262 



AXINURUS AYE-AYE. 





the peculiar shape of its crystals, which somewhat 

 resemble an axe. When any marked peculiarity of 

 this kind occurs, an accurate delineation of the 

 crystal is preferable to an engraving of the mineral 

 in mass. In the present case two of the crystals are 

 represented in the accompanying^figures. 



The most common colour of this mineral is clove- 

 brown, of various degrees of intensity ; from which 

 it passes on the one side into blue, on the other into 

 pearl-grey, ash-grey, and greyish-black. In some few 

 instances it is found of a green colour. 



Axinite occurs in rocks of gneiss, mica-slate, clay- 

 slate, and hornblende. The massive varieties are 

 met with in beds, and crystallised in veins. In the 

 Saxon metalliferous mountains, where it occurs in 

 beds, it is associated with massive calcareous-spar, 

 common chlorite, magnetic-pyrites, iron-pyrites, arse- 

 nical pyrites, copper-pyrites, blende, and probably 

 also with actinolite and hornblende. At Kongsberg, 

 in Norway, it is grouped along with native silver, 

 galena, slaty glance-coal, and calcareous-spar. In the 

 Felbeithal, in Salzburg, it occurs in mica slate ; and 

 in the Hartz, along with quartz and asbestos ; at 

 Arendal, in Norway, along with calcareous-spar, com- 

 mon actinolite, common iron-pyrites, felspar, epidote, 

 and sphene. The axinite from Dauphiny, Savoy, and 

 several other places, occurs in small veins that tra- 

 verse gneiss, in which it is generally the uppermost 

 mineral. 



The peculiar crystalline character of axinite was 

 originally described by Rome de Lisle, but he ar- 

 ranged it with schorl ; and it was Werner who first 

 established it as a distinct species. 



AXINURUS. A genus of spinous-finned fishes, 

 belonging to the lancet-fish family, or those which 

 have spines on the sides of the tail, by means of which 

 they can inflict wounds. Only one species is mentioned, 

 Ajcinurus thyneroidcs, and very little is known respect- 

 ing it. It is a native of the eastern seas, and has 

 been found only on the coast of New Guinea, where, 

 like the rest of the family, it frequents those places 

 which abound in sea-weeds. But the structure of its 

 teeth, which are small, and stand apart from each 

 other, points out that it does not, like some of the 

 other genera of the family, feed either upon sea-weed 

 or upon animals that have hard crusts or shells. Its 

 form, too, indicates more of a swimmer, and of discur- 

 siveness or activity in the capture of its food. Its 

 body is considerably elongated, and its mouth is small, 

 without any projecting snout, and the teeth, as has 

 been said, are slender and wide apart. It has four rays 

 on the gill-flap, and three soft ones on each of the 

 ventral fins. Each side of the tail is armed with a 

 powerful four-cornered spine, very strong, hard and 

 sharp in the edges, and capable of inflicting very 

 severe wounds. These spines, as in all the family, 

 are, however, weapons of defence, not of offence. 



It has the long intestines of the rest of the family, and 

 therefore, though its teeth are not well adapted for 

 cutting, it may live upon the more succulent species 

 of sea- weed. 



AXOLOTL Proteus Mcxicanus. A singular 

 species (if not distinct genus) of Batrachian reptile, 

 found in some of the shallow lakes and pools in the 

 interior of Mexico, and especially on the borders of 

 the great lake near the city. It is about eight or ten 

 inches long, of a grey colour, spotted with black, the 

 hinder part having considerable resemblance to a fish, 

 and being furnished with a fin. It has four legs, how- 

 ever, the anterior ones furnished with four toes each, 

 and the posterior with live. Its breathing apparatus 

 consists of three gills in the form of tufts ; and the 

 mouth is abundantly supplied with small teeth, very 

 similar to the teeth of fishes in their form anu arrange- 

 ment. 



Too little is known of its progressive history, the 

 mode of its production, and the changes which it un- 

 dergoes, for enabling a positive decision to be made 

 whether it should belong to the genus Proteus or 

 not ; and therefore Cuvier very properly places it 

 by itself, and marks it as doubtful. It is very plain, 

 however, that Shaw was decidedly wrong in classing 

 it with the sirens, as Siren pisciformis : the sirens 

 have only two feet, while it has four, and there are 

 other structural differences. If the young are really 

 without feet, and blind, it may perhaps be admitted 

 as a species of proteus ; but the European proteus 

 is very differently furnished with toes, having three 

 on the fore feet, and two on the hind. 



A YE- A YE Chciromys Madagascarx-mis the 

 handed rat of Madagascar. A very singular animal, 

 classed by Cuvier among the Rodcntia, or gnawing 

 animals, as intermediate between the squirrels and 

 rats. From the structure of its teeth, it certainly 

 requires to be so classed ; but in the form of its body 

 and the structure of its extremities, it rescmbles.more 

 the quadrumana, or handed animals. But the. form 

 of the body of an animal, or the structure of the 

 limbs and their terminations, are much less important 

 characters than the teeth, as the latter determine the 

 food of the animal, while the former point out only 

 the general means by which the food is arrived at. 



The above ilgure of this singular animal will, in 

 part, save the necessity of verbal description. 



