CHAPTER XIII. 
The Extent of the World of Waters and its Wonderful Fauna. Bahama 
Fishes. Some Hminently Distinguished for their Brilliant Colors, and Others 
Sor their Singularity, described. Fish that are Poisonous. Table Fish. The 
Bahamas Rich in Beautiful Mollusks. They Harmonize with the other Hx- 
quisite Forms of Life, and with the Brilliant Waters. The Shores Paved with 
Shells Wonderful in Form and Color. The Coneh. 
‘In the free element beneath us swarm 
Fishes of every color, form, and kind,— 
Strange forms, resplendent colors, kinds unnumbered— 
Which language cannot paint, and mariner 
Hath never eleswhere seen.” —MonrTGoMERY. 
WHEN we consider that the sea occupies more than two-thirds 
of the earth’s surface; that its normal temperature is, from 
the equator to the arctic circle, nearly uniform every where, 
below a few hundred perpendicular feet of its surface; that its 
depths are most profound, being measured by miles; that al- 
though it is for man’s convenience geographically divided, and 
called by different names, yet that all the so-called oceans are 
in fact one, and that it abounds throughout the whole of its vast 
extent with animals that are created and fitted to live in the 
water as others are upon the land, we cannot fail to see that in 
all probability its fauna is far more extensive and varied than 
that of the land, and that man’s knowledge concerning it is very 
meagre, superficial and imperfect. It is quite recently that the 
gigantic cuttle fish has been taken out of the realm of fable and 
225 
