and although even of those whom "the curiosity and wants of mankind have drawn from their depths," he states that "their pursuits, migrations, societies, antipathies, and pleasures are all hidden in the turbulent element that protects them ;"* yet this proper recollection of our very superficial knowledge of this interesting class of creatures has not saved them from his promiscuous invectives. But many of his remarks on natural history show very hasty and imperfect reasoning: and to prevent your mind from being misled into erroneous notions concerning them, a few circumstances shall be submitted to your consideration in the next Letter, which may incline you to believe that fishes are not such a despicable and disgraceful anomaly in creation as they appear to be in these discoloured and exaggerated caricatures. You will find, that while as a whole they greatly resemble the other departments of the animal kingdom, both in faculties and qualities, they seem to possess some advantages which might make them even happier, but that individual comfort in all the races of sentient beings has been most carefully and universally provided for. This is the law of the formation of all, though the contingencies arising from the external action of other things occasionally and unavoidably cause among them, as among the other classes of nature, disturbing exceptions. We must be wholly insulated from every other being to be entirely free from any exterior agency; yet, who would desire to be a lone hermit in creation, to avoid the pains which fellowcreatures sometimes produce?†

* Golds. p. 411, 412.

† The growth of fish is very gradual in some. A carp is, in the first year, the size of a willow-leaf; in the next, four inches; in the three following years they grow one inch in each; and after five, they increase in the next three years according to the nature of their pond.-Ib. 539.

As to sea-fish, fishermen allege that they must be six years old before they are of a fit size for the table. A mackerel in the first year is of the size of a finger, which it doubles in the second; in the two next years it enlarges, but without melt or roe. Between five and six, it is of the length we eat. The turbot and barbel are in the first year like a crownpiece; in the second, will cover the palm of the hand, and between five and six, are fit to be dressed.-Duhamel, Tr. Peches. p. 100.

LETTER IX.

The Forms and Colours of Fishes-Their general Character-Voices of some-Their Serenity and habitual Comfort.

THE fishes which are most abundant and most frequent in our sight have pleasing forms. Some are more picturesque than beautiful. Occasionally we find grotesque ones; and a few with that structure and look which are called deformity. But what we deem ugliness in nature is very often rather contrast and peculiarity, than absolute defect. We know nothing of beauty and elegance but from the figures, colours, movements, arrangements, and appearances of created things. These are purposely so constructed and diversified by their great Author; and there is such a profusion of what excites feelings of pleasure and admiration within us, that we consider as inferior, and we depreciate or dislike, whatever is of a dissimilar or opposite nature. If the more attractive objects had not been in existence, and known to us, we should have admired and valued what now, from the comparison, is considered deformity, and becomes our aversion.

But, exclusive of figure, the largest number of the fish tribes are very agreeable objects to our sight; and many eminently beautiful in their colours, and in the general appearance of their neat and glossy skin and scales. Though dwelling in a watery medium, yet the marvellous light,

The sea bat of Edwards, and the horned fish of Willughby, are of this sort. The latter has no spinal or other hone, but is covered with a thick and strong horney case. The Brazilian guaperva, which may be seen in the "Planches Enluminées," has a strange figure, of a dull red colour. The sea unicorn, monodon monoceros, seventeen feet long, with a horn resembling ivory, protruding seventeen feet farther, and having a skin like polished marble, is a picturesque animal, not unpleasing.

f The frogfish, or common angler, piscatorius lophius, called also the sea devil, resembles the tadpole of a frog or toad, but enlarged to the size of four or five feet. The hammer-headed shark and the sea porcupine may be deemed ugly, or only grotesque, according as our imagination inclines to estimate them.

from whose component rays all beauty of colour and splen dour proceed, often richly combines its adorning beams in their exterior surface; and emanates from them, by some inexplicable process, its softest and sweetest brilliance. Our commonest fish are often highly pleasing.* Several have a golden hue or spots, difficult to account for ;t and many, a silvery gloss, as though particles of these two metals were diffused among their skin.‡ Others display a fine tinge of blue. Some, very pleasing tints of green.

