ns;iE3. 



563 



some velocity by swimming: still, however, the active enemy 

 keeps it in view, and drives it again from the deep ; till, at 

 length, the poor little creature is seen to dart to shorter dis- 

 tances, to flutter with greater effort, and to drop down at last 

 into the mouth of its fierce pursuer. But not the dorado alone, 

 all animated nature seems combined against this little fish, which 

 seems possessed of double powers, only to be subject to greater 

 dangers. For though it should escape from its enemies of the 

 deep, yet the tropic bird, and the albatross are for ever upon the 

 wing to seize it. Thus pursued in either element, it sometimes 

 seeks refuge from a new enemy ; and it is not unfrequent for 

 whole shoals of them to fall on shipboard, where they furnish 

 man with an object of useless curiosity. 



The warfare in fresh water is not carried on with such de- 

 structive activity ; nor are the inhabitants of that element so 

 numerous. It would seem that there is something more favour- 

 able to the fecundity of fishes in the ocean than in an element 

 less impregnated with salt. It has been the opinion of some 

 philosophers that all fish are natives of that great reservoir ; and 

 that only colonies have been sent up rivers, either through acci- 

 dent, or the necessity of procuring subsistence. They have been 

 led to this opinion by the superior fecundity of sea-fish, which 

 breed twenty to one ; as well as by their superiority in strength 

 and size, over those of the same kind found in lakes and rivers. 

 This is a matter too remotely speculative to be worth pursuing ; 

 but certain it is that, in fresh water, fishes seem to abate much 

 of their courage and rapacity ; pursue each other with less vio- 

 lence, and seem to be less powerfully actuated by all their ap- 

 petites. The greediness with which sea-fish devour the bait is 

 prodigious, if compared with the manner they take it in fresh 

 water. The lines of such fishermen as go off to sea are coarse, 

 thick, and clumsy, compared to what are used by those who fish 

 at land. Their baits are seldom more than a piece of a fish, or 

 the flesh of some quadruped, stuck on the hook in a bungling 

 manner ; and scarcely any art is employed to conceal the decep- 

 tion. But it is othervvise in fresh water : the lines must ofnii 

 be drawn to a hair-like fineness ; they must be tinctured of tlie 

 peculiar colour of the stream ; the bait must be formed with the 

 nicest art, and even, if possible, to exceed the perfection of na- 

 ture : yet still the fishes approach it with dinidence, and often 



