gers approached their watery habitation, they used to come to the shore in such numbers as to heave cach other out of the water, begging for bread, of which a quantity was always kept at hand on purpose to feed them. They would even allow themselves to be handled."-Sir John Hawkins was assured by a clergyman, a friend of his, that at the abbey of St. Bernard, near Antwerp, he saw a Carp come to the edge of its pond, at the whistling of the person who fed it.

Carp are very long-lived: the pond in the garden of Emanuel College, Cambridge, contained a Carp, that had been an inhabitant more than seventy years; and Gesner has mentioned an instance of one that was an hundred years old. They are also extremely tenacious of life, and will live for a great length of time out of water. An experiment has been made by placing a Carp in a net, well wrapped up in wet moss, (the mouth only remaining out,) and then hang. ing it up in a cellar or some cool place. fish in this situation is to be frequently fed with white bread and milk, and is besides to be often plunged in water. Carp, thus managed, have been known, not only to live above a fortnight, but to have grown exceedingly fat, and become far superior in taste to those immediately taken from the pond.

The

These fish were first introduced into this country, about three hundred years ago. Of their sound or air-bladder, a kind of fish-glue is made: and a green paint of their gall.

THE MUSCLE.

THE Muscle is well known, whether belonging to fresh or salt-water: it consists of two equal shells, joined at the back by a strong muscular ligament that answers all the purposes of a hinge. By the elastic contraction of these, the animal can open its shells at pleasure, about a quarter of an inch from each other. The fish is fixed to either shell by four tendons, by means of which, it shuts them close, and keeps its body firm from being crushed by any shock against the walls of its own habitation.

The muscle produces in great numbers, as all bivalved shell-fish are found to do. The fecundity of the snail kind is trifling in comparison to the fertility of these. Indeed it may be asserted as a general rule in nature, that the more helpless and contemptible the animal, the more prolific it is always found. Thus, all creatures, that are incapable of resisting the various accidents to which they are exposed, have nothing but their quick multiplication, for the continuation of their

kind.

The multitude of these animals, in some places, is very great; but, from their defenceless state, the number of their destroyers is in equal proportion. The crab, the cray-fish, and many other animals, are seen to devour them; but the trochus is their most formidable enemy. When

their shells are found deserted, if we then observe closely, it is most probable we shall find that the trochus has been at work in piercing them. There is scarcely one of them without a hole in it; and this probably was the avenue by which the enemy entered to destroy the inhabitant.

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But notwithstanding the number of this creature's animated enemies, it seems still more fearful of the agitations of the element in which it resides; for if dashed against rocks, or thrown far on the beach, it is destroyed without a power of redress. In order to guard against these, which are to this animal the commonest and the most fatal accidents, although it has a power of slow motion, which shall be presently described, yet it endeavours to become stationary, and to attach itself to any fixed object it happens to be near. For this purpose, it is furnished with a very singular capacity of binding itself by a number of threads to whatever object it approaches; sometimes, indeed, for want of such an object, these animals are found united to each other; and though thrown into a lake separately, they are taken out in bunches of many together.

To have some fixed resting place, where the muscle can continue, and take in all its accidental food, seems the state that this animal chiefly desires. Its instrument of motion, by which it contrives to reach the object it wants to bind itself to, is that muscular substance re

sembling a tongue, which is found long in proportion to the size of the muscle. In some, it is two inches long, in others, not a third part of these dimensions. This the animal has a power of thrusting out of its shell; and with this, it is capable of making a slight furrow in the sand at the bottom. By means of this furrow, it can erect itself upon the edge of its shell; and thus continuing to make the furrow, in proportion as it goes forward, it reaches out its tongue that answers the purpose of an arm, and thus carries its shell edge-ways, as in a groove, until it reaches the point intended. There, where it determines to take up its residence, it fixes the ends of its beard, which are glutinous, to the rock or the object, whatever it be; and thus like a ship at anchor, braves all the agitations of the water. Sometimes the animal is attached by a large number of threads; sometimes but by three or four, that seem scarcely able to retain it. When the muscle is fixed in this manner, it lives upon the little earthy particles that the water transports to its shells, and perhaps the flesh of the most diminutive animals. However, it does not fail to grow considerably; and some of this kind have been found a foot long. Some of the beards are a foot and an half long; and of this substance, the natives of Palermo, sometimes make gloves and stockings.

These shell-fish are found in lakes, rivers, and in the sea. Those of the lake often grow

to a very large size; but they seem a solitary animal, and are found generally separate from each other. Those of rivers are not so large, but yet in greater abundance; but the sea muscle of all others is perhaps the most plenty. These are often bred artificially in salt water marshes, that are overflowed by the tide; the fishermen throwing them in at the proper seasons; and there, being undisturbed by the agitations of the sea, and not preyed upon by their powerful enemies at the bottom, they cast their eggs, which soon become perfect animals, and these are generally found in clusters of several dozen together. It requires a year for the peopling a muscle-bed; so that, if the number consists of forty thousand, a tenth part may be annually left for the peopling of the bed anew. Muscles are taken from their beds from the month of July to October; and they are sold at a very moderate price.

THE Oyster, with the shape and appearance of which, almost every one is acquainted, is utterly unable to change its situation. The muscle, as we have observed, is capable of erecting itself on an edge, and going forward with a slow laborious motion. The oyster is wholly passive, and endeavours by all its powers to rest fixed to one