CLASS IV. PISCES. 



have no voice by which they can communicate with their 

 kind. Mr. Cowan, who kept some gold fishes in a vase, 

 says, that no noise he could make was capable of disturb- 

 ing them. It may therefore be presumed, that, when 

 they show signs of alarm at any noise, it is only from the 

 vibrations of sound affecting the water. 



Fishes, however, possess the sense of sight in tolerable 

 perfection, because this is essentially necessary to their 

 preservation. Yet on comparing their eyes with those of 

 terrestrial animals, we shall find that, even in this respect, 

 they are very inferior. 



Hence it may be concluded, from a survey of their re- 

 spective powers, that fishes are far behind quadrupeds, 

 and even birds, in their sensations, and consequently 

 in their enjoyments. Nature, generous to all her chil- 

 dren, has fitted them all indeed with wonderful propriety 

 to their particular spheres of action ; but, to fishes she has 

 given passive rather than active joys. To preserve their 

 own existence, and to transmit it to posterity, fill up the 

 whole circle of their pursuits and their pleasures ; and to 

 these they appear as much impelled by necessity as by 

 choice. Their appetites are, in a manner, incapable of 

 making distinctions ; and they range in pursuit of what- 

 ever they can swallow, conquer, or enjoy. 



A craving desire for food seems to be the ruling prin- 

 ciple of all their actions or motions. No indulgence can 

 gratify their rapacity, and, in catering for a fresh meal, 

 they frequently risk their lives. Even when expiring, 

 they will greedily swallow the bait that lured them to de- 

 struction. Their digestive faculties seem in some mea- 

 sure to increase with the quantity of food which they con- 

 sume ; though it has long puzzled the ablest physiologists 

 to account for such rapid powers of concoction in the 

 cold maws of fishes. 



Insatiable, however, as the appetites of fishes are, no 

 other animals, except serpents, can endure the want of 

 food for such a length of time. Gold and silver fishes 

 have been kept in vases for months successively, without 



