52 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER 



» 



noise by the movement of its jaws, as noticed by Darwin * I 

 have heard the sound in the case of a Diodon hystrix canght at 

 St. Thomas ; it is a sort of grunting sound. A large hammer-headed 

 shark (Zygoma malleus), about 12 feet long, was also netted and 

 put an end to the net fishing for some time by tearing the net 



to pieces. 



We left St. Vincent on August 15th. I went on that day 

 with Captain Nares on a boat excursion to collect corals in a 

 small bay with a westerly aspect, not far from Porto Grande. On 

 our way we passed under a rocky mountain, 1,594 feet in height, 

 which has an outline remarkably like that of a man ; the nose, 

 mouth, and chin, are well marked, and the entire range in con- 

 nection looks like a giant lying on his back. 



The small bay we visited was bounded by steep cliffs. On 

 the rocks beneath was the usual zone of calcareous seaweeds. 

 A coral (Cce?iopsammia Ehr enter giana), composed of bundles of 

 delicate tubes fused together side by side, covered the rocks 

 profusely just below tide level, forming bright vermilion and 

 bright yellow masses, which showed out conspicuously as the 

 swell fell now and then and exposed the rock surface lower 

 down than usual. The coral appears to vary in colour in an 

 irregular manner, some clusters of the coral being red, with the 

 exception of one or two tubes at one corner of the mass, which 

 were yellow, and I saw a young yellow bud given off from a red 

 parent tube. Some masses were entirely yellow, and in some 

 places only yellow corals were to be seen, but on the whole the 

 red predominated. 



At the north point at the mouth of the bay was a regular 

 fishing station, where two young Africans were fishing, and 

 where the whole rock was reeking of dead and decaying fish, and 

 a small cave was full of debris, having evidently been made use 

 of by fishermen for many years. 



The two young negroes at first occupied themselves in 

 catching small fish with a short bamboo rod, baiting with 

 pounded fish, and catching various little rock fish and a Scarus. 

 They then began pounding and breaking up the small fish and 



* Darwin, " Journal of Researches," p. 14. 



