FISHES IN GENERAL. 



come a prey to the fish. Still there are sufficient to 

 supply the deep with inhabitants, and to provide for 

 the wants of a considerable part of mankind ; for Lew- 

 enhoeck tells us, that in one season a cod will produce 

 nine million of eggs. The mackarel and flounder are 

 likewise strikingly prolific ; for the former spawns five 

 hundred thousand, and the latter a million in the year. 

 Such an amazing increase, if permitted to come to 

 maturity, would be much too abundant for the ocean 

 to contain; yet two wise purposes are answered by this 

 astonishing fecundity, for it is the means of preserving 

 the species in the midst of numberless enemies, and 

 serves the rest with that kind of sustenance that is most 

 likely to contribute to the prolongation of their lives. 



Fishes in general (the whale kind excepted) are en- 

 tirely divested of all tenderness for their young ; and 

 instead of nurturing them with that fondness conspi- 

 cuous in the brute creation, frequently devour them 

 with the same indifference as every other kind of food. 

 Such is the general picture of these heedless hungry 

 creatures ; yet there are some endowed with finer feel- 

 ings than the rest, and which seem to possess all those 

 parental sensations which are so easily to be discovered 

 both in quadrupeds and birds. These nurse their off- 

 spring with the fondest solicitude, and seem to expe- 

 rience all a mother's care. Under this class comes the 

 cetaceous tribe of fishes, or, as they may otherwise be 

 termed, those of the whale kind. There are others, 

 though not capable of nursing their young, yet bring 

 them alive into the world, and protect them? both from 

 danger and harm; these are termed cartilaginous, from 

 having gristles instead of bones: but those which leave 

 their spawn unprotected, and seem dead to those sen- 

 sations which other parents feel, are distinguished by 



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