ANALOGIES OF THE CARTILAGINES. 151 



the Acanthopteryges. That the rays also are the most 

 typical of the whole order, may be inferred from two 

 circumstances. Of all the Cartilagines, they have 

 the broadest snouts, just as the flssirostral or natatorial 

 types, among birds, have the broadest bills ; while the 

 peculiar form of their body, which may be said to be 

 surrounded with two immense fins, must give them a 

 greater celerity of swimming than is enjoyed by all 

 their congeners. Such is exactly the case with the flssi- 

 rostral and natatorial birds, of which the swallow, the 

 goat-sucker, the albatross, and the Tachypetes are familiar 

 examples — well known to every ornithologist — where, 

 as in the rays, the organs of flight considerably exceed 

 the size of the body. There can be no doubt, therefore, 

 that these analogies are founded in that law of repre- 

 sentation, which assimilates all these groups to one of 

 the primary types of the animal creation. If the rays, 

 therefore, represent the Acanthopteryges, the Squa- 

 lidce, by which they are immediately followed, must 

 bear a corresponding relation to the sub-typical order of 

 fishes ; the chief character of both consisting in their 

 having the fins soft. The genus Centrinus, indeed, is 

 furnished with spines : but it is clear, even upon the 

 bare opinion of Cuvier, that this genus is not typical of 

 the sharks ; that station being assigned by him to the 

 Squalus carcharias, and its allies, to which we have re- 

 tained the original patronymic name of Squalus. The 

 Squalidce, therefore, by following the rays, become the 

 sub-typical family of the cartilaginous order ; and this 

 analogy at once explains the relation they bear to the 

 Ferce among quadrupeds, and the Raptores among 

 birds. Like these, their representatives, they are pro- 

 verbially the tigers and panthers of the ocean ; and fre- 

 quently carry upon them, as it were, the very spots and 

 markings of those ferocious beasts, as if Nature was de- 

 termined to make her analogies plain, whether they were 

 studied or not. These relations of the two chief groups 

 being thus established, we must be satisfied if those that 

 are aberrant are less determinate ; because, as the forms 



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