590 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
a more complicated organization than the other oceanic inhabitants, 
as they are also the most numerous, the most varied in form, and 
by far the most brilliant in colour, and the most active in their 
movements. 
Pliny, the naturalist, describes ninety-four species of fishes. Lin- 
naeus has characterised four hundred and seventy-eight. The natu- 
ralists of the present day know upwards of thirteen thousand, a tenth 
of which are fresli-water fishes. 
