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VIOLET CRABS ON THEIR INLAND ROUTE.

pensating contrivance to fit them for the circumstances in which he decreed to place them."

The Perca scandens is not the only kind of fish which ascends trees in search of food. Several species are found in the Polynesian Islands, climbing the cocoa-palms; the most remarkable of them is a kind of lobster of gigantic size, and of strength sufficient to open the cocoa-nuts, upon which it chiefly subsists.

Nor are these the only instances of the inhabitants of the waters forsaking their native element. Several varieties of fish in the Indian Ocean, and in the Mediterranean, are

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peculiarities, it has the power of folding | adapted for a short flight, and these pecu

up both dorsal and anal fins when not using them, and thus it literally puts its hands in its pockets; for it deposits them in a cavity in its body, provided by nature on purpose to receive them when they are not needed for progression. Nor are these pockets, or troughs, peculiar to the climbing perch; the land crabs also possess them. With respect to the latter, anatomists were formerly puzzled to account for the fact of animals whose mode of respiration is by gills, being able to exist so long as they do out of the water, without injury to those organs; but a French naturalist first, and afterward Milne Edwards, discovered a cavity, or trough, in which a small quantity of water is kept in order to moisten their gills occasionally. The Gecarcinus uca, one species of this tribe, has more than one pocket or vesicle for that purpose; another species, the orypode, has a different, but equally curious apparatus, a small-spongy substance, by means of which the animal is supplied with the moisture required. The reason of this remarkable adaptation is fraught with interest and instruction; and it is a beautiful example of the unbroken order and exquisite harmony which pervade all the works of the divine Author of the universe. Kirby remarks that God, when he created these tribes, "would not separate them from their kind by giving them a different mode of respiration, but provided this com

liarities of habit and movement are highly interesting, even were they devoid of gracefulness; for they are examples of a contrivance which displays the goodness of the Creator, in furnishing them with the means of providing for themselves amid the accidents and difficulties that may fall to their lot.

It has been asserted that fish are quite deaf; but though they have no external organ of hearing, they are by no means deficient in this sense; and their faculty of smelling is so wonderful, that they are guided by it through storm and darkness and directed to their prey, or warned to escape from their enemies, at an immense distance. Lacepede considers this 80 much the most acute of their senses, that he calls it their "most valuable eye."

Fishes have the character of being re

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BRIGUS LATRO ON A COCOA-NUT PALM BRANCH.

markably stupid, and yet they are not wholly incapable of instruction. In many parts of Germany, the trout, carp, and tench are summoned to their food by the sound of a bell; and in the gardens of the Tuileries some fish were kept for more than a century, which would come when they were called by their names. Neither are they as wholly deficient in parental instinct as has generally been supposed. Two species of fish in Brazil, one the callicthys before mentioned, the other called doras. construct actual nests, the former of grass, the latter of leaves, in which they deposit their eggs, covering them very carefully. They live in pairs, and, like birds, watch and defend their nests by turns, till their young are hatched and able to take care of themselves.

A similar instinct is exhibited by a fish resembling the turbot, Osphromenus olfax,

which is kept for food in ponds in the Mauritius. After making their nest, and laying their eggs, the male and female hatch and watch their infant offspring by turns.

Emperor Frederic II. It weighed three hundred and fifty pounds. Knowing the predaceous and remorseless habits of this fresh-water shark, we may feel assured it was a monster of rapacity, and no doubt the scourge and terror of the pond in which it reigned as tyrant. The existence of such relentless destroyers is, however, of absolute necessity, to check the redundant increase of the finny tribes; for the cod alone produces more than nine millions of eggs in the year; and if neither man nor shark made it their food, the sea would in a short time contain nothing but codfish. It has, therefore, been wisely ordained that the larger species should swallow the small fry by hundreds at a time; they, in turn, feed upon their minuter brethren, and even the herbivorous ones breakfast upon the eggs of fishes.

The quiet and seclusion of a pond, or some such retreat, are indispensable to the development of this parental instinct, and, accordingly, the inhabitants of the great world of waters exhibit no traces of it.

The longevity of fish is another remarkable circumstance, considered with regard to their constant exposure to injury, and the soft, defenseless nature of their conformation.

In the year 1754, an old pike was taken in a pond belonging to the castle of Kaiserslantern, which had a ring in its gill, with an inscription stating that it had been put there in 1487, two hundred and sixty-seven years before, by order of the

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The adaptation of fishes to the circumstances in which they are placed, affords a most interesting subject of inquiry; their varieties of form appear inexhaustible, and it is thought that the sea contains the analogues of almost every aërial or terrestrial race. The monsters of the deep are undoubtedly more gigantic and grotesque than any of their representatives on the land. Among the former, the whale, though not a fish, claims preeminence as regards magnitude. Its value and usefulness, in a commercial point of view, are so well known, that we are apt to forget how wonderful it is, that even the huge leviathan should be subservient to man, ministering in various ways to his comfort and luxury.

