They wished to be free, and their body, like that of the ancient wrestlers, was covered with a slippery oil, the oceanic mucus that becomes volatilized at the slightest pressure.
The freest animals on earth cannot be compared with them.

The birds need to perch and to rest during their sleep, but the fish continue floating around and moving from place to place while asleep.

The entire world belongs to them.

Wherever there is a mass of water,--ocean, river or lake, in whatever altitude or latitude, a mountain peak lost in the clouds, a valley boiling like a whirlpool, a sparkling and tropical sea with a forest of colors in its bosoms, or a polar sea encrusted with ice and people, with sea-lions and white bears,--there the fish always appears.
The public of the Aquarium, seeing the flat heads of the swimming animals near the glass, would scream and wave their arms as though they could be seen by the fishy eyes of stupid fixity.

Then they would experience a certain dismay upon perceiving that the fish continued their course with indifference.
Ferragut smiled before this deception.