We think about things swimming under the water's surface - when we think about them at all - as mostly a jellyfish or a crab and since we in the north don't have the crystal clear water of the southern seas, we just have to imagine what really goes on down there. Happily there are cameras that make exquisite pictures of these things we never see in person.
We are particularly fond of the work "Carnival of the Animals" by the French composer Saint Saens who wrote the piece and his captivation with the aquarium - all the rage in France in the late 19th century (1886 actually).
Ogden Nash supplied the narrative.
THE AQUARIUM
Some fish are minnows,
Some are whales,
People like dimples,
Fish like scales,
Some fish are slim,
And some are round,
They don’t get cold,
They don’t get drowned,
But every fishwife
Fears for her fish,
What we call mermaids
They call merfish.
Some fish are minnows,
Some are whales,
People like dimples,
Fish like scales,
Some fish are slim,
And some are round,
They don’t get cold,
They don’t get drowned,
But every fishwife
Fears for her fish,
What we call mermaids
They call merfish.