BEAUTY IN FORM AND COLORING. 21 



In shameless conduct. For as modern laws 



Forbid them now to water their stale fish, 



Some fellow, hated by the gods, beholding 



His fish quite dry, picks with his mates a quarrel, 



And blows are interchanged. Then when one thinks 



He's had enough, he falls and seems to faint, 



And lies like any corpse among his baskets. 



Some one calls out for water ; and his partner 



Catches a pail, and throws it o'er his friend 



So as to sprinkle all his fish, and make 



The world believe them newly caught and fresh." 



In regard to propagating fishes, the experiments of the an- 

 cients amounted to little more than robbing the nests of her- 

 bivorous fishes, and planting the eggs in other waters ; but the 

 moderns have, within the past thirty years, invented success- 

 ful theories for studying the habits of fishes at their aqueous 

 homes, in rapid streams, or placid lakes, and deep down into 

 the depths of old ocean. As these will be explained in this 

 work under their appropriate titles of ancient and modern 

 fish culture, I merely allude to them in passing as having 

 through their developments of the habits of fishes opened 

 up a subject so attractive as to have induced anglers and 

 men of science to study more assiduously and minutely these 

 creatures of elegant forms, whose colors vie with the rainbow, 

 and reflect the hues of every precious stone. See their scin- 

 tillant scales, their metallic rays, and colors more beautiful 

 than are given to birds of most favored plumage ! What 

 satin sheen, aurora borealis, or heavenly sunset can vie with 

 the prismatic colors of the living trout or the dying dolphin? 

 What gold so finely burnished as the spots on the Spanish 

 mackerel ? or what shade of carmine so. brilliant as the spots 

 on a samlet? What so transcendently lustrous and beau- 

 tiful as a fresh-run salmon ? 



The Spanish mackerel, salmon, and bonetta combine to 

 form the models for the speed .and beauty of our ships. 

 Even as far back as the Revolutionary War, one of our ships 

 was named " Bonetta." In symmetry of form and beautiful 

 coloring, fishes stand at the head of animal creation. 



