318 CYPRINID*:. 



of these waters, living animals are found in the basins which 

 receive them. I saw in them eels, rotifera, and infusoria, 

 in 1790." 



" At Feriana, the ancient Thala," says Bruce, " are baths 

 of warm water without the town : in these were a number 

 of fish, about four inches in length, not unlike Gudgeons. 

 Upon trying the heat by the thermometer, I remember to 

 have been much surprised that they could have existed, or 

 even not been boiled, by continuing so long in the heat of 

 this medium." 



" The facts mentioned by Sonnerat and other travellers 

 induced Broussonnet to make some experiments on the 

 degree of heat which river fish are capable of enduring. 

 The details of the degrees of heat are not stated, but 

 many species lived for several days in water which was so 

 hot that the hand could not be retained in it for a single 

 minute." 



The five preceding notices are from Dr. Hodgkin's addi- 

 tions to the translation of Dr. W. F. Edwards's French 

 work " On the Influence of Physical Agents on Life." 



" In the thermal springs of Bahia in Brazil, many small 

 fishes were seen swimming in a rivulet which raises the 

 thermometer eleven and a half degrees above the tempera- 

 ture of the air." 



" Humboldt and Bonpland, when travelling in South 

 America, perceived fishes thrown up alive, and apparently 

 in health, from the bottom of a volcano, in the course of 

 its explosions, along with water and heated vapour that 

 raised the thermometer to two hundred and ten degrees, 

 being but two degrees below the boiling point." 



The power of fishes to sustain a low temperature is equally 

 extraordinary ; " for that these," says John Hunter, in 

 his Animal (Economy, " after being frozen, still retain so 



