ORDER If CHONDROPTERYGIL. THE EYELESS FISH. 219 
ment and water from Stephen’s flask, and here we halted to catch one 
of the Hyeless Fish who swim in this river of forgetfulness. I held the 
lamp while the pole net was quietly slipped under the little vietim of celeb- 
rity. He sww no danger, poor thing! and stirred never a fin to escape 
being taken out of his element, and raised to a higher sphere. In size he 
was like the larger kind of what the boys call a ‘minim,’ — say an inch anda 
half long, — but very different in construction and color. His body was 
quite white, translucent, and wholly without an intestinal canal. The stom- 
ach was directly behind the brain, and all the organs of the system were 
forward of the gills, the head alone having blood or other discoloration. 
Under the chin he disposed of what was superfluous in his nourishment. He 
was curiously correspondent, indeed, to the poetized character of the place 
—like a fish in progress of becoming a fish in spirit-land, his dis-animali- 
zation having commenced radically at the tail, and working upward. Noth- 
ing could be more purely beautiful and graceful than the pearly and spotless 
body, which had heavenlified first, *leaving the head to follow. IT looked 
for some minutes at the others swimming in the stream. They idled about, 
with a purposeless and luxurious tranquillity, and I observed that they ran 
their noses against the rocky sides of the dark river with no manner of pre- 
caution. Unhurt and unannoyed, they simply turned back from the opposing 
obstacle, and swam slowly away. The scientific people tell us that these 
blind fish once had eyes, and that the microscope still shows the collapsed 
socket. The orean has died out in the darkness of the subterranean river 
co) 
” 
yr 
— dwindled into annihilation with lack of using. 
The above is a poet’s description of the fish, not that of a philosopher or 
man of science, who would see in this animal not an imperfect and half- 
formed creature, but one plainly and perfectly adapted to its condition of 
existence. Nature does not indulge in superfluities, and has created these 
fishes without eyes, because those organs would be utterly useless in a state 
of eternal darkness. 
Proressor Acassiz’s CrasstFICATION OF Fisues. — The method of 
arrangement adopted by Agassiz is founded on the character of the scales. 
He divides the whole class into four orders: 1. GanorpEans; 2. Pxacot- 
DEANS; 3. CrenomeEans; 4. Cyciorpeans. The fishes of the first order 
have a bony armor, consisting generally of scales of small size, usually cov- 
ered by a coating of enamel, which gives them a peculiar briliancy, whence 
the name Glanoideans, from the Greek word ganos — splendor. In some 
instances, as in the case of the Sturgeon, this armor is composed of plates 
of large size, with jagged edges, which lap together. 
In the second order, the fishes have a skin covered with hard, bony plates, 
