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CHAPTER XXIV. 



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FISHES. 



The Waters a Scene of constant War Fecundity of Fishes necessary to maintain 

 the Equilibrium Migrations of the Salmon Means of Defence and Attack 

 The Dragon Weerer The Acanthurus The Catfish The Sting-ray Dental 

 Apparatus of Fishes Teeth of the Lamprey and Scari The Sawfish Electrical 

 Fish Fins Air Bladders Gills Respiratory Apparatus of the Lamprey and 

 Hag of the Frogfish and Hassar The Star Gazer The Angler The Rostra- 

 ted Chsetodon The Senses of Fishes Beautiful Construction of their Eye 

 Care of the Stickleback for its Young Parental Solicitude of the Black Goby 

 and of the Hassar. 



IN the wide ocean, under the tranquil surface of the lake, in the 

 majestic river that pays the tribute of its waters to the sea, in 

 the brook rushing down the valley as far as the domains 

 of the fishes extend, there is a constant war, a constant pursuit 

 and flight, a constant alternation between victory and death. 



A great proportion of the vertebrated animals of the dry land 

 consists of gentle herbivora almost the entire race of rodents : 

 the stag, the ox, the horse, the sheep, the giraffe, the elephant, 

 the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and many others, all live on 

 vegetable food ; but the vast majority of fishes, from the smallest 

 to the largest, from the tiny stickleback to the shark, are per- 

 petually intent on rapine and murder, and, except in the breeding 

 season, the sole occupation of their life is to pursue a prey or to 

 escape from a pursuer. 



Amidst all these scenes of anarchy and destruction the super- 

 ficial observer might almost be inclined to imagine that Moloch, 

 and not a beneficent Deity, had established his throne in the 

 ocean ; but a deeper insight into the life of fishes soon proves to 

 us that here, as everywhere else, apparent discord is but the 

 means of promoting harmony. 



In spite of their perpetual losses, the many thousand species 

 of fishes that people the empire of the seas maintain themselves 



