“Me? A fisherman!” Ned Land exclaimed.
And on this subject a dispute arose between the two friends, since both were knowledgeable about fish, but from totally different standpoints.
Everyone knows that fish make up the fourth and last class in the vertebrate branch. They have been quite aptly defined as: “cold-blooded vertebrates with a double circulatory system, breathing through gills, and designed to live in water.” They consist of two distinct series: the series of bony fish, in other words, those whose spines have vertebrae made of bone; and cartilaginous fish, in other words, those whose spines have vertebrae made of cartilage.
Possibly the Canadian was familiar with this distinction, but Conseil knew far more about it; and since he and Ned were now fast friends, he just had to show off. So he told the harpooner:
“Ned my friend, you’re a slayer of fish, a highly skilled fisherman. You’ve caught a large number of these fascinating animals. But I’ll bet you don’t know how they’re classified.”
“Sure I do,” the harpooner replied in all seriousness. “They’re classified into fish we eat and fish we don’t eat!”
“Spoken like a true glutton,” Conseil replied. “But tell me, are you familiar with the differences between bony fish and cartilaginous fish?”
“Just maybe, Conseil.”
“And how about the subdivisions of these two large classes?”
“I haven’t the foggiest notion,” the Canadian replied.