a dorsal and a ventral keel, formed by the anal and dorsal fins, which, like the sliding keel of a yacht, can be raised or lowered as occasion requires. When these fins are removed the course of the Fish becomes zigzag, and the animal wobbles. The organs more directly concerned with swimming are the tail and the caudal fin, and the pectoral and pelvic fins, but the relative share which these structures take in the actual propulsion of the Fish differs greatly. The principal organ of locomotion in the typical Fish is the powerful muscular tail, which, in swimming, is lashed from side to side by the alternating contraction of the great longitudinal muscles on opposite sides of the vertebral column.[415] In such movements the tail is first flexed or bent, say to the right side: this stroke has been termed the non-effective or back stroke. By a stroke in the reverse direction the tail is then extended and straightened, that is to say, the Fish makes the forward or effective stroke. By a rapid succession of such strokes to the right and left sides alternately the Fish is {351}forced through the water. It is obvious, however, that the extension or effective stroke must have a considerable surplus of power over the flexion or non-effective stroke, and how this result is achieved will now be briefly considered. Experiment, and the observation of Fishes like the Sturgeon, which habitually move with sufficient slowness to allow the phases of their swimming movements to be followed without much difficulty, show that in swimming a Fish throws its body into two opposite and complementary curves, a cephalic curve formed by the anterior half of the body and a caudal curve by the tail. The double curve enables the Fish always to present a convex, less resisting or non-biting surface to the water during the flexion of the tail to the right or left as the case may be, and a concave or biting surface during extension, that is when the tail is straightening itself during the effective stroke. [Illustration: FIG. 204.—To illustrate the mode in which the tail of an ordinary Fish is used in swimming. See the text for the lettering. (Slightly altered from Pettigrew.)]