[net.origins] Of Historical Interest

dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (Paul DuBois) (04/19/85)

This question was asked long ago.

> [Andrew Koenig]
> I have seen this question before on this newsgroup,
> but no answer, so here goes again:
> 
> If there was a world-wide flood, which survived:
> salt-water fish or fresh-water fish?

I don't know what the scientific accuracy of the following is, but
it might be of interest to some.

"[S]alt-water fish can with care be slowly accustomed to live in
fresh water; and, according to Valenciennes, there is hardly a single
group of fishes confined exclusively to fresh water, so that we may
imagine that a marine member of a fresh-water group might travel far
along the shores of the sea, and subsequently become modified and
adapted to the fresh waters of a distant land."

Charles Darwin, _On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for
Life_ (A Facsimile of the First Edition).  Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, Mass, 1964, 384-385.

One question, of course, is what exactly does "slowly" mean?
-- 
                                                                    |
Paul DuBois	{allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois        --+--
                                                                    |
"Danger signs, a creeping independence"                             |