212 NATURAL HISTORY. 



pose, with a considerable finny expansion, consisting of a 

 skin, over a frame-work which is sometimes bony, and 

 sometimes cartilaginous or gristly. It is constructed, 

 therefore, very much like the whig of a bat. The fins 

 are similarly constructed. These generally act chiefly as 

 balancers and directors of the movement, while the scull- 

 ing tail propels. That the side or pectoral fins, however, 

 have considerable agency in propelling, can be seen very 

 readily, if you watch the movements of fishes in an aqua- 

 rium. They obviously narrow and widen as they are 

 moved, widening when they make a propelling stroke. 



357. The skeletons of Fishes are not as firm as those 

 of other Vertebrates. In some, even, they are not real 

 bone, but are cartilaginous or gristly. The reason of this 

 difference is plain. As the Fish moves in an element of 

 nearly the same specific gravity with itself, it puts forth 

 but little strength in its movements. The points of sup- 

 port, therefore, for the muscles need not to be so firm as 

 they are in animals living in air and exerting motions 

 that require considerable force, such as springing from 

 the ground, grasping, flying, etc. 



358. We see a marked adaptation in the Fish to its 

 mode of life in the organs of sense and the brain. Its 

 life is passed mostly in obtaining its food and in escaping 

 from its enemies. Its life is a lazy one compared with 

 that of animals that run, and dig, and scratch, and climb, 

 and fly. It shows, neither, any remarkable instincts. It 

 therefore does not need much of a brain, for its range of 

 thought is very limited ; neither does it require acute- 

 ness in the senses to meet its wants. Its brain is there- 

 fore smahVand the organs of sense are not as fully devel- 

 oped as in some other animals. It has little sense of 

 touch, and it is mostly confined to the lips. The fila- 

 ments which some have about the mouth are probably 

 organs of touch, informing of the contact of bodies just 

 as the whiskers of a cat do. The eyes of a fish are large 

 and nearly immovable. As they are lubricated by the 



