Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-02-24

=
5 so great is the variety that in small lake
ofwater we find endless varieties. while il
, Mainas, st the junction Of the Rio Negr,
/ with Amazon, / was lead toexamine on,
] particular little lake Of q very few hun
dred square yards in extent, with tb,
view of ascertaining how great that di
versity among fishes may be which oc
eupy circumseribed area, and in tina
) pool-for it is hardly anything more; i
: Il only few hundred square yards a
! high water-in that small lake / have
; fund in the course Of two months, dur
ing several excursions, over two hundred
T different kinds of fishes (applause)
three times as many as are known from
, the Mississippi, three times as many
as are Known from the Nile, OF
Senegal, or Ganges And the number
found in tue whole basin OF the Amazon
is not less than two thousand different
kinds-that is, ten times as many
as were known to Linn;eus about
a century ago, from the whole world.
Applause. And strange to say, il
would appear that in proportion as we
become acquainted with a large number
of these animals, they should be found
to resemble one another more and more
but on the contrary, such are the peeu-
liarities, such is the principle of their
differentiation which brings about the
differences we notice among them
that inproportion as | found a larger
number, l found that the difference
between them seemed to grow. And
! you will understand that. It seems par
/ adoxical, and yet il is strictly so. Con-
| cete for ? moment that We have. here
extreme points illustrating with dots on
4 The board between which there are cer-
I tain intermediate forms. Now suppose
| that this represents the varieties known
/ when | went to the AmazJn-the sum
total Of the fishes described by my prede-
eessors, including all the various expedi-
! ti0ns which had gone TO that country
/ with view of studying its natural pro-
| ductiOns-the total number Of fishes then
| known did not exceed $50, and the 6m-
ber have brought home exceeds 1900 it
approaches 1000. Applause. And yet
l say that now the differences which we
know to exist between them
| IS greater when We take any
two than the difference which ex-
isted between them when we knew
only $50. Every new one has exhibited
! tendencies, radiatiens, notifications in
| the direction of almost every other, so
| that the points Of contact have, as it
were, modified not only Ia point of re-
semblanees, but in point of differences,
in consequence of which the sum total
of difference which IL now known among
these 1000 fishes, far exceeds the ex-
treme differences which appeared when
only the few hundreds were known be-
fore. iApplausel. And now | should
like to give you some idea Of what are
these differences, aud what is the APP
pearance of some of these fishes, and Of
the mode in which they differ from the
fishes Of our own waters. In the first
place, the type Of sharks has emily
one representative in the Amazon
that is swordfish. The sword
fish is shark which diff
ferS from ordinary sharks in this, that
the skull is prolonged here. You
will see how by a modification of
the form OF some part we obtain widely
different forms. The sw0rd-tish Is a
shark, the snout OF which is prolonged to
a considerable extent, on the two sides of
which project large teeth, forming the
saw characteristic OF that genus. Now
the sword fish is the only kind OF shark
which is known to enter the large rivers.
1t is not properly an inhabitant Of the
river. 1t j. found on the sea shore, and
so is the same species found at the mouth
OF the Mississippi, and another species
found at the mouth of the Senegal, on
the other side of the Atlantic This
is the only representative of that
group of fishes we have seen in
the Amazon The lamper eel
type, Of which We have quite variety
throughout oar fresh water streams, 3-s
not a single representative in the wIf6le
basin Of the Amazon. It is entirely
foreign TO the tropical waters of the Am
azon, but it frequents the fresh waters of
America, of Europe and of Northern
Asia also. Next come the s:urgeons.
They are found in all the fresh waters OF
the northern world. They are common
in the rivers which empty into the Arc
tic ocean or the continents Of America,
of Europe and OF Asia. The great
rivers Of Asia TEEN with varieties of
surgeons from kamschatka to the Ural
mountains, and in our northern rivers
emptying into the Arctic ocean and
Baflin's bay they are equally nH-
msreEs, and they sye also found
in sOme Of the more southern
rivers OF the temperate zone, but
nowhere in the tropics are they
found. The sturgeon of the Mississippi
descenjs as far as New Orleans, but does
not enter the ocean, and this is the most
s0utherly point the sturgeon has been
known to visit. In Europe there has
been q variety Of tie sturgeon found in
the basin Of the Danube and the Black
sea, bat there are none In the Mediter-
ranesn. There are some found in the
Chinese rivers, but none are found in
those rivers which empty into the
Indian ocean or the Pacific, which
bathes the southern shore OF 4 sia, aud
none are found in the waters of South
America. But while that family is en-
fr..l-r ian fn A
America has what may be called rrure-
sentative fishes-that is, fishes which
ape the sturgeon, without assuming all
its characteristics. You have seen in the
figure / have made here of the stUrgeGp j
that it is characterized Gy the li4tness OF
its mouth, aud the position Of the mouth
underneath, and further, by the scales !
or rather the shales which cover their
body and which are arranged in five
rows tver the body, one row of large
shale4along the middle Of the hack, one
row on each side along the middle
line and one row on each side along
the lower line, and these shales are
bone, hard, and often cQForod with en-
amel Now, while we have no stur-
geOn in the Amazon, We have a variety
Of fish akin TO the sturgeon in some
respects-the same fiat head with the
mouth underneath and the hOdy covered
with shades, bat these shales Oecupy
either the whole body in various eombi-
nations, or form only some rows in
different arrangement from the sturgeon,
and all these fishes Of South America
differ from the sturgeon in havinga solid,
bony frame, instead Of . oartilaainous
one, which is characteristic Of the stur-
geon. / may draw one or two to give
YOU some idea OF them. In the first
place, the tail is not as symmetrical as it
is in the sturgeon; then, the mouth is
surrounded by broad happers, which
sometimes extend ike curtain from the
mouth, and the dorsal fin may be very
large. In sOmeOf them the anterior part
iSprolongad into a kind of width which
extends far beyond the general outline of
the fish, 1t may be, also, that some
times the upper lobe Of the tail is pro-
lOnged in this manner in the shape of a
whip, and then we have the position Of
the ventrsls and the pectoTals, as IN the
other. Now some af these tish have a
singular iGode OF taking care of their
young. There IS one species, which
grows two feet or more in length, which
laws its eggs in balls about the size of q
large egg. 1t lays in holes. Tie fish
itself burrows the holes in the banks,
suppose We have here a river bank, this
being tile low water level and this the
high water level. Between the low
water level aud the high water level you
can see, when the water is low, holes in
the bank, which extend horizontally into
the bank from two TO three feet, and
which, at the end, enlarge like funnel.
Here the fish comes to lay its eggs, and
during ihe time the young are develop
ing, the iish comes frequently and rests its
head over the young, surrounding them
with these happers Of the mouth, and
breathing, Is il were, fresh air over them
during the process Of heaYing aud sub
siding the gills. Others carry their
young rolled up in these curtains of the
giiis ia mass, tiedup, as It were, between
the folds Of the gill, and the young remain
in that way protected by these folds Of
the mouth, and are carried along until
they are ready 10 hatch. I have fire.
quently caught fish with Ua1se punches
Of eggs ia the folds of their lips. and /
have often raised some Of them aud been
able to trace the changes which they un-
dergo and which show one singular fea-
ture, that in their young condition the
tail end OF the body OF the young presents
exactly that singular inequality which
we have IN The shark, and which we have
in the sturgeon, and which, TO say it in