"There is not one that exceeds the mackerel in the brilliancy of its colours, or in the elegance of its shape. The fine deep blue upon the back is crossed by many black streaks, and accompanied by a tinge of green, which varies as the fish changes its position. The bright silver colour of the abdomen, and the varying tinge of gold green which runs along the sides, are eminently beautiful in this species; but are only to be seen to perfection when it is first taken out of the water, as death impairs the colours."-Wood's Zoography, vol. ii. p. 170.

The hippuris coryphaena, six feet long, in the Mediterranean, is seagreen, spotted with orange. When alive in the water, it has a fine golden splendour, which vanishes when dead.-p. 741. The plumieri, of the same genus, is golden on the sides and silvery beneath; the upper part brown, with blue curved lines.p. 742. The auratus scomber of Japan is a fine gold colour.-p. 825. The Arabian speciosus, of the same genus, is a pale golden. p. 826... The paru of South America, is a gold colour on his back, with a silvery belly.-p. 716. The John Dorée has the name from its resplendency; it seems as if it were gilt.-p. 760. The auratus sparus has a semilunar gold spot between its eyes, which oucasions it to be called "gilt-head."--p. 783.

The fasciolata coryphaena is a beautiful fish, milk white, with a silvery hue. The velifera, near Southern India, is as silvery, as to colour. The rupertus, round Greenland, has a silvery body.-T. Linn. p. 743, 744...The polynemus, of the Nile, is covered with scales of a brilliant silver colour, like spangles lying close together.-Shaw, Nat. Mis..... The Arabian ferdau scomber is silvery, with golden dots at the sides; another is shining silvery without the spots.-p 826. The body of the trichiurus is entirely silvery.-p. 712. The two species of the controgastor are silvery-p. 829. The Indian kurtus appears as if covered with silver scales. p. 737. The striped surmullet has silvery scales, streaked with tawney. p. 830. The stylophorus has a rich silvery body.-p. 718. Many others display the hue of this pleasing metal. The air bladder of the sphyraena argentina appears as if it were covered with silver leaf. It is used in manufacturing artificial pearls.-p. 863.

The glaucus squalus displays a fine blue in the upper part of his long body, and a silvery white below. -T. Linn. 919. It is peculiar to the shark to shine by night. An Arabian species of the scomber is of a shirung pale blue body, with golden spots at the sides.-825. The thanny is a steel blue above, and silvery in his body.-825. The perca punctulata is dotted with blue.-815.

The collas scomber, of Sardinia, has a body varied with fine green and blue.--824. The perca volgensis is a green gold colour.-816. The scarus viridis is green.-792. The kingfish luna, off the coast of Nor

Delicate gradations or diffusions of other colours make other species interesting to us.* The effect of the whole is, that the general appearance of the fish creation, in their forms, colours, brilliancy, gliding movement, rapid and changeful activity, and universal animation and vigour, excites sentiments of pleasure and admiration in every fair and free mind that beholds them, in their free and spontaneous motions, in their native element. To us-with the exception of a few, principally the shark tribe-they are wholly inoffensive, as even sharks are in some places. None of them leave their element to attack us. Not many, even in their own domain, would molest us; but all, even the most hostile, remain there, helpless and indefensible against our power, however great their magnitude may be. All are at our mercy. The fiercest cannot long resist our means of annoyance. We kill and take what we please. None can either master or escape us. The Divine command,

mandy, is the most rich and splendid in its colour of all European fish; its body is beautifully green and red, or purple, with oval white spots.760. The angelfish and lunulated gilt head have a pleasing green tint. In the hirundo trigla, its pectoral fins are a pale green, edged and spotted with a rich blue, while its body is, above, a greenish brown, and below silvery, with sides tinged with red.-833. The labrus viridis is green, with a blue line on each side.....The L. pavo's body is varied with green, blue, and blood-red-both Mediterranean fishes.-p. 797, 794....The nox viridis, of Carolina, is green.-859.