Among marine giants, we must not overlook the sun-fish, or mola, with its enor

mous phosphorescent carcass, shining with a brightness like the reflection of the moon in the water, and measuring twenty-five feet in length. Imagine a party of them (they generally travel five or six together) on a dark moonless night, frightening the rest of the fish, scaring the superstitious sailor, and astonishing even the veteran naturalist who has left off being surprised at anything.

Next in bulk comes the "requin," which is thought to be identical with the carcharias of the Greeks, mistranslated the "whale" in the history of Jonah.

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The next in size is the "Squalus maximus," sometimes more than forty feet in length, to say nothing of the enormous ray-fish, one of which, taken at Barbadoes, required seven | ience; we shall then begin to have some pairs of oxen to draw it on shore.

The sailors call it the sea-devil, and naturalists describe it as frightful. But all these are "gentle monsters" compared with the horrible and terrific octopods, the hideousness of which far surpasses anything that imagination could have pictured, and which one would be sorry to meet by moonlight, or in a dark night, in the Mediterranean.

idea how inexhaustible is the interest of the subject; and, when we consider how wonderful are the works of the Almighty Creator, shall be constrained to exclaim, " In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches;" to which we well may add, "So is the great and wide SEA also!"

But if we are tired of considering mere bulk and deformity, let us turn for variety

PEARLY OYSTER.

to the "treasures of the deep," to the beautiful tribe of shells, to the pearl oysters, the corallines, the sea-flowers, and the ocean-beds of weeds on which the gregarious fishes graze like land animals in their pastures. Let us contemplate the connecting links between animal and vegetable life; let us consider the electric fishes, from the torpedo and gymnotus down to the aquatic stars which beautify the nights of tropical climates; let us admire the migratory instinct, which, at their appointed seasons, collects such vast numbers of edible fish, and brings them within the reach of man, for his food or conven

THE SUN FISH.

THE WILLOW.

"Tongues in trees-books in the running brooks."-SHAKSPEARE.
THE Willow grows beside the River,

And the boughs hang o'er its flow,
Till the green leaves, as they quiver,
Kiss the waves that run below.
The River whispers to the Willow

With a sad, mysterious tone,
As the bubbles of each billow

Gurgling break on bank and stone.
What saith the River as it glistens

In the sun-glints through the tree,
While the bough stoops down and listens
To its plaintive melody?
"Like my waters, life is flying-

Brightest joys have shortest stay-
As my waves speed onward sighing,

With thy kisses far away:
"Human hopes are like the bubbles

Swoln and glittering on my tide,
Till the rocks, like earthly troubles,

Meet and wreck them as they glide."
High o'er Willow, high o'er River,

Soars a Lark in airy rings,
While his voice trills to the quiver
Of his sun-illumined wings.
And the ether-vault is riven

With his glad song, as he flies-
"Seek, like me, thy joys in heaven,

And thy hopes within the skies."

[For the National Magazine.] UNCLE JERRY'S GHOST.

SMITH

[CONCLUDED.]

firmed that opinion. The reader shall judge.

After a few minutes of apparent conversation with a large black tom-cat, which sat upon a high chair by her side, and while shuffling and cutting a greasy pack of cards, she muttered in what was meant for broken French, but which I will not attempt to imitate:

"Yes, yes, a widower! Wife dead; let me see, three, four years, or else three years and four months. Wanting another partner. Rich? Yes-nine of diamonds

MITH'S dream, as the reader may suppose, tended somewhat to confirm me in the truth of the revelation I had received. Taken in connection with those of my wife and my little daughter, I confess it troubled me. The twenty thousand dollars especially seemed to indicate truthfulness on the part of the raps I had heard. The journey by electric telegraph was also, to say the least, a wonderful coinci--very rich.” dence. And yet I had doubts. Some- "How much is she worth?" I asked, thing more than all this was necessary to rather amused at the absurdity of the dispel my skepticism. Fortunately, or revelation. unfortunately if the reader prefers, while reading the morning paper my eye fell upon the advertisement of Madame Caraboni, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. She professed to read the future; to tell whom the applicant would marry, and even to show the face of the intended wife or husband. Of course, being married, I cared nothing about her skill in this line. She added, also, that she had power to foretell all matters relative to deaths and pecuniary speculations, assuring the reader that many persons had made fortunes by attending to her prognostications.

Now, said I, am I such a fool as to put any faith in the skill of this miserable impostor? To think of visiting such a hag! I will not do it. And yet I might call upon her just on the edge of the evening. She promises the most profound secresy. Who will be the wiser for my visit? On an ordinary occasion, of course, I would not go a step out of my way to gain all the knowledge that Madame Caraboni pretends to possess. But now, with my mind distracted between faith and unbelief, on a subject that so nearly concerns my own interests and those of my family, ought I not to avail myself of everything in my power to produce conviction one way or the other? But I will not dwell upon the logic or the sophistry that danced through my brain all that day, and prevented me from attending properly to any business. Nor need I attempt to describe how contemptibly mean I felt when, having paid my dollar, I was shown into the room of this pretended revealer of secrets. I was satisfied before I went that she was an impostor, and all that she told me con

"How much? Let me see. Clubs, houses; seven of spades, Jack too, ten thousand, twenty thousand dollars!"

