t 



I-ISHES. 645 



habits and other pecuHarities, to interest the reader, conscious of its 

 many imperfections. Where every creature which moves and breathes 

 in the watery world is so full of interest, it will not surprise the reader 

 to learn that one of the wTiter's chief difficulties has been that of 

 selection, his most painful task that of rejecting the vast mass of 

 interesting matter he had necessarily to pass in review. 



We have shown in the first chapter of this work that nearly three- 

 fourths of the surface of the earth is bathed by the sea. Struck with 

 this vast extent of ocean, a witty French writer says, " One is almost 

 tempted to believe that our planet was specially created for fishes." 

 They are, indeed, a very important part of creation ; they form, as it 

 were, a bond uniting the vertebrate to invertebrate animals. They 

 have a more complicated organisation than any of the other oceanic 

 inhabitants (except the Cetacea), as they are also the most numerous, 

 the most varied in form, and by far the most brilliant in colour, and 

 the most active in their movements. 



Pliny, the naturalist, describes ninety-four species of fishes. Lin- 

 naeus has characterised 478. The naturalists of the present day know 

 upwards of 13,000, a tenth of which are fresh-water fishes. 



