THE POISON OF THE MURRY 



swimming, they wind gently, almost lazily, about, and 

 we cannot fail to admire every movement they make. 

 Their body bends, straightens again with graceful 

 movements, with elegant and ever varied curves. It 

 undulates as it draws near: it undulates as it moves 

 away, and finally goes back to its hole, enters it, and 

 there resumes its accustomed attitude of rest. 



The beauty of this creature, displayed in its supple 

 movements, is enhanced by the splendour of its 

 colouring. The murry, the panther of the seas, is 

 clad in a glorious striped livery, of which the ground 

 is a sombre red, adorned by patches of brilliant yellow, 

 bespangling it like so many jewels. An iridescent 

 garment, whose texture has a silky quality that no 

 material could hope to rival; a livery so infinitely 

 varied that, although all the murry in their tank 

 possess it in common, they all differ in its arrange- 

 ment. Our delighted eyes follow them unceasingly 

 as they twist and turn. We keep comparing one with 

 another, marvelling at such diversity in a perfect 

 harmony of shades and tones. 



What we see in the aquarium is a true representation 

 of Nature, though, of course, on a reduced scale. In 

 the warm parts of the Mediterranean, several fathoms 

 beneath the rocky cliffs, or among the coral reefs of 

 tropical seas, it sometimes happens, if circumstances 

 are favourable, that we can see the murry down on 

 the bottom, about their daily occupations. They 

 behave there just as they do in the aquarium, in little 

 bands, looking out of their holes, side by side. Some 

 we see, and may catch, of an enormous size, from six 

 to ten feet long and correspondingly broad, as big as 

 large snakes, but thicker. Fishermen say that they 

 sometime come across even larger specimens and 

 that, cast up on the sands of Arabia or India, huge 

 murry have been seen, real sea monsters. It has even 

 been thought that the mysterious legendary monsters 

 we call sea serpents, which have been reported from 

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