190 



MEDITERRANEAN PROVINCE. 



sent us at last, as we ascend, with only such forms 

 as lichens, so at depths of from seventy to a hundred 

 fathoms, we have the obscure Nullipores as the ex- 

 treme forms of marine vegetation. 



The Mediterranean fishes are so well known and 

 have been so admirably illustrated, that we have 

 little difficulty in comparing them with those of the 

 Atlantic. This state of our knowledge is owing to 

 the vast importance of the fisheries of this sea to 

 the dwellers around its shores, so that the habits 

 and migrations of many of its valuable species as 

 articles of food, had been accurately observed and 

 recorded as far back as 2000 years since. From 

 those more recent days when Natural History be- 

 came a pursuit and a study, the peculiar beauty of 

 some of the Mediterranean fishes could not fail to 

 attract attention. Even the least observant of those 

 whom this country sends forth annually, to wander 

 along the shores of southern Europe, can hardly 

 have failed to notice the striking difference between 

 the contents of Italian or Sicilian fish-markets and 

 our own — a contrast as great as that which Nature 

 there displays in all her other aspects. 



Risso estimated the fishes of the Eastern Medi- 

 terranean at about 400, and though his enume- 

 ration cannot be implicitly accepted, yet, after 

 making all deductions, the additional species to be 

 derived from the great work of Cuvier and Valenci- 

 ennes, again more than bring up the number (p. 20). 

 Such a list is far larger than any for which we have 