This startled me; but in a moment I regained my composure, and asked: "Is that all? "Let me see; "More? Yes. twice as much. hearts, hearts. than a month.

Only twenty thousand ?" let me see," she replied. Maybe more. Maybe

Soon, too. Hearts, In a few weeks. Less Happy man, happy man!" There was much more gibberish of the same sort; but I have told all that is material, and I went home profoundly impressed with the idea that I had been humbugged.

At our tea-table I found that most troublesome fellow, Sykes, or, as he styles himself, T. Jefferson Sykes. I supposed, of course, that he had come to borrow money, or to ask my assistance in getting out of some scrape, or to give him a note of recommendation for some vacant office, one or other of these objects being the usual inducement for favoring us with his presence at the tea-table. Sykes is one of that class of men with which I suppose everybody is familiar. My wife called him a hanger on. She never liked him; nor did I, for that matter; but he stuck to me like a leech. I had frequently said things which ought to have offended him, but without effecting that object, and he persisted in regarding me as the best friend he had in the world.

"Well," said I, "Sykes, what's wrong now ?"

"O, nothing wrong now; all right, right as a trivet. I thought I would just drop in and see if I could do anything for you in my line."

"Your line?" said I, laughing; "and family to throw away such a magnificent what may that be?"

With great complacency Sykes explained himself. Without any assistance from me, and, indeed, without my knowledge, he had obtained a situation likely to afford him a competent support. He was an agent for a newly-started Life Insurance Company, and received a per centage on the business which he brought into the concern. I am thus particular in this part of my narrative, not only because Sykes has an important part in it, but because one of the most villainous schemes that ever haunted any man's brain now began to torture me. This was to effect an insurance on the life of my uncle Jerry. And why not? Is there anything wrong in it? Something seemed to answer my question in the affirmative.. Jerry is dead, and you know it. The company is ignorant of that fact, or, of course, they would not insure for you on any terms. But then I do not know that my uncle is dead. I do not believe he is. Do I?

The company, Sykes said, would insure the life of any man in Alabama, or anywhere else, if they were satisfied he was living at the latest dates-for any length of time, and for any amount as high ashe was not quite sure on that point, but he thought for a figure as high as twenty thousand dollars!

What did Madame Caraboni say? Was it not that I should come into the possession of twenty thousand dollars in less than a month, and that I might make it twice as much if I pleased? Something like that, I think; but then she had also told me such absurdities about my being a widower in search of a second wife that I could not help thinking of the little lawLatin with which I was acquainted, falsa in uno, falsa in omnibus. But then could this maxim be applied to a case of this kind? Was it not the province of a reasonable man to separate what might be true from what was palpably false? Now here was apparently a plan by which, admitting that the raps had told the truth, I might come into possession of forty thousand dollars, and this, too, by a very small outlay, in the shape of a premium to the insurance company. Why not risk it? The original sum said to be mine by my uncle's will began to appear paltry in my eyes. It was only one half of what it might be. And then was it just to my

sum, or, what amounted to about the same thing, such a chance for securing it?

These thoughts tortured me, but, like a guilty thing, I kept them to myself, and even after Sykes had gone, and my wife and I were alone, I had not the courage to say anything to her upon the subject. The plain fact is, that, after all, I allowed my skepticism and my natural propensity to doubt so far to prevail, that I was even yet not more than half convinced that my uncle had really gone into the interior. I use that phrase because it had now become quite familiar. Of course, the money I was to receive as Jerry's heir did not appear to me quite as really my own as if it had been on deposit in the bank to my credit.

Early the next morning, in accordance with a determination which I had formed during the night, I called at the telegraph office in Wall - street, and found the obliging operator able, as he said, to send a dispatch to New-Orleans. It was simply an address to the landlord of the hotel at which my uncle, at the date of his last letter, made his home. I inquired, "Is he there? and what is the state of his health?"

The telegraphic communication between this city and New-Orleans was not as direct as it now is, and it was five o'clock in the afternoon before I received a reply. But O, what tormenting hours were those of that weary day! I will not trouble the reader with the perplexities in which my mind was entangled as in a net. They settled down in a wicked question, which haunted me a thousandfold worse than I ever supposed could be done by a real specter or a palpable ghost, for those were things the appearance of which I stubbornly refused to believe in. The question was this: Do I, or do I not wish that the revelation made to me may be true? Am I so far lost to all natural affection, to all that is good, as to hope that my kind old uncle, my best and dearest friend, who put me into business, who has loaned me money without asking interest-do I, do I hope that he is dead?

Merciful Heaven! I cried at length, no! I trust Jerry is alive, and will live many years. And as for his money-perish the thought that but it would certainly be a great help to me, and if he is dead, why there is no harm in knowing it. But here.

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