THE FROG-FISH 



307 



But of all the monsters of the tropical seas, there is none 

 more dreaded by man than the white shark. 



Woe to the sailor that falls overboard while one of these 

 tyrants of the ocean is prowling about the ship ; but woe also 

 to the shark who, caught by a baited hook, is drawn on board, 

 for a slow and cruel death is sure to be his lot. Mutilated and 

 hacked to pieces, his torments are protracted by his uncommon 

 tenacity of life. 



Such, besides herds of playful dolphins, are the members of the 



finny creation most commonly met with on the high seas, but 



i in general the waters at a greater distance from the land are 



)* poor in fishes. The tropical fishes chiefly abound near the 



^ coasts, in the sheltered lagoons, and in the channels which wind 



through numberless reefs or islands. 



As the colibris dart from flower to flower in the Brazilian 

 woods, thus the gorgeous balistinae and glyphodons sport 

 ;il)()ut the submerged coral -gardens, and en- 

 hance the brilliancy of their fairy bowers. 



While these lustrous fishes, belted with azure, 

 led, and gold, defy the imagination of the 

 ])oet to describe their beauty, others remind 

 one by their deformity of the chimeras engen- 

 dered by the diseased brain of a delirious 

 patient. Here we see the hideous frog-fish 

 creeping along like a toad upon his hand- 

 like fin, there the sun-fish swimming about like a vast head 

 severed from its trunk. Cased like the armadillo in an inflexible 

 coat of mail, into which every movable part can 

 be withdrawn, the trunk-fish derides the attack 

 of many an enemy ; and inflating its spiny body, 

 the diodon, like the hedgehog of the land, bids 

 defiance to his foes. . 



On examining the crustacean world, we find that 

 it has established its head-quarters in the tropical 

 zone. There a multitude of wondrous types un- 

 known to the colder regions of the globe attract 

 the attention of the naturalist: the transparent 

 phyllosomas, not thicker than the thinnest wafer, 

 and the strange sword-tails, whose body is covered by a double 

 shield, and terminates in a long horny process, used by the 



X 2 



Sun Fish. 



Limulas. 



