PART IV. 



OF FISHES. 



BOOK I. 



OF FISHES IN GENERAL. 

 CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE ocean is the great receptacle of fishes. It has been thought 

 by some, that all 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 endiess, 

 those all keep to the sea, and would quickly expire in fresh water. In 

 that extensive and undiscovered abode, millions reside, whose man- 

 ners are a secret to us, and whose very form is unknown. The curi- 

 osity of mankind, indeed, has drawn some from their depths, and hia 

 wants many more : with the figure of these at least he is acquainted ; 

 but for their pursuits, migrations, societies, antipathies, pleasures, 

 times of gestation, and manner of bringing forth, these all are hidden 

 in the turbulent element that protects them. 



The number of fish 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, singularities, or advantages, that render animals worth 

 naming, still remain to be discovered. The history of fishes, there- 

 fore, has little in it entertaining : for our philosophers hitherto, instead 

 of studying their nature, have been employed in increasing their ca- 

 talogues ; and the reader, instead of observations or facts, is presented 

 with a long list of names that disgust him with their barren Aiperfiu 



VOL. Ilf T 



