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THE STURGEON.

THIS fish is an inhabitant of the sea, though some of them go up the wider rivers to spawn. When full grown, they are seldom less than three or four feet long. They are considered to be excellent food. Their mouth lies quite under the head. They have, at the end of the mouth, four little tendrils, three or four inches long, which have very much the appearance of common earth worms. It is said that the stur

geon will hide his great body among the weeds, near the sea-coast, or at the mouths of large rivers, so that nothing will be seen but these tendrils, which other little fish will approach, believing them to be worms; they are then sucked into the jaws of this great fish.

This is a wonderful contrivance for the purpose of supporting this fish; for his principal food seems to be other fish, but as he has no teeth, he could not catch them in the usual way.

There are different sorts of sturgeous, all large, but not all equally so: we have said that they are seldom less, when full grown, than three or four feet long; but the common sturgeon is said sometimes to grow to the length of sixteen feet. He is armed, from head to tail, with five rows of large bony sort of projections, each of which ends in a strong tip, or point, turned backward, one of these is on the back, one on each side, and two on the margin of the belly. It has no jaws, but lives by suction, its mouth opening under the head, somewhat in the way of a purse.

When sturgeons leave the sea, in spring time, and enter the rivers to spawn, they sometimes leap to the height of several yards out of the water; and when they fall down again on their sides, the noise is often heard in still evenings, to a very great distance. If they happen to fall into the small boats of the Indians, there is great danger of sinking them, so that it is dangerous to pass those places where there are many sturgeons. We are told that the Indians sometimes catch them in large boats, into which they can leap without any chance of sinking them. They occasionally come up the English rivers, but are more common in the large rivers of Europe, and near America. This was reckoned a dainty fish by the ancients. The skin is useful for various purposes; the flesh is often pickled, or salted, and an eatable called caviar is prepared from the spawn, mixed up with white wine or vinegar, and salt. It is sometimes said that isinglass is made of the skin of the sturgeon; but this does not appear to be the truth; the most common isinglass being made from aus other fish, a sort of dolphin.

The high opinion which was formerly had of the sturgeon may have given rise to the custom of the Lord Mayor of London presenting a sturgeon to the King, when one of these fish comes into his possession.

ELECTRIC EEL.

THERE is, in the fresh-water rivers of America, a fish called an Electric-Eel. Any person who touches it receives a sudden shock, as if he were electrified. This eel is therefore very much dreaded by persons who are swimming in the rivers, as it puts them in danger of being drowned. Even if this fish is touched with the end of a walkingstick, a very powerful sensation is communicated.-There is another fish called a Torpedo, which also gives a shock to persons who touch it.

SHORT EXPLANATION OF SCRIPTURE.

"BEHOLD I lay in Sion a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation. He

that believeth shall not make haste." Isaiah xxviii. 16.

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For a building to be secure, the foundation must be firm. For the faith of a Christian to be secure it must rest on the firm foundation of the word of truth. It is of Christ, "the rock of ages," that the prophet speaks. He was enabled to make known so long beforehand, that God would send that Saviour into the world, on whom "whosoever believeth shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life." On Christ, then, our faith must rest, on Him we must depend for our salvation. "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, even Jesus Christ." And whilst we rest our hopes on this foundation, we must be earnestly seeking to have our "building of God, a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Whilst this is our aim we shall be constantly striving to have that preparation of the heart and of the life which will fit us for that everlasting mausion of happi.

*Isaiah wrote 700 years before the birth of Christ.

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