113 PEOSE HAIilEUTICS. 



Who crest the waves with liquid light, (') or ink the sable flood, (') 

 Who numb the boatman's sinewy arm;(') on aziire wings who 



soar,('») 

 Pelagians from the open sea, and tribes that hug the shore ; 

 Sedan'd on poles, or dragg'd on hooks, or pour'd from tubs, like 



water, 

 Gasp side by side, together pUed, in one promiscuous slaughter. 



But the great beauty offish, after allj is colour, — lovely, 

 but, alas ! evanescent as the rainbow itself : the inhabi- 

 tants of the sea cannot be preserved except as mummies ; 

 they are the opprobrium of taxidermy ; stuflSng and al- 

 cohol alike absorb their hues; and in museums their 

 blanched scales form a ghastly contrast to the gay and 

 gaudy integuments of the denizens of earth and air by 

 which they are surrounded. 



While blazing breast of humming-bird and lo's stiffen' d wing 

 Are bright as when they first came forth new-painted in the 



spring. 

 While speckled snake and spotted pard their markings still dis- 

 play, 

 Though he who once embahn'd them both, himself be tnm'd to 



clay, 

 On fish a different fate attends, nor reach they long the shore 

 Ere fade their hues like rainbow-tiats, and soon their beauty's 



o'er. 

 The eye that late in ocean's flood was large and round and fuU, 

 Becomes on land a sunken orb, glaucomatous and dull ; 

 The gills, like mushrooms, soon begin to turn from pink to black, 

 The blood congeals in stasis thick, the scales upturn and crack ; 

 And those fair forms, a Yeronese, in art's meridian power. 

 With every varied tint at hand, and in his happiest hour. 

 Could ne'er in equal beauty deck and bid the canvas live, 

 Are now so colourless and cold, a Kembrandt's touch might give. 



