OF FTSHES IN GENERAL. 
51 
to the ftrong impulfe of hunger, become plunderers 
in their turn, and revenge the injuries committed on 
their kind, by deftroying the fpawn of the larger fiAies, 
which they find floating upon the furface of the water *. 
Even there, however, they often meet with that violence 
which their own hofttlity merits ; for the oyftcr, the 
fallop, and the mufcle, lie in ambuih at the bottom, with 
their Ihells open ; and, whatever little fiih inadvertently 
comes into contaft, they inftantly clofe their Ihells upon 
»t, and, at their leifure, devour it in the concealed man- 
lions of a prifon, from which there is no poffibility of 
efcape. 
In what manner digeftion is carried on, to fuch an 
amazing extent and rapidity, in the flomachs of fifties, no 
inquiries of naturalifts have yet been able to afcertain. 
K we were to judge from their fubftancc or heat, we 
would be led to conclude, that the digeftive powers of 
thefe annuals are feeble and imperfect ; where*, they 
appear fo far to exceed every thing that can be efFefted, 
either by trituration, the operation of heat, or of a dif, 
folving fluid, that a celebrated phyfician, after various 
experiments, has been of opinion, that none of thefe 
Caufes is equal to the efFeftf; and that the power of 
d'geftion, in the cold maw of filhes, is fo great, as to 
rturn thofe fyftems, that have attempted to account 
-or it on thefe principles. 
with ^° Wtr5 affimulation in filhes, feem to increafe 
A uil- ^ Ua > nt * t 7 0i food with which they are fupplied. 
V erv fed, can be habituated to fubfift on 
power o( n ° Unihment > lf fu % fupplied, it acquires the 
The digeflCr" 8 *“ hundred _ roaches in three days. 
g power of filhes, is as extraordinary, as 
their 
* Goldfmith, Nat. Hift. vo!, vi . 
t Dr< Hunter. 
