HORNED FISH. 
bly long. All these fins, which pass through 
holes in the horny coat or covering of the 
fish, have full play ; so that the fins and tail 
are as loose and pliable as those of any other 
fish. 
Edwards, who opened this fish, informs us 
that he found in it no spinal bone, as in other 
fishes; nor, indeed, any other bone whatever : 
hut, instead of them, some cartilaginous sub- 
stances communicating with the fins and tail, 
in order to give them motion. 
These Horned Fish are not peculiar to the 
oriental seas, being frequently seen in our 
West-India islands. 'I'o us it appears, from 
their peculiar corneous covering, which makes 
them as well the Horny as the Horned Fish, 
that this tribe form a link nearly approaching 
that of the cruotaccous or shelly inhabitants of 
the ocean, in the great chain which seems to 
bind universal nature. 
