THE 



AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



MARINE ANIMALS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Fond man ! yon glassy mirror eye 



Go, pierce the flood, and there descry 



The miracles that float between 



The rainy leaves of watery green ; 



Old Ocean's hoary treasures scan ; 



See nations swimming round a span. CRABBE. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



WHO among us but remembers with pleasurable 

 emotion those happy days, when, with a boyish rod 

 and Hue, we caught our first minnows in the way-side 

 brook, and the delight with which we landed on the 

 grass our tiny victims the deep regret with which 

 we saw them die, and all their splendid colours fade ? 

 Who forgets, when, with an effort to preserve the 

 pretty dwellers in the stream, he next appeared, bottle 

 in hand filled with clear water, and essayed to take 

 them home alive and see them swim in their impri- 

 sonment, gazing with rapture on their silvery hues and 



