106 



FISHES. 



See thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth. 

 All mntter quick, and bursting into birth ; 

 Above how high progressive life may go, 

 Around how wide, how deep extend below ! 

 Vast chain of being, which from God began, 

 Nature's ethereal, human, angel, man, 

 Eeast, bird, fish, m?ect, what no ej'e can see, 

 Ko glass can reach ; from infinite to rhee. 

 From Thee to nothing ! 



Coryphene, or Dolphin (Corypliaena Hippuris). 



The Dolphin is an inhabitant of the Mediterra- 

 nean, Indian, and Atlantic seas, where it often ap- 

 pears in larjj,e shoals, and is sometimes observed to 

 follow ships, devouring with avidity any occasional 

 article of food which may happen to be thrown over- 

 board ; it will even swallow substances of a diflerent 

 nature : and we are informed, from the authority of 

 Plumier, that in the stomach of one which he exa- 

 niined, were found four iron nails, one of which mea- 

 sured more than five inches. When taken out of the 

 water, the beautiful colours (with which the fish is 

 decorated when living) fade as it expires; the lus- 

 tre vanishing by degrees, till at length it becomes of 



