the caterpillar and the worm; while the lesser orb bears some likeness to the class of sea-eggs to be described hereafter. I will conclude this account of cartilaginous fishes with the description of an animal which I would scarcely call a fish, but that Father Labat dignifies it with the name. Indeed, this class teems with such a number of odd-shaped animals, that one is prompted to rank every thing extraordinary of the finny species among the number; but besides, Labat says its bones are cartilaginous, and that may entitle it to a place here. The animal I mean is the Galley Fish, which Linnæus degrades into the insect tribe, under the title of the Medusa, but which I choose to place in this tribe, from its habits, that are somewhat similar. To the eye of an unmindful spectator, this fish seems a transparent bubble swimming on the surface of the sea, or like a bladder variously and beautifully painted with vivid colours, where red and violet predominate, as variously opposed to the beams of the sun. It is however an actual fish; the body of which is composed of cartilages, and a very thin skin filled with air, which thus keeps the an imal floating on the surface, as the waves and the winds happen to drive. Sometimes it is seen thrown on the shore by one wave, and again washed back into the sea by another. Persons who happen to be walking along the shore often happen to tread upon these animals; and the bursting of their body yields a report like that when one treads upon the swim of a fish. It has eight broad feet with which it swims, or which it expands to catch the air as with a sail. It fastens itself to whatever it meets by means of its legs, which have an adhesive qua lity. Whether they move when on shore Labat could never perceive, though he did every thing to make them stir; he only saw that it strongly adhered to whatever substances he applied it. It is very common in America, and grows to the size of a goose-egg, or somewhat more. It is perpetually seen floating; and no efforts that are used to hurt it can sink it to the bottom. All that appears above water, is a bladder clear and transparent as glass, and shining with the most beautiful colours of the rainbow. Beneath, in the water, are four of the feet already mentioned, that serve as oars, while the other four are expanded above to sail with. But what is most remarkable in this extraordinary creature, is the violent pungency of the slimy substance with which its legs are smeared. If the smallest quantity but touch the skin, so caustic is its quality, that it burns it like hot oil dropped on the part affected. The pain is worst in the heat of the day, but ceases in the cool of the evening. It is from feeding on these that he thinks the poisonous quality contracted by some West-Indian fish may be accounted for. It is certain these animals are extremely common along all the coasts in the Gulph of Mexico; and whenever the shore is covered with them in an unusual manner, it is considered as a certain fore-runner of a storm. |