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The department of natural history on which 

 I am now entering is well calculated to fill the 

 rnind with awe and astonishment, both from its 

 vastness, and the beautiful beings of which it 

 treats. But the subject itself is inexhaustible ; 

 and, having already alluded incidentally to the 

 structure and organs of fishes, in common with 

 those of other tribes of animals, as adapted se- 

 verally to their respective functions, I propose 

 at present merely to present a more particular 

 illustration of the general economy of this class 

 of animals. 



By the generic term Fish, is understood a 

 class of animals living in water, swimming by 

 fins, and having the water directly applied to 

 the gills, through which organs the whole mass 

 of blood circulates. By this definition, it will 

 appear that many animated beings, inhabitants 

 of the waters, are excluded from the class of 

 fishes ; but of these it is not my intention at 

 present to speak. 



The bodies of fishes are, for the most part, 

 narrow, that is to say, they are longer than they 

 are wide, as in the herring and salmon. Some- 

 times they are fiat, as in the sole and skate, and 

 at other times again, almost cylindrical, as in the 

 eel and lamprey. 



In most fishes the mouth projects from the fore 

 part of the head, but in some, as the sturgeon, it is 

 on the lower part of this organ. In some species, 

 as in the carps, the lips are moveable and furnish- 

 ed with a peculiar bone, and in the voracious spe- 



