OSSEOUS FISHES, 
595 
(Fig. 395) may be considered the type. The tube of the muzzle is 
long and flat, and from the caudal fin springs a terminal filament 
nearly as long as the body. This species of pipe-fish -is common at 
Fite. 395. The Pipe-fish (Fisiulam tabacaria). 
the Antilles ; it attains the length of about three feet, but its flesh is 
leathery and insipid. It feeds upon crustaceans and small fishes, which 
it drags from the interstices of the rocks and stones by means of its 
long and taper pipe. 
We close our abbreviated history of the Ocean and such of the in- 
habitants with which it swarms as seemed most likely, from then- 
habits and other peculiarities, to interest the readers, conscious of its 
many imperfections. Where every creature which moves and breathes 
in the watery world is so full of interest, it will not surprise the reader 
to learn that one of the editor’s chief difficulties has been that of 
selection, his most painful task that of rejecting the vast mass of 
interesting matter he had necessarily to pass in review. 
We have shown in tlio first chapter of this work that nearly three- 
fourths of the surface of the earth is bathed by the sea. Struck with 
this vast extent of ocean, a witty French writer says, “ One is almost 
tempted to believe that our planet was specially created for fishes.” 
They are, indeed, a very important part of creation ; they form, as it 
were, a bond uniting the vertebrate to invertebrate animals. They have 
2 q 2 ' 
