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 GURNARD. 



CHAPTER XYI. 



ODDS AND ENDS ABOUT FISHES 



'HE description we have quoted of fishes in- 

 habiting the Mediterranean Sea corresponds 

 entirely with the strange and varied charac- 

 ter ascribed to them by ancient and mod- 

 ern writers. We will, however, before al- 

 luding to any particular species of fishes, 

 give a brief outline of their nature generally. From the 

 earliest ages fishes were most extensively used as articles of 

 diet, and at the present time they form a considerable por- 

 tion of the food of mankind generally. In some countries 

 they were the only money of commerce, and dried fish were 

 paid as current coin. Mythological honors were rendered 

 to them by the ancients ; and in the case of sharks, as men- 

 tioned in the chapter on *' The Pirates of the Ocean," they 

 are deified on the African coasts. Fish have been perpetu- 

 ated in coins and sculptures, from which many of the spe- 

 cies in ancient use can still be traced. 



