136 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



in the mud along the banks of the river it 

 inhabits, and there folding itself up, to pass a 

 great portion of its time in a state of torpidity. 

 Pieces of hard clay, bearing the impressions of 

 these animals, have been brought over to Eng- 

 land. Sir W. Jardine, in his observations on 

 this creature, refers to the circumstance as fol- 

 lows : — " Miss Weir, in allowing us to examine 

 the specimens of the fish, accompanied them with 

 a piece of the hard clay alluded to in the Trans- 

 actions of the Linnaean Society, bearing the 

 impression of the animal, as if it had lain for some 

 time imbedded in it, and with the earth in such 

 a state as to allow the form of the cast to be 

 retained. Fish taken in the summer of 1835 on 

 the shore of Macarthy's Island, about 350 miles 

 up the river Gambia, were found about eighteen 

 inches below the surface of the ground, which 

 during nine months of the year is perfectly 

 dry and hard ; the remaining three months it 

 is under water. When dug out of ground and 

 put into water, the fish immediately unfold 

 themselves and commence swimming about. 

 They are dug up with sharp stakes, and used 

 for food." Most probably the Amazon species 

 undergoes a similar torpidity. This long tor- 

 pidity of nine months, during the dry season of 

 the year, when the ground is parched, and the 

 river low, will come under the head of what we 

 denominate aestivation, and not hybernation ; 

 of this, however, Ave shall speak hereafter. 



If the lepidosiren comes within the pale of the 

 fishes, it is one among the few of that class 



