120 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



receive her spawn, and when deposited to cover 

 it up, but this admits of some doubt. 



Amongst the migrations of fishes, I must not 

 neglect those that take place in consequence of 

 the water in the ponds or pools that they inhabit 

 being dried up : some of these are very extra- 

 ordinary, and prove that when the Creator gave 

 being to these animals, he foresaw the circum- 

 stances in ! which they would be placed, and 

 mercifully provided them with means of escape 

 from dangers to which they were necessarily 

 exposed. 



In very dry summers, the fishes that inhabit 

 the above situations, are reduced often to the 

 last extremities, and endeavcar to relieve them- 

 selves by plunging, first their heads, and after- 

 wards their whole bodies, in the mud to a con- 

 siderable depth ; and so, though many in such 

 seasons perish, some are preserved till a rainy 

 one again supplies them with the element so 

 indispensable to their life. Carp, it is known, 

 may be kept and fed a very long time in nets in 

 a damp cellar, a faculty which fits them for re- 

 taining their vitality when they bury themselves 

 at such a depth as to shelter them from the 

 heat. 



But others, when reduced to this extremity, 

 desert their native pool, and travel in search of 

 another that is better supplied with water. This 

 has long been known of eels, which wind, by 



