The Aquarium (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Aquarium<br><br>The most modern, best equipt fish is a short-bodied animal, pointed in front and behind, more or less flattened from side to side, with fins which propel it and direct and check its motion through the water. It has a firm skeleton of bone, and sharp erectile spines on the back and in some of the fins protect it from its neighbors. Its body is covered with thin, plate-like, overlapping scales which give a firm surface to press against the water.<br><br>The blue angel fish is just such a modern species. If we examine some of the many kinds of fishes which swarm in the ponds, streams and seas of the world, we will find that a great part, but not all, of them come up to this standard. The sharks and dogfish lack the bony skeleton and covering of scales, the dace and goldfish have not the spiny fins and are sometimes pushed to the wall (of the aquarium) by sunfish, which have.<br><br>A study of the past history of fishes, as recorded in those which are preserved as fossils in the rocks, shows that the less well equipt kinds came before the better equipt ones and are, in a sense, old fashioned. Old fashioned species are sometimes remarkable tough, however. If a mixed lot of fished be hauled up in a net from rather deep water, many will lie at the surface dying or helpless, the change in pressure having caused their stomachs to pop out of their mouths, or otherwise damaged them. But the dogfish will squirm and snap on deck, and if thrown overboard, promptly start to swim down again, little worse for wear.<br><br>The zone where most species of fishes are to be found is along the shore. Further down under the depths of the ocean, or out over its surface, or up the rivers into fresh water, there is less variety of fish life. Fishes are also fewer in the colder water toward the poles than along tropical shores where the coral reefs harbor innumerable varieties.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.