The labrus trimaculatus is red, with three large spots; so is the L. variegatus, with four olive stripes and four blue ones.--800. Others display the red colour. The hamrur sciæna, red with a copper gloss. The S. bohar, reddish, with white dots; and the S. rubra, dusky red, and beneath white.-804, 805. The perca miniata is scarlet, with blue dots. -816. The cuculus trigla is red above, dotted with black, and silvery beneath.-833. The surmullet, when deprived of his scales, is found to have a red body. Nothing is more beautiful than the colour of this fish when dying. It was esteemed such a delicacy by the Romans, that it was often bought for its weight in pure silver.-p. 830. Of other colours, the labrus coquus is purple and dark blue above, and yellow below. The L. mixtus is variegated with yellow and blue. The L. cynedus is a pale yellow, with a purple back. The L. varius is diversified with purple, green, blue, and black.-803. The sciena fulvi flammus is yellowish, with golden stripes; and the L. kasmira yellowish, with four large blue stripes on each side. p. 804. Many pleasing combinations of colour might be thus enumerated.

No fish seems fiercer or more dangerous than a shark, yet a single negro, with only a sharp knife, will sometimes voluntarily attack it. The animal must turn on its side to give the fatal gripe, and while he is making this motion, the courageous black dives beneath and stabs him in his belly, repeating the blows till the creature becomes his victim.--Golda Nat. Hist. vol. iii. p. 475.

that man "should have dominion over the fish of the sea," has been unceasingly fulfilled in all parts of the world and in every generation, both of their races and of our own.*

The general character of fish is not that of voracity and hostility. It is gentleness, harmlessness, sociality, and animation. They are peaceful animals; happy in themselves, and for the most part harmonizing together, without any general display of savage cruelty or malignant passions. Such as are appointed to be the food of others die in that way, and are sought and taken for that purpose, when the appetite actuates, but no further. But they cannot be justly stigmatized as voracious for this habit, more than ourselves for taking and eating them and cattle, sheep, fowls, game, venison, and other living creatures. We are carnivorous, but not voracious. We kill and cook the animals we feed on, but we have no malice, or ill-will, or hostility in such action or diet, any more than in plucking the apple, grinding the corn, or boiling the potato. It is therefore unjust to impute peculiar voracity and destructiveness to these tribes, because some feed on smaller fish, and others on the mollusca, worms, and insects that they find. These latter animals appear to be as specially provided for such as use them, as slugs and caterpillars are for birds, and grass for cattle; for, at particular seasons, the ocean is made to swarm with them, for no other visible purpose than that the fish may derive nutrition from them. The mollusca, which supply so many of the natives of the sea with their subsistence, are therefore endowed with a power of multiplication which, as in several other cases, astonishes us by its amount. It is the abun

Even the shark seems not habitually or willingly to attack the human race; for Captain Portlock mentions that he saw five or six large sharks swimming about the ship at a time when a hundred Indians, male and female, were in the water: they never offered to molest these people, though they seized greedily the bait thrown to them by the sariors; nor did the islanders show any fear at the presence of the sharks.-Portl. and Dixon's Voy. to South Seas. Wood, p. 225.

↑ Mr. Thompson has brought to our notice the genus mysis, one of the small crustaceous tribes, scarcely an inch in length. Though hitherto almost unknown to naturalists, it is in extreme abundance in the north seas. They appear in spring and summer in masses so immense as to cover the ocean to a great extent.-They are then the chief food to the large whales and other fish.-Thomps. Zoolog. Researches, No. 1, 1828.

"The fecundity of these mollusques acephales surpasses all belief. Pfeiffer found, by an artificial calculation, 400,000 young coquilles con