256 
NATURAL HISTORY 
I 
fins are situated on the ridge of the back, and are very 
large in fiat fish; their use, like the pectoral ones, is to 
keep the body in equilibrio, as well as to contribute to 
its progressive motion. The anal fins are placed be- 
tween the vent and the tail, enabling t le fish to keep an 
upright position. 
The aquatic race of beings have in general been pla- 
ced in a very inferior scale of importance, on the score 
of animal faculties; yet, natural and experimental ob- 
servations have proved that they are possessed of all the 
necessary organs of seeing, hearing, smelling, and feel- 
ing, in an equal degree to either quadrupeds or birds. 
Voracity is the chief characteristic of aquatic animals. 
Those with the largest mouth pursue almost every thing 
that hath life; and often meeting each other in fierce op- 
position, the fish with the largest swallow comes off vic- 
torious, and devours its antagonist. As a counterba- 
lance to this great voracity, however, fish are incredibly 
prolific. Some bring forth their young alive, others 
produce only eggs: the former are rather the least fruit- 
ful; yet even those produce in great abundance. The 
viviparous blenny for instance, brings forth two or three 
hundred at a time. Those which produce eggs, which 
they are obliged to leave to chance, either on the bottom 
where the water is shallow, or floating on the surface 
where it is deeper, are all much more prolific, and seem 
to proportion their stock to the danger there is of con- 
sumption. Naturalists declare, that the cod spawns above 
nine millions in a season. The flounder commonly pro- 
duces about one million, and the mackerel above five 
hundred thousand. Scarce one in a hundred of these 
eggs, however, brings forth an animal: they are devoured 
by all the lesser fry that frequent the shores, by water 
fowl in shallow waters, and by the larger fish in deep 
waters. Such a prodigious increase, if permitted to come 
to maturity, would overstock nature: even the ocean it- 
self would not be able to contain, much less provide for, 
one half of its inhabitants. But two wise purposes are 
answered by their amazing increase; it preserves the spe~ 
