Ixxiv EXPLANATION Of THE PLATES. 



•which this fifli has for the fugar-cane is another proof of 

 the harmonies eftabliflied between fiflies and vegetables. 

 Finally, in the months of January, February, and March, 

 may be feen, on the coail of Guinea, a fpecies of fraall fifh 

 with large eyes, which Jr/us fuppofes to be the oculus, or p'tf- 

 cis oculatus (eyed-fifh) of Pliny. This, too, is an inhabitant 

 of the boifterous equinoctial Seas, for he frilks and jumps 

 about with a great deal of noife. 



Had time permitted, I would have extended thefe ele- 

 mentary concords to the different inhabitants of the depart- 

 ments of the Ocean. We fhould have feen, for example, 

 the caufe of the alternate tranfition of turtles, which, for 

 fix months of the year, take up their abode in certain 

 iilands, and which are found again, fix months after, in 

 other iilands, feven or eight hundred leagues diftant, put- 

 ting it beyond the power of imagination to conceive how 

 an amphibious animal, fo (luggifh and unwieldy, fliould be 

 able to make a paflage fo immenfe toward places which it 

 is impolfible fhe fhould perceive. We fliould have feen 

 their heavy-failing fquadrons committing themfelves, al- 

 moft without motion, in the night-time, to the general Cur- 

 rent of the Ocean, coafling by moon-light the gloomy pro- 

 montories of idands, and feeking, in their deferted creeks, 

 fonie fanJy and tranquil bank, where, far from din, they 

 may undifturbedly depofit their eggs. 



Others, fuch as the mackarel, never fail to arrive, at the 

 uccullomcd feafon, on other fhores, conveyed by the fame 

 Currents, becaufe tj'.cu they arc blind. *' When the macka- 

 " rel come to the coalls of Canada," fays Denis, formerly 

 Governor of that country, " they have not the leaft 

 '^ glimmering of fight. They have a fpeck on their eyes, 



" which 



