AND PORTO SANTO. 125 



except the diodon. The tunny (scomber thynnus) is also caught 

 in abundance, and has been known to weigh 300lbs. The com- 

 mon eel is found in the torrents, or rivers as they are called ; and 

 the murana helena, sometimes nearly three feet long, is caught in 

 the embouchures, but the latter, so much prized by the ancients, 

 who reared them for the table in ponds, is only eaten by the 

 poorest class. — To this list may be added soles and sardinhas. 



The sepia octopodia and s. triangulata were brought to me by 

 the fishermen, as great curiosities. The caracca, fig. 6, a b, is 

 apparently a new genus of cirrhopoda, and seems to me to be the 

 link between balanus and coronula ; the mantle of the animal is 

 the same as that of the balanus, but it has ten pair of cirri, with 

 branchiffi appending ; its shell approaches it to b, tintinnabulum. 

 I should propose naming it halosydna balanoidea^ . I also saw a 

 beautiful new pagurus', and the testuda caouatia, which makes 

 excellent soup ". 



at the top ; the pectorals (8i inches long) have fifteen rays each, also branching at 

 the top ; its colour is a silvery gray. 



y Odyss : S 404. The shells are sessile in groups, and open at the upper extremity 

 only, where they adhere to each other ; the longitudinal ribs are strong, and the 

 space between them is finely-striated across ; the opening, closed with a four-valved 

 operculum, is irregularly triangular; and the growth of the shell is visible within, as 

 are also the cells ; the testaceous plate lining the inside, only reaches half way down. 

 The colour is generally of a purplish white. 



^Pagurus Maculatus. It is of a reddish colour ; the two first, or short articula- 

 tions of the long antennae (which measure 24| inches) are prickly ; the rings of the 

 tail (which is not orbicular) bear white spots or streaks, which on the last rinn^ form 

 a cross, terminated by a ball ; the cuirass measures 5\ inches, and the tail 7 inches. 



* Cuvier writes " la chair est mauvaise," but the epicures who visit Madeira, pro- 

 nounce the soup made from it to be excellent. The natives do not extract a lamp oil 

 from it, as in the Mediterranean ; the one I measured was 18 inches long and 12 broad. 

 Perhaps it is a small variety of the caouana: the first, second, and fifth scales of the 

 middle row have the heel much stronger than the others ; the fore feet are longer, but 

 scarcely narrower than those behind, and it bears a strong nail on the thumb and 

 fore-finger of each foot. The fresh water tortoise (emyss. Brong.) of Madeira, is the 

 testudo scabra of Schoepfer. 



