CHAPTER XII. 



ICHTHYOLOGY. 



THE emphatic language of Job has declared, 

 that the fishes of the sea shall make known the 

 glory and the greatness of God ; and in few 

 departments of His works does the Providence 

 of the Creator shine forth with more brilliant 

 lustre. He who has peopled the earth and the 

 air with their myriads, has also filled the mighty 

 caverns of the deep with untold numbers of ani- 

 mated beings all fully supplied with an organi- 

 zation admirably adapted to the circumstances 

 in which they are so wonderfully placed. It was 

 not sufficient for Him, that the earth should 

 abound with waters, the various qualities of which 

 might be serviceable to mankind ; it was not 

 sufficient for Him that the vast expanse of ocean 

 should obey certain fixed and immutable laws, 

 and thereby clearly shew that truly it is a God 

 who rules the sea ; He willed that its immeasur- 

 able spaces should be inhabited, and in His good- 

 ness He decreed, that while the beings which 

 sport there should serve as food for man, their 

 structure should tell of the hand that made them. 



