Animals. 223 



organ is very soft and pliant. From 

 this indiscrimination, fish will frequent- 

 ly swallow the plummet, as well as the 

 bait. Their sense of hearing is still 

 more defective, if they possess this facul- 

 ty at all, as is evident from the frequent 

 experiments which have been made. 

 No fish, except the whale kind, have the 

 least appearance, on dissection, of any 

 auditory organs. Their sense of sight^ 

 is however somewhat more perfect, 

 though inferior to that of most other an- 

 imals. They are totally destitute of 

 eyelids ; the eyes being covered with 

 the same skin that overspreads the rest 

 of the body. 



The period to which fishes live, is ve- 

 ry little known, though it is generally 

 believed they attain to a considerable 

 age ; some of the least exceed in their 

 age that of a man. The method of dis- 

 covering their ages, is either by examin- 

 ing the transverse coverings of their 

 scales, by means of a microscope ; or by 

 the transverse section of the back bone. 

 Buffon found a carp which by the former 

 method of computation appeared to be 

 a hundred years old, allowing one year 



