222 THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



Without reflection, it iniglit appear that no other 

 sounds than such as these contribute to the of-eanic 

 concert. Fish do not seem to possess any vocal 

 organ, and if their throats were better adapted for 

 the emission of sound, it is doubtful if we could 

 hear their songs. Let us remember that sound 

 results from the vibration of some elastic, gaseous, 

 liquid, or solid body — that sound travels more 

 rapidly in water than in air. Considering that the 

 celebrated physicist Cagniard-Latour has constructed 

 a little apparatus, by the aid of which sounds are pro- 

 duced at will, in the air or in the water, and which 

 for that reason he calls the siren, we need not be 

 astonislied to learn that many fish emit sounds, and 

 that in some instances these sounds assume the 

 character of true singing. 



Without SDcaking particularly of the coincoin, 

 whose grunting ^.ah oeen compared to the cry of a 

 wild goose ; of the vieille, which utters a plaintive 

 cry when it is seized ; or of the tunny, which wails 

 like an infant when taken from the water — let us 

 listen for a moment to an account of a discovery not 

 many years ago in America. The narrator, Mons. 

 0. de Thoron, was walking one day on the shore of 

 a bay situated to the north of the province of Es- 

 meraldas, in South America. All at once, when the 

 sun was setting, he heard with astonishment an 



