naturally divided into two 

 series, the Osseous and Cartilaginous fishes, which differ from each 

 other, not only in their skeleton, but also in a great number of 

 other characters The modification of the structure of the 

 branchiae, the disposition of the mouth, and the nature of the 

 tin-rays that sustain the dorsal fin, as well as the position of the 

 ventral fins, furnish naturalists^wilh the basis for the division of 

 the two groups into orders, as may be seen in the following 

 table : 



37. What is the first division of the Class of Fishes? What parts o* 

 these animals afford the means or basis of classifying them? 



7* 



