the Saw-fishes of the Tropics, have the front part of their skull lengthened out in a long bony weapon, armed with teeth, which they use to rip open the bodies of their prey. All these formidable fish are descendants of the shark family, which, with powerful gristly backbones, strong fins and tails, and highly developed brains, refused to be suppressed as their plated companions were, but found room in the wide ocean to do battle for themselves, and improve in many ways upon their ancestors. They do not, like the sturgeon and the bony fish, lay their thousands of eggs, but are content with one or two at a time, such as the leathery purse-eggs of the skate and the rough hound shark; or give birth to a dozen or twenty living young ones. Yet they are so well fitted for their life that they flourish and keep their ground, so that while the enamel-scaled fish and the mud-fish are small groups, many of them fading away, the sharks and rays bid fair to be the race which will keep up the traditions of those quaint old Fishes of ancient times, which were once the masters of the world. [Illustration: THE BONY FISH IN THE EARLY DAYS] CHAPTER III. THE BONY FISH, AND HOW THEY HAVE SPREAD OVER SEA AND LAKE AND RIVER When the palmy days of the enamel-scaled fish had passed away, and the sharks and rays had taken up their various quarters in different parts of the sea, there still remained vast tracts and many snug nooks and bays admirably fitted for fish-life. But these were not empty, for long before this time another order of fish--light, strong, and active,--had been pressing forward to take possession of every vacant space. If we could dive under the water and watch the fishes at home we should see at once how much more agile and easy the bony fish are in their movements than their gristly companions. Look at a shoal of silvery herrings as they swim and leap and gambol, or a fine salmon sailing up the river or springing over a waterfall, or a tiny stickleback darting across the stream, and compare their graceful motion with the ponderous though powerful movements of an unwieldy shark. Any one who has done this will feel at once that though the sharks have still kept their power as tyrants of the sea, because they are so strong and big, yet these light skirmishers are much more at their ease, and move with much less effort in the water, so that it is natural they should have made their way into all parts of the rivers and seas. But where have they come from? We know very little of their early history, but what little we do know leads us to think that long ago they branched off from the enamel-scaled fish, and struck out a path of their own to make the most of the watery world.