CHAP. IV. 



FISHES ON LAND. 



115 



they generally reach to the tail. We believe these 

 fishes are also very rapid swimmers ; not merely from 

 this extraordinary development of the pectorals, but also 

 from their peculiar wedge-shaped body, so well cal- 

 culated to cut through the water, and to get beyond the 

 reach of their numerous enemies. 



(135.) To include walking on land, and climbing 

 up trees, as among the actual motions of this class of 



animals, will, no 

 doubt, somewhat 

 surprise many of 

 our readers > yet 

 there are not want- 

 ing several fishes 

 which perform 

 these apparently 

 unnatural feats. 

 The frog-fish (fig. 

 34.) of the Asiatic islands and the southern hemi- 

 sphere can not only live several days out of the water, 

 but can crawl about the room in which they are con- 

 fined: this latter facility originates from the great 

 strength and the peculiar position of their pectoral fins, 

 which thus perform the office of feet. The whole 

 aspect of these grotesque-looking creatures, particularly 

 in a walking position, is so much like that of toads or 

 frogs, that a careless observer would, at first, be at 

 some loss to determine their real nature. The gene- 

 rality of the freshwater eels, although, from not pos- 

 sessing ventral fins, they are unable to walk, yet they 

 are well known to quit the water at certain seasons, 

 and make their way over the grass to other ponds, at 

 no great distance, for the purpose of seeking fresh 

 habitations, or depositing their spawn. Nearly all the 

 Indian Ophiocephali (freshwater fishes, not unlike our 

 sea mullet), crawl from tank to tank, or from ponds 

 that are nearly dried up, to others, which, by a won- 

 derful and incomprehensible instinct, they seem to 

 know to be full. Such an unusual circumstance as a 

 i 2 



