288 FISHES IN GENERAL 



tages of the latter greatly to be increased. The sense 

 of touching, which beasts and birds are known to pos- 

 sess, (though not in a very great degree,) to the fish 

 covered by a coat of mail, must be unknown ; and of 

 the sense of smelting, which in beasts is allowed to be 

 exquisite, the fish enjoys but a moderate share. It is 

 true that all have one, or more nostrils ; but, as the 

 air is the medium through which odours necessarily 

 pass, an animal, residing constantly in water, must re- 

 ceive every exhalation imperfect and faint. 



Of tasting they can make but very little distinction, 

 as the palate of most is bony and hard ; and their hear- 

 ing is allowed to be extremely doubtful, as anatomists 

 are of opinion that they cannot hear at all. 



Seeing appears the sense which they possess in the 

 greatest measure ; yet those who have made observa- 

 tions on their eyes, assert, that they all are extremely 

 near-sighted, and cannot discover objects that are dis- 

 tantly removed. 



From the observations of the Naturalist we easily 

 discern that fishes are inferior both to birds and beasts; 

 and even their brain, that mansion of sensation, is ex- 

 tremely small when compared to their size. 



To preserve their own existence, and continue it 

 to their posterity, fills up the whole circle of their 

 pursuits; a ceaseless desire of food seems to be the 

 ruling impulse, and the only enjoyment they are ca- 

 pable of in life. Their digestive faculties are very ex- 

 traordinary, for their stomachs will soften the shells of 

 the most callous fish ; and their whole lives are passed 

 in a state of depredation, the larger of the species ex- 

 isting upon the small. 



Nor is the pursuit of fishes, like that of terrestrial ani- 

 mals, confined to a single region of the globe, for shoals 

 pf one species follow the other from the Equator to the 



