10 EXCURSIONS IN MADEIRA 



wards, for it grew dark before I had finished the present imperfect, 

 and Hmited examination of it*. 



Not daring to venture as far as the granite rocks of Cintra, 

 (which are about 1600 feet above the level of the sea) from the 

 hourly expectation of the departure of the vessel to Madeira, I 

 contented myself, the following day, with crossing the river to 

 Almada. As I passed through the fish-market, I looked anxiously 

 for the feite espada, a species of lepidopus, which has been de- 

 scribed several times, and each time as new. The exterior cha- 

 racter which struck me most, in addition to those of Cuvier's 

 generic description, was a cartilaginous plate beneath the termi- 

 nation of the mouth, on each side, like an undulating commissure 

 in a bird. I sent it to my lodgings, but it was too far gone for 

 dissection when I returned; I was, therefore, compelled to content 

 myself with a full length drawing, fig. 1 { In searching for this 

 fish, I found a species o^gadus, belonging to the division merluches 

 of Cuvier. The Portuguese called it pescada% and salted it hke 

 the stock-fish, g. merhiccius. 



' Throughout the neighbourhood of the aqueduct and the ascent to the summits of 

 the neighbouring heights, a profusion of helices were scattered ; and the same abund- 

 ance existed on the other side of the Tagus. I found them to belong to three 

 separate divisions of De Ferussac; but with the exception of the helix aspersa 

 {helicogena, groupe acavce,) and /*. lactea, I had no means of determining the species : 

 another belonged to the helicellce, {gr. aplostoma) and had a shining, delicate, trans- 

 parent operculum. Numbers of the bulimus decollatus were to be met with at the 

 commencement of the ascent ; the upper whorls of the spires were always broken, 

 they were deserted by the animals, and laid just under the surface of the soil, parti- 

 cularly near ant's nests. 



It was four feet four inches long, without scales, and of a silvery lead colour. 

 The anal fin had fourteen spiny rays, the dorsal forty-one, and the pectoral eleven 

 rays. 



s It was of a silvery grey, the lower jaw longer than the upper, the body flattened, 

 and the scales rather large ; the first dorsal fin had nine rays, the second thirty-nine, 

 the pectoral thirteen, the ventral seven, and the anal thirty-seven. 



