ASTROPHYTON. 119 



a Pentagonal Root, which incompasseth the Mouth (being in the 

 middle), into 5 main Limbs or branches, each of which, just at 

 issuing out from the Body, subdivides itself into two, and each of 

 these 10 branches do again divide into two parts, making 20 lesser 

 branches ; each of which again divide into two smaller branches, 

 making in all 40. These again into 80, and these into 160 ; and 

 these into 320 ; these into 640 ; into 1280 ; into 2560 ; into 5120 ; 

 into 10,240 ; into 20,480 ; into 40,960 ; into 81,920 ; beyond 

 which the further expanding of the Fish could not be certainly 

 trac'd";- -a statement which we readily believe, wondering only 

 at the patience which followed this labyrinth so far. 



In a later letter, after having had an interview with the fisher- 

 man who caught the specimen, and, as he says, " asked all the 

 questions I could think needful concerning it," the Governor pro- 

 ceeds to tell us that it was caught " not far from the Shoals of 

 Nan tucket (which is an Island upon the Coast of New England)," 

 and that when " first pull'd out of the water it was like a basket, 

 and had gathered itself round like a Wicker-basket, having taken 

 fast hold upon that bait on the hook which he ' ' (the fisherman) 

 " had sunk down to the bottom to catch other Fish, and having 

 held that within the surrounding brachia would not let it go, 

 though drawn up into the Vessel ; until, by lying a while on the 

 Deck, it felt the want of its natural Element ; and then voluntarily 

 it extended itself into the flat round form, in which it appeared 

 when present' d to your view." The Governor goes on to reflect 

 in a philosophical vein upon the purpose involved in all this com- 

 plicated machinery. " The only use," he says, " that could be 

 discerned of all that curious composure wherewith nature had 

 adorned it seems to be to make it as a purse-net to catch somo 

 other fish, or any other thing fit for its food, and as a basket of 

 store to keep some of it for future supply, or as a receptacle to 

 preserve and defend the young ones of the same kind from fish 

 of prey ; if not to feed on them also (which appears probable 

 the one or the other), for that sometimes there were found pieces 

 of Mackerel within that concave. And he, the Fisherman, told 

 me that once he caught one, which had within the hollow of its 

 embracements a very small fish of the same kind, together with 

 some piece or pieces of another fish, which was judged to be of a 



