Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAP. I

Of the Division of Shell Fish.

IN describing the inhabitants of the water, a class of animals occur, that mankind, from the place of their residence, have been content to call fish; but that naturalists, from their formation, have justly agreed to be unworthy of the name. Indeed, the affinity many of this kind bear to the insect tribe, may very well plead for the historian who ranks them rather as insects. However, the common

language of a country must not be slightly invaded; the names of things may remain, if the philosopher be careful to give precision to our ideas of them.

There are two classes of animals, therefore, inhabiting the water, which commonly receive the name of fishes, entirely different from those we have been describing, and also very distinct from each other. These are divided by naturalists into Crustaceous and Testaceous animals; both, totally unlike fishes to appearance, seem to invert the order of nature; and as those have their bones on the inside, and their muscles hung upon them for the purposes of life and motion, these, on the contrary, have all their bony parts on the outside, and all their muscles within. Not to talk mysteriously -all who have seen a lobster or an oyster, perceive that the shell in these bears a strong analogy to the

[blocks in formation]

bones of other animals; and that, by these shells, the animal is sustained and defended.

Crustaceous fish, such as the crab and the lobster, have a shell, not quite of a stony hardness, but rather resembling a firm crust, and in some measure capable of yielding. Testaceous fishes, such as the oyster or cockle, are furnished with a shell of a stony hardness; very brittle, and incapable of yielding. Of the crustaceous kinds are the Lobster, the Crab, and the Tortoise; of the testaceous, that numerous tribe of Oysters, Muscles, Cockles, and Sea Snails, which offer with infinite variety.

The crustaceous tribe seem to hold the middle rank between fishes, properly so called, and those snail-like animals that receive the name of testaceous fishes. Their muscles are strong and firm, as in the former; their shell is self-produced, as among the latter. They have motion, and hunt for food with great avidity, like the former. They are incapable of swimming, but creep along the bottom, like the latter in short, they form the link that unites these two classes, that seem so very opposite in their

natores.

Of testaceous fishes we will speak hereafter. As to animals of the crustaceous kind, they are very numerous, their figure offers a hundred varieties: but as to their nature, they are obviously divided into two very distinct kinds, differing in their habits and their conformation. The chief of one kind is the Lobster; the chief of the other, the Tortoise. Under the Lobster we rank the Prawn, the Cray Fish, the Shrimp, the Sea Crab, the Land Crab, and all their varieties. Under the Sea Tortoise, the

Turtle, the Hawksbill Turtle, the Land Tortoise, and their numerous varieties.

CHAP. II.

Crustaceous Animals of the Lobster Kind.

HOWEVER different in figure the Lobster and the Crab may seem, their manners and conformation are nearly the same. With all the voracious appetites of fishes, they are condemned to lead an insect life at the bottom of the water; and though pressed by continual hunger, they are often obliged to wait till accident brings them their prey. Though without any warmth in their bodies, or even without red blood circulating through their veins, they are animals wonderfully voracious. Whatever they seize upon that has life, is sure to perish, though never so well defended; they even devour each other and, to increase our surprise still more, they may, in some measure, be said to eat themselves; as they change their shell and their stomach every year, and their old stomach is generally the first morsel that serves to glut the new.*

The Lobster is an animal of so extraordinary a form, that those who first see it are apt to mistake

[* That Lobsters and Crabs change their stomachs annually, does not appear to have been ascertained as a fact: but at this time, those calcareous concretions, known in the shops by the name of Crab's eyes, are found in their stomachs.]

The two great claws

the head for the tail; but it is soon discovered that the animal moves with its claws foremost; and that the part which plays within itself by joints, like a coat of armour, is the tail. are the lobster's instruments of provision and defence; these, by opening like a pair of nippers, have great strength, and take a firm hold; they are usually notched like a saw, which still more increases their tenacity. Beside these powerful instruments, which may be considered as arms, the lobster has eight legs, four on each side; and these, with the tail, serve to give the animal its progressive and sideling motion. Between the two claws is the animal's head, very small, and furnished with eyes that seem like two black horny specks on each side; and these it has a power of advancing out of the socket, and drawing in at pleasure. The mouth, like that of insects, opens the long way of the body; not crossways as with man, and the higher race of animals. It is furnished with two teeth for the comminution of its food; but as these are not sufficient, it has three more in the stomach; one on each side and the other below. Between the two teeth there is a fleshy substance, in the shape of a tongue. The intestines consist of one long bowel, which reaches from the mouth to the vent; but what this animal differs in from all others, is, that the spinal marrow is in the breast-bone. It is "furnished with two long feelers or horns that issue on each side of the head, that seem to correct the dimness of its sight, and apprize the animal of its danger, or of its prey. The tail, or that jointed instrument at the other end, is the grand instrument of motion; and with this it can raise itself in the

water. Under this we usually see lodged the spawn in great abundance; every pea adhering to the next by a very fine filament, which is scarcely perceivable. Every lobster is an hermaphrodite, and is supposed to be self-impregnated!* The ovary, or place where the spawn is first produced, is backwards, toward. the tail, where a red substance is always found, and which is nothing but a cluster of peas, that are yet too small for exclusion. From this receptacle there go two canals, that open on each side at the jointures of the shell, at the belly; and through these passages the peas descend to be excluded, and placed under the tail, where the animal preserves them from danger for some time, until they come to maturity; when, being furnished with limbs and motion, they drop off into the water.

When the young lobsters leave the parent, they immediately seek for refuge in the smallest clefts of rocks, and in such-like crevices at the bottom of the sea, where the entrance is but small, and the opening can be easily defended. There, without seeming to take any food, they grow larger in a few weeks time, from the mere accidental substances which the water washes to their retreats. By this time also they acquire a hard, firm shell, which furnishes them with both offensive and defensive armour. They then begin to issue from their fortresses, and boldly creep along the bottom, in hopes of meeting with more diminutive plunder. The spawn of fish, the smaller animals of their own kind,

[* The animals of this tribe are by no means hermaphrodites, but are found distinctly male and female. The eggs are deposited under the tail of the females, which for that purpose is often much broader than that of the males.]

« PreviousContinue »