CHAPTER XLVIII 



ORDER OF THE CONNECTING-LINK FISHES, 

 WITH LUNGS AND LEGS 



SIRENOIDEI 



AS in the preceding sections of this work, we will begin 

 * ^- our studies of the Class of Fishes with the highest forms, 

 and run down in regular course to the lowest. Of the 144 

 Families composing this class, as it occurs in North America, 

 it is impossible to mention separately more than a very few 

 of those which are of greatest importance. 



THE LUNG-FISHES are introduced because they are the 

 highest of all the fishes, and form the connecting link between 

 that class and the amphibians. Of the three genera that are 

 known, one is found in Australia, two in Africa, one in South 

 America, and in North America none. 



To some ichthyologists, the great AUSTRALIAN LUNG- 

 FiSH 1 is the most interesting of all fishes. It is not only an 

 intermediate form between the amphibians and fishes of 

 to-day, but it is a creature that has far outlived its natural 

 fate. Its congeners lie embedded in Jurassic rocks 500,000 

 years old; and how this poor orphan of the Past escaped with 

 its life down to the Present many have wondered, but nobody 

 knows. As you stand before the glass tank in the end of 



1 Ce-rat'o-dus fors'ter-i. 

 174 



