#78 Four species of Fishes from the 



This division produces a number of little cells more or less 

 complicated, and calculated to retain a certain quantity of 

 water ; they are a good deal like the cells in the stomach of 

 the camel. This apparatus is formed under the arches of 

 the operculum, and being pressed closely against the body 

 when the fish is removed from the water, a sufficient quanti- 

 ty of that fluid is thus retained free from evaporation, and in 

 contact with the gills, to protect them from drought. Hence 

 the fishes of this family, whose habits we have any account 

 of, all seem to be capable of quitting the rivers and tanks in 

 which they ordinarily reside, and frequently make excursions 

 to great distances by jumping along the grassy surface of 

 dry land." 



Hence we see, that Mr. Russell's account of the bura 

 Change is only in accordance with the known habits of the 

 family to which it belongs, and however extraordinary it may 

 seem, does not require to be bolstered up by any such explan- 

 ations as those of Dr. Campbell. Nature herself is the best 

 monitor in such cases. Mr. Pearson incommunicating Mr. 

 Russell's account of the bura Chang to the Asiatic Society, 

 considered it to be of such a novel* nature, as to deserve 

 on that account the peculiar attention of that learned body. 

 Now as to the novelty, which the Society took for granted ! 



" What is most astonishing," says Baron Cuvier, " and 

 what some naturalists of the present day ought to be ashamed 

 of, these habits were known to the ancients." 



Theophrastus in his Treatise on Fishes which live without 

 water says, that there exist in India certain fishes which 

 leave the rivers for a time, and return to them again ; that 

 they resemble those which the Greeks call /uv^ivog, that is to 

 say, mullets. " There may be some doubt," says Baron Cuvier, 

 "as to whether this refers to our Anabas, or rather perhaps 



*Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1839, vol. viii, p. 561, and Cal. Jour. Nat. Hist, 

 vol. i, p. 427. 



