SPINOUS FISHES. 299 



some velocity by swimming: still, however, the active enemy keeps 

 it in view, and drives it again from the deep ; till, at length, the poor 

 little creature is seen to dart to shorter distances, to flutter with 

 greater effort, and to drop down at last into the mouth of its fierce 

 pursuer. But not the dorado alone, all Animated Nature seems cpm- 

 biried against this little fish, which seems possessed of double powers, 

 only to be subject to greater dangers. For though it should escape 

 ft</m its enemies of the deep, yet the tropic bird and the albatross are 

 fo, ever upon the wing to seize it Thus pursued in either element, 

 it sometimes seeks refuge from a new enemy ; and it is not unfre- 

 quent for whole shoals of them to fall on shipboard, where they fur 

 nish man with an object of useless curiosity. 



The warfare in fresh-water is not carried on with such destructive, 

 activity; nor are the inhabitants of that element so numerous. It 

 would seem that there is something more favourable to the fecundity 

 of fishes in the ocean, than in an element less impregnated with salt, 

 [t has been the opinion of some philosophers, that all fish are natives 

 of that great reservoir; and that only colonies have been sent up 

 rivers, either through accident, or the necessity of procuring subsist- 

 ence. They have been led to this opinion by the superior fecundity 

 of sea-fish, which breed twenty to one ; as well as by their superiority 

 in strength and size, over those of the same kind found in lakes and 

 rivers. This is a matter too remotely speculative to be worth pursu- 

 ing; but certain it is, that, in fresh-water, fishes seem to abate much 

 of their courage and rapacity ; pursue each other with less violence, 

 and seem to be less powerfully actuated by all their appetites. The 

 greediness with which sea-fish devour the bait is prodigious, if com- 

 pared with the manner they take it in fresh-water. The lines of such 

 fishermen as go off to sea, are coarse, thick, and clumsy, compared 

 to what are used by those who fish at land. Their baits are seldom 

 more than a piece of a fish, or the flesh of some quadruped, stuck on 

 the hook in a bungling manner; and scarce any art is employed to 

 conceal the deception. But it is otherwise in fresh-water; the lines 

 must often be drawn to a hair-like fineness ; they must be tinctured 

 of the peculiar colour of the stream; the bait must be formed with 

 the nicest art, and even, if possible, to exceed the perfection of Na 

 ture: yet still the fishes approach it with diffidence, and often swim 

 round it with disdain. The cod, on the banks of Newfoundland, the 

 instant the hook, which is only baited with the guts of the animal last 

 taken, is dropped into the water, darts to it at once, and the fisher 

 men have but to pull up as fast as they throw down. But it is other- 

 wise with those who fish in fresh-waters ; they must wait whole hours 

 in fruitless expectation ; and the patience of afoherman is proverbial 

 among us. 



This comparative neglect of food, which is found in all the tribes 

 of fresh-water fishes, renders them less turbulent and less destructive 

 among each other. Of all these the pike is the most active and vora 

 cious; and our poets, whose business it is to observe the surface oi 

 Nature, have called it the tyrant of the watery plain. In fact, ir, 

 proportion to its strength and celerity, the pike does some mischief 

 but what are its efforts compared to those of the cachalot or the 

 shark ! they resemble the petty depredations of a robber, put in com 



Voi,. III. A 2 



