42 Notice of the appearance of Fish and Lizards. 



on his farm, leads me to communicate to you a most singu- 

 lar instance of the apparently playful aberrations of nature 

 from those laws, which she had prescribed for herself, and 

 under whose influence, she most usually, and most wisely 

 operates. 



In the course of the last summer I ordered a ditch to be 

 cut of large dimensions, on a line of my farm near Cam- 

 bridge : the line was a plane, ten feet above the level of the 

 neighboring river, and at least one mile from it, at the near- 

 est point of the line ; a portion of the ditch being done, the 

 work was interrupted by rain for ten or twelve days ; when 

 the work was resumed, on examining the performance, I dis- 

 covered that the rain water which had filled the ditch, thus 

 recently cut, contained hundreds of fish, consisting of two 

 kinds of perch which are common in our. waters the " sun 

 perch," and the "jack perch ;" the usual size of the former 

 is from six to twelve inches, the latter varies from ten to fif- 

 teen inches long ; those in the ditch were from four to seven 

 iriches : by what possible means could these fish have been 

 transported so far from their native waters ? There is no wa- 

 ter communication on the surface, to conduct them there ; 

 the elevation and extent of the plane, in regard to the rivers, 

 utterly prohibit the ide^ ; the eggs, if placed there by a wa- 

 ter-spout, could not have suffered so rapid a transmigration ; 

 no such phenomena had been observed, and the adjacency 

 of the line to the dwelhng, would have rendered the occur- 

 rence, impossible, without notice. 



Already has the theory of Descartes, and the philosophi- 

 cal generation of Trembley and Spalanzani encroached upon 

 the animal dignity, in propagating it by cuttings from the 

 parent stock; yet, that animal life should spring from a for- 

 tuitous concourse of lifeless atoms, assisted by the concur- 

 rent agency of putrefaction, a suitable element, a suitable 

 temperature, or other such circumstances, apparently adap- 

 ted to its nascent existence, is a heterodox opinion which I 

 should be averse to entertain. 



A similar occurrence a few years ago, 1 witnessed on the 

 same farm ; in a very large ditch, cut on lower lands, on a 

 line equally unconnected with any river, pond, or other sur- 

 face-water, there were, under very similar circumstances, nu- 

 merous perch, which aflbrded fine angling to my children. 

 On a diary which I keep, I have entered, that several of 

 them measured as much as twelve inches in length, and that